I am not alone

When I told people I was traveling alone, I got a lot of worried reactions. "Will you be safe, a solo female traveler? Won't you get lonely?" After almost two months, the verdict is YES and NO.

As it turns out, I'm almost never alone. I was for a handful of scattered days in China, broken up by more days where I hung out with people I met. In Vietnam and I was with Raj and Sangita. They went their own ways, and just when I thought I was finally on my own again, I meet up with 2 other solo female travelers at the airport who I stuck with for a week. By the time they go, there is another person who has joined up with us and is going the same way. And I am still not alone.

The funny thing is, I kind of want to be alone at this point, but its hard to shake company once you've already been with someone.

Oh well, it's better not to be alone anyways.

I'm still alive!

Just in case anyone was actually worried.

About a week ago I wrote a big long thoughtful entry about Cambodia, but the internet connection went bad and I could not save or post it. But it was a good one, I promise!

Right now I am in Vientiene, capital of Laos People's Democratic Republic. That's Laos for short. But it is properly pronounced Lao -- the French added the S so it would fit in their scheme of pronunciation, but most people still don't pronounce the S.

I LOVE it here. By far my favorite country so far, followed by Cambodia. Laos is soooo mellow compared with everywhere else I've been. Its got a really small population and pace of life is about half speed. People leave you alone when you walk down the street, and there is not much to see except natural beauty. In fact, this afternoon I had planned to go and see the few sights of Vientiene, but it's so hot that I really can't be bothered. Better to just relax.....

On the other hand, Laos can be challenging due to it's ... ummm... shall we say Lack of Development? Electricity is spotty in a lot of places, many of the roads are mostly dirt, guesthouses are super basic, toilets are squatters, and public transport is an adventure in itself. Actually, I have to confess that the public transport is one of my favorite parts about Laos. More on that later.

Thank you for local plum wine

The trip is official, I have had my first injury.

The most common travel nightmare is getting hurt to a point where you cannot continue and are forced to cut the trip short. In reality this happens to very few (knock on wood), and most of us just suffer small inconveniences.

Mine is a strained foot muscle. And yes, that is a self-diagnosis. The only reason I have contemplated going to a doctor is to get myself a crutch, but I think if I worked the right channels I could get someone to make me one from bamboo for a few bucks. I am not entirely sure how I hurt it; I had spend 3 days trekking on rocky, ankle-twisting trails and was just fine, but spent one night walking on cobblestone roads in sandals, and the pain slowly set in. There was no definite moment of injury, rather it was a slow progression of pain that did not clear up after a night's sleep. Maybe I was weakened from the trek, and the sandals pushed it over the edge.

I can walk, but it hurts. Yesterday I got a reflexology massage, but I am starting to suspect it may have done more harm than good. The principles of Chinese medicine hold that each point in the body is connected through a circuit of meridians, so if you want to fix one part you focus on the corresponding part. So to fix my right foot, they worked on the right hand and the left foot. It hurt like a bitch, which I'm told is evidence of injury in the corresponding part. They did some gentle work on the hurt foot as well. Right after the massage my foot felt great, but it has hurt just as bad ever since.

So today I am laid up, forced to do nothing all day -- poor me, huh? There is a nearby lake that I'd like to rent a bike and explore, but I'm not missing anything major. My only worry is that it will not heal right and plague me the rest of the trip. If all goes as planned, tomorrow will be spent mostly in transit with minimal walking. After that its a crap shoot.

So for now I sit in my hotel enjoy the free internet and local plum wine.

China has redeemed itself

I think my last post might have been a bit on the cynical side, but I am happy to say that all that negativity is left behind. I've moved on to greener pastures -- aka Yunnan province. The southern part of China is a world away from the big polluted cities I spent my first 3 weeks in, and oh my gosh, I just realized that today is my one-month point. Don't get me wrong, the other parts of China were essential to see, but they really weren't my cup of tea. Too much traffic and pollution for my tastes; I need greenery and blue skies to really feel at home.

After leaving Chengdu, I took an overnight train to Panzihua, and immediately jumped on a really windy 7 hour bus ride to Lijiang. The ride itself sucked. Even the locals were tossing their cookies out the window, and although I managed to keep the contents of my stomach to myself, it really was a struggle. (My Dramamine was buried under a bunch of other bags in the bottom of the bus.) But as the hours passed, the scenery changed from dirty cities to lush green mountains dotted with terraced farms. The plants became tropical and the skies became blue...ahhhhh...this was what I had been waiting for!

Upon arrival in Lijiang, I was a different person. Lijiang itself is pretty touristy -- in fact, it's the number one tourist destinations for Chinese people. And there were still big tour buses and annoying guides with little flags, but they were not nearly as imposing as before. Or maybe with my changed attitudes I didn't notice them. Lijiang looks like old China -- cobblestone streets, pagodas, and tiled roofs, without the distractions of modern buildings, at least not in the old section of the city. The pace is slower, the people are nicer, and you can get around without using the over-crowded public buses. It's just really lovely.

