Misc China Pics

Here are some random photos that didn't fit in to any other entries.

The yellow flowers are from canola plants.

Funny sign.

Stopping for a drink while shopping.

Last Day in China

  After a night of good, oxygen full rest, I felt fantastic for my last day in China.  The extra red blood cells I acquired at high altitude appeared to more than make up for any fatigue from my challenging travels in Tibet.

  I went exploring and shopping with Andrea and Hannah.  We decided to take taxis around instead of taking the subway because the taxis were cheap and the subways didn't go anywhere near where we wanted to go.  I think I was most scared in the taxi than any other place driving.  We were going really fast with lots of near collisions and no seat belts.  I swear one black mercedes had us on a hit list or something.  They kept cutting us off and swerving into us.  Good think the driver knew his stuff!

  We first stopped at the touristy market.  There were lots of fun souvenirs and handicrafts to look at there.  

  Our tummies were rumbling so we stopped at one of the few non-western places to get some food.  I chose the creepiest looking thing on the menu, a whole dead chicken which I described as, "that thing looks like it died horribly."

  Tasted good though!  Not much meat, but other than that, no complaints.  My friends and the food vendors laughed at me, but they don't know that I got my training from Bizarre Foods.

Our second stop was to the bootleg market where I definitely didn't buy anything because that would be wrong.  :0P

Moving on...taxi ride back to the boat was as exciting as the first.  We had to stop a few blocks before the ship because the meter was rigged and the driver would hike up the price when he thought we were distracted and we ran out of money.  Oh well, it allowed us to walk through the nice spring day.  :0)

Mother-In-Law bush!

Back on the ship we had some burgers, took some pictures at the city at night, and then the roomie and I settled down to watch The Help.  Excellent movie by the way!  It was a nice day and a nice way to leave China.  I will definitely have to be back for some more exploring as soon as possible!

Tibet to Shanghai

  Another long day of traveling.  I really don't know how I still continued to function at this point.  Traveling in a wheelchair in some of these airports was exceedingly difficult.  There were all of these rules that made no sense to me.  For example, I checked in for the first flight and was told to bring my wheelchair to the gate.  Then in security, the lady said I had to go back and check it and it would cost money.  The life long learners who "adopted" me were such a big help running back and forth through the airport so I could get to the flight on time.

  We had a several hour layover at one of the airports and that was another challenge.  Only one wheelchair was ordered for our group, but two of us needed one.  (One of the life long learners had gotten severe altitude sickness and was still recovering.)  I gave him the chair and told the lady pushing his chair that I needed one too.  That wee-otch looked me up and down, curled her lip, and haughtily walked away.  I was really mad.  I could tell she was judging me because of my age and she had no right to do that.  Plus she seemed like she had a giant stick up her butt even on a good day.  

  I made it in from the plane to security and asked again for a wheelchair.  The lady at security said there was only one in the whole airport.  I politely told her that I highly doubted that and I would be sitting beside her station until someone found me a chair.  There were many an annoyed look exchanged but I finally did get a chair.  I really hate being annoying like that, but sometimes I have no choice.  It's not like I could crawl through the airport (at least not without good kneepads).  

  We arrived back at the boat in the evening and had some time to take in the crazy awesome city lights.

Tibet (Day 3 Part 4)

Getting to lunch took longer than anticipated because we had to keep stoping at checkpoints.  Another frightening aspect of the governments control of the area.  We all had to be very well behaved at these check points to avoid being stopped for longer than the usual 5-10 minutes or getting in bigger trouble.

Lunch was relatively standard.  We were served these chicken tenders on a stick which I dubbed "meatsicles."  hehe

I was ready to go to bed after lunch, but we still had one last stop to a monastery.  I ended up getting a second wind and really enjoying it.  We came at the perfect time of day because the monks were debating.  Every day int he afternoon, the monks break off into groups and debate philosophical questions (which came first, chicken or egg) to sharpen their logic skills.  They were really interesting to watch because they would seamlessly move between joking around and seriously debating.  I missed the first part of the debating because I was having a bit of an oxygen crisis.  I had had to climb up like five stairs to get into the monastery and got myself into a situation.  I made it up the stairs fine, but when I got to the top, I felt like each breath I was taking in has less and less oxygen.  So I started breathing faster and started feeling worse.  Just before I was sure I was going to pass out (I could only see black already) I remembered to take slow, deep breaths instead.  After a few minutes my head was back to the usual level of swimmyness and I could enjoy the rest of the debates.  Still so proud of myself for not using supplemental oxygen!

The monks lived well due to donations from the community so they gave back in many ways.  One of those ways was by taking care of the stray dogs that were plentiful in the city.

I forget what these are called, but I finally got to spin them!  As I was finishing up my circuit, this strange thing happened where it started raining, but the rain was white and it was all light and fluffy.  They tell me it is called snow?  What is this snow substance?  haha  It started snowing and after the embarrassingly long time it took me to figure out what was happening (I thought it was ash falling from a fire) I went 100% giddy!  

The happy continued with the trip back to the bus because I got to go downhill in my chair.  I flew down that hill laughing like a kid on Christmas.  :0)

Back at the hotel, I hung out with the roomie and her friend.  My brace had broken a bit so I sew it back together as we chatted.  

I usually don't pine after food from home, but for some reason I was going on and on about how I wanted pizza in the worst way.  

I'm not so good with the subtle foreshadowing so you probably already figured out that they served pizza at dinner!  I was completely calm and not excited at all.

Tibet (Day 3 Part 2)

We arrived at the summit of the pass and stopped to get a nice view of the lake from above.   It was cool to think that this was the highest elevation I had ever been to in my life.  (Excluding in an airplane.)

Me being mesmerized by snow.  I hadn't seen any in over five years!

There were also people there who let us take pictures with their animals for a few dollars.  I couldn't resist.  :0) 

Yack!

Then we drove down to the lake and had a half an hour go go exploring.  It was a bit of a hike to get down to the water, but I managed by taking it slow.  I stopped halfway down to make a pile of rocks in memory of some people I miss.  

I finally got down to the lake and dipped my hands into the freezing water.  Having my hands outside the gloves unfortunately made them swell up and get hives, but it was worth it.  :0)  I spent the rest of my time enjoying the beautiful scenery and then slowly, slowly, hiking my way up to the bus.  

Yack poo and snow.  :0P   Don't worry, I didn't eat it.  haha

I got some additional nice pictures as we were driving away from the lake as well.

Just in case you don't know, the flags are prayer flags and they are found all over in Tibet.  They represent different aspects of spirituality corresponding to the different colors.  

Now about the road.  I was thinking it was going to be a scary drive, but the roads were actually really good, as was the bus driver.  It was a bit narrow and the drop-offs were sheer, but I felt safe the whole time.