So it appears that no matter how many gyrations I attempt with the Wi-Fi at the hotel, I cannot properly access my blog nor upload photos. That means I will have to use my data plan, which means I really can’t afford to upload pictures this early in the trip! I guess I will have to do for now the opposite of what I was hoping to do which is write more vs show more photos and write less… So just a couple quick stories from yesterday…

We walked into a beautiful old park built into the hills called Cherry Park. Wandered around in there for quite a while, there was actually an old cable ride you could write all the way to the top of the mountain and then walk your way back down, we were in there for several hours. A beautiful Buddhist temple within…

Very popular park with locals as well and at each gate, the roads approaching are lined with restaurants and shops and such. So as we came down out of the park, we all agreed we were hungry but there were dozens of little restaurants, by American standards, we would call them holes in the wall. As we walked by in our tourist stupor, we were invited in the one restaurant by an aggressive tout for one of them.

This might be a good time to mention that China is very different than any other place I’ve visited, it is still true even on my third visit. I have yet to see a western tourist here! Nobody speaks English, nothing is written in English, it is very ethnocentrically China! But as you know, most Americans only know English. Much of the rest of the world has adapted to us and our poor global speaking skills by learning some English. Not so true here. So imagine a Chinese person who spoke no other language (like most Americans) visited Alaska. Where would they see anything written in Chinese? Any menus, street signs, anything at all? They would find absolutely nothing written in English, and it would be a struggle at times to navigate or engage in a conversation or in this case, order a meal! So that is how we found ourselves in this little restaurant…

After a combination of pointing at food at other tables in this place, Bill, the Australian, finally pointed at an item on the menu and said “this one!” It was written in Chinese characters, we had absolutely no idea what we ordered but after while we became confident that whatever it was we would survive!

This place was set up with propane burners under large wok type pots in the center of the wooden table. They eventually brought out a bowl of very red soup that had many bits of beef, spices, onions, chopped ginger, garlic, and many many other unidentified contents. The objective was you walked over to the shelf on one side of this place, picked out the greens you wanted to add from at least 30 different fresh and hand picked greens, and add them to the soup, cook the greens a bit in the hot soup, then scoop some out and put it over your bowl of steamed rice that was also served. Lots of dried chilies on the table to spice things up.

We were the only Westerners in the place obviously, many laughs and giggles were pointed our way by the workers there as we worked our way through this unusual mail, for us anyway. It was really outstanding though, very tasty, extremely spicy, and very enjoyable! Thank goodness there were cold beers! So at the end of this post, I will attempt to upload a couple photos from that lunch, which I believe is emblematic of the visit here so far, and of the truly for an adventure the China represents to the average westerner.

Pretty much all of us went back and took naps in the afternoon, then I met up with Paul and Rebecca for an evening walk about. The main square further east toward the river was full of groups of people and kids and families dancing in groups, playing various games, kids riding their bikes or rollerskates… A beautiful scene. Then we stopped at a food court nearby and ordered some food, a situation very similar to the one I described earlier, except this one I was able to use Google translate as was one of the waitresses there was using a similar application, so we worked it out to order a meal that we understood what it was before it arrived!

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A pretty good first day in Guiyang, China! The weather is near 80°, this is a large noisy smelly smoky city, like many in China. My jet lag is no problem for some strange reason, I stayed up 26 straight hours getting here and then slept for seven hours last night, so well adjusted to this time zone already and seem to feel pretty good today! Cycling doesn’t start for two more days… Tried to upload a bunch of pictures here, but China Wi-Fi is often filtered on a variety of levels. I’ve had similar issues here before. For example, Yahoo maps will work just fine on my phone, but Google will not. For whatever reason, I’m not permitted to upload my photos on the Wi-Fi at the hotel. Will try again soon…

A pretty good first day in Guiyang, China! The weather is near 80°, this is a large noisy smelly smoky city, like many in China. My jet lag is no problem for some strange reason, I stayed up 26 straight hours getting here and then slept for seven hours last night, so well adjusted to this time zone already and seem to feel pretty good today! Cycling doesn’t start for two more days… Tried to upload a bunch of pictures here, but China Wi-Fi is often filtered on a variety of levels. I’ve had similar issues here before. For example, Yahoo maps will work just fine on my phone, but Google will not. For whatever reason, I’m not permitted to upload my photos on the Wi-Fi at the hotel. Will try again soon…

Testing… Yes, this is Alaska… Just checking out the techno tools before the trip starts…

Our first day on the bikes finally… a relatively short but intense day in the hills above Gangtok. We had a long visit to the Enchey Monastery, a medium size but very well cared for active monastery. Fascinating was the dozen monks inside the main building chanting the entire time we were there. You close your eyes and the vocal rhythm is mesmerizing!

