Quick business trip to China

I traveled to China recently for work to visit two study sites to see how they were starting up their work. Because of visa problems which I will describe later, I had to leave for a meeting in DC without knowing for sure if I was going to be going on to China. This made my packing rather difficult. Given that I needed a lot more clothing for 10 days in China, than just 2 nights in DC. However, my years of packing for traveling with my Dad, helped me to pack somewhat appropriately. The major oversights were 1. a camera 2. tissues and 3. socks. Therefore, unless I'm sent photos by my fellow travelers, I will have none to show from this trip.

I left on a Friday from DC and flew to JFK. Then from JFK to Seoul. Then from Seoul to Guangzhou. Then from Guangzhou to Nanning in the Guangxi Province of China. I don't think I need to tell you that I really didn't smell very good after that many hours of travel on that many planes. I arrived in Nanning to our fancy hotel (one of the benefits of work travel) wanting only a shower. Nanning was shockingly nice. I don't know what I expected out of a big industrial city like this, but it certainly wasn't so many green spaces and well manicured parks. The traffic was (of course) chaotic. The people looked busy and stressed like any other big city. But there was something small town and park like about Nanning that felt almost out of place in my expectations. From my room on the 14th floor, I could view the lake and a bridge that they lite up at night with a sort of waterfall running along the railing. The effect created a pleasant river walk that lovers walked down at night and was filled with exercising seniors by 8am the next morning. I was able to get out of the continuous meetings, long dinners and hotel chats for only about two hours one morning. I walked down and around the lake with my colleague and then up a busy street to a fruit market. I love fruit markets and this one didn't disappoint. All the fruits I know and love from my previous visits to Asia were lined up in neat little rows. Mushroom varieties (some of them new to me) were stacked five deep on tables.

For one quick overnight, we then headed out to Heng County. I expected that to be the name of the county, not the city, but the city itself is called by the same name. I had heard this was a rural place without many amenities, but what I found instead was a big city. Without any amenities. The hotel was a bit questionable. Instead of a fancy hotel that took credit cards and had fascinating sculptures in the room (I'm just going to pretend that man and woman were dancing), I found a creepy bathroom with an unenclosed shower "area" and a drain that didn't work leaving me to wade through 3 inches of water after my shower and for the few hours I was there after I took it. The place also lacked heat. The lack of heat was a bit harder to endure than I expected. The weather was sort of like Thailand in the winter, but a little bit chillier. And with no heat and a room that was designed to deal with steamy summer temperature, we were all freezing. The bed was also missing that critical mattress component of the mattress and box springs set. So I rolled my duvet into a bit cocoon and climbed inside. Except for waking up several times dreaming that I was a big silk worm, I was very cozy. I was never able to get outside and walk around at this spot. Which was a shame since the city looked quite interesting.

Before I go on to the next leg of my trip, I need to describe Chinese business dinners. Most fancy restaurants (and I do use the term "fancy" rather loosely) are a series of long hallways filled with private rooms. You and your group of 12-50 people go into your own private space complete with a TV, a very large round table and your very own staff of about three to five women to bring you dishes. All dishes are brought in to the room and placed on a "lazy Susan" that is spun around so you can take directly from the plate. Serving spoons are rather rare but possible. The food is about what you would expect from eating at any US-based Chinese restaurant. With the addition of a few things that wouldn't be found on the average US table, such as deep fried crocodile, little birds eggs, chicken knee caps (at least that's what they looked like) and horse meat. But what really sets these dinners apart are the drinking. They pour a little bit of wine, beer or other liquor (depending on where you are) into your glass and you're expected to toast rather than sip on your own. The formality is very clear. You must first toast the most important person in the room and then move down. Toasting each and every person as you sip.

This gets a bit crazier in Xinjiang Province where they drink a sort of moonshine out of a shot glass and you're expected to drain the whole glass for each important toast. I took about 2 sips out of that glass and I quickly discovered that this moonshine and I weren't meant for each other. Luckily I'm a woman, since the men I was traveling with could not get off the hook merely for not liking the taste. By the end of the night, when I got up and walked around the table to toast one of our Chinese staff who had been particularly helpful to me, I was discovering that he was nearing falling under the table with every sip. From what I understand, during previous trips my colleagues have found themselves and others falling under the table, passing out and generally behaving in a manner not fitting in with my idea of the usual business trip. This is just part of doing business in China.

