Another Chapter Closes

Today was my last day with the bank!  The thought of this day has got me through the irritable Mondays, the boring Thursday afternoons, and the chaotic Saturdays, but now that it's here, it doesn't seem quite real.  It just feels like I'm on vacation so far.

My coworkers organized a pizza party for lunch for my farewell party, and were generally crazy all day.  We entertained ourselves by hiding one of the security chips from the meat department in Jo's things, so that she'd set off the alarms every time she went out the door.  Unfortunately, it only worked about every other time, so she didn't notice the pattern until India gave up and told her.  Jo's been threatening to duct tape me to my chair so I can't leave, but she decided not to as it might look a bit incriminating on the security cameras.

I got several emails and phone calls from other branches as well, and Judy stopped by.  It was nice to know that I was appreciated.  There were a lot of things I liked about working for the bank; one of the best parts was that it was the sort of job that, once you've clocked out, is over.  There's nothing to take home, even if I wanted to.  Teaching is never over.  There's always something you could be doing: lessons to plan, papers to grade, students to assess. 

As we were leaving for the day, we got Dylan, one of the Kroger employees, to take some pictures of us in front of the branch.  We were joking and laughing so loudly that most of the Kroger employees were looking at us anyhow.  

Home Decorating for the New Expat (or anyone, really)

Edited with Pixlr-o-matic

 One of the few downsides of moving internationally (unless, of course, your company moves you and provides a moving stipend and a shipping container, which has never happened to me) is that you don’t have room in the suitcase for a lot of knick-knacks, curtains, or framed art.  Now, some people don’t mind stark white walls decorated with fingerprints of unknown past tenants, but I need color.  What’s the fun of a new apartment if you aren’t going to decorate?  

Since I have neither excessive money nor space, but want to be able to cover those white walls quickly, I have to improvise.  I usually pack colorful calendar pictures, photos, postcards, etc. laid flat in the bottom of my suitcase for some quick décor without taking up much packing space.  This time around, however, I have found some websites with ideas for more unusual, but still packable, decorations.  I’m really looking forward to adding some of these to my wall collage once I arrive at my new apartment in Wuhan.  I’ve gone ahead and had some things printed at Walgreens so that I could get them in a larger size and on photographic paper, but you could also print them on regular paper on your printer after arriving.  All of the following are free except one, and it is noted.

•   Tagxedo:  This one turned out to be a bit addictive, at least for me.  First, you enter a list of words, or a poem, or a quote, or something of the sort.  I used the lyrics to my favorite songs. Then, tagxedo creates a word collage; you can choose from a variety of shapes for the collage, or even upload a new shape yourself.  Finally, there are dozens of color schemes to choose from—this is where I spend a lot of time, choosing from among thousands of possible combinations.  The end result is a unique personalized collage; you can share it, print it, or save it as a jpeg of various resolutions. (See example at the end of the blog).
•  Pixlr-o-matic: An easy-to-use photo-editing program lets you add filters, special effects, and borders to your photos.  
•  Block Posters: This is a tool to take your photo, blow it up to any size you want (the default is about two feet by three feet, but you could make it anywhere from a sheet of paper to the size of the whole wall), and then print it in sections on a regular printer.  This is the cheapest way I’ve ever seen to make some really big wall art.  Check out the gallery for some great ideas of things you can do with it. 
• Craft Jr.'s Paper Chains:  Especially useful if you have kids or like a bit of whimsy, these paper chain patterns are fun, and there’s a lot more than just the traditional children holding hands.  I especially like to owls and the rockets. 
• 20 Going On 80 :  This blog has some great decorating ideas, and she has a page of free printables that are really cute, for the walls, for crafts, and for various holidays.
•  Big D and Me's Kitchen Printables:   The blogger made a fun collage in her kitchen; some of the items she bought off of Etsy, but the ones she made herself she offers free to download.  
•  The Pretty Blog: This is predominantly a wedding décor website, but this page of free prints would work on the wall, too, as long as you like pastels. 
• Tip Junkie: Life is to be Enjoyed: A cute print of a joyful quote, available in three colors; there are a lot of other printables for all occasions on this site, but this one is most suited for a wall decoration.
•  Taidye's Printables: Really fun and bright prints, most with Bible verses; I really like the Einstein quote one, too, and the one that says, “Rock like Fraggles!”  (Or am I showing my age by knowing what Fraggles are?)  Oh, and the nest one, and…
•  Google Books (Life Magazine): Did you know that Google Books has every issue of Life magazine from 1935 through 1972? And you can print the pages?  A lot of the covers show the major historical events of the twentieth century, and if you’re into a vintage look, the advertisements are almost addicting.  A lot of the appliance advertisements would look adorable in an I-love-Lucy style kitchen, and the car ads with their mountainous backgrounds show a rustic sense of adventure.    
• Graphics Fairy: The Fairy has a plethora of vintage postcards, clip art, backgrounds, pages from old books, and other graphics available; these could be put to a lot of uses if you’re crafty.
•  Scrap Your Trip: SYT is a scrapbook supply site, but they have some incredible 12x12 papers that are beautiful photo prints—check out Italy under International Scrapbooking for some of the best examples.  Besides that, a lot of scrapbook paper has great patterns and colors, and would look great as part of a wall collage.  The paper is of course not free, but for about a dollar you can get a 12x12 print of Venice or the Cliffs of Moher or a Saguaro cactus in the desert, just to name a few.  
• Simple Crafter's Free Wall Art:  To gain access to the printables on this site, you have to register your email address, which is a minor annoyance, but once you do, there’s quite a few word art things to print, including a collection of holiday word collages. 
• The Cheese Thief: This one takes just a bit of work on your part: she offers a template to make an eye-exam chart that you can customize with your name and details. 

