Tibet

Traveling to Tibet we took the route by air, choosing to go part of the way back by train. We had heard that the scenery on the train was quite good and it would be pretty cool to ride on THE HIGHEST train line in the world, but the ride itself was more than 24 hours. So, we flew in. 

The first day of course we were thinking about the altitude. At nearly 4000m it was roughly the height of Mt. Fuji, or much of the Rocky mountain’s taller peaks. We could feel it pretty much right away as it was a bit hard to breathe. The first afternoon/evening we had no plan, so we walked around the neighborhood at the speed of a geriatric, breathing heavily and dragging our feet. Over the next few days we felt better, but the few days we were there were not enough to totally adjust and so we constantly had a short of breathe, slight headache feeling which made it hard to do much physically or to sleep well. 

    

The second day we visited two temples and that took up much of our day. We we were accompanied by not only our guide but a couple from Sydney. It was nice to have them along as the husband had a good knowledge of Buddhism and had a lot of good questions to ask as we toured the temple. Of course, as will happen with anything you are unfamiliar with, especially when the names/places are in a different language, just about everything went over our heads and didn’t stick. We were often asking the same things the guide had explained earlier or generalizing information. I feel bad for the guide and it is certainly not a job I would ever want to repeat things over and over! Then again, I'm a teacher so... maybe. 

After lunch we watched as some of the younger monks had a “debate”. It was interesting as they were all speaking at the same time, but of course we had no idea what they were talking about. Our guide told us they were debating buddhist teachings, but they could just be telling each other off, as I suspect some of them were based on their facial and hand expressions. 

Perhaps because of the heat and/or the altitude and/or the time spent walking we were beat by 5pm. We decided that since we were already out we would grab dinner and then head back. As we were on the 3rd floor of the restaurant we could see many of the surrounding rooftops, including the one where there were police literally hanging off the side of the roof watching the street below. This would become a familiar sight over the next few days as we crossed check points and passed armed patrols. 

A big question in itself, Tibet’s autonomy from the Chinese government is basically nil. Since 2008 when there was an uprising across Tibet against government forces, there has been a largely increased presence of Chinese forces in Tibet and a much more restrictive atmosphere. Part of this also has to do with the Dalai Lama as he fled to India in 1959 and lives there still, in opposition to the Chinese government in Tibet. Nowhere did we see pictures or mention of the current Dalai Lama, but people do say his number in the line of succession. 

The following day we were on our own with the guide and we visited Jekhon temple in the center of Lhasa. We had passed by there a couple of times already as it is in the heart of the city and the touristy area. As we arrived in the morning there were many people outside doing their adulation. They would basically do a burpee without the jumping. Our guide told us that they do 100 of these, then take a break for tea or whatever. Inside the temple the crowds were thick, but none thicker than when we were right in front of the statue of Sakyamuni buhhda, which was brought to Lhasa by a Chinese princess. People were wishing to pray to it, I didn’t care, but that is the route. I tried to just walk by as fast as I could, which is to say at standing pace since the people in front of me weren’t moving. To get my attention, as obviously I wasn’t moving fast enough, the crowds behind me kept pushing me. I did, oddly, receive a couple jabs and pushes in this and other temples from pilgrims. I bet they are kind of tired of tourists just hanging out and blocking their way, but I am pretty conscious of keeping out of pathways. I think maybe I was just a target for mild aggression.

After this encounter we had a quick coffee at KFC and then headed to the Potala palace. This beautiful building was home to the Dalai lamas from the 5th all the way to the 13th, the one that escaped to Tibet. It is a huge place, but so are the crowds that wish to see it, so we were given one hour for our guide to whisk us through the place and see this and that room. Apparently there are 999 rooms, but I don’t think we saw all of them, just 998. Kidding aside, it felt that way as we walked hurriedly from place to place.

The following day we were packing off to the train station and taking the highest altitude track from Tibet to Xining. You can take a train all the way to Beijing, but it takes about 48 hours and we thought that 24 hours on the train would be plenty to see the best sites. Many people take the train ride the other way, to acclimatize, but our schedule dictated the other way and probably as a consequence of that we did not encounter many western tourists or tourists in general. The train trip had some quite beautiful parts and here and there we did see some wildlife along the tracks. Again though, I was struck by China’s grip as especially leaving Lhasa and then every couple of miles or so along the track there would be a lone outpost of a police or guard sentry, sometimes saluting as the train went past. Who or what were these people keeping the train safe from? 

