Alright –on the first plane heading home. Final thoughts...

When traveling internationally – particularly from an airport such as the one in Haiti – if it is only $80 more for business class on the way home, you take it. Seriously best 80 bucks I've ever spent, and I’m still on the ground in Port-Au-Prince. I also imagine this will feel nice come tomorrow morning, as I land in Seattle just after midnight, and have class at 8:30 in the morning. Nothing quite like hitting the ground running, right?  I would also like to take this time to thank whoever it was who invented the air vent on airplanes.

In other news, I think we figured out what that strange “rooster” noise was… My new guess is a screech owl. I wasn't able to completely confirm, but a quick Google search at the hospital yesterday showed that screech owls do in fact reside (or have at some point) in Haiti. In my half asleep state the other night, I almost made a recording of whatever noises were occurring at some point in the night, and now I wish that I had. Oh well, something to come back for.

Our last class was Monday. In general I feel they went well. There was a definite “education gap” between the students, with some being incredibly well trained and still sharp when it came to EMT-level knowledge of diseases and disease processes, while others struggled to recall some pretty basic stuff. I think the gap stems from initial training. It turns out EMPACT is not the only organization that offered EMT training after 2010, but education wise it was by far the best. The other gap was between those EMT’s who worked in hospital or pre-hospital setting and those who weren't currently using their certifications, but this is a more normal delineation. Again, I stress that they went well for everybody involved, although I again found myself wishing I spoke the language. Claudel and Saul, our translators, were incredible (EMPACT EMT’s themselves), but it meant that all information had to funnel through them, which always alters my natural flow.

---Break in the action: Just spotted a whale as we were climbing from the airport! The water looked funny, and when the plane tilted a bit the light changed just enough to see the shadowy outline. ---

Triage!

Yesterday, our last day at Bernard Mevs/Project Medishare (the hospital), was a full day spent in triage. I didn't really explain how the hospital works before, so here goes. When a patient comes to the hospital, they simply come and knock on the front gate, right off the street – imagine going to visit your rich uncle Mr. Burns – same style of gate, just pink, and with the hospital name on it. They are greeted by two big security guards, one holding a loaded 12-gauge shotgun (good fun). Depending on the nature of the person’s request, they are allowed to pass (routine appointments, visiting another patient, etc), or, if the person is requesting to be seen by the emergency department, the security guard gruffly shouts “EMT!” in the general direction of anyone standing in the triage area, which happens to be the closest section of the hospital to the gate. One of the Creole speaking EMT’s will then go and quickly interview the patient, or in cases of more obvious emergencies (GSW’s, stabbings, severe respiratory distress, etc.) the EMT will just wave the person in, or in some cases, wave in the vehicle transporting the patient (car, Tap-Tap, Land Rover, motorcycle, or other) to the triage area.

Looking toward the gate/street. On the left is where the
patients sit, the ramp on the right is triage.

Now, let’s be clear – HBMPM has one entrance and one entrance only. This means that not only are all patients, both coming and going, walking/wheelchaired/or vehicled, are passing through this gate, but also all cargo, all administration vehicles, and the occasional ambulance transferring a patient from an outside hospital to use the CT scanner (that is, when there is power. Electricity is typically lost sometime around three or four in the 

afternoon, and while the majority of the hospital is on a generator, the big portable CT scanner is not). It is a very, very busy gate, and all traffic goes right through the middle of the triage area. Think about it like this (adding pictures for help clarify): all patients sit on one side of the thoroughfare, and the one bed, one bench, on chair triage area is on the other side. Patients come from the gate, sit on the wooden bench under the shade flowers on one side, and wait to be checked in/triaged. We typically come over from the triage area itself, interview them, determine the nature of their complaint, and advise accordingly. It is absolutely up to the EMT’s to determine who needs to be seen now and who can wait, which was really fun. The role we played was absolutely critical to the proper functioning of the organized chaos that was hospital triage. Side note - why shouldn't the patients cross the “road?” Because they may not make it to the other side. It wasn't as if cars were moving quickly through there – probably only 3 to 5 miles per hour, but it seriously felt like the world’s  slowest game of Frogger at times.

Nicole and a paramedic whose name I cant remember outside triage - if you look at the curtains and then find them in the picture above of the inside of triage, it will give you a good idea of size...

Once a patient was evaluated by an EMT, they were registered, and waited for the doctor. Few patient’s would go directly to the ED, as it only had in the neighborhood of 8 beds, and the ICU 3 or 4. Doesn't allow for much leeway or patient surges (for example, a triple shooting). Anyway, back to the bench. The patient’s sit on the wooden bench, when the doctor has a chance to finally evaluate them, he/she writes some quick notes, orders either an IV of normal saline (most people are dehydrated as it is, can’t go wrong with a little fluid), labs, an x-ray, pain meds, or a small sampling of other preliminary treatments/tests. The patient, or more commonly a family member, must then go and pay for these treatments and pick them up from the pharmacy, then bring them back to triage where they have the medication administered. This is the general process.

Highlights from yesterday included a neat-o distal femur fracture, some routine trauma (girl hit in the head with a rock, a girl thrown from back of Tap-Tap who ended up having a small subdural, and a broken arm), routine medical (I don’t feel well, on again off again toe infection for the last three years, abdominal pain that’s probably food poisoning), and a 25 minute span that wasn’t so routine. It started out with an “ambulance” coming through the gate and parking directly in front of triage, effectively blocking off all traffic from going anywhere. This naturally led all the available EMT’s, nurses, and a couple of docs to investigate, to find a gentleman prone on the gurney (on his stomach), with a very clean stab injury to his lower lumbar region, almost DIRECTLY over his spine. Imagine a spinal tap gone terribly, terribly wrong. The patient was quite stable – great vitals, full range of motion in all extremities, no bleeding. Nonetheless, one of the docs climbed in to the ambulance to figure all this out while we all watched and waited. About 15 minutes in to this, a very angry/emotionally upset young male started shouting at security/anyone who would listen, very near the back of the still parked ambulance. After a few minutes of shouting, he was led down toward the administration building, reasons unknown.

Picture Break! (get it?)

Distal femoral shaft fracture. Elderly female, non ambulatory for the last several years, fell out of her chair the day before. Totally stoic - not even a grimace (femur fractures are notoriously painful). 

Another one of our favorites - patient being discharged with a recently cast leg. This is how I recommend how people should travel with a cast.

Returning to our story.... We all continue watching the doctor evaluate the stab wound. Given that the patient was stable, compounded by the lack of beds in the ED, the patient was granted the sole triage bed, until further notice. Easy peasy, get him out of the ambulance, transfer him over, get vitals, start a new bag of fluids running.

Enter Kate, RN, head of hospital logistics (She’s super cool, from Seattle – I recognized her from the Seattle Children’s ED actually – her and her significant other Scott have been at the hospital for over a year now), very calmly attempting to collect details on the patient who coded (died) outside the hospital gates.

Patient who coded? Say what now?

