(As usual I’m behind.. I’ve back dated some entries I wrote awhile ago and finally got the chance to publish them.)

Oh China… I choose you because it was warm in May in the north. The “plan” was to travel from north to south to stay away from the cold. I’ll admit I was very nervous to see you at first. Landing in Beijing gave me a rush that I’ve never felt before. Now I feel a bit more at home with you.

Random Thoughts, Facts, and What I Got Use To

• I love how you introduced me to squat toilets.
• Forgetting to bring toilet paper with me to the restroom for the first time.
• I now carry toilet paper with me all the time.
• Seeing kids with the slit pants became normal to me.
• I’m no longer aware of the people staring at me.
• Hard Sleeper trains are your best bet. I always preferred the way top bunk.
• I will now to try to go on dates back at home to KFC.
• Became somewhat numb to the travelers “Good Byes”
• Made some fantastic friends from many parts of the world.
• I speak much slower English now cause it’s the only way some Chinese will ever understand me.
• I’ve got hand gestures for every possible item or place.
• I suck at planning but I’m good at following people who do plan.
• I always ask someone at the hostel if I could read their Lonely Planet book for a little while since I never got one and can never find one to buy.
• Although the language barrier can be rough in China, it’s extremely easy to get around as long as you have patience and common sense.
• I’ve mastered bargaining. Certainly an art form.
• The UK has taken over backpacking. They are everywhere in China.
• Because I’ve met so many English folks on the road, I’ve somewhat adapted to their British English language.
• I can never get use seeing the Chinese guys lifting up their shirt to their chest and walking around town.
• Opening a business in China is like opening a business in the 1950’s. Bring a good idea here and you’re good for the long run.
• Pushing, shoving, and cutting is normal.
• Even if you have a reserved seat on a train, rush to get to your reserved seat as fast as possible for absolutely no reason.
• I’ve eaten tons of foods not knowing what they were.
• Street food tastes fantastic in China. Less likely to get sick as well.
• Apparently the Chinese never heard of WD40 cause every single bicycle, motorbike, and car has the sound of pain on their brakes.
• Driving on the opposite side of the road is perfectly normal way of passing someone up that is going too slow.
• Safety regulations don’t exist?
• Screaming even to say hello or thank you is normal.
• The locals make every attempt to help foreigners (Exception to Taxi drivers)
• “Boo Yao” (No, I don’t want) is used more often then it should be used.
• I’m addicted to the Chinese culture.
• 30 days in China is not enough. I’d say at most 90 days is pretty decent amount of time to travel most of the country.
• For everyone back at home, China is completely different from what you think it is.
• China is real travel…

China, I will be back…  Leaving from Kunming, China to Laung Prabang, Laos on a 24hr bus ride over the border. On my own again to a place I know nothing about.
Now for Laos

Tags: China

We arrived at Lijang and checked into crazy Mama’s Guesthouse in Old Village. Mama is a bit of a nutcase honestly but she means well. Old Village is beautiful, relaxing area, stoned bridges and roads, and just has a very old fashioned vibe to it. It’s actually listed in the World Heritage List. After many hours on a train and bus, we rested for tomorrows adventure on the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Woke up early to have some of Mama’s breakfast and get ready for a 2 hour bus ride to Tiger Leaping Gorge. Jemma, Clare, and Chris made the hike up Tiger Leaping Gorge mountain very entertaining. We played some ridicules games, talked, chilled on random spots, and of course tons of picture taking. The view the entire way was fantastic. Snow capped mountain tops, waterfalls, bright green trees surrounding the mountain, and bluest sky I’ve ever seen in China. We trekked I think for about 6 hours total and slept at a guesthouse halfway.

The guesthouse was one of the best parts about the journey. Met several people there and hung out for most of the night. Bijio is a killer alcoholic drink in China. It’s disgusting yet you drink it anyway. It was made and brewed on the mountain by some locals so it defiantly had a better taste to it then the last time I tried it. The most entertaining part of the night was thanks to Caleb. It was late and it was only Chris, Caleb, and I awake. Caleb decides we should join the owners and workers table of the guesthouse. Caleb knows a bit of Chinese so it was much easier for him to communicate with them. He was basically our translator for the night. Hanging out with the locals is the best way to experience a culture. This is what traveling is all about. Understanding the other side of the world. I now have a better understanding of the people in China. One thing that really stood out that was said by one of the owners of the guesthouse is that China isn’t looking to become a super power like USA or the UK. China just wants to be known on the map and have a better reputation to just get high enough to be known but not pass up USA or the UK. Very good information and it was like this all night. Plenty of jokes and laughter going around. Everyone loved it.

