Night Market Food Stands

Eating in China is always an adventure. The Chinese do not like to waste an opportunity to eat every part of an animal and that is probably to the advantage of surviving in a country with 1.3 billion persons. When I was in Shanghai for work, my co-workers had me try the most unusual things although nothing compared to what I just tried tonight.

Tonight, Thomas met me at the night market stand, and off we went to check out the stalls. Thomas actually wanted real food, and I wanted to experiment. Mainly, I enjoyed perusing the stalls and in making new friends with the food vendors. They are a lively bunch. I eventually worked up the courage to try the various delicacies all the while haggling down the price of the food I bought. The stalls carried everything from scorpion to sheep penis. I'm not sure I want to reveal just what I tried, but in the spirit of honesty, I will. I started with the bees. Yes, bees. I might be blocking out all the bad memories, but I can't remember what they tasted like. I do remember the bees being crunchy.

Next I tried the centipede. The food vendor told me that it was his favorite. I really don't believe food vendors anymore after that recommendation. Thomas took a series of photos as I tried the centipede and I felt like I was on the reality tv show, Fear Factor, although I had nothing to win at the end except bragging rights. I can't even describe the taste; I wanted to throw up afterwards. I look so happy at the beginning and then the realization of what I have just eaten slowly sinks in.





Then, I joined some Norweigians I met in trying the sheep penis. When in China... It's not a proud moment of mine, but I could not resist the opportunity to try one of the most disgusting things imaginable. It was chewy and I managed to get a bit in my mouth, chew it, and then promptly spit it out. I would have failed Fear Factor.

On I went and tried snake. Out of all the delicacies tonight, snake tasted the best. I wanted to try the silk worms and scorpions, but I had exhausted my taste buds. Maybe another night.

Random Missives

Watching the opening ceremonies with the locals made me want to be Chinese. I reveled in their pride and chanted with them when China appeared in the stadium. When the fireworks started, we all rushed outside to watch the sky light up above Tiananmen. We awed and ooed together and the sky in all it's glorious smog showed off its colors. What an amazing feeling to be a part of history. China had its coming out party and it went off with a blast. I could not be happier for this country and its people.

The people are so friendly, not counting the taxi drivers, and they go out of their way to help the foreigners. I often look lost and they try so hard to help me although it is in Chinese. They are considerably polite. I just hope the recent stabbing does not present such a negative view of this city and people. I feel so safe here. For the population of its size, Beijing has to be the safest city in the world. I feel safer here walking around at 2am then I would in any major city in the US. The Chinese are not violent in nature and their crimes would be scams more than anything. I do feel horrible for all the foreigners who lost tens of thousands of dollars in internet ticket scams. In the future, use only cosport.com to buy Olympic tickets. Anything else could be a regret.


Yesterday, within 5 minutes after leaving the confines of my air-conditioned apartment, I dripped sweat. The humidity is awful. To combat the heat, the men in the city wear wife beater t-shirts, or fold their shirts up to show their bellies or wear no shirt at all. Before leaving, NPR said that the Chinese government asked that men not wear their pajamas around the streets. I don't think many people listened because they are often wearing what could be cotton pj plaid shorts. Although the men lack any fashion sense, the women more than make up for it. The women are ultra fashionable and I am quite impressed with their style and attention to accessories. Their skirts could be a tad bit longer and somehow the women lack any leg muscles. They must not walk as much as I do.

Every day, I walk for miles around the city. I am tempted to rent a bike, but have resorted to the subways, buses and walking. Most everyone in the city bikes around because Beijing is so large, but I walk and my feet are swelling. To alleviate the pain, I went for a foot massage today. For $20, I received an hour massage just on my feet. My feet truly felt pampered after such an experience and I plan to give my back and shoulders a similar treat.

When I do take a taxi, I rely on having someone on the other end of my phone to tell the taxi driver where to go or I pick up business cards that can direct the taxi driver since none of them speak any English. And I definitely do not speak Mandarin. Mandarin is a difficult language to learn and I am impressed with the millions of Chinese who have immigrated to the US without knowing English. The characters and sounds are so different than English that I can't imagine just how difficult it must have been to set up new businesses in the US with the language barrier. Such a wonder.

My Rockstar Moment

For the opening ceremony day, I decided to dress up. I met David, an Aussie, who had his face painted and I could not help but follow his suit. Dave and I set off to wander the streets with our painted faces and in no time, we had created a mob scene. Dave even brought a fake torch and we started to chant "Go China" in Chinese. Everyone yelled with us and wanted to take our photo. I felt like a total rockstar! The police kept asking us to move because we kept creating a crowd and they didn't like that.

At one point, we stood on a platform and chanted “Go China”. Hundreds of Chinese joined in and chanted with us. I have never seen such a phenomenon. I even videotaped a bit, but unfortunately, Snowball can not translate my video. I will have to upload it another time. Upon seeing the police call us in, we left as the police van drove up to our site.


