Early one chill evening, I stepped off the train, body weary from weeks of travel, my pack weighing heavy on my shoulders. As I rounded the corner into an open alleyway, I was greeted by the sight of an old woman defecating in the gutter- and I knew I was home. Oh, how I love this great city. This pearl of China, that is Zhengzhou.
Perhaps I should start at the beginning. My trip began in mid-January, when three of my fellow teachers and I boarded a train at that very same station, bound for the city of Shenzhen, a mere 24 hours away. We sprung for soft sleepers- a.k.a., a train car with beds that have mattresses. The great thing about soft sleepers is that there are only 4 beds per car, which meant we had the whole car to ourselves. The train ride wasn't too bad, and would have been much better if I hadn't been suffering from a delightful cough that I'd been battling off and on for the previous month or so. The stale, smokey train air did little to help, and I spent most of the ride lying awake, trying to keep my lungs from falling out. The air in China does wonderful things for one's respiratory system. After we arrived in Shenzhen, we spent two nights with a guy who taught at our school last year. We were able to hop across to Hong Kong for a day, as it is just a subway ride from Shenzhen. Hong Kong was pretty great, especially going there straight from Zhengzhou. It was very western, everyone spoke English, and the city looks like it belongs in more in England (a warm, green, very hilly, semi-tropical England) than in China. The only issue was that they drive on the left side of the road there, which they do not do in the rest of China, so I was constantly in danger of nearly being run over (despite the roads which were painted with warnings to "Look Left!"). In Hong Kong we took a trolly up to Victoria Peak to overlook the city, and then headed to the bar street where we took shots of Vodka an the Russian Ice Bar (complete with furry jackets) and also had Mexican food for dinner. It was the first time I'd eaten any sort of Mexican food, including chips, or salsa, or guacamole, in the six months since I came to China. It was wonderful.
The very next day, we hopped a plane from Shenzhen heading to Bangkok. I actually liked Bangkok, though I think this isn't the opinion of many people who go there. Sadly enough, the air there seemed clearer than it is in Zhengzhou (which is most people's biggest complaint), and the food was awesome. Also, we were utterly amazed, in fact astounded, when at cross walks cars actually stopped and waved you across. In China, at least in Zhengzhou, even if you've got a walk signal, you still must keep a wary eye, because pedestrians never, ever (not even on the sidewalks!) have the right of way. Rather, right of way goes to the biggest vehicle. In Bangkok things were a little more civilized. During our time there we hit up the major tourist attractions: the National Palace, Wat Po, and a few other temples. We also went to a park one afternoon and were walking around a big lake, when we stopped to take some pictures of a small egret. I was busy taking pictures of the bird, when I heard Cary shout, "holy crap, look at that lizard!" Shortly thereafter we realized the lake was full of giant (and I mean giant!) monitor lizards. They were pretty tame and let you get really close to them. It was so strange to see something like that in a lake in the middle of Bangkok. But awesome.
When our days were done in Bangkok we hopped on an overnight bus down to far southern Thailand to head to the beach. We visited the islands Ko Phi Phi (pronounced: Ko P. P.) and Ko Phangan (pronounced: never did figure that one out). They were absolutely beautiful, and I can see why tourists flock there from all over the world. We were pretty much in holiday mode, so we spent most of the time lounging on the beach, reading, tanning, doing a whole lot of nothing. It was great. The clean, warm air cured my black lung, and the food (in Thailand in general) was awesome. The food was probably one of the greatest parts about Thailand. Also, I think the highlight of my time on the islands was the diving trip we took. Cary and Luke are SCUBA certified, and had plans to go diving on Phi Phi, but Lili and I are not, and thought we'd just take a snorkel trip. However we were convinced to go diving (the potential of seeing sea turtles certainly helping the case). I was a little wary, because I'd felt the onset of a migraine earlier that day, plus it was a bit spendy, but I'm so glad I didn't let me talk myself out of it, because it was amazing. I've never been diving before, so I think part of the experience was just the feel of being under water- the calm, serenity of it. The area we went diving is supposedly the second best place in Thailand, and Thailand is one of the top places in the world, so needless to say, it was incredible. We also got really lucky, and the water was as clear as it ever gets, so it was a great time to go. We didn't see any turtles (because the water was so clear they chose to take us to a different, better reef), but we did see many other things. We saw a huge leopard shark, and lion fish, a cool shrimp thing, and lots of Moray eels, and anemones and clown fish (like Nemo), and a huge sea snake, and of course hundreds and hundreds of other beautiful and colorful fish. The coral was also amazing, and still very well intact. The reefs we went to are still considered basically 100% pristine, which is pretty rare now-a-days. I think my favorite part was toward the end of the second dive as we rounded the reef it suddenly and sheerly dropped off, leaving us floating above the giant blue void, so deep you could barely see the bottom as it disappeared out into nothingness. I've never felt quite so small.
