Tibet

We are off again, flying to the world’s highest airport. Denver brags about being “Mile High”, but this city is well over two miles up. Whether or not this is another country is under considerable debate, the people here feel they are; China vehemently disagrees. This is Lhasa, Tibet, and it sure feels like a different country to us. Of course, it just feels different being so high. We joke that you know you're at altitude when:
1. one flight of stairs, leaves you exhausted.
2. there’s an oxygen canister next to your hotel bed.
3. the sun is so bright, you go to put on your sunglasses, only to realize they are already on.
4. every thing is above the tree line.
Lhasa is actually in a valley, ringed by mountains. The country’s most impressive and important building is the Potala Palace.

This 1300 room, 13 story, towering edifice is built into the side of a mountain. Standing at its base, with our necks craned upwards, gives us a feel for its immensity. It was originally built in the 7th century, for the powerful kings that Tibet had (for a couple hundred years). Since the 14th century, though, Potala has been the home of the political and spiritual leader of Tibet, the head of the Buddhist world, the Dalai Lama. He hasn’t lived there since 1959, when the DL fled to India, fearful of kidnapping or worse by the Chinese government.
Tibetan Buddhism is vastly different from the Buddhism we saw in Thailand and Myanmar. To us it seems like a cross between Buddhism and Hinduism. Tibetan Buddhism (TB) has many different Buddhas and gods. There’re the Past, Present and Future Buddhas, the Compassion Buddha, the Knowledge Buddha, the Power Buddha. There are two leading Lamas in the religion, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. The former is the reincarnation of the Compassion Buddha and the latter is the reincarnation of Buddha himself. There is an interesting cycle, where, following the death of a Panchen Lama, the Dalai Lama selects the new Panchen Lama. Then, following the death of the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama selects the next Dalai Lama. Now, the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama have had some, shall we say, issues. Neither one is very pleased with the workings of the other. We are told there are now 2 Panchen Lamas, the one picked by the Dalai Lama and one picked by the government. There is considerable concern about what would happen to Tibetan Buddhism if the DL were to die. The Tibetan people are very devout, and we join hundreds as they circle temples, cities, even mountains, performing a “kora”, or circumambulation, of a holy structure.
Spinning of prayer wheels like these, with scripture stuffed inside, is a replacement for chanting the requisite words.

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena?
It should be easy, as there’s a sign with the name on it. Mt Qomolangma lies at the border between Nepal and Tibet. It rises to a height of 8844 meters, or 29,035 feet. The winds at the top, touching the jet stream, can reach 250 mph—supposedly it sounds like a 747 engine. It was first successfully climbed by a New Zealander and a Nepalese in 1953, because “it was there”. This is the highest point in the world, better known to the western world as Mt. Everest. We are standing at Base Camp, where most expeditions to climb the behemoth start. As you can see, we are lucky to be here on a spectacular day
Tibetan food is good, though not great. There is yak on every menu in every conceivable dish. We eat the local Momos, yak dumplings. Siena and Ethan even had yak enchiladas and yak burger, respectively. The animals look like a cross between Highland cattle and buffalo and the taste is sort of a cross between beef and buffalo, too.

We try bobis, the Tibetan take on tacos, with an herbed cream cheese and vegetable/meat (read: Yak) stuffing. They have a special
breakfast treat, made with barley flour (no other grain will grow this high), yak cheese and tea. If you’ve never tried it, don’t. It is vile. They also make a local barley brew, Chang. It tastes like smoked vinegar, but not quite so good. One sip was enough for Kim; I valiantly attempted to finish the pint, but succumbed as well. The regular beers, Snow, Tibet and Lhasa, were all decent, if quite light, good for altitude parched throats, and quite cheap, about $1-$2 for a pint-ish at restaurants. This is fortunate, as our guide tells us Tibetans drink a lot of beer—splitting two cases between every three drinkers. The Tibetan people are very friendly, even without the case and a half of beer. They look more like Native Americans or the people of the Andes than the Chinese Han. They teach us several Tibetan words, then laugh at our pronunciation.