The four EMT’s, two nurses, and doctor all in triage at the time sort of look around at one another, hoping someone knew more. After several minutes of confusion, a story finally emerged. While everyone was gathered around the stab injury in the ambulance, which was of course blocking the gate, another car with a patient either in, or about to enter cardiac arrest (still unclear why, possibly another stab injury) pulled up. The security guards, hollering “EMT,” managed to get one of the Haitian EMT’s to break away and come check what was up. The EMT found a patient in cardiac arrest, with what we like to call “injuries not compatible with life.” Or so the story goes. At any rate, sounds like the guy wouldn't have been long for this world, even if he had made it through the gates.  But, as Kate calmly explained (I mean this literally – I was really impressed with how she managed the situation) to the EMT, if you find a patient who needs immediate resuscitation - even if it is clear they aren't going to make it - right outside the gates, you don’t turn them away, or tell them as such. Her words were something along the lines of, “that gentleman,” (the aforementioned angry one) “will forever remember that his friend died outside the gate. He got all the way here, only to die while he waited to get in the hospital. At the front gates." Which, when you think about it, would feel brutal. Personally I relate it to what they teach EMT's regarding SIDS. Should you find a lifeless newborn, you never ever "call it" inside the house, even if it's obvious. At that point you are treating the family. Morbid, but it makes good sense if you think about it logically. 

At any rate, the rest of the day seemed to past rather quickly, and aside from riding home in the back of an all metal Tap-Tap during a thunder storm, passed without incident. I am now sitting in Miami International Airport, I just ate fresh fruit (a catch up post needs to be dedicated to the dietary trials and tribulations of the past nine days), and this post is incredibly long. I DID manage to capture some decent footage of the mean streets of Port-Au-Prince, so I'll see about uploading those when I get home. 

That's all for now - thanks to all who have kept up, and especially to those of you who managed to make it to the end of this post! 

Cheers,

Nick

Quick Update

I don't have much time before class, but figured I'd attempt a quick post.

I learned a bit more about Richenord (pronounced nothing like it is spelled - you may know him as Little Brother...) yesterday when went to the beach. Turns out hey may not actually be an orphan - at least not in the typical sense. He does live permanently at the EMPACT house, but I got the impression that his mother is still alive. I think his domestic situation may be of a different sort.


Sunday was our "day off" from classes, and we had been scheduled for a beach day. Nicole and I were both a little bit on the fence about this, as it involved a two hour Tap-Tap ride in each direction, and our backsides were already quite sore (and still are). We decided to undertake the challenge, largely so we could see another part of Haiti. The beach was strange - a beach resort of sorts for super rich Haitians and foreigners. Of course, the entire drive TO the beach is nothing but slums and poverty. I'm glad we took the drive, but I'm not sure I would want to pay for the $15 dollar day pass again. For reference, here is the back of the Tap-Tap. Hard wooden benches over bumpy roads with bad suspension.

One of the more interesting things we passed was a new "village" being established by Haiti's President to "house" the homeless. Decent looking concrete structures - much like the rest of the housing in the city - but located smack in the middle of nowhere. As nice as it looked, I couldn't help but think we were watching the genesis of "a project," or simply the next slum.

Gotta run, but here is a picture showing a two dollar bag of mangoes. Be jealous!

That's all for now - back to the U.S. on Wednesday.

Cheers,
Nick

The cow in the meadow goes moo. The rooster at 2am goes CHHHHEEAASAAAARRRRRRRRCCCGGGHHHGGH

As I mentioned before, the house we are staying in is up a dirt road, out of the city a bit. This means a farm like feeling at times, but it also means cleaner air, a generally serene atmosphere, and lots of very restful (albeit sweaty) sleep.

Except for last night, when an animal(?) Of some sort, probably a rooster, decided to simulate a banshee getting strangled by a shrieking monkey at what I think was around two in the morning, which was odd - the roosters usually don't wake up until around 3:45 we've found. This of course in turn made every stray dog in the neighborhood howl and bark. Not sure what exactly was going on there...

But I digress. Meet little brother!

His name is not actually little brother, but I'm still not entirely sure how to spell his actual name (Creole, much like french, has lots of swallowed letters/sounds), so we'll stick with little brother. He lives at the EMPACT house permanently with Saul and Francois (I'll introduce them later, but Saul along with another person, Claudel, have been our main translators and guides - as well as both being Haitian EMT's themselves), and we see him every morning and in the evening when we get home. I'm only mentioning him because in conversation with Saul yesterday I realized he isn't actually Saul's "little brother." He's a 14 year old orphan, whom Saul (23, an orphan himself, I believe) Claudel (26), Francois (not sure how old she is, probably very early 20's) and Madame Jackie (The house cook, she's older, probably in her 40's) watch out for.

I guess it just struck me when I thought about it more how many Haitians are orphans, or how upended life still is in many ways for many many people down here, even if on the surface the city/country roars full steam ahead.

Didn't mean to get too philosophical on you. Insert sappy music and a cheap play for money here.

Anyway, Little Brother is awesome - spending his summer break playing soccer. His English is coming along, probably in large part to the number of Americans who stream through the house, and he's planning on becoming and EMT when they let him.

In other news, the latest adventure with breakfast - Sloppy Joe's. I had a picture, the internet decided that wasn't happening.

Tomorrow I'll try and write a little bit about some of the other people we've been interacting with on a regular basis. Class today went well, although explaining cardiac tamponade through a translator really doesn't work very well, I've discovered.

Cheers,
Nick

Some Pictures

Because that last post went up so well, going to try some pictures...

Breakfast! Plantains, onions, chicken, potatoes, unk. root veggies all in a spicy tomato sauce. 

Nicole relaxing at the table on the front porch.

Our trusty Tap-Tap. 

Our first class from yesterday. 

I'm going to attempt and capture some video/pictures of driving (you all know how much I love the driving), but after Nicole had her phone stolen right out of her hands yesterday while in the Tap-Tap, I'm a little leery of bringing mine out while we drive. 

Cheers,

Nick

Hello From Haiti

Hi All –

Sorry for the delay in posting; I had intended to post at least once every other day, and I’ve failed thus far. Unfortunately for whatever reason there isn’t internet at the house currently, so I’ve only been able to get online briefly while at the hospital, and there isn’t a good place (or more important – time) for me to sit and compose my thoughts into a proper post. Instead, I decided to type it out at home and then post when we go in tomorrow morning.

First and foremost, this city is pretty much China, but with Haitians. I literally saw a truck with Chinese characters on it yesterday and had some serious déjà vu. The unmistakable essence of coal dust in the air/on clothes/everything, the trash lining the streets, the buildings, and of course, the utter ridiculousness that is “driving” are all eerily similar, and I’ve loved every minute of it thus far. The adventurous part of my soul –apparently powered by third world coal dust – has been watching quietly from the sidelines for some time now, and finally gets to play.

My flights were uneventful, aside from the woman who wore all four of her new derby hats (her husband wore the other two), as she did not have a hat box to transport them with. The airport in Port Au Prince was also pretty uneventful – although after exiting the newly air-conditioned immigration hall, you get a real dose of humidity. Also known as insta-sticky. I was met outside the airport by the other American I’m here with – Nicole – and our Haitian guide Saul. We quickly hopped in the back of the trusty Tap-Tap (basically, an old rickety truck with some wooden benches in the back) and off we went on our hour long (should be twenty minutes) traffic ridden death defying drive to the EMPACT House, up in the hills above the city proper. The house itself is fantastic – an extremely pleasant villa/compound-esque building with bunk rooms upstairs, a cold water shower (incredible), several balconies, and a great front porch. I’ll try and put some pictures up, internet connection willing.