I’ve found so many great things this time—I have a feeling I will run out of walls to put them on in my apartment.  I can’t wait to move in!  

Made with Tagxedo, using the words to Freebird

Suitcase Dreaming

Is it weird that I daydream about packing when I’m bored?  Do any other travelers do that?  I mean, I’ve been thinking of my clothes in terms of whether they would make the cut to be put in the suitcase for months.  I’ve been mentally packed since before I signed the contract. 

Now, I’ve got less than two weeks until departure, so all that daydreaming is becoming a reality.  Of course, some items of clothing have fallen out of favor since I first began thinking about it, and several new things have made their way to the top of the list thanks to a little shopping spree at Wal-Mart the other night.  I have to be sure to take the clothes I’ll need, because I am sure not shaped like Chinese women.  If I have to, I could have some things made to fit; there is always a street where you can find excellent tailors, but some things would be a little embarrassing to have done that way. 

 

I had a three-day weekend in early July with no plans, so I drug out the suitcases (nearly two months early).  I sorted through my winter clothes and packed jackets, turtlenecks, and my corduroy  pants.  I chose several of my favorite scarves (you can't even tell there's a dent in the pile still hung over the headboard), and I got together all of my close-toed shoes that I knew I wouldn't wear again before leaving (between May and September, I live in flip-flops).  I've kept one of the suitcases sitting on the couch in my room, so I can toss miscellaneous items in as I think of them. 

 

And now, here I am, a week and a half until time to fly...my last day of work will be Friday, and then I leave the following Wednesday night (well, my flight isn't until 5:30 Thursday morning, but by the time you figure in an hour of drive time, and checking in three hours early, etc. I might as well say Wednesday night).  I'll have five days to finish up repacking what I'm taking and what I'm leaving.

 

I'm known as the master packer in my family; I've lived out of a backpack for weeks at a time, so I've had lots of practice at putting a lot into a small space.  When flying, weight, not space, is my limit; I could fit a lot more into my suitcases, but the darn weight restrictions limit me. 

 

Once I get settled into my new apartment, I guess I'll have to mentally start packing for winter break. 

Superpowers

The conversations we get into at work…Jo started it.  If you could have a superpower, what would be a good thing to have?   Jo’s first thought was to have a new-and-improved Midas touch—the power to turn objects into cash, but only when you mean to do it, to avoid the nasty side effects King Midas suffered from.  Karen protested that Jo had got the best one, but if she had something like that to make some money, she’d like to travel, so the ability to teleport would be useful—she could see a lot of new places if it didn’t take hours to get there. 

Then they turned to me.  While I was thinking, Latasha made the observation that a lot of people think reading minds would be fun, but that it sounded like a terrible superpower to her.   We all agreed with her reasoning—hearing what people deem appropriate to say out loud is bad enough; we certainly don’t want to know the things they filter. 

I finally decided that if we had the Midas touch and could teleport, then we needed the time to do fun and meaningful things with those abilities—so I would have a bewitched-style power of putting things in order: Twitch! The table is cleared.  Twitch! The laundry is in the washing machine.  Twitch! The shower is sparkling.  More time for travel and money-spending!  Latasha one-upped Jo; she said we should just have the power to get what we needed free, and skip the objects-into-money step altogether. 

