Hong Kong

China was a trip but they aren't so big on the internet cafes and so it was really hard to get on line. It goes without saying that Beijing has changed since I was there last in 1986. It is so modern and it has a SHOCKING number of bathrooms. This may not impress you so much but I think that Beijing has more bathrooms than India, Nepal and Mongolia combined. Our hotel was adorable (Adingminman neighborhood or something like that?) and it had a beautiful landscaped walking path that passed by it and went on for a least a mile or two. Older people would sit at tables and play dominoes, groups would do Tai Chi or fan dancing lessons, everyone would play with their precious one child and people would charmingly live outside. The air quality seemed fine after Kathmandu and people must get a good price for returned plastic bottles because there would literally be people waiting to take your water bottle out of your hand when you finished it. Next to no trash. China is at least paying lip service to going green and there were recycle bins everywhere, a focus on decreasing plastic bags, and all sorts of renewable energy things on the (weird government) news. Apparently the Gobi desert is advancing over a mile a year towards Beijing due to many things including overgrazing and poor treatment of the ecosystem that naturally holds back desertification, and that combined with the unimaginable damage they've done over the last 20 years has perhaps spurred some better behavior. The Imperial Palace (Forbidden City) is so amazing one could spend a week there; Mao's Mausoleum with the preserved husk of his body is as creepy as I remember. It's a little hard to stomach the near worship of a man who killed over 40 million of his own people in peace time, but Chinese people probably keep their thoughts private about him. We asked our Chinese friend in Kathmandu, GARY!, for how many generations his family had lived in their village and he replied that no one in China really knows their history because all records were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. Imagine destroying a country's history. Wild Swans is a great book to read about 20th century Chinese history. We saw another Chinese friend and her fiance there and they took us to a couple of lovely dinners and overall Beijing was interesting and friendly. After that we took the train for 24 hours to Hong Kong because we need to reset our 30-day visas to last us through Tibet. Hong Kong is fabulous and more fabulous. I live here part time in my fantasy world, actually (but I have a much different wardrobe). On Wednesday we take the 24 hour train back to Beijing, wait for a few hours, and then take a 12 hour overnight train to Xi'an to see the Terra Cotta warriors. It's on our way to Tibet. We didn't plan our food correctly for the journey to Hong Kong and so were dependent on the very odd meals prepared by the dining car but we are going to be a traveling grocery store the the upcoming 36 hours on the train. There's a Marks and Spencers with a new food department calling our names! Today I had a much needed haircut and so things are pretty much fantastic. xoc

Tomorrow to Beijing

Check out Janice's blog BTW, she posted photos and I posted photos on Facebook. We've had a lot of fun in Mongolia and our friend is waiting for us in Beijing to show us around. Not a bad life! xoc

Back in the big city

So we made it back to Ulaanbaatar and are going to hang out for a few days. Originally we had planned to take the train down to the Gobi desert in a whirl-wind trip but I have a bit of a stomach bug and truth be told, we're really tired and could use some down time. The China travel coming up will be really busy and so we're relaxing a bit under the supervision of our fabulous tour guide Meg (who has this blog address and so I will only mention how smart, pretty, and fantastic she is). She's also a Facebook friend if you want to see her. We loved going to visit a couple of lakes and having the two other travellers made it much more fun. Agi the driver is a big favorite of ours and when we find an internet cafe that will let us upload pictures, I'll post a few of the group. A former teacher friend of Janice's from Kathmandu (we pronounce her name Meow but I suspect that it's probably something totally different) lives in Beijing and is awaiting our arrival. Also a friend from Ann Arbor lives near Tibet and we're staying with her for a few days and so things really are lucky for us. xoc

Reindeer

So we're going to a big lake near the Siberian border today to see the reindeer herders. Mongolia is fabulous and we really like the people with whom we're traveling. There's a little too much meat to eat but today we found a box of cereal (in town) and so that's thrilling. The landscape is just so unbelievable and there are simply no people. If Nepalis could handle snow then they'd probably fill this place up in a few decades or so. So if you like camping, beautiful landscapes, vodka, meat, friendly people and internet cafes that charge $.50 an hour, this is your place. xoc

