All and all, wer'e just another brick in the wall

Or in other words- today I went to the Great wall of China. Could have been awesome, if I'd actually manage to get a peek at the scenery but hey, I'm not greedy.
Actually the weather was dreadful, worst vision in the world and the place was swapped with people but I did like it quite a lot.
I have uploaded the photos from the wall....not much of the view, so don't expect anything amazing:-)

Food market- how much is the doggy in the window?

On Tuesday, after I got back from the forbidden city, I decided to go with a few people to the "bar Strip". I don't know which of them to count as the under-estimation of the week- the "bar" part or the "strip"- it's like 5 crappy places with very expensive beer.
Later we went to a dance club. I felt I was raising the age average, and Zohar (an Israeli girl I met here) and me kept mocking drunk western girls dancing. Also some kind of fun.
Yesterday I decided I am going to get lost in Beijing- I just left with no map or guide and walked- and ended up going to a really cool shopping mall and an awesome food court that had things that I actually eat. Now that doesn't happen very often. So cool...
Later I decided to go to an acrobat show with a couple of Israelis- only we got there too late so we decided to skip and go back. So I guess I can say I spent the afternoon "exploring". Yeah right.
At the evening a bunch of us went to the food market. Oy Gevult. There are booths all over the place with stuff like worms, scorpions, snakes, cow stomach, sea horse, star fish, octopus and many more of the little mermaid's gang, as well as stuff like chicken, pork and I'm pretty sure I spotted a dog, which gives a whole new connotation to the song "How much is the doggy in the window". EEEWWWW!!!! The smell at the place is just delightful.
One of the gang was a dutch guy who ate a grasshopper- now that's just wrong, Pinocchio will be very mad. He said it actually tasted rather good, only a few minutes later he started to have an allergic reaction to it. I of course, started panicking, and he was all so cool about it- he wanted to stop at McDonald and have a cheeseburger. Well he did, and a few minutes later his face went back to normal. Lesson to be learned kids- make sure you are not allergic to grasshopper BEFORE eating it. And if you do- have a cheeseburger, if it won't kill ya, it'll make you better.

And yet- another post

In case you were wondering how come I post so often- it is pouring outside so I am in the hostel waiting for it to calm down.
Two funny incidents- yesterday as I entered the dorm room 2 Israeli girls were talking. One was looking for a band aid so I offered her one. She stared at me and said: "That's wrong, you don't look Israeli, you look American or Indian or something". I told her how accurate she was, and it was funny. The second thing actually happened in Zhongdian- I was sitting in a coffee shop when I hear 2 Israeli girls talking- Israeli1:"I think she's from Israel" IL2:"She doesn't look Israeli" IL1:"Yeah, but she has Shoresh sandals" and they kept going on and on when I realized they were talking about me so I said:"Paam habaha sheaten medabrot al mishehu, tishtadlu shehu lo yavin. Aniti lachen al hasheela?" They were embarrassed, but I thought it was funny.
Today I decided to go to the forbidden city- it's like 30 minutes away (walking), with crappy weather. It is huge, one can spend like 2 whole days in there. I kind of got the hang of it after 2 hours and went back. At some point I noticed a bunch of Americans waiting in a perfect line- when I got close I realized they were waiting for the STARBUCKS. How low can you go?! It's China, the forbidden city and they have a freakin Starbucks there?! Of course I bought a Frappaccino, took 2 sips and realized I don't even like coffee... but the whole concept was weird. By the way, tourist refer to it as the forbidden Starbucks. Love it!
I also learned today that part of the preparation to the Olympic games is to ban spitting and teach Chinese people how to stand in line- they are like Israelis when it comes to that. The way they teach it, get this- they make them stand in a line for 2 hours, and that's it. The line doesn't go anywhere, they just stand. Weird.
Anyway , I finally got a ticket to Hanoi for Tuesday- July 3rd- the last day I am allowed to be in China. So this is it. And now- new photos are UP at the China gallery. Enjoy...

Of course it didnt work....

And as my Slovakian friends would say- Sprosta Machina (stupid machine). I told you computers hate me...

Beijing- Is it possible they are hosting the olympic games?