The big things taken care of, we turned to fun: I would love to fly, but Jo says she’d be terrified to try it.  Powers can fail, she reasoned.  What if somebody showed up with kryptonite?  Reflecting on Karen’s teleportation travel, I added that the ability to pick up languages instantaneously would be quite useful.  Karen agreed with me, and then told us how, as a child in the Philippines, she and her brothers and cousins would play X-Men, and she always wanted to be Storm.  Her favorite part of the game was standing on a stump, hand raised, yelling, “Storm!” to the gathering clouds.

Yup, the conversations that happen at work…so, which of our superpowers would you choose?  Do you have one to add?

Travel Advice: Laos

From Hanoi, I took an overnight bus to Vientiane, Laos.  Red leather reclining seats and all.  You can get a visa for Laos at the border, or at the airport if you fly in to either Vientiane or Luang Prabang. Vientiane, and Laos in general, are so relaxing.  Vietnam has eighty-eight million people; Laos has six. Most of Laos is still jungle. There is no fast food in the country; a whole country without a McDonald’s is a nice change! Even though Vientiane is the capital, it feels like a small town.  There’s the Patuxai monument, and a neighborhood with sophisticated shopping--Gucci, Dolce Gabbana, and such.  There’s several wats, and along the river (forming the border with Thailand; you’d think there’d be a convenient  border crossing here, but in fact, the closest place to cross into Thailand is several miles away), open-air restaurants are set up on the sidewalk nearly every night in good weather.  I had the best barbecue ribs I think I’ve ever had  at a western  restaurant a few blocks away from the river; after you’ve been in China awhile, you really crave barbecue! There’s nothing terribly exciting to do in Vientiane other than eat and wander, but it’s a nice place to take it easy for a couple of days.  

  

The most popular place to visit in Laos is Luang Prabang.  They do have a small airport there, or you can go by land.  The easiest  way by land is a ten-hour bus trip from Vientiane.  The scenery along the way was so good, though, that it didn’t seem long at all.  You pass rice fields, villages of straw huts where naked children bathe by the village pump, and finally wind up into the mountains.  If you are prone to motion sickness, do take some dramamine to Laos.  About half way you pass Vang Vieng, a backpacker town  famous for extreme sports (mountain climbing, rafting, etc.) but I didn’t stop there. Once you arrive at the bus station in Luang Prabang, you can get a little truck that carries six people to take you to Sakkaline Road, which is the main street  off of which there are a lot of hotels and such.  Some of the guesthouses are quite expensive, but if you look online first you should be able to find a simpler place on a side street that is reasonable.  

Luang Prabang itself is surprisingly western for being in the jungle of northern Laos. A lot of its architecture is from when Laos was part of the French colony of Indochina; it’s filled with boutique hotels and western restaurants.  However, it’s a lot of fun, and it’s in a beautiful spot on a peninsula of land where the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers meet.   At night, there’s a huge street market on Sisavangvong Road where you can buy wonderful souvenirs.  If you go down to the very tip of the peninsula and fight your way through the weeds on a little path down to the river bank,  you will find a boy waiting with a boat who will take you across  the Khan for about  5000 kips (very little).   On that side is a village of wooden houses, with a few shops selling  woven  scarves and such.  Not a whole lot to do, but nice just to get into a village area for a bit.   There are several wats and temples in town; definitely spend a bit of time to explore these--they’re absolutely beautiful.  One of them, Wat Xieng Thong, has exterior walls  that are gilded gold, and it was only a block off the main road.  There are several others  that are just as nice along Sakkaline Road and Sisavangvong Road (The same road, really, but the name changes along the way).  My only regret about my time in Luang Prabang is that I didn’t plan time to spend more time in the wats, especially Wat Chom Si, which is up on a hill and has a good view.  Before you enter a temple, you must leave your shoes outside the door.  

Since there are so many wats and monasteries, there are lots of monks, mostly young boys in training.  They all wear bright orange robes and have shaved heads, so they’re easy to pick out.  At a certain time early in the morning, I think around six, the townspeople line the streets and the monks, hundreds of them, file through in a line with their bowls.  The townspeople put sticky rice and other food into their bowls as they pass.  They are used to  foreigners coming out to watch, so long as they are respectful.  The monks are not supposed to talk during the procession, and it’s considered disrespectful to touch the monks or block their path.  

