After days of not doing anything much in Madras at all, I just went to the museum. It was really nice, the building is a remnant of the British Raj, gorgeous architecture, lush, green gardens, and really nice bronze sculptures. On the other hand, the Contemporary Art Gallery was rather hit-and-miss - they had plastic airplane models scattered among 10th Century bronze boxes. Reminded me a little of the museum in Bangkok - its interesting to see what the curators consider museum-worthy.
While strolling around the museum grounds, this old man approached me with a Psst. Pot? Bhang? Nope. He was selling postcards. (I bought a few.)
I ate a late breakfast, and ate too much. There's a tiny shop near this internet access place that I'm at that makes the best chaat - but I'm afraid I might be too full to eat - the horrors! I think I'm off now to grab something to drink. Its not as mind-bogglingly hot as it was in China, but still hot enough that I'm always thirsty. And unfortunately, no Pocari Sweat. Pocari Sweat, how I miss you.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
And now I am in India...
Last stop - India.
My last breakfast in China was, coincidentally, at the same place I'd had breakfast the first day in China. We had, literally, come full circle.
People asked me why I wanted to go to China to study Chinese, and my answer was always - When else in my life will I get a chance to do something like this? And it was true, looking into the future, I can't imagine a stretch of time where I'll be able to divorce reality long enough to camp out in China, supposedly studying, mostly just hanging out and eating good food for six weeks. My six weeks in China were good, interesting and fun. I think I want to keep at the studies; I really enjoyed the small victories that came with understanding (a few) conversations, ordering food and buying stuff.
I'll definitely go back to China, but I'll definitely avoid Beijing in summer.
As for my last day in India, its been very low-key and mellow. I've satisfied the craving for Indian food by eating non-stop since I've been here. Tonight, I plan to head to a bookstore to figure out where to go vacation for about a week - Madras is fun for about a week, and then I run out of things to do, and get very bored. I'd originally intended to spend a week beaching in Goa, but the monsoon has struck with a vengence, and being on the beach when its raining doesn't sound that much fun. Tomorrow, I've designated family visiting day.
The plan is also to try to come back a week early, so September 1st, instead of September 7th. However, Thai Airways is not cooperating so far - flights seem to be sold out. The agent adviced persistance - its a virtue that I singularly lack, but I'm giving it my best shot.
My last breakfast in China was, coincidentally, at the same place I'd had breakfast the first day in China. We had, literally, come full circle.
People asked me why I wanted to go to China to study Chinese, and my answer was always - When else in my life will I get a chance to do something like this? And it was true, looking into the future, I can't imagine a stretch of time where I'll be able to divorce reality long enough to camp out in China, supposedly studying, mostly just hanging out and eating good food for six weeks. My six weeks in China were good, interesting and fun. I think I want to keep at the studies; I really enjoyed the small victories that came with understanding (a few) conversations, ordering food and buying stuff.
I'll definitely go back to China, but I'll definitely avoid Beijing in summer.
As for my last day in India, its been very low-key and mellow. I've satisfied the craving for Indian food by eating non-stop since I've been here. Tonight, I plan to head to a bookstore to figure out where to go vacation for about a week - Madras is fun for about a week, and then I run out of things to do, and get very bored. I'd originally intended to spend a week beaching in Goa, but the monsoon has struck with a vengence, and being on the beach when its raining doesn't sound that much fun. Tomorrow, I've designated family visiting day.
The plan is also to try to come back a week early, so September 1st, instead of September 7th. However, Thai Airways is not cooperating so far - flights seem to be sold out. The agent adviced persistance - its a virtue that I singularly lack, but I'm giving it my best shot.
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
And more photos
This time, in Beijing. We caught the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace in one jam-packed day.
Beijing Pics
Beijing Pics
Monday, August 8, 2005
Tales from Tianjin
Its been a ridiculously long time since I posted - I blame this on the fact that I had very little to complain about. I managed, soon after the last post, to solve my food woes, with the following trilogy of questions/statements:
I am vegetarian.
No meat. No fish.
Is this vegetarian? No meat, no fish?
I've therefore been eating well, in fact, I've branched out to ordering specific things, like corn or mushrooms, where I would have formerly been content with just vegetarian.
China has been fun. This country also seems to have a rapidly increasing divide between rich and poor - a cup of coffee in some coffeeshops can cost as much as RMB68. (Yup. That is $8.50. No typo there.) At the same time, I can walk to the neighboring market and eat - bread, dumplings, noodles, more food than I can eat, and pay as little as RMB 2, or RMB 3. I've never thought of Starbucks as the cheap coffee option, but it really seems to be the cheapest large cup of coffee in China.