And I wonder...I only crossed signs/merchandise/memos to that like 7,000,000 times today. How come I only go to cities that host the Olympic games a few months *before*? it makes no sense. oh well.
Today I moved to a hostel named Leo- it's a VERY popular place among travelers and slightly cheaper than the place I was staying at until now. I decided that it's a good day to go to the summer palace. Wrong! Actually there is no such thing. The place is great, beautiful etc.- only the pollution in this god forsaking country is so bad that even with complete sun you can dream of having good vision. Fun. It took one and a half hours to get there by bus- and that's without leaving town. Man this place is big.
Another funny thing is that I keep coming across signs of companies I am pretty sure were customers of Viola. Huwaii- I am hunting you down, wherever you are...!!! huh!
Yeah I am just babbling now. Anyway I am making yet another attempt to upload photos-hope this time it works but don't count on it- computers hate me.

Kunming, Beijing,and in betwing

So I was going to be on my own for 2 days before I leave to Beijing....only Gil's wallet was stolen 3 hours before his train, so he has to stay one more night... oh well.
So here I am, in Beijing- I took a flight seeing as 38 hours by train didn't sound like a great idea when I'm with stomach problems. I am staying in the touristic area- which really looks like a "shchunat pachonim", and is really close to Tienanmen square.
Beijing is SO damn big! it took over an hour to get from the airport to downtown!
Anyway today I went to the Vietnamese embassy and explored a little, finding myself in the pearl/silk market- both names random- it's a huge indoor market where people literally grab you when you bargain and walk away. But it's very very nice.
Random fact of this week- for some reason I have the most weird thing stuck to my head: Frost's "Stopping By Woods.." (.."Whose woods these are, I think I know, his house is in the village though" etc.). God knows where that came from.The second thing stuck to my head is a song, curtsey of my grandma who used to sing it all the time, and it goes like this (sing by the tune of "My Bonny Is Over The Ocean":
Last night as I laid on my pillow
Last night as I laid in my bed
I stuck my feet out of the window
In the morning my neighbors were dead
Aaaand bring back, bring back, oh bring back my neighbors to me hi hi...

Now I was humming it myself when some American guy heard me and started laughing. oops.

So I guess this is it for now....I'm alone, and alive, and a legal alien, god knows what that has to do with anything.

Kunming- fun place to get sick in

Kunming is the capital of the Yunnan province- now after being in "small towns" with populations of 1,000,000 people we arrived here. Sigh. According to the lonely planet, there were 6,800,000 people in 2002- so I guess I had just arrived to Israel. In one city. Nifty! Now that's nuts.
Anyway, the way here was fun...another 10 hours sleeping bus....and we got here at 5:00, so we got another one hour of sleep on the bus, and at 6:00 the driver woke everyone up and we had to get out.
We are staying in a cool youth hostel called "the Hump"- nothing to do we the stupid Black Eyed peas song.
Today I decided to go to a hospital because I have been having a really bad stomach ache for the past few days. Oy, the shame. I got to the hospital, was escorted to a room with a nurse and doctor, of course neither of them speak any English, they put me on the phone with an English speaking person, god knows who, and then just shoved medications in my hand and let me go. I was frustrated as hell, and later decided to go to a second hospital. Thank god there was a- slightly-English-speaking doctor and he actually examined me-crazy! So now I have to take antibiotics and I am way less frustrated with the Chinese people. And I have to say that Soroka looks like a very peaceful place compared to the Chinese hospital.
Something else that is going on is that I have decided not to continue with Gil to Guanxi province, so I will be staying here for a few days until I'm better and then go to Beijing, stay there for a few days and then I say goodbye to China!
so this is it...I guess. Check out the China photo album, I'm adding the latest photos and signs to it.

And... back to Lijiang

I have to say that having some time to myself was rather fun- I got to hang out with an American woman named Stephanie and an American guy named Ted, I also finally gone Chinese folk dancing and did very well! Erica would be so proud... (not). it was actually very easy to follow, and this old woman in traditional clothes got a real kick from the western girl trying to follow the steps.

so yesterday I arrived back to Lijiang- after the best bus ride in a NON SMOKING BUS! I didn't know such thing existed. How exciting.
Anyway, I arrived at about 15:30 and went straight to the Guest house- to see that it is full of people- half of them Israelis. The cool thing is that I managed to swap my book (by the way- Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer- weird book, but I liked it a lot!), and the coolest thing is that finally I have non Chinese music of my MP3 player! Hhooray for that!
And then it was showering rain (why!? no, seriously, why???), so I ended up staying at the GH with a few Israelis and we taught a few guys how to play Taki. It was actually very funny.
And at about Nine Gil arrived back from the trek in Deqine. So this is it... tonight or tomorrow we are heading to Kunming, the Capital of Yunnan province.