Shop kak! (cheers, in Tibetan)
The Beatties

China, Part 4

Our next stop is Xi’an. We know our hotel is located right inside the south gate of the old city walls and we imagine a quaint, small city like Lijiang. We were shocked by the traffic and construction on our prolonged journey here from the airport. This is a big, Chinese city, of over 4 million people. We were driving in the cab in the city for a solid 40 minutes before reaching our hotel. The city walls are about all that is left of the former capital of China and the terminus of the Silk Road.

Our first exploration of Xi’an is of the city walls.

The walls have largely been restored, allowing pedestrians, bicycles and golf carts, for the lazy, to circumnavigate the original city. It takes us almost an hour and a half, with only brief stops to admire the occasional view, to complete the circuit. The perimeter is over 12 miles in length, and it is a workout, despite the flat contour and our use of tandem bikes.

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? This is a relatively easy one. This is one of the most incredible archeological finds ever, and it happened recently. In the mid 1970s, five farmers were attempting to dig a new well. Unfortunately, after digging over 12 meters down, their buckets brought up ancient shards of pottery instead of water. Little did they know what they were standing on top of! Upon further excavation, there was discovered on this site, over 6000 larger than life-sized figures. When Xi’an was the capital of China, during the Qin and Han dynasties, the emperors were buried in the surrounding countryside. The first Qin emperor, Qin Shi Huang, united all of China for the first time. He accomplished a number of tremendous works during his brief reign: he commenced building the Great Wall, he unified currency, measurement and written language, and he built an amazing mausoleum for himself. Over 720,000 slaves and former warriors worked to complete the tomb. The figures were arranged in army formations, with rows facing east, towards the lands the emperor had conquered. Each figure is unique, with different hair, facial expression, weapons, position, and even the tread of their shoes. This is the Terra-Cotta Army.

It should be noted, that just after the completion and burial of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the local farmers got angry at the high taxes imposed on them to build said Wall and mausoleum, and revolted. They broke down the walls of the newly sealed tomb, plundered everything of value, damaged all but one warrior, and set fire to the place. Interestingly enough, even more recently, in the late 1990s, while digging for the new expressway to the airport, they found another burial site, of a Han Dynasty emperor. This emperor was less consumed by war than Qin Hi Huang, and his tomb reflects this, with figures of court life, and animals instead. Excavations of both sites are still underway.

Our time is not only spent on the ancient. One night, we visit the Big Goose Pagoda, where every night, the city puts on a sound, light and water show. We are told it is the largest one in the world. The fountains are open to the public, and Ethan and Siena, along with many Chinese, have fun romping through the various waterspouts. The fountains are synchronized to match wonderful music. While most is classical Chinese, the Grande Finale is Ein Kleine Nachte Musik (sp?). We arrive back at our hotel soaking but happy.

The food in Xi’an is wonderful. We try the local specialty. It arrives in the form of two round heavy rolls, each about 3” in diameter and 1” thick. We mimic the other diners and break the rolls into small pieces. A woman at the table next to us took half an hour breaking her rolls into miniscule pieces. We weren’t nearly as diligent, or perhaps, we were just hungrier. Next, the waitress took our bowl on a numbered tray so as not to confuse ours with others, and filled it with lamb broth, vermicelli noodles and meat. Yum. Good enough for us to have it again before leaving town. One restaurant had as the specialty, 3.8 meter long noodles they served folded up in a bowl. Such long noodles are hard to serve and to eat, especially with chopsticks, and it turned out to be a messy, and bland dish. The same place, though, had a shredded pork, served with pancakes, scallions and cucumber slices, like Peking Duck. And, as the total bill came to less than $7 for all the dishes and the drinks, who can complain about a little mess? The local beer, Han, is brewed by Tsing-Tao, and, other than having a very high alcohol content, didn’t have much else to recommend it. Our hostel provided a free beer for us (not to Ethan and Siena, though) for each night we stayed. It is interesting to note that sport’s bars are different here. Sometimes, they show NBA basketball on the TVs, but more often, we’ve watched fencing, women’s volleyball, and badminton.

Gun Bai!

