1. Communism blows (of course we already knew this, but it was reinforced quite nicely on our trip). There is no such thing as privacy. The government watches EVERYTH
ING you do. There are cameras EVERYWHERE (taxi cabs, hotel rooms, street posts etc), Police EVERYWHERE, you have to go through security to get ANYWHERE (even Tiananmen square... come on now. It's an empty square. What could you possibly blow up there???). In Vietnam I asked our tour operator what the general feeling was about the government there. He stated that he couldn't really discuss such things. Why? Because his coworker recently lost her job for speaking ill of the government when asked how she felt about it by one of the tourists in her group. This all took place in the "quite confines" of their tour van. She now works behind a desk where she can't influence the way others think. Crazy!!2. Chinese food is gross. Even Catherine agrees, who loves Asian food as a general rule. I pretty much lived on the snickers bars I bought at cost-co before the trip. It's no wonder I gained five pounds.
3. Beijing air quality probably reduced my life by 5-10 years. Visibility was really poor because of pollution. Makes LA look like the cleanest city on earth. We would blow our noses at the end of the night and black would come out. No exaggeration.
4. Chinese people have NO concept of personal space. If you're in their way, don't worry, you won't be for long. People will literally push you out of the way.
5. Chinese people have NO concept of waiting in a line. It's every man for himself in this country. If you're waiting to go to the bathroom you'll wait forever. In other words, don't wait. Simply push in front of everyone else to the nearest stall and barge your way in. Otherwise you may as well pee your pants because you'll never get your turn. Literally. I learned this lesson at the Great Wall of China where I wanted to deck every single person in the bathroom. Don't worry, I didn't. No communist prisons for this American.
6. Chinese people have NO concept of germ control. It's no wonder I had a cold when I was there and when I was in Hong Kong. People cough on you, sneeze on you, spit in front of you, and are constantly hocking and clearing their throats in the most disgusting and obnoxious way possible. It's enough to make you want to puke.
7. Not tourist friendly. No one speaks English, which is fine. I don't expect people to in foreign countries. It's just different than anywhere else I've traveled. Thank goodness Catherine knew Mandarin or we would have been SOL.8. Toilets are generally in the form of squaters (a whole in the ground), and you have to bring your own toilet paper.
Now, having said all this... the things we saw and did in China were absolutely spectacular. The landscape is beautiful. The Great Wall of China is truly a wonder to behold and made
my top ten list of best life experiences. That alone was worth the time and money spent. We ventured into several small village
s where the locals make no more than $30 per year. Yes, I said per YEAR. They are totally self-sufficient. We also took a river boat cruise through the "finger mountains" and hiked through the Longji-Terraced Rice fields. Never seen anything like it. Stunning. We took a float down a small river on a bamboo raft. Surprisingly enough, we enjoyed our best Chinese meal at a local village. Quite tasty actually. Also, too our pleasant surprise we still had our appetite for this meal even though we had been to the worst smelling bathroom only minutes before. I swear a p
ig wandered through during the middle of our business. Turns out the incessant oinking I heard was indeed from a pig. His stall was right next door. The Terracotta Warriors blow your mind. To have survived over 2000 years is amazing. They were all hand carved and buried with the emperor who conceived of them... for the purpose of protecting him in the afte
rlife. Nothing like stone to protect you when you're dead. Don't worry. This kind emperor had all the sculptors buried alive for their hard work and service. Disturbing. Everything is fairly inexpensive there. Cabs are SUPER cheap as is food, water, and souvenires. That pretty much sums up China! Oh, also on a positive note, you still get served meals on flights in China. No matter what time of day. Ha! What a concept.Vietnam was much more pleasant than China. The people were friendlier. Things were even less expensive (if that was even possible). The food was much tastier. And I didn't feel watched QUITE as much. Not as many cameras everywhere. My favorite Vietnamese meals were
the Pho (famous soup) and the elephant ear fish. Yes, I actually ate that fish. Scary looking as he was. Tasted very good. I was tired enough of snickers to s
uck it up and try it. We stayed on a beach resort for a few days where I did some kayaking and got a nice tan. This particular beach (called China beach) is where US soldiers would go for R&R during the war. The water was perfect and the view amazing.From there we headed to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). We toured the floating markets and some villages in the area. Again very impoverished people. They live on their boats in the market for days at a time selling the goods they raised on their farms. If you want some corn, or a pumpkin, or some tomatoes you simply get in your wooden boat and ride up to the other boats on the river and purchase what you need. You then go back to the business of selling your own goods.
Our final stop was at the Cu Chi Tunnels. Although very interesting and admittedly brilliant, this was unfortunately a death trap for thousands of American and south Vietnamese soldiers. The north Vietnamese built hundreds of miles of tunnels underground to avoid bombings during the war. They placed endless booby traps throughout the forest and had
endless entry points in and out of the tunnels. The Americans didn't know what hit them. The Vietnamese lived in these tunnels for upwards of five years or more only coming out to fight or for a two hour reprieve in the middle of the night after the Americans had retreated. We crawled through one of the tunnels (made larger for tourists). No more than 3 feet tall and two feet wide. And that was larger! It was kind of miserable. We were sweating like pigs by the time we got out 5 minutes later. Can't imagine living underground for so long. Dark, cramped, stuffy, no space. Terrible experience for all involved in this horrible war. On that positive note... we began our travels home..... TO.... God Bless America!!!!!!!My first meal was Mexican food. I had been dreaming about it from the moment I landed in China. It was just as amazing as I remembered it.
For those of you looking for a vacation destination, take my advice... hit up somewhere in North America.... or maybe Europe... or how about Mexic? Oh wait, I mean don't go to Mexico. Until next time...
1 comments:
Wow, those views are truly spectacular and breathtaking! You got some fabulous pictures. The Great Wall must have been so cool, and those tunnels are crazy. I can't imagine staying in them for years!
And by the way, ew, about the black snot at the day's end. That is perhaps the most disturbing aspect of your trip, how do people live past the age of 30 over there? Glad you survived and weren't thrown in jail for taking a picture of the government's cameras, shown at the top of your post!
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