Wednesday was our first full day, and we were scheduled to volunteer at Hospital Bernard Mevs/Project Medishare for the day shift – 6 am to 6 pm. We were absolutely warned before coming that time may not be of the same importance culturally, and, as predicted, we ended up leaving the house just after 8 in the morning. Throw in the hour drive, and suffice it to say we didn’t quite make our shift start time. The good news, however, is that it really didn’t matter a whole bunch. The triage area where Nicole and I were working already had two full-time Haitian EMT’s staffing it, and they ran the show. Nicole and I mostly just got in the way.  She volunteered for Project Medishare a few months ago, so she knew her way around a bit more than I did, but given that neither of us speak Créole, there was only so much we could do. Still, it was a good experience, as it gave me a much better idea of where the hospitals are at, what sort of patient is common, and most important what our students would see on a normal day, and what they were expected to treat.

In the span of several hours I saw more than one baby with hydrocephalus, an extremely septic woman who was having her infection largely ignored in lieu of other less important yet easier to identify treatments, a 16 month old responsive only to painful stimuli after falling and striking her head on the stairs, several broken arms, and an elderly gentleman with a history of diabetes who had been constipated for over four days, and now had extreme abdominal pain.  What was most interesting to me was the way in which these patients were prioritized. Altered baby and abdo-pain guy, the two patients who to me seemed both at higher risk of severe complications compared to the others, ironically took a back seat to the broken arms and sliced open finger.

Yesterday (Thursday) was our first day teaching, and by in large the class went really well. Only had 6 students, which was the perfect size to test the waters with. Today we are expecting a group of around 15-20 students, as well as an observer from an organization called “Global Giving,” which helps organizations raise money. Should be interesting to see, definitely ups the ante a bit. UPDATE: The global giving lady was quite the firecracker. She just moved to Haiti permanently from DC, and her job is basically going around vetting different organizations, making sure they are doing what they say the are doing. I actually think that's a good thing, but she definitely was grilling Nicole and I for a few minutes. Good fun. 

Anyway, for the sake of brevity, some interesting observations:

Spaghetti is a breakfast food – eaten with ketchup and mayo.

Spaghetti can also be turned in to a juice. Obviously.

Our house is up the gnarliest, pitted, steep, bumpy dirt and rock road one can think of. Big fun in the back of a rusted out 1980’s era Datsun.

Internet is still an issue, but I’ll try and get some pictures up as soon as I can.

Alright that’s all for now – I’m currently sitting on the roof of the hospital, which, at four in the afternoon is not pleasant.

Cheers,

Nick

Ready, Set, Haiti

At the request of many, and in an attempt to ensure I am able to record in some way my upcoming trip, I've revived my old blog from my days living in China. Fear not - those fantastic diagrams and pictures aren't going anywhere - I just thought it'd be fun to continue the same blog rather than build a whole new one (read: I'm lazy).

I'm currently t-minus around three hours from lift off. To summarize for those who aren't clear, I'll be spending the next nine days (June 18th through the 26th) in Port Au Prince, Haiti volunteering for the organization EMPACT Northwest/EMPACT Haiti. While I will spend a few days volunteering in a hospital run by another NGO - Project Medishare - the majority of my time will be spent teaching. Myself and the other volunteer Nicole will be administering a modified "continuing education" class for Haitian EMT's, very similar to the continuing education all EMT's in the United States receive regularly.

I'm still learning more about the genesis of the program myself, but as it was explained to me, following the earthquake in 2010, bilingual university students who were lucky enough to survive the devastation began acting as translators for foreign aid workers traveling to Haiti. Over time, the students picked up much of the medical knowledge needed to perform an initial patient assessment, until someone had the bright idea to continue the training formally. As time has passed, EMPACT's mission in Haiti itself has began to focus on maintaining, supporting, and growing this program.

So, in an effort to do something a little bit different and maybe a little bit more important than the normal, I'm jumping ship. I managed to avoid checking a bag (American Airlines, with two transfers on the way down AND it's an international trip = high probability of bag loss), so here's hoping I don't get questioned too much about the slightly larger than normal bottles of liquid...

This is roughly what I managed to squeeze into my trusty Deuter. I did ultimately need a "personal item" about the size of a gym bag to carry my computer and some clothes that didn't fit. A general overview of what went in:

1 mosquito bed net
1 air mattress
1 VERY light weight fleece sleeping bag thingy
2 empty water bottles
2 large bottles of de-worming medication for children
1 box of gloves
1 headlamp
Flip flops, crocs, and lightweight athletic shoes
A super awesome teal fanny pack
A wad of $1 dollar bills (for making it rain)
Assorted synthetic shirts, pants
Snack food
wet wipes
Ibuprofen
Antimalarial medication
...And some other random stuff.

At any rate, as this is such a short trip, I'll do my best to get a post in every day or two, hopefully highlighting how the trip is going and helping highlight the current state of things in Haiti.

Hey Hey, You You, I Don't Like Your... Donkey Meat?

So this is going to be a short post, because unfortunately, China has decided that Blogger is evil and has blocked access to the site. I am able to get around it using a proxy, but unfortunately uploading pictures isn't an option currently, and this post requires pictures for maximum effectiveness.

At any rate, yesterday I finally made the obligatory trip to Taishan (Mt. Tai), considered to be the most important of the five famous mountains in China. Taishan is conveniently located about an hour and a half north of Qufu, so getting there wasn't a problem. I was invited by Peter, and made the trip with him, his girlfriend, another friend of ours named Hawk, and his girlfriend.

Now, Taishan, standing at 1525 meters, is a decently sized mountain. Because of this we decided to give ourselves plenty of time, and headed out at around 7:30 in the morning. Peter and I had agreed on the phone the night before that we should get breakfast before heading out, to make sure we were all ready and rarin' to go hiking. So, at 7:30 when we all piled into the car, I casually asked Peter where we would be having breakfast. He lightheartedly replied what I thought sounded like "Dunkin Meat," and everybody in the car laughed. I took this to mean he was jokingly attempting to say "Dunkin Doughnuts," which didn't seem that strange because there is a Chinese breakfast food called Yu Tiao which is a very delicious, light pastry which you can dunk in warm soy milk. This is also how Peter usually works in words/phrases he has recently heard to try and figure out how exactly to use them day to day. So of course I half jokingly said, "Oh you mean Dunkin Doughnuts?? Sure!" And everybody in the car chuckled. Insert Mr. T saying, "I PITY THE FOOL!" here please.

