Lost in Translation

We arrived in Xi'an late last night. I was cross-eyed tired by the time we made it into our rooms. I have been in China for five days now and I have yet to eat any substantial Chinese food. Amazing isn't it? We have been going to Indian restaurants for dinner. I think it's pretty funny. We also hit a Pizza Hut in Beijing on the first day. I really wanted to try the KFC in Xi'an but we are leaving in the morning tomorrow.

But first, there is much more blogging to do about Beijing.

On Friday morning, we hit the ground running from the get go. After an arduous trip to the Bank of China to exchange money (note to future travelers: you get a better exchange rate at the Bank if you use traveler's checks. And they will change your money back at the thend of the trip if you keep your receipt), we piled onto the bus to head to the Forbidden City which is in the center of Beijing.

We first started looking at Tiananmen Square. It was enormous and FILLED with people. The square is 880 metres south to north and 500 metres east to west, a total area of 440,000 square meters, which makes it the largest open-urban square in the world (from Wikipedia). It is the open square where the Ming emperors used to address their subjects. A short walk away is the Forbidden City which was built in the 1400s. It has over 8700 rooms and is enormous as well. The tour books all said that it was really amazing and they were right. Outstanding.

The tour itself was going to take three hours of walking. Yowza. It would be exhausting for anyone but the heat was insufferable and many of the people wanted to take breaks along the way. I felt bad for them because the guide was NOT accomodating to the ages of our group. He just grew frustrated when they asked for breaks. Annoying.

Anyway, we headed on our way and were snapping pictures all along (or trying to anyway because the guide barely paused at each place). However, it was absolutely impossible to keep track of everyone in our group. There were literally millions of people in this place and over 80% had darker skin and black hair. I was with the group for the first hour and a half but then I stopped to take a picture of this engraved wall. When I looked around not 10 seconds later, everyone had gone. There was a gate that I realized that they passed through. I crossed the gate and remember those 8700 rooms that I told you about? Well, this was one of the open spaces that led to many of those rooms. The group was no where in sight. I utterly panicked. But then I was set at ease when I saw an Uncle from our group. I ran up to him to see if he knew where everyone went and he was as lost as I was.

At this point, I was scared - but not for myself. I had money, I had a business card with the address of the hotel to show to a cab driver, but I knew that Mom was going absolutely nuts at that moment. While she is aware that I am 28, fairly worldly, and have my head on straight most of the time, she felt like I was her responsibility. Uncle and I ran back to where I last saw them and we stayed there for a while. But since we didn't see anyone, we decided to continue to keep going. We were totally at a loss as to what to do. I was cursing myself for not writing down our tour guide's mobile number the first day when he gave it to us. I also thought about calling the hotel to see if they knew it or could help me somehow but for some reason I thought that wouldn't do anything. Dummy girl.

Meanwhile, Mom HAD realized I wasn't there and just broke down. She said that she wasn't moving from the spot until I came back. Somehow, she was convinced to keep going but then the search began. Now, this is another thing that I feel really bad about: the group spent a solid hour searching for me instead of enjoying this magnificent palace. People were running from one side to another trying to catch me among the millions of other tourists that were there that day.

Back to what we were doing. I remember that the guide had said that we were going to exit to the North Gate so we headed that way. We also remembered that the bus was supposed to meet us on the other side so we decided to try to find the bus. When we exited, we didn't see our party nor did we see our bus. We couldn't get back in so we were kind of stuck at this point. I asked a few workers where I could find the bus but of course, they didn't understand me. Finally out of total frustration, I stood at the exit and just started shouting, "Does anyone speak English?!" People walked by and looked at me like I was nuts but finally, a man with his son stopped and patiently listened to my story. He said that he would translate for me to talk to the officials. They suggested that I go make an announcement overhead. I said I'd rather go find the bus. Little did I know that if I had just gone to make the announcement, I would have been reunited right then because they were doing the exact same thing at that time.

