Workspace

So, we are working at this fabulous shared workspace called Dojo Bali where they have great internet, and a ton of tables tucked in different corners where you can just spend your time working. It's open 24/7, although I've only been here during the day, and is about a 15 minute drive away from the hotel. I've taken a taxi a couple of times, and some of the others in my group have rented scooters to be able to drive here. I'm not here long enough to take my life into my hands quite so cavalierly...

But, here are some photos of what it looks like at dojo. There's a swimming pool in the courtyard, and even a hot shower in the bathroom!

Adventures in Bali

Just as a way to share some stories and pictures from my trip in Bali, I'm pulling up this blog again so interested parties can check it out! I'm here for a two week stay with DigitalOutposts, who are providing a work location so I can work remotely as I finish up teaching my summer online class, and prep for my upcoming 3 online classes this fall. I spent the first two days after a VERY long flight in Denpasar, and then met up with the DO people in Canggu on Sunday.

Denpasar was busy, with horrible traffic, few sidewalks, and no pedestrian crossings. It might be the scariest traffic city I've ever been in, but you just set your teeth, and walk out into traffic in a real life frogger game, and miraculously no one hit me!

My hotel in Denpasar was peaceful, and beautifully tropical. There are no walls on the main floor- just hanging vines that swing in the breeze. They had some tasty fruit drinks to consume by the pool after a hot muggy day out.

The city is crowded, but remarkably not multi story- most buildings are only 2 stories high.

The fabric stores here make me desperately wish I had a sewing project I needed fabric for- most of them are used to tourists, and have some lovely fat quarter sets for quilters to take home. Hmmm... Maybe I can take up quilting in all my spare time just to be able to use the fabric.

I think that's all for a bit, but I'll leave you with one more picture of some delicious Indonesian food. I have no idea what any of it was, but it was all remarkably tasty, and less spicy than I would have expected!

Welcome (back) to China!

After spending time in Kashgar and Urumqi, It is a bit of a culture shock to come back to Dunhuang and Xi'an. In the Xinjiang province, the Han Chinese are in the minority, and the Uyhgr people make up a larger portion of the population, especially in Kashgar where they are nearly 75% Consequently, there are a few things that are different!

First, language. In Kashgar, nearly every sign was in Uhygr, with little Chinese, except on official signs. In Dunhuang, we are back to all Chinese, as you can see in these restaurant signs:

Second, clothing. Head scarves are out, umbrellas are back! Women in Kashgar and Urumqi nearly all wear head scarves, and the ubiquitous Chinese hats and umbrellas to protect their skin from the sun are nearly non existent. As I waited in line yesterday to see the Terracotta Warriors, you could see that we are definitely back in China!

The Mogao Grottoes

As the third stop on the Silk Road part of my tour, I spent about 2 days in Dunhuang, a very small oasis town that was an important stop along the silk road for two precious commodities: water and protection- this was one of the first places within the protection of China, and merchants didn't have to worry so much about being attacked once they arrived there. Because this was an important stop on an international route, many different religious and cultural artifacts have been found here, including the Mogao grottoes, which are a collection of hundreds of caves carved by hand from the cliff face and decorated as shrines to Buddha. I was prepared to be underwhelmed, as I'm a skeptic, but the caves were really just as impressive as they were made out to be. Pictures were very emphatically forbidden inside the caves, so I have a few pictures from the replicas at the museum nearby, but they don't begin to describe the massive nature of the caves, the thousands of buddhas painted on the walls and ceilings of each location, or the massive nature of some statues that stood 35.5 meters tall!

And since the internet is cooperating for the moment...you get a bonus post!

I'll catch you up on my trip to the Heavenly Lake outside of Urumqi. This was my first stop on my Silk Road tour.

