Travel to Live. Live to Travel

I recently came across this fabulous entry, 3 Reasons to Travel While You’re Young by Jeff Goins. I love/hate those pieces of inspirational travel writing that make me want to get up, pack my bags, and set off on an adventure. I know it’s just a matter of time, though.

Two things that stuck out to me:

2. Traveling helps you encounter compassion

Traveling will change you like little else can. It will put you in places that will force you to care for issues that are bigger than you.

If you go to southeast Asia, you may encounter the slave trade. If eastern Europe, you may see the effects of genocide and religious persecution. If Haiti, you’ll witness the the ugly side Western paternalism.

Your heart will break.

One of my first experiences abroad was when I visited the Philippines for the first time on a medical mission. Prior to that, I had never been to the developing world, despite studying it extensively in college. Well, you know what they say about real world experience versus book experience. The visit shook me to my core and truly made me learn to appreciate the things I had in my life. I consider it one of the monumental moments where I can pinpoint my life turning from the path it was on.

Another great part:

When you look back on your life, you will have moments of which you are proud and maybe a few you regret. It’s likely that the following won’t be on the latter list:

• Bicycled across the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Appeared on Italian TV.
• Hiked a Mayan ruin.
• Learned Spanish in three months.
• Toured Europe by train.

They’re not on mine (fun fact: I’ve done all of the above).

That made me smile. What should be on my list?

• Became the English voice on an audio tour at a Japanese museum
• Took a boat up the Mekong and learned what $5 buys on the Laos side and what it buys on the Thai side
• Fled from a monkey trying to steal my candy
• Drank a mysterious concoction poured from an old salad dressing bottle into a half-coconut by a toothless man
• Tasted moonshine distilled in an old oil barrel
• Went scuba diving and caught my own uni

We took the trip from Vientiane to Vang Vieng on a local bus. Being sore from constant scamming in Thailand and Vietnam, we were stunned to actually meet helpful people who weren’t trying to secretly sneak us onto a crowded mini-bus, but were just kindly pointing which one to go to. The local bus proved to be much nicer than “VIP” buses. Yeah, sure the VIP ones are airconditioned, but you don’t really need it. Opening a window is much cooler (Laos isn’t humid at the moment.) Furthermore, A/C means nothing when there’s 25 extra people on board.

We passed lots of small rural Laotian villages and what struck me was that nearly every home, hut, or shanty had a satellite. I saw homes that looked like speaking above a whisper would send the entire thing crashing into a river, homes with probably no running water, yet they all had satellite televisions.

We arrived in Vang Vieng in one piece, but half expecting cracked out zombie stoners to be roaming the streets. Instead, the town is incredibly chilled out. The locals are extremely friendly and walking around town has been a pleasure. One of the best/worst things about Vang Vieng are all the TV bars. They’ve got TVs playing movies or TV shows and these big lounging platforms so you can lie on pillows and just zone out on TV (or something else.) We spent hours watching the Family Guy and just eating pizza. Now we’re in a bar (Hugh’s in a hammock) eating cheesy fries and watching the new Indiana Jones…

This has definitely been pretty awesome.

We took the train from Saigon to Nha Trang today. Most tourists take buses, but the train is marginally faster…and had the interesting benefit of traveling mostly with locals.

What I noticed pretty quickly is how familiar Vietnamese people are with one another. It’s nice, but also sometimes a bit surprising. I watched strangers offer bits of their food to other people’s children. I saw a lady help an old man into his seat, and later she was unfazed as the old man smacked her on the ass to get her to get out of the aisle. That wasn’t the only time I saw someone spank someone adult to get them to do something either.

At one point this giant moth was flying around the train. The Vietnamese didn’t care at all, didn’t even blink an eye. I’m not trying to be patronizing, but in Asia I’ve found people are generally (at least outside of the big cities) more “in touch” with nature. I know on any train in America people would freak out over a moth the size of someone’s hand. Needless to say, when the moth flew towards me I started trying to hide (but didn’t scream! I was trying!) while Hugh was attempting to catch it in a lunchbox, only to have an old lady come up and just grab it in her hand and THREW it to the back of the train (at a sleeping woman, lol.) She gave me a big grin. She saved me again from Mothra a few hours later.

Anyways, the train ride was surprisingly fun. Minus the 7 hours of blaring television showing pretty much the most GOD AWFUL television possible. I’m talking about Cholesterol Man attacking ladies while Barley Tea man comes to save the day (all live action, taking place on a stage.)

Today began as many of our days in Asia have: with a trip to Starbucks.

Now, let me preface this by saying that I have drank Starbucks in America approximately 3 times in my life. However, as any expat will tell you there are certain things that you just sometimes miss. Western food has something about it (fat and cholesterol) that tastes like home to me; so just as my Asian-born friends constantly sought out authentic Chinese food in Los Angeles, we seek the same thing. Except for us it’s so much easier: Authentic America = Fast Food. Whatta world.

Anyways, we were also struck by how kind the people of Taiwan were. At the train station we couldn’t figure out why the turnstile wouldn’t take our tickets. In Japan, we would have had businessmen try and shove their way through, climbing over our baggage and what have you. In Hong Kong, people would have gristled and sighed loudly about our stupidity. However, a young business-type just politely said, “Sir, you need to turn the ticket this way,” while demonstrating the proper way to insert said ticket. Amazing.

