Xian, China - Terra Cotta Warriors

We arrived in Xi'an and, like many other people there, had one thing on our mind - the Terra Cotta warriors. We visited the army on the first day and unfortunately, after that, nothing else in Xi'an could compare.

The story, in short, is that when Emperor Qin died in 209 BC he was buried in an extremely elaborate mausoleum (as of yet unearthed because it contains Indiana Jones like defences) and accompanied 8,099 life sized soldier and horse statues.

At present only about 1,000 of the are uncovered, the rest remain buried until they can be excavated and reconstructed.

Each terra cotta warrior is unique in height, weight and facial features. Some of the original color lacquer finish is just barely visible in the previous and next photo. They are arranged in order of height and rank.

Five years after Emperor Qin's death General Xiang Yu, worried that the Emperor would return commanding a formidable terra cotta army, ordered the statues be destroyed and their weapons removed. Xiang Yu was particularly concerned about the highest ranking terra cotta warriors and his men, set on destruction, acted accordingly. Note that after multiple attempts at restoration and reconstruction, all of the Generals in the terra cotta command post (separate pit, following picture) are still missing their heads.

These horses and accompanying carriage were found separately from the other terra cotta warriors, closer to Emperor Qin's mausoleum.

Of course, we did see a few other sites in Xi'an, notably the city wall. Constructed in the 1300s AD, this 12km long wall is one of the best preserved city walls in China. We saw parts of two sides, one corner and got about 1/4 of the way around before deciding that we had a pretty good idea what the rest of the wall looked like. The haze in the following picture is smog, not fog.

We also visited the Big Goose Pagoda - Xi'an's other iconic landmark. This seven tired structure (bottom two tiers are obscured by the temple) was built more than 1,300 years ago to hold Buddhist sutras.

The Bell Tower is located in the center of town is used as the starting point for all directions. Like many of the other buildings in town, its well lit at night. Its counterpart, the Drum Tower, is also a local landmark but the surroundings are not as interesting. Both towers are used, surprise, for drum and bell performances.

Finally: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Chengdu: Giant Pandas Giant Buddhas

We left Kathmandu and were very excited to be heading back to China. On the plane ride, we somehow managed to meet John, a friend of our friend Tom in Beijing - small world. His help with translation and knowledge of the area were indispensable to our experience in Chengdu.

Chengdu, with a metropolitan population of more than 14 million people, is like a number of other mega cities in China - completely unknown to most people in the west. As the capital of the Sichuan province however it holds a claim on all of the area's Pandas and the eponymous variety of spicy food. Chengdu is a contradiction though, there is a dichotomy between old and new. In the public parks, people sit around in tea houses playing Mah Jong, chatting, singing and, most importantly, drinking tea for hours. In other parts of the park, people play instruments, sing and exercise . In the city center though, there are colorful fountains and shining, new luxury brand stores like Ferragamo, Dior, and Louis Vuitton. The people run the gamut between young, affluent trend setters and sociable elderly. The city is definitely more relaxed and running at a slower pace than Beijing.

Our first night in Chengdu we went out for a local specialty, a hot pot dinner. This dish is somewhat like a Chinese take on oil fondue - you order a broth, meats, and vegetables then dump all the food in the broth, let it cook and enjoy. Featured prominently in our dish, like many Sichuanese dishes, were Xanthoxylon peppers. These caper sized fireballs come on a vine, in clumps like grapes and are so strong they make your mouth go numb. The sensation is somewhat like a mild anesthetic with a dash of Tabasco sauce. I was sweating and my whole mouth was tingling after dinner.

We spent our first full day in Chengdu outside the city - about 140km away in the small town (population > 300,000) of Leshan. Our first stop in the city was the local market. We walked past lurching bags of frogs, noisy crates full of chickens, ducks, and rabbits, bowls of fish and snakes, and at one point a pot of turtles. In no short time, the local vendors would sell all these creatures to people for dinner. (see the photo of Ellie holding a rabbit) The main attraction in the town, however, is the worlds largest Buddha. At 71m tall, seated, the Buddha's large toe is said to be large enough to hold a picnic. The Buddha was originally built in the 700s AD  - besides that there is not much to say, other than that it is a very large Buddha. We spent the rest of our time in, or nearby Chengdu.

We briefly visited a street market in Chengdu, it was refreshing to see turtles being sold as pets, not food. Vendors sold all the elements you would need for a traditional Chinese garden plants, rocks, fish, pond equipment, and turtles of many different shapes and sizes. Some were smaller than a palm, fully grown, and some were easily more than 30lbs with spikes. A few vendors rode by on bicycles covered in bird cages.