My trip to the Heavenly Lake may have been the strangest day of my life. Catching the bus to start on the 3 hour bus ride wasn’t so bad, but then as we got started, and just as we got out of town the bus randomly pulled over to the side of the road so the bus driver could to pee in the trees. Our tour guide on the bus was a not particularly nice individual, and she shouted at him the whole time he was gone, interrupting her ranting only to answer her phone in a super sugary sweet voice. Later on, I saw her shove the poor bus driver so hard he tripped, and then tried to snatch his phone away. This was not a kind lady.

As we got closer to the lake, it became clear that everyone else on the bus was going on a tour of some kind except for me. I found this ironic, as I was probably the only one who actually needed help figuring out where I was going. However, it turned out to be a delightful thing to not be on tour since I’d brought my lunch (the spicy peanuts were tasty; the “cake stuffed with beef floss” not so much) and had a chance to walk around the lake and picnic instead of sticking with the crowds at the south end of the lake.

To get to the lake, we all got off of tour bus #1 in order to get on to the Heavenly Lake shuttle buses that careened up the mountains at breakneck speeds, threatening to throw the entire crowd off the steep cliffs as we went up the switchbacks. The only pay back for that nail biting ride was that when we got on the bus, it was desert, with no trees to speak of , mostly flatlands, and dry and dusty. When we got off the bus at the top, we were in the middle of a lovely, if not quite tranquil, pine forest, with the typical fake tree stumps singing Chinese folk music as you walked from the parking lot to the lake.

As I started to walk around the lake, a young Chinese guy started at about the same time. We leapfrogged for awhile as each of us would stop to take pictures, and then as we walked along, he just gently reached out to take my camera, and gestured that I should get into the picture. After offering to take his picture as well, he just sort of followed me like a puppy around the lake, randomly stopping to grab my camera at places he felt I should have a picture of. He hardly spoke any English, so it was an oddly silent sort of walk. When I had to turn around to come back to meet my tour bus, he turned and followed me! His name was Li Shou, and he kept going back around the lake until we met up with someone who could take our picture together, then suddenly he said “I have to go! Bye bye!” and walked away…

When I got back to the main entrance for the lake, I stopped to get some water, and the girl there got very excited to practice her English with me. I had about 30 minutes until I had to leave, so she walked me through all of the touristy stuff in her shop, and we tried on hats and jewelry, and she’d walk around with her arm in mine, chattering away. She’s working at the tourist shop as an internship for the university. Again, it was just so unexpected to have her take me by the arm and walk me around for half an hour- she was very sweet.

When I finally got back to the bus, my very angry, and not so very nice tour guide would not let me back on the bus in spite of the fact that I had a ticket. Instead, she grabbed me by the arm, and shoved me onto another bus saying firmly “Bus. Urumqi” The new tour guide grabbed my arm and pushed me down the aisle to the back row of the bus, and would not let me sit anywhere else.

After two miserable hours in the back of bus #2 on a very bumpy road, we arrived at a tourist trap type place, and I opted to stay on the bus. The bus driver insisted that it was the end of the line, and that I had to get off. He even found a couple of girls who were on the bus who spoke English to come and tell me this. I was totally lost; we were nowhere near where I had gotten on bus #1, and no one could show me where we were on a map. I tried to catch a taxi back to my hotel, since taxis are so cheap here, and I could get anywhere I needed for $2-3. Unfortunately, it was rush hour, and after 20 minutes of trying to flag down a taxi, I walked back over to the bus, which was still parked in the parking lot. The driver did not look happy to have me back, and looked up gleefully to point to bus #1, which was now pulling into the parking lot. Tour guide #1 looked even less happy to see me, but put me back on bus #1, and took me back to the starting point. I’m still not 100% sure what happened, but it was a miserable hour trying to get things sorted out. I was lost, and confused, and tired, and I may or may not have cried.

Fortunately, dinner was enough to remind me of how much I like the Chinese people! As I walked into the restaurant, 3 waiters greeted me, excited to practice their very limited English. They all three hovered over me as I read the menu, and when I wasn’t getting to the pages they wanted fast enough, they turned the pages for me, and made recommendations. As I left the restaurant later, I could still hear one of the waitresses in the back practicing to herself, loudly, saying “Nice to meet you!” again and again. She was so proud of herself, and after a hard day, I needed a reminder that not all Chinese people are like nasty tour lady #1.