What Peter had actually said, and had said it in a lighthearted way to insinuate that it was okay for me to decline, was DONKEY meat. I, of course, had warmly accepted this invitation to sup on a magnificent bounty of donkey meat soup, with a donkey meat pita on the side. Imagine a Reuben from a New York deli - meat and bread. Now imagine it containing donkey meat. This was my very unexpected breakfast, and the start of a very interesting day. The good news, is that donkey happens to be quite delicious, as I learned. Noah, you would have liked it - it's cooked extremely well done, but maintains a very flaky texture, and tastes kind of like beef. Also very lean. Maybe that's why all the signs in the restaurant proclaimed happily, "In heaven, dragon meat. On earth, donkey meat."

After breakfast we headed to Taishan straight away. Now, at this time it's important for me to bring up an odd phenomenon concerning Chinese music appreciation in general. Being that, by in large, they LOVE Avril Lavigne. Not only do they love her, but they are absolutely convinced that most westerners (and thus, me) love her. Just one of those things. At any rate, either Peter's girlfriend or Peter himself had very recently purchased the complete Avril Lavigne three CD box set, conveniently timed for our awesome trek to Taishan. After listening to "With You" and several soul-invigorating rounds of "Sk8ter Boi," I finally caved and furthered their stereotypical understanding of western music by loudly singing along to "Girlfriend." See title for opening lines, but substitute "girlfriend" for "donkey meat" (I think I might ACTUALLY like Avril if the lyrics were really "Hey hey, you you, I don't like your donkey meat...").

When we finally arrived at Taishan, we prepared ourselves, and made our way to the starting path - a big stone staircase, which conveniently extends the entirety of the mountain...

This is where pictures would be nice, but immagine a wide stone staircase steeply climbing four or so miles to the top of a mountain. Our group wasn't the strongest, so unfortunately we only made it half way and then decided it would be best to finish our journey by riding the cable car up the second half. In retrospect, our lunch at the middle was so leisurely that I would have just skipped it, hiked up, and met the rest of the group at the top. Oh well.

At any rate, I made it up Mt. Tai and back down, and it was really quite nice. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather - I haven't seen a clear day like the one we had yesterday in China as far back as I can remember... It had rained the day before which cleared out the air just in time for us to have a beautiful, cloudless day.

When/if I am able to access Blogger again under normal conditions, I'll upload some pictures so you can see what exactly a stairway to heaven looks like (at the top of the mountain is a gate called the "southern heavenly gate.").

Oh, in other news, on Friday when it was cold and rainy, I was walking home from class in the morning and happened upon a cold, shivering, wet puppy pathetically trying to warm itself by wedging between a stone wall and a pair of shoes. We gave him a bath and fed him, and he's become a totally new dog, full of energy and curiosity. He's really, really little - just old enough to eat solid food really. We named him Sneakers, given the unlikely place in which I found him. In conclusion, we now have a puppy. At least until one of our students takes him home next week.

That is all.

Best Signs Ever

One of my favorite day to day experiences living in China is the inevitable encounters with English translations. Signs, warnings, advertisements, store names, etc. Often will have an English translation of the Chinese sign/warning/advertisement/store name, or sometimes you will encounter signs/warnings/advertisements/store names that simply are in English, and simply offer you a good, hearty, WTF?!

Suffice it to say, that English written by non-native speakers can end up hilarious. The ever infamous website Engrish details this phenomena with mostly Japanese-English translations. In China the blend of English-Chinese is often called "Chinglish." I'm assuming that this, in general, started out as a negative term. However, the idea of "Chinglish" is losing some of the negative connotation. Recently there was an endearing article in a Chinese newspaper about preserving Chinglish as a distinctly "Chinese" thing, for example.

What follows are some of my favorite encounters with Chinglish - both in it's hilarious, and more eloquent forms.

I agree. I always liked the teeny tiny grass.

This is some form of food, I think chocolate... anyway, the advanced technology promises "best enjoyment."

Wait does this mean I can re-use the cash I already used? F'N SWEET!

The cultural relics I understand, but protect the railings?

Screw you think days, nobody likes you.

I love this sign. This, I think, is the type of "Chinglish" they were discussing preserving in the news article. I mean, I'm not sure you could say "keep the hell off" any better.

Gotta keep that imagination in check. Don't let it become ill-mannered, as imaginations are prone to do...

Your tumble is inevitable. Just be careful while you do it.

What rolls down stairs
alone or in pairs,
and over your neighbor's dog?
What's great for a snack,
And fits on your back?
It's log, log, log

It's log, it's log,
It's big, it's heavy, it's wood.
It's log, it's log, it's better than bad, it's good."

An 80's hair mettle band AND successful clothing boutique!

Those damned butt plates.

Clearly, the most important part of any good wine is its surname.

When you realize you're a loser, well, there's a coffee place just for you.

And last, but not least... My favorite sign thus far on my trip:

This is a fast food chicken restaurant. Much like a KFC. Somebody just needs to use photoshop and put the "&" out of it's misery...

Happy Mothers Day!

That is all.

Travel Wrap Up

While sitting and playing Bejeweled on Facebook for the better part of an hour this afternoon, I realized that, believe it or not, I could be posting!

Doubtless I have lost most of my reading audience at this point, as I haven't posted in over, oh, I don't know... two months, but I figured might as well try and get back on the wagon for the remaining devoted.

My last, albeit brief, post was promising a description of the voyage I took during my winter holiday, and I'll do my best to share that experience with you all, albeit in a truncated way. I'm sure this will probably end up running a bit long, so if you don't really feel like reading where all I went, here is a shorter version:

Qufu -> Beijing -> Guilin -> Yangshuo -> Guilin ->Haikou -> Sanya ->Guangzhou -> Hong Kong -> Bangkok -> Chiang Mai -> SriRacha -> Hong Kong -> Guangzhou -> Shanghai -> Qufu.

Or something like that. My last (real) post was from Yangshuo, describing how I spent Chinese New Year almost a month ago. I'll do my best to pick up where I left off...

When I originally left Qufu, I knew two things for certain: first, that I was flying from Beijing to Guilin on the 20Th of January, and two, that I was flying from Hong Kong to Bangkok on the 5Th of February. Now, one of the major warnings which had been repeated over and over to me by students, other teachers, and other foreigners was that traveling during spring festival is at best complete and utter chaos. Keeping that in mind, I wasn't too worried about making my way around China with out a plan, partly because the idea of not knowing necessarily where I was going/not HAVING anywhere to be was somewhat appealing. I had a rough outline in my mind of places I might want to visit, and I was comfortable enough at this point booking transportation and accommodation (I had a totally sweet system down for getting train tickets, and hostelworld.com treated me magnificently), so I wasn't really all that worried and somewhat excited about the pending adventure. One nice thing about China is that, while traveling by train is more comfortable (I think at least, not everyone agrees with me) and much more desirable, when it's not available well there is always the bus.

....Enter the 14 hour overnight sleeper bus.

This is toward the back of the bus - three rows, two isles, two tiers. mm mm good.

This is toward the front left - roughly half of my view for the 14 hour trip. Alas, they never did turn the TV on...

One of the interesting designs features of the Chinese sleeper bus is that the back of the "beds" aren't flat, but curved so that you sleep almost in a half sitting up position. Not actually that uncomfortable, but not that comfortable. Also, they provide you with a blanket or quilt which has very obviously been used on the previous 1,000 trips this bus has taken, and probably hasn't been washed too many times in between... yummy.