We found out where the bus was and headed in that direction. But we didn't see a bus stand like there was at the Great Wall. The buses just kept moving along this one street. We walked up and down and didn't see anything and I saw a police car. I approached them but they didn't speak English either. Since I was losing all sense of public decorum, I once again started shouting for English speakers. Finally, a group of Caucasian folks came along and I asked them if they spoke English and they said yes. But they were Russian and their tour guide spoke only two languages: Mandarin and Chinese. So the conversation went like this: me in English to Russian woman; Russian woman in Russian to Chinese tourguide; Chinese tourguide in Chinese to Chinese police officer and back again. What did I learn? The buses were not allowed to stop there; they could only pick up their passengers.

We headed back to the North Gate.

Once there, I became restless for them to walk through the door again so I shouted my now almost-mantra to the exiting crowd and a teenage boy stopped to help me. I decided to get my announcement over the PA system but didn't know how to get the officials to say it over the system. I decided that it would be good for me to have someone write it in Chinese so they could understand what I was saying. The boy didn't know how to write Chinese but his dad did so I wrote it in English, the boy dictated what I wrote to the dad in Chinese and the dad wrote it in Chinese. Or I thought he did.

I headed to the officials that I talked to before and showed them my sign and trying to charades "announcement" the best that I could. They set me down the hall (I was back in!!) to a woman worker and did my little dance again. She pointed me down to the exit again. Obviously, my years of Bharatanatyam training was not paying off. Instead of listening to her, I decided to try to find the the thing myself. Feeling no sense of shame or timidness anymore, I found the first group of Caucasians I could and asked them if they spoke English. Then to avoid the aforementioned scenario, I asked if their guide spoke English and the guy said yes. I asked him to point her out and as he was doing that I saw Harris, our tourguide.

His first response, "Omigod! I TOLD you to follow our flag." What I wanted to say: Dude. Had you been doing your job, you would have noticed that two of your group members were gone sooner that you did. Beyond that, if you weren't RUNNING through the Forbidden City with a group of elderly (very tired) visitors, I would have never seperated from the group. The aunties and uncles were so happy to see me and told me that Mom had been crying for a solid hour. I ran to her and she just broke down again. I can't tell you how awful I felt at that moment (and for several after). We grabbed Uncle from the otherside (he was the lookout in case they came through the exit) and moved on to more important things - like lunch.

The rest of Beijing when I am in Shanghai. No more posts for a few days because tomorrow we are heading for our river cruise. How am I going to live without my daily fix? No one is really sure but it many not be a pretty sight. Until then. . .

The hike.

Ok. Since I (still) can't read my previous posts or comments, I am going to start where I think I left off on yesterday's post.

The Great Wall. I think I talked about how the stairs were all sorts of weird. The other really difficult thing about the climb was that some of the stairs were so narrow that I had to put my feet sideways in order not to fall backwards! There were four forts that you can climb to in the Jyong Pass. One aunty, two uncles and I made it to the fourth one. We climbed up this really sketchy staircase to see the few from the top of it. Absolutely amazing! Only problem was coming back down. I wanted to imitate my 2-y/o nephews and scooch down the stairs since they were SO narrow and there was a solid 18 inches between each stair. We made it all the way down without incident (mostly because we were holding on to the railing for our lives) though I think I flashed plently of people. Word to the wise - while it is really hot in July in Beijing and a skirt might seem like a great way to stay cool - as you climb these uneven stairs, one medium force breeze will be enough to show your chuddies to the folks below.

After the Great Wall, we decided to skip lunch and head straight to the Ming Tombs. We didn't spend much time there since the tombs are under renovation in preparation for the Games. It was pretty cool seeing some of the really ancient and fabulous stuff that the emperors rocked back in those days.