LOL we were making random chinese numbers. I did the number 6

We continued our trek the next day. Legs were already killing me from the day before. We gathered up some more people to come with us to the end. Although we had to do another killer 6 hours of climbing up then down, it was well worth it. Intense workout these past 2 days. Many parts of the hike was just straight up for awhile. I learned that I suck at climbing but I suppose over time I’ll get better.

Not sure of the full story but a tiger leaped over from one mountain to the other over a river hence the name Tiger Leaping Gorge. This was toward the end of our trek and by this point I was dying. I did make it though and got to see where the tiger leaped over the river.

Beautiful views, awesome people, chatted with the locals, and again, Jemma, Clare, and Chris are just awesome travel buddies! I’m going to absoletly hate saying good bye to them. Jemma and Clare leave tomorrow night and heading toward HK and Chris is heading north for a little while before going to Laos. So were all splitting up soon . I’m going to miss this crowd.

I just budgeted how much I’ve spent lately cause I feel like I been somewhat over spending and so far it’s been $816USD since I started almost a month ago. My budget was $1000USD a month so it seems like I’m doing a pretty damn good with my money so far.

Tags: China

Farewell Chengdu
What a crazy city Chengdu is. The only thing I knew about Chengdu was it’s Panda’s, I had no idea what I was in for. One of the things I love about China is how different each province can be from one another. This city will always be remembered for the night of my gig and the wonderful people I met. Thank you Braedon, Wu, Steve, and everyone else I’ve met. Truly a memorable city.

Independent Travel?
Yes I did leave the United States by myself but really I’m never traveling by myself. All the people I’ve met at the hostels have been incredible for the most part. Paul and DeDe in Beijing, wonderful people!! After Beijing, I had left for Xi’an. The hostel picked me up from the Xi’an train station. That’s when I met Chris from the UK cause he was getting picked up as well to the same hostel. Since then Chris and I have been traveling together since were going in the same direction anyway. Real funny and chill guy. From Xi’an, we went to Chengdu and that’s when we met Clare and Jemma from the UK. Nearly everyone we spoke to has said the Yunnan province of China is the absolute best part of China between it’s culture and scenery. Clare and Jemma had already planned out that they were going to go from Chengdu to Kunming then to Lijang in Yunnan province. Chris and I hadn’t really planned much but we knew we wanted to go to Yunnan province and Lijang is the best place to go to in Yunnan. Clare and Jemma were kind enough to let us tag along with them. 18 hour train ride to Kunming and then a 10 hour bus ride to Lijang. So now it’s Chris, Clare, Jemma, and I just living life as it should be lived. Someone up there is looking after me cause I couldn’t have been any luckier to have met so many wonderful people.

Random Chinese
My Chinese is getting slightly better. I really believe this language is going to be extremely important to learn in the future. It’s the leading language of the world in a fasting growing developing country of the world. I’d love to learn as many languages as possible so it will be my life long mission to learn as many as possible.

The 18 hour train ride to Kunming was just madness. We may have been the only four white folks in the entire train and many of the Chinese taking the train may never have seen a foreigner before cause most of them come from rural and farm areas. We were basically celebrities and had quite a crowd going wanting to take pictures with us and just messing around and laughing. It was very humorous and amusing since none of us could understand each other. We did make some conversations with them which usually consisted of hand gestures. It’s amazing what body language can do. Very kind people that offered us everything they had.

After a 18 hour train ride, I‘m now on a 10 hour bus ride to Lijang with the new group. The view has been spectacular though. Little villages on the side of a mountain,, tons of farms, tons of mountains all over, lakes, rivers, and just an amazing view for hours on end. This is real China.

Tags: China

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” — Lao Tzu

Everything has been completely random in Chengdu. Someone in Xi’an said there was pandas in Chengdu so I decided to check it out (Don’t you love how I pick the places I want to go? LOL). As soon as I got in, I found at least 3 other travelers I knew from Xi’an that came to Chengdu Mix Hostel as well. Small world! Chris and I have been just going to random places from whatever people tell us to check out.

