Thailand

Dear friends, stalkers, and rambling readers:
I'm back in China now, getting over the peeling after effects of a light sunburn, and remembering a lovely two week stint in the tropics.
I want to go back to Thailand. Almost as soon as the steamy air hit me walking off the plane, I felt like I was back in the Philippines. The sensation continued all week- though there were certainly noticeable differences, the coconut trees and pineapple fields, the buildings and rest stops along the road, the look of the people, even the laid back attitude you could feel in the air reminded me so much of the first Asian country I left my heart in that I had flashbacks.
Among the first things that hit a visitor arriving from China is the cleanness. It's not quite up to western standards, of course, but even in Bangkok, the horizon is at it's normal distance, and not shrouded in gray haze. The streets are a notch cleaner, the waterways generally don't have a flotilla of trash in them, and the people seem to have some appreciation of natural areas. Even the medians of the roads are decorated by an impressive array of landscaping, including innumerable topiary elephants, birds, and beasts.
The second thing a visitor notices is that the Thai are indeed religious in all respects. Unmistakably Thai temples, crusted with more elaborate gold and carvings than a wedding cake has frosting, jut up regularly, and virtually every home or business has a miniature model, a spirit house, perched on a tray and column like an elaborate bird feeder, somewhere about the premises. They are some of the most distinctive structures you'll see, downright beautiful, in fact, yet to a Christian, also so disturbing in the generations of spirit worship they represent.
The third thing that strikes a visitor is how incredibly seriously the Thai take their royal family. Their level of respect is everything but worship. At regular intervals, the bridges over the highways feature elaborate, gilded frames, holding portraits of the royals surrounded by fantastically Thai relief. Schools and public buildings feature life size or larger pictures as often as not, and even in home and businesses, you'll see memorabilia from clocks to fans featuring their images. One day a week, it's even customary for everyone to wear yellow to honor them, and yellow shows up on everything from trashcans to waiting shed roofs as well. China's favorite color is red, Thailand's is yellow.
The reverence is not without some grounds, either. Thailand is one of the freest and most stable countries in Asia, and the king, quite elderly now, has done a pretty good job of bringing progress to his country.
The natural resources of Thailand are also impressive. I got to spend a lovely day on a postcard perfect beach collecting shells and sipping tropical shakes, and hiked through a national park to a waterfall, and swam in the clear, cold pool below. The food is good, though incredibly hot. When everyone 20' downwind of an open air kitchen starts sneezing and coughing uncontrollably, beware! Thai heat also has the unfortunate trait of being very delayed, so you don't notice it until you've eaten a couple of bites, and then...! Survival tips for those who still have taste buds: milk and to some degree, sugar counteract the heat, and "pet mai" means "not hot". Use that phrase often. Even then, like an American cook might assume that someone who wants food "not salty"would still like a tiny base level amount of salt, you will still get plenty of heat.
For travelers headed through the Bangkok airport, I'd also like to pass along another useful tip: skip the expensive little food shops. Go all the way down to the bottom floor, face the glass wall, and go to your left as far as you can go. Hidden away down there, you'll find the Magic Food Point, a food court where the employees all go to eat. Buy tickets at the desk, and then trade them for whatever strikes your fancy. For 35-45 baht, you can eat a nice Thai or Chinese style meal. Save a few baht for the isa chai at the drink stand. This orangy colored milk tea tastes wonderful, and provides a nice dairy antidote to the heat of the other food.
Sometime while in Thailand, you must also try a fresh golden mango. I hadn't had one in 3 years, but it was everything I remembered. Just be prepared to deal with dripping sweet juice!
For the potential tourist, I'll add a couple of other notes: A reasonable number of people speak English, especially in tourist areas, and they are as friendly as their reputation claims. Though airfare is high, once you get into the country, the prices are great. You can eat about anywhere for a dollar or two, and everything else is also low. Plan plenty of time for traveling- nothing in Asia happens fast, but you can get about anywhere by bus.