The Beatties

China, Part 3 Yunnan Province

We had some major snafus on our way to our next stop. But, 11 months glitch-free does not mean the whole trip will stay that way. In a single day, we: were a day late for our flight, misplaced a credit card and lost a passport. At least we got everything over with at once! Isn’t there a saying about bad things coming in 3’s? Well, we got them taken care of in a single hour. Despite our troubles, we arrived at our next destination just 24 hours late.

We fly southwest to the Lijiang in the Yunnan province. Lijiang is a beautiful old town. The United Nations has a designation for areas of special natural beauty or cultural significance, and many take tremendous pride in their UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This entire town has been designated as such. It is full of narrow, cobbled streets, many with small canals rushing down the sides. The buildings are all the original Naxi style houses, big wood-beamed structures with beautiful tile roofs with swooping corners. Many have large courtyards in their centers and open balconies on the second floor. To add to its abundant beauty, the town is encircled by snow-capped mountains.

We take a day trip out into the mountains for a strenuous hike. Where in the world are Ethan and Siena?

We have stumbled upon yet another of the world’s most spectacular places no one (well, few outside of China) have ever heard of. Despite its obscurity, this gorge is more than two and a half times as deep as the Grand Canyon, and the Yangtze River that runs through it is almost 2 times as long as the Mississippi. It is the deepest river gorge in the world. Legend has it that the gorge is so narrow that once, a tiger, trapped on one side of the ravine, jumped across to the far side, resting briefly on a large boulder in the middle of the river. Looking up at the absolute sheerness of the cliffs, we believe the story to be apocryphal (word of the day), but it gives the area its name: The Tiger Leaping Gorge. We hike down to the river and climb on to the legendary stepping stone. From here, we are in awe of the power of the rushing water, with churning rapids and high, standing waves. Our guide tells us her brother drowned here, trying to rescue some fool-hardy kayakers, and we readily believe any attempt to enter the water would be deadly. There have been plans to dam the river here, for a hydroelectric plant, but currently it has been scrapped, much to the relief of tourists and conservationists.

The vast majority of Chinese in China are of the Han descent. This area, though, is primarily populated with the Naxi minority.

The faces here are much broader and eyes rounder than typical “Chinese”, and they look more like the people of Myanmar or Cambodia. The culture is traditionally a matriarchal society, and even the language has a strong female bias. For instance, words change meaning if a male or female ending is added. We learn that “stone”, with a female ending means “boulder”, whereas adding a male ending connotes “pebble”. We saw traditional Naxi dress everywhere and tasted the tradition foods. They make a fried bread here, about an inch thick and 8 inches in diameter, called babu. Babus can be savory—with flecks of green onion and smoked ham—or sweet, with a sprinkling of sugar. When fresh, they are delicious; however, left to sit briefly before eating, they become heavy and greasy. There is also a famous local soup, filled with chicken and smoked ham. This would have been lovely, if the chicken were the prime parts. As served to us, with only the neck and feet, it was less so. The broth was still quite tasty, though. Another new taste for us was the local specialty meat—yak! We all tried it, and liked it quite well. It was very tender, and wasn’t gamey tasting at all, although the spicy chili sauce hid most of the flavor, so we can’t be sure. The local brew is Dali Beer. We had several washing down the babus and putting out the fire from the yak dish. The beer is good, a bit lighter than Tsing-Tao. But the price is not to be believed. At restaurants, it was still about 8-12 RMB ($1.14 - $1.70), but at roadside stalls, we bought it for 3.5 RMB or 50 cents for a bit more than a pint! This is less than we are spending on bottled water. We can’t figure out how they can make it, ship it, keep it cold, and make a profit at that price. But, that’s what you ponder on the second bottle, after your thirst is slaked.

Zhai Jin! (Goodbye in Mandarin)

The Beatties

China, Part 2

We take a bus from our hotel to the train station, board a metro to another station, catch a bus and cross the border into “mainland” China. After another bus ride, we finally arrive at the airport. The plane was supposed to be arriving late, but the two-hour delay means we don’t arrive at our hotel until 1 am.