We then headed to what is known as a fake market. And here my IAA came out once again. I was so mortified by the high-pressure sales and without my master negotiator, RC, with me, I felt a little lost. I shouldn't have worried because I soon realized that RC learned to negotiate from his mother. I got suckerd into looking at some fake purses and while I tried to walk away, I got pulled into another store. For a solid five minutes, I "negotiated" this woman down from RMB600 (Chinese money) to RMB200. But since I had not gone to the bank yet, I didn't have any money. I went to Mom and asked her for the money and she refused to pay that much for the purse and about 1 minute later she walked away with the purse for RMB100 ($25). The leather on this totally fake Tod's purse feels like my baby nephew's bottom. Not too shabby, right? Then I wanted to buy some souveniers for my friends. The woman was trying to sell it all to us for RMB900. Mom walked away with all of it for RMB300. I was laughing hysterically along with Mom because it was just took funny. I never had respect for haggling until I saw this Aligargh girl in action!

Our dinner last night was at a restaurant called Mallika. Yah - Indian food for the second night in a row. So far, despite being in China for three days, I have yet to eat one Chinese meal. I have however, had Pizza Hut. =)

After the dinner, we went to this Kung Fu show. It was so amazing but unfortunately, since we were all exhausted from the heat and physical exersion, we were falling asleep while watching the show. We came home and I literally dragged myself to the Internet cafe to post last night and send some emails to people.

Today I am equally tired but it's earlier and tomorrow is an easier day.

This computer however, is making me feel like I am back in my university dorm computer lab lab with the crappy keyboards so I think today's events will just have to wait until Sunday. Tomorrow, there will be no post because I am heading to Xi'an via airplane tomorrow night. Terracotta soldiers here I come!!

Spoiled

For those who don't know, I am traveling in China with RC's mom and 24 other fifty-plus-somethings. It was a little intimidating at first, but I have to say that being the same age as most of their children is definitely working to my advantage. They all treat me like their own daugther and are constantly looking out for me. It really is very sweet. They also tell Mom what I great kid I am. See Amma, I am not so bad afterall. =)

Today - ABSOLUTELY exhausting.

We woke up (Mom, Aunty and I) at four am -myself with girlie cramps; Mom and Aunty just because. We lolled around for a while and then decided to just get ready. We headed down to breakfast and thought we'd be the first ones there. To our surprise, half our group was already having breakfast because apparently they couldn't sleep either. We finished our food and headed out to our bus that departed the hotel at 8:30 am.

Our first stop was a jade factory where we saw how they carved and polished jade. And ofcourse they had a showroom of their products. We wandered around for a while and I was suckered into buying something because I wanted to make sure my sister's bday gift was high quality jade. You're going to love it Che.

Then came the Great Wall. I got off the bus and could not freaking believe that I was looking at THE Great Wall - the one that I had read about in books since I was a grade schooler. The climb didn't look so bad but holy coly was I wrong! The steps are all uneven heights and widths. Some are so narrow, you have to turn your feet sideways to make sure your heel doesn't slip over the edge! Mom couldn't make the climb so I went on by myself. I ran into another uncle from the group and then at another landing met another couple. We some how egged each other on until the 4th tower. We found out later that had we gone just a little further, we would have reached a gorgeous temple and could climb down in another direction away from all the crowds. I'll do that next time I guess.

Alright, I am actually wiped out from our day. I'll have to blog about all this more tomorrow. Tomorrow's plan: Forbidden City and Summer Palace.

Welcome to the jungle

I read my Frommer's, Lonely Planet, and Fodor's guides but nothing quite prepares you for the sheer "urban-ness" (yes, I am a Social Studies teacher) of Beijing. Despite being a 4000 year-old city, the skyscrapers betray the city's true age. In India, there are still loads of scooters and bicycles that mix in with the auto and bus traffic. Not the case here. And the roads are so nice. I know that much of this might be in preparation for the Olympic Games next summer but it is still amazing.

