Breakfast with the Pakistani Air Force

Flying First Class to Xinjiang / so far this place is pretty surreal

I am in Urumqi, Xinjiang, which is so so so far away from anything I know or am used to. In order to make it a bit easier for you I stole this from google so you can better see how far exactly I am from home. (where ever that might be) 

However, I want to keep this is organized as possible, because currently there is just a thunderstorm of thoughts in my head and I am trying to write everything in such a way that you do not get lost. 

First things first: The Flight (which was totally awesome) 

When I was a child my mom would always wait until the very end to board the plane so I have adapted the same habit. I usually only approach the counter when they do a last call, simply because there is no real reason for me to be in a cramped airplane for longer than I absolutely have to. 

However, in China this is quite different. Everyone's life seems to depend on being the first one at the counter so even before they announce the boarding process people will "line" up. (In Switzerland one would laugh at the line, since its really just a lot of people surrounding the gate). ANYWAY. I waited as usual until they made the last call and I approached the lady in front of the gate. She checked my ticket and let me enter that tube thing that connects the airplane to the airport. 

Because there was a line in the tube I stood further back a bit and suddenly saw a person in a suite appear next to me. I turned around and saw that the pilot stood right next to me. He points at my passport and says "USA?" and I reply in Chinese that I am in fact German. (Sometimes I choose Swiss. It always depends if I feel like talking about watches and banks or about Cars and Hitler. Today I felt like talking about Cars and Hitler) 

The pilot seemed relieved about the fact that I speak German and tells me he always wanted to spend a lot of time in Germany because the Beer is so good. 

We chat for a bit longer until we are inside the plane and I gesture that I am heading back to row 14 where my window seat was waiting for me. 

The pilot just looks at me and points at the first row (first class, baby) and tells me to sit there. I don't really want to believe what just happened, but he insisted on me sitting in first class so I obviously do not want to say no. So I flew first class. 

After take off the pilot comes and sits with me and chats with me about things while drinking coffee. (don't ask me who was flying the plane) We had a pretty good chat and he told me that I should let him know if I fly Hainan Air again, because he can give me upgrades and we exchange name cards. Then he had to quickly land the plane in Lanzhou for a quick stop to pick up more passengers. 

After we left Lanzhou he came again to me and told me to open my backpack. He put slippers and towels in my backpack and gave me a plastic bag full of stuff from the airplane. I wanted to laugh, but I knew this was a sincere thing so I thanked him. This is what was in the bag:

I did not want to question if he was allowed to do this. So lets not tell anybody. However, then this happened: 

So we spend the next 10 minutes taking pictures. IT WAS PRETTY AWESOME. 

He has been flying for over 30 years and he was pretty awesome. You can do the math why this is the case. 

Okay. Then I got to Urumqi at around 6.30pm. The air is pretty dry and it is oddly hot, but not hot at the same time. I went into the taxi lane to get a cab to my hotel and was puzzled when the taxi driver got back out of the cab to get more people to get into the cab. Some sort of technique I did not want to question. I have learned not to question and not to get frustrated by these things. 

The taxi driver was Uighur. I am sure you know there is a HUGE problem in Xinjiang between the Han and the Uighur people. Just last week a bomb exploded in the train station here, earlier this year there was a knife attack at the Kunming train station and there was the incident on Tiananmen square . I am not really the one to read about these events and opinions in the news paper, which is the reason why I decided to come to Xinjiang. 

Anyway, the Han couple got out of the cab and the driver continuing on to my hotel. He hadn't said a word, but now he asked me "USA?" and we started talking in Chinese. He told me that Uighur and Han do not get along well and told me about his frustrations. It was truly fascinating, because it made me realize the problem that is going on. (Granted I have only talked to one, but it was enough to get an insight). When we got to the hotel he apologized for being so frank to me and I reassured him that it is no problem at all. I actually really liked talking to him. I was greeted by a security guard in a metal detector thing in his hands and I entered the Hotel. 

I decided to get dinner outside in a side street and talked to some cool people that came to Xinjiang from Gansu ten years ago. I chatted with them a bit and I think it is then that I realized that I am understanding 90% of what is said to me in Chinese. (YESSSSS!) Their noodle soup was pretty good, even though I can not tell you yet if my stomach will approve of it. 

Another indication of how far away I am are the signs everywhere. Usually they are in Chinese and the local language, but there are also a good amount in Russian, which is another interesting thing. 

Also Xinjiang is on Beijing time even though it really is 2 hours behind. There is apparently a problem, because locals will use local time, whereas the Han will use Beijing time. 

It still is sort of light outside even though it is nearly 10pm.... weird. 