My particular bus left at around 4:40 in the afternoon headed for the Island of Hainan. I had decided, rather last minute, to head for the city of Haikou on the northern end of Hainan island, and then to Sanya (the Chinese Hawaii!) on the southern end the next day. Most people bypass Haikou completely because there isn't really much to see, but I had time to kill. The bus ride, apart from causing significant physical exhaustion, was uneventful except for when we stopped for dinner (at 10:00 at night) and i got off the bus, bent over to tie my shoe, and narrowly escaped the woman who just made it off the bus in time to projectile vomit six inches from my head. Catastrophe avoided; on to Hainan! Oh, also, since the bus I was on actually had the final destination of Sanya, all of those passengers getting off in Haikou (me and one other guy) got kicked off on the ferry dock at 5:30 in the morning.

Haikou, as expected, wasn't very exciting. Luckily the hostel I had booked let me check in to my room at 6:45 in the morning (that sleeper bus didn't exactly get in at the most convenient time), so I slept off the morning before exploring the city.

The next day I caught an express bus from Haikou down to Sanya, roughly a three hour drive around the eastern shore of the island. It was a generally pleasant bus ride, and I got in to Sanya in the late afternoon. One of the most surprising aspects of Sanya was the presence of Russian tourists; and I mean a BIG presence. Much like Harbin, many of the signs and restaurants had Chinese, Russian, and sometimes English as a third language. The beaches were totally packed with Russian tourists. I FINALLY was able to find warm weather after several weeks of searching, which was really, really nice. I actually managed, believe it or not, to catch the Superbowl at a bar/restaurant near the hostel I was staying at, which was fun. Believe it or not there were plenty of rowdy Americans up and drinking cheap beer at 7:30 in the morning to watch the game. In general I had an uneventful time in Sanya - at this point I had been traveling by myself for a while and was, especially at meal times, beginning to miss other people. It's really annoying eating in China by yourself. On one of the last nights there I ended up spending time with a group of American college-age students who were staying at the hostel, which was neat.

I ended up staying for three nights, and had at this point planned out the rest of the trip... the plan was to, upon leaving Sanya, head for the city of Guangzhou, and immediately head to Hong Kong, where I would spend the night of the 4th, and then fly to Bangkok the next day. This was basically what happened, but I'll elaborate:

The train from Sanya to Guangzhou was of course sold out. I could have flown, and in retrospect might have, but when I found out the train wasn't available, instead of heading all the way back across town to try my hand at plane tickets though the hostel, I just walked across the street from the train station ticket office to the bus station and bought myself a ticket for another fantastic 16 hour bus ride. This ride was NOT a sleeper, but it was a very nice normal bus with a good amount of leg room, which was nice. It left Sanya at 12:30 in the afternoon (I almost missed it, which would have been really lame), which very conveniently put me in to the city of Guangzhou at roughly 4:30 in the morning. Sweet. The nice thing about Guangzhou is that it is one of China's most developed cities, and a MAJOR transportation hub. The Guangzhou train station is legendary - "a chaotic and seething mass of humanity," so says the Lonely Planet. They weren't kidding. The train I intended to catch to Hong Kong actually left from the East Railway Station, but the bus station I arrived at was right next to the main train station, so I wondered down to take a gander (it also had a subway station which connected up to the East Railway Station all the way across town).

The main train station in Guangzhou, at 5 in the morning...

I didn't actually even see Guangzhou during the day at this point, because I took the first commuter train to Hong Kong, putting me into Hong Kong around 10:00 in the morning. This was really nice, because it gave me the day to see the city before heading off to Thailand the next day. Hong Kong is a really different place (obviously) compared to mainland China. Clean, orderly, extremely modern, and extremely expensive compared to the mainland. It is also a very picturesque city, as you can see...

Hong Kong Island, on one of the traditional ferry's between HKI and Kowloon.

The skyline from the top of the Victoria Peak tram. Had a really nice day.

Hong Kong is a really nice city, but I wasn't overly excited for it for a few reasons, the main one being I really just wanted to get down to Thailand and hang out with Lowell Thomson (family friend and former teacher who moved to Thailand two years back) and his family, so my day in Hong Kong, while nice, was mostly just killing time. the next day, February 5Th, I got to the airport almost 3 hours early. This actually wasn't too bad, because the Hong Kong airport is absolutely fantastic - it's almost worth transferring there just so you can experience the airport - I sat in a sports bar, had a Guinness draught, and ate a hot dog. Poets spend their lifetimes struggling to capture moments like the one I experienced with that Guinness and hot dog.

Now, when I bought my ticket for Thailand, it was based on price, and price alone. $189 round trip between Hong Kong and Bangkok? SOLD. It happened to be on Sri Lankan air, but it was only a three hour flight and it was that or Kenyan Airways for another 50 dollars... Sri Lankan Air here I come! Now, by the buildup I make it sound like it's going to be a harrowing adventure of a flight - nothing could be further from the truth. It was actually (both there and back) one of the most comfortable and enjoyable flights I've ever taken. Big, comfy plane with plenty of leg room, a personal TV, and complimentary drinks and dinner. Awesome. I definitely recommend Sri Lankan Air, they totally came through.

Upon the advice of LT, my first stop over in Thailand would be a place called Khao San (sp?) road in Bangkok. This is THE backpacker's crash landing hot spot. Again, to paraphrase the Lonely Planet, "as a rule, you can show up on Khao San at any time of the day or night and find a place to crash." Hooooly crap, I can't believe I made it out of there alive. It was absolutely insane. Ask me about "Mr. Thailand" sometime - quite possibly the only photograph I regret not taking. Also, if you're really, REALLY brave, I can tell you about the Aussie I met in the airport and ended up splitting a room with that night. Not for the faint of heart or parents. Sorry mom.

I only spent the one night in Bangkok, and it was more than enough. Again, on the advice of Lowell, the next day I hopped a train to the city of Chiang Mai in the north west of Thailand. Chiang Mai was a really neat place. The population of Thailand is extremely Buddhist, and Chiang Mai is absolutely filled with ancient Wats (temples).

Traditional Thai Wat architecture.

I'm pretty sure this is actually in Bangkok, but it's a good example of what a Thai Wat looks like.


Reclining Buddha at a famous Wat in Chiang Mai.

Probably one of the most enjoyable thing about Chiang Mai was not the city itself, but how I decided to travel around while I was there. Now, in China, public transportation abounds. Bigger cities have subway systems, most cities have buses, and taxis are always available. Thailand, and particularly Chiang Mai, is not known for having any of these forms of transportation available... So instead of walking through the oppressive heat the entire time, I, against my better judgment, did what any 22 year old single male ought to do while traveling in Thailand... I rented a scooter!

My sweet ass scooter, complete with adorable kitten.

