Yang Shuo (and HK again)

Yang Shuo

Hong Kong Revisit

Exploring Yang Shuo was so fun. There were so many great crags scattered around the city. We got to some by bike, some by mini-bus, and a few with lots of walking after being dropped off. We climbed eight out of the eleven days we were there. I bought my first climbing rope there. we rented our quickdraws - and after a scary close call with a falling rock I broke loose - our helmets from a local guide shop. I pushed myself to new heights in my rock climbing while there, by on-sighting a few 5.9s and 5.10s, including a 27 meter high 5.10b that required a tricky traverse to get to the start. The precarious belay station thankfully had an anchor to prevent the a possible 30 foot fall to the ground below. I barely made that climb, and I felt really proud about achieving that grade. The stone in Yang Shuo is all limestone like in Thailand, except with different coloring and formations, since it is inland. The stone was generally a lot sharper. You really had to climb with precision and care, never slapping wildly. You had to feel each handhold carefully and place your fingers between a bunch of sharp spikes sometimes.

Some crags were very tough to locate, and were disguised amongst many similarly odd shaped karsts, and once we figured out which was the the correct one, we still had to find our way to the base of the climbs. One time we had to hike along a farm trail which was blocked by a timid water buffalo and then weave our way through a network of flooded farm fields on narrow raised paths, and then hike up a steep approach to the belay ledges. Many crags involved approaches that were steep, rocky, muddy, and loose. I wore sandals on one of these that I hadn't expected, and ended up gashing my foot pretty badly. Luckily, I could still climb, since it didn't hurt too much. But with how wet it was there during our stay, it was really inconvenient. It rained every day, sometimes all day. Thankfully we were able to get in a lot of good climbing at some of the unsheltered crags on the drier days. And on days that it rained non-stop, we either had a rest day, or we visited the Chicken Cave for some great climbing. It was once an air-raid shelter and fort, and now it is a really fun place to hang out with people from all over the world, climb, and watch the sheets of rain wash over the rolling stone hills and woods. A few days followed the pattern of: get up, get out, climb, hide from sun and eat, climb some more, then run and hide from the approaching thunderstorm, and head back to town in the rain. The one day we biked out to the crags involved a long, wet ride back. But it was worth it. As was enduring the 90°+ temperatures with 90% humidity. It was essential to only climb in the shade. Even light bounced off of the clouds would bake and burn us. On most days we would pack about four or five liters of water each, and go through it all. When I returned to Minnesota and went climbing at Barn Bluff in Red Wing that weekend, the difference was quite striking. The setting and the climbing weren't nearly as awe-inspiring, but the weather certainly was. I was climbing, and I was comfortable. Next time I plan an international climbing trip, I will carefully consider the seasonal weather of each region I visit. We were in Yang Shuo during its wet season, and we suffered for it. The river crested, the streets flooded, but it was all okay. We made it there, we climbed, we ate great food, we learned about a different culture, and explored a beautiful place.

One memorable episode involved a restaurant which had possibly the worst translations for their menu ever. When we were viewing their menu outside before deciding to eat there, we started laughing so hard that we could hardly breathe. We had to leave to avoid making too much of a scene, but we went back and had dinner there another night. I surreptitiously snapped pictures of all of the menu, to bring back and share. The "Diced Chicken of Explosion" was pretty good, actually. Very spicy. We avoided the "Honey Barbecued Manure" though.

Our hotel, the Bamboo Inn, was very pleasant. It was unfortunate that I couldn't post to my blog there, since I did have plenty of free time to do so. Scott and I ended up watching a lot of pirated DVDs they had there. It was not always clear what language we'd be getting though. The text in "Up" was in Russian, though the dialogue was in English. "Watchmen" switched to Polish for a few minutes at the end. We gave up on a few because they were Dubbed in Chinese with either no subtitles or Chinese subtitles, such as Scorpion King, which had a hilariously poor choice of voice actor for The Rock. A little girl wouldn't have sounded much less masculine. They had delicious breads baked fresh every morning which became our staple crag grub. The hosts were friendly, cute, and helpful, although they were rather overtly religious. They helped us arrange much more comfortable and humane transportation back. Same idea, but with much better execution than on the journey there. The last day in Hong Kong was fun, and we got to hike around and see some more cool stuff, including the famous laser light show. I was sad to say goodbye to Scott at the airport, as I had really enjoyed going on that journey with him. I had grown quite accustomed to the routine of exploring during the day, sharing all our meals, and reflecting on our experiences at the end of each day. I'm glad that I went to such a great effort to document this trip through my journaling, my blogging, and my photography. Since I have returned home, I have spent so much time reviewing the experiences of the trip. They will be cherished memories I can hold onto for as long as I want.