One thing I've got to give to the Chinese: they know how to celebrate a holiday.
I'm just wrapping up my first new year's day in China, a memorable celebration that I can only describe as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the Biblical feast of Passover all rolled into one.
For almost a week now, there has been a general excitement in the air. Family owned stores and eateries closing for a week or two, grocery stores packed and looking like they've been raided in anticipation of a natural disaster, everyone shopping for their new clothes, and entire shops dedicated to decorations opening up. So many people have been mopping, scrubbing, and dejunking that piles of trash were everywhere and the national water usage must have a very noticeable spike. Even the stairs in the apartment complex and the sidewalk have been getting the layer of grime and filth that covered them scrubbed off, and store owners could be seen, chipping the layers of graffiti and cell number stickers off of their shutters.
As the day itself arrives, everything except the largest stores closes and everyone who possibly can goes home. Yesterday, one of our neighbors knocked at our door. He'd already helped us out by tearing down the old decorations around our door frame, and was offering ot put up a new one for us. I learned that on new year's eve, every house puts up a fresh set of banners, always red, at the top and sides of the front door, decorated with some sort of welcome and wish for good luck, and he was intent on helping out the clueless forigners. It took a while to explain that we'd already bought our own, and would put them up ourselves.
Before we got to that, another set of neighbors had scrubbed all the flights of steps between us and the ground, all four floors of them, and even washed our doormat. Finally, with the help of another kindly neighbor, we got our door decked out.
In the evening, we joined some local friends for supper, my first time to eat in a Chinese home, and played cards. After a few rounds of pokua (sp) a popular chinese game, I introduced spoons- or rather chopsticks, which went over wonderfully.
Regrettably early, we left and went back to our house, to pass the time till midnight. About 15 till, we grabbed cameras and made our way the the roof.
I'd been told to expect a show, but nothing prepared me for this.
As midnight approched, the fireworks began, first on the left, then the right, then more in the distance, then firecrakers by. As midnight arrived the skyline as far as the eye could see sparkled with fireworks, little ones shot from rooftops, big ones from hotels, and of course strings and strings of fireworks. The flashes were so bright and continious that I could have read by them, and the noise I can only describe as being about what I would expect to hear in a city under full scale bombardment! The explosions resounded in the concrete walled interior of the complex below, echoed from the roof of a distant sky scraper, and nearly defended us from the neighboring balconies.
A wall blocked our view of the whole panorama, but I found that by climbing onto a ledge and holding onto the bars that secured a patio below, I could see in all directions. My awe was cut short, however, when roman candles started whizzing up from the patio!

As we watched I noticed a strange thing. little reddish lights hung over the city, which I first took to be airplanes, but then I noticed that they were moving much too slowly, and that there were far too many of them- dozens, high over the tallest building, hovering and drifting slowly. For a moment the thought of Aliens ran through my mind, them I figured it out: the famous chinese fire ballon, a little paper creation that traps hot air from a candle and rises, often hundreds of feet high.
I'm going to have to get my hands on some them- they were truely beautiful, little flickering reddish yellow lights floating through the dark sky among all the fireworks.
Finally, after nearly an hour, the fireworks slowed and gave way to fires- poeple burning baskets of oversized play money- an ancestor worship thing, I think, and we made our way back to our waiting beds.

Packing Revisited

I'm thinking about packing again. This time just for two weeks and as many countries, so it's going to be fast and light.
My favorite reference on the subject is this website.

http://www.onebag.com/

It's a great, technical, detailed, tutorial on the art of globetrotting without checked baggage.

It's so much easier to get through an airport with just a backpack and a purse, and even more important if you need to do some getting around in a city after you arrive. Just in case, I'm going to pack a little duffle bag I can put extra stuff in on the way back, but I'm trying for streamlined one-bag travel.

I think I may get a new carry on before I leave though. They're comparitively cheap, and my shoulder hurt for two days from the strap of the bag I came with. It's a convertable sling/handle/shoulder strap gym bag, and it's not really great at anything. The sling kills my shoulder if I wear it on one side, and if I wear it across my chest, I feel self concious, and it still hurts. The shoulder strap isn't much better- it's attached so that the bag flops around, and still isn't comfortable for long. Nor are the handles.