Internet everywhere

Hello from Karakorum. It's Genghis Khan's ancient capital in the middle of Mongolia from the 13th century. Actually, the Manchurians destroyed it in the 14th century and now it resembles a town in the UP with one gas station and a bank but the signs are in Cyrillic and so that's kinda cool. There's a great Buddhist monastery here built in the 16th century from Karakorum's ruins (then the Soviets destroyed a lot of it in the 1920s but now it's partially rebuilt). Mongolia is excellent. Six of us are driving around the country in a 4WD, Russian version of a VW bus. The driver is a huge Mongolian man who knows a few English words like "shit" and he drives like a madman but there are very few cars and so the risk is minimal. Our guide is a 25 year-old Mongolian woman who studied in Florida and so she has a great American accent: "So, that's, like, the monastery..." She's very interested in geology and paleontology and is a wealth of information. The two others are an American IT worker turned volunteer in India and an Indian woman who gave up her American corporate job to volunteer to help rural Indians (darn do-gooder not getting paid). We are camping and staying in yurts with nomadic families. Mongolia is so interesting in that apart from the few towns, all land is public land and so 1.5 million Mongolians just roam around in their yurts and make camp where ever. There are 2.5 million Mongolians and 45 million livestock here and so most everyone grazes their animals and moves 3 or 4 times a year. There are almost no fences in this massive country and we just camp. Camping is better than yurts because the yurts house a lot of dried cheese and yogurt and so there are a lot of flies. Mongolia is also interesting after India and Nepal because everyone is so stocky from all of the dairy and meat. They may not be wealthy but they get a lot of calories. xoc

Yurt

Hello. Heading off onto the Mongolian Steppe in a jeep with our driver, a 25 year-old Mongolian female guide, and two other Americans. Be back with you in two weeks! xoc

Seoul to Ulaan Baatar

Seoul (a few million people live there) was so lovely and a bit like Bangkok or downtown LA. Maybe Kathmandu skewed my expectations, but Seoul was clean and quiet and everyone was so polite. For instance we stopped in one restaurant to ask directions to another restaurant and they picked up the phone and called to be sure to give us the correct information. What a totally livable city with great museums and a spic-n-span metro. And who doesn't love Korean food (BBQ and Bi Bim Bop anyone?)? Flying into Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia was a little nerve-raking because UB is supposed to be a bit wild west. Apparently the thieves specialize in pick-pocketing. A taxi from our hostel picked us up at the airport at midnight (thank goodness) and we sped through Soviet-era streets to our back alley hostel. After arming ourselves with our cut-proof bags and pepper spray we wandered out this morning and wow, it's a nice little city. We avoid loitering guys, of course, but it's a charming mix of Soviet buildings, a few modern building, and Mongolian-looking stuff (not the official review but you know what I mean). And Mongolians are really attractive people who dress to the 9s and so that's fun. The museums are also charming and lunch today cost us a grand total of $4.oo. Tomorrow we're off to see some Buddhist temples and then the next day.....off onto the great Mongolia Steppe in a Land Rover for 15 days of nomads, reindeer, ghers, and lots and lots of boiled mutton. Oh my. xoc

Time to blog

OK, so leaving Kathmandu was difficult. It's not that I'm that sad to leave, but of course I have great friends there. And what was even more poignant were the people who cried and it's not because they were so sad to see me go. Several people: Kamala my boss, the sales office coordinator, my guide friend Raj and our cook Kumar among them, were so visibly upset because someone leaving drives home that it's not them leaving. Life is Nepal is so difficult and the pressure is so intense that a reminder that they are not going to escape it is devastating. Kumar, a dignified and reserved man, managed to say through his tears that if he doesn't find a job soon he'll have to take his only son out of school. Kamala said that I was the only person to whom it was safe to discuss her problems. Nepal is a heartbreaker and to see strong people who have never wavered crack a little is a heartbreaker. Sigh. And Korean Air lifted us up and gave us warm towels to wash our hands of it. Update on Seoul tomorrow....xoc

Schedule

OK, I don't know how to make a chart in the blog so I'll type out the broad strokes for those of you hoping to come along (do it! do it!)  Of course the beginning is more planned and the rest is getting planned.

