continuation 2

I also went to the Tibetan Medicine Center in Llasa and met with a Tibetan doctor. He was a wonderful person and spent a few hours with me, explaining to me the basis of the Tibetan medicine. He also told me that if I wanted to know more I should go to Nepal or best to India because in Llasa the doctors were not able to fully practice the medicine according to their old books - part of the practice is forbidden by the Chinese authorities. Especially part that has to do with the psyche. We talked about the Tibetan medicine and also about the Chinese and Indian Ayurveda. The doctor told me that I should also find out about Ayurveda and see which of these forms of treatment would be most suitable for me and at which I could be most effective. What I like about the Chinese and Tibetan doctors is that they are humble: they practice their type of medicine but they are open to any other type and see the potential benefits of merging them all. The western doctors discredit all non-western types with a frown and hostility, believing that the medicine they practice is the best. What a pity. So on the doctor's recommendation I decided to go to Kathmandu. I found a Belgian couple who wanted to hire a jeep with a driver to go to the Nepalese border and we shared the expenses. It is the beginning of winter in Tibet but it's possible to drive through the mountains for another 3-4 weeks. After that the road will be closed because of snow. We set out the next morning at 6:30 am and drove through the deserty mountaineous landscape until 6 pm. We stopped for breakfast in one of the small towns and for lunch in a small village. In the village we met a couple, a Polish men with a Chinese girlfriend, who wanted to hitchhike to the Mt. Everest base camp but it would be additional 8 hours for us and we would have to pay the driver extra so we left them in the village - they would have to wait for someone going to the base camp. We saw the peak of Mt. Everest from the distance. It was warm in the car but outside it was freezing. It felt like minus 20 Celsius. We got over a few passes, one at the hight of 5,100 meters above sea level. The driver spoke a few words of English (everytime we would pass a Chinese military truck or a police jeep he would say "Fuck Chinese") but he sang the English songs pretty well - we listened to the popular American pop from the 70s and 80s (my favorite YMCA was part of the collection; I think it must be THE most popular song for all times and all countries) . "I love you more than I can saaaaaaay" sang the driver. "I am a small small girl in the big big world", "Baby don't leave me, pleeeeeese." It was so funny to listen to him knowing he didn't know the meaning of the words. We also listened to great Tibetan and Indian music and also to Eminem, the driver being equally fond of both types of music. So it was karaoke time for all of us; Gilles, Veronique and I would sing along whatever we knew. We spent the night in the Llasa hotel in one of the small villages. The hotel is a row of rooms in the back of a house. There's no heat and no bathroom. The bathroom is a hole in the ground and it's hard to pee since first it's so cold you don't want to put your pants down, and second it's so disgusting and smelly that you just loose the urge to go... Tibetans don't have bathrooms so the ones along the way are built mainly for tourists and it seems that no one is checking the state they are in. The living conditions are very hard in this climate. The house is mostly one room with a fireplace-type heater and dried yak dung is used as coal. It is the only stove and heater in the house. The room serves as living and dining room (also dining room for tourists) during the day and bedroom during the night: the wide day-sofas are beds at night. Hygiene doesn't exist. There's no running water and electricity is scarce. I don't think anybody takes a bath, changes their clothes often, or does loundry in winter. All the bodily smells which we the Westerners are used to be eliminating with detergents, soaps, deodorants, etc. are present here and it's just part of life. To a Westerner these are very hard conditions to adjust to. It's possible but it takes time. I was thinking how some time ago I was used to two showers a day, then when I started travelling I got down to one, and then when there was no water or it was freezing I didn't see anything wrong with a shower every few days and now I can easily go without for six days (I am glad I am not a stinker, though :). It's possible to adjust to anything if one must and Tibetans have to - it's a matter of survival. In the morning the three of my companions had breakfast and I just had tea as it was to early for me to eat and while they were dining I went outside to the freezing cold to see the sunrise above the village. A young Tibetan joined me and we both watched the sky changing colors. An old man appeared, walking with a group of about 15 dogs. He was feeding them some bread. He must have been a shepard with his crew (Tibetans are basically nomads hearding lots of sheep and yaks). One of the dogs came to me and the young Tibetan wanted to chase it away, thinking a tourist would be afraid, but I wasn't, of course, and I called him back and all the dogs came to me for patting and I patted them, tugged at their ears, looked into their eyes, my dear friends, and I looked at the old man and he was smiling from ear to ear. "We are made from the same stuff, dear" his eyes were saying. In such exchange there's no language barrier - words are not necessary. We left the village and the scenery chaged to higher mountains, snow-capped, deep gorges, winding steep roads. We saw all the various Himalayan mountain ranges and the driver told us the names of all the mountains. It was beautiful. After three hours of driving the landscape started changing again to lower mountains, not bare like the ones we saw earlier, but covered with evergreens. They turned into a dense forest growing on the slopes of the mountains and we started seeing waterfalls and even some subtropical vegetation. Amazing change of scenery. When we got to the border it was about 15 degrees Celsius. We got out of the car and undressed to teeshirts. The atmosphere was also very different: lots of Indian people, women dressed in sarees, men lightly dressed, all wearing sandals. A total mix of nationalities: Tibetan, Chinese and Indian. We parted with the driver and met a group who just came behind us: French couple and three persons I got friendly with: Nikki and Farhaan from Canada but living in Taiwan at the moment, and Nitzan from Israel. We went across the border, went to eat and then looked for a way to get to Kathmandu which is another 5 hours' drive. We got a minivan and with one short stop for snack and beer got to Kathmandu. We checked in hotel Garunda - a nice place in the tourist district. It is one of the most amazing cities I have seen. The streets are extremally colorful. There's all kinds of crafts being sold on the streets and little stores, spices, food, music. It's a town bustling with life. Bicycles, rikshas and motorcycles do a slalom between pedestrians. Whoever went to India or Nepal must know what I am talking about. I like it so much that, I think, I will stay here until at least the end of the year. I met with a Tibetan doctor today and I got so much information I have to sit on it for a while to digest it all. One of the things he told me is that there is a center and school of Tibetan medicine in Barcelona, of all places. Before I set out on my trip in February I thought that eventually I could settle in Barcelona. Isn't it amazing?! I don't know where I will go or what I will do yet, where I will study and live. It's a big question mark. But there all these amazing possibilites and I don't have to decide on anything yet... Leaving Poland a month ago I though I will just stay somwhere but now, coming to Kathmandu, that thing that makes me wonder around appeared again and I think I will be floating for some more time...