So on to the next part of the trip. We flew from Guangxi to the Xinjiang Province via Guanzhou again. Xinjiang is made up predominately of ethnic Uyghurs who would very much like having their own country, thank you very much, and therefore aren't getting along with the Chinese government very well. They speak a language closer to Arabic than Chinese and many of them are Muslim. It was for this reason that I had so much trouble getting my visa. In order to apply for the visa, I had to submit a trip itinerary. Despite the fact that we're working with the Chinese government on our study, the visa was denied until we removed this piece from our itinerary and then the visa came through the day before I flew out. It was a bit crazy really. The city was not as pretty to look at, in part because it was freezing (think Chicago in winter) so the green was all dead and in part because it was a coal burning city and the air was awful. As we flew out the last day over the smog, I caught a glimpse of the gorgeous mountains that surround the city and wish I could have seen them better while I was there. It was a simply lovely environment, except that you couldn't really see anything while you were there.

Here I was able to play tourist only a few times as well. First, we took a walk to the main square where they had set up an ice playground for kids. There was an ice rink. An ice castle. And the highlight was a slide made out of ice for the kids to soar down in an inner tube. The stairs that took you to the top of the ice slide were also ice, thankfully they put down a carpet on the stairs so the kids didn't kill themselves trying to reach the top. The second time was to go to the Uigur markets. I bought a few "Pashminas" (this area is known for their cashmere) as gifts and a silver box. They also had very lovely decorated mirrors, tons of dried fruit and rugs. Buying a rug nearly caused problems for us all. One of our party decided to go rug shopping but wasn't sure what he would find so figured he would just take cash out at the ATM if he found anything he liked. He did and agreed on a price with a Uyghur rug merchant, who followed him (rug rolled up nice and snug) to the ATM only to find that the ATM would not dispense any cash to him. He naturally figured that the deal would cancel, but this is apparently not the case. In Uyghur culture, if you agree to a price then you buy it. The fact that the ATM wouldn't dispense cash wasn't his problem. After a lot of yelling. Some serious diplomacy on the part of our Chinese hosts. And several of our party pooling currency of all kinds together, we managed to pay off the rug seller and get out of there safely. I don't recommend that others take this risk in the future. I hear that if things hadn't gone so well, knives would have been involved. I hope our Chinese hosts were just joking.

My last excursion was on my last morning in China. One of our hosts had to go to this cashmere sweater tailor to pick up some orders made by her friends. We wandered through the streets of the market near our hotel (which was very well heated, by the way) to a little shop run by two women. The sweaters were really amazing. I didn't feel comfortable leaving without buying one. In part because I found one that fit that I really liked (after living so long amongst the tiny people in Thailand, I'm always impressed when I find something that fits my
American body---I'm a size M in the US, a size XXL in Thailand). In part because it only cost $50 and I know a sweater of this quality (never mind that it was hand made and one of a kind) would have cost at least twice that much in the US. And in part because my Chinese colleague knew the lady who ran the store and I would have felt like I was offending her if I'd left without buying anything.

Urumqi had none of the park-like quality of Nanning and the smog was horrible. But I found it a fascinating place that seemed more in keeping with my picture of what Russia looks like than China. Another interesting thing is that Urumqi and Nanning are all in the same time zone. Beijing has determined that all of China will be on "Beijing standard time" meaning that the sun doesn't rise in Urumqi until after 9am and sets after 8pm even in the winter. For a frame of reference, imagine if DC and Denver were on the same time zone.

So that was the end of my trip. I'm now completing the longest leg of my journey home. Urumqi to Beijing, Beijing to Seoul (overnight in the transit hotel), Seoul to Atlanta and then Atlanta back to my newly established hometown. Which, for the sake of my privacy, I'll let remain a mystery on this blog just like the rest of my identifying information. My apologies that there are no photos. These really were lovely places and I look forward to my next trip.

Athens- August 1997

We stayed in the tiny town of Nafplion and took a day trip into Athens (highly recommended). We were shocked by the pollution and general tourist-iness of Athens, even though we were coming from Rome. You can see the haze over the city in some of these photos. All of them are from the Acropolis. I usually refrain from posting photos of us, but I figure even if you could see us in this tiny shot, this was more than a decade ago! Apologies for the poor framing job as it was taken by a random tourist passing by at the time. We had hoped to be able to return for our 10th dating anniversary but we were in Thailand at the time and couldn't afford it. Oh well. Maybe for our 11th...