What I've got to decide, though, is what sort of bag to get. In airports, wheels are great, but outside on rough sidewalks, grass, and all the other surfaces our planet is decked out with, they are just useless weight. A regular backpack is a bother to live out of, because you can't see everything laid out and have to do so much digging to get to things. I'd love to find a rectangular, suitcase style bag that unzips on three sides, with well padded backpack straps, and maybe even removable wheels, but that's not likely to happen, at least not here and in my price range. I'll let you know what I find.

All The Tea in China

Tea. There is nothing more perfectly Chinese.

Almost everywhere you go, tea is served. Whenever we meet someone, the hospitallity includes a round, or several, of tea, and many homes feature an elaborate tea set on the coffee table. Even in many little shops, around lunchtime, you can find someone brewing in the back of the shop.
A tea set here looks nothing like the western version. The whole thing sits on a tray, often very elaborately carved with a dragon or a lounging buddha wrapped around the rim. Always, it's hollow, the surface slightly dished in, with a drain in the middle, so the whole thing works like an oil changing pan, collecting spilled tea, of which there is quite a lot.
On this is a little sugar bowl- like dish with a saucer and a lid, a creamer-sized pitcher, and a number of tiny little bowls, about the size of those little paper cups you put ketchup in at resturants.
To brew the drink, a little packet of tea opened up and dumped into the bowl. The local type is bright green, and made of whole leaves, rolled up in little wads.
Hot water is poured over the leaves, allowed to brew for less than a minute, swirled around a tiny bit, and dumped out or poured over the cups to warm them (the first brewing isn't good, I'm told) then the process is repeated, this time with the results poured into the bowls- sometimes this is done in one continuous pour, like filling an ice cube tray, with more spilled tea draining into the tray. After this round is drunk, more water is poured over the tea leaves- by this time unrolled and swollen till they fill the bowl.
The third, fourth, and fifth brewing are said to be the best, but 7 or 8 are still good.
I have discovered, though, that this tea is also great made the western way. I've been putting my tea maker to good use, drinking a mug most mornings. It's a wonderful tea, very green, and mellow enough that I seldom bother with sugar. The leaves are strong enough that I'll keep one tiny packet going for a week, sticking the whole thing in the refrigerator between uses. Even then, there is no problem with the strengh, it just slowly becomes a tad bitter and I have to put in sugar again.

Eating Chinese

Everyone eats. East, west, young and old, most every person on the planet eats. And while this common denominator is very comforting to the international wanderer, it is also a source of never ending learning and puzzlement.
So here's a short version of what I've learned about the art of eating in China.
They do eat, often, much and sociably. Rice is, of course always an option, but if you don't like it, noodles of all types are also served everywhere. Generally, you begin deciding what to eat by picking one of these basic starches. If you choose noodles, you get the fun if picking what type: fresh, flat ones the size and shape of a ruler, flat postage stamp sized ones, clear sweet potato starch noodles, fried long, skinny noodles, ramen type noodles, ... you get the idea. There are more noodles here than the Italians have ever dreamed of! Besides the basic starches, there are also a bevy of stuffed dumplings, soups with little, medium, or small dumplings, baskets of steamed dumplings, etc.
Then it's on to the Vegetables. There are quite a few, the familiar onions, peppers, tomatoes, a turnip-like white radish thing, eggplant (good here!), lots of unnamed cabbages and greens, lotus root, bamboo, yard-long beans, celery, even carrots, squash, and beets, and lots and lots of mushrooms and fungus, even at the cheap places. There is also the protiens to think through. Generally, it's in little bits, but there are lots of little bits. Beef, pork, and chicken are common, as are fish, tofu, and eggs, and somtimes lamb, and of course, any organ meat your stomach desires :) Then you get to think about how you want all that cooked. At the top of the food chain are a handful of steakhouses and nice resturants, where you can get virtually anything, likely even steak. Next, oddly, are the fast food places, Pizza hut, KFC, McDonalds, and G&F, a local look alike, all just like at home.
Next, and where my budget generally reaches, are sit-down Chinese places, where you order a few dishes and then all eat them. The largerthe group, the better this option is. If you get about a dozen people and 13-14 dishes, it as good as a potluck dinner. The trick is to pace your self, since dishes keep comming throughout the meal, new ones stacked on top of emptied plates, and each seems yummier than the last. They aren't that expensive either. An all you can eat dinner with at large group can run from 12-18 Kwai.