Things are looking brighter in the morning. We hire a boat and take a cruise. Where in the World are Ethan and Siena? I’m sure you’ve all seen these weird looking mountains in Chinese paintings, and thought the artists were either surrealists or wacko or both. But, they really do look this way. These are karsts, formed when the limestone in the bedrock is dissolved by acidic water. The water forms cracks in the rock, which widen, eventually forming caves and these tall, vertical mounds. This is the Li River valley, just outside of Guilin, and it is stunning. Our driver did not speak English, but he was able to pull out a 20 Yuan note and show us how the picture on it matched the scenery here.

The next day, we rent two tandem bicycles for the staggering sum of about $2 a piece. We spend the day riding through tiny, ancient villages, between rice paddies and karsts, crisscrossing back and forth over the river. An elderly couple gestures to us that there is something for us to see. After stomping on the edge of a rice paddy several times, the woman scares the cobra into wriggling away. It must be 5 feet long. We are encouraged to not stumble into the paddies in the future. There are fabulous bridges, some over 600 years old. We swam in the current just upstream from this bridge

The natural formations are lovely, but the man-made ones in this area are perhaps even more spectacular. The Longji region is renowned for the amazing rice paddies. There are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of terraces, all following the topography of the mountains. The whole thing looks like a giant relief map, or a depth chart in reverse. The towns here can only be accessed on foot. And, it’s a steep climb up. There are paths between the villages and we have fun climbing through the narrow stone walkways. The viewpoints all have wonderful Chinese names like “7 Stars With Moon” and “9 Dragons and 5 Tigers”, and although we can’t pick out any of the figures mentioned we are enthralled with the landscape.

The local minority tribe by the terraces are known for their long hair (almost 2 meters long, wound like a turban around their heads) and for cooking food inside of bamboo. Neither the hair style nor the cooking has become in vogue elsewhere in the world, and it is just as well. Nearer the river, the specialty is “Beer Fish”, which turns out to be carp in a brown sauce, which is so-so. We also accidentally ordered the dog on the menu. When at home, and my friend Audrey complains she always orders the dog, she means something different entirely. Here, although the menu said Beef with Vegetables, we weren’t so sure, as it didn’t taste like beef and was too tough to chew, and we quickly sent it back. The local brew is LiQ, pronounced Lee Ching, which is a wonderful, crisp, dry beer. And, at 8 Yuan (about $1.14) for 600 milliliters at restaurants, it might just be at the top of the Beattie Beer Index. We also have a pint of homemade ale at a French restaurant/brewery here in the small town of Yangshou, and giggle our way through items that could be on the menu here: Panda l’orange, or dog au vin were our two favorites, but we had had a couple of pints each at this point.

So, Gun Bai (pronounced gun buy, which you say after tapping the glass on the table, and before chugging the drink)
The Beatties

China, part 1

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? We said we were going to China, but this feels very western in many ways. And, no wonder! The British were here from 1841 until 1997, when this small island was returned to the Chinese at the conclusion of a 99 year lease. There are over 7 million people living here. It isn't a very large island, the main island is barely 77 square kilometers, and most of it is too rugged and mountainous to allow building. So, they have built up. And up. The absolute tallest buildings in the world aren't here, but the majority of the ones from the 5th to 20th tallest are. This is Hong Kong.

We love to wander through markets, and here it is an especial treat. What are these things in the baskets? We can't even tell if some of them are animal, vegetable or mineral. There are whole streets devoted to selling items we can't imagine anyone buying, much less enough of a market to warrant entire streets! The birds' nest stores were of particular interest to us. Are they abandoned nests? Do they boil them to clean them before selling? Does it taste like twigs when made into birds' nest soup? While we are adventurous eaters, we were unable to answer any of these questions.

There are many cities that may lay claim to the most beautiful skyline in the world, but it would be hard to beat Hong Kong. Not only are there a plethora of stupefyingly tall buildings, but there are mountains in the background, and a bustling harbour in the foreground. Each night, there is a free sound and light show, in which 80 buildings participated with flashing lights and lasers shooting in all directions.