Gui Lin

Gui Lin

Gui Lin was a destination I had longed to visit for many years. I suppose my high expectations and romantic visions of it led to me being a bit disappointed with my time there. First off, the trip into town was not nearly as scenic as I would have liked, as we had to skip the popular train option in favor of the easily accessible overnight bus route. It wasn't quite the ride from hell we had had in Malaysia. No, it was more like being in the twilight zone. It was a "sleeper bus". Yeah, I did sleep a bit, but I can't quite understand how. They had strange movies playing, there was a lady in front of me heaving her guts out into one of the wastebaskets, it was bumpy as heck, I couldn't actually fit in the berth, as I was about a foot too tall for that, and there were headlights flashing through the cabin continuously. We stopped for dinner and a bathroom break after about six hours at a rest stop that was definitely a contender for the "filthiest rest stop in the world" designation. Once we finally got to the town in the morning, it was absolutely dumping rain, so of course we hiked around for hours looking for a place to stay. We did settle in and have a good time exploring the city, but it felt overly touristy, and the city sprawled throughout the hills and blocked the view of them in a lot of cases. I enjoyed a lot of things I did and saw there, such as exploring the reed flute cave and hiking up a bunch of hills in town. We took a tour of the most famous brewery in the region, but we passed on sampling their specialty wine. It was one of the most horrific things I have ever seen. Picture a giant tank filled with red liquid, some berries, and hundreds of dead animals which consisted of many snakes and several different types of mammalian fetuses (fetii?). I felt a bit ill for a while after that. We got shown around town by a nice guy who turned out to just want us to buy stuff from him, such as tea, art, and tickets to what turned out to be a very enjoyable youth acrobatics and dance performance. My fondest memory of the town was climbing around on some very cool rock formations, and then playing my recorder up on top of a huge hill with a great panoramic view of the landscape. The trip out of town along the river to Yang Shuo was also a definite highlight.

Kai Ping

Kai Ping

Kai Ping was a place I decided to visit after reading about it in my travel guide. It turned out to be pretty cool. The city itself was primarily about commerce, but there were a few fun things to do in town, the people were very friendly, and the sights outside the town were well worth the visit. I really enjoyed gaining a better understanding about the great extent to which China has been connected to the rest of the world for a very long time. An incredible amount of people around the world still feel rooted to China, even generations out. I was also glad to see how well the history of Kai Ping had been preserved. It was a fun place to explore. There are many interesting stories that I remember about Kai Ping, such as how when I ordered a "simple breakfast" at our hotel, they brought us a zesty seaweed salad, a pile of sliced pig's ears, some custard buns, and a huge crock of mutton and rice. After I learned that it was in fact the ears of pigs, I skipped that dish, but the rest was great. If that was simple, though, I wouldn't want to see complex. I had a good time chatting with the girls in the bakery. I just love Chinese baked goods. The traditional foods are a lot healthier on average than what you'd find at a typical western bakery. The commerce along the river was very cool to see, as not all of it was completely modern.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong was a great place to explore. We rode the subway all over and saw a few of the major tourist attractions such as a the Lan Tau Buddha, went to a bouldering gym high in a skyscraper, explored a bunch of museums and shops, had some fantastic Dim Sum. I even got a hair cut and then played Street Fighter IV against some locals in an arcade. I mostly got trounced, but I had a couple nice rounds. The museum there had the best ceramics collection of the trip, with a good representation of the full history of Chinese ceramics. Very inspiring. I'd love to go back to Hong Kong on my next Asia trip. I didn't get a chance to hike up any of the mountains, so that would be one reason to go.

