Long Day's Journey Into Night

Apr 19, 2011

Greetings from Beijing:

Carol and I are off on a trip which has long been on the books and is finally finding fruition – to wit – the old Silk Road across China and into Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. We’ll have 35 days retracing the old caravan routes into the hinterlands of China and across the mountains into Central Asia. It’s not a journey  which  we could do by ourselves so we opted for using a company with whom we traveled when we went to Tibet/Everest – World Encounters. Not cheap, but you get what you pay for, and that’s all you can ask for. Good infrastructure, well planned out itineraries, and, at least on our two trips with them, no Americans. What more can you ask for, dangling prepositions and all.

Traveling west from the left coast of the U.S. you follow the sun on its inexorable path and hence it is difficult to get any sleep since there are always those who keep their windows open so they can see the Pacific Ocean up close and personal from 35,000 feet. We flew Korean Air and were surprisingly pleased at the leg room. Individual entertainment centers made the 11 hour flight to Seoul more tolerable, and four movies, two meals later we landed.  Meals are served either western or Korean style. Carol took the Korean and I woozed out, as usual, for the western. Don’t get me wrong. I love Korean food, but given the fact that it was airline food, it’s gonna be marginal at best. Best part was real silverware. Knives and forks which have some heft to them and actually cut and skewer food as opposed to  the plastic crap which wobbles back and forth like a dowsing rod as soon as it comes anywhere close to food. The movies were up to date: King’s Speech, True Grit and others which were watchable. I started with the Gulliver’s Travels, but bailed on that one as soon as Jack Black dropped his pants and peed on all the Lilliputians to put out the fire. Okay that hasn’t been entertainment to me since 8^th grade.

Landing in Seoul took me back to our first Korean trip when we came for the wedding of our son, Jeff, and were greeted by this irrepressible little thing with a Mickey Mouse cell phone container hanging around her neck. This boppy young woman who was to become our daughter, Anjin, immediately worked her way into our hearts and being back was just another Déjà vu all over again, as Yogi would say. I saw her everywhere in the airport as I wandered waiting for our flight to Beijing to board. Great memory!!

We swiftly worked our way through Chinese customs and easily found the  man with the sign reading: “Jim/Carol” who transferred us to our hotel. We were so happy we prearranged our transfers since we were absolutely trashed. The drive in was marked by several gridlock situations even at 9pm. The fact that streets are very poorly lit and when combining that fact the Chinese wear predominately black clothes and bicycles and mopeds do not have headlights makes the  fact that there are over a Billion Chinese really remarkable. This dimly lit scenario seems rife for population control and we had several near misses on the way to  our hotel.

We wanted to walk around a bit before hitting the bed, but while the spirits were willing, the body said no. A valium to relax the body enabled us to have a good night’s sleep. I had forgotten how hard beds were in Chinese hotels, and I did my best “Pollo Broaster” imitation – 15 minutes to a side and then turn for continuous even discomfort. The hotel is a good 3 star quality place with all the usual accoutrements, cable TV,  shampoo, lotion and the six different styles of condoms. I guess in a country with a billion people privacy is not a big thing because lots of people leave their doors open as they sit there watching TV, combing their hair and all the other things people do in their rooms.  I had to pay the equivalent of $75 deposit. I asked what for, and was informed it was for the mini-bar. When I checked it out, there were two cokes and the Chinese equivalent of orange fanta. Expensive things these cokes. 

I found Wi-fi in the hotel lobby – with limitations. Couldn’t get into my work email and Facebook is blocked. Geek that I am I had to check hockey scores and other critical factors which make the world turn. Would love to say that when I travel I leave the world behind, but not so. Contact with my kids and other factors to which I always have to have access I can’t leave behind. Go Sharks, Go Giants!!!

Breakfast in the  hotel was Chinese  versions of Max and Alex (our grandsons) wielding plastic swords threatening anyone with instant decapitation should they venture within striking distance. Breakfasts are amazingly varied from fried eggs and bacon to seaweed soup and cooked cabbage and mustard greens, along with the ever present rice and noodles. Coffee strong enough to satisfy my buddy Armando helped open the eyes and get my body moving.

Our hotel is located close to Tiananmen Square and we walked up to get the legs some exercise. We passed the ever present police always standing at attention with their white gloves hanging stiffly at their sides, kept our eyes peeled for the battery powered mopeds which make no noise as they come up behind you, and just checked out the people. There was the old lady riding her bike with her white poodle leashed to her side. She (hopefully they wouldn’t do this to a male dog) had died pink ears and tail looking like some caricature sold in the tourist shops. Young girls all seem to buy the same clothes. Black panty hose and short, black skirts. Somebody should tell them that the reinforced top of the pantyhose is not attractive when the skirt is too short to cover it. Young men are tee shirted versions of their western counterparts, while the elderly conform to the stereotypical Chinese picture. The box jackets and what Carol refers to as “Ample” pants – room enough for two. The Olympics are over and the grey pall that is Beijing has once again descended upon the city. They cleaned up their act, literally, but now it’s business as usual.

We were greeted in Tiananmen by crowds that made Bergen in July look like a country picnic. I’ve never seen such a multitude. They were all there to see Mao’s body lying in state. They line was 4/5 wide and wove its way back and forth for over a mile, and I do not exaggerate. Groups of 40 -60 people shuffled their way through the ever slowly moving line. They wear the same colored hats for easy identification, I presume. Knots of yellow, pink, and the ever-popular orange looked like little groups of lego blocks being moved about.  We saw Lenin’s yellowed, waxy body in Moscow and saw no reason to replicate that experience simply so that we could say we saw the dead bookends of Communist power elite especially when it meant doing the Mao shuffle for an hour just to get in.

So as you can see, we’re doing it again. Off on our little version of “Let’s see as much of the world as we can.” We just wanted to get something off to those of you who knew we were traveling and to inform the rest of you that there are emails coming for the next few weeks.