We then arrived in Kaohsiung and met up with our friend Kevin (who we know from Japan) who took us to one of the many food-stall nightmarkets, a specialty in Taiwan. I had something called a danbin which is like a wrap with all sorts of random stuff in it. Very tasty. And Hugh got to try pearl milk tea (aka boba aka tapioca) the way it was meant to be drank (since it was invented in Taiwan).

All in all, very good start to our 2 weeks in Taiwan.

We’ve departed from Hong Kong to Taiwan, thus ending our adventures in China (People’s Republic of) so I thought it’d be a nice time to do a little summary of my observations…

The Good:

- Most big cities were sparkling clean, you rarely saw a leaf on the street let alone litter.

- Bathrooms too were very clean (well, I mean, relatively.)

- Safe country, never once felt like I was in any sort of danger to muggings or kidnappings (unlike say, Thailand.)

- Delicious food for very, very cheap.

- Not one single stomach problem from said delicious food.

- Stumbling over 500 year old buildings etc pretty much everywhere you went

- The kindness and help extended to us by many, many people.

- Getting to view a nation on the rise up close and personal

- Being able to get around relatively easy due to our ability to read Japanese.

- Cheap and abundant taxis (in mainland China, at least)

- Excellent tourist support an facilities (in Hangzhou)

The Bad:

- The weird sort of haughty snootiness coming from mainland Chinese who spoke English and worked jobs that required it.

- Having my cellphone messages censored..! No “diversity” conversations allowed, I guess.

- The kind of bizarre screw-you-customer attitude some businesses take

- Being stared at, hell, literally stopping traffic simply for being an Asian woman walking next to a white male. They weren’t “normal” stares either, very unnerving and annoying sometimes.

The Ugly:

- Spitting in public and sometimes even indoors

Night-time in Macau...

We left Guangzhou today and arrived in Macau. Macau’s this kind of underrated former colony of Portugal, but I’ve always loved it. The last time I was here was three years ago. I was stunned at how you could turn a corner and feel like you were in Europe, then another one and you were smack in China. There’s all these new glittering casinos standing next to really decrepit looking apartments.

But that’s all changed really in three years, the last time I was in Macau it was kind of this quaint backwater with one smoke-filled casino (Hotel Lisboa) which at night was full of Russian prostitutes on the prowl. Now there’s mega casinos all over the place and a large entertainment district called Fisherman’s Wharf that’s totally Disney-Vegas and bizarre.

I’m feeling eager to wander around the streets and have some serradurra, a Portuguese (or Macanese?) dessert that embodies everything I love in desserts — cream and simplicity. Macanese food is fun — a mix of Chinese, Portuguese, and Malaysian. It’s stuff like garlic shrimp, spicy chicken, coconut curry, etc.

Oh, and Hugh got rejected from the Wynn Casino because he had flip-flops on. Hah, classy place!

And ate at TGI Friday’s.

Funny that I have only eaten at Friday’s in America once in my life (over 10 years ago) yet without fail I run to one when I’m overseas.

Tomorrow we head to Hangzhou. We were planning on only staying there for two days, but we might stay longer… we’re both very tired physically and emotionally.

Pictures tomorrow. =) (or just check my flickr, they’re there anyways)

It’s a bit hard to believe we’ve been here for 12 days (and blown about 18% of our alotted TOTAL budget for our 5 month trip–oops.) The other day I sat there and thought, “my god, I have another 5 months of this?!” but at the same time I’m extremely grateful to have the next 5 months to think about the future.

Anyways, our final day in Shanghai was spent with friends. An old college friend I had recently reconnected with took us to a Shanghaiese restaurant that was pretty popular with the expat crowd. The food was great and we then went to have stir-fryed soup dumplings (delicious) as a snack. After that we checked out Xintiandi, which was a really weird experience. I felt like I was in Los Angeles, but it’s not because it looked like it, per se. That’s just the only place I can think of that’s about 40% white, 40% asian, and 20% other stuff. It was hip, busy, modern and so unlike any of the other places in Shanghai I had been. We finished with a very cool, expat popular lounge.

All in all, Shanghai has been a fun experience. It’s been interesting seeing such a vibrant Chinese city that really does feel like its on the verge of something. Back in the 1920s, Shanghai was the jewel of Asia. It was a fashion and cultural capital. Then it slumped and became sort of a backwater…it’s really fascinating getting to see the city reawaken. There’s construction EVERYWHERE and I’m pretty sure the next time I come back it’ll be completely different.

My friend Adriel asked me what annoyed me so far about Shanghai (he asked because I’m a hater who finds faults everywhere I live) but I couldn’t really respond. It was hard to say. Yes, service sucks–but I expected that. I suppose the fear of dying in a fiery crash everytime I get into a taxi sucks, or maybe knowing everytime I cross a street a bus or taxi might run me over and keep driving is a bit annoying…but hmm.

Anyways, tomorrow we leave for the next stop on our little adventure, Suzhou. It’ll also be our first experience on a Chinese train, so that could be a fun entry for tomorrow. Haha…