This thing was fantastically fun. I can't even begin to explain how much fun it was and was really easy to drive, except that in Thailand they drive on the left side of the road... I mean, nothing like trial by fire right? Hey, I lived, and that's the important part. I don't really have much else to say about Chiang Mai, because like Hong Kong, I really was just killing time until the Thomson residence. So, after a couple nights in Chiang Mai, I packed up and headed back to Bangkok on the overnight train, bound for the city of SriRacha, an hour and a half bus ride south of Bangkok, and home to Lowell Thomson, his wife Devin, and their son David.

The four of us out to dinner.

Lowell, Devin, and David's hospitality was legendary. They live in a very comfortable home in the city of SriRacha on the eastern shore of the Bay of Bangkok. SriRacha(actually pronounced SiRacha, as I learned) is not generally a place tourists go, because it really doesn't have much to offer. I however had a blast with the Thomsons. Between badmittion in the front yard with David, a rousing game of softball at school with Lowell, and talking food with Devin, it was exactly what I needed after a long solo journey across China. I spent four days in the SriRacha area.

One of those days I did a day trip out to a small island off the coast, where I rented a small sea kayak and paddled my way across the ocean to an even smaller island with a beach and some snorkeling. It wasn't the worlds nicest beach, but I had it to myself. Well sort of, there were three dogs and the goat that thought it was a dog (see previous post). Seriously, it was the most comical thing to watch - the dogs spotted my approach about 300 yards out from the beach and immediately began barking and running up and down the length of the beach, while the goat attempted to imitate the behavior of his only friends by chasing and "baaahhhing" up and down the beach. Absolutely priceless.

My boat, and my beach.

Way off in the distance is a breaker protecting a bay where I rented the boat. Good arm workout.

The last full day I was there, Sunday, Lowell and I went SCUBA diving off the coast of Pattaya, a major city about 45 minutes below SriRacha. It was an absolutely beautiful day, the water was clear, the boat was big and comfortable, and the sea life was abundant. There are many awesome pictures from that particular adventure, as Lowell has an underwater case for his camera, but instead of trying to post them all right now I'll try and do another post soon with more pictures. Suffice it to say, it was a fantastic day.

My time in SriRacha was without a doubt my favorite part of the entire trip, start to finish. If I had planned better/had more money available to me (I'm impressed I made it as far as I did on a Chinese teachers' salary), I would doubltess have stayed in Thailand longer - I didn't get to see any of the Andaman coast in the south, which is where all the iconic Thai beaches are. Next trip. Instead, I caught a ride with a driver the Thomsons use from time to time, who took me directly to the Bangkok airport in style. After my relaxing Sri Lankan air adventure, I caught the last train from Hong Kong back to Guangzhou, and spent the night there.

The next day I hopped a sleeper train all the way up to Shanghai, where I again stayed a night. Finally, the next day, after a relentless travel onslaught from the time of leaving the Thomsons, I arrived safely back in the great, beautiful city of Qufu. As evidenced by the picture I snapped the day I returned.

"Dear Nick, we know you just spent the last two weeks in 80 degree, sunny weather. Welcome back to Qufu! It's 35 degrees out, and that air is mostly coal dust." -Love, China.

Again, sorry it took me so long to get around to completing this post... Hopefully I can now get around to writing about more current events like all the visitors we've been having, or how beautiful Qufu has actually become in the last month or so.

Cheers!

Coming Soon!

Coming soon - A new post!

...I'm getting there. Hopefully within the next day or two... and to wet your whistles, a goat that thinks its a dog:

Chinese New Year in Yangshuo

Happy Spring Festival! (the Chinese New Year, for those who don't know)

I'm currently sitting in the Yangshuo Culture House, the small hostel I have made my home for the last few days, and where I spent Spring Festival last night. Staying at the Culture House was in some ways an attempt at experiencing the festival with a Chinese family - the Culture House is operated by a Mr. Wei and his family, who cook all the meals for the guests, eat with us, and offer things such as cooking classes, Tai Chi, and calligraphy lessons. I've been here five days now, and it's fantastic - if you ever find yourself in Yangshuo, China, I recommend looking it up...

Anyway, lets talk about the festival!

Like New Years in the States, Spring Festival is very much a midnight celebration, and "ringing in the new year" is actually similar to how we do it in the U.S. (think firecrackers, and lots of them). Now, Spring Festival is a big deal here. While the western calendar is used for all things official, it's not really 2009 in China until the lunar calendar says so, usually sometime in early February; this year happened to come a bit early. I'll get into the specifics of how I spent my first Spring Festival, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.

Ask any Chinese person and they will tell you how extremely important Spring Festival is to everyone here in China. They will also most likely mention that one of the most important aspects of the festival is that it should be spent with your family. I've been at the Culture House for five days now, and one of the big reasons is travel. China, as most of us know, has a very large population. Combine that with an ever growing migrant worker population all trying to get home at the same time, and add a dash of trying to buy train tickets (it's rare to be able to buy round trip tickets, and most places you can't buy tickets very far in advance) and you've got absolute mayhem. I'm told that last year in Guangzhou, home to one of the biggest migrant worker populations, there was at one point a million people standing outside the train station trying to get home. That's a lot of people. Suffice it to say, laying low for this period of time is something all of us took to heart.

Sunday was New Years Eve, but instead of spending the day in preparation for the festival like our hosts, Eva, a German woman staying at my hostel, and I decided to go for a hike along the Li River. Considered one of the most beautiful landscapes in China, we didn't want to miss out on catching a glimpse of the scenery, and here is a 24 km hike along the banks which was supposed to be fantastic.

The towns were completely alive when we headed out - the markets were busy, the bus station was busy, everything was busy. The air just had that electric tension which only comes from great anticipation and excitement; really a cool feeling to experience in another culture. We arrived in the town of Yangdi, about 70 minutes north of Yangshuo and headed out along the banks of the river. Long story short, we went left when we should have gone right, and ended up high in the mountains surrounding the Li River. Absolutely beautiful, if not about 15 kilometers from where we wanted to be hiking... When we finally realized what had happened, we were too far along to turn back (the road we were on led to the same place, just not via the river), so ended up hiking through the one and two house farming communities which dot the area. When we finally made it back to civilization (by way of the two of us crammed on the back of a motorcycle taxi), we were shocked at how dead the towns were. The same city streets, crowded not hours before, were total ghost towns. I've never seen a Chinese city as quiet as I did yesterday.

We made it back to the Culture House just in time for dinner - a fantastic feast consisting of about 10 to 12 different dishes, and after dinner everyone at the hostel really got into the New Years spirit. Now, as I mentioned before, the Chinese take Spring Festival very seriously, and they also take firecrackers and fireworks very seriously. In the last few days, massive wheels of fireworks had gone on sale on just about every street corner. Myself and Eric, a businessman from Holland, bought several of these firecracker wheels, one of which you can see in the picture.

These aren't your everyday firecrackers... they pack serious punch.

One of the most interesting things I noticed about the fireworks, is the complete disregard for the way in which I was raised to deal with fireworks. Most notably demonstrated by the three eight year old boys running around launching bottle rockets and roman candles at houses, people, the unlit firecrackers in an attempt to ignite them (they were successful to), or anything else that suited their fancy, yet nobody really saying anything... It was a bit wild.

