China Update #23 - Shanghai for Chinese New Year

May 18th, 2014
Hi there folks...if you have been paying close attention, you will notice i skipped update #23 to get the update about myanmar out (#24)....so now i need to back track....and cover my time in shanghai for this year's chinese new year...year of the horse...xin nian kuai le!!!! (that means happy new year!)...i decided to stick around in shanghai for this holiday, as i had just done a big trip to israel and jordan...and needed some down time and to save money....so i stayed...and had a great time!!!!!

chinese new year is the one time when shanghai is not as crowded, because all of the people who have moved here to make their fortune head home for two to three weeks....so except for the fireworks....of which there are many....the place is quieter than normal....and it was fun being here with a bunch of cool folks....even after three years, i really do love this town...and at the moment i am running around like a crazy person trying to get everything in one last time before i leave next month....but enough about leaving....let me show you what i experienced....

this was the sign i saw in the chinese compound located next to where i live....it's where i buy fruits and vegetables, as well as tasty chinese style burrito breakfasts...with tofu and egg fried into a crepe style burrito...i loved that one of the residents created this using chalk and after a few days of rain it had disappeared....
 

during the first weekend, i went with friends to the famed westin brunch here in shanghai...two floors of international buffet styled food...indian, italian, greek, thai, seafood, caviar, mexican and of course chinese...the amount of food is mind blowing...and you are there for four hours or so....plus, how can you beat a make-your-own bloody mary bar....yummy....this piece of art is in the center of the buffet, very chihuly-esce in my opinion...i loved it

of course entertainment is provided....and some of the folks we had that day were acrobats...funnily enough we had just seen this guy at our school a few days before at our own chinese new year celebration....yes...he is doing a handstand on bricks...which he then knocks out from under himself and falls downward toward the floor, catching himself on the first set of wooden blocks at the bottom...really impressive stuff and i wonder if he has ever broken his nose with this trick....

one of the things i also did with a bunch of friends was a "stay-cation"...meaning we stayed downtown here in shanghai at a nice hotel with a pool and saw things in our city that we had not seen before...we stayed really close to the bund and yu garden...where "chinatown" is located...and hundreds of visiting people were there...shanghai is also a place chinese people take a trip to during chinese new year to see the "big and modern city"....so lots of country folks were down in this area....you can see how crowded the streets were with people and cars....
 

we also went into yu garden to wander around...and it was packed....they set up lots of things like the one you see above with signs of good luck and of course horses....yu garden is also where the lantern festival, which takes place the last night of chinese new year (the 15th night), happens....so there are lots of different styled lanterns and floats in the water for people to wander around and see....

the float above was probably the strangest one we saw...as it is adam and eve and moses and animals and a horse (of course for good luck)....why you ask???  i have no idea, as there are not a ton of christians in china....and it's not a christian holiday....and it doesn't seem to go with the theme year of the horse....but when in china...you just never know what you will see....
 

throughout out all of shanghai, and china, the red lanterns were everywhere...red is a color of good luck in china...and lanterns are also said to bring good luck and prosperity...plus, you can see the chinese horoscope style image of the horse in this set of lanterns....this was actually hanging in chinatown here in shanghai....funny to say there is a chinatown here, as we are in china...i did like this one piece of lantern art, as it was not too gaudy or overdone....

but of course there were others that were just plain overwhelming....like the one above....we were trying to figure out if this was a mystical one...as it had the horse and a dragon (last years animal for chinese new year)...but then we realized that all of the animals for the chinese horoscope were part of this presentation....but it was bright and bold and had tons of people admiring it...
 

after escaping from the crowds of yu garden, we started wandering the back streets behind it, where we came across a street devoted to street food....such as seafood....the lobsters were huge (who knows where they got them from), as were the crabs...there was tons of seafood you could buy....
 