Back to Penang

After our visit to Chiang Mai we returned to our former island home of Penang to visit with old friends and see old haunts. It was kind of a good feeling coming back, though after a day with the heat we remembered how much we disliked the sticky humidity.

This time around we spent a few days in Batu Ferringhi, where we used to live, and then a few days downtown. Those days downtown certainly have a different feeling than the beach community in Batu and made us think that perhaps if we had lived in Georgetown when we lived there our feelings about Penang would have been different. 

Back in Batu we spent a day running the aquaduct, going to the Spice Farm, and evenings at Long Beach hawkers market. All things were nice and food delicious, but we did have a run in with that old "wtf Malaysia" feeling at the Spice Farm as they tried to cheat one of our friends out of 500usd.

 The scam was this; When walking the Spice Garden you are given a small device to play at each numbered station to tell you what spice you are looking at. Our group of 4 had two English, 1 Chinese and 1 Japanese language device. After two hours walking around the garden we returned our devices and headed to the adjacent gift shop. It was at this time that an employ came and asked a few times, to our Chinese friend, if she had broken her device. She denied it and the rest of us agreed as none of us had seen her doing anything that would damage the device nor noticed damage ourselves. The employee went away, but then as we were leaving we were confronted again, this time by the manager and two employees who demanded we pay 500usd for the device we'd broken. The device was clearly cracked, liked clearly, and there was no way our friend or the rest of us wouldn't have noticed if they gave it to us broken. What we suspect is that they had a device that was broken and waited until a chinese person came along (numerous reasons why they choose chinese). They tried negotiating with us for a lower fee, then tried to say we had to pay and that they were being truthful. Well, in the end none of it mattered. Even if we did break the device, there was no contract or waiver saying we were responsible for the device (certainly if it was worth 500usd there would be) We didn't pay but having people argue and try to cheat you doesn't lead to a wellspring of good feelings and so we decided that was enough for the day. We went back to the hotel, showered up and headed out for dinner, sunset, and beers.

 The last few days we spent bumming around Georgetown, gift shopping for a friend, doing laundry, and meeting up with an old colleague/friend of ours. 

By this point we had remembered that you can't really go out from 11am to 4pm and so we had a routine of walking, napping, and then heading out for dinner. All in all, it was a relaxing time and I'm very glad we went back again. 

"Wat" is going on in Chiang Mai

Having been through Thailand a few times, mostly in Bangkok, we decided to take a different path. A few people that we know had talked about Chiang Mai, Thailands northern and former capital as being a very relaxed place. Like much of Thailand, I think, this turned out to be true. We spent a few sleepy days here going to wats and temples, night markets, and just generally walking about.

Many of the wats here, especially Chedi Luang, Suan Dok, and Chiang Mang were really beautiful. It is hard for my very poor photography skills to capture how massive and ornate the halls were. Throughout the city of Chiang Mai and especially in the old walled city there were many wats and temples to visit. While I loved visiting these places there was one thing I found rather odd. There were a number of places that had statues of monks in or around the temples and halls. That is fine and all, but these were quite lifelike and individualized statues. The first few times I encountered them I thought they might be real as, you know, monks sometimes don't move very much. 

NOT my photos btw:

After a long (not really) day of walking around to temples we watched the sunset by the river and, of course, I had a nice big bottle of Singha to wash down dinner. 

Muay Thai

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Knowing that we would be in Thailand I decided that I was going to watch Muay Thai. Having lived in Malaysia and travelled through Thailand a few times I was curious to see a match as I had often seen posters or heard other traveler’s stories of what the fights were like.

In order to get a good seat bought tickets online(from Thaepe) in advance. While it wasn’t needed to secure a seat, as the place was about ½ full of patrons, it was a little bit cheaper. On the fight bill for the night there were 6 different fights. First, the kids rounds. Yes, kids. Ok, they weren’t toddlers or anything, but still I’d guess the boys we saw first were maybe 10 or 11 years old. They fought pretty intensely and their parents were in the corners cheering them on.

After the kids rounds were over next came the girls, then the women (with a fighter from Singapore) and finally the men. You could definitely see the fighting skill getting progressively better as the fights went on.

The whole event was pretty interesting. We arrived just before 8pm, when the fights were scheduled to start. That was way too early. There were a few other patrons, but mostly we sat there, sipping beers and talking to the dog in front of us until around 9pm when the child fighters started to arrive. 