Hotpot

Hotpots are extremely popular in Chengdu and not having one of their hotpots is a sin when visiting Chengdu. Bunch of my buddies from the hostel and I decided to check one out. Steve had said it can be pretty difficult to order a hotpot if they don’t speak English and he was right. After a huge confusion, it all worked out and we got our food. I’ve been told numorous times to prepare the stomach the next day after having a hotpot. The boiling red sauce didn’t seem so bad and I’m ready to start dipping the random plates of food into it. I fish for the food from the bowl and take my first bite; FIRE!

Hotpot in Chengdu

Not even kidding… Picture the cartoons when fire came out of mouth, noes, ears, eyes, and everything from the character cause that’s what happened to me. It was most definitely the spiciest food I’ve ever had in my life. The food was delicious though and addicting so I continued to eat away. After many sweats, heart racing, and turning red; it was well worth it. I don’t think I’ll be eating another hotpot anytime soon but I’m glad I got the experience of a Chinese Chengdu hotpot.

Hotpot in Chengdu

Panada’s

Chengdu is known for it’s Panda’s so I just had to go. They were pretty cute and the young ones were so playful and active.

The young ones being playful

Red Panda

This Panda was a total pig. Eating away his bamboo for ages.

DJ’ing in China!

I did it! Very random and SOOO happy I did it. Here’s the story… I’m looking through a Chengdu magazine which happens to be in English from the hostel. There was a featured article about a DJ Studio in Chengdu. It had the full address of the place so I just HAD to check this out. I expected either I wasn’t going to be able to find the place or no one will be able to speak English there. I didn’t really think there was much of a DJ scene here either. I got a taxi to take me there showing him the address and a map. After finally finding the building, I walk into heaven. You have to understand, It’s been ages since I’ve touched music. Selling all my equipment a few months ago was emotional! I resisted the urge to be like a 5 year old in a McDonald’s play-pen. Luckily the guys there spoke English very well. Wu invited me in and to hang out for awhile. They have an equal passion for music as I do and even have some of the same taste in music! I had my iPod with me and showed them what NYC has been playing lately and they LOVED it instantly. So they asked me if I wanted to play that same night at a club called Xiong Mao. Of course I accepted! The club had a real underground look to it. Very basement type feel to it perfect for underground type parties.  I got on and just put in my 200%. Surprisingly I did pretty good for not DJ’ing in awhile! I did my thing and everyone loved it. Happiest man in the world!

I also met Braedon that same night who’s real cool. After the club, we went to Cafe Panam which is a french owned bar/lounge. Really nice place. We had a little group going and we all chilled for awhile. Perfect night.

Next day I call up Braedon and he introduces me to this ridicules Japanese food. It’s all you can eat Japanese food. I’m pretty sure I ate an entire school of fish. A bit pricey for China (160Yuan) but crazy cheap to the US dollar. We abused the hell out of it eating and ordering as much as possible. By far THE best Japanese food I’ve had in my life. Another perfect night. Right when I think I’m at my happiest, it just gets better.

I’ll be in Chengdu for 2 more nights till tomorrow (messed up my days) then heading to Kunming then ?? Thailand or Laos?

Just gotta keep on dancing

Mike

Tags: China

I have some catching up to do, dont I? Days pass by so quickly that I forget what time and day it is.

Great Wall of Fun
Paul and I decided to hike the Great Wall of China. Since we arranged it at the hostel, we also met Eric and Chris who was going as well. It was a 6.2mile hike from jinshanling to simatai. Hike itself was NOT easy. Plenty of unrestored areas with tough sections. Basically climbing up and down the entire way which made for a good workout. Scenry was beautiful with endless perfect green mountains. Really fascinating.

The section we were at was not very touristy at all either. What made the experience a whole lot better was the people I went with. Paul, Eric, and Chris are just funny as hell. Paul brought his mini speakers and played some ACDC on the wall. Truly memorable moment that has changed my image of ACDC forever. Toward the end we kicked back on the wall and bought some beers. To finish it off we took the zip line down from the Great Wall over a river and then onto a boat that took us to the exit. I say this day was one of the best days of my life. Just had to be there.

Saying Bye to Beijing

It was a bit depressing. I’ve been told I get use to it. Being that Beijing was my first destination, I feel as if I have a special connection to it. I’ve also got pretty lucky with the people I met there. I know I’ll miss the people and the places but I’ll always remember them and for some I’ll always keep in touch. Now for a 12 train ride to Xi’an, China.

Xi’an, China

From the train station, I got a free pickup from the hostel. Met Chris from England who was getting picked up as well. Checked in Shuyuan Hostel and I’m pretty impressed. Chill place. Has a full lounge/bar in the basement and a restaurant in the main lobby. It’s very popular hostel in Xi’an and for only 20rmb a night, you can’t go wrong.