15 July - 1 August: Mongolia

2 August - 15 August: China (Beijing, Xi'an, trains....)

16 August - 28 August: Tibet

29 August - 5 September: India (Delhi, Amritsar, trains...)

6 September - 17 September: Ladakh (and Kashmir if it's not too crazy)

18 September - 2 October: Sikkim (organized trek)

6 October - 18 October: Thailand

19 October - 12 November: Malaysia, Indonesia and such.  scuba diving, hanging out....

13 November - 30 November: Cambodia & Viet Nam (with Beverly, Karen, etc.)

2 December - 18 December: Animal stuff in India.  Rathembhore for tigers, Assam for other animals.

So there's lots of Himalayan mountains (Tibet, Ladakh and Sikkim), beaches and then animal-viewing.  

After that we will stop pretending to be rock stars, we promise.  xoc

Next

So now it's a matter of selling some stuff, buying other stuff, and planning the summer.  I have a meeting/interview in Delhi in early September with a guy from my company who is setting up a new, sister company to supply different products to all of the 43 partner countries in which we have clinics.  He seemed interested in my business background and didn't seem too phased that I'd want to be based in Santa Fe and travel from there.  To be honest, though, it seems pretty unlikely that they would pay to fly me in and out of the US to look into a supply chain in Asia and Africa.  I think that I'll end up going to grad school next fall at UNM and am working on recommendations and the big essay.   The prospect is pretty exciting.  We're trying to do interesting things in Kathmandu and went on a lovely little hike on Saturday with our Chinese friend GARY! who has turned out to be a lot of fun now that he speaks more English.  He even has been helping us with our plane tickets to Mongolia and Chinese visas.  Five weeks to go! xoc

Well hello, stranger

Clearly it's been a long time since I've blogged when I can't remember the web address.  Oops.  But I was kind of boring myself for a while - one can only get so much mileage from tennis and stomach bug stories - but the times they are a changing these days!  We leave Kathmandu on July 13th just as it seems to be dissolving into lawlessness and further political idiocy.  Buh bye.  I like to think that it's sensitive and patriotic to bravely join the ranks of the American unemployed in a gesture of global comradeship, but considering that we're planning to travel Asia for 4 or 5 months before coming back to Santa Fe, it just kinda seems a tiny bit self-indulgent.  But awesome!  And no, mom, we won't be "free-loading" by living with you in Santa Fe; we'll just be living for free and eating your food while amusing you with travel stories.  There's a BIG DIFFERENCE.  And we're kind of used to having a cook so let's discuss who's going to cut up our fruit and peel our lychees and put all of it in a pretty bowl in the refrigerator for a refreshing chilled dessert.  Ah, when I was 20 where did I think I'd be when I turned 40?  It's a pretty safe bet that it isn't Mongolia.  So the tentative schedule is Mongolia-Beijing-Tibet-Northern India-Thailand-Malaysia-Indonesia-Cambodia-Viet Nam.  December is still open at this point as the budget may have run out and I might have a lead on a job and so may have to reenter reality.  But New Zealand is on the back burner.  If any of you are considering traveling, and it really is a great time to travel with deals galore (if you still have a job, that is; it's tough out there these days), then I can post dates and specifics.  The first part of the trip through India is trekking and harder stuff and the middle part is easier touring with lots of beaches.  Bev Day and Karen Schreiber are thinking of doing the Cambodia/Viet Nam leg.  So that's the big picture...I'll keep you posted!  xoc

Jinxed

So I Jinxed myself by bragging about my life of leisure.  Monday night I was invited to a wedding reception after work and so rushed home to change.  I haven't been "super special whitey" in a while and as the only non-Nepali there was rushed forward past hundreds of people to meet the bride and groom, met all the parents who promptly invited me to their homes, had lots of pictures taken, etc.  Mind you, one of my new salesmen's cousin was the groom.  Tuesday night I went to the Buddhist center and as it happens the director (a British woman) is an environmental geologist and knows the organization for which I will be applying for a really cool job.  And so of course I'm being extra helpful at the center.  I'd like to move back to the US at the end of the year but given the economy a back-up plan is in order.  The organization's website is www.icimod.org.  So I have 4 weeks to learn everything about the Hindu Kush - Himalayan mountain range and all of the issues surrounding them such as disaster preparation, climate change, water, sustainable livelihoods, etc.  Oh, and in 8 countries, as well, as the range spans 8 countries.  But it's exciting and a good topic no matter what happens.  And of course we're playing lots of tennis which is fun.  xoc