I haven't been responding to e-mails for a while - I am sorry. I wrote a bit on the blog for everyone to be informed and now I promise I will be keeping in touch individually more often.

continuation

The most important thing in Llasa is the Pacala Palace built in the 7th century. Every Tibetan Buddhist is required to go on a pilgrimage to Llasa at least once in her or his liftime. The palace is a place of residence of the Dalai Lamas (or it was before the Chinese occupation). It is a huge structure situated on a hill, with many buildings attached to it since it's original form. I went through all the steep stairways, chapels with different statues of Budda and prominent Dalai Lamas, the Dalai Lamas "sarcophaguses" all in gold and precious stones, the apartment of the Dalai Lama. The monastery is a very strange building - it's an architectural style unlike any I have seen so far. It's difficult to explain. It's also rather cold and musky. The monks were wondering about, some were sleeping on low sofa-like beds in front of the statues, some were reading, some were sweeping the floor and cleaning the stautes and the many dark corners of the building. I talked to some of them (the ones who spoke English) and they were all very nice. One of them was openly flirting with me and asked me if I wanted to see him again later (a randesvous with a monk? interesting... just kdding!). I don't know much about the Tibetan monks. I only know that they are sent by their families to the monastery at a very young age. I wonder if this is a good system indeed. It seems rather repressive... I observed the monks on the streets when they were "window-shopping" at the markets, eating at the little restaurants, asking for donations for their monastery. There were a few who asked me to support their monastery away from Llasa and who got hostile when I told them I didn't give money on the street but I could donate money if I went there in person (that is true - I can only donate money to an organization which exists for certain). Maybe they were fake monks, I don't know... I wonder what their life is like and if it does resemble the life of the Catholic priests. It most likely involves the personal struggle of normal human instincts and what is considered a devout life, free from desire of any kind, the only goal being the enlightment or the connection with the higher power.

There were many beggars on the streets of Llasa. They would come very close to my face showing me the stacks of small bills, asking to give them more money. They would grab my hands, kids were wrapping themselves around my legs. Somone told me that begging goes along with the Buddhist tradition and those who have the money support the ones who are unfortunate and don't have them, but I felt that for many of these people it was not a necessity but a way of life. Every few steps I was stopped by someone. I heard "give money" about a hundred times. After two days I felt tired... One of the tourists I met in the Snowlands restaurant (a touristy place but having good food and a heating system; I basically went there to get warm - there was no heat in Hotel Yak) told me that he saw a similarity between the Indians of Bolivia and Tibetans. And that is very true: I saw the same connection. Both are highland Indians, their body built and facial features are similar, they dress similarly, their lives are equally hard in the harsh climatic and environmental conditions. However, I think that Bolivians are too proud to beg. It must have to do with their believes and tradition, not so much with the Christian tradition but the pre-Columbian. Also, there were many crippled and mentally ill people walking and crowling on the streets of Llasa. That looks also different from what I saw in Bolivia. In Bolivia the family tradition is so strong that all the less fortunate people are embraced by their families and seem not to be left to themselves. Observing the life in Llasa I was wondering about all these similarities and differences and what shaped the two groups of people. I tasted the food in the many little eating parlors. It's difficult to get a non-meat dish so I had meals containing yak meat. The famous Tibetan tea which contains butter can be very delicious or disgusting depending on the freshness of the milk (in any case it's sour in taste). I walked around the long market street and got many strands of coral and turquise neckleces - I will make a huge necklace out of it, to resemble the ones worn by the Tibetan women. Also men wear jewellerly, particularly turquise earings.

Llasa and Kathmandu

I came to Kathmandu yesterday and it's one of the most amazing places I have seen so far. But starting from the beginning.

