We arrived in Beijing on December 16th, to crazy winds strong enough to blow me over! Thankful that we had opted to pack our big Winnipeg-style winter gear, we hurried into the airport from the plane, and caught a bus to our hostel. The hotel was a nice walk from the main area of Beijing- Tianemen Square, Mao's Mausoleum, and the Forbidden City. It's so exciting being in a city with so much history!
Enormous painting of Mao above the gates to the Forbidden City.
For the next 10 days, we walked and biked around all accessible areas the city- aside from the pollution (which makes Seoul's dirty air look breathable) the city is really beautiful, alive with colourful temples, friendly people, and bikers everywhere.
Some of my favourite places were.....
The Summer Palace, about an hour drive out of the city. In the heat of the summer, the royalty would escape to this area outside the city limits. In preparation for the Olympics, the painting has recently been restored, so the colours are so beautiful- especially against the bleakness of winter and ice.
We spent a couple of days biking around the city, visiting all the various temples and siognificant places thrgouhout the city. The views were great, and bikers are given two full lanes of roadway in some areas!! Soo luxurious- especially compared to the "bike paths" in Seoul which are genenerally littered with parked cars, crazy motorcyclists, and people who look like it is their first time on a bike. The bikes themselves were awesome- super old school, with mechanical breaks, weirdly angled pedals, and only one gear =) Woo!!
In the evenings, we watched a few performances of acrobatics and Kung fu, which were spectactular! The Kung Fu show basically explained the process of becoming a monk, and the martial arts that are involved in this school of Buddhism. The acrobatics shows seriously had me sweating the entire time- I was so nervous for all of them- not that they didn't look completely competent, just that everything they were doing was completely unbelievable! I wish I could've had a video camera to show you all!!
My personal highlight, though, was the hike along the Great Wall. Starting from Jinshanling, I hiked about 10km to Simatai, along the crumbling remains of China's main barrier from Mongolia. The views were truly mindboggling- the wall stretched as far as I could see, branching into multiple segments ontop of the ridges of all the surrounding hills. After hiking along what was essentially a stairmaster for about 5 hours, I arrived at Simatai exhausted, but thrilled by all the incredible sights I had taken in.
On our second weekend in Beijing, Tom's brother, Pete, and his girlfriend, Allison, joined us. It was fantastic to see some familiar faces after 17 months away from our friends and family. We had a wicked weekend with them, eating, drinking, and exploring Beijing! It was nice to be able to spend Christmas morning with some family, though, and we had a great breakfast with them before heading out to the airport for our flight home.
Tom, Allison, and Pete biking (too bad I can't focus)
Later on that week, we spent a couple of days driving west past Mae Hong Son, where we took a boat close to the border of Myanmar to visit some of the Karen Long Neck hilltribe villages. The Karen have long been living in Thailand as refugees of Myanmar, but recently the Thai government as recognized them as residents/citizens of Thailand. The women in these villages begin wearing these coils around their necks, forearms, and calves from as young as 5 years old, although we were told in the village we visited that the rings are not mandatory. Their purpose was originally for protection, and communities were losing many women to foreign "businessmen" who would essentially kidnap the women to take them home as brides. The distinctive rings make the women much more identifiable, and therefore offer some protection against these kidnappers.
Karen Long Neck hill tribe village
Long Neck woman living in the village
Dreamland Beach made for some nice swimming, although it was a bit rough in the strong surf! I did a much better job at collecting sand in my bathing suit than stayign aflot- that's for sure. We also gave boogie boarding a try. Unfortunately, I wasn't as successful as I had hoped- it looks deceivingly easy! But between my attempt at holding my bikini bottoms up, my bikini top down, and clutching onto the board, steering clear of the people playing along the shore was not really an option. I had a knack for faceplanting into the sand, anyways.
My personal highlight during the trip was a fantastic dance and chant, performed by about 30 men in traditional Balinese clothing, at the top of a cliff overlooking theocean as the sun set- truly incredible. Funny Story: Before the performance began, Tom and I were walking along a path along the edge of the cliff, monkey watching. As we were taking some photos, a curious little monkey (Curious George perhaps?) jumped on Tom's head and stole his glasses!! The little bugger then ran away, and started chewing on them, while sitting on a branch hanging off the cliff just out of reach. A team of a couple of Balinese men chased after the monkey- seriously hanging off the edge of the cliff, and retrieved the glasses for us! It was so great. But Tom had to wear nasty glasses all sticky with saliva, and missing ear pads for the rest of the day.
Close to the end of the trip, we decided to do a midnight hike up to the second highest volcano on the island. armed with flashligts and water, we started the hike at about 3am. After the swealtering heat and constant sweat dripping down me for the rest of the trip, the cold temperatures were a welcome respite from the heat. We reached the top of the volcano while it was still dark. Since this volcano is a common tourist destination, they have built a little shack on the top, where you can cook using steam heat produced by the volcano. Our guide cooked us some eggs, which we dined on while watching the sun rise illumunate the mountains surrounding us.
Anyways, North Korea itself is extremely close to Seoul. The DMZ is approximately 80 km from the city itself, and several tunnels have been found under the DMZ that reduce this distance even further. The area open to tourism, however, is right on the east coast of the country, and although it was only 150km away, the drive there took all night! how I miss the prairies!!!
After passing through the many layers of barbed wire fencing and the hundreds of soldiers stationed on either side of the border, we got off the bus- not quite as rested as we had hoped- at the immigration building. After an hour or so of getting all the necessary paperwork done, we boaded a new, "North Korean friendly" bus, and headed into the little tourist town they have build for this commercial endeavour.
The area was seriously incredibly beautiful- some of the most spectacular scenery I have seen. Unfortunately, it was pretty foggy the whole time we were there, so the views were a little limited, but whenever the winds blew the clouds away, it was breathtaking! The guides told us that the area sees only about 10 clear days a year!! Insane!! But since Kim Jung Il controls the weather, we know who to blame for that one!!! Another quest for Team America??? Could be, could be...
So, the majority of the weekend was spent hiking with a guide infront of us and behind us, and tons of North Korean soldiers in the bush ready to attack!! No joke. It was pretty creepy.