Springtime in the Du

So it appears that I've shaken a telephone harasser.  He was an older guy from the immigration office ("We long life friends, OK?") and so I didn't want to be aggressive but my complacency was probably encouraging.  Six calls a day.  The solution was to have an American guy friend answer my phone and forcefully tell the jerk not to call me anymore.  Sometimes in a male culture it takes a male solution.   I don't go to class anymore (I have my student visa until July 15th and can get tourist visas until my contract is up in September) and so work is now a mellow full day.  Sales are going well, we're introducing two new brands of condoms next month, and the staff is stable.  In a weird way I kinda miss the drama of "that one lame man" like I used to miss the drama of my mother-in-law.  I don't have any good stories anymore!   It's kind of fun that one of the brands of condoms has a semi-naked lady on the package (of course sex sells with great profit margins) and it sends my staff into an embarrassed tizzy when we have meetings about it.  At first my boss was against having a naked lady package but when I showed her the package that a USAID-funded company sells (very, very naughty) she capitulated as we need the profits.  What would be helpful is if I could fill my day emailing my friends but with the power cuts that's not even an option and so I might start taking my Nepali book to work.  I'm potentially playing in a tennis tournament in April (USA vs. UK) as they need players in the beginner's bracket.  So this weekend was a bit surreal as on both days we spent half the day at the American Club playing and then having lunch.  It all seems a bit Thurston Howell the Third "errr...jolly great shot, Tad" but the weather is beautiful and the exercise is great.  We've made tons of new people as we are trying to fill the spot of Lydia, our bestest friend who was shipped back to Washington DC.   I don't think that will happen but at least we can say we have a few friends!  Saturday we went to a massive Valentine's Day party with Janice's co-workers and I found myself dancing to "Aquarius" as, literally, the moon was in the seventh house and Jupiter was aligned with Mars.  Again, trippy.  So my week shapes up as tennis two nights, Buddha two nights, and one night for relaxing.   The Buddhist Center people are really nice (a Spanish guy and his British wife) which is wonderful because that has been a big hole in my life over the past year.  As I've said before, the expat life can be quite easy in the midst of global turmoil.  Except for the power cuts.  Oh, and if you haven't read it yet read "The Historian."  Fabulous.  xoc

Steelers still winning?

Our friend Lynette arrived on Saturday afternoon and we took her to the orphanage to keep her awake (nothing like having a dozen children trying to wrestle with you to stave off jetlag).  Luckily these days there doesn't seem to be a lice outbreak at the home and so we're doing fine.  No one's showing the superbowl here but it seems like the Steelers are doing well.  Last week we met with a division of USAID and broke the ice on how to get some HIV/AIDs money for our clinics so that we can do some quick testing and counseling.  The epidemic has been really successfully controlled in Nepal basically thanks to the US and the traditional growth areas: sex workers, their clients, drug users, etc. are shrinking.  However, the one growth area is the wives and children of men who had been engaging in high-risk behavior and so we'd like to try and see if we can do anything with our clinical network.  One great thing W did in office was to strongly promote fighting HIV/AIDs in the developing world and the positive effects (not to mention good will) are priceless.  A senior manager from London is coming for our annual meeting and hopefully I'll get a chance to discuss how this year is going to play out.  I could get much more done at work if I don't go to school for 3 hours a day but I need someone to approve it.  Tomorrow I'll get my 6-month student visa and since I don't intend to enroll for next semester I don't actually have to go to class.  That's assuming that I can get a tourist visa for August and September to finish up my contract.  I should know tomorrow.   The power cuts should soon decrease to 12 hours a day, the garbage strike is over and we can talk to USAID.  It's a good week here in the 'Du.  xoc

New Year

OK, so week one back in-country wasn't too bad: I flossed, updated my blog, exercised a few times, and in general followed the majority of my resolutions.  School starts next week and so it's time to re-learn Nepali.  This weekend was relaxing and we went mountain-biking with a few guys this morning.  Lynette comes next weekend and so it's fun to plan for her visit.  We are really excited about Obama lifting the global gag rule that prevented the US from funding any organizations in any way that discuss or provide abortions.   When W reinstituted that rule the US pulled all funding from the work that we do with conflict refugees in places like Darfur who are overwhelming poor women, often raped multiple times as an act of war, and often pregnant and in need of pre and post natal care, gynecological checkups, abortion services, inoculations, etc. all of which we provide when funded.  The rule prevented any joint work that we had previously done with the US in vasectomies, tubal ligations, and long-term birth control and this past year the US stopped selling our African programs IUDs, Norplant, and all other birth control because someone somewhere got nervous that selling us contraceptives somehow violated the rule.  Really bad public health for the most desperate people in the world that desperately need coordinated efforts.  But enough politics...things are good here.  Hope you had a good weekend!  xoc

THAT ONE LAME MAN RESIGNED!