I am also a little weirded out about how lost I feel here. I know that it is an ignorant American attitude (hereinafter IAA) to assume that everyone speaks English but really - NOTHING is in English and even getting this computer at an Internet cafe was a ordeal in translations. We feel a bit helpless as a group of Am-ree-kans.

And the smoking. Everyone smokes all the time, everywhere. The guy sitting next to me is puffing away and blowing smoke in my face as I type this. My IAA is missing the smoke-free public spaces of the West.

But enough about all my complaining. . .

***EW. He just spit on the floor next to me. . .My IAA is freaking OUT.***

Ok. I'll move on. . .

We went to the Lama temple today. It is the largest such temple in Beijing. Did you know that Lama means "teacher"? It was once afforded only to the high ranking monks but now refers to all monks. The temple itself is amazing. Apparently, it had fallen into ruins but the government took great steps in the middle of the 20th century to restore it. Inside one of the pavilions there is a huge (18m) statue of Maitreya Buddha. More astounding is that it was carved from a single piece of white sandalwood. Check out the link above for some really good pictures.

Tomorrow - the Great Wall. It is a little surreal that I am going to see the Great Wall tomorrow. I am unable to see my comments right now so I have no idea if you are leaving me any (but you should!). I could change my Preferences to notify me if you comment but since this entire site is in Mandarin (other than what I am typing), I am unable to navigate through. I will catch up on them as soon as I can. In the meantime, if you have a question, please feel free to email me.

***btw-more hacking from the young man who is next to me. On that note, I bid you good night.***

Omigod. I am in China.

These are the initial thoughts that ran through my head as I looked at the huge tower that read "Welcome to Beijing" in small letters in English but big letters in Chinese. Even this Explorer window everything is in Chinese but fortunately, I remember what most of the links say. I am glad I didn't wait until I actually got here to set this up.

As an Indian growing up in America, I grew weary of people always making my culture more exotic than it was/is. It is a cool culture and I wear my pride blazing on my forehead but I sometimes became annoyed when people got all starry-eyed when they talked about India. I realized now that I have done the exact same thing with China. It is a truly exotic location but people here live just like everyone else lives in their own countries. Not everyone knows kungfu or practices Confucianism. It is going to be interesting to see how my own perceptions of China change throughout this trip.

Anyway, we arrvied late last night with no incident. The flights were long - the longest being between Minneapolis and Tokyo. I have inherited Amma's knack for sleeping through long flights so I was asleep for 7 of the 12 hours. The remainder of the time, I read some Fodor's stuff that Y. Uncle printed out and "The Devil Wears Prada." Very funny book and I am afraid that I am going to be done with it in the next few days. Well, "The Deathly Hallows" comes out soon enough. . .

Our room is small but not what I was picturing. There are three of us in there each with our own slightly larger than twin bed. I, of course, had painful jet lag and didn't fall asleep until 2 am but I did sleep until 7 am. I think this is going to be the key to not waking up at 4 am every day.

We also met our nice tour guide yesterday. It sounds like he has a lot of experience in dealing with Indian-Americans because he even spoke some Hindi and knew what his name, Harris, would mean for a bunch of Hindus (Harish-Vishnu). He seems nice enough and speaks English really well.

That's all for now. There is nothing going on today and the weather looks pretty gloomy so we'll probably just go to the mall that is right behind our place. Don't worry RC, I am not buying anything just yet. This is just to understand how the prices work because it is a government shopping center and there is no bargaining.

Leaving on a jet plane

I thought I would start our new blog off with blogging about our trip to India. Well, that came and went with no launch. Then I thought, well, surely I will start it on our two-year anniversary (last Monday) but again, it came and went with no fanfare. Tomorrow, I am leaving for China and I have decided that this will be the medium that I use to communicate with you while I am there. Who knows, I might even do some backposts of India and the anniversary.

But I need your help with one thing: convince RC to also contribute to this blog. He said that he might but I am sure with a gentle push from our friends, he will be more likely to contribute.