Macau

Macau

I hadn't expected to go to Macau quite so early in the trip, but since we neglected to procure our Vietnamese visas in advance, we couldn't get on our flight to Vietnam. We quickly got new tickets and were on our way again. There are many stories to tell about my time there, but for now, please enjoy the photos.

Angkor

Angkor

The keyboard here (in an internet cafe in Macau, btw) sucks, so for now I'll just say that Angkor was awesome. It was a huge area, and was very fun to explore. I felt like I was in a Zelda game, hunting down and exploring temples of incredible variety and beauty (and danger, sometimes). We got mobbed by enemies (people begging and soliciting) frequently and sometimes in unexpected ways. It was an amazing experience on many levels. Our time in the city of Siem Reap was very pleasant, and the Khmer food was glorious and inexpensive.

So far, I have uploaded pictures from part of the first day there. We spent three days exploring Angkor, and I took a ton of pictures while I was there. All together we probably went to about 20 different temples.

More stories to come later.

Krabi

Krabi

Rock Climbing in Krabi, Thailand was something I had been looking forward to the entire trip. It was far cooler than I had expected. We did a bunch of bouldering, I learned how to do sport climbing, including leading, we went deep water soloing with three other guys, and we explored a bunch of different walls. Our guesthouse on Railay Beach was comfortable, inexpensive, and had a restaurant with awesome food. The falling fruit was a hazard, though. One landed on my plate and scared the bejeezus out of me. The weather was excellent except for a bit of rain in the afternoon on the third day. The heat was intense, but we climbed in the shade when we could, and the sea was always close by. Scott and I both wished we could have stayed a few more weeks, as we were just starting to feel like we were getting the hang of climbing on limestone on our last day there. I'll post some more stories of our experiences there when I find some time to later. I have uploaded photos taken by both me and Scott, so you can see many of our various climbs. You will probably notice that each is very different from the others. The variety and unique formations made the climbing there continually interesting.

Penang

Penang

I thought that Penang would just be a waypoint on our way to Krabi, but it turned out to be a very fun time. In the few days we were there we hiked up the big hill in the center of the island and saw the small temple up top, visited a lot of other temples down below including one where I got a blessing from a monk, we rode a rickshaw, visited a jade museum/shop, got tours of some historic houses, saw the fort, and much more. The cultural melting pot there was very interesting to observe in the people, the architecture, and the food. It was a good time.

I tried a few new fruits there, such as rambutan, a strange hairy fruit with a fruit inside that is similar to lychee, and mangosteen, an eggplant looking thing with a delicious soft fruit inside. The other one I tried I am loath to refer to as a fruit. The durian on the outside is about as hospitable as a spiked battle mace. On the inside, it has a gooey white flesh that is as stinky as rotten onions and spoiled meat, and it has a flavor reminiscent of a very strong cream of onion soup. I can understand how people could develop a taste for it, just like any extremely pungent food such as limberger cheese. They're just not for me.

The rickshaw ride was something I had wanted to try after reading in the travel guide that it was a good way to get around Georgetown. We wanted to go to a mall to watch the new Terminator movie that just came out, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to try out that mode of transportation. I nodded to the first driver I saw, and we negotiated our price. It turned out that Scott wanted to go to the more distant mall, so it was kind of expensive. But it was rather relaxing, and provided an interesting perspective on the city. For about 8 minutes. The rickshaw had a seat that was about 3 inches too narrow to be comfortable for Scott and me to fit in. We were wedged in there. The rickshaw driver was probably about 50 years past his prime, so for more than half of the ride (when the road was more than .1% grade) it was not much faster than a brisk walking pace. After about a half hour, we were in agony. It felt like we had been crammed in there for hours. We could see the mall along the coast about a mile off, but we couldn't take it anymore, and I asked the guy to drop us off at the nearby restaurant. He decided to eat dinner there, so we made an excuse and left. Feeling greatly relieved, we walked over to the mall, bought our tickets, and got a bite to eat.