On weekends, I've roamed not so far and wide - mostly to Beijing, which is fun, expensive and chockful of entertainment options. I've seen mostly everything I wanted to see - the only thing that remains is a trip to the (heavily restored) section of the Great Wall near Beijing.
Other weekend trips have included Xi'an - home to the Terracota Soldiers, and also a smallish Chinese city with a distinctly cool, student vibe. We also went to Shanhaiguan, where the Great Wall meets the sea, encircles the town and forms part of the town wall, before rising into the mountains. I've photos of all these things, I'm just running behind on posting them. I'll fix that soon.
Six weeks of Chinese later, my brain is full, my Chinese, terrible. I can form sentences expressing my wants and needs, but when people reply, I have no idea what they say. I'm still pleased though, mostly because I'm getting, as mentioned above, vegetarian food.
Tianjin doesn't have a lot of entertainment options - it seems like. For a while, I tried frantically to find stuff to do. I'd accost random people on the street, and passionately ask them where they hung out. A few weeks of unsatisfactory answers later (in their dorms, in the library, etc.) I sadly abandoned the quest. On the other hand, homework (when I do it) doesn't leave a lot of time for hanging out. However, all in all, its been a good time.
I am vegetarian.
No meat. No fish.
Is this vegetarian? No meat, no fish?
I've therefore been eating well, in fact, I've branched out to ordering specific things, like corn or mushrooms, where I would have formerly been content with just vegetarian.
China has been fun. This country also seems to have a rapidly increasing divide between rich and poor - a cup of coffee in some coffeeshops can cost as much as RMB68. (Yup. That is $8.50. No typo there.) At the same time, I can walk to the neighboring market and eat - bread, dumplings, noodles, more food than I can eat, and pay as little as RMB 2, or RMB 3. I've never thought of Starbucks as the cheap coffee option, but it really seems to be the cheapest large cup of coffee in China.
On weekends, I've roamed not so far and wide - mostly to Beijing, which is fun, expensive and chockful of entertainment options. I've seen mostly everything I wanted to see - the only thing that remains is a trip to the (heavily restored) section of the Great Wall near Beijing.
Other weekend trips have included Xi'an - home to the Terracota Soldiers, and also a smallish Chinese city with a distinctly cool, student vibe. We also went to Shanhaiguan, where the Great Wall meets the sea, encircles the town and forms part of the town wall, before rising into the mountains. I've photos of all these things, I'm just running behind on posting them. I'll fix that soon.
Six weeks of Chinese later, my brain is full, my Chinese, terrible. I can form sentences expressing my wants and needs, but when people reply, I have no idea what they say. I'm still pleased though, mostly because I'm getting, as mentioned above, vegetarian food.
Tianjin doesn't have a lot of entertainment options - it seems like. For a while, I tried frantically to find stuff to do. I'd accost random people on the street, and passionately ask them where they hung out. A few weeks of unsatisfactory answers later (in their dorms, in the library, etc.) I sadly abandoned the quest. On the other hand, homework (when I do it) doesn't leave a lot of time for hanging out. However, all in all, its been a good time.
Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Su what?
Su de ma? is the phrase for 'Is this vegetarian'. So far, not working.
We've been having a few misadventures here, mostly with food. Yesterday, Dave and me walked into a Chinese restaurant (here, they might just call it restaurant, though) -and tried to order vegetarian food. In a move that was as much our fault as theirs, we got some green things and mapo tofu with pork in it. And so we drank our dinner.
Today, we walked into a noodle place, ordered vegetarian noodles (we thought so, at any rate) and got noodles with little pieces of pork floating in it. Evidently, eating the big pieces makes you a meat eater, if they are tiny, they don't count. And so we drank our lunch.
Apart from food, things are good. The beer is cheap in most places (although not good anywhere), learning Mandarin is like drinking water from a firehose, but it definitely keeps me out of trouble... There's a bunch of undergrads around, but the Michigan contingent is the only grad school bunch.
We got moved to the nicer dorms today. We've gone from mostly squalor to Motel 6 - a slight upgrade. The mini-refrigerator is a definite bonus - out of sheer resignation, I might have to start eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my room.
We've been having a few misadventures here, mostly with food. Yesterday, Dave and me walked into a Chinese restaurant (here, they might just call it restaurant, though) -and tried to order vegetarian food. In a move that was as much our fault as theirs, we got some green things and mapo tofu with pork in it. And so we drank our dinner.
Today, we walked into a noodle place, ordered vegetarian noodles (we thought so, at any rate) and got noodles with little pieces of pork floating in it. Evidently, eating the big pieces makes you a meat eater, if they are tiny, they don't count. And so we drank our lunch.