Istanbul, Turkey- Jan 2005

So this qualifies as a very very outdated post. I'm somewhere with a flatbed scanner and a lot of time on my hands. So I thought now would be a good time to do some back-posting. My husband and I went to Turkey in the off season. Which explains the grey skies you see in these photos. It was very cold and (despite our big plans) we were never able to get outside Istanbul because of the weather. My husband had spent a month there back in July 2001 and he is still dying to take me back and show me all the parts of Turkey I missed. It was a great trip, although I recommend packing very warm clothes if you go in the winter like we did.
We stayed in a lovely little place called The SiDE Hotel/Pension with very simple rooms in a great location. Some things we saw and can recommend in Istanbul include:

• Aya Sophia (photo above)
• Grand Bazaar. We had a friend of a friend who helped us select a lovely wool carpet.
• Blue Mosque/Sultan Ahmed
• Hagia Irene
• Basilica Cistern (photo above)
• Suleymaniye Mosque
• Istiklal Avenue, and
• just walking the streets...

Turkey Jan 2005- photos

Doha, Qatar- February 2008

As many readers know, the main reason I returned home from Thailand in December 2007 was to help my family. My parents moved to Doha and I needed to take over the care and feeding of the cats I left with them in May 2006. So a few weeks ago, I was able to take a quick week off from job searching and kitty watching to visit them in their new home.

That main thing I have to say about Doha is that I think it will be a fascinating place to visit once they’re done with all the construction. There are several great museums (including the Museum of Islamic Art-shown above) that should house great collections and are themselves fascinating buildings. For the moment, however, all of those museums are being renovated and all that’s really left to do is shop. The markets (souqs) are a fun place to shop. Although they too were recently renovated, they did it in a way that looks old so you feel like you’re in an old Arabian market browsing carpets and smelling spices but this experience is more climate controlled than what it once was. They did their work well and it didn’t feel like an Epcot version of an Arabian market. We did go to the zoo which was sort of like visiting any other zoo except for the complete disregard for the “Please don’t feed the animals!” signs.

I also spent some time at the local shopping malls where I was surprised to see so many people dressed in traditional dress. Qataris are outnumbered about four-to-one by expatriates in their own country, but they’re easy to spot when you do see them. The women are dressed head to toe in abayas and the men wear white kaftans with pants and sandals. Although they may speed by you in a Land Rover breaking more traffic laws than I ever thought possible, the only modern thing about their dress are the ludicrously expensive sun glasses the men wear. I’ve never traveled to a place where traditional dress was so prevalent!

I hope to go back when the bulk of the construction is finished and I can see a bit more of the country. I watched a Globetrekker on the Arab Gulf States during my fantastic ride over on Qatar Airways (in Business Class...wahoo!) and I think I would add a trip to Oman to the list as well as the ocean looked fascinating. I would also like to do one of the desert safaris to see more of the landscape but that will have to wait. I read in one in-flight magazine that a “seasoned traveler” always leaves at least one thing undone in every place they visit as an incentive to return.

The 10 things I like to do most in the NYC area

(in no particular order)

1. Go hear live classical music at Bargemusic with my husband. I like the cello-piano duos best. But that may just be my personal bias.
2. Eat cheese and drink great beer at Spuyten Duyvil in Brooklyn with friends.
3. Run a 10K around Central Park in the fall with my running buddies. It doesn’t need to be a race. In fact, it’s better if it’s not. Say hello to the cat statue as you run by him. We call him “Frank”.
4. Take the A train all the way out to Far Rockaway and watch people surf. I hear it’s even more fun if you actually surf on your own, but I think I would need a wetsuit for that to deal with the cold and the pollution.
5. Walk the streets of the upper east side in the evening.
6. Cheer for my friends in the NYC Marathon. Running it is nice too but not nearly as relaxing.
7. Visit the American Museum of the Moving Image.
8. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge on New Years Day. For some reason, everyone else seems to be doing it that day too. I love NYC best when it's a community.
9. Go to the Met to see an opera with my friend who can tell me everything about what I'm seeing and hearing.
10. Go shopping at Anthropology (when I can afford it) in Union Square with my "personal shopper". Followed by hot cocoa (at the City Bakery), sushi (at Choshi) or a drink.

The 10 things I like to do most in the Washington, DC area

(in no particular order)

1. Go visit Lincoln at night. Pretend you’re Mr. Smith.
   
2. Run the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in good weather. I swear it happens sometimes.
   
3. Have tea and a ginger scone at Teaisms near Dupont Circle.
   
4. Visit The Awakening statue on a clear blue day.
   
5. Eat a Sweet Dreams cookie at the Firehook bakery off Farragut Square.
   
6. Go hear live jazz at HR-57. It used to be BYOB but I hear they have a liquor license now.
   
7. Canoe on Clopper Lake at Seneca Creek State Park in Gaithersburg in the fall.
   
8. Have a beer at the Brickskeller on a weeknight (it’s just too crazy on the weekends). Don't forget to check out the juke box. It has some excellent piano music.
   