plus there were the many different styles of noodle bowls you could have prepared....they take these bowls of stuff....put them into soup that is boiling away, add in some noodles and call it a meal...you can see hotdog style meat, and fake crab, bean sprouts, bok choy, mushrooms and who knows what else....you can always find people making food on the streets here in shanghai....and i love it...although many times i only get to watch people cook things, due to not eating meat....the noodle folks...they are rockstars in my opinion :)
 

this was the view from my window of the hotel we stayed at downtown....i loved waking up to this after a crazy night of fireworks....as we stayed there the night dedicated to the money god....and this particular town is all about money....i love it, but it is obsessed...in this shot you can see some of my favorite buildings in the city....

but in this shot above, from the same window, you can see my second favorite - the westin....the one with the crown on the top of it...and will you look at that blue sky....we have not had a day like that in quite awhile...as it seems at the moment, many days are grey and rainy...in the past 6 weeks, every weekend it has rained or been cloudy....just bleh....i guess i should be happy we see some sun on the weekdays and at least it is not super hot yet....

so the one mistake we made during the chinese new year week was that we went to the pearl tower...this was a nightmare of people...i think everyone who was in shanghai was there the same day as us, because the sun was out.....we should have known better when we were waiting for tickets and i literally had to shove people out of my way to get some...we also made the mistake of not only going there to go up, but all the way up...totally not worth it...and the line was ridiculous...i think we were in lines for four hours and looking at things for 20 minutes in total....it was not fun....but they had some cool lanterns and dragons in the main lobby....this is where we think we have now finished our waiting of 1 hour to get to the tower itself...silly us....
 

i did like that they had a glass floor we could stand on....but of course it was hard to get the shot with no one else in it....but i managed...the foot you see is mine....
 

i think this picture is owned by at least 20 of my closest chinese friends....as they were so excited when i did this...talk about strange...but that is one of the funny things in china...you are in other people's pictures....why you ask??? because i am white, female, have short hair, am heavy and obviously am not chinese....believe me....i am sure i am on at least 20,000 chinese people's rolls of digital shots....i know, i know....its hard to be famous ;) it is just something that comes with the territory....
 

after the hell of the pearl tower, we decided to head to the shanghai world financial center to get a much needed drink and a snack before dinner...this was the view from the 97th floor of the hyatt in that building....we should have just skipped the pearl tower and come here for the peaceful afternoon...but at least it was a good way to finish....

i made the decision that people should see what the pearl tower looks like again from the outside...it is an icon on the waterfront of shanghai...and really pretty at night...if you have been following the updates you know that i love this building and the ones around it when i am down on the bund at night..futuristic and wonderful....but really, you don't need to go inside...especially over chinese new year....duh!!!!!
 

i took a picture of the other tall buildings over in pudong, near the pearl tower...the farthest to the left is the financial building, where i took this picture from high up and had a drink....then we have the jin mao building...which has a great bar on the top of it...and last but not leat is the new shanghai tower they are still building....this is one the crazy russians climbed...you may have seen their video on youtube...this building will be the second tallest in the world when they finish it...its amazing how fast it has gone up....but unfortunately it will not be finished before i leave....cool building though, maybe i will need to come back ;)
 

one of the last things that week my friend darby and i did, was go to a cool art exhibit of the japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama....she has an obsession with polka dots and is 84....for the piece above, they sent you into what was a completely white room at the start of the show and asked you to add colored polka dots wherever you could find space....

darby took this cool shot with her phone of the room as it stands now....we have no idea how she did it...but it came out well...i am sure the artist would have loved this interpretation....

of course the main thing that happens during this particular room is that people start putting dots on themselves and their friends....we even added some to ourselves....

but i loved this guy....he let is daughter take care of him and the dots....and then let us take his picture...the exhibit was extremely playful and cool...and if you get the chance, you should see some of her work...it is wild and crazy and colorful and bizarre....just like her, even at 84....go girl, go!