After fireworks we all headed downtown and hiked to the top of a peak in the middle of Yangshuo and watched the fireworks at midnight. I've never in my entire life seen so many fireworks, firecrackers, and other explosive and incendiary devices ignited all at the same time. It was a spectacular sight to behold - the entire town became immersed in the smoke cloud associated with large fireworks displays.

That sums up my Chinese Spring Festival for the most part - in a lot of ways similar to the New Year in the U.S., but with a very distinct Chinese feel. In a few minutes I'm going to help make jiaozi, or dumplings, which are eaten on New Years Day for good luck.

That's all for now - as for a travel update, not quite sure what is next. Perhaps Hainan Island, in my increasingly desperate search for warmer climates. I'm heading to Thailand on the 5th of February, and if all else fails I'm sure it will be warm there. Happy New Year!

I'm never leaving Yangshuo. Ever.

After spending a few days in Beijing (I'll try and write about that later, but probably not until I get back if ever. It was cool, but I'm going again with Narva and Amy so I think this last trip might get lost in the detritus), I took a flight to the city of Guilin in the south. I spent two days in Guilin and had a perfectly fine time - there is a magnificent park with caves and karst peaks (Guilin and Yangshuo's claim to fame in some ways), as well as monkeys. Not in the zoos, but just hanging out in the park. See the picture. However, today I hopped on a boat and traveled down the Li river to Yanghsuo where I currently reside, and, as you will see from the pictures, it's absolutely stunning.

My sweet monkey friend. We hung out for a while. No big deal.

The Li River. The peaks literally just rise out of the water like this - it's completely unreal scenery.

Me on the Li river cruise. I figured I'd finally post a picture of myself.

The city of Yangshuo, nestled into he mountains. You can't see it but just on the other side of the hills is the magnificently beautiful Li river.

Sorry this is a quick post, but dinner is almost ready. I'm staying at a place called the Yangshuo Culture House - It's a small establishment run by an extremely nice man by the name of Mr. Wei. Wonderfully clean, quiet, fantastically warm and friendly, and all meals included - cooked my he family and eaten with the other guests and the family. I'm told there are two ways to spend Chinese Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) - in a big city, or with a Chinese family. I'm thinking this will fulfill the latter nicely. I'm heading out rock climbing tomorrow and I can't wait (one of the main reasons I'm never leaving). After that there is some fantastic countryside to explore and other sights to see. By far the best place I've been yet!

Before I Forget...

I know I just blogged yesterday, but I'm making up for lost time. Today I had an extremely unexpected and fantastic day, and I wanted to share it/record it before I head off to Beijing tomorrow afternoon and I've come to the realization that I'm terrible at writing a journal, so I'm going to rely on my typing skills and the draw of an audience to entice me.

Last night, while in the toils of my previous post, I got a phone call from Peter, the head of the foreign experts department here at Xintan, asking if I wished to accompany him for a day trip to the hometown of his friend. Now, technically he is my boss, but for the most part he is simply a very good friend. We don't see a lot of him in general, simply because he is so overwhelmingly busy (he is an administrator, but also carries a full class load), but Peter has always been very kind to all of us and is extremely willing to help us in any way he can. Often our interaction with him is going out to dinner, or to KTV (karaoke), or some combination of the two.

I had no plans for the day other than to plan for future travels, so I happily accepted his invitation, and we met up this morning for breakfast with his friend - who also turned out to be one of my friends, a guy I play basketball with named Hawk - and another man whose name I forget and his three year old son. The five of us were headed for a small village/city about two hours east of Qufu (of course I can't remember the name), where Hawk is from.

The drive itself was fantastic - I finally got to get a good glimpse of the Chinese countryside as we wound our way up into a range of foothills and terraced hillsides. Peter commented at one point, and I completely agree, that this part of the Chinese countryside looked like the American West. We could have been in Arizona - red rock, arid climate, that brown which only comes from long dead vegetation in the middle of the dry season, and a fantastic 800 foot tall rock face ripe for the picking, just beckoning at me through the car window...

We arrived in the town at around noon, just in time for lunch. We ate at a locally famous restaurant known for its mutton. As Peter explained, "mutton, anyway you like it." What he meant by this, is that you can order any part of the animal you want, because they kill and clean their own animals. This sounded great - nothing like fresh lamb chops...

Well, not exactly. While I did see freshly cleaned animals hanging from racks when we ordered, The food we received wasn't exactly what I was expecting (I had this delicate, fleeting hope for ribs) - our dishes included: tofu, stomach, kidney, liver, feet, and a soup, which had some more traditionally western cut stew-type meat in it. The soup was my salvation, because, unfortunately I'm just not a huge fan of tofu, and well, as much as I scream in my head "CULTURAL RELATIVISM," It's hard to really enjoy your first attempt at eating goat foot if your palate just isn't ready for it. Add baiju to the equation (something which I can no longer stomach), and the meal was in some ways a bit much for me to handle, but we got through it.

After lunch, we headed to a local attraction which was the highlight of this past week for me. One of the most important battles of the Chinese Revolution (1947) was fought in this town, and there was a battlefield museum and monument to the fallen located here. Museum commemorates the victory of the Communist Party over the Kuomintang and details the battle.

When we first arrived I was caught off guard by an illustration of an injured soldier, laying on his back, being fed by a woman's breast. Peter explained that one of the very famous events of this battle, as we later saw in the museum, was that at one point during the fighting, several Chinese women began helping those soldiers who were weakest and closest to death by feeding them from their breast. The museum also had an 8 story glass pinnacle observation tower (216 stairs) which pointed toward the top of the biggest mountain in the area, where a very large, visible monument stood.

After the observation tower, we actually headed up to the top of the mountain, which was the site of the actual battle. Along the way were several large cannons, a Russian made T -38 tank, a mig, and a collection of random other military memorabilia to be seen. We climbed the deserted mountain about an hour before sunset, and the view was absolutely breathtaking.

Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me because I wasn't expecting ANY of this, but it was quite the sight to see. After the mountain we dropped off Hawk with his parents and headed back to Qufu for a delightful dinner of won tons, cucumber salad, and eggplant. All in all a fantastic day and one of the better "traveling" moments I've had since coming to China; I really felt like I was experiencing a bit of Chinese history.

That's all for now - I'm off to Beijing tomorrow afternoon, and then to Guilin on the 20th. After that it's Hong Kong, Thailand from the 5th to the 16th, and then back to China. Wish me luck!

Travel Update and Harbin

So I apologize for the general lack of blogging in the last few days... Sometimes it's just not in the cards. I mean lets face it, between Counter Strike and playing Risk on Facebok, who has time for things like "reading," or "traveling," or "blogging" anyway?

Okay so in my defense, yesterday I got fed up with my muscles being weak with atrophy and the impending feeling of office-ass hanging over my head and played basketball and went for a run. And today I went out to lunch! ...Don't judge me you've all been there.