Learned more about the group members. Cari (Norway) works in the Norway oil fields as a fire safety specialist. They talked about if you make up to $150k, your taxes are 50%, but as you get higher income, taxes go high as 90%! You buy a car, tax is 100%! But health care and the university is free; and infrastructure is possibly best in the world.

Herb Kavet is an author and is 77 years old and bikes like a champ!!! He’s one of those guys that always has a funny story at the ready.

Bill is a UK citizen, but has lived in Australia for 25 years because he cannot tolerate the cold wet UK weather. He now works for a company developing a means to recycle used McDonalds cooking oil into bio-diesel.

Herb especially has traveled on bikes extensively. Like Paul, he’s probably had 50 trips over the years. I’m a novice with my 12 trips abroad in comparison. But to be clear, I know I am a VERY fortunate man in so many ways, and I count my many blessings every day…

Talking with these folks about the fantastic trips they’ve taken is inspiring; to see proof that cycling is clearly a fitness option easily done through many decades…

My bike is a good one, so no worries there!

After the day’s cycling was done and lunch back at the hotel, there was a frantic rush at 330pm by the group to head into Gangtok central. Paul and I had heard from the other Brits here about a place called the Tibetan Craft Center. We weren’t sure where it was, but the Brits said the handicrafts were very nice and very cheap. A tourist shoppers dream, no doubt!! So Paul looked it up on the net and found it. He thought… Tigishak Women’s Refugee Craft Center sounds almost EXACTLY like Tibetan Craft Center, right?? Well, we hop in a micro taxi after negotiating (asking how much, really…) the price of r150, or about $3us. We hop in and go down and down the hill, over ridiculously narroe and steep back roads; finally arriving at the Hotel Tigishak which has a small shop with less that ten sweaters and that’s about it!!! Thankfully we had asked the taxi to wait 45 minutes for us as we perused… We were back in the can in less than ten!! That was our gringo adventure for the day.

Back at the hotel the rain started again about 6pm and just poured in biblical proportion for about an hour, then suddenly stopped! Hope that pattern continues so we don’t get heavily rained on during our riding day!

One of the greatest things about travel is hearing the perspectives from countries other than my own. At dinner tonight, there was an extensive discussion about the influx of Muslims into Norway, Europe generally, Australia, and the US. Unquestionably, the European view is that Muslims are intent on influencing governments to accept their intolerant ways, their abuse and control of women especially; impose their values in schools, etc. I didn’t know that with many Muslims, the women are not allowed to correct a male, including their own child. That makes total sense as in my travels I have occasionally noticed very bad behavior by Muslim boys allowed and ignored by their moms.

A further but COMPLETELY unrelated interesting discussion about the dangers of mercury and aluminum, and the hypothetical connection to Alzheimer’s. Per is a chemist, so a very educational discussion.

All in all, a good day! Still raining with powerful thunder and lightning now… Maybe that’ll mean the FU…RS will choose to stay dry instead of their nighttime bark fest!!

GO BOSOX!!

There’s a very interesting older British couple here at the Hidden Forest Retreat hotel that have a very interesting history. They are in this area in order to visit Darjeeling for the first time in 50 years. As a boy he went to boarding school in Darjeeling while his British father was in India to build steel manufacturing plants. He will be visiting the boarding school that he went to, which is still an exclusive school, and he had some of the original pictures from that era that he showed us from the late 50s. Actually a very fascinating story, and they’re interesting folks, but I tried not to raise my eyebrow when they said that some of their servants are from India. It is an interesting world, people live on all levels of the wealth spectrum!

Also in conversation with them and Paul, we talked about the current global Buddhist controversy that I had only peripheral knowledge of. The incarnate of the Buddha recognized by the Tibetan people is not the same one as recognized by the Chinese. This is a huge global dispute and we will see some of that play out during this trip. On our biking adventure, we will visit two major Sikkim monasteries, Enchey and Rumtek. Enchey recognizes the Tibetan determination of the Buddha incarnate. But Rumtek recognizes the Chinese determination, and apparently it’s more like an armed fortress to protect from attack from the majority of Buddhists who disagree with the Chinese forcing their own “spy” on Buddhism. Very interesting!!

It is raining again, though much of today it stopped and that was nice. In a few hours we will probably meet the rest of the group, a couple from either Germany or Denmark, and two other individual guys, for a total of six. That is a very manageable group size, and we will easily be able to get into local restaurants each evening which from my many bike trips, the larger the group is, typically the more bad the food is. In most countries, you can’t just walk in with 15 people and expect to get good food! The smaller the group, the better the food! Anyway, we’ll be on the bikes for at least part of tomorrow and have one more night at this same hotel before we actually depart this area enroute to Darjeeling.