My favorite part of our visit to Chengdu was, perhaps, the Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base. We spent the majority of our time there watching baby giant pandas eating in the nursery. Unfortunately the guards were quite militant about enforcing the no picture policy and I was unable to sneak off any good shots. The adult pandas spend most of their time eating, sleeping and playing - fortunately we timed our visit with the morning feeding and were able to see lots of pandas awake and eating. The panda base was also home to a large number of red pandas. These are much smaller than giant pandas and look suspiciously like a cross between a red fox and a giant panda. There's a funny thing about China - you can do an awful lot with about $6. (see picture of me with the red panda)

Our final stop in Chengdu, before boarding the train to Xi'an, was a local opera. We couldn't understand much but got around that issue with the help of a local named Tray Lee who translated surprisingly well. I'm certainly extrapolating but the opera seemed to be a triumphal moral comedy. It followed a down on his luck gambler's antics as he tried to sell his wife as a prostitute for gambling money and her eventual revenge. Most of the theater-goers were the relaxed elderly we'd seen in parks earlier and sat around drinking tea during the performance.

Final thoughts on Nepal

Namaste, the all purpose word Nepalis use for hello, goodbye, thank you, and how are you is my favorite greeting thus far. When translated directly into English it means "I salute the god in you." The Nepalis say Namaste with grasped hands, as if praying, and big smiles - it is a pleasure to greet and be greeted in this country!

Men walk down the street holding hands with each other all the time but I never saw a man showing his affection for a woman. Its not sexual, just a sign of friendship and it looks quite odd at first.

It is said that Nepalis carry more on their backs than any other culture and I'd certainly believe it! From bricks to laundry to chickens, I've seen Nepalis carry mind boggling loads - once a Nepali man walked by carrying an American sized, family style refrigerator on his back!

Its much better to joke with the pushy tiger balm salesmen than be bothered by them.

Royal Chitwan National Park

We set out on the morning of the seventh for Royal Chitwan National Park, a nearly 1,000 sq km nature preserve in south central Nepal. Our bus ride from Pokhara to Sauraha took about five hours and was much like our other experiences on Nepali roads: paved but extremely bumpy, a few buses had fallen off cliffs on the side of the road, and occasionally we had to squeeze down to one lane because landslides had blocked the rest of the road. When we got off the bus, representatives from all the local hotels swarmed us and all the other people who had arrived on the foreigner only bus and quite obviously needed a hotel. Fortunately we had booked our hotel in advance and made our way to the Jungle Wildlife Camp quite easily. Our accommodations were right outside the park and thus on the cheaper end of lodging in the area but had an excellent view of a river and some grasslands. We could see elephants from our front porch!


We ran into two Dutch guys, Vincent and Robert, who we had met before in Pokhara and two Brits, Guy and Will joined us later. After a few hours of downtime and a short car ride, we arrived at the government run Elephant Breeding Center - the four elephants playing soccer completely made up for missing out on Elephant Polo a few weeks earlier.




We walked around the center and fed a number of baby elephants - their trunks are surprisingly dexterous!


On the ride home we stopped to pick up some firewood and were swarmed by Nepalese children who wanted nothing more than to say hello and shake our hands. They didn't ask for money or candy, just greeted us and then seemed to completely lose interest and run off. For someone who is not used to crowds of adoring fans, it was quite pleasant to have some!

The next morning we woke up early to go for a bird and crocodile watching canoe ride then jungle walk, which is exactly what you might expect. A quick ride in a canoe, followed by a walk through the jungle. The canoe was quite similar to those made by Native Americans, a large tree carved into the shape of a canoe with dug out seating.


We arrived at the canoe center and waited... and waited... and waited for two hours but our boat man didn't show up.I got bored and decided to borrow a canoe for a few moments and paddle around in the stream. Our guide must have taken the hint because we left shortly thereafter. We saw a number of crocodiles and storks. More interesting than either of these, however, was the local Tharu families washing themselves and their clothes in the river while fishing for their dinner in close proximity to the crocodiles. Our guide ensured us that those particular crocodiles ate only fish, but I was quite happy to stay away from them.


We saw wild monkeys and deer and some tiger tracks on our jungle walk but sadly no actual tigers.




The government run elephant safari center was a surprisingly commercial outfit. When we arrived we found a flock of tourists and easily a dozen elephants. At four tourists per elephant, there were a lot of people in the jungle. We even caught one Nepali man talking on his cell phone DURING the safari!



We saw some more deer and even the rare, one horned, Indian Rhinoceros a mother and child!


The tour was quite thrilling - and an experience that I was quite glad to have had but also one that I would not repeat. Some of the elephant prodding tools looked quite barbaric and I'm quite sure the elephant did not enjoy getting kicked behind the ears. Although people make analogies about the thickness of an elephant's hide for a reason, such a majestic creature certainly deserves much better treatment!

