On the Silk Road

Uncle Mark looks happy on top of this sand dune. He was less so at a different desert a few days before, when he wiped out on a sand board and tumbled 5 times. I, of course, was laughing my ass off, and even captured the moment on my camera as a short film.

Knowing that Marco Polo ate the same sand when he passed along the same route some 750 years ago makes Mark feel better. His passion for following historical journeys is rubbing off on me.

We are following the China side of the 7000 mile long ancient Silk Road, which ran all the way to Rome. It finally got put out of business in the 15th century by the popularization of overseas trade and increasingly dangerous overland traveling conditions.

Apparently, Marco Polo was one of the few to traverse all of it. Chinese monks also got pretty far. They went deep into India and brought back Buddhism to China. Most of the Silk Road relics we've seen have been Buddhist wall paintings and sculptures, funded mostly by rich silk road merchants and preserved only because they were sealed inside dark caves situated in a dry desert climate.

We are in Turpan right now, a city in China's most northwestern province, Xinjiang. Its an ugly city, except for the beautiful grape vines strung up everywhere that provide much needed shade. Turpan gets really hot in the summer, despite its high longitude, because its the second lowest place in the world after the dead sea at -154 meters. Diarrhea and sandstorms have kept us here a few days longer than expected. "Probably the same thing that would have delayed Marco Polo," Mark cheerily remarked.

During the time of Silk Road this area was not Chinese territory, and I can see why. When we passed the western most point of the Great Wall, the land immediately turned undesirable: dry, sandy, bare, and mountainous. Nomad land.

China annexed Xinjiang about 50 years ago around the time the People's Republic of China was formed. Since then loads of Han Chinese (China's ethnic majority) have gentrified the area, but the dominant ethnic group is still the Muslim Uighur people, who settled here in the 9th century.

When asking local Han Chinese about their presence here, they feel strongly that they are bringing civilization to a dirty, undeveloped land by building new buildings and providing jobs. Look around on the ground, though, and you can see the real reason the Chinese government wants to "civilize" Xinjiang. The desolate roadsides are filled with oil rigs.

America isn't the only one.

The Uighur driver who toured us around the area for 3 days is angry about the oil. He kept saying, "Shanghai needs oil and we need water. Why can't they send us water." He also pointed out that oil is the blood of Xinjiang, and worried what would happen when China sucked all of its blood dry.

Ironically, we communicated in Chinese. That's how he was able to get our business in the first place. He picked up the language while he was employed by a Chinese oil company for 20 years. I never asked him what he thought he'd be without his colonizer.

Beijing

It feels so good to be back in China. English got me around fine in South East Asia, but i hated to miss out on all the little details you only pick up on, and all the shortcuts you only get to take, when you know some of the local language.

I went back to Beijing to meet up with two high school friends, Tracey and Lauren, who were finishing up a 10 day China tour, and to meet my cousin Mark to embark on our Silk Road trip. In the meantime, I also managed to squeeze in what i see as a major historic event: China's biggest rock concert ever.

The concert knocked me on my ass, literally. The mosh pits were outrageous. I even crowd surfed. People watching was as it best. Loads of kids were walking around with huge mohawks and all sorts of other outrageous costumes.

The concert occurred during a week long holiday and it was super cheap, so loads of young Chinese students were able to attend. It went on four days in a row and it was outside, both major firsts for China. This was the concert's 8th year, and every year attendance grows exponentially.

What's interesting is that there are a lot of things you can only get away with at a long rock concert, especially if your a Chinese student, used to living in 8 person same sex dorm rooms: you can get really drunk over and over, you can have sex in a tent, you can smash into people in a mosh pit, you can meet a bunch of a people that are just like you, and you can discover a lot of inspiring music. All that is a recipe for newfound personal confidence and exploration, as well as a great way to blow of steam.

I was also interested to see the number of foreign kids walking around chattin' it up with their Chinese friends having regular conversations in Chinese. I hardly ever saw that 3 years ago. I even had a normal conversation of my own when catching a mini-van with some other Chinese teenagers back to the subway. We chatted about the bands we liked and not one of them asked the typical, slightly awkward, "How long have you learned Chinese," "Where are you from," type questions. I felt like i was talking with Europeans.

Things are changing fast here, and it is just so interesting to wach.