The last evening in Chengdu was really nice. I talked to Heike about alternative medicine and we will keep in touch since we are so interested in different types of it. I went to bed thinking I would quickly fall asleep to wake up at 5 am next morning to catch the plane to Llasa but I started talking with Bret from the States who shared my bed (he occupied the ground floor of the bunk bed and I, free from any fears now, resided on the top floor), and also Maria from Sweden and one nice Englishmen whose name I forgot, unfortunatelly. Lying in our beds in darkness we talked about faith, religion and life in general until we all fell asleep. I love conversations such as these (and the collective teeth-brushing at the collective sink). The next morning I was picked up by a minivan and with a group of six other people were transported to the airport. To go to Tibet you have to get a permission and you have to be a part of the group so for the flight I was a part of the group; nobody cares whether the group stays together or not after they disembark at Llasa. The airport looked nice and fairly modern. The food on the plane of Chinese airlines was rotten, the flight attendants were not specifically nice (Swiss is still the best), the bathroom not really clean.... but I got to Llasa safe and that is all that counts. It is about an hour's drive from the airport to Llasa and the scenery was nice along the way - mountaneous, dry with some shallow-looking lakes. There were no factories in sight and air seemed much cleaner than I could smell and feel before. Right after I left the plane I started feeling the familiar headache, dizzines and the tightness in my chest - the typical symptoms of the high altitude sickness which hounted me for the next 24 hours. I followed the tourists to the Yak Hotel which has a variety of accomodations, from dorm beds for $2 to a suite for $150. I got the dorm room and shared it with some Chinese people. I have to say that at first I was very disappointed with Llasa. Usually I have no expectations whatsoever but I have heard so much about Llasa... Mr. Kryg told me that it has changed a lot over the years, that the Tibetan tradition is slowly disappearing, and that it was good I was going before it was too late. I felt at first that I got there too late already... When the bus entered the city center I immediately saw the Pacala Palace, the house of the Dalai Lamas, but then the streets resembled these of a typical Chinese town, with all the advertisement, department stores, restaurants, etc. I was expecting a small town with none of these modern achievements... Llasa is separated into two parts: the Chinese and the Tibetan. There is a part of it which is totally Tibetan with the traditional whitewashed Tibetan buildings and painted black around the windows but in general the presence of the Chinese style is predominant. The first day I walked around the city, its both parts, and just looked into the various markets, narrow streets, and the life happening on them. When I was in the Tibetan part many people, dressed in their traditional clothing and wearing amazing jewellery of silver and various stones, came very close to my face and stared at me. Women where pointing at me and showing me to their kids. The kids looked at me with eyes wide open with surprise. I felt like a freak of nature and was wondering why I got all this attention. I surely wasn't the first white tourist who came to Llasa... One of the tourists pointed out to me later that many of these people were pilgrims who came to Llasa from remote regions of Tibet and who had never seen a fair-haired and fair-skinned person before. Isn't this amazing?

I don't know how the internet works here. I will see how long it will take for this to be posted and I will continue with my story of the amazing few days shortly.

Beauty and the Gooffiness

Chinese culture consists of many things which I haven't encountered before. Before I got here I was suspecting that I will see a very different way of life from the Western way of life. And it is, yes, indeed. In Beijing what immediately cought my attention is the spontaineity of the people and lack of embarassment in expressing their feelings. When we walked around the city with Karen, Michale, Jon, Kevin and Henrik many people were looking at us with open interest: a bunch of long noses ("long nose" is like "gringo" in South America and it describes a Westerner and is so much true - we do have longer noses than the Chinese) visiting their land. The most interesting thing for people was Michael's beard - long and thick and braided into a single braid. Some people were pointing at it (we couldn't understand what they were saying but surely "look at that guy's beard!"), asked if they could touch it, have a photograph with Michael (and the rest of us in some cases) or even asked for autographs. When we were eating at our favorite restaurant across the hostal Leo's Jon read to us from Lonely Planet about what is considered cultural behaviour at table: basically anything is permitted and even welcomed, all the slurping, burping, eating with open mouth (anyone knows how is mlaskanie and cimakanie in English?), dropping food on the table, etc. Anything except sneezing and playing with chopsticks. Chopsticks should not be used for pointing, tapping the table or dishes or random poking in food. Eating is a joyful and communal act according to the Chinese culture so all the food is shared and one can take food from other people's dishes freely. Also, when someone trips and falls everybody laughs and the one who tripped and fell laughes the loudest. What I am saying here is that people in China don't seem to be bound by so many dos and don'ts as the Westerners. When a person trips and falls in, lets say, the US or in Poland the person quickly gathers him or herself up and looks around if anybody has seen it... and if anybody has, it's a reason for embarassment. I think those who live in the countries marked by the idea of a "successful person" with superb manners and perfectly controlable behaviour where the word "embarassment" is used a lot, should visit China and for once stop worring about slurping, burping or farting (yes, indeed, that too doesn't seem such an offense, especially after the lights go out in the train) in public. What a relief... Karen was saying that she doesn't laugh as much in Germany as she does in China. Any goofiness is welcomed in China, you can literally feel the relaxed atmosphere in the air.

Something else happed to me which I consider very interesting. When I was walking alone in Beijing twice a local man came up to me, asked if I spoke English, said "You are very beautiful" and walked away. One person at the internet place said the same thing and asked me if he could paint a picture of me. I said "yes" and suspected that maybe he would want to sell it to me afterwards but no. He drew the picture, thanked me and walked away. The men did not want to talk to me, or ask me to have coffee with them (as it happened in South America); they just wanted to expressed a thought that came to their mind and were not embarassed to do it. (I wonder if anyone will come to me another time and say "You are very ugly.") When it happened the first time I thought "My God, I am beautiful! Someone has actually seen it! Has admired me for once!" I am just kidding... What came to my mind immediately was a thought which came to me when I got a book from Rebis, who published it, entitled "The History of Beauty" by Umberto Eco: it is such a famous book but it really only portrays the history of beauty as seen in the Western culture. The book consists of many beautiful illustrations of famous paintings, old and modern actors and actresses, pop culture idols, etc. but it's only the Western model of beauty. In Africa, I have heard, the word for "a beautiful woman" is "fat bottom." In Poland, before the fashion magazines of the US and Western Europe appeared, a woman was considered beautiful if she had big breasts and big bottom: "a woman should have something to breathe with and to sit on" was the popular saying. Nowadays in the "West" a beauty is a tall and skinny woman whose knees are wider than her thights. In China what is considered beatiful is the fair color of the skin (it seems it's a sign of beauty since the Geishas' faces powdered white; the cramped deformed Chinese feet got out of fashion and wouldn't be considred beautiful now, though). And that is the beauty when it comes to women but what about the cannon of a male beauty? (Maybe in every corner of the world it suffices for a man to be just a little "better looking" than devil?) I think I mentioned this before but whenever people tell me that beauty will save the world I want to ask them: which beauty? Beauty is such a relative thing... The only thing constant I see everywhere I go is compassion. Person's ability of putting himself or herself into someone else's shoes is the only true beauty of a person. But when talking about the physical appearance I would like to say this to all who think there's something not good enough, not beautiful in them, something they don't like in themselves, something that makes them feel not beautiful: you are beautiful by the mere fact the you exist, you are part of the universe and the universe loves you the way it created you. And sometime somewhere, in the far corner of the world, you may even be considered beautfiul by the other mere mortals.