 

i wanted to include one more shot just to show you want i mean....this was done using mirrors and was actually inside of a HUGE polka dot on the floor....i loved the way it turned out....can you see the space where everything started and where the camera is??? kind of like a where's waldo search....good luck :)

this was the page of dots they gave you on the walk into the room and you can see how covered the room is behind me...and that is only one small portion....i loved this exhibit...very cool, polka dot lady...

so this was my chinese new year break this year of the horse....we did other stuff and i realize i have not included any of the myriad of fireworks i saw and heard...but i'll leave that up to your imagination...i can say though that i don't think any country will ever top the fireworks i have been a part of here in china...they happen all the time for many different occasions and really chinese new year is obnoxious by the time 15 days have passed, as they happen every day and every night....its overwhelming and exciting in my opinion......so there you have it...update #23....

my time here in asia is starting to come to an end and i am desperately trying to fit everything into the time i have remaining....i actually have one more trip...in two weeks to seoul, korea for the weekend with my friends greg & di....i am so excited...we are taking a trip to the DMZ...demilitarized zone between north and south korea....but i am not going into north korea....don't worry...i am not dennis rodman....i will hopefully get an update out after the trip with info....and then the goal is one more about the city i love....shanghai...its hard to see the end so near, and yet so exciting to know i am moving onto my next continent....asia has been a great place to be for the past three years....and i know i have learned much about the area and myself from coming here....if you haven't been, there are so many choices of amazing places, i don't even know where to tell you where to start :)

i will be in the states for a VERY short period of time this summer...but places you might spot me include seattle, alaska with my folks on a cruise, north carolina for a wedding, virginia beach, philadelphia (of course), washington DC and maybe NJ/NYC....we'll see what happens....let me know if you are in one of those places and maybe we can meet up....but its a tight schedule this year....hope everyone understands....hope all is well and happy spring...hope your weekends have been sunnier than mine recently!!!!!!

have a fab day :)

dani 

China Update #24 - Myanmar

 May 4th, 2014

hey there folks...if you are paying attention, you will notice i am sending update #24 out before update #23....because i feel the need to get one out about my spring break trip to myanmar....#23 is about chinese new year in shanghai...and i think i am going to send my last 2 updates from shanghai, one right after the other in the remaining 7 weeks i have...one of chinese new year and one of the things i will miss in shanghai....even though that list would be huge...we'll see what i can do...i am also headed to korea for a long weekend and hope to get something out about that trip too...too much to write in too little time....so here i go with my incredible trip to myanmar....i am sooooooooooo glad i made it here when i did....as this coutry is ready to explode with tourism....which is awesome for them...but not for me as the type of traveler i am....it was a terrific trip...and hopefully the following pictures will do it justice....enjoy :)

while in myanmar (which used to be called burma), i visited three main places - Bagan, Inle Lake and Yangon (what used to be called rangoon)....you may have heard of these places, you may have not....myanmar for a long time was ruled with a very tight, military fist, officially called the junta....which seems to have been loosened...you may also know myanmar because they kept a certain woman, aung san suu kyi, a nobel prize winner, under house arrest off and on for 21 years for being a political enemy of the state....even though she won the national election in 1991....she was released a few years back, possible for good, and is currently running the country....she is referred to as "the lady" and is held under great esteem by all people of myanmar...well, maybe not the ex-military leaders...but who really knows what they think anymore, as they have stepped out of the limelight....unfortunately, in this country, people are always waiting for the other shoe to fall...they do not feel that the military junta actually relinquished their power....i guess we'll wait and see....

when i arrived in bagan, my taxi drver aung aung was very excited for me....because we got to watch an auspicious procession to the monastery and temple...on this particular day, 10 young boys were being brought to the local monastery to become monks...all men in myanmar must become monks for a certain amount of time...many boys/teens are there for 3 years...my taxi driver was there for 3 years....but some men go for shorter, or longer if they decide to stay a monk after their training....in this procession were all of the family members of the boys, giving thanks and gifts to the monastery...it was amazing!!!!
 