HK, Cambodia, Vietnam

In mid April, Dad came came over for a ten day, three part
Asia Trip to Hong Kong (to meet Carmen's family and see where I'll be situated next), Siem Riep, Cambodia (The home of the largest Hindu temple in the world, Ankor Wat) and Hanoi, Vietnam (another booming Asian country, startlingly similar to China.)

After one jet lag recovery night in HK, we flew to Siem Riep and eased into a really nice luxury hotel my buddy recommended. The place was probably a little more romantic than what we really needed, what with loads of aromatherapy oil burners everywhere, and mostly couples walking around hand in hand, but it was still the best hotel i've ever been to.

Tourism in the area is built almost entirely around the ancient ruins of Angkor, one of the most important archaeological sites in South-East Asia - mostly temples. Ankor Wat is the biggest temple, but i preferred the small ones deep in the forest that have giant trees growing into them, like the one you see behind my dad in the picture.

One thing which struck me was that there were loads of Chinese mainland people in Siem Riep, both travelers and business people. An Australian guy i spoke with while getting a foot massage at a Chinese run massage parlor mentioned he was starting a travel website directed towards Chinese mainland travelers because they are really starting to travel now and the market for it will be huge.

Then we went to Hanoi, Vietnam, and more things related to China appeared. Both are Communist countries, both of their legendary communist leaders died about 35 years ago, their economies are booming (Vietnam's stock grew faster than any other last year with more than 100% growth); even the languages are remarkably similar. Words like flower, man and woman sound almost the same. This makes a lot of sense, because China tried to colonize Vietnam many times over until the 1800s. Then the French came in, leaving modern Hanoi with loads of balconies and other french architecture, as well as good coffee, chocolate, and bread. The Americans didn't leave much and luckily didn't engender very much long term hate. In fact, Vietnam feels very peaceful and filled with entrepreneurial spirit, and the three groups its probably trading with the most right now are its former colonizers.

The last stop was Hong Kong, a mega city which felt much more difficult to explore just because of its size, and definitely not because of its transportation system, which is state of the art: a team of double decker buses, minibuses, and a brilliantly designed subway system. All of which run frequently, till late at night for cheap. We got to the beach from the center of the city in 30 min for $2. Saw a few other things as well, but i was so hypnotized by the size of the place i hardly remember it. Really looking forward to figuring out HK eventually.

All in all, a perfectly timed trip to three really interesting spots in the world. Oh, and the family meeting went pretty well. Dad and Carmen's mom weren't able to engage very much because of the language barrier, but everyone still had a good time.

Bangkok and Laos

In the last few weeks I've been in Bangkok and Laos and occurrences in both places juxtaposed together really messed with my head, in a good way.

The real highlight came in Bangkok. I met a Chinese Qi Gong master that can generate electricity through his finger tips, and he used his talent to reorder the qi in my body. No joke, he literally had me step on a wet towel, dipped his finger in water, and then wherever he touched my skin, an electrical charge would run into me. My buddy Ryan who was also there had the same thing done. He kept his eyes closed and said when the guy touched his temples he actually saw an electrical current. The Qi Gong master was introduced to us via my boss' wife.

For the rest of the day Ryan and I walked around starry eyed trying to process what just happened. The experience, more than anything else that has ever happened to me, questioned my fundamental view of what is and what is not possible on this earth. An added twist is that this technique is actually a supposed cancer treatment.

I'm so glad I had the memory of this experience floating around in my head when i went to Laos a few days later. I did a trek in the countryside for three days and saw rural life up close. (i.e. kids walking around holding roosters). The experience was a bit weird because the tourism felt quite voyeuristic. Our guides did speak the local language, but the they didn't really talk to anyone. We mostly just walked around the village and took pictures while kids laughed and parents stared. In the evenings we even went to the water hole with everyone else to bathe (everyone bathed together, but everyone was mostly covered).

What affected me the most was the way the people so resembled the domesticated animals wandering around the village. I started thinking about it when i heard a child making perfect bird calls. And then i thought about it again as I watched villagers of all ages cross streams and climb rocks with outrageous dexterity. A log that took me 15 seconds to slowly hop across took the kids 2 seconds. Plus, like the animals, everyone just walked around, sat a bit, and walked around a bit, not really talking that much.

It got me thinking, what it actually going on inside there minds. Do they have other special abilities that the modern person just doesn't?