Sadly, the time on the beach had to come to and end, and we met up with a friend of Lili's who flew in from the States, and then the five of us caught another bus to Siem Reap, in Cambodia. The border crossing between Thailand and Cambodia was less than ideal, and I believe it took us somewhere around 5 hours, between the visa acquiring and all the waiting (and it was HOT), for us to cross the narrow strip of land into Cambodia. Cambodia was amazing, but the hardships that country has faced in the recent past were apparent. The poverty of the region was everywhere, and some of the more touristy areas we visited were somewhat miserable (very dirty, and people hassling you every second to buy their goods), but all in all, I liked it. I'd love to go back and spend a little more time there, and get a more in-depth view of the people and the country. But alas, our time was short, and I think we made the best of it we could. We visited Angkor, which if you haven't heard of, is a huge temple complex built over 1000 years ago. Angkor Wat is the largest of the temples, and the whole temple complex stretches over miles. The temple began as a Hindu temple, and then became a sacred Buddhist site, so it has a unique influence. My favorite temple in the complex was the Banyon, which is a temple full of huge stone pillars with faces carved into them. We also visited an amazing temple where trees have taken over, and they are bursting through the stones of the ruins. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I will suggest taking a look at my photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/achpeterson for more.
Finally, my time in tropical South East Asia drew to and end, and I hopped on a plane to Beijing, where the weather was a far cry from the tropical sunshine. I met up with Devin at the airport in Beijing, as he'd flown all the way to China to see me, and to spend the Chinese New Year here in China. The New Year celebration (taking place on February 14th this year) in Beijing was...loud. Mostly it's a very family oriented holiday, and every single family on every single street appeared to set off fireworks that night. China, claiming the invention of the firework, is consequently very attached to them. All year round they are set off to celebrate any occasion: birthdays, weddings, you name it. The new year though, is something else. It is tradition to light firecrackers and fireworks, to scare away evil spirits for the new year, and the Chinese have held on to this tradition with a vengeance. Devin and I walked around that night, and we couldn't go 50 feet without seeing someone else lighting off fireworks. And of course, in China, there are no regulations on what kind of fireworks you can buy, nor where you can set them off from, so people in any random alley or parking lot can set off huge fireworks (like the kinds you'd see at any 4th of July display in the States). It was fun, almost exhilarating at first. However, once I realized that the holiday is celebrated for 14 days, and that during that time the fireworks and firecrackers, day or night, never, NEVER, stop, it all became a little less charming. Luckily the fireworks waned a little in the middle days of the holiday, but towards the end they picked up again with renewed vigor. My favorite were the people who chose to set off their fireworks in parking lots, which then, of course, set off all of the car alarms in the vicinity. I've spent many a night lulled to sleep by the deafening booms, screeching car alarms, and wailing sirens of ambulances rushing to find one of hundreds of people that must have lost fingers or hands or any number of appendages during all that celebrating.
Anywho, back to the topic, Beijing was great, but cold. Devin and I had a few very full days trying to take in as many of the sites as possible. We visited the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City (man there were a lot of people there that day!) and the Olympic Center. We also visited the Great Wall, and Devin was able to get a sweet Asian boy hair cut. Chinese men (especially young men) take great pride in their hair, and do some pretty amazing/ridiculous things with it. So I was a little worried when we walked in to the barber, who of course didn't speak English, and we were only able to point at a picture of an Asian man on a magazine. However, his hair turned out fairly normal (once the blow drying and large amounts of product were removed). Then after Beijing we hopped a plane for a visit to Xi'an, home of the famous Terra Cotta Warriors. They were really amazing, and it's nuts they were discovered just 30 some odd years ago by a farmer digging a well. In fact, if you want, the farmer is available, and was sitting in the lobby of the visitor center signing autographs, living the life now that he discovered one of China's greatest treasures. There are thousands of warriors, most of them still buried, and all of them have unique faces (at least so far). They have stopped excavation for the time being, as the warriors are also brilliantly painted, but once exposed to oxygen the paint disintegrates. I guess they are working on a way to preserve the paint, before they unearth any more. Xi'an is a really nice city, very clean (as opposed to Zhengzhou, but then again, I'd say Beijing was clean compared to Zhengzhou, so...). It's also a very laid back city, and there's a large Muslim Quarter there, which was a lot of fun to walk around, because it was so crazy and busy, and there were all kinds of weird and interesting foods to try.
Alas, Devin was only here for 10 short days that went by much too quickly. Then he headed back home to Boulder, and I had to return to Zhengzhou, where old women poop in the streets. It was definitely hard to come back here again, but I suppose I really can't complain too much. I had an amazing 6 weeks, and consider myself very lucky that I was able to visit so many places and see so many things.
I apologize this was so long, I had a lot I wanted to record, for myself as much as everyone else. I doubt anyone has read this far, but if you have congratulations, and I hope this finds you well.
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