Shuyuan International Youth Hostel

Touring

For my first day I just walked around  just observing and taking in my surroundings. Decided to check out a random museum I passed by called Forest of Tablets. I’m not much of a museum person so I got bored pretty quickly. Interesting nonetheless. Xi’an is the old capital of China dating back thousands of years of history. The Forest of Tablets had writings from hundreds of years ago that were carved into stones. I have much more respect for the Chinese writing now. Just wondering around, a local Chinese kid walks up to me and says “Hi, can I practice my English with you?”. Immediately I thought SCAM but I figured I would go along with it and see where it went. I’ve been approached dozens of times for scams so I can usually catch them pretty quick and always know when to walk away. He asks some basic questions like where I’m from and what I’m doing. He then asked me if I wanted to go a free museum he knew about. I said sure and so we went. He was for real! The free museum was fantastic! Much much better then the Forest of Tablets I had to actually pay for. The museum was Shaanxi Province Museum and had many of the old China relics. Best part though wasn’t the mesuem but a local chinese showing me around town and talking to me about their culture was the best. I learned so much from him. Thank you if you’re reading this!

Terracotta Warriors was pretty neat. Unbelievable what they did back then. The amount of warriors that were made was incredible. Since the site was found in the late 70s, they seem to still be digging up the remains and uncovering more of the story of the Terracotta Warriors. Not sure if I’d call it the “8th Wonder of the World” but it was still unbelievable.

Terracotta Warrios

Food in Xi’an, China

The Muslim quarters in Xi’an was probably one of my favorite things about Xi’an. It’s a small street PACKED with street vendors selling food, clothes, and random items. I went here twice during the week I was in Xi’an and both times I just picked up random foods along the way eating everything in site. Cheap delicious food. No idea what I was eating but everything I had was wonderful (most of it which was spicey). One of the best dishes Xi’an has is Yang Rou Pao Mo which is shredded bread soaked in mutton soup. Overall though Xi’an has some incredible foods.

Muslim Quarters

Muslim Quarters

Random food on the street

Eating a dish of Yang Rou Pao Mo in a local place of Xi'an

Huashan Mountain in Xi’an, China

Chris and I decided to check out from the hostel and hike up Huashan Mountain which is one of the holiest mountains in China. This was quite the mission though. First we had to buy our train ticket to Chengdu for the next day when we get back from our hike (we got the wrong train ticket last time and had to buy another.. bah). Then I found that my credit card stopped working and wouldn’t dispense any money from the money making machine (lol). I still had some cash on me and Chris lent me some money till I can get it resolved (which is now thanks to skype!). First was getting on a small local muggy bus that took us 2 hours to get there. Once we got there we had no idea what to do next (we never prepare for anything lol). Somehow we end up in a taxi that took us to the entrance of the mountain. By the way, it’s POURING out. Really raining heavy and were about to hike up for miles. Taxi driver was complete dick and claimed he said 10Yuan when we agreed to 2Yuan. It was a crazy short ride and there was no reason it should be 10Yuan. After some argument in all sign language, we got fuck it and paid the 10Yuan to that stupid bastard. Moving on we took the cable car up halfway the mountain since most of the mountain was closed and the rain didn’t make it easy. The hike up was ridicules with the rain. Thousands of half ass stairs with chains that normally required you to hold on or else you’re done. While the rain did suck since it was pretty cloudy out, it did make for a nice rain forest feel to the mountain top. The birds, waterfalls, cliffs, and just overall feel of the out doors was a great feeling. Our plan was to stay in a hostel on the top peak but we couldn’t find the hostel so we decided to check into a hotel near the top. Think of the movie “The Shining” and that’s basically where we were at. No one in sight in the middle of nowhere. Shittest yet humorous bed room. Long and tiring day for the both of us yet at the end of the day, we felt very well accomplished. Next day we head back down (after nearly killing myself on the way down lol) and everything was perfect. Got back to Xi’an train station in double time on our way to Chengdu.

Friends

Been traveling with Chris the past few days and the guy is funny as hell. I’m at Mix Hostel now in Chengdu after 16hour train ride. I hope to update the blog more often and keep up with my other sites.

Claudia and Chris - Just eating and having some beers on the street of Xi'an

Fountain in Xi'an with lazers and lightshow

For more pictures and videos, go to my facebook page!

Tags: China