Into the desert! Installment 2 of the Great Camel Trek!

I think we left off with the miserable, hot, uncomfortable car somewhere on a rather jolty road on the way to the desert. We had to make a quick stop so Abdul could obtain some very fresh lamb for dinner, so we pulled over at the last village before the desert to pick up supplies before bumping the last few km into the most beautiful pavilion ever, covered with grape vines and blissfully cool where we waited for the camel man (Abdul’s words, not mine) to get the camels ready, and then, as the sun was just thinking about setting, we rode off into the sunset.

Not quite, but almost. The sun set very shortly after we got there, for which poor Abdul was very grateful. He had melon already sliced waiting to be consumed ravenously the second the sun dropped below the horizon. The desert was beautiful- greener than I thought it would be, with undulating waves of sand in all directions. The dunes were much higher than I’d assumed, but the camel man was good about leading my camel down the less steep parts of the hills, and I didn’t fall off. Not even once! Although Abdul says he has several times, and it doesn’t hurt when you land in the sand.

We had fruit and naan bread- a flat bread kind of like a pizza crust, and different than Indian Naan, for dinner, and once it got cooler the camel man lit a fire, and Abdul made lamb kebabs over the coals. It was a fairly idyllic evening, even though it in no way represented the foods that would have been eaten on a real camel trek through the desert. Fresh fruits and meats were probably not on the menu very often on the Silk Road.

As the sun went down, the weather was cool and breezy, and stunningly Quiet. When I camp in the mountains, all of the crepuscular creatures come out and start chirping, buzzing, humming, and who-ing, and the forest is noisy with the crunching of animal feet in the pine needles. Not so the desert. The only noise to be heard was the occasional sound from the camels shuffling off to the side and the breeze flowing through the sand.

As night fell completely, I dutifully got into the tent set up for me, but quickly determined that I would never fall asleep in the sweltering tent, so I pulled my blanket and sleeping bag with me onto the desert sand and slept with the breeze in my hair at least, even if the clouds covered up the stars. I woke in the early dawn to the sound of Abdul praying quietly towards Mecca, and fell back asleep until 10 am.

We had a crunchy orange melon with leftover naan bread for breakfast before heading back towards the car. Abdul apparently hates riding camels, so he opted to walk, and took pictures of me the whole way back. Except that my camel was being stubborn, and refused to go up any steep hills, so we had to go a round about way, and lost Abdul for a while. The camel man didn’t seem concerned, and Abdul showed up eventually, looking none the worse for wear, and we climbed back into the car for another long drive back to Kashgar.

The monotony was broken this time around, not by a flat tire, but by several other excursions. Abdul stopped his car at a river. “Do you want to go swimming?” He says. “No, thank you” Becky replied. “But I’m so sandy!” Abdul complained “I can’t drive 4 hours to Kashgar in a hot car when I’m sandy!” Fine, Abdul could go swimming. I opted not to for several reasons involving murky water, and not wanting to take off all of my clothes in full view of the highway. This didn’t slow Abdul. He reappeared from behind a bush wearing practically nothing (actually, for all I know, it was nothing. I didn’t see him until he was in the murky water, at which point the question of what he was or was not wearing remained blissfully unanswered), and jumped into the water.

I decided to just get my feet wet, and that felt nice, so I went to take one slimy, slippery step further and went down into the mud. Poor Abdul was mortified, because I, of course, was still wearing all of my clothes. I got out of the water much dirtier than when I went in, made Abdul (after he was dressed) fetch me some bottles of river water so I could wash my legs off, and then changed into some pants behind another bush by the car. Fortunately, the rest of me dried out quickly in the oven of a car.