The best thing about Luang Prabang, though, is where you can go from there.  There are elephant sanctuaries in the jungle near town; you can go for an elephant ride or spend the day giving an elephant a bath in the river.  There are several waterfalls; I went to Kuang Si and it was the most beautiful I’ve ever seen; water cascading down a whole series of drops through the jungle; the water was sea green, and there were calmer pools down from the falls where you could swim in the icy cold water; there is a little hut with a couple of stalls for changing in down there.  Along the path to the waterfall you pass a sanctuary for Asiatic Black Bears, better known as moon bears, that have been rescued from poachers  There are villages of ethnic minorities; one sells their own kind of whiskey--each bottle has either a scorpion or a small snake  preserved in it.  It made a good gift  for my brother.  You can buy it at the night market, too.  You can take a long boat across the  Mekong to the Buddha Cave.  There’s plenty of other things, too.  You can rent a scooter for about $25-30  a day and get yourself to some of them, or hire a tuk-tuk if you have a few people to share the fare, or you can join a small group  van trip.  There are several places along the main road that offer these group trips; I took one with only four people.  Visit several and compare what they offer.  These trips are about $40 for a day, but they pack a lot in.    

Leaving Luang Prabang depends on where you’re going next.  Bus to Vientiane if you’re going that way, flights to various places, a boat down the Mekong to Thailand, or, what I did--a twenty-four hour sleeper bus back into China, to Kunming.  Do not take this route if you’re prone to motion sickness.  The first five hours were terrible--winding through and over the mountains on a barely paved road in a large bus, while on a bunk that I couldn’t sit up in.  I just had to hang on tight to the rails to keep from being thrown out of the bunk while  repeating over and over, “I will not be sick, I will  not be sick.”  After those first few hours, though, it was quite comfortable.  But, it makes a great story now!  

Teaching is Worth the Chalk

Three more weeks of work at the bank!  I’m glad to have had a place with First Farmers for the past year and a half, but I’m looking forward to getting back to what I really enjoy doing: teaching.  I’ve tried to do other things in my life, but I keep coming back to the fact that I’m just a born teacher. 

I decided when I was four years old that I would be a teacher someday—at the time, it was because I wanted to get to write on a chalkboard.  Now, that’s the thing I like least about it; chalkboards give me the creeps.  I live in fear of accidentally touching my fingernail to a board.  That reminds me; I need to see if I can find one of those chalk holders that some of my teachers used to write with.  Maybe that would make it a little better!  When I taught in China before, the chalk we were supplied with was brittle; it would break easily if you wrote too enthusiastically.  My students would laugh when I would say, three or four times every class period, “I hate chalk!!”  I’m dreaming of having a classroom with power point capability, but I know not to get my hopes up. 

Travel Advice: Vietnam (Ha Long Bay)

If you go to Vietnam, you need to see more than just the cities.  One of the most famous areas to visit is the beautiful Ha Long Bay.  Search for it in google images and you'll see why.  The easiest way to go is to go with a group from Hanoi; they can book it for you at your hostel.  I don’t normally like group trips, but this one was really good and meant I was able to fit in a lot more activities than I would have on my own.  We spent the night on a boat in the bay, went kayaking, explored a cave, swam from the boat and from the beach on the island, got foot massages, spent a night in beach huts on Monkey Island,  saw a floating city, saw monkeys, ate a lot of prawns, rode bikes or hiked to visit a secret army hospital built in a cave, and enjoyed the scenery. The only precautions I would have are, if you are traveling by yourself, be sure and check if you will get a room to yourself or will be expected to share with someone, and when they tell you that the hike on monkey island to see the monkeys is an easy half-hour stroll, they are lying.  I don’t remember how much the tour cost exactly, but it seems like it might have been around $100 for two days (everything, including food).  The only thing to buy was if you wanted drinks other than water.  Anyhow, it was worth it.  

After Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, many travelers go on to the beaches of South Vietnam; I didn’t have time to do so. But, if you do, I hear they’re really beautiful.  

Sand, Shrimp, and Summer

My mother’s goal in life seems to be to have all four of us in the same room at the same time, which has become increasingly challenging as my brother and I are now adults, and I have this little quirk of moving off to other continents.  So, one last time before I move back to China, she organized a little weekend family trip.