9. Ride bikes along the C&O Canal in Maryland. It’s a nice ride anywhere along the canal. But there are generally less people out in Maryland.
   
10. Take an open darkroom photo class at the Smithsonian Resident Associates program.

Vietnam-Hanoi/Ha Long Bay (Photos)

Foods of Thailand- Noodles

I have a friend who swears if you push on her tummy she automatically says "NOODLES!" It's certainly one of my favorites. You can get them pretty much any time of day but the best ones are to be had late at night because they're considered one of the great post-bar foods. If you're flexible, judge your noodle stand by what you see. If there is chicken in the window---order chicken. If you see fish---go for fish. You'll have a few choices after you pick your stand.

1. What kind of noodles. White noodles (small "lek" or big "yay") or yellow egg noodles "bamee".
2. Dry "hang" or with broth "naam".
   
3. Toppings generally include fish "plaa", fish balls "lukchin plaa", pork balls, red pork, ground pork, chicken "gai", various wontons, duck, tofu "dao huu", and many more. Although the items in the window are a good indication, many stands will have several different topics.
   

The photo is of dry yellow noodles with red pork. Vegetarians who don't eat fish will have trouble but there are lots of vegetarian restaurants in Thailand- and many of them will have noodles. Don't forget your condiments once you get your noodles! Red pepper flakes for spice. Peppers in vinegar for tang. Fish sauce for salt. Sugar for ...well...you can figure that one out. Oh and for my friend with an allergy--"mai sai phong cherot" means you want it without MSG.

Doi Tao- Thailand

Some friends invited me out earlier this year to Doi Tao, which literally means turtle mountain (in Thai) but turned out instead to be a lovely reservoir. We rented a house boat for the day and a nice guy in a motor boat drove us around the whole day. We ordered food and ate our lunch out on the water. It was a fantastic day and I highly recommend Doi Tao! It would be particularly nice if you plan to swim and I hear you can spend the night out on the boat as well. It's located about 133km from Chiang Mai and you can reach it by public bus.

Nara, Japan- October 2007

We arrived late in the afternoon into Nara and checked into the lovely little Ryokan Matsumae and headed straight uphill to the Nigatsu-do Temple to watch the sunset over Nara. As the sun was setting, the deer were making bizarre calling noises to each other. The deer in Nara were once holy creatures, now they’re pests. They did, however, provide great amusement for the hundreds of Japanese school children who filtered through the sites everyday. I think seventy-five percent of the photos most of these children took were of deer peeing, deer loving other deer and deer eating biscuits.

Nara was one of our favorite places. It was smaller than Kyoto but had many sites. It was easier to walk around the city, easier to find a nice place to eat and easier to get a hotel. We discovered our favorite sushi restaurant (in the covered market). We visited the largest wooden structure in the world. We had some excellent green tea ice cream. Most of what we loved was just strolling through the city. For those who have trouble, the only ATM that would accept our card was the convenience store in the covered market near the Kintetsu train station.

Here are the places we visited.

• Todai-ji Temple: The temple complex stretches through much of Nara and features the largest wooden structure in the world. The Buddha inside has fingers the size of a person!
• Shosoin Treasure House: We weren’t able to visit the place inside, but the outside was interesting and a good example of traditional azekura building style.
• Nara City Museum of Photography: A bit out of the way but a nice stroll through the woods if you take the right route. Great building!

Here are the places we ate that we liked:

• Kaiten Sushi Totogin was our favorite sushi restaurants. We wondered in off the street because it looked nice and we were very pleasantly surprised. The sushi seemed fresher on the conveyor belt than what we’d had before and the sushi chef kept surprising us with excellent choices.
• Ten-Ten Cafe was a cute little place we stopped into when we were starving. I can’t verify that the food was excellent but it tasted great at the time. Great tea!

We caught the train out on our second evening back to Kyoto then the night train to Tokyo.

Kyoto, Japan- Photos

Golden Pavilion in Kyoto.

Lanterns in Kyoto.

Just a sign on a fence in front of a rice field.

Kyoto, Japan -October 2007

I was surprised to find that there was no hint of the speed we were traveling once we were on the shankisan. It didn’t feel any faster than Amtrak, but I know it was. The train was comfortable and gave me time to read up on Kyoto and do some serious people watching.