Had to do it:


We visited in the middle of the winter, but you couldn't tell unless you knew better since the weather was actually quite pleasant. Although you would be cold without a light fleece and pants at night, the days were warm, almost hot and anything other than shorts and a t-shirt at noon was far too much. The summers are, without doubt, oppressively hot. The local buildings we saw were a reflection of both these conditions and the available materials. The walls were very thin, nothing more than reeds woven together and covered in mud. The roofs were, for the most part, thatched but when possible people upgraded to wooden shingles or tin.


Between the well stocked rivers and lush vegetation all around, the people and animals were well fed, although not without difficulties. Three years ago Maoists bombed the area quite frequently but most of the violence seems to have subsided these days. Today the Maoists have been integrated into the political process and form a small but vocal part of the government. Still though they have been known to hassle trekkers and there has been at least one bombing in the past year. The most anyone would have to worry about is perhaps paying a small, "voluntary" donation (no more than Rs100 or about $1.60 per day) and the Maoists will even issue a receipt! It is a bit morally objectionable but far safer and easier than the alternative. That being said, the big cities and major tourist areas are completely safe from such attacks as the Maoists don't target tourists and most of the locals don't support them anyway. The Nepalis that we've run into have all been very friendly and many of them speak an impressive amount of English.

Tomorrow morning we are heading back to China for a few weeks and plan on visiting Chengdu, Xi'an, Shanghai, and Hong Kong in that order.

Fortunately we will not be flying Royal Nepali Airlines who, earlier this year, sacrificed two goats because one of their planes was having technical problems.

Finally, ChasingGoats in Bhaktapur, Nepal:

Another shot of paragliding

Me para gliding! (click the picture to see full size)

Adventures in Pokhara

Outside the restaurant where we were having breakfast the other day, we ran into a snake charmer! He tried to sell us the snake.

Afterwards, we headed down the street to Blue Sky Paragliding. We took a van up to Mt. Sarangkot - small for the peaks around here, but still easily 1,500 feet above the city - where we had some excellent views and readied for take-off. As I clipped on my harness the pilot said when I tell you to go, run off that cliff - I've always been very good at following instructions.

I took a few strides and began to feel the glider pulling upward on my harness, moments later I was airborne. The glider seat was surprisingly comfortable - more like a chair than a harness - and I never needed the safety straps to keep me in, although it was nice to know that they were there. The whole trip was very quiet the only sound you can hear is the wind, so I could talk easily with the pilot who dutifully answered the barrage of questions I had. We floated around for half an hour spiraling upwards in thermals then coasting around while slowly descending. The ride started on top of the mountain but ended down by the lake - along the way we passed over a few Nepali settlements and enjoyed some great views of the Annapurna Himalaya!


Later in the day we rented a boat and spent about two hours on Phewa Tal. We literally ran into a Canadian couple on the water while pirating! They took the joke in good humor and even had dinner with us later.



The rest will be brief because I am getting kicked out of the internet cafe. Earlier today I got a shave!

Later in the day we hiked up to the World Peace Pagoda at sunset and took some great pictures of the Annapurna Himalayas.


The descent was dark and tricky but we made it to the water and shared a boat back to town in the dark with a German we met while hiking!

Undisputed Scooter Champion of Pokhara

We arrived in Pokhara on the second, by way of Kathmandu. Unfortunately, we had to scrap our plans to visit Bandipur because I came down with a case of food poisioning that kept us in Kathmandu for two extra days. I am in good spirits and good health now though.

Pokhara is the second largest city in Nepal - its significantly smaller and has a decidedly unhurried pace of life compared to Kathmandu. The street salesmen here are even more relaxed - I've found myself having to tone back the snappy, almost mean "NO!" that I developed in Thamel because one polite no will suffice and they don't even follow you for blocks afterwards. The change is quite pleasant and very welcome! I attribute this town's relaxed demeanor to its proximity to Phewa Tal lake - Pokhara is a beach town in the middle of Nepal.

We woke today and decided to get a feel for the town by renting motor scooters and running around. Unfortunately some unseasonal rain cut into our scooting time but after a two hour delay, we grabbed rain jackets and continued on!

Pokhara was definitely the right place to rent scooters - our tour through Old Pokara included only a few, barely notable shrines that were quite far apart. There just aren't as many temples, stupas, squares or shrines as there are in any of the other places we've visited so far. Still though the scooter was thrilling and changed what would have otherwise been a tepid day into an exciting tour all over Pokhara. After a few hours bombing around backstreets, we wound up at the International Mountain Museum (where we would get stuck because of rain). We had plenty of time to check out every single exhibit, and then thoroughly examine them again. Some of the exhibits were quite interesting, original gear from the 1953 first ascent of Mt. Everest, and some were not, preserved snakes, but we had a great time learning about the worlds highest peaks and some of the people who climbed them.

We have some exciting things planned in the next two days - stay tuned for updates!