I booked my flight to Llasa for Wednesday morning and I can't wait what cultural delicacies await me there. Not to mention the Tibetan medicine... Next time I will write from Llasa.

Pandas and the Chinese opera

In the morning I went to the Panda Breeding Center. I saw a few young Pandas, mid-age and one mom with a few-months old baby. The center is located on 30 some hectares and it will be enlarged into over 200 hectares in the near future. There are Giant Pandas and Red Pandas there. Giant Panda everybody knows: it's a bear (although some scientists believe it belongs to a racoon family) with black and white markings. The Red Panda does look more like a Racoon: its fur is red and it is much smaller than the Giant Panda. The animals have lots of space to run around and they look happy in the center. I am against any type of zoos or breeding centers - I think if people were foolish to let the animals become extinct they should just let the remaining ones die in peace and not keep them in cages. This center, however, looks quite nice, the animals don't look bored, they seem to enjoy their peaceful life there, maybe because their nature is rather sluggish anyways and they don't need so much running around as other species... I felt sorry for them at first, for not living in their natural habitat, but then I though that being so pampered (having enough food, company, having the medical care and not suffering from any diseases) the remaining ones have a much better life than any of the Chinese farmers, not to mention farm animals and cats and dogs which end up in a stew... I saw an interesting movie about the center. It started operating in 1995 with 40 individuals. Now there are about 1000 Giant Pandas in the world. It's impossible to avoid inbreeding when the species is being recreated from such a limited number of animals so eventually they are bound for extinction anyways. The scientists are doing genetic map of every animal that is born in captivity and some of them are hopeful that this, and eliminating genetical diseases, will save them. They are beautiful. They are born very little, a few kg (a grown up Panda is about 80 kg), and literally develop in her or his mom's arms for the first few months (the mom is holding the baby constantly, kissing it, caressing and feeding) and then doesn't live the mom's side until it is 1,5 years old. From the age of 5 to 18 Panda is in its mature and reproductive stage and after 18 it enters the senior age and lives to about 22 years of age. I observed the young ones play and they looked very much like Max and Buff playing: tugging each others ears, legs and tails, rolling over, sliding down the hills, jumping on each other, making noises similar to dogs. When they eat they sit on their bottoms with legs streached out in front of them, they take a twig and first rip off all the leaves from it and then start chewing them all together. They mostly feed on bambu leaves but only certain species of it. The Red Pandas are more active and they were running around, chasing each other, stumping their feet on trees and the ground, tup, tup, tup. They look more like racoon-cats than bears.

After I came from the center I just wrapped myself in blankets, got a pot of green tea, and lured two cats who live in the hostal (Mimi and Mimi since all cats in China are called Mimi) to serve as my space heaters. They liked it very much, one sat on my belly, the other on my legs and were collectively curing me of my cold with their wormth and energy. These colds and infections of mine really get on my nerves. I hope I will strengthen my body in Tibet and nothing will attack me anymore. I found a book by Elia Kazan "The Arrangement" and spent the time reading. And in the evening I went to see the Chinese opera. It consisted of a band, a short play, a soloist singing, puppets, shadow theater, gimnastics, colorful costumes and masks, but it wasn't anything special. I saw better Chinese opera in NY and I have some CDs so I know it can be much better. But the drive to the opera house was nice. Chengdu by night looks like a western city: lots of neons, shopping centers, restaurants... The driver also picked up two more passangers, a couple of British doctors who have lived in Shanghai for the past ten months. It was interesting to talk to them. I met yet more people who tell me Tibetan medicine is the best. I can't wait to see how it works...

About the Chinese countryside as seen through the windows of the train. It looked very poor. Guatemala and Nicaragua looks rich in comparison... Everything looks gray. There are factories everywhere and their huge chimneys emanate so much smog and soot that small but long farm houses in villages and apartment buildings in small cities are covered with gray dust. Also, nothing seems to be ever renovated, repaired or painted over. It seems that a building is built and it stands until it disintegrates... The train was going along a river most of the time and there were hills around it. Most of them were tarased for the crops. The soil in general looks rather unsuitable for farming so every suitable piece is used. In South America there's lots of color everywhere: the buses are painted in strangest colors, people wear colorful clothes, and music blares from every corner. Chinese countryside looks gray and quiet. People don't look sad, though. They laugh a lot, at least in Beijing they did and they do in Chengdu so I would assume this happiness comes from the culture. I will write about it in a minute, in the next entry so that I don't loose whatever I wrote so far.