I was surprised at how incredibly fashionable everyone is in Japan. All the women looked like they belonged in a fashion magazine and even the men were well dressed with great shoes. Perhaps it was the lack of flip flops (which abound in Thailand) and Birkenstocks (which popped up everywhere in Oregon) which gave me this impression. The train speeds through some interesting but very suburban areas of Japan giving me plenty of time for watching and reading.

We arrived late afternoon then settled into the Ryokan Kyoraku where we would spend the next three nights. It was good to have one location for a few days. We ended up in Western beds with our own bathroom because the traditional rooms were full but the place was nice and the folks very friendly. It is a newer ryokan in the Welcome Inns listing (which is probably why they had a vacancy when no one else did) close to the Kyoto JR station.

We saw the city on bikes the first day, subway the second day and on the morning of the third we squeezed in a few more sites before we left for Nara. I think we could have spent a week here and still not seen everything.

Here are the things we saw:

• Kyoto Train Station: Opened in 1997, this place was highly underrated in our books. You can take escalators all the way to the 15^th floor observation level. Inside a building an escalator to the 15^th floor isn’t that big of a deal. But this is an outdoor atrium and it was lovely at night.
• Kiyomizu Temple: This temple is not for anyone with a fear of crowds! It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was full of tourists from Japan and beyond. The grounds have some spots which are a little off the beaten track if your agoraphobia kicks in somewhere around the “love stone.”
• Kennin-Ji:The oldest Zen temple in Kyoto was one of my favorite places in the city. You have to abandon your shoes at the entrance and pad your way through many lovely little rooms, over rock gardens and through moss gardens (they provide you with little rubber clogs for this part of the journey). This place was so peaceful and lovely. Be sure to check out the dragon paintings on the ceiling created for the temple’s 800^th anniversary.
• The old streets around Gion Corner. This is a good place particularly if you’re traveling with an architect or anyone interested in traditional Japanese arts. I think there are approximately 200 photos of this street on my husband’s computer now.
• Nishijin TextileCenter: This place was a tourist trap. I expected a museum but it’s really exhibits surrounding salespeople. I wouldn’t have wasted my time if I’d known.
• Kinkaku-ji: The golden pavilion is picture perfect and full of about 1000 Japanese school children on any given day. This is one of the “must sees” in Kyoto and when you’re there you do see everyone.
• Ryoan-ji: This is a temple famed for its rock garden. It was lovely and (when we were there) full of fat American tourists with a fascination for the inane. We overheard one guy asking his tour guide what this car with writing on the side was. Her answer, “That’s a taxi.” Wear ear plugs and try to enjoy the peaceful surroundings.
• Konchin Temple: We didn’t get to see much of this except for the aqueducts. The place was lovely but be careful on the slippery gravel walkway path when going downhill. Particularly when you’re tired. I’ll heal.
• Nijo Castle: This place was interesting to visit but, honestly, the best part was the “nightingale floors” which the Shogun had installed to protect him from sneak attacks. We expected the floors to creak or squeak like the wooden floors in our old New York City apartment but instead it was like hearing tiny birds chirp at every step.
• Area around the Museum of Modern Art: There is a tiny park near the Museum with art installations that was very quirky and fun. Everyone needs to have seen a 10 foot long duck made out of tissue paper complete with fairy wings and buxom breasts at least once in their life.
• Covered markets in the Nishiki area: Shopping and food. A great place to people watch. Be sure to try the Takoyaki if you eat octopus.

and the places we ate:

• Kane-yo: This place is listed in the Lonely Planet so I feared a tourist Mecca. Instead, we found a local tea house frequented by mainly older Japanese couple serving only delicious grilled unagi (eel) on rice. This place is highly recommended for all those unagi lovers out there! Alas, the barrels of live eels were gone.
• Misoka-An Kawamichiya: These folks have been making noodles for 300 years. I think they may have figured out how to do it right by now... Delicious! Had some fantastic sake here too.
• We stopped at a little cafe in the Gion area because a lady outside lured us in with a free sample of sweet Yatsuhashi (which were delicious!). The food was good and the price wasn’t bad but I didn’t catch the name.

Narita, Japan- October 2007

In late September/early October, we flew back to the US for a whirlwind trip through the Carolinas and Oregon. We’re moving back to the US soon and we’re kind of in the market for a new hometown. For a variety of reasons, we’ve selected the Raleigh-Durham area in North Carolina. On the way back to Thailand, we were connecting through Japan so we thought we would stop in and see a bit of the country. I was in Japan many years ago with my parents but that was a very brief trip and I only saw the airport town of Narita. This time, my husband and I figured we would see a bit more. Our travel itinerary this time included Narita, Kyoto and Nara. Because we did so much during our one week, I will blog each city separately. This one is for Narita. I know the photo isn't really what you expect for a blog on Japan. But I took it in Narita and loved the way it turned out.