Oh and there seems to be no official weather forecast. Peter Hessler wrote about the same thing in his book and when I asked my travel agency for a weather forecast they told me that there is no official one. 

Okay. that is enough for today. I am tired. 

Yunnan's Magical Light

Sometimes I can't believe how amazing the light here is. 

Poorly Planned, Arguably Well Executed

I owe a post to this blog and it so happens that I had a great day today, which I think is worthy of my blog: 

I am done with my semester! There were points where I was certain that I would live my life forever chained to the program, but Friday evening eventually came and I graduated from my program with pretty satisfying grades. Before I finished we had to give a huge symposium in which every student represented one country (I was Laos) and we had to analyze and negotiate current issues in the GMS (Greater Mekong Subregion). Each country had to write Papers and present on the issues in their perspective viewpoint. This is not easy, because one topic was dams and Laos is pro-dam, whereas personally I would not parade around like Laos proclaiming that dams are the best thing ever. But I lived a day as a Lao official and debated the hell out of my viewpoint. I ended up doing pretty well - better than I thought. 
ANYWAY. After my program ended I packed up my 7 things and started my 6 week journey through Asia, which I am doing mostly by myself. I really want to travel by myself and see how it is. I am 3 days in and so far am loving it. 
I sat in a bus for 8 hours and drove to Shaxi. (This time with my passport) I am staying in a cute hostel right next to the main square and went for a quick walk in the afternoon to stretch my legs. When I stepped out of the East Gate of the village and walked towards the river I noticed that about halfway up the mountain opposite of me there appeared to be a small temple. It looked something like this: 

(If you open the picture you will see my little ret arrow pointing to the temple) 

I wanted to go. No reason why. I just wanted to see what the temple looked like and my uneducated eye thought the hike would not be too difficult. So I went back, had dinner, met a girl while dancing in a drum circle who wanted to come with, slept and started walking the next morning. 

I had no plan, had not looked at any maps and didn't ask anyone about the path up. I figured it would be nice to try something really unplanned, since I usually try to extensively plan everything else in my life. 

So me and the Chinese girl started off with her two friends (who quickly abandoned us when getting closer and we all got a more realistic view point of the matter). My general plan was up and over and so we walked more to the left on the bottom of the mountain and then up and approached the temple from the left. If you look closer at the picture you can see that there is a cliff, which looks like nothing from far away, but actually was pretty scary. 

The walk was truly beautiful. We walked through old fields on the mountain side, battled with bushes and saw some beautiful old trees. There was no clear path and we just walked from terrace to terrace. I fell once and scratched my hand open. After about 2 hours of me guessing my way along the mountain side we saw the temple on the other side of the cliff: 

It looked so close, but the hardest part was the cliff and then the hill up to the temple was incredibly steep and no one had walked on it for a long time, which made it sort of exciting, because we seemed to be the first in a while to go up there. 

(Down in the valley)

After slipping and sliding we were at the bottom of the cliff and had to climb it up again on the other side and then up the steep hill to the damn temple. It really was much harder than I initially had anticipated, but it was still great fun. We eventually made it and it was so worth it. 

The Temple was already falling apart a bit, but the view was amazing. 

The way down also proved to be difficult, since we took a different route and ended up stock on a cliff and didn't know how to get town. We just chose the most direct way and it was a little scary. We also had to climb a couple dam construction that were built in the riverbed, but we eventually made it back. 

Not planning things can be really great sometimes. Also the other great part about hiking is that the food afterwards just tastes so much better. 

                             

I really had a great start to my journey and I can't wait where it will take me. This Friday I am heading to Xinjiang! 

Here's To Cambodia

After a night in a rural fishing village on the Tonle Sap, I am back in Siem Reap and I am once again tired. Cambodia is great as always and I am enjoying my fourth time here as if it was my first time. 

Tomorrow I am heading back to Angkor Wat, Monday I am teaching English for a day, and then I am on my way back to Kunming for my final final project. A huge symposium in which I am representing Laos.... 

I am also having issues with my Chinese visa, because I did not get multiple entries and will be stuck in Bangkok without an entry to China after Bhutan. But it is the excitement of the unknowingness that makes me look forward to whatever happens after the 3rd of May. I am really hoping I will make it to Xinjiang, Bhutan and now also Bangkok where I have to wrestle with the Chinese embassy to give me my 3rd visa in 6 months... let's hope that works.  

But for now let's raise our glasses and toast to this amazing country I love so much. 