A word here about chinese table manners- King Louie the 16th, or whoever invented table manners, wasn't king of China. consequently, they don't observe many of the niceties of the west. There are no serving dishes, you just use your own chopsitcks to grab a bit of whatever and put it, as your fancy dictates, on your little plate or atop your bowl of rice. The same goes for soups, you just take your little spoon and get some. Helpings are small, maybe a few bites worth, and frequent, hence large tables are round and equipped with generous lazy susans. There are however, a couple of rules- never touch the food, and don't eat anything that hits the table top. Spitting bones and seeds out on the table however, is perfectly acceptable. Drinking and eating are not so firmly linked as in the west. Tea may be served, but not much is drunk and the glasses are tiny- they say you have more room for the food that way. Often, a thin soup broth fills in for the drink, and in the winter, it's wonderful how nicely a big bowl of hot soup will warm you up.

That brings us to the little resturants. These are everywhere, at some you order, generally from a couple of dozen varients of a few themes, and the cafeterias, where you simply point out what you want. I like the sit-down places better, as the cafieteria food is often cold. Generally, you can get a solid meal at one of these for 6-10 kwai (1 kwai=1yuan= ~$0.15 ) Some dishes you can find most places are fried noodles, a hearty beef/ noodle/veggie soup (my cold weather favorite) fried rice (one place has a version with so much ham, eggs, and vegtables that it makes me think of Jambalyia everytime I eat it), various vegetables, meatball or fishball or dumpling soups, and more noodles.

At all the Chinese places, the seasoning follows a few rules: Soy sauce and dark soy vinegar are always on the table, and hot peppers are often cooked whole with foods- don't eat the peppers! If you want more heat, you can always get some of the oily, hot red pepper puree. Garlic, green onions, and Ginger are everywhere, and there is always lots of oil- often too much- and plenty of salt. Sugar is around, but only occasionally do you find really sweet foods. They are more of a treat than a reguar part of the diet. Other spices show up from time to time, but those are the main ones.
Most people like fruit, and little wonder. Bananas, all types of citrus, starfruit, asian pears, apples(often from Washington), grapes, kiwi, even pomegranite, and even dragonfruit are readily avialable, both in the stores and at corner fruit stands.
Breads and dairy are the things a westerner misses most. Bread isn't too bad- there are several very western style bakeries around. You can only buy sandwhich bread a half-loaf at a time, and it's all very white, but there are plenty of baked treats to be found.
Dairy is harder. You can find fresh yougurt and radiated milk, and occasionally even some cream cheese and processed cheese like stuff (real cheese apparently isn't very appealign to the Asian palate) but there's that little issue of melamine. All of the brands I've been able to locate are on the recall list. But I like milk! So I've been very cautiously indulging in a little bit now and then, and making do with almond and soymilk whenever possible.
Speaking of milk, beverages are a whole catagory here. In the winter, many people almost exclusivly drink hot beverages, and I've learned to follow suit- it helps you stay warm. Coffee, other than instant, is quite rare. Even that isn't drunk much. Tea is much more common. I'll have to save the preperation of the drink for another post, but the short description is that the local tea is very green, flovorful and non-bitter. Hot water is an even more common drink. Beer, wine, and rice wine are all common- too common- it's often hard to politely avoid drinking a large amount, especially for a man. I tried a sip of the rice wine. I'm told that the local speciality was comparativly mellow, but it still nearly sent tears to my eyes.
You can also get soy milk, and a really delicious chi-like milk tea. The soy milk, however, is always served in a bowl with a spoon. Why?


This has become a long post! It's suppertime here, and I am hungry! Noodles, here I come.

Dehua Illustrated

Today I chronicle a couple of little milestones: I went to a restaurant and managed to carry out all the necessary conversation in Chinese- I even managed to ask for the name of a dish.
The second was last night- I successfully co-taught my first class. One of my fellow teachers will be traveling next week, so I'll get to teach her class for a while. It's a nice to feel like I'm finally doing something to earn my salt.
I've also gotten new batteries for my camera, so I can get the pictures from Duhua off of it. They came out almost as lovely as I remember.