After continuing on our way, we stopped at Yarkand to see some not particularly interesting tombs. They were so boring that Abdul, having made me go there, promptly disappeared as soon as I went in, only to reappear with a live pigeon in his hands 15 minutes later. Then he sent me into the mosque built by someone famous many centuries ago, and when I came, out, he was nowhere to be found. I sat again, and waited, and he reappeared with TWO pigeons! “Just a minute,” he says, “I need to put these in the car.”

So, with the pigeons safely ensconced in the trunk of the 44 degree car, we head off to have lunch before finishing the trip back. Only remember that it is Ramadan, so all of the restaurants are closed until sunset. The only one we could find was very nice, and very busy with all of the people in town not fasting eating there. Abdul consults with the waitress. “OK, there’s no menu, because they only serve three things. Which do you want: Pigeon noodles, pigeon kebab, or pigeon soup?” I opted for the noodles. Abdul felt this was the wrong choice and also ordered us kebabs. Pigeon kebabs. They were actually pretty tasty, and better than the pigeon noodles as they had a better roasted flavor than the somewhat insipid noodles.

All in all, I feel like the camel trek was a success. I did not get bitten by bugs in the desert, I was only sunburned on the one arm facing the sun out of the car window, and my camel had two humps. To close, I feel like I remember singing this biologically inaccurate song as Children. Go, Alice, Go!

Riding a camel with...

Two humps!

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I met Abdul (yes, that's really his name) the tour guide, on Saturday afternoon to make arrangements for Sunday. He was concerned that my independent trip to the Sunday livestock market and bazaar would take too long and we wouldn't make it to the desert in a timely manner, so he agreed to drive me. I learned through his expertise that one can buy a "good standard camel" for about 15,000 RMB, the same for a good standard horse or cow. A good standard Donkey was only about 1,000 RMB. It was sort of like the Denver Stock show only less clean, louder, and with yaks.

Next we went to the famed Sunday marketplace where you can buy nearly anything you'd ever want (including, apparently, random dried snakes, lizards and rats to use in traditional medicine), amidst hordes of people. This market is considered the largest in Central Asia, and is where the European and Chinese lines of the Silk road met- people would bring goods from both directions to sell in this marketplace.

Afterwards we went to lunch, which is more problematic than it sounds- the Uyghars are Islamic, and right now they are celebrating Ramadan, which means that they fast from sun up to sun down. Which means that most restaurants in town are now closed between sun up and sun down. We finally found one, but also discovered that the desert site only 2 hours away from Kashgar was now closed to foreigners, so we had to go to a new site 4 hours away, which meant that our time frame had just been reduced. I ate my rice pilaf with a spoon, and we ran out the door to spend 4 Long Hot Hours in Abdul's black car without air conditioning. This was just as miserable as you would expect it to be until we hit something in the middle of the road.

This is a picture of our very flat tire:

This is a picture of Abdul trying to fix the flat tire:

This is a picture of the first repair place we stopped at after Abdul failed to change the tire, and drove 2 km so he could get someone else to fix it:

This is a picture of the second repair place we stopped at after the first repair place couldn't change the flat tire (notice the chickens and very small child randomly poking around):

They were closed, but let Abdul use their tools to change the tire. After a number of other mishaps resulting from not using the parking brake or blocks on the front tires along with parking on a relatively steep incline, Abdul managed to change the tire. Meanwhile, I amused myself by purchasing ice water from roadside stands. Remember that it is Ramadan, and Abdul was changing the tire for nearly an hour in 44 degree Celsius (more than 110 Fahrenheit) while fasting all day and not being allowed to drink water. He was also horribly embarrassed, so I refrained from making helpful suggestions. He's only been driving for 3 years, and I seriously doubt that he's ever changed a tire before, but I don't think that cultural norms would have let him take advantage of skills acquired doing car repair with my Dad and from a brother who worked for Discount tire. Also the fact that his lug wrench seemed to have the socket split open indicated that I would have been unable to help anyway.

Thus ends installment #1 of the Great Camel Adventure Trek! Next up, more pictures of camels. Specifically, Me on a camel. In the desert!