Deqin- and Back to Zhondian

On Friday we left for Deqine (pronounced "Dechine")- we were told it's about a 5-6 hours ride... it was 7, in a very foggy yet gorgeous and dangerous road. When we arrived, a Chinese guy (also tourist) came up to us and ask if we want to share a cab to Feilai (it's a village near by where most tourist stay) and we did. Afterwards he also helped us find a decent accommodation (how useful it is to have a Chinese speaking guy with you!) and we went to eat. His name is Wesley (of course his Chinese name is much more complicated) and he is very nice. We also met a guy named Chao, Chinese who spent 14 years in Germany, and a girl named Shadow (Red Shadow actually), also Chinese, and we were all hanging out together.
The following morning Gil and Wesley decided to go on the Deqine Trek- I decide to skip because the weather is horrible, I wasn't feeling so good and I think I can use a few days on my own, So I headed back to Zhondian, and here I am. I spent yesterday evening hanging out with an American lady named Stephanie, and today I plan to hang out and do nothing....and tomorrow I'll be heading back to Lijiang, where i am due to meet Gil later on this week.
I also came up with a new hobby- taking photos of weird signs with funny mistakes. You can find a few on the last Bach of photos, but there are a few I wish I would photograph such as: "This toilet is only for peeing", "Please help us save hot water and power, so China won't have to build another dam", "Be car ful of the falling rocks" (mistakes are as the original).
So this is it for now....

Zhongdien (Or Shangri-La)

Yesterday we arrived here, after a 5 hours bus ride which was very nice. This is a city that it's charm is in the old city, but compared to Dali and Lijiang it's pretty lame. The cool thing was at evening- we went to the so called old town square, and they were doing Chinese folk dancing. it's actually pretty cool- I even joined them for a while, but with my lame experience in dancing I gave it up pretty quickly. But I am very proud of my Chines-folk-dancing experience:-)
Today we rented bikes and decided to go see the Napa sea- a lake which is about 10 KM for the town. Happy and light hearted we biked, in the freezing wind, just to discover that the damn lake is DRY! and we already paid the admission fee. Boy we were pissed. We biked back, stopped were there is a nice temple, and a nice lady charged us 2 Y (which is like a shekel).... to take a photo. After that we just biked back.
I met quite a few people here- some of them we met before on the Tiger Leaping and in Dali and Lijiang.
Believe it or not- I uploaded NEW photos! yay! I can't believe I finally managed to do so....
So I guess this is it...no witty stories for today......yet.
tomorrow we are heading to Decine (or Deqin) it's the most Northern part of Yunnan, and it's on the border with Tibet, and it should be very nice and freezing. we are likely to stay there for about a week and then go back to Lijiang and to Kunming. So that's it for now...

Tiger Leaping- Hutiaou Xia

So I got back from the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek! It started yesterday- we took a bus for 2 hours, and started climbing a HUGE mountain. All way long a man with a donkey escorted me, waiting for me to bale and pay him some money to take me to the top and guess what- I did eventually. It was raining, and cold and I was soaking wet, but the view was just breathtaking.
Later we finished the first day in the Halfway Guest house, so we sat there, freezing,with a really weird bunch of people- a girl for Austria named Billie, an Italian guy named Stefano, 2 Danish women and three people from New Zealand- all in their mid 50s. One of them starting telling us stories about weeds and constipation- fun! It was very nice, and funny- I had a great time hanging out with them.
Today we got up at 8:00, and decided to go down towards a the river and head back. Usually there is a longer trail, but due to some very dangerous landslides it isn't very safe. Gil took a longer way and we met on the way back. All in all, very tiring but lovely. and good exercise:-)

tomorrow we are leaving Lijiang to Zhongdian ( I think). And it's going to be nice and freezing!
so this is it for today..... once again, I really hope at some point I'll find a picasa/USB friendly computer...

Lijiang

So after a day of getting lost in the maze which calls itself "the old city"- I finally managed to find myself. GREAT! actually it's a very nice city- the old city IS tourism- it's like a giant pedestrian mall (midrachov), stone streets, and very easy to get lost in- but it's full of colors and life and well, it's cool.
so yesterday we went to see the black dragon park- the first time having a student ID actually gave me a discount:-) it's very very nice.
Today we went to the jade snow mountain- Icy glacier, huge mountain (4506 meters) and a very fast and foggy cable car ride.
Tomorrow we are planning to do the Tiger leaping Gorge trek almighty- it takes between 2-3 days to complete the trek, and we hear that it's worth it... so we'll see how it goes.
Meanwhile, hope all of you had a nice weekend, and I wish you all a great week!

