Monday, August 23, 2010

Next!

'Looking forward' for many people involves planning their week of bagged lunches and appointments.

For a backpacker - it's all about where to next.

And, of course, I have a few ideas:

Ethiopia - amazing untouched culture, great food and the Great Rift Valley

Nepal - snow-capped peaks, great food and cool treks

Mongolia - yes, go back to Mongolia, friendly culture, horrendous and repulsive food and wide open spaces. But this time it has a huge twist - buy horses with Kelti and ride across the country.

I only have 8 months to decide...anyone want to weigh in?

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Onwards and Upwards

This is it.

One more flight.

I leave for Edmonton on Tuesday to finally make it home. Part of me can't wait to see friends and family and the familiarity of a grocery store. But, most of me is itching to get back on a plane and take off to the next destination.

I like to fly - it gives me an opportunity to have what I call a 'full-stop' - a time where you can't do anything and you are forced to sit and relax. I also really like to fly on private jets.

I realized something today - my first flight was in economy where I got bumped to business class. My second flight was business class, a few short economy flights in between...then all the way up to First class from Hong Kong to Vancouver.

And, just when I thought I would have to slum it once again - I'm off on a private jet back home. It just keeps getting better.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

From Rags to Riches

I have spent two and a half months staying in hostels with stinky French and snoring Chinese, constantly tempting the gods of diarrhea with cheap street food and walking hours a day just to not pay a $0.12 bus fare.

And now I’m in Hong Kong with the G-ster for some duck confit at Alain Ducasse, a pedicure at the spa of the Intercontinental and drinks at Felix. Talk about polar opposites.

I have the extreme fortune of being able to experience both sides of traveling and, of course, the question is which one I prefer. The answer is much tougher than you’d think.

Budget travelling has its challenges – a few skipped meals to pay for a ballet or sleepless nights to be able to get a guide for the Terracotta Warriors. But it is a challenge and such a fun challenge at that. Going on a budget makes you do your research and prioritize, it makes you think about what you want to see and why and whether it is worth it.

Then again, the bathrooms look like this.


Then you have the luxury side where doors are opened for you, air con is everywhere and if there is even a hint of a stain on your sheets you get fresh ones. No bed bugs here. It is easy and mindless and incredibly fascinating. And the views from hotel rooms look like this.


But it isn’t challenging and it isn’t adventurous.

When you travel on $30/day (or less) you are always in for an adventure – getting off at the wrong bus stop and wandering through alleyways with people making handmade noodles. Ordering either chicken or dog (it’s a toss up) at a street stall while a fancy restaurant with an English menu is across the street.

With money – you can see so much more. Travel times are halved by taking taxis, explanations are clear when you have a guide who actually speaks English and internal flights means you can see more sights in a short amount of time. You don’t get sick, you don’t get tired and if anything stressful happens – you just pay to make it go away.

I have lived my life with the philosophy that the journey is more interesting than the destination and there is no journey more incredible than trying to do it as cheaply as possible. There is no other way to learn the culture and understand the people than to live like they do and the only way to do that is to have their budget.

So, I think I’ll be a budget traveler for much longer than maybe my age suggests – getting down and dirty on public buses, doing the point-and-pray at restaurants and learning the best strategies for avoiding warts in showers.

Then again – the passionfruit soufflĂ© at Spoon looks unbelievable.

12 days

I met an Aussie in Chengdu who said - “Yeah, we just got off a THIRTY hour train trip and we’re totally bushed. So we’re going to take a couple days in Chengdu to recover”. I couldn’t help it and burst out laughing. Ha, 30 hours! That’s like a commute.

It got me thinking about how much of this trip was actually spent looking out the window of a train. So I tabulated mileage and time spent in a 43.281 square foot cabin (I measured).

Torah’s trip by the numbers:
Ulaanbataar – Irkutsk – 1,110 kms – 36 hours
St. Petersburg – Kizhi (round trip in one day) – 788kms – 17 hours
St. Petersburg – Moscow – 634 kms – 8 hours
Moscow – Almaty - 3082 kms - 83 hours
Almaty – Urumqi –1374 kms – 32 hours
Urumqi – Xi’an – 2568kms – 41 hours
Xi’an – Chengdu – 842kms – 20 hours
Chengdu- Lhasa – 3360kms – 44 hours

Total mileage in 3 months = 13,748kms

Total time spent on trains = 281 hours

That means that 12 full days were spent sitting on a bunk bed, gently rocking from side to side, listening to the clak-clak and trying to find entertaining things to do for 192 waking hours. It may sound like hell to some people, and to others it may be that these numbers are so unfathomable that it sounds almost doable. Either way – it is possible and I loved it.

Long live train travel.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

The Murky Waters of Chinese Politics

Free Tibet! Free Tibet. Free Tibet? It is well understood in the Western world that Tibet is the punching bag of the Chinese government, it is oppressed by a dictatorship and the culture is being raped and pillaged by their overlords.

Except, talk to a Chinese person and you’ll get a drastically different perspective. On my 44 hour train ride from Chengdu to Lhasa I met an English teacher from Chengdu and his 5 travel mates. All incredibly nice and well educated and they asked me what it is with Westerners feeling so much sympathy for Tibet. They are fully confused with our attitude towards their region. They fully believe that the Chinese government is trying to help the poor and backwards Tibetans that want to be modernized.

I got off the train completely confused. Thinking maybe the American propaganda machine has taken Tibet as their little ‘project’ and the reality is much different.

Then I got here.
Tibetans are incredible people, they surpass the hype about their friendliness and beauty. And they are prisoners in their own country – they are not allowed passports so they cannot leave China, military is EVERYWHERE stalking the small lanes and holding their AK47s in tiny 16 year old hands, pictures of the Dalai Lama are illegal, free speech is impossible and Tibetans are completely marginalized – they are second class citizens in their own country/province/region – whatever you want to call it.

It is the systematic destruction of their culture. Incentives by the Chinese government encourage migration of Chinese to Tibet, all high ranking posts are only offered to ethnic Chinese and the Tibetans continue with smiles on their faces and prayers in their hearts.

I have been converted. It only takes one day in Lhasa to be convinced. Tibet is a special and magical place that, if the Chinese government has their way, will fade into the cultural wasteland that is modern China.

I don’t know the answer and neither does anyone else. In the meantime, we can visit and appreciate the beauty of this region and its people…while it still lasts. I can only imagine in 2 years there will be rice terraces and cable cars holding 50 Chinese on a package tour up Everest.

The Culture of Beauty

I'm in the Qinghai-Lhasa train – a feat of engineering only the Chinese could accomplish. Mostly because they see their population as a natural resource and loss of life is just a normal part of development.

The scenery at 5000 meters is beyond spectacular – snow-capped mountains, permafrost grasslands, small pockets of water and streams running across the frozen landscape and endless sky so blue you won’t believe my photos. This train journey is one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.


I told my Chinese friend this.

His response: “Not very beautiful, no people”

If you live in a land of 1.2billion people where you are never alone, it would seem so desolate up here, so lonely and such a waste of land. To them, uninhabitable land might as well not exist. He may not find it that that appealing, but his camera shutter has been fluttering non-stop.