Being home reminded me that a wide variety of people sometimes read this blog and so I sheepishly feel the need to comment that my BOSS calls the former sales manager "that one lame man who makes my whole program lame" (she also calls a nice middle-aged lady in the sales department "that big fat hen who clucks, clucks, clucks and does nothing").  I'm just saying....  But anyway 14 months since I started gently, and then increasingly, telling management that TOLM was incompetent and stealing, they forced him out.  Wow.  But someone getting forced out must be a really big deal here because we all had to discuss it at mind-boggling length even though he'd been on unpaid leave for almost two months.   And then him returning his desk keys was an even bigger ordeal.  He waited a few days while we stewed and then called the tea boy to meet him somewhere for the ceremonial handing over of the desk keys.  Ummm....what?  And what's so weird is that he had important papers in his desk that we really needed and yet no one would break into it (it was secured by 6th grade diary locks that can be picked with bobby pins).  It's a respect thing taken to an incredible degree.   Now I just really, really hope that we can turn the sales department around over the next 8 months so that my only accomplishment isn't getting a handicapped guy fired.

Sooooo....I brought back gifts for management and for the sales staff.  I still haven't been able to get management together for gifting but the sales staff generally loved their stuff.  Our best sales guy is strutting around in his New England Patriots hat and the assistant manager loves his Yankees hat.  A few others weren't so impressed in that stone-faced Nepali way but lord knows that you can't make everyone happy.  It's as if the stock boy (who is looking much better after his bout of double hepatitis) KNEW that I bought his t-shirt at the San Francisco airport.  

Another ironic thing is that after 8 months in Nepal the American Club had seemed like double rainbow magic land but, after one month is America, the Club looks a little not so special.  Could use a little sprucing up.  It's all a matter of perspective.  But going there is great and I explained to the exercise trainer Sundar that he needs to get me fit before my 40th birthday or else.  Thus everything is sore today.  Sundar and his "Michael McDonald from the Doobie Brothers set to a techno beat CD" that I've already heard 3 times showed me.  Goodnight! xoc

Back

So....back to Kathmandu.  I forgot what a long trip it is...Santa Fe to San Francisco to Tokyo to Bangkok to Kathmandu.  We both brought back so much stuff and were prepared for the financial worst but shockingly United didn't charge us for our third bags (it was too early in the morning and the drawer with the receipts was locked) and KTM customs waved our huge pile of luggage through.  Actually, I wasn't even there as I had left the airport to say goodbye to our friend Lydia who was leaving KTM, and so customs waved through Janice, a porter, and a total of 8 bags.  I love this country.  16 hours a day of power cuts seemed interesting, almost charming, when I was stateside but in reality it means that it's a struggle to find a window with hot water during which to shower.  I officially joined the American Club and it is quickly the place where we go to shower since they heat their water with a generator.  Literally we are going to attend the Obama inauguration party at the Club mostly because we can shower before-hand.  My staff was very happy that I came back and everyone, I mean everyone, has commented on how much weight I gained.  The security guard at my building as I got out of the airport van.  South Asians love to discuss weight and were delighted that I now know to join in the game; I told them that it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to gain 10+ pounds in 4 weeks but I was up to the challenge.  The only other compliment that I received is that my office assistant told me that "madam is looking so beautiful and white."  Did I get whiter in America?  I did drink a lot of Starbucks and expensive bottled organic juices.  When you're in a bookstore look up the paperback bestseller "Stuff White People Like"...it's so funny and so true.  The Maoist government is struggling with, well, everything, and the latest is that they are not treating local community groups right and so garbage hasn't been picked up for weeks.  But as I've said before, people just manage to live even though there's no power, a water shortage since water pumps don't work, garbage everywhere and general dismay.  If there's another petrol shortage then it really will get ugly.  But it's warm and sunny during the day and people are friendly and it's good to be back.  It was SO GOOD to see everyone; think about coming to see this special brand of beautiful madness before the opportunity passes!