this is not one of the boys...but i loved this shot....as this little guy has the sun block most burmese wear (there is not way to myanmar -ese....i asked!) which is made from a tree bark, yellow in color and called thannaka...they call it a method to block sun rays and cool their hot skin....and man, was it hot in maynmar, and i was not even there for the hottest times and it was over 100F/40C every day....hot i tell you...this paste is worn my most women, children and rarely men...it has a slight smell of sandalwood....

i also loved this little girl...all dolled up for the monastery...and that her shoes were huge...most of the girls were wearing make-up and dresses and were in obviously their nicest clothes...they also all carried parasols...which is quite common in myanmar...it was fun to watch this procession...
 

and then came the boys...as you can see on horses...some were in ox carts too...and these little guys were all made up and ready to become monks...it was a beautiful thing to watch and i kept being told how lucky i was to see this and such a large procession....i did see another, but it was not as long as the first....plus, i saw one by canoe in inle lake...that was way cool :)
 

throughout the procession there were dancers...men only....who were dancing to music on loudspeakers...mainly because this was a celebration...this guy up on the truck was amazing...he was doing karaoke to the songs as well...such a fun time was being had by everyone involved....i guess the boys go the monastery, there is a big meal and then the rest of the family goes home and throws a big party....

my second day in bagan i took a balloon ride....which was simply incredible....bagan has over 2000 temples in its fields...because back in the 11th century, every family built a temple to honor buddha...burmese are buddhists....and these temples are still maintained today...the larger ones are taken care of by the government, but the smaller ones are still cared for by the families...i figured a balloon ride would be the best way to see as many as possible, as they span a large chunk of ground...here you see one of the four balloons that flew that day, taking off...the bus below the balloon is how we were picked-up and taken to the lift-off site...i guess they used to be the local buses from yangon from the 70s...very cool....

here is a shot looking down from our gondola, which held 14 people and the pilot, to another of the balloons, with a temple in the showt..i have no idea how high we went...but it sure was peaceful to watch the sunrise and check out all of the temples....
 

and here is another shot of the other three balloons that went up the same time as us...none of them landed where we landed, but i am sure all of them had an outstanding ride as well...balloons over bagan has been flying in bagan for 15 years...and they certainly give you a ride of a lifetime....the sunrise and the temples combined is just amazing!
 

one last shot of temples from the air as we are starting our descent....you can tell that they differ in size and style if you look carefully...many are still used today and there are always pilgrims of burmese visiting them, as well as visitors from outside of burma...simply stunning....
 

i visited many temples while on the ground too...so i decided to include one of my favorite buddhas...there were so many to choose from, but i liked this one's face and lights...you can also see the offerings in front of it from the visitors that day....so peaceful....
 

the placed i stayed at in bagan was right along the river...so at night i would head down there to get a good shot of the sunset and have an end of the day drink...a perfect way to end a perfect day....
 

from bagan i flew to inle lake...the airport and flights are sooooooo small...no real gates to leave by, just a guy holding up a sign to get on a prop plane...and there are four airlines, all owned by the goverment....so if one plane is not full, they put everyone on the same plane together...and when everyone has arrived for the plane, you depart....time tables are not necessarily stuck to...my last flight back to yangon actually took-off 45 minutes early....it was wild.....inle lake is a place that is frozen in time in my opinion...women there still wear traditional clothing....men still fish the same way they have fished for 100s of years...it's about to change, but for the moment, it is frozen in time....above you can see one of the fishermen...more on them below....
 

in this shot you can see three canoes of fishermen....they are pretty amazing, as they fish on one leg....they stand on the platform in the front or back of the canoe on one leg, paddle the oar with their other leg and lay out nets with their hands...it is wild....and i didn't see any of them lose their balance...even the kids that were practicing....once they have the nets set out, they smack the surface of the water with their oar to scare the fish into the nets...you can see the men are doing that stage in each of the boats above....then they paddle with one leg and pull in their nets with their hands....talk about incredible balance....
 