Apart from food, things are good. The beer is cheap in most places (although not good anywhere), learning Mandarin is like drinking water from a firehose, but it definitely keeps me out of trouble... There's a bunch of undergrads around, but the Michigan contingent is the only grad school bunch.
We got moved to the nicer dorms today. We've gone from mostly squalor to Motel 6 - a slight upgrade. The mini-refrigerator is a definite bonus - out of sheer resignation, I might have to start eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my room.
Sunday, July 3, 2005
Vietnam Round-up
I'm in China now, and a Vietnam summary seemed a good idea.
Vietnam was both annoying and nice. Halong Bay was a very relaxing time on a boat. The scenery was spectacular, it was nice hanging out with other people after a couple weeks of traveling alone, the beer was plentiful. On the not-so-nice side, our boat company kept charging us American prices for drinks. (Food was included.) Paying $1 for a bottle of water in Vietnam is the kind of thing that annoys me.
I figured the ideal way to see Halong Bay was to own/charter your own boat, and take off. There are a ton of islands (or whatever they are called) and it would be a fantastic time just exploring the area on your own.
Meeting Dave was also fun. I almost immediately dragged him to drink Bia Hoi with me. Bia Hoi - fresh beer, is a freshly brewed, unpasteurized Pilsner. (The point is to drink it before it goes bad.) We sat on little footstools at a busy street intersection, motorcycles were swerving, street vendors were hawking goods, the street noise was on the High setting - but the Bia Hoi was 1500 dong a glass. (10c, baby.) Life really can't get much better.
Another Vietnam experience was going to see the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. It was surreal - there were spotlights on Uncle Ho, 4 guards were standing solemnly at 4 ends, with very real rifles, and we all filed past in silence. It had been raining, we were wet, and the AC was on full blast (thank heavens!) and I was very cold and very creeped-out.
Dave was convinced I was trying to get him arrested at the Ho Chi Minh museum next door - I would giggle at the propaganda, and in fact, got my picture taken under one particularly fine bit (a picture will be up shortly). The propaganda wasn't overt though, and the museum was interesting and enjoyable.
Hanoi is a very nice city - I liked it more than Hoi An, definitely. The traffic is crazier, sure, but also the city has more than tourism going on. The mansions were beautiful, the vendors didn't swarm the way they did in Hoi An, and the hotel comped my ridiculously high Internet bill.
On balance, I think I'd go to Vietnam again - it isn't a sure thing, like Thailand, but then again, at 6 days, I didn't really spend enough time there to scratch beneath the surface in any meaningful way. Not a problem I'm going to have at Tianjin, I hope.
Vietnam was both annoying and nice. Halong Bay was a very relaxing time on a boat. The scenery was spectacular, it was nice hanging out with other people after a couple weeks of traveling alone, the beer was plentiful. On the not-so-nice side, our boat company kept charging us American prices for drinks. (Food was included.) Paying $1 for a bottle of water in Vietnam is the kind of thing that annoys me.
I figured the ideal way to see Halong Bay was to own/charter your own boat, and take off. There are a ton of islands (or whatever they are called) and it would be a fantastic time just exploring the area on your own.
Meeting Dave was also fun. I almost immediately dragged him to drink Bia Hoi with me. Bia Hoi - fresh beer, is a freshly brewed, unpasteurized Pilsner. (The point is to drink it before it goes bad.) We sat on little footstools at a busy street intersection, motorcycles were swerving, street vendors were hawking goods, the street noise was on the High setting - but the Bia Hoi was 1500 dong a glass. (10c, baby.) Life really can't get much better.
Another Vietnam experience was going to see the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. It was surreal - there were spotlights on Uncle Ho, 4 guards were standing solemnly at 4 ends, with very real rifles, and we all filed past in silence. It had been raining, we were wet, and the AC was on full blast (thank heavens!) and I was very cold and very creeped-out.
Dave was convinced I was trying to get him arrested at the Ho Chi Minh museum next door - I would giggle at the propaganda, and in fact, got my picture taken under one particularly fine bit (a picture will be up shortly). The propaganda wasn't overt though, and the museum was interesting and enjoyable.
Hanoi is a very nice city - I liked it more than Hoi An, definitely. The traffic is crazier, sure, but also the city has more than tourism going on. The mansions were beautiful, the vendors didn't swarm the way they did in Hoi An, and the hotel comped my ridiculously high Internet bill.
On balance, I think I'd go to Vietnam again - it isn't a sure thing, like Thailand, but then again, at 6 days, I didn't really spend enough time there to scratch beneath the surface in any meaningful way. Not a problem I'm going to have at Tianjin, I hope.
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