Then there is the food. Chinese food is considered to be one of the three high cuisines in the world (French and Italian being the other two), and we are inclined to agree, at least from this first foray into the delicacies. We enjoy eating at small, hole-in-the-wall places, where we are the only non-Chinese. Because space is at such a premium here, we have been seated with other people at absurdly small tables. We do a fair amount of pointing at what other people are eating to order, but the results are worth it! Our favorite breakfast are stuffed buns, sort of like a dinner roll with barbeque or coconut cream or red bean paste inside. We shared 6, and each of us had a different favorite (although none of them was left over). They sell Tsing Tao beer everywhere, and, although it is not so unusual as it can be purchased around the world, it is still very good. It has a honey taste, like St. Pauli Girl, and we learn it was started with German brew masters, so I guess the taste similarity makes sense. I also tried a Lan Kwai Fong (named after the wild and crazy bar area in town) draught, and that was wonderful, too. Sorry, I didn't actually buy the beers, so I can't give you an accurate Beattie Beer Index yet.

We enjoy taking the ferries around. Kowloon, just across the harbour, is serviced by the Star Ferry. The 10 minute boat ride, with the most amazing views, cost us barely HK $6.20--that's about 85 cents, for the 4 of us! It must be the most beautiful "cruise" for the money anywhere in the world. Today, we fly into mainland China. I am sure it will be very different from here. We think this will be our last country before returning home. It is an interesting day to be here, as this is the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square "uprising" (so as not to get censored).

We continue our journey, in its 12th month now, trying hard not to, as Confuscius says:

"Like Climbing a Tree to Catch Fish" (waste time).

Ng Goy! (Thank you, in Cantonese, what they speak here in Hong Kong. I guess that's equivalent to cheers if someone has bought you the beer...)

The Beatties

The Whitsundays

We arrive on Hamilton Island. It is a small island an hour flight off the coast from Brisbane. Hamilton is part of the Whitsunday archipelag0, which has seventy-four islands. Hamilton Island is quite small. Many employees must commute from the mainland. Our apartment comes with a "buggy", a golf cart. It doesn't have much power to make up the steep hills, but the island is so small, going slowly is no worries!

One day, we take a special excursion. Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? They are standing in front of the largest living structure on earth. It can be see from the moon, with other incredibly large things like the Great Wall of China and the Grand Canyon. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. This mammoth structure is half the size of Texas, bigger than the U.K. or is about the size of the Australian States of Victoria and Tasmania combined. Over 1400 species of fish call this home. This is the Great Barrier Reef. It isn’t actually one single reef, but is made up of many reefs. The one we are visiting is called Hardy Reef. It took 2 hours on a fast, sea-sickening catamaran to get out to the reef, where we docked up beside a floating pontoon. Half the family dove, the other snorkeled, and we saw a sea snake, loads of clown fish, a giant clam—over 1 meter across!

The island, being so small, we can literally drive all the roads in 30 minutes. But, the southwestern portion of the island is mountainous, and can only be accessed by foot (certainly not our underpowered electric buggy). We park our buggy and take two separate hikes. The first was to Coral Cove. Although the map indicated this would be a 45 minute hike, we did it in 40 minutes return (that's how the Aussies say round trip). We went steeply up, then steeply down to the small, empty beach.

The second hike was much longer. It took us about an hour each way. We were disappointed to have people on the beach when we arrived, but they left shortly afterwards. We built an in-ground picnic bench, and enjoyed our lunch in complete privacy.

The "town" 0n the island surrounds the marina, consists of 4 restaurants, a general store, a bakery, a dive shop, a pharmacy, and, of course, the local pub. There is no local "fare" or local beer as it is too small to produce anything here. We try an Australian rum, and may we suggest no one consider doing the same. There's a reason you've never heard of Australian rum. We enjoy our 4 days in paradise, catching up on our blog, our math and our sleep.

We stop in Brisbane on our way to China. We have a lovely day exploring this fast paced, big city. For some reason, they want to be known as the Vegas of Australia. Personally, I'd have higher aspirations, myself. It does have a river running through it, and a great park on the south bank. They even built an artificial lagoon and beach in the park right in the middle of the city, which was pretty cool. We bid Australia a very fond farewell as we enter the last month of our trip.

Good on ya!

The Beatties

(written by Ethan and Siena)