One thing that's cool about buying movie tickets in a lot of SE Asian countries is that they actually sell you specific seats. You can look at a screen and pick them out. This means you don't need to get in line for the movie 45 minutes early, and you can decide if you want to go to a later showing right away if there are no good seats. When we got into the theater, we realized that we had bought tickets up closer to the screen instead of closer to the back like we wanted, due to us not reading the display on the monitor closely enough. They were still okay, so it wasn't a problem. The problem was that we were in the wrong theater, due to their screw up. So an usher came in and asked us and the other people in the theater to move to the one next door. That was the first time either Scott or I had had that happen. Then we proceeded to wait, and wait, and wait. They started the previews and ads 25 minutes after the scheduled time. So the movie didn't start until 40 minutes after the scheduled time. It was absurd. And one of the speakers was bad in this supposedly new theater, so it made a staticky sound anytime the volume got loud, which was pretty often. So, if you're ever in Penang, don't go to the theater at Gurney Plaza. And definitely don't take a rickshaw, unless the guy is wearing spandex and clipless pedals. Or still has teeth.

Cameron Highlands

Cameron Highlands

On the morning of the 26th, Scott and I found our way to a bus station that had buses to the Cameron Highlands. We checked one outfit and they only had buses that left in the afternoon and were pretty expensive. The next place had a bus that would be leaving in 15 minutes, and was pretty inexpensive, so we booked it. Little did we know, we'd booked a trip on the worst bus ever in the history of the world. It got us there eventually, but I had my doubts at a few points. We stopped at two points for maintenance, once for having a window repaired, which seemed pre-scheduled, and once for some emergency work on some part of the drivetrain or exhaust systems. Each stop added a half hour to the trip. When we got above about 40 kph, The bus started vibrating more than a massage chair set to puree, so that made it rather uncomfortable. The front of the bus was hazy, probably due to the exhaust system being routed through the cabin first. When you tried to adjust the air vents, they would drop soot on you and leave your fingertips black. The bus chugged slowly up the hills and bounced around down the twisty roads. Then it started raining really hard. The seals on the windows were so poor that water would drip down on you inside. I had to put on my jacket and move to a different seat. We arrived after about 5 hours on the road, when we had expected about 3.5 hours. Dear lord was I glad to get off that bus.

The Cameron Highlands were gorgeous. A lot cooler than KL, and green everywhere. We found a nice place to stay in Tanah Rata called Father's Guesthouse, had a nice dinner of Indian food (which is extremely common in Malaysia), and went for a hike along a terribly litter-strewn river near town. We booked a tour for the next day, and went to bed. The tour started at 8:45 on the 27th of May. It wound up being a very full, very memorable day.

More to come later.

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

On the 23rd of May Scott and I flew from Kota Kinabalu into Kuala Lumpur. We spent the 24th and 25th there, and left on the 26th for the Cameron Highlands.
Visiting Kuala Lumpur was worthwhile, even if I didn't enjoy it too much. I was feeling a little ill while I was there, so I didn't have a ton of energy, and we walked all the heck over the place. Plus our hostel room was really noisy, as it was right on a busy intersection with jalousie style windows, so I didn't sleep too well. The weather was hot, rainy, and smoggy. Highlights of our stay were visiting the Petronas Towers, touring the National Museum, and exploring the Batu Caves. We didn't actually go up the Petronas Towers, as it was rather expensive and Scott had already done that. So we just hung out at the malls there for a while and saw a movie. I bought a box of Muesli at Cold Storage which lasted me until yesterday (June 8th). A very good snack. I also got some 78% dark chocolate which I had been craving for a while. We went to a couple different chocolate stores while we were in Malaysia, and I must say that I don't like Malaysian chocolate very much at all. Oh well. A least they have a decent cuisine, although it ranks low compared to most of the various countries I've been to so far. The museum was very nice, and had four large galleries of different eras in history. I especially enjoyed the archeology and anthropology sections and the weapons collection. I think Scott enjoyed the hats and costumes most. The Batu caves were amazing. It is a large cavern that is located in the middle of a huge limestone karst. You access it by climbing up 270 or so steps past an immense golden statue. There are several hindu temples about, including a couple in the cave itself. It was pretty quiet there, but you could tell that the place was set up to handle the million or so people that make a pilgrimage there for Thaipusam every year. It was a beautiful sunset, and a good way to end our stay in Kuala Lumpur. The next day, getting to the Cameron Highlands was a bit of an ordeal.