When we returned to the hostel, many others had joined us in the face paint. We had started a trend and the Brits made it even better with flags. Thankfully, Tom picked up an American flag for me while I was gone. When I put on the American flag, I suddenly felt like a superhero. We took our capes and hit the streets as a big superhero gang. We created an uproar and the Chinese loved it! We stopped for pictures along the way, and I realized this is what it must be like to be famous. Cameras could not stop capturing our photo and I almost went blind from all the flashes. Even the Americans wanted to take photos of me. We then went off in search of a place to watch the ceremony.




We did not have a real strategy of where we were going to watch the ceremony. We started at Tiananmen , and then headed to a park to see the ceremony on a big screen outside. After reaching the park, we decided to go back to Tiananmen where the action was suppose to be. Unfortunately, the police had quarantined the entire area and we could not get through. Hundreds of police lined the streets and moved the crowd farther and farther away from Tiananmen. We talked our way through a couple of police points, but eventually split up. The fireworks never happened when we thought they would and so we headed back. Cora, an American, and I had to convince the police to let us back across the police barricades to our hostel. We eventually convinced them and even received a personal police escort. We eventually met up with our friends and are watching the ceremony in the hostel. We will go out again after the ceremony and party it up with the millions of Chinese. The night is young.

The Secret Wall

For my birthday, I chose to spend it on the Great Wall, that is the Secret Wall part. There are many sections of the Wall to see and most people go to Badaling, the very touristy and restored part of the Wall. Since it is always flooded with tourists, I chose to go to a secluded part that no one else goes to and I was able to haggle the price down by $3. Everything in China is negotiable and I am getting better at haggling.


To get to the Secret Wall, we drove for 2 ¼ hours until we came upon some Olympic volunteers. We passed their road stop. We drove for another 10 min and then came upon an army guard stop. Again we passed their road stop. Then, 5 min later, we came upon some locals with their own road stop and we could not get through. I came to realize just how secret this secret wall really is. We listened to our driver speak in Chinese to the locals and we jokingly thought they must have been bartering cigarettes to get us through since our driver spoke no English and looked desperate for another cigarette. After 20 min, we made it through. We picked up our guide who also spoke no English and off we went.



We hiked for an hour before coming upon a large section of unrestored wall. Hundred of thousands of workers built the 5000km Great Wall over 2000 years ago during the Qin dynasty, and their remains became a part of the Wall. The Chinese built it to create an impenetrable line of defense from invading territories, but it more served as a transportation highway through the land since the guards were easily bribed and bought. The wall also provided a means to smoke signal, using wolf dung, the impending arrival of invaders back to the city. Today, it reminds us of the magnificent and long history of the Chinese.




True to their word, the 8 of us were in fact the only tourists around plus the guide. I absolutely adored my guide and could not help but take a ton of photos of him. He just made my pictures cooler despite the haze and smog. We traversed the Wall for a couple hours and thankfully, did not have to backtrack. We then ate lunch in the village and later that evening, Thomas and I went out and dined on the famous Peking Duck at Liquon Roast Duck Restaurant. Delicious. Heaven found me and I fell asleep quite happy after that. A memorable birthday, indeed.

Countdown to the Olympics

. Immediately upon arriving in Beijing, I sensed the Olympic excitement. Everywhere I turned, Olympic advertising floated throughout the newly built airport that just opened 3 months ago. Within 20 minutes, I had departed the plane, passed immigration, picked up my luggage and withdrawn money. That was the fastest I have ever made it through an airport. Congrats to the Chinese for accomplishing so much in their road to the Olympics. In fact, they are still building. At 10pm last night, I noticed many Chinese planting flowers in all the pots in the streets. At this point, China doesn't lack man power, but they do lack time. Construction continues with repainting everything white and in setting up TV screens, and in making the city pretty. Meanwhile, half the city wears volunteer Olympic t-shirts. Every street corner hosts a volunteer waiting to be useful. If they spoke English, I would find the volunteers useful, but instead I find myself lost in translation. I'm sure they are useful to the millions of camera carrying Chinese tourists who flood the streets. If I had claustrophobia issues, I might have problems being in this city because I think all of China has showed up in force.




Like me, they take photos of everything and in each photo, they hold up the peace sign. In following their lead, I did the same. The Olympics really are meant to symbolize peace and I will be interested to see how the protests afflict the Chinese government and their version of peace. The theme this year is "one world, one dream". As I look around, I believe this is China's dream to show the world how far they have come and who they really are. I am surrounded by Chinese National pride from the flag bearing kids to the grown men wearing I Love China shirts written in English to every shop displaying the Chinese flag outside. I, sadly, forgot to bring any American paraphernalia and so I bought a Chinese and Olympic flag to wave. Blasphemy, I'm sure.


When I look around the city, I see mainly smog. The skies are covered in haze and so it is difficult to see very far. To combat pollution, the Chinese government mandated that only license plates ending in even numbers can drive on even days and odd numbers on odd days. One lane is devoted strictly to the Olympics and so the traffic remains the same with the loss of a lane in every major street and highway. The government promises to keep the subways open 24 hrs during the opening ceremony day, but I get the feeling the government does whatever is most convenient for them and I am just waiting for a major shutdown due to ｐｒｏｔｅｓｔs.