Chengdu

Yesterday morning I parted with Kevin and Henrik, who were going to a Great Wall excursion, since I would be gone before they came back. The day before yesterday Karin, Jon and Michael went to Tsingao. I really enjoyed their company. I think my stay in Beijing would not be so great if I hadn't met them. I laughted a lot during these few days. So many funny things said and done... "There was no paper toilet so I had to take a shower" - said Henrik. Kevin and I shared a bed - I slept on the bottom bed and he on the top bed but when I was waking up he was just coming to bed, around 9 or 10 am. Sometimes I would go down to the restaurant for breakfast and see Kevin sleeping in an armchair, curled up into a ball, covered with my jacket, or I would see Kevin and Henrik still talking, sitting where I left them the evening before, annoucing: "We smoked 4 packs of cigarettes but got sober already..." I once went to bed at 3 am but usually went to bed at 2 so I only heard the stories of what happened past 2, like the contest of "who can take out, using the qiutip, more wax out of one's ear" or drink more Tsingao beer. I told them my favorite "There came a woman to see a doctor joke" (Przyszla baba do lekarza...) and I am going to put it on the blog to commemorate the great times:

There came a woman with a frog on her head to see a doctor. The doctor says "What happened to you?!" "I don't know. Something got stuck to my ass" - says the frog.

I don't remember any other jokes from this series. Does any of my Polish friends remember? Please let me know. I know some of them were really funny.

So I borded the train to Chengdu yesterday at 16:30 and got here after 26 hours. I wanted to travel cheaply and I got the third class about which I have heard before: it's a car with beds being the only partition i.e. you can see about 80 people, how they sleep and eat, read and talk, because the car is not separated into compartments. There are ground, first and second "floor" beds and I got the top floor bed. I was terrified at first because I have been afraid of sleeping on top beds since incident of sleep walking out of a top floor in my childhood (on the Batory cruise liner). But I survived it without sleep walking and breaking my neck so I guess travelling can free you from any phobias you may have... I just got a few bruises because the bed so is close to the celeing that you can't really sit so before you get use to it you bang your head a few times, and it is so narrow that when you move an arm or a leg you bang into the wall separating you from the next bed. It's basically like a cubicle. But in general even the third class on the local Chinese train looks better than the Transsiberian train: it was much cleaner, there were a lot of nicely dressed and very helpful train attendants, nice restaurant and peculiar but very clean bathrooms. The bathrooms consist of a hole in the ground and places to put your feet around the hole so you have to get into a squating position to do your business. It's like peeing in the forest. I think it's better than the western toilets because it's easier to keep clean and there's no surface you can touch so it's impossible to contract any diseases... And, I heard that the squating position is more physiological... The only difficulty is learning to point... maybe not for boys but definitely for girls. Most of the toilets in China are of this fashion. In the Transsiberian train restaurant car the choice of food was limited: goulash soup, bread and butter, eggs, tea and coffe, vodka and beer. In the Chinese train there was a choice of 10 different things and you could either have them at the restaurant or buy them (a set of 6 different things for $1) from a lady with a food cart going through the train. They also had a cart with toiletries, snacks, fruit, and drinks. Every set of 6 beds had a small tv and I saw two movies. The first one looked like a Chinese version of "Gangs of New York." The second was a movie which I saw some time ago in NY and is entitled "In the Mood for Love." It didn't have the English subtitles but it's one of my favorite movies - a beautiful movie about love - and I enjoyed watching it for music and acting. The soundtrack from the movie is one of the best I have in my music collection. The friendly staff at Leo's made a reservation at Hostal Mix and Backpackers and one of its young owners Ed picked me up himself and we came to the hostal by bus. The place is really great. Here's the website: http://www.donkey-pal.com/index_eng.htm
I booked a trip to the Panda breeding place tomorrow morning and to see the Chinese opera (which I got to know through the movie "In the Mood for Love") in the evening. Ed also introduced me to Heike who is German and who is taking a course in acupuncture at a medical school here at Chengdu. She will take me with her to see the school the day after tomorrow. I also got information about my trip to Llasa - it's too cold to go by bus at this time of the year. I will go by plane. It's $200 with the permit so it's not so bad. I think I will book my ticket for the end of the week.
Tomorrow I will write more about the countryside as seen through the windows of the train and some general first impressions of life in China.

Testing new way of reaching my blog

I am trying to see if I can open my blog by outsmarting the blocking system.

I am going to Chengdu today at 1630.

