Archives February 2009

As many of you know, I was laid off from my financial job on New Year’s Eve (classy timing). But this upsetting twist has been an amazing thing. I’ve been busy writing full time now, and making a fairly decent income to boot. I’ve been painting and touring around Shanghai as well, and will upload pictures of the paintings soon.

Alas, this time should not go wasted. It is rare that I have money saved up, free time, and the perfect location from which to launch a trip like this one. I’m planing a journey across land from Shanghai to Ashgabat, beginning late April. So far, I have the first half of the trip, some 8,200 miles, planned.  I’ll take the train from Shanghai to Urumqi, which is a 48 hour trip through a varied and diverse terrain. I’ll be writting on the train, as well as photographing the changes as we chug through flatlands, mountains and then desert.  From Urumqi I’ll take an overnight bus to Kashgar, the bus takes 24 hours and skirts along the Taklamakan desert, one of the harshest in the world.The bus leaves mid day so that we will be traveling by night through the deepest parts of the desert.

Kashgar is one of the few places on the planet that inspires instant envy. I’m enveious of the folks I know who have been there who claim it is truly an oasis of culture and color- the fading with the influx of new residents. I want to get there before it compleately dissapears.

From Kashgar to Ashgabat, the roads are a bit hazy and the trip a bit more dangerous. Careful planning is needed, at least to secure visas, permits and find a map with existing roads on it. This second phase of the journey will be planned at a later stage. For now, I’m busy finding out what there is to see along the route I have mapped so far. I’ve been to Turpan and toured around Urumqi, so this trip I’d like to check out some outlying villages to the North of the city before heading through the desert to Kashgar. At some point, I’m determined to use a camel as a mode of transportation.

I just hope my laptop doesnt melt. April/May is a rough time to be out in the desert, but alas there is no time like the present. It will take about a month to finish planning, packing and acquiring visas, hence, the adventure begins now!

-Posted by Lauren.

Travel

How much would it cost to travel in Asia for a year?  This thought crossed my mind today as I was sitting in my office.  Like being back in grade school, my teachers refused to let me sit by the window because I would just stare outside all day and they would have to say my name multiple times before my head would turn.  Not much has changed since then as I am sitting in my office looking out the window.  Just ask Lauren, she will tell you how many times she has to say my name before I hear or acknowledged her – partially because I didn’t hear, more because I was thinking about something else, and probably because my hearing has gotten selectively more selective over the years.

Pondering bamboo scaffolding, how suspension bridges work, and what plant I would masticate as an antidote for…oh I don’t know, being shot by a poisonous frog dart like in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; I fixated on travel for a long time this morning.  Now, all the previous thoughts being completely rational and normal for most people to have on a Tuesday morning in the office, how much would it cost to travel in Asia for a year?

This is really quite simple to answer, especially if you are already living in Asia and would not need to purchase a plane ticket.  Any Lonely Planet, not that I would recommend using them, will tell you that it is quite possible to get by on $20.00 USD a day in most Asian countries.  Even this is an inflated figure, as in many Southeast Asian countries you can easily get by for under $10 USD each day.  Including train travel expenses and the occasional treat, I think $20 USD is very fair.

I estimate that if I were to save up about 7,500 USD, I could travel for exactly 375 days, non-stop, for a year.  This was a really exciting thing to become fixated upon.  Lauren and I have no departure plans set yet, but these numbers are really fun to throw around in our heads for when we plan the Exodus and will probably affect how we go about doing it.  So much more to see and do!

“Do not tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled.”

–  Muhammad

We recently moved into a new apartment because there were “health issues” with our last place. Walking around the Shanghai alleys around our new building we discovered a quaint little restaurant called “The Public Chicken.” Curious, and starving from the unpacking we’d been doing all afternoon, we took a seat in the middle of the oblong shaped room and waited. A friendly elderly woman approached with a list of ingredients and we quickly realized it was a hot pot place with tiny burners brought out to your table and a small, water-based stew put atop wherein you dunked various foods to cook. We ordered a pot and some mutton and veggies to dunk and then sat back and watched the people around us eat.

Dinner

After several minutes the elderly woman with the friendly features returned with a pot full of spices, herbs and pre-cooked veggies boiling wildly in the stew. I stuck my chopsticks into the pot and pulled out a small white flap with black spots. I turned it over in my chopsticks and smelled the mystery substance. Thinking it was a type of colorful seaweed I placed it back in the pot and poked around a bit more.We put in the fresh veggies and mutton and then waited while it boiled. The tomatoes and potatoes were especially tasty, and we wolfed them down soon after they were finished cooking.

Digging around the pot with my chopsticks I found another flap of white with black spots, I examined it more closely, bringing it up to my eyes for a clearer view. I heard a gasp and looked up. From the other side of the table Mike held up a small white hand that was grasped firmly around his chopstick, the nails digging into the wood. My whole body began to shake and Mike yelled, “is that a damn hand?” as he tossed it back into the pot. By now I was shaking and laughing out of wild fear. He regained his composure while I sat shaking and then went trolling for other body parts. Atop the boiling veggies Mike assembled the puzzle pieces of a large white and black frog, complete with head, tail and four precious little hands boiled into a gripping position. I watched silently out as he assembled his grotesque puzzle, wondering how many frog parts I’d already eaten.

Despite being one of the more disgusting things to boil to the surface of a pot I’d been eating out of, the meal itself was quite tasty. Apparently frog is a nice seasoning for fresh vegetables. I doubt I’ll eagerly reenter the Public Chicken (especially since it was devoid of Chicken and my imagination has already run rampant on what a kitchen full of frogs looks like) it was an experience to remember. Right up there with eating dog in Mongolia and seahorse in Beijing.

Image from the famed 1980's movie - The Princess Bride

We all remember this scene right?  When the Six-Fingered Man turns the water wheel and Wesley convulses in pain?  “I’ve just sucked away one year of your life.  How does that make you feel?”  Wesley whimpers and the Six Fingered Man responds, “Pity.”

This is how I feel about China’s air quality.  As Lauren and I approach our 1 year anniversary of moving to Shanghai (February 16th), and Winter colds and coughs are dissipating, I have been considering the toll we are paying for breathing in this air.  Chinese New Year was a blessing of one week’s worth of fresh air, blue sky and sunshine as all the the factories closed for the festival; albeit, some of it was replaced with very high levels of sulfur from some of the most amazing fireworks displays I’ve ever seen.

I was amazed to see the moon and stars, which I have missed a lot since I moved here.  Maybe comparing China’s air quality to the Six Fingered Man’s Life Sucking Water Wheel of Death is a little extreme, but those of you who know me also come to expect these urges I have to be irrationally sarcastic.  But is it that extreme?  – Oh, did I mention stubborn?

A few weeks ago I read an article on CNN about the last two decade’s Drop in US Air Pollution Linked to Longer Lifespans.  Hilariously blocked by the Chinese firewall, this article argues the statistical proof that the decrease in the United States’ air pollution has increased life expectancy by 5 months since the 1980’s.  This is absolutely mind-blowing as I can’t even imagine what I am breathing in comparison to…let’s say New York or Los Angeles?  China’s air quality and Shanghai’s air pollution must be at least 2-3 times that of the states (Randomly Generated Facts, pg. 486).

The New England Journal of Medicine, a little more reliable than CNN, has an article with staggering facts about air pollution and your health.  Now that we have moved to a new apartment, I think it is time to by an air purifier as well to curb the Water Wheel of Death that is China’s air quality.  Please check back for my next post: The ROUS (Rodents of Unusual Size) – The Panda.  Just kidding, only one Princess Bride themed post each year.