We arrived in Narita in the afternoon and headed for the Kirinoya Ryokan in Narita for our one night in this little airport town. In many places, the airport is built in locations to avoid bothering locals and in areas without a real town to speak of. This doesn’t seem to be the case in Narita. Narita is a lovely little suburb of Tokyo with a great rail system and good downtown area. I would happily stay here and commute into Tokyo to avoid the expense and hectic feeling of th big city. Indeed, our innkeeper (Mr. Katsumata) was happy to tell us about all of the Olympic (and near Olympic) athletes that came from the local high school and his own family.

A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn usually with a communal bathroom, tatami floors, hard pillows and cozy floor futons. We stayed almost exclusively in ryokans during our travels. They are usually cheaper and more comfortable than western hotels or business flop houses---according to our sources.

Mr. Katsumata settled us into our room with a tray of green tea and rice snacks. After tea, cleaning up a bit and airing out our clothes for the next day, we headed out to dinner. We selected a little sushi restaurant walking distance from the downtown. We love our sushi restaurants in New York City, but the spectacle of watching sushi plates riding around on a conveyor belt as sushi chefs took orders for specialty items is one that really shouldn’t be missed. It wasn't until two nights later we had sushi that was better than what we had in Brooklyn, but this was cheap, good and a fun experience. After our dinner, we walked back to our ryokan buzzing with too much green tea and sushi.

We both awoke before sunrise and stayed in our futons reading until a decent hour to get up and bump around without waking our innkeeper. The Japanese bath is an interesting experience but I have to say I was a bit too freaked out by the water from the tub that is never drained so I just took a normal shower and left the boards over the tub intact. We dressed and ate breakfast downstairs then walked up the hillside behind the high school to a lovely overlook and then back down to the Narita temple complex. By the end of our week long trip, we were getting a little “templed-out” but this was our first temple in Japan so we delighted in the sloping rooftop, the serene duck pond and the lanterns lining the forest paths. We then spent the rest of the early morning trying to work out our train tickets to and accommodations in Kyoto.

Let me now provide three pieces of advice I wish we had listened to in our book Japan by Rail (that we picked up at Powell Books in Portland).

1. Buy a Japan Rail pass BEFORE you leave for Japan so that you can travel cheaply. These passes are not available inside Japan and will make rail travel affordable and easier.
   
2. Book your ryokans via the Welcome Inn book or website. It includes all the same places as Lonely Planet (and more) but they’re easier to book because the information is complete and correct.
   
3. Book your hotels well in advance if traveling during the popular leaf-peeping season of October. This last piece was more difficult for us because of the way we were traveling to Japan, but if you can book well in advance, I recommend you do it. October is a fantastic time to travel in Japan with great weather and lovely autumn colors. Many Japanese families know this and are booking in the same ryokans you are.

We eventually worked out our next leg of travel and headed out on the noon shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto.

Foods of Thailand- Sticky Rice

Kaow Niew or "sticky rice" is wonderful stuff they eat here in Thailand (and a few other countries). It is pretty time consuming to cook so you usually find it pre-cooked in little wicker baskets at restaurants or markets. We learned to make it at the Thai Farm Cooking Class. It is usually rolled into a ball and eaten with curries, spicy salads or grilled chicken. It can also be served with fruit and coconut milk as a dessert. Be careful! The Thais say it makes you very sleepy! Also it's bad luck not to replace the top on your basket when you're done eating your rice.

Dhamma Park

Near the city of Pasang about an hour from Chiang Mai is a little place called the Dhamma Park. Venetia and her husband, Inson, have created a haven for peace, art and reflection on the teachings of the Buddha. It's a very quiet and lovely place to visit if you have a chance.

Uttaradit- July 2006

Tales from the Bucket Brigade

Back in July 2006 we went to Uttaradit, a province south of Chiang Mai. One of the ladies I worked with was connected to a group called Siam Volunteers and they organized a weekend trip for us (7 Thais and 6 expats) to go down and help victims of the flood. In May 2006 the area between Chiang Mai and Bangkok experienced severe flash flooding. A number of people were killed, houses were destroyed and many people were homeless for months. We joined about 150 other people digging mud out of people's houses so they could leave their temporary shelters and return home. It was hard, hot, dirty and very rewarding.