Anyway in all seriousness, due to the suns rays reflecting off of Venus thus igniting some swamp gas in Florida and the deepening economic and financial crisis in the United States, my travel plans have become FUBARed (that statement is 50% right!) and I'm in the midst of re-arranging travel plans for the prolonged break I am currently on. Noah (my older brother for those who don't know) was supposed to visit from the 21st of January until February 7th(ish), but, because of the deepening economic and financial crisis in the United States (I wasn't lying), at the last minute had to cancel his trip. I have now found myself alone in Qufu attempting to re-sort and re-tool my upcoming vacation, and I think I've almost got it worked out. If (and this is a big if) buying train tickets goes according to plan, tomorrow or the next day I will head for Beijing to meet up with Rachel, Olivia, and Lucy to hang out/get out of Qufu while they sort out visas for the rest of their travels. On the 20th I will hopefully head for Guilin and Yangshuo where I will hole up for somewhere in the realm of a week to a week and a half. Following that I will head toward Hong Kong, see the sights, and quickly depart via plane for Thailand on or around the 6th of February. Depending on funds and general interest, I'll spend the better part of February visiting LT (Lowell Thomson, former high school teacher and mentor who now lives in Thailand with his family and who has very graciously offered me a place to stay for a few nights), exploring Thai mountains, and of course, going to the beach. After that I'll head back toward China via Hong Kong and, most likely, head on back to Qufu. Maybe go to Hangzhou or Suzhou along the way, they are supposed to be cool.

So that's whats on tap - now lets take a step back...

About two weeks ago, right near the start of our vacation Olivia, Eliza, and I set out on a 23 hour train ride (don't worry we had beds!) to the city of Harbin, located in the northeastern most section of China and home to the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival. The trip in some ways was lackluster for me - Our hostel was gross, I spent a lot of money (mostly on cabs that ripped us off), and most importantly, I'm not a big fan of being cold (To be clear - I enjoy cold, and I enjoy snow, and cold, snowy places, but I don't like being cold. Call me picky or whiny or whatever - it is what it is). Despite some of the lame aspects of the trip, the city itself as well as what it had to offer more than made up for having snot-cicles in my mustache.

There were 4 main attractions we visited in Harbin aside from the city itself: the small (very much a relative term here) ice lantern festival, the Siberian Tiger Park, the snow sculpture park, and the grand daddy of em' all, the big ice lantern festival. Harbin itself was originally founded as a Russian city and is still shows signs of Russian influence to this day; notably so in architecture as well as food. It also serves as a very popular tourist destination for Russians from Siberia, and local signs will often advertise in Russian, and annoying street vendors trying to rip you off don't only shout "HELLO!" but also the equivalent word in Russian (unfortunately my Russian is a bit rusty so I'm not exactly sure what that is...).

We arrived late Saturday afternoon and one of the first things that struck us was the ground. Olivia slipped and hit the ground hard disembarking from the train... It was to be the first of many. This is also a good time to mention one thing I found most interesting about Harbin, where, more months than not, the temperature is well below freezing; that being, the complete lack of sidewalk or road treatment. The entire city is very much a giant skating rink. When you combine this with typical Chinese sidewalks and taxi drivers, it's devastating. I saw no plows (although it never actually snowed while we were there, they've got to have plows stashed somewhere...), no sanding trucks, no salt. In fact, the only way I saw ice being removed from roads was, in true Chinese fashion, by hand. That's right, crews of six or seven people with sledge hammers, pick axes, and giant chisels going to town on the expressways. This was all well and good for the fifty feet of curb they had managed to clear that morning, but unfortunately neglected the several miles of black ice underneath the hydroplaning wheels of our taxi. Even more astonishing (or not at all I suppose) was the lack of thoroughfare de-icing at the festivals themselves. When we went to the big ice festival (don't worry I'll get there eventually), which is very much an international event, going up and down staircases made of ice was, well, icy! I mean I can't complain too much it was a world made entirely of ice, I wouldn't want them to skimp on the stairs.

The small ice lantern festival was in the city itself near a very popular and very chic walking street with all sorts of fun shops and touristy things. We had dinner on this street at a Russian cafe recommended by the ever trusty Lonely Planet, which was an adventure. We were famished and hadn't eaten since the train, so we decided to have an early dinner at around 5:30... After sitting down, we slowly began to notice that, while there were many people actually in the restaurant, very few people were eating, and fewer still had apparently given their orders. Not wanting to miss out on our one chance at piroshkis, we patiently waited for them to take our orders. Long story short, we waited until right around six o'clock, at which time they finally came over to take our order - except that every time we tried to order, the waiter would shake his head and say "we don't have." Apparently all they had was cold sausage and bread. We thought that was a very fitting Russian meal, in the end.

After dinner we headed straight away to the festival. This one was Disney themed and had an ice castle (with working three story elevator - one of the only things not made of ice), a pirate ship, and all sorts of other smaller structures and buildings.

Approaching the Castle

The castle - notice the functional escalator and elevator.

Part of the slide which came off the castle. Yes, its amazing, and yes, made entirely of ice.

There was much more happening at this festival than these three pictures show, including some very elaborate and finely crafted sculptures, but that will have to do for now. Remember, this was the small festival...

The next day we started off with a sure winner - the Siberian Tiger Park. The park itself states that it raises tigers to be released back into the wild. As the guidebook explains however, how exactly it does this is not clear, as you can buy strips of meat (10 yuan), live chickens, (40 yuan), goats (200 yuan), or whole cows (somewhere in the range of 200 USD) to watch them eat while you drive through the park. The park was in some ways a bit sad - lots of cages and the tigers looked completely immune to the OBNOXIOUS heckling of Chinese businessmen (I wanted to punch one guy in the face), but you cannot deny the awesomeness of the animals.

"I could kick your ass if I wasn't a big lazy cat."

We all wanted one afterward. They just look so adorable!

After we went to the tiger park, which was located a good distance outside the city, we made our way back to Harbin proper via one of my favorites of the trip, the snow sculpture park. While it wasn't entirely completed when we were there, the scale of it, as well as the intricate and cool designs, carved entirely out of snow, blew us away.

I Thought this arch was really cool.

There was a whole section of different Santas.

This was only a small part of this particular sculpture... it goes to the left another three pictures. Just to give you an idea of the scale.

We could have gone across the street to the big ice festival that evening, but at this point we had been outside in the Harbin winter for almost five hours, we had another full day in the city, and there were back to back episodes of "Corporate Law All-Stars" on TV, so after the snow park we grabbed dinner and headed home.

The next day we packed in a bunch of very cool sights, including the Church of St. Sophia, a Russian Orthodox church in the heart of the city which is now a museum, a Buddhist monastery, and finally the big ice festival. Unfortunately My camera battery was on its way out, so I only have a few pictures of the grand finale ice festival, but let me tell you - it was awesome. Remember, EVERYTHING in these pictures is made of ice.

The Church of St. Sophia (not made of ice)

The entrance gate to the ice festival.

The center castle. This thing was massive.

Another view of the center castle.

A checkers board made of ice... Also gives a good perspective in the background to the scale of the whole complex.

Snow Buddha visible through some ice pagodas.

The Snow Buddha up close and personal. Use the flowers for scale.

Okay I think that's all for now - I took almost 300 pictures all told while I was in Harbin, these are just the highlights. I'll do my best to blog about my travels to Guilin, Hong Kong, and Thailand as they unfold. We'll see how it goes.