~*~

Tomorrow I leave for China with Mom. I am really nervous/excited to go. Our trip itinerary includes the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Xian. I recently talked to someone who was there for three weeks and she said that it was a whirlwind tour. And we only have 2 1/2 weeks. Yikes! I have a feeling my Keens are going to get abused while I am there. Here is the itinerary:

17th Jul Beijing: (No meals) On arrival, meet and transfer to hotel. The room is booked by yourself. There is two person by separate tranfer.

18th Jul Beijing: (D) Today is free for you without transfer and guide. In the evening have dinner in Indian restaurant with transfer.

19th Jul Beijing: (B/D)Today you will visit the Great Wall at Juyong Pass and Ming Tombs.

20th Jul Beijing: (B/D)Full day visit the Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and Summer Palace.

21st Jul Beijing/Xian: (B/D)Today you will visit the Temple of Heaven and Yaxiu Market, and then transfer to airport for flight to Xian.

22nd Jul Xi’an: (B/D)Today you will visit the Terra-cotta Warriors and Huaqing pool, Big Wild Goose Pagoda,Ancient Style Street and Ancient City Wall

23rd Jul Xi’an/Chongqing: (B/D)After breakfast, transfer to Xi’an airport for flight to Chongqing. On arrival, meet and take Century Star Cruiser.

24th Jul Three Gorge: (B/L/D)Full day visit the Fengdu Ghost City.

25th Jul Three Gorge: (B/L/D) Full day visit the Qutang Gorge, Xiling Gorge, Wu Gorge and Shennong Stream.

26th Jul Yichang-Wuhan/Hangzhou: (B/D) When you arrive in Yichang, will take coach to Wuhan airport, and then take flight to Hangzhou. On arrival, meet and transfer to hotel.

27th Jul Hangzhou- Mountain Huang: (B/D)After breakfast, take coach to Huangshan. Take the cable car go to top of the mountain. See Brush Pen Peak, Begin-to-Believe Peak, grotesque pine trees, Lion Peak, and Xihai Grand Canyon.. Paiyun Pavilion, see Flying Rock. Guangming Ding until Hundred foots Yuti, overlook Lianhua Peak, Yuping Peak and steep and limited Gorge.

28th Jul Mountain Huang: (B/D)Catch the glorious sunrise. And visit Yingke treet, Songke treet, Peike treet and so on

29th Jul Mountain Huang-Hangzhou: (B/D)Today go down Mountain by Cable Car. Transfer to Hangzhou. On arrival, check-in, then visit the West Lake, Santan Lake and Leifeng Tower, then visit the Liyin Temple, the Flying Peak, Six Harmornies Pagoda, Gushan Island.

30th Jul Hangzhou-Shanghai: (B/D)Drive to Shanghai, on arrival visit People’s Square, Century Street, Cruise Huangpu River and enjoy the Acrobatic Show in the evening.

31st Jul Shanghai: (B/D)Full day visit the Yu Garden, City God’s Temple, Nanjing Road, and the Bund.01st Aug Shanghai Departure: (B)Transfer to Shanghai airport for back flight.

Ok - so I was very ambitious when I started this post by doing all the hyperlinks. However, now I am in Small Town, Ohio and only have dialup and it keeps booting me off so the hyperlinks ended there.

I am nervous about this trip for several reasons:

1. It has been a long time since I have traveled without RC. We have been around the world twice and all over the US together. We have always traveled well together and now our routines and habits are deeply engrained. I know that he carries certain things for me but now I have to do it all myself!

2. I am traveling WITH Mom. While I love her like my mother, she is still my mother-in-law and I don't have the same liberties that with her that I do with Amma. I am certain we will get along but the uncertain will always bring about apprehension.

3. Speaking of the uncertain - China! I have been to India so many times but China is a whole different ballgame. Even Bali was different because we were staying in resorts the whole time, not traveling quite as much.

I think that is about the extent of my major concerns. Sigh. I look forward to reading your comments.