while in inle, i stayed on the lake...literally....my bungalow was on the water....which meant i had a great view of other bungalows, the fishermen and other canoes as they went by and the sunset...this is one of my favorite pictures, as you can see three canoes in the water, all workers leaving where i was staying for the day....all headed home i guess....
 

one of my days in inle i took a "tour" of the surrounding villages and luckily the local floating market was happening....the largest one...so i got to see women selling their products dressed in traditional dress....the woman above is from the pa'o tribe...they are known for their colorful turbans and black overcoats...i would have been dying of the heat, but she seemed fine...you can see turmeric and chilies are what she is selling....yummy!!!!
 

i loved the tailors in the market as well...they just set up shop at the crossroads and were busy, busy, busy...they have the old style singer sewing machines, that you pump with your foot...awesome!!!!
 

we also saw a bunch of monks who had just taken some type of test where all of these stupas were located...i loved seeing their colorful robes in the canoes....a great contrast to the stupas behind them...they were quite happy and smiley and all waved just after i got the shot....
 

inle lake is also known for its floating gardens....and literally the mounds of dirt the plants are growing in are floating...i pushed one and it moved...i was then told not to do that again...but i just had to see...hence how i am like the students i teach...the big crop they were growing was tomatoes....i had some with dinner...quite tasty...
 

i stayed at a great place in inle lake...where they greeted all canoes of guests with music...these folks are also part of the pa'o tribe, but they wore traditional formal wear instead of rhe turbans and black overcoats....probably a bit cooler this way...the guy playing the drum at the end of the line was my guide for the day, mr. joe....he was awesome...
 

one day in inle i went to cooking class...the chef was actually a guy, very uncommon in myanmar...and it was just him and myself...as i was there at the end of tourist season...one of the things we did first was go to the market....here you can see some of the fruits and veggies we could buy...i had a blast with lindsey, his name...and ended up staying and chatting with him after the meal for four hours....it was great!!!!
 

here's a shot of all of the dishes we made...yummy!!!!  he joined me for lunch, but even then we couldn't finish the meal....so luckily his family helped us out...they said i did a good job and could cook for them whenever i wanted :)  it was really cool talking with him about what life was like in myanmar from when he was growing up and how things seem to have changed for the better...of course, he said that people were still wary and wondering when the junta was going to try and come back into power, but that the fear of this was starting to shrink.....it was good to see someone making it on their own with their own business...it was a terrific day :)

this last shot is when i was headed off inle lake at 6:30am...so just as the sun was rising...of course the fishermen were already out there fishing....but such a peaceful time to be on the water...it looked like glass....i really loved inle lake, and really didn't want to leave...but alas, i needed to come back to work....and had to leave the country from yangon....
 

but in yangon i did make it to the most famous/holiest temple site in all of myanmar....the shwedagon temple....and it is incredible....huge, covered in gold leaf and beautiful at sunset, which is when i was there....this temple houses relics from buddha and has visitors constantly...from pilgrims, to monks to people visiting myanmar from other countries....it is peaceful and serene and stunning, as you can see from this shot...a great place to sit and watch the world go by....i loved it

my trip to myanmar was a terrific last long trip here in asia...i am sooooo glad i went...i saw amazing things and met wonderful people, tasted yummy food, even cooked some myself, and just really enjoyed my time in this beautiful country....i know in the next few years the tourism will boom for this country, you can see its about to happen everywhere you turn...from saran wrapped atms in the airports, to bigger canoes and buses on the roads and waterways....so it was perfect timing for me...if you have it on your bucket list...and really, you should, i would say go there sooner rather than later....at this point you can still catch a glimpse of the past....but that is disappearing quite quickly....

so, i am hoping to get out two or three more updates before leaving china...but i am not sure its going to happen....fingers crossed....i am super busy with getting ready to leave and saying goodbye and of course ending my school year...but one can hope that i will accomplish what i want....thanks for reading through this update and feel free to send questions if you have them....hope you are all well and happy....

have a fab day :)
dani