The closest place from middle Tennessee to see sand and waves is the gulf shore of Florida, so we started out at the crack of dawn (or, a little before that, really) Saturday morning for Navarre.  Along the bay, there are several little camping area; the one we stayed at (Navarre Beach Campground)  offered little cabins—there were beds for four, a kitchenette, a bathroom, an a screened in porch with rocking chairs, all just a couple hundred yards from the water.  You can’t beat that for $99 a night! 

The campground was just a little ways down the road from the bridge over to Santa Rosa Island; Santa Rosa is a barrier island that runs for miles along the coast, from Pensacola to Destin. The section of the island at Navarre is dedicated to public beaches (including bath houses, lifeguards, a fishing pier, and lots of Florida’s famous white sand).  The western end of the island is preserved from development as the Gulf Islands National Seashore.  Driving through the state park was probably my favorite part of the trip—white dunes and sea grass on both sides of the car, on a brilliantly sunny day with white fluffy clouds, turquoise waves rolling in from the gulf on one side, and the calmer waters of the bay on the other.  Now and then the dunes are interrupted by scrubby trees and driftwood; we saw a huge heron standing by its nest in the top of a dead tree. 

At the very point of the island is Fort Pickens, which was built in the 1800s to defend the bay at Pensacola.  There’s an eight-dollar-per-car fee to get into the park (good for a week), and once inside you can walk the ramparts and pose for photos with the old cannons.  A museum has been built in the old caretakers’ home.  Fort Pickens was sometimes used to house prisoners; its most famous inmate was the Apache warrior Geronimo, who was held there for a time before being moved permanently to Oklahoma. 

When you’re at the ocean, you have to have seafood; we splurged by going to Flounders’ in Pensacola.  We sat out on the covered deck; although it was a hot day, it was fairly pleasant in the shade with a light breeze coming off of the water.  A live musician was singing mellow classics; everyone clapped the hardest, of course, for anything by Jimmy Buffet.  The deck ended on the sand, where a beach volleyball game was halfheartedly going on, and the bay was just a few steps beyond that.  The fried fish I got was honestly the best fish I’ve ever had, and if I ever go back, I’ll probably get a shrimp basket like my mothers—I tried various things off of it, and particularly enjoyed the grilled shrimp and bell peppers. 

Now, I’m not enough of a beach person to enjoy staying at the coast for a whole week like most of my friends like to do (I get tired of sand in everything very, very quickly), but after a long weekend in the sun I feel like I’ve really had summer. 

Travel Advice: Vietnam (Hanoi)

Chua Tran Quoc

Besides all the great things in China, there are also nearby countries with even more great places to go; my first stop was Vietnam, despite a lot of shocked responses from my parents' generation.  You do have to have a visa to get into Vietnam.  The  way I did it was to go to Nanning, in Guangxi Province--if you’re already going to Yangshuo/Guilin, it’s an easy bus ride from Guilin.  In Nanning, some of the hostels can help you  get a visa.  It is fairly expensive;  it’s about 650 yuan to get it in one day, 550 in two, 400 in three, etc.  Personally, I decided to go ahead and spend the money to get it quicker; I figured I would spend the  difference anyways on lodging and food in Nanning if I waited.  I stayed at the Lotusland Train Station Hostel , and it was amazing.  They were really helpful handling everything with the visa, and the hostel was super clean and brand new.   

From Nanning, you can get a bus to Hanoi.  Here’s a map that shows the hostel  I recommended, the train station, and the bus office where you can buy tickets; you can also ask at your hostel and they can also give you directions on where to go.  

The trip to Hanoi involves one bus to the border, then you get off and go through customs, and then a second bus on to Hanoi.  Watch for the colorful houses in the towns you pass through--from what I understand, homeowners are taxed by the amount of road frontage they own.  So, nearly every house is only about as wide a garage door, but four or five stories tall. The back and sides are plain concrete, but the side facing the road is painted a vibrant color with elaborate balustrades on the balconies.  When I went, the bus did not stop at a station in Hanoi, it stopped just on a road.  There were plenty of taxi drivers around to meet it; be sure and ask about the rates first as some will assume you haven’t figured out the exchange rate yet and try to overcharge you.  If you don’t have Vietnamese currency yet,  the taxi driver will probably be willing to drop you by an atm on the way--more time they can charge you for!