With that question in mind, I happened to pull a book out of my pack that i'd been meaning to read for a while about speaking to the dead. Most of the ideas in the book were too far fetched for me to digest (detailed descriptions about what the life of the dead is really like) but i did stop and consider the books basic thesis: modern people have forgotten how to connect to the spiritual side of life because we have become obsessed with material things. As such, we spend our days feeding our desires instead of connecting to spiritual side of life.

I like the thesis b/c it attacks science, the creator of technology and all the stuff that follows. Usually we think about science helping us determine true from false, but what if science itself is actually leading us astray by giving us so much stuff in the process that we get distracted and never learn how to connect with god, whatever that means.

The point hit home because i think that's why i was so starry eyed in Bangkok. Science had told me that shooting electricity from your fingertips was impossible, and there science was, being disproved right in front of my eyes. In Laos, it wasn't like the abilities of the villagers was earth shattering, but it was a reminder that one's way of life largely shapes skills and abilities, leaving me wondering what I am personally actually capable of. I guess at the bottom of all this, there is the question, am I capable of healing myself?

I imagine my oncologist would caution me against duping myself. He doesn't even think a healthy diet really has much effect on cancer treatment, so i imagine simply willing it through meditation or whatever is even more far fetched from his perspective. But after seeing science disproved in front of my eyes, I am more hopeful, or at least a little less likely to take my doctor's point of view so seriously.

Apparently the Qi Gong master acquired his x-men like skills by gaining control over his body through meditation. His two kids are already on their way. When entered his house, the two 7 year olds were sitting on the floor in meditation, unperturbed by our arrival. It's high time I take the time to do a little more meditationme myself. If it can give me healing powers that's ideal, but at the very least I'm convinced from this experience that I'm not seeing the whole picture. As such, i thinking turning off my mind, rather than filling it up, seems like an avenue i should explore further.

NW Thailand

Somehow I ended up in Northern Thailand this week. Didn't want to go into the Laos jungles without malaria pills, so at the last minute i split ways with my friends and popped down to northern Thailand b/c the meds were supposedly available. I procured some.

One guy i met in Thailand said your more likely to get hit by a bus than get malaria. More dangerous really that anything else is that anyone can rent a motor bike for $5 a day, and most people ride one cause its not easy to get around otherwise. I've had two minor crashes already. The pic above not only shows off my loose fitting hippie pants, but if you look carefully you can see one gash on my left foot and two on the right.

Originally I didn't know about the motor bikes, or really anything else for that matter. Not like China, where I've pretty much got things worked out. Thailand is really east to get around with just English and transport back and forth is easy arranged even in little towns, but I was definitely disoriented as to what to do with myself when i first arrived.

I've spent most of my time in a little town called Pai, about 4 hrs from Chiang Mai, which is the big city in NW Thailand that I flew into. Pai is one of those places that Lonely Planets highlights on the map as a place to relax with a bunch of other foreigners. Lots of dreadlocks, and a waterfall, and tons of guest houses where you can order fruit juice, burgers, Thai food, nachos, etc, all from a hammock.

It's pretty close to Burma. Some of the villagers outside the town are Burmese immigrants. Some have tattoos on their faces. Apparently many are also drug dealers. In previous years the government has been lax on drugs, which is partly why Pai has become so popular amongst the traveling crowd. But now the government is cracking down hard. One guy told me that the army has even forced impromptu piss tests for the villagers and shot dead anyone that failed. Foreigners are getting full body searches. Such violence is in total contrast to the rest of the vibe in Thailand. There is a gentleness here that you rarely see in China.

Taking a 16 hr bus to Bangkok in a few hours to sort out my China visa and visit with friends for the weekend. Then up to Laos to meet back up with the folks i parted with in China.

NW Yunnan

I have been in NW Yunnan for the last two weeks. Highlights include Tiger Leaping Gorge (pictured), traveling with Carmen (she's now back in HK job hunting), snowboarding near Tibet, and donating books and computers to two needy schools. Consequently, I am totally exhausted.

Carmen and I left for Lijiang, Yunnan on March 9. Everyone else from my company came on March 15. In the meantime I made sure our plans for the company charity trip were in order. This was the second to last work related thing I had left to do.