Kreml and Moscow in general

Irina led us to a guide who got the ticket for our group and took us for a four-hour long walk around the Kreml. We went around the governmental buildings, the Orthodox cathedral of Consumption (beautifully painted from floor to celeing), the pops' palace and the armory. The armory was probably the most interesting of them all as it has many works of art created in Russia and given to it as presents from around the world but mostly European countries. We also saw the coronation dress of Catherine the Great (and her high-healed shoes), many crowns of Czars, their carragies and jewelerly. During the tour we also learned a lot of spicy gossip and anectodes about the courtly life, among them the story of "Bistro": when the Napoleon lost its campain againt Russia many Kozacks went to France and as many French ladies preferred the big, strong and macho Kozacks to feminine, delicate, perfumed and wigged Frenchmen of the time, when the Kozacks left France they left behing many half-Kozack babies and "Bistro" i.e. the type of a fast snack place taking its name from the Russian "bystro" meaning "quick." In the evening we went to the Kreml theater to see "The Nutcracker" and it was by far the worst ballet performance I saw... there was nothing good about it. The theater itself was a nice building but the choreography, the dance, costumes and scenery was really bad. I had to leave, unregrettably, as my train was due at 9:30, during the intermission. I parted with the vodka train group, took a subway to the Beloruskij trainstation where I bought the ticket for the Transsiberian train the day before and started looking for information about the departure of my train. I didn't find it on the light board and looked for an information office. I wondered and wondered around, people were not really willing to help me find it and gave me mixed direction and finally I come across a Russian man living in Amsterdam who was also looking for info about his train to Belgium. We finally found it and it turned out that my train was to leave from a different train station - the Jaroslawski. It was 9:05. The Russian/Amsterdanian man started running with me out the station and got me a taxi and told the driver to speed up. I am eternally grateful to him. I got to the station at 9:25. I left the taxi and I started running toward to entrance, I found myself in an enormous train station hall, I asked a man where the entrance to the tracks where and told him I had 5 minutes to catch the train, he started running, I followed him, we got to the entrance, I shook his hand really hard, spasiba! spasiba! spasiba!, I ran along the tracks looking for the train to Beijing, I found it, I ran along the train to find the Chinese part of it, I found my car, number 6, I presented my ticket panting heavily, I got into the car, I found my compartment, number 8, and my bed, number 29, I closed the door, put my backpack down, sat on the bed, and the wheels of the train started turning... I started laughing histerically... I have this strange luck sometimes...

A few more thoughts regarding my stay in Moscow. The thing I was happy about was that I could still read Russian and understood most of what people were saying to me. I studied Russian long time ago but I found out that even if you loose touch with the language the information is stored in the mind and it is easy to recall it. I think that I could speak Russian well if I stayed in Russia for a few months. But I don't think I would want to... Moscow looks to me like a city built for giants: the buildings are humongous, there are six-line streets running throught the middle of the city, to get to the subway station you have to ride on the escalator for 10 minutes to get down to the bottom of the earth... I have heard so much about Moscow that I expected a city bustling with life but in reality it is like a ghost town: nothing happens there. It seems the city is dead. There are cafes and restaurants but they are expensive and not many people can afford them. Everybody apparently stays at work or at home. There is no part of the city like San Telmo in Buenos Aires, East Village in New York, Barranco in Lima or Coyacan in Mexico City: a place where people would enjoy themselves just walking, enjoying cheap cafes and street art. Moscow is sterile. The people seem sad... They are nice but very reserved. During the train trip we passed many towns and cities (usually we had 10 or 20 minutes to get out of the train, get some air and buy things from the women who were selling products at the stations). The people seemed equally sad in these places... Often they are very poor, it's true, but it must be connected with the outlook on life and also perhaps with the fact that people who live in Siberia were displaced people, moved by force from other places... not as hostle to live in as Siberian climate and landscape. I was thinking about this when we got to Mongolia and later to China. In Mongolia and China people are even poorer than in Russia. In Mongolia the land is really dry and unproductive, yet there was this feel of "contentment no matter what." Many Mongolians and Chinese waved to us when they saw the train passing and smiled when they saw us wave back to them. In Russia nobody did that...

At this point I stopped writing yesterday. I would like to say that I can't access my blog because blogs are not accessible from China. My dear friend Marcin agreed to post my entries which I will be sending to him over e-mail. So please don't send me any comments on the blog because I won't be able to read them; only e-mails please for the time being.

Continuing my story from yesterday... The first few days on the train I had the whole compartment to myself and I was basically sleeping day and night and enjoying it. In Ulan-Dar two women joined me and there was more talking and exchange of ideas. The women (who lived in Ukraine but worked in Ulan-Baator) got off at Ulan-Baator and two Mongolian men joined me and also a family of three: Maggie, Jummy and their 11-year old daughter Toya. We all got very friendly and spent the remaining time in a very pleasant atmosphere. The entire trip was really pleasant except the wait on the border: every time we were waiting three to four hours for the documents to be checked. The scenery behind the window was interesting: the first few days after we left Moscow it was the typical Siberian landscape with vast open spaces and big birch forests. From Irkutsk we went around the south end of the Bajkal lake, a really huge lake - like an ocean. We passed by all these tiny one-room wooden houses with windows painted blue. When we got to Mongolia the houses were replaced by yurt - the kind of tipi made out of dense wool. Around the wooden houses in Russia there was a lot of all kinds of junk. Around yurts there was nothing. Sometimes clothes were just drying on a line and that was it. It always amazes me how little people can have and still feel happy. In the Ecuadorian jungle life is easy: first it is warm all the time and second food grows on trees and is ready to be picked at any minute. In Mongolia the land is bare steppe or desert so it must be hard to survive in such conditions... yet the people do enjoy their lifes. According to what I heard from them, they would like to change it to a more comfortable life but if they can't, they are not miserable and make the most of life they have. They depend on their family and community ties. The Chinese countryside looked less dusty and dry and there were many fields cultivated by the farmers. In China also the farmers and the track workers waved to us smiling.