Been talking now, or more listening, to a former French ambassador to India for five years. What an interesting guy, but I know waaaaaayyy more about him than he does about me! If you know what I mean… Has a summer home in Normandy. Says he needs three things; passport, airline ticket, a place to go. Has been so many places! And seemingly has mentioned most of them to me already! But still an example of why traveling is its own catalyst for discovery…

Paul, my good friend from Nashville whom I first met on my Sri Lanka bike trip a few years back, arrived about 7pm after a less sketchy taxi ride than I; his taxi guy took him the whole way, but that reliability cost him $115 while mine was only about $35 and hardly any extra charge for the four-taxi adventure ambience and the extra two hours!

Speaking of ambience, if you’ve read any of my previous trip adventures, you will know my fondness for the
Foreign Undocumented Canine Kindness Enhancement Retirement System, a global outreach non-profit funded primarily by dog food manufacturers… They provide food and counseling services at no cost for indigent dogs in return for the dogs enhancing the experience of the foreign traveler. As you well know, so many dogs seem to wander through life aimlessly, simply looking for a warm place to sleep and their next meal… this compassionate organization helps to give them a sense of purpose and a reason for hope. You can always spot the member dogs as they are required to lay peacefully in all the public walking areas during daylight hours giving tourists a sense of peace and calm. At night, these same FUCKERS, as the members are referred to by acronym, will bark extensively throughout the night as their energy has been renewed by a full day of lazy relaxing in the public zone. The barking reinforces a sense of being away from home for the foreigner, while providing a rich and very memorable variety of sounds to the travel experience, a valuable benefit at no additional cost. It is a very effective program, with a seemingly increasing number of members. This morning at breakfast, Paul as well commented enthusiastically about the incredible tenacity and perseverance of the FUCKERS barking all night…

Gangtok is an entire city built on steep hills, there are a few flat places. He and I walked through some of the main market areas today, then up many hills to see the views and the little sidestreets of interest. We stopped for lunch at a small fast food stirfry place and had a great bowl of spicy chicken fried noodles. Wandering around in the nice warm sun, eventually we made it back to the hotel to check out. We transferred by taxi to the next hotel, which is the one where the bike trip will officially begin tomorrow. The Hidden Forest Retreat is a very peaceful oasis with an incredible view in comparison to where we were in the middle of noisy Gangtok. More about it in the next post.

Ps: unfortunately as this is a less urban setting with fewer tourist clusters, it’s less likely there will be FUCKERS barking here tonight since I’ve seen none laying around this area… A disappointing ambience downgrade, but I’m not gonna let it ruin my time here…

(And that’s not including the 24 hours I had in Amsterdam!)

Arrived in Bagdogra, my fourth flight on the way…

Traffic
Heat
Smells
People, food carts, trucks, buses, horns, cows, tuktuks, bicycles, school kids in uniform, wicker baskets full of chickens on backs of motorbikes, trash, tires, plastic bottle recycling… All crammed onto the same two lane roadway!

It took only one hour on the road to see my first monkey!!

So I had to find my own way the 120k from Bagdogra airport to Gangtok. Asia travel is such an adventure… Classic taxi scam; I “negotiate” a fair taxi price ($32) to Gangtok… I have to walk past the cops before the guy will pick me up cuz he’s not a permitted taxi. I walk down the road a spell, he picks me up no problem. Then after 15 minutes driving, suddenly he says sorry, he only has permit to go to Darjeeling and he will get me a different taxi! Eventually we stop and meet two other dudes who agree to take me to gangtok. But the total price now goes up by $3, and that amount gets passed right back to the first guy. We get on our way, then they say it is time to stop after an hour for lunch!! Not like I had a choice really, but I’m rolling with it… Just like I remembered it from last time… pickled fermented greens, lentil soup, chicken in spicy gravy, a huge pile of rice, potato, chicken, limes and very hot fresh green chiles. Served on a large metal plate; mix it all together and eat with fingers, spoon is optional!!

Back on the very bad, very busy road… No wonder it takes five hours on this windy bumpy road with blind curves, huge holes, and steep unprotected drop offs; stop and go traffic! After we cross the Sikkim border, surprise!!! I am passed off to a third taxi, for about another 20k; then finally onto my FOURTH taxi!! After seven hours to travel about 75 miles, I finally arrive at the Hotel Doma Palace, certainly only a palace in name. (Saw approx 150 monkeys along the way…)

When I start travel, it’s all long flights and airport drudgery. This road drudgery is MUCH more adventurous!! In the beginning of my bike trips, I inevitably question the purpose of my travel. Yet, as soon as I get out of the airports and into the “locale” of the place, the sheer assault on the senses of a million unfamiliar inputs shakes the foundation of my comfy routine and seems reason enough for travel!

A well earned sleep is finally next after a 45 hour journey of airports and taxis! The wackiness that sleep deprivation brings is real!

FYI, I can only upload photos to blog when I have wifi. Not confident I will get that soon… Even so, my photos have never done the places I’ve been their due justice.

Ps; the state of Sikkim has banned all public smoking! You can apparently smoke only in cars or your home, but nowhere in public area, restaurants, etc.