Hehe, Carmen was a good sport to help go along with my investigations for the company trip. The company would have one full day to make donations and one full day to play, so i wanted to make sure the play day was a success.
My buddy recommended Tiger Leaping Gorge, and it ended up being awesome for everyone, but only because Carmen and I discovered the wrong way to hike 2 hours down into the Gorge during our investigatory trip. After getting all the way down a ridiculously scary path thinking it was the only way down, I got suspicious when an old local women told me that the spot down the river with a bunch of people wasn't worth checking out. That was right after she charged me a few bucks to cross a bridge that apparently her family members had made. We decided to check it out anyway, and ended up finding a much easier and actually more beautiful way up that everyone would be able to do.

With that and a bunch of other logistical stuff nailed down, Carmen and went south to a town called Dali about 4 hours away from Lijiang to relax. We did a cool horseback up the mountain (Carmen's first ever), had the best massages ever (and we are experienced), and chilled a lot in the western cafes that randomly pepper the town.

On the way back to meet all my co-workers we almost got stuck because all the bus drivers in Dali suddenly went on strike, something you hardly ever see happen in China. Despite having to spend loads of cash to convince someone to drive us back, the driver ended up being really amiable so it was worth it. He told us all about his recent 45 day road trip all around China with his wife and another couple, and also took us to a small town to see these old houses that are built around springs. We ate seaweed soup, with seaweed plucked right in front of our eyes from the the little spring pond.

The company trip was a big success. No one got hurt on the hike (for some reason nearly everyone opted to take the hard way back despite my warnings) and our donation at the two schools went really well. We drove along a ridiculously bumpy path to get the schools and our bus drivers were pissed, but in the end it was great to see all the happy kids.

Everyone left on Sunday, March 18, except for a few of us. We headed north to near the Tibetan border to do one last project for work. Our company does some economic development work, and we were asked by an international NGO to help convince the local government to develop in a more environmentally friendly way. The meeting went well, despite the fact that we stayed up late the night before to get prepared. And then the government officials decided to spoil us by taking us to their unfinished ski resort (the first in western China). Since the lifts weren't ready, we got taken up on jet skis. There was only 1 run, but there are plans to have 13 chair lifts and 22 runs in the future. The construction manager at the ski resort was probably to coolest looking Chinese guy i'd ever seen: young, with perfect black hair, a deep voice, and great looking sunglasses. We convinced him he should start to learn how to snowboard.

Latter I heard another side of the story from a friend who does environmental protection work in Yunnan who had been at the ski resort weeks earlier. Apparently a ton of villagers are getting moved off the land to make space for it. It's a tough thing. It's definitely better than mining, and its the government's own project so presumably it should help them raise money for local spending, but then again this development is aggravating the area's already significant deforestation problem and loads of tourists brought in by this development could further the gentrification that's already happening. I for one will be back next winter to snowboard so....

Currently I am hanging with my college buddy Ben and his girlfriend, at a friend's house in central Yunnan. We have decided to head to southern Yunnan in a few days, and then go into Laos. I'm in the process of sorting out malaria medication. Getting excited about the jungle.

Asia Trek Overview

I left Shanghai at the end of February. I'll settle down again in August, in Hong Kong with Carmen, where I'll be working the same job and finally start learning Cantonese.

In the meantime, I've got quite a trip planned. In March, I'll be in Yunnan, which is in SW China, right next to Tibet and South East Asia. It supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. First off I'll be in the NW with all my co-workers from both the Shanghai and Thailand office (30+ people) for a company trip and we're also gonna make some donations to local schools. Then I'll be meeting up with my college buddy, Ben Morse, and his girlfriend to travel for a few weeks.

April is a bit fuzzy. I might be back in Shanghai for the tea harvest. The Ian Hanks Charity foundation might also be making its first donation then. More on that later.

Mid April I'll be with my dad in Hong Kong, Hanoi and Anker Wat and then near the end of the month I'll be up in Beijing China meeting up with high school friends Tracey and Lauren.

The first week of May is a week long holiday in China so a bunch of my friends will be traveling. I might stay in Beijing for a huge, outside, 3 day rock concert.

The rest of May I plan to be with my cousin Mark trekking along the silk road from Xian (China's Ancient Capital) to Kashgar, in the very NW corner of China. Then back to Hong Kong (you'll notice I'm doing some ridiculous zigzagging...) by mid June where I'll be meeting up with my good college buddy, Ethan.

I'm gonna propose to him that we loosely follow China's ancient tea route from Yunnan to Tibet, with a few stops along the way, some of which I'll have been too by that point, and to some new unexplored spots.

Then back to the US for most of July with a plan to settle in HK around Aug 1.

Gonna be so rad. Get ready for some sweet photos.