We took a bus at (gulp) 4:30am from Chiang Mai 4 hours to the south. We arrived in Uttaradit Province at 9am and then climbed into the back of a pickup truck and (after breakfast at the Tesco Lotus) drove another half hour down to one of the worst hit regions in the Province. Around noon, we started working. My husband was assigned to work with the men using shovels to dig out mud and toss it into buckets. Then those buckets were handed out the door and swung from person to person down a line and dumped close to the river. I was a bucket swinger and it was not an easy job. We worked until 4pm then stopped for dinner. We were housed in different places in the village. My husband (with the guys) spent the night in a local school. I (with the girls and the katoeys) spent the night in an old Lanna house. All of us slept on the floor on sleeping bags but the girls had the benefit of mosquito nets which improves our sleep considerably.

After showers, dinner and more snacking we all passed out and awoke the next morning to the same work. It was hot, sweaty, muddy, mucky, smelly and made us all very, very sore. But it was also great to work as a team with my Thai colleagues and hundreds of others. I also learned lots of useful Thai- bucket, empty, tired and muddy place- for example. We were able to see another province and the scenery both ways was lovely. We returned late at night and after about 10 showers trying to get mud out of finger nails and hair we ate at Pizza Hut and passed out on the couch watching a movie. The next day we could barely lift our arms!

Karon Beach- October 2006

Last October we traveled back to visit our family in the US and on the return trip we stopped off in Phuket to burn off our jetlag. We flew 12Go from Bangkok in the afternoon. Actually, I am sad to say that it seems that the same flight we were on a year ago crashed into the Phuket airport killing 87 people. We weren’t terribly pleased with 12Go. The flight was late, as were all the other flights we flew on with them, and the return flight was terrible. At least the water was free!

Once we arrived, we immediately took a minivan from Phuket to the quieter Karon Beach and checked into our hotel Baan Karonburi Resort This was a very nice place but a little too Holiday Inn- like. The food was good, the air conditioner was great and the rooms were very clean but it just felt a little fake. The beach was lovely and I really enjoyed the day just reading and resting out on the beach.

The second day, we took a nice snorkeling trip with the Leisure 4 group to Phi Phi Khai Island. It was an all day affair. The first half was spent at some horribly touristy sites filled with giant tourists crunching over delicate coral. The second half they took us to some less touristy places and left the kiddies on the beach while the adults did more serious snorkeling. We saw some beautiful things and really enjoyed this part.

The beach was beautiful, the water was warm and the sunsets were gorgeous. I highly recommend Karon Beach over Phuket. Where ever you stay and whatever you do the beach is quieter and more relaxing. Which is more than I can say for our trip home.

We traveled home to Chiang Mai and had one of the most ridiculous trips ever! The flight connected through Bangkok and ran late. In order to connect on 12Go you have to go out through arrivals, come back through ticketing, check in, go back through departures and get on the plane. Because the flight ran late, we had to run for it with our backpacks to make our connecting flight which departed 20 minutes after our arrival. We sprinted through the airport, picked up our tickets at ticketing dashed through departures and ran onto...the same plane we had just got off from Phuket. We actually sat one row away from where we sat on the previous flight which we knew because the sound system was broken in the back so we couldn't hear the safety video and the tray table in our old row kept falling down. Other passengers with checked bags or without our sprinting skills actually missed the flight. Karon Beach I can recommend, 12Go I cannot.

Krabi and Ko Lanta- September 2007

Having just quit my job to enjoy more time in Thailand (and being far away from a wretched boss), we decided to explore some of the beaches in the south. Last time we made it to the islands was Phuket in October 2006 so it was about time that we made it down to see more of Thailand’s lovely beaches and islands.

September is not supposed to be the best time to visit the beaches. We’re in the worst month of the rainy season, the jelly fish are fond of popping up for a visit, and most of the resorts are closed. Or so we heard. We’re not overly fond of beaches and figured the low season sales would make up for rainy days indoors. The result was not what we expected: five perfect days of sunshine and calm waters, no jelly fish and the resorts welcomed us with open arms as their first customers of the season. Besides the fact that I’m now burnt to a crisp, it was an amazing trip!

We flew Nok Air which I have been trying to do since we arrived. All of the airplanes are painted like birds (nok is bird in Thai) and the flight attendants all wear bright yellow 1960’s style dresses. This is another low cost airline in Thailand, and again, you get what you pay for. Water and peanuts aren’t free and the planes aren’t young. But we were very impressed with both the service and the timeliness of the flights. Their in-flight magazine had some amusing editing mistakes, though. Also, check out their promotional items! I bought some very cute “arm sleeves” with Nok Air’s friendly beak just above the wrists. I was a sucker for their advertising- particularly when it told me that they would control my arm muscles and protect me from harmful UV rays.