The best part of my trip so far, however, was a 3 day trek in Tiger Leaping Gorge. It's one of the world's longest and deepest gorges, and one of the most stunning natural settings I have ever seen. (Do an Google Image search to see what I mean. Seriously. It only takes a second, and the photos will make you nature freaks want to quit you job and come to China right now.) I almost skipped it too -- the damn Lonely Planet makes it out to sound like a super risky thing to do and I was not feeling too adventerous at the time. Having done it in one piece, I can see how it would be pretty dangerous in the rainy season, but we were blessed with great weather and had a fabulous time. I met some wonderful people and came back with a whole new attitude.

The sad thing is, in the grand tradition of the modern Chinese government, Tiger Leaping Gorge will not be there much longer. A dam has recently been approved and in a few years the gorge will be mostly filled. The higher parts of the trail will probably still be there, but the dizzying drops and impossibly high peaks will be reduced enough to make it a lake surrounded by big hills. The idea (just like the more well publicised 3 Gorges Dam) is to generate power, but in the process they are forcing the relocation of thousands of farming families and ruining one of the most beautiful parts of their country. It's a tragedy, just one of many that I have seen happening as China pushes to modernize.

China is great though, and I have learned so much from my one month here. And I've really only seen a fraction of what the country has to offer. A place this large and diverse would take a lifetime to really explore. But for now, I have to head to Vietnam and continue on with my trip. Tomorrow I am heading out to begin what I think will be a multi-day multi-leg journey ending in Hanoi.

I now have mixed feelings about Vietnam. Previously I had heard so many wonderful things about it and was expecting to fall in love. But recently I've met a lot of travelers who just hated it, mainly because of the "enterprising spirit" of the locals, which means you have to constantly be on the lookout for being scammed and negotiate for everything, even things as simple as a bottle of water. I will see for myself though, and the time I spend there will depend on how I feel about it once I get there. I have heard nothing but good reports about Laos and Cambodia, so I want to make sure I spend plenty of time there.

Eating Local

As I'm a bit "laid up," I have some time to share some travel stories. Or at least one for now.

This afternoon for lunch I decided to go for one of the local Chinese restaurants instead of the safe-bet-English-menu places. Dali has a lot of cafes that serve excellent Western and Chinese food, but they are pricey by Chinese standards. Usually I revert to these places because I enjoy the comfort of actually knowing what I am ordering, butI had seen a number of little places with oodles of fresh vegetables displayed outside for the picking, and was having visions of delicious $2 stir fry running through my head all morning. So I found a nice little place, picked about 5 different veggies from the sidewalk display (eggplant, bok choy, mushrooms, cauliflower and bitter melon), and sat down to wait. From the gestures of the cook, I figured it would be about 6 yuan, the equivalent of less that one dollar.

So here I am, sitting and awaiting what I thought would be a plate of stir-fry that would mix all of the things I had picked into one yummy dish. That's the way I do it at home when I make stir fry. But then, out came the first plate. It was just the bok choy, a whole dish of it. That's when it dawned on me, aided by a memory of a local eatery meal 2 weeks ago in Beijing, that each veggie you chose is cooked up separately. A whole plate of it. And so they came, 5 full plates of stir fried vegetables, along with a gigantic bowl of white rice. And here I am, the blonde foreigner, with enough food for an entire family sitting in front of me, laughing. I can only imagine what the restaurant staff what thinking. They hadn't blinked an eye when I had ordered that much, maybe they thought I was just really hungry, or that I wanted to sample a bit of everything.

The upshot was that the food was delicious. I understand now why they cook them separatetly, with only some garlic, ginger or chili thrown in for accent -- the idea is to retain the flavor of each vegetable. And each dish I had did exactly that. So many Americans grow up despising veggies, and I think it's largely because American cooking does not do justice to vegetables. Frozen, from a can, boiled, even steamed....this is not the best way to eat them. But the Chinese...ah the Chinese method of cooking -- a quick stir fry in some extremely hot oil -- it actually brings out the flavor instead of masking it. Believe it or not, cauilflower is delicious, if its only cooked right. Even the bitter melon, which I tried before and was not crazy about -- my chopsticks kept making their way back to that plate and I found myself loving the strange pungent flavor.

But as delicious as it was, I stuffed myself full and still could not finish everything. Fortunately there is a not a food shortage around here, as Dali is in a valley of abundant farmland, and I suspect that what I didn't eat was only a fraction of what is thrown on the local compost heap every night.

The shocker though, was the bill -- what was intended to be a cheap eat turned out to be one of the more spendy meals I've had, only because my mistaken assumptions led me to order enough for 5 people. As it turns out, it was 6 yuan per veggie, which somehow totalled up to 33 yuan. Now those of you at home get ready to think I am a cheapskate -- that's only about 4 U.S. dollars! It's hard to get edible food for that price back home. But by Chinese food standards, that's sort of high for one person's meal. Just to give a point of reference, I am only paying 20 yuan per night for my hotel. The overpriced Western places charge anywhere from 10-50 per meal, and the local places should never cost you more than 10. So 33 when you are expecting 6.....wow...that's damn spendy.

Anyways, live and learn. And don't forget to enjoy the food along the way.