Lijiang-or Happy Birthday to me!

So, today (June 9th) I am celebrating my 23rd Birthday.. actually it's not much of celebrating, but still:-)
Today we left Dali in favor of Lijiang, which is a city located about 3 hours north. We just arrived an hour ago and we are now settling in the guest house, but the view is amazing- including mountains and SNOW on the peaks. Just Great!
We might be going to the Tiger leaping Gorge trek- it's a two days trek that is supposedly very pretty...
anyway that's it for now... I'll update again soon....I hope.
Meanwhile have a great weekend and a great week..

Dali- or how to kill your legs in one day

So today we have decided to take a hike to the near by mountains- climb up, see a temple, go on about 10 KM to another temple and come back.
When we asked, we were told that getting to the first temple takes about a 40 minutes climbing. Yeah right! It took Gil 40 minutes, and it took me 2 HOURS! Even a couple of senior citizens climbed it faster than me. It was steep, long and since I've walked on my own I wasn't sure what path to take- only to find out that as Gil said:"All ways lead to Rome". Rome wasn't very impressive, though; But then we went on the hike from temple A to Temple B and that was just gorgeous. Beautiful, not very steep, not that bad weather... amazing. when we reached the second one we went down by a cable car, but all and all, it was great and I earned the pain in my legs and blisters in my feet very respectfully.
so that's it for today....new photos will probably come when I actually find a USB/memory card supportive computer..

"See China right in front of you.." (U2, Beautiful day)

After a few days of not writing, here I come again, from China!
The trip to Jinghong, our first destination in China was hell: 24 hours on a sleeping bus, a bus with what they refer to as beds and I refer to as toothpicks with a pillow. Of course since we got on the bus after it left its first stop we got stuck on the back- 5 beds in a row, which basically meant I was either turning right and spooning Gil, or turning left and spooning a strange Chinese guy. Fun!
Another thing that caught me unprepared was the fact that Chinese people have a very unusual habit- they spit. And they put their heart, soul and body liquids into it. Gross! We see this cute little Chinese Girl, and out of now where we hear KHKHK and she spits her guts out, on the floor. EW! horrible.
Anyway we arrived in Jinghong on Sunday night, spent a night in what Gil referred to as a room and I as a dog house, then left and spent Monday wandering around town-8 hours of walking around and exploring. And after the first shock and lack of English it's was quite cool.
On Tuesday evening we took a flight to Dali- a town which is located in North Yunnan and here we are. It is absolutely beautiful (I think I should come up with some new words), and today we went Cormorant fishing- it's a unique way to fish with birds (basically it's quite cruel- they take the fish out of the Bird's beak. Bet your not having fish again. Now we are just hanging out. By the way I hope I'll have a chance to update again- I can't seem to log on to my blog here for some reason (here being China). Anyway we are staying here until Saturday, I think.
So long, and thank you for the fish..

Bye Bye LAOS

Tonight we are leaving for China, so this is our last day here in Luang Prabang. I Actually had a lovely time in the past few days: Met a bunch of "siblings" in Beit Chabbad on Thursday, and went bowling- I'm proud to say that I still suck! Gil was actually winning, and Nir was even worst than I was... on the first game.

On Friday we hooked up with Jit and Phil- 2 English guys we met in Vang Vieng (Gil called them Harold and Kummar, guess why) and along with a guy from Denmark we went to a waterfall which was absolutely beautiful- turquoise water, plants, fish... tourist picnicking all over the place... really really nice.

When we returned we went with then to an Indian restaurant- I think there is a hole in my tongue... clearly I was born in the wrong Eda.

In the evening we went to Beit Chabbad for Shabbat dinner- it was lovely. We were about 30, some of them we knew and some not, and it was really nice.

Today we woke up to find out there is no electricity nor running water- and it kept going until the middle of lunch (again, in Beit Chabbad- by the way, the locals don't know what "Chabbad house" is, but if you ask about "Beit Chabbad" they will know exactly what you're taking about)- so that was fun....different kind of mingling, sweaty. Ew.

So now we are pretty much doing nothing.....just burning time until our bus to Jingxong (if I remember correctly)- we are leaving at 10 and it's at least 18 hours.... oy.

Anyhow, have a lovely week:-)