We flew from Chiang Mai to the old airport of Don Mueang. Don Mueang is now a freezing ghost town because most of the flights come and go out of Suvarnabhumi. But if you cross the pedestrian bridge, you can reach a nice market with noodle stands and tasty drinks, which is much better than Suvarnabhumi which is locked in the middle of nowhere! We then flew on to the shiny new Krabi airport. Caught the shuttle bus for 250 Baht a person to Napphara Thara Beach near Ao Nang. Our logic was that Ko Lanta would be too hard to reach so late in the evening and we wanted to take our first scuba diving class. I have a sneaky suspicion than our shuttle was actually a public bus- mainly because that’s what it said on the outside of the bus- and that Thais were paying less than half what we were- but this public bus brought us to the door of our resort, so it was worth it.

We opted to say at the Sabai Resort which was nice but rather sterile. The owner (who is Italian) serves very nice Italian food in his restaurant and some of the cheapest wine I’ve seen in Thailand. We were up early and out for a “Discover Scuba Diving” course with the Sea Fa diving company. I have to say that, as this was my first dive, I can’t compare this company to others. However, I was very impressed with their professionalism and their patience. Particularly with someone (like me) who panicked the first time a little water got in her mask. Our instructor, Richard, was fantastic, calm, clear and fun. The owner, Peter, was also very helpful in recommending accommodations and seemed ready to sit down and have a chat with us (except that he had a business to run).

We dove down to about 12 meters and Richard kept a close eye on me as I calmed down and enjoyed the beauty of being underwater. We saw puffer fish, sergeant major fish, corals, brilliant anemones, clown fish, rays and barracuda. I swallowed a lot of sea water when I freaked out and decided against the second dive so that I could amuse the fish by throwing the water back up into the water. Despite this minor problem, I really enjoyed my first experience at diving and most importantly- I know I can do it. My husband is totally hooked and ready to go for his PADI certification as soon as we have the time and money.

Back on dry land we walked around the area a bit and hit some of the noodle stands in town. I’ll try to post another blog about the food of Thailand but, let me just say, for goodness sake- please don’t order off the menu when you go to an outdoor restaurant. Once you find a few dishes you like and learn a little bit of Thai you can generally get what you want where ever you want. Ordering off the menu is generally more expensive and not as tasty. Our noodle stand had all sorts of curries and rice dishes on the menu but when you walk up and see a giant pot of bowling water, a chicken hanging inside the glass case and three different kinds of noodles on the counter...order noodles...not rice! We had a good chat with the waiter half in Thai, half in English and enjoyed a nice meal that cost less than $3 (including drinks). We also stopped in a restaurant for a sunset drink but I didn’t catch the name and the place wasn’t particularly tasty.

The next day we moved on to Ko Lanta. As the crow flies this isn’t a far distance. In fact, when the boats are running full services it’s easy to get from Krabi to Ko Lanta. But this time of year your only option is really to take a minibus from Ao Nang to Krabi then to Ko Lanta over two very slow and crowded ferries. Please don’t think (like a very irate couple did on our minibus ride back into Krabi early in the morning) that this ride takes exactly two hours. It can take two hours, or it can take four. Everything depends on the tides, the crowds, the weather and the luck of the draw.

We arrived rather late in the afternoon to the island and were picked up by a truck from Baan Phu Lae. I simply cannot say enough wonderful things about this resort. I should caution that if you are looking for AC, screens on the windows, hot water showers, internet access and staff in uniforms this is not the place for you. If you are looking for sheer bliss without frills, this is the place for you. The food was amazing and full of vegetarian options (I don’t like meat but will eat it when I have to) as well as fresh fruit shakes without all the added sugar. The beach is right out the front door of your bungalow. The staff twiddles around with guitars late into the evening under the stars. Two cats and a puppy named CoCo frolic under, around and (if you’re eating something fragrant) on your table until being led away by the staff. A nearby walk (down dirt roads) takes you to light houses, a national park, a water fall, and monkeys eating coconuts. We were the first customers of the season and so we were asked to give our opinion on the latest decorations, the new recipe for apple cobbler and whether the roof leaked in our bungalow. Oh such hard work!

I better head off and put more aloe on my sunburn. Tell the folks at Baan Phu Lae hello if see them!

Luang Prabang- Phousi Hill