The people on the train were of mixed nationality: some Russians, some Chinese, Mongolians and a group of Europeans. The Europeans spent evenings in the restaurant car, talking, playing cards and games and drinking vodka and beer, and I joined them for one evening and it was fun. I would have joined them for more evenings but I basically was left with $10 for the trip because the hasty taxi ride to the Jaroslawsky train station drained me off money (I boycot taxis and don't use them unless I absolutely have to since they are always a rip off and it was a rip off this time as well...) and couldn't spent much on beer. The stops at the stations were too little time to search for an ATM or a money exchange place. $10 was enough for the food though. I especially liked the Russian "pierozki" which are like soft big donoughts with a filling inside. The ones with cabbage are the best (drozdzowe placuszki z mloda kapustka zasmazana, mniam). Of the Europeans I especially got friendly with Kevin who is from France and whose cabin was next to mine, and also Henrik from Sweden, and Katrin, Jon, and Michael from Germany. Katrin, Jon and Michael had reservation at one of the hostels and since Kevin, Henrik and I didn't we went with a person who approached us at the Beijing train station to his hostel.

We got to Leo's and liked it immediately: the atmosphere of the place (there's a restaurant, loundry, movies and a really great crowd of people) and the location (it's in an old part of the city full of narrow streets and old buildings and it's close to Tienamen Square and the Forbidden City). Guys took the shower and I just relaxed since being dirty stopped bothering me so much and we went to search for a vegetarian restaurant which prooved to be good and cheap. Henrik left us to retire to his quarter to rest since he was really tired and Kevin and I went slowly back to the hostel and enjoyed all the stores with traditional Chinese clothing, jade jewerly, kites and Tibetan artwork. When we got back to the hostel Jon, Karin and Michael were waiting for us and we spent a nice evening talking and drinking beer. We decided to rent bikes the next morning and go for a ride around Beijing. We followed a route outlined in the Lonely Planet and it took us around the Tienamen Square, past the Mao Mausoleum, in the back streets of the Forbidden City, along the narrow streets of Hutong and back through bussier and larger streets of more modern part of the city. It was a really great bike ride. We had a lot of fun riding in the crowds of other bikers. On the roads of Beijing anarchy rules: everybody is on the road making sudden turns, bikes and pedestrians cross the streets on red light and nobody seems to care. There are no tickets given. We encountered a few policemen on the bikes (as old and rusted as ours) who observed the same rules, or rather lack of rules, as everybody else. We got back to the hostel cold but happy and went to a type of Chinese fast food. It was a really good meal for about 60 cents. Afterwards we went to a sauna and stayed there until 11 pm. Boys and girls were separated so Karin and I spent time together steaming in the steam room and sweating in the dry sauna. We wanted to have a beer in our hostel after the sauna and it turned into a long conversation and mingling with people until 3 am. Yesterday we visited the Forbidden City. It is an amazing place, a city really, which was a house to many of the Chinese emperors. It consists of a few big "palaces" in which the emperors saw advisers and officials, many smallers "houses" where the emperors lived, even smaller where their concubines lived, many streets and narrow passages, a garden... In some of the houses there is original furniture and art. We walked through the city and I was thinking of two movies I saw on the life and intrigues of the empirial court: Farwell to My Concubine and Raise the Red Lantern and tried to imagine the emperors sitting on their thrones, dressing for the day, greeting guests, deciding on the fate of their people... ordinary life of an emperor and his servants since to an emperor all were servants, even his wifes. A Chinese emperor must have been a very lonely person... We walked in the city until closing time at 4:30. The temperature drops radically in Beijing after the sunset. We went fast into the warmth of a really nice restaurant where we eat a very good meal and decided to go to bed early this time...

Today guys went for a trip to see the Chinese Wall and I decided to split and see if I can get some information on the med schools and going to Tibet. I ran around the city like mad - it really is a big city. The subway system works very well. There are not many lines but it is very well designed and I had no problem getting where I wanted. I first went to the Polish embassy and met with really nice people who work there. I got most of the information I needed. I went to the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and talked to a very nice doctor who works there. He also gave me information which I may use later. I decided that first I will go to Tibet. Later I will go to Shanghai to see the med school there. Shanghai is less polluted than Beijing: pollution is a problem for me still. So tomorrow I will get the ticket for the train closer to the Tibetan border and from there I will have to take the bus. I will try to leave as soon as I can, Saturday or Sunday.

In general I like Beijing a lot. Chinese seem to me the most spontaneous people I have seen so far. They do absolutely what they feel like doing (they look at tourists with great interest). They are very friendly people and willing to help at all times. Whenever I looked lost today they stopped and asked me if I needed help. It was hard sometimes to communicate - I will have to learn some basic Chinese words - but we both tried. The only things which I will have to get used to is the dog and cat on the menu (so far I find the idea depressing...) and people clearing their air passages... In Europe you can be woken up by coocoododleing roosters, in Beijing you are woken up by people spitting as if they wanted to throw up their lungs. Guys got used to it and are even trying to master the technigue but as for me I will have to first learn to hold my peacock inside and then maybe I can try.

And I will end this part of the story with this delicious bit of info on Beijing. I am being roasted in the internet place since everybody smokes here, even more than in Buenos Aires, so the next part will appear when I get to Llasa.

Buenas noches todos mi amigos o buenas dias, but in any case muchos abrazos y un beso.

Beijing

Dear friends, I safely got to Beijing today at 2:30 pm. The time difference between here and Poland is 5 hours and between here and NY is 11 hours. My journey on the Transsiberian train was an adventure, first being the fact that I almost missed that train! But let me start from the beginning.