    If you go to Vietnam in the summer, remember that they do have monsoons.  My experience was that it was beautiful all day long, but then about four in the afternoon a cloud would roll in and, for about half an hour, it would rain harder than I’ve ever seen it rain.  Then, it would clear off again and there would be a beautiful evening.  Just be sure to find a place to shelter about that time; an umbrella is not enough.  

Once you get into Hanoi, there are plenty of things to do.  The city is built around several large lakes, so there are nice areas to walk.  The Old Quarter of the city is worth just walking around exploring; it’s a mix of French style (from the French occupation in the 1800s) with Asian chaos.  There are restaurants of every type, and shops selling everything.  I got the best chicken parmesan I’ve ever had at a little Italian bistro on a back street.   Be careful of the traffic though--not many cars, but swarms of motorcycles.  Seriously, at least a hundred at every stoplight.  I got hit by one once--they were going the wrong way down a one-way-street.  So just keep your eyes open.  

You can visit the Hoa Lo Prison (the Hanoi Hilton), where American POWs were held during the Vietnam War, which was really interesting.  There are plenty of signs in English explaining everything, although they do tend to emphasize other periods of the prison’s history that are more flattering to the Vietnamese than just the American part.  

Another major stop is the Ho Chi Minh tomb and house, you can see how the Vietnamese people revere him as a great hero.  There is a grand presidential palace, but he chose to instead live in a simple wooden house on the grounds. Even if you don’t have the time to go in, at least walk by the tomb.  

Several temples are worth visiting; one famous one is the Temple of Literature and National University, but I don’t think I ever made it to that one; I wish I had.  I went to the Ngoc Son Temple, on the Hoan Kiem Lake.  The lake’s name translates as the Lake of the Restored Sword, and it’s famous for its huge turtles--you can see a stuffed one inside the temple.  There’s a little stone tower built on a tiny island in the middle, and I saw some men go out to it on a little boat.  This was a nice area one the edge of  the Old Quarter;  the tourist office is on the roundabout on the north end of the lake; there is a water puppet theater there, also.

Speaking of water puppets, the Thang Long Water Puppet Theater is interesting.  It’s at the north end of Hoan Kiem Lake. While musicians play traditional music, elaborate puppets act out  historical tales and legends in a pool of water with a colorful backdrop.  It was worth watching even though I, of course, didn’t know the tales.  However, half an hour of it would have been enough, but it went on for over an hour.  And fair warning, the seats are really cramped.  REALLY cramped.  I’m 5’7” and I was literally wedged in a seat; I couldn’t move my legs without standing up.  Try and see if you can get an aisle seat if you’re taller.  Altogether, I wouldn’t  arrange my plans around it, but it’s an enjoyable activity for the late evening once it’s too dark to sightsee, if you have the time.  I suppose you could go, and if you get tired, leave at intermission.  Sometimes it sells out, so It’s a good idea to drop by the box office earlier in the day and buy tickets. 

Also near the lake is St. Joseph’s cathedral, if you’re looking to step into Europe for a moment.  One Sunday night I walked past during the mass time; it was so crowded inside that no more could fit, so the square in front of it was full of people sitting on their motorcycles listening.  It was like a drive-in mass...Just across the road and down  a bit is the hostel I stayed in, the Central Backpackers hostel.  It was a good area to stay, within walking distance of several of the major things; several of the most popular hostels are in this area.    

Another really nice place to visit is Chua Tran Quoc.  It’s located on a narrow strip of land (Thanh Nien Road) separating two lakes; the one on the left is the huge West Lake.  There’s an ancient temple, and a beautiful pagoda built in the 6th century.  It’s a nice place to escape the craziness of the city, and it’s also a nice place to see the sun set over the lake.  

Food Adventures (ITC Week 29)

What do you splurge on when you travel?  What’s one thing that you are willing to spend more on while traveling? Why?

 

I am generally a cheap traveler; the less you spend each day, the more days your cash will last. I stay in hostels, use budget airlines, and I have often carried a jar of peanut butter and a squashed loaf of bread in my backpack so I don’t have to eat out every meal.  However, there are some things that are worth budgeting in; after all, I don’t want to be so cheap that I miss what I came for. 

Meat, gravy, and knedliky in the Czech Republic

The first thing that comes to mind is local food: you’ve got to get lasagna in Italy, sausages in Germany, and barbecue and my mom’s chocolate gravy in Tennessee (not together, of course).  You’ve got to get shrimp within view of the ocean, and waffles in Belgium (which, by the way, are much better than what we call ‘Belgian waffles’ in the States—crunchy, sticky, sugar coated!).  And then of course, sometimes you’ve got to get Chicken Parmesan in Hanoi and Turkish kebabs in Krakow. 