Every fight prior to engaging the fighters had a ritual in the ring, a wai kru. Then they removed their mongkhon, or headband, had a final rub/slap from the trainer and walked to the center to have the ref speak to them before engaging. 

Rounds felt short (a couple minutes?), but you could see how intense the stamina needed for fights like this. It brought me back to my days in Japan doing aikido when we had to do routines for passing level tests, though I’m sure this was much harder never mind all the punches and kicks along the way. Fighters have a kind of kick boxing style, but use elbows, shins, fist, feet, etc. All 8 arms as they say (what are the other 4? No idea!) The main fights were around 10pm and by 11pm the whole show was over and we said goodbye to the dog and walked back to our hotel. A great experience.

The New Year and the Past Year

So, another new year has some and the old has past. I feel a bit like I've shed an old skin to become shiny and new again as I enter a dry January. Reflecting on the year I did a number of fun things and overall it was a pretty good year with mostly successes and forward movement, but most importantly joy in family and friends.

The year started off with Aya and her family in Japan, chilling with my niece and nephew and playing in the snow as well as drinking sake' with the uncles at night. A pretty good start. In the spring we travelled again, to Macau, to meet up with some old friends and revisit a city we had been to about a decade before. It was cool to be back again and regain some of those old memories as well as do some new exploring.
In the summer I was back to Wisconsin to see family, which is always great, but also got to meet up with all of my old gang from high school, which was very cool. It only took a few minutes of knocking back beers before we were laughing at each other just like old times. It was really great to see what has become of everyone and know that they are all doing well and happy. I really hope that happens again soon as it hadn't happened for all of us at one time since our early 20's.

It was also in the summer that I travelled to Puerto Rico to volunteer with All Hands and then on to Seattle to train with Global Online Academy. Puerto Rico was, in many ways, heartbreaking. It was hard to be working in places that people were really hurt by the storm and it was hard to see the suffering of some people in Puerto Rico while on the mainland people had mostly forgotten that there was anything happening there. Going to Seattle my heart was heavy, but was soon lifted by the spirits of about 75 teachers from around the US and the world meeting in the beautiful woods of Bainbridge island to discuss teaching strategies and build towards this year's classes. My heart was heavy again as I then flew back to Wisconsin, saying goodbye to my mother, and flew on to Beijing. I'm always happy to be "home" and get back to work, but Beijing in the summer is not my favorite place.
In the fall I added a new country to my list, Bhutan, and now I've travelled to 41! A far cry from the 193 recognized countries of the world, but eh, not bad I think. Bhutan has been on our list for a long time and this year we had the opportunity to join up with some friends to make the trip. It did not disappoint in terms of what I thought the country would be like. People were quite friendly, life was pretty chill.
At the end of the year we travelled to Chiang Mai and then Penang, the latter to see some old friends and return to our island home to visit some of our old haunts. It was nice for a few days, but we were quickly reminded of how much we didn't enjoy the heat or the inefficient institutions that seem to run Malaysia and were, once again, happy to be back home in Beijing after.

Work has also been good. I've continued working with ISB and GOA and have done part time work for the IB and SAT/ACT testing, so I've really been keeping busy. This next year we are looking forward to a change of pace as we have accepted a position in Warsaw. This means of course that ISB will end and unfortunately GOA will too as I can't continue with them at a non-member school (but hopefully I convince ASW to become a member school). The change in pace of life will be something we both will have to get used to, but we are looking forward to potentially taking more time outside and being more active as Warsaw seems less polluted, less crowded, and closer to a lot of places we'd like to see by car, bus, or train (or maybe even some short plane rides, like to see Hans and Kathy in Germany).
Socially, life has been good as we have a nice small group of friends here and I think we are both happy with the level of engagement we have, thought perhaps we would like to see family a bit more. Maybe my mom or dad will make the trip to Asia before we leave or, Poland. Poland is closer, mom, if you're reading this!
We are happy, and healthy, getting older, but keeping pace by continuing to stay active and, increasingly, being careful of our diets. With our family genes we should be good to go for some time. Aya has kept sharp by continuing to learn Chinese and now, Polish. I've kept sharp with work mostly, but did manage to get through about 40 books this year. I was thinking the other day of when I will hit a million pages, but I don't think I will get there until my 40's. Always good to have goals. :)

Happy, healthy, entertained and well employed. Here is to 2018 and a new year to come! Hopefully I will see some of you "out there".