Communism runs steep and sometimes I feel like I'm living in a Big Brother situation. The government is monitoring internet traffic along with cameras everywhere as I am told, but have not seen. Interestingly, if foreign residents do not register within 24 hrs with the police, the police show up. I'm staying with my friend Thomas for the first couple of weeks. When he failed to register after returning from a trip, the neighbors ratted on him and the police dropped by. I just found out that I am suppose to do same since I am in a residential neighborhood, and will try tomorrow. I think I have gotten away with it so far since I look Chinese.

The police are everywhere and I feel safe at night because of this. Although, I find them cumbersome. Today, when I tried to head to my future hostel for a tour to the Great Wall, I couldn't easily make it. The police had shut down the subways and all roads near Thomas' apartment around Tiananmen Square for the torch relay. I tried reasoning with the police, then I tried rushing the barricade and almost got arrested, then I tried blending in with the millions of Chinese lining up for the relay, but was ratted out, and then I tried to cab it across, but all the cab drivers refused to drive me. I thought about getting Thomas' bike and biking across, but finally got into a cab and had my hostel tell the cab driver how to get me across the barricade and to their hotel Thankfully, an hour and a half later, I made it just in time for my tour. In Guatemala, I gained a tremendous amount of patience just waiting for buses and taking the attitude that it is all about la experiencia. China is testing my patience and I am working hard to be patient with the Chinese government and the crowds. I just hope not to be deported.

By the way, I am not volunteering in China as I had hoped. The organization I had planned on working with, hands on disaster response www.hodr.org, just could not get past the bureaucracy in China to set up camp in the earthquake zone. So, instead I will just focus on the Olympics since I had set up this trip 10 months ago and 8 months before I figured out my year off. This trip was my birthday present to myself.

Introducing Snowball

In SF, I had the pleasure of meeting two new people who came into the world. My friends had babies while I was gone and the munchkins are so adorable. I would like to take the time to introduce my own munchkin to the world. Introducing Snowball weighing 2lbs 4 oz. His face spans 8.9 in with approximate dimensions: 8.86 (W) x 6.90 (D) x 0.89 ~ 1.54 (H). I have to feed him every 5 hrs, but for the most part, he is self reliant. His 20 GB of memory are more than I need for my travels and his Linux apparel will hopefully keep future viruses at bay. He speaks Mandarin since I adopted him from the Tawainese orphanage Asus and he can easily translate mandarin into English for me. He is my perfect baby for China.

When going to Guatemala, I had no idea how connected the rest of the world would be, 10x more so than the profit hungry U.S. Free wifi is available in just about every cafe' in Xela. So, I decided to invest in a portable computer since I don't own one in the first place, and it would make it easier for me to blog. Already I have made 2 updates to my blog today. Best part, he is shock proof and immune to my clutziness.

Korean Spas

While in Belize, I sunburned a little and as a result, my skin looked like flaky fish food. When my aunt Terrie saw me rubbing away my dry skin, she drove me to a Korean skin scrub spa in LA. I had experienced something similar at a Turkish bath in Istanbul, but this was slightly different. My aunt dropped me off at a strip mall in Torrance in front of place called the Torrance Health Club. Inside, my aunt made sure to book me the larger Korean woman with the strong hands although, we had to enlist the help of my aunt Jae to work the Korean/English translation for us. The place didn't have much ambiance and focused more on getting the job done.

Unlike U.S. spas in which women usually wear bottoms in the hot tub, sauna, steam room area, all the Korean women walked freely about in the communal spa room completely naked. Therefore, I shed my U.S. based modesty and joined the women. I first took a shower in the communal room to rid my skin of any chemicals and oils. For the next hour, I then tried out every room and tub to the point that I fell asleep in the warm floor room and almost missed my appointment. I soon joined other women receiving similar treatment, and laid on one of the green plastic gurneys that stood in a line. A larger Korean woman wearing a black bra and underwear, traditional Korean spa work wear, donned exfoliating gloves and scrubbed me down. She spent a good 40 min exfoliating off all the fish food. She even commented that it must have been a while since I was last in since I think she must have peeled off 10 layers of skin and the remains sat next to me in balls on the gurney until she threw a bucket of water over me to wash it all away. Slightly disgusting to say the least, but proof that my baby skin underneath could be seen breathing. She exfoliated from between my toes to behind my ears and everywhere in between. Anything I might have brought back from Central America did not leave that spa. She then pounded my back with a shiatsu massage to the point that my body became jello. She literally jumped on top of the gurney so that she could put her entire weight into every muscle in my back with her knuckles, elbows and even knees. At one point, I had to cry out “mercy”. To finish me off, she smothered cucumber mesh on my face, washed my hair, and drizzled some sort of milky stuff all over my body. The entire spa treatment only cost $70. For LA and for the spa world, this is quite cheap. Overall, I quite enjoyed the experience and might need to make this a ritual every time I return to LA along with my usual In N Out run, sushi overdose with the fam, Pinkberry stop and English Breakfast Tea Latte at Coffee Bean driveby. My skin looks great and the knots in my back from carrying my heavy backpack are gone. Thanks Terrie! By the way, the Korean spas are becoming popular and trendy in SF. Look for them in Japantown.