As I’m still trying to outlive my reputation as a picky eater (well-deserved) as a child, I have tried over the past few years to be adventurous and have at least one meal of traditional local food you can’t get elsewhere in each country.  I stopped at a diner in Jičín, in the Czech Republic, and had their roast meat and knedliky (sliced dumplings), all smothered in gravy.  I ate the official food of the Dragon Boat festival in China, glutinous rice wrapped in tea leaves, when my students offered me one (and I managed to keep smiling and chewing while they were looking, and deposit the rest in the bushes when they weren’t). 

Glutinous rice wrapped in tea leaves

When I traveled with my study abroad group in college, we would live on baguettes, fruit, and chocolate bars for most meals so that we could splurge on Hard Rock in every city.  I’ve kept up a similar philosophy over the years; it’s worth a few peanut-butter sandwiches to afford a nicer meal that will be part of my memory of the place.  Sometimes it’s trying the local food, and sometimes it’s getting some good Italian or American food—as an expat, finding an Italian restaurant that, on the inside, looked like you could be on a side street in Rome, next to my hostel in Shanghai seemed heaven-sent after months of nothing but Chinese.  And then, sometimes I find it entertaining to eat something wholly out-of-place—how are the Polish people at cooking Italian?  (Not great).  How are Germans at Tex-Mex? (again, not so great).  But the Vietnamese can sure handle Italian! 

A dish of stewed potatoes and beef at a banquet in China

Travel Advice in China: Guangxi Province (Part 2)

Part 2: Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces

If you go north from Guilin a couple of hours, you can  hike through the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces.  The first step is to take a bus to Longsheng (the town’s name means  Dragon Victory, from an old folk tale about a battle between the good Dragon and evil Tiger); there are a few run-down hotels there if necessary, with different prices depending on if you want  air conditioning or just a fan.  From the bus station, you can take a bus out to the rice terraces; you can start hiking from either end, at Ping’an or Dazhai.  The hike is supposed to take about ten hours; I took a little bit longer as I stopped to take pictures constantly, but that’s a pretty good average.  The hike is not too strenuous, just long; I don’t remember having any trouble even though I'm not very athletic. There are plenty of places to stay if needed in Ping’an and Dazhai, as well as a larger village an hour or two hike from Dazhai.  I paid a  hotel in  Ping’an to hold my large backpack for me, and just took a day bag; when I got to Dazhai I took a bus back to Ping’an to retrieve my things.  

I had to break my trip somewhere in the middle because of a thunderstorm, but I didn't have any trouble finding food and a place to stay in a random little village there.  In fact, it was one of the highlights of the trip, staying with a local family in their wooden house with the fire in the middle of the floor and the nearest designated 'bathroom' (hole in the ground) three houses away in between pig pens.  They didn't speak much English, but we used charades, and I got along pretty well with their little boy as we drew pictures together.  Many local villagers are more than happy to feed or house a traveler; it's a great way to earn some extra cash.  I think she asked about sixty yuan for a night's lodging and two meals.  Just be careful of the local liquor they'll probably offer you; it's strong stuff!

The people who live in the rice terraces are mostly minority tribes; one group is often referred to as the 'tribe of the long-haired ladies'.  These women never cut their hair; most have hair at least to their waist if not all the way to the ground.  They wear it wound into a bit knot just over their foreheads; some of the older women still wear the traditional clothing as well: a knee-length black skirt (long dresses were impractical if you worked in a rice paddy), intricately embroidered belt, and a colorful jacket, usually pink or purple.  Of course, many still wear it because they can get donations from hikers who want to take photos of them.  Some will ask for four or five yuan, and then they will take down their hair and show how long it is, and how they wind it up.

The rice terraces themselves are a fantastic landscape; the people in these mountains have no flat land to raise crops, so they have survived for centuries by terracing all the way up these steep hills and raising rice.  The villages along the way are all made up of large wooden houses that look a bit like barns, tucked into the ravines where it's to steep to even terrace.  Anywhere it's too steep to farm along the path, there were tombs built into hillsides where the families of the villagers are buried.  There are little shelters built in a few places along the path, where both hikers and local porters can stop and rest in the shade.

Be sure and take an extra water bottle and some snacks in your bag; there were often long stretches between villages large enough to offer things for sale. Here's more information.