Dorotka, Marcin and Karmelek drove me to the train station in Warsaw and installed me in my car. I was to share the compartment with Nadia - a Russian student who was visiting Warsaw since her parents work there. In Belorussia the train's bottom was changed to adhere to Russian standards - the Russian railways are wider than European and Chinese. The Belorussian customs officer checked our passports and wanted to return me to Warsaw since my Russian visa stated that the date of my entry to Russia was on the 7th of November and it was 6 o'clock on the 6th of November. The Russian consulate gave me the visa based on my train ticket so they knew what day and time I would be crossing the border - we crossed the Belorussian/Russian border past midnight. The customs officer wanted money to let me go but I told him that if he could let me stay on the train I would be grateful, and if he couldn't I would go back to Warsaw (in no event I would take part in corruption). He let me stay. I am writing this so that everyone taking the Transsiberian is cautious about the tricks one can encounter... Nadia and I met Daniel from California, who was in the different compartment but joined us for company since he heard us speaking English. We talked until midnight and then when Daniel wanted to go back he found the door to his cabin locked so, after some attempts to let him in, he joined us for the night and slept on the remaining unoccupied bed. We were telling each other jokes and about books and films until fe fell asleep. We got to Moscow's Bieloruskij train station at 12:30 pm, Nadia was picked up by her boyfriend Aljosha, and Daniel and I went to get my ticket to Beijing. Daniel was to meet with a group of tourists arranged by something called "Vodka train" service and he already had his ticket. I wanted to join the group but it turned out there were no tickets on the day they were to leave. I got the ticket for the following day which was Tuesday. I paid for the ticket $160 for the second class (the first class is $260 and the greatest benefit of it is the shower; there's no shower in the second class). We went toward the Red Square, eat a nice dinner - Mongolian barbecue - and from the restaurant observed the parade of enthusiasts of the revolution which used to the biggest holiday - November the 7th - but is not a holiday anymore. Many people still consider it the greatest holiday and all of them, with red flags, pictures of Lenin and even Stalin, went out the street to commemorate the revolution. The people who walked in the procession were usually old people, which cannot find themselves in the new system, I believe (and I understand why). The younger crowd was sitting in restaurants, sipping $4 cappuccinos (Moscow really is outrageously expensive)... Since I had no place to stay I decided to go with Daniel to a hotel, The Golden Colossus, where he was to stay and meet with the rest of the group. We found the Golden Colossus, which was neither
golden nor colossal, and in front of the entrance we met Murray from Australia who was rushing toward the taxi arranged by the hotel as it turned out the Vodka train group didn't have the reservation at Golden Colossus after all. We joined Murray and got to a hotel which looked like a student dorm transferred into a hotel but it was quite nice. I spent the night there. In the morning the group met in the lobby: Miloush and Irena from Holland, Angie and Holly from England, and Daniel and Murray. The "Vodka train" group was to be led by Irina - a very nice student of English. I joined them for breakfast and the visit to Kreml. More about Moscow and the "vodka train" tomorrow. I am going to take a shower, first since last Tuesday, hurrah!, and crowl into bed. Good night or good morning everyone!!!

Moscow

Zdrastwujtie rebiata! I safely arrived in Moscow yesterday and bought the ticket to Bejing for tonight 9:30 pm. I will write more when I get to Bejing or somewhere along the way. I shall be in Bejing in a week. Many hugs.

Leaving Poland

I came to Warsaw today early afternoon and I first visited Kura's mom. She is a wonderful person and we spent together a few hours, talking about Kura, of course, Emese, and their life in NY, and watching Emese and Kura's wedding. I saw the movie from the wedding the first time in its totality - earlier parts of it were slowed down by slow-working computers. Guys! I felt I denced with you! What fun it was! I said I won't get married ever again but maybe I will! So that I could see you all dance! I really loved Emese's embroidered blouse and the folk music. The wedding dress was beautiful as well but I loved the blouse... Kura's mom said she will have a talk with you Kura regarding the vodka drunk from Emese's shoe. She didn't show me pictures of Kura when he was a little chic but I saw all NY pictures and on them were also many other friends. Kura and Emese called and we had a wonderful conversation. It was a very warm meeting... Kura's mom lives in a beautiful old building right in the old city center - it is a few steps away from the Barbakan. It is a dreamplace to live. Marcin picked me up at 5:30 pm and we came to the apartment of the Chwist family. We are going to talk and drink delicious tea with raspberry juice and lemon and when Karmelek falls asleep we will watch "The day of the Wierdo" (Dzien Swira). Tomorrow at 14.30 sharp I am leaving for Moscow and I will be there at noon on Monday. The whole trip to Bejing should take about 2 weeks, longer if I go to Mongolia. I will be in touch when I have access to computer. Until then I am sending you all warmest hugs.

P.S. Here's a link to more picks from Poland:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/asia_kabat/my_photos

All Saints Day

Today is All Saints Day or Dia del Muertos. However, due to the traffic on the road and the amount of car accidents which are usually higher than during any other day of the year in Poland, my father and I visited the cementaries where the family members lie yesterday and the day before yesterday. We went to three cementaries in three different parts of the city, put flowers on graves and lit candles. All Saints Day is, according to the Polish tradition, a rather sad holiday- a holiday during which the passed away are remembered and the living pray for their salvation in the afterlife.

I went to the forest behind my house in the morning. Buffcio and Maksio ran a lot. I could watch them playing for hours. The weather was beautiful and there were not many people. The forest was warm and quiet... I could feel the energy emanating from the birch trees... The monumentality of nature and its energy is an endless prayer on any day of the year... Now I am sitting at the computer in Hania and Wojtek's bedroom. Hania made a delicious cotlet indykowy, mniam, mniam, yummy, yummy. Now we are going to drink tea and talk endlessly as we never have enough talk...