To be continued...

100th Post

Transitions - Best of 2008

Slideshow best viewed at 3 seconds per frame, while accompanied by these three songs in sequence:

1 - Didn't it Rain?
2 - Spiral Re-born
3 - Some Other Time
(All songs composed by Yoko Kanno, they are from the shows
Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna,
∀ Gundam, and
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, respectively)


For my 100th post, I wanted to do something big. I went through all of the photos I had taken so far this year, and picked out what I thought were the best. I then proceeded to try and whittle the selection down to the best 100. I got fairly close, but it kept getting harder and harder to go any further. After a while I realized that it wasn't too important to reduce it to 100. I discovered that when I viewed the pictures in sequence, the images took on more significance. They start to describe my way of seeing and exploring things, such as how I like to take a picture of a subject within a wide view, and then zoom in to see more details, or how I like to go back and photograph something in different light at a later date. It is these transitions that tell the story. It is through observing the transitions throughout an hour, a day, a week, a season, and a year that I feel connected to a place.
I really enjoy looking through my photos, partly because I can remember the experience of being in that place and seeing that thing, but also because I can often see things that I hadn't noticed at the time. In the picture of the yarrow flowers near the beginning of the slideshow, you can see a tiny spider camouflaged against the flowers. I didn't notice that for a long time, even after repeatedly looking at the photo. I hope you will also observe closely, and enjoy.

Backpack Camping at Afton

Backpack Camping at Afton State Park

I used Picasa Web albums to upload some of my photos from my trip to Afton State Park. It was a great trip, and I learned a lot about backpacking. On my previous backpacking trips, my dad did most of the hard work of planning, packing, and cooking. I want to travel and explore many remote parts of the U.S. and the world, and so I need to learn how to be efficient at these things. Thanks to my employee discount, I at least had much better gear this time, so that made it a more comfortable and simple trip. Kelty tents, bags, and packs are all quite good. Kelty products have a great attention to detail that makes them easy and enjoyable to use. I learned the most about cooking on this trip. I didn't plan or prepare too well for that aspect, although I did manage to make some memorable and tasty meals. I had to improvise a bit as is common in my recipes, an example of which you can see here.



It was an interesting trip, because I bookended it with a ride at Afton Alps Friday afternoon and a race there Sunday afternoon. That race was also a learning experience for me. I ended up taking a DNF along with 30% of the rest of the comp class. The heat was pretty brutal, and I made some major mistakes with nutrition and fuel for my body before the race that forced me to drop out after my first lap. I have done things well in that regard pretty much every time before, except for one time when I didn't have enough food or water for a really long race. This time I had too much food and salt, which led to me taking in too much water since my electrolyte levels were so out of whack. I'm looking forward to an even better trip next year. While my solo trip this time was definitely fun and relaxing, I'm hoping that I will have a friend with whom I can share the trip by then.

Spring Has Sprung

Spring Has Sprung

Spring is my favorite season for photography. Beautiful transformations are taking place, the weather is pleasant, and there are no mosquitoes yet. I enjoy photographing all of the seasons, but spring seems to be the easiest to work with. I hadn't done much photography over the last several months, but I got back into it this spring. It is fun to be in photography mode, where I turn on my "artist's eye" and I am always looking for interesting scenes and subjects. It's fun to find a great photo in an unexpected place, just because I was being extremely observant. For example, I spotted a crawling caterpillar on the bike path in Carver Park in the evening as I was speeding along at 20 mph. It was fun to see it crawling along with the light shining underneath its legs and through the fuzzy hairs on its back. I'm trying to turn up my creativity levels, and photography is one way I can do so.