VIETNAM - Food, Sweat, Water Monitoring & A Constant Lack of Sleep

I am in Vietnam! 8 Days, 5 cities and a serious lack of sleep. 
It is all okay though, because when do I ever get the chance again to do everything I am doing here? 
I have been able to talk to professors from the Trade University in Hanoi, get dinner with Students from the University, talk to the Asian Development Bank, discuss economic issues with the American Consulate in Saigon, listen to a talk about the Mekong Delta given by one of the most knowledgeable experts on the topic, talk to a mayor of a rural town about water issues, go out measure water levels and conduct interviews with local farmers and then present our case findings to him and finally eat all this amazing food. 
The heat is really intense though and does make you realize that a slower pace is key. 

The people here are so incredible! The smiles I receive are in the ten thousands and I am so happy that people seem to share my enthusiasm for happiness here. It is truly great to talk to such energetic people!

It has been 8 wild days and I am exhausted! We are heading to the Cambodian border tomorrow and then will spend the next 7 days in my favorite country EVER. I CAN'T WAIT! 

Due to my exhaustion I do no want to bore you with an extensive post and will use this lighting speed internet to post some pictures of the past couple days. 

My birthday lies 10 days in the past and I still have not replied to any of the amazing emails I have received. I had my birthday right during finals week and we drove down to Vietnam 12 hours after our last final. Time really is not something I have here. However, I am so incredibly happy to have so many loving and great people around me who support me every step along the way! Thank you all for your great thoughts! It is very much appreciated. 
I will write as soon as I have time! 

THE FOOD IS AMAZING. 

I am pretty sure the best Asian food I have ever had

This was Breakfast

The Coffee here is absolutely mind blowing. They make it with condense milk, which makes it incredibly unhealthy, but so delicious. 

Presenting on the Mekong Delta - Yes, I am aware of the hat 

First time I have seen a pineapple plant!!! 

More mind blowing food! This is called Bun Cha. It is barbecued pork in fish sauce with everything great about this earth. 

I found my name sake and this friendly nun showed me around 

Looking for animals in a wanter plant's root system 

Checking Water Quality 

After one of the interviews

Gathering all the info from the interviews and making a presentation. Most tired I have ever been. 

Presenting our findings 

Picture with the mayor. (white polo shirt) 

The Best Soup In Town

Before I have to revise my incredibly painful essay about trade in Xishuangbanna I wanted to write something that does not give me a massive headache.

This morning I woke up and was craving Mixian (my noodle soup). Fridays through Sunday are usually my Western breakfast days, whereas I eat Mixian on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, because I have to eat early and the Western restaurant is not open yet.

In celebration of taking my last antibiotics yesterday I wanted to treat my stomach to a good Western breakfast, but when I woke up this morning Western breakfast was the furthest from my mind. I wanted Noodle Soup and there was nothing I would be able to change about that.

So I took a shower, got dressed, packed my computer and left my dorm. I did not want to eat at my usual garage, because I always eat there so I went to a new place a 10 minute walk away.

Similarly to any other place that I am attracted to it screamed “DIARRHEA!”, but I have learned to not let my European senses trick me. The key in China is too look at the seating. Are there a lot? Are there a lot of people eating? What kind of people are they? Does the staff look tired (if yes that is a good sign).

The place was insanely busy

So while my European senses were telling me to run back to Switzerland my Chinese senses gave me the okay. The fact that there even was seating in the kitchen convinced me. I ordered my Mi xian and paid USD1.25. I went to the kitchen and got my bowl with chicken, blood pudding, noodles and broth. I proceeded to the additives and added pickled vegetables with chilly, scallions, and some mysterious stuff.

WITH PEANUTS

I sat down and happily slurped my noodles. The art here is that nothing is ever touching the table. Basically the opposite of everything my mom taught me about table manners. Your left hand is on your lap or in case you have long hair the hand holds back the hair. I always like to sit sideways to the table, because this way I can get my mouth as close to the bowl as possible. This allows maximum noodles without the danger of getting your clothes dirty.

You see. It is an art that has to be perfected. I am not there yet. It is truly impressive what Chinese can do with their chopsticks. They way they can whisk eggs, mix noodles, pick up things. amazing.

How to properly Slurp

So why on earth have I started to like Chinese breakfast so much? The truth is that when I eat Western breakfast I usually hit a low point at around 10.30/11 am. This is when I would buy a coffee in Europe or the US, but with Mi Xian this does not happen. Right now I am also munching on my Host dad’s Mantou, which as you know is truly delicious.

Okay. After this point I think everything will just be a way for me to procrastinate on work. I really have become to dislike one of my teachers, which you may know is more or less fatal for me. After discussing my topic with my teacher and writing 13 pages about mono cropping rubber trees in Xishuangbanna she told me there there is no mono cropping in Xishuangbanna. She couldn’t have told me this two months earlier though when I decided on the topic.