This is the dormitory of the high school we visited. The "bathroom" is in another building- one trench runs through all the stalls, and there are no door on them. We saw a number of students washing their hair and the lines of sinks outside. No hot water, btw.





The tiny group of people standing in front of the building to the right is most of our team. After class, an astounding number of students packed the Balconies of the classroom building. I don't think many foreigners come by!

The Duhua porcelain museum was facinatiating. I love whiteware, and I discovered that Duhua is famous for it's white ware- blanc de chine, as I've since discovered.

I took lots of pictures so I wouldn't forget a detail. Things like this make great inspirations for all sorts of projects.

There are also some colored wares, and even furnishing display. The musical instrument in the center really caught my eye- it's smaller, but otherwise nearly identical to a appilacian hammer dulcimer. This makes me want to finish mine even more!

Duhua has more than history though- they still make ceramics. After the musuem I toured a factory. The order of the day was little tooth mugs- maybe for dentists' offices? It was strange seeing the exact styles I am used to seeing at Wal-mart in the states being produced.Now I know what is behind that ubiqutous "made in China" sticker

To cap off the whole adventure, we went shopping. Much of what we found was just the same stuff you'd find anywhere in the states, albiet at a fraction oif the prices, but some was really lovely and unique. My favorite find was a tea set, white of course, which looked just like one in the museum, and so thin that you can see every petal of the relief plum flowers right through the cup when you hold it up to the light.

The bus ride home was nearly as gripping for a newcomer as the destination. Here, far from the shiny new cities, the China of stories shows through a bit more.

Duhua

I'm going to have to post some new pictures soon, but 'till then, here's a quick account of my latest adventure.
Last week I went to Duhua with several other staff members to do a special Christmas English outreach at a couple of rural schools. Our first stop was a middle school. About 3/4 of the students live at the school, the remaining 1/4 are close enough to home to travel back and forth each day. It was charming, in a way, but I'll never complain about the condition of a US school again. Facilities aside, it was a lovely experience. The students were eager and curious, the staff wonderful hosts, and teaching for the first time was a blast! We even got to put on a Christmas skit at a English club party in the evening for a thousand plus people. Definitely the largest audience I've ever been in front of!
After a huge meal, at the same place we had another huge meal for lunch, we crashed in our very comfortable hotel rooms.
The next day we got to repeat our classes of a lower level at an elementary school. Then lunch, followed by a museum tour.
Dehua is an ancient porcelain making center, famous for it's pure white bias relief ware- blanc de chine- to be precise. The museum is fairly small, but the 45 minutes we had to spend was far too short a time to take in thousands of years of dynasties, styles, and patterns.
Next, it was off to a factory, where we got to see some of the wares in production and watch the process of pouring slip into molds, letting it dry a bit, pouring out the center, and then finally removing the molds, trimming the seams, and drying it for firing. In another room we got to watch transfers being put on transfer ware.
After that, we went shopping. I'm not an expert, but I think I got some nice pieces, and for great prices. My favorite was a tea set the looked almost exactly like one I saw in the museum.
Finally, we headed home. The Chinese countryside is lovely. There isn't an inch of wasted space to be seen- the hills grow bamboo and trees, the lowlands are dotted with houses, and every inch of exposed dirt is planted with some kind of food crop. In many places, impossibly steep mountainsides are even filled with terraces.
Many of the old courtyard style houses are still there. I found those really intriguing. The back is a four room house that is about like a southern dogtrot, then wings are added to the sides. If the house is really fixed up, a gatehouse is added across the front, and possibly any number sheds and appendages on the outside walls. I couldn't get many good pictures from the bus, but I think I've got a couple.
The older buildings look so nice in the landscape. They are simple, but gracefully proportioned. Some are only made of mud, sheltered by deep eaves, so some combination of stone and brick, but they are so lovely.
++ After rereading this post, I can only home I get some Chinese soon- I'm rapidly losing English! Sorry folks.