Dali: China's Amsterdam

So Dali was our second stop in the Yunnan province. A few travellers told us to skip this place, but both Jose and I were very glad that we didn't listen to them. Dali is a town that is at 3000m in elevation, with a lake a couple kms away, and a 4400m peak looming over it. The natural beauty of this place is only the beginning of the excitement we had here. My favourite hostel in China was located in this town. It was I believe called "No. 2." It was owned by Koreans, and therefore had many Koreans staying there. This excited me, because I was able to practice my quickly vanishing Korean skills. It was a super clean hostel, with warm showers, great beds, free internet, a beautiful courtyard to enjoy the sun, and all of this cost approximately $3CAD!

The funniest part of this town were the little old ladies, dressed in traditional minority ethnic group clothing, coming up to you and whispering "smoka ganja" as you walk by. This would happen approximately 5-6 times a day! You see, the hills surrounding Dali provide the perfect breeding grounds for marijuana to grow wild. The town's people pick it and sell it to tourists. This was really strange, because I thought of China as a nearly drug free country because of the strict laws they have against it. Apparently I was proven wrong. Another interesting byproduct of this wild weed were the multiple "coffee shops" around town that were owned by foreigners (aka hippies that want to live on the cheap and smoke weed every day in China.) This also gave a haven for backpackers that basically were planning to stay a couple days, and never really left. Kind of a crazy town. If you are travelling in the Yunnan province, however, I would highly recommend a stop in Dali, just make sure that it doesn't turn into a permanent stop. 

Picture of Communism

The picture with the gate and soldiers is one of the most prized pictures I have from China. The reason for this being that I had to be sneaky in taking it. For some reason they don't take kindly to tourists who take pictures of their army bases!?! It was kind of creepy having this large army base right in the middle of a large, seemingly capitalist, city. Just goes to show you that even though China has let up considerably on their economic policy, their political policies are still kept with an iron fist. Tourists don't really have to worry though, because they know that tourists bring money, so unless you are stupid and burning a Chinese flag, or somehow speaking in Chinese saying that Mao Zedong is stupid, you don't have anything to worry about. 

Kunming: Cleanest City in China.

We arrived in Kunming after a 20 some hour train ride from Guilin. It was a train ride I'd rather forget (no heat, and packed.) Anyhow we decided to stay a couple of days here before venturing to other destinations in the Yunnan province. It was a worthwile stop, even though other travelers told us to skip this spot. It was the first time we had been in a big Chinese city, and so we got to see a completely different side of China (compared to the countryside that we had been travelling in up to this point.) The thing that we noticed in retrospect was that Kunming had very little traffic for its size (approx. 4 mil.,) and even less smog (surprise, surprise!) This, plus the near perfect weather, made for a nice two day stay in Kunming. It was interesting to see the way more affluent Chinese people live. For example: a shopping mall with a display for a condo development for sale that would rival any North American development. The city showed a very interesting dichotomy of the few who had, and the many who didn't. Compared, however, to the countryside, where only a few government officials even had cars, there was a significantly larger middle class population here. There are also nice hiking trails just south of the city that we explored for a day, which in the nice weather was quite a treat. The bull in the picture is a statue outside their train station (apparently Kunming means Bull in Chinese.) If you notice all the people sitting around the statue, they are waiting for train tickets to see their family for the Chinese New Year.

Gotham City? No: Hong Kong!

This is one of my favourite Hong Kong pics (and I have many good ones.) It really embodies the amazing sky scrapers that make this city so famous. It was a fun time in Hong Kong, and I would recommend seeing this place to anyone who has thought about going. The buildings alone are worth seeing. Probably the most amazing spectacle in the city is the light show that goes on every night that you can watch from across the harbour. There are dancing lights on the buildings, lasers coming out of the roof tops, and on Saturday night, fireworks. And all of this is done synchronized to music. One major thing that I notcied in Hong Kong was how westernized it was, especially in comparison to China and Korea. You could find someone who spoke English almost anywhere, and there were many Westerners who either lived there or were visiting. It is, however, an expensive place, so be prepared!

Chengdu: Home of Pandas and Sichuan food.

Arriving in Chengdu we had just taken a three day bus tour to go approximately 700km over a mountain pass. Much of this ride was in a bus that was far from comfortable. Needless to say it was nice to get to Chengdu so we could just relax for a few days and not have to worry about smoky, stinky, cramped buses for a while. Chengdu was one of my favourite cities in China. There were a few things that contributed to my liking of the city. The first reason was that we found a great place to stay called Mix & Backpackers' Hostel (http://www.donkey-pal.com/.) It was great for a few reasons: friendly staff that spoke English, great showers, western toilets, heaters in the bedrooms, free internet, and a DVD room to chill out and watch movies at night. It was a very comfortable place, and we met some cool people in Chengdu because of our stay there.

The second reason that Chengdu was so cool was because of the pandas. Just outside of Chengdu is the largest panda breeding and research facility in the world. It has approximately 60 pandas living there, and is the most successful facility for breeding pandas in the world. It only cost us 70 Yuan ($9US) to get a bus to the facility and entrance inside. We had to go to this facility early, because pandas are only active for a short time of the day, and that is when they eat in the mornings. During this morning time they eat approximately 20kg of bamboo shoot! They don't have a very good digestion system, so they have to eat a lot just to survive.

After our panda adventure we found some people at the hostel to explore the city for the day. Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province (many people in the west may know it better as Szechuan for the food they eat in their local Chinese restaurant,) which means it has a lot of history, and a large population (about 10 million.) We headed to this one district that had a whole bunch of street vendors and cobblestone. Apparently it was pretty popular with the Chinese tourists, because even though it seemed touristy, we were the only Westerners there.

The only disappointment I had was in the Sichuan food. I had high hopes for the local cuisine, but when we tried it we both found it quite lacking. It was very spicy, as most Szechuan dishes in the West are, but it was a spice that added no flavour other than hot. I'm all for spicy food, but this variety of spice was not very delectable.

All in all Chengdu was a great stop on our Chinese adventure. If you happen to be in Western China I would recommend this city.

Flexibility to a whole new level: Shaolin Style.

How did that guy's head get under his legs? I'm still not sure, but it sure was amazing. We went to this one temple about an hour outside of Hong Kong one evening. When we were there we found out that the Shaolin monks were visiting this temple, and would be putting on a show the next day at 1:00. Well we just had to go see this, so we made our way back the next day. It was well worth the journey! These kids were amazing. They ranged in age from about 6 to 15, and wow were they good. I guess that is what happens when you train all day every day to be flexible, strong, and fast. It was quite funny after the show, when the oldest one came over to take pictures with us. This, however, wasn't his motive for coming over. They were selling these DVDs to raise money. One was a strength training, Shaolin style video, and the other was a demo video with all their crazy stunts on it. Needless to say we were on a pretty strict budget, and paying $20 for a DVD wasn't in the budget.

The best party ever!!!

Swarovski crystals. Many people I tell about this party, hosted by Swarovski, have no clue who they are; until I say "those crystal swans in the airport." They have a line of much more than just those little figurines, but that is what they are known for. This night, however, was all about the party! You see, Tommy had scored a whole bunch of tickets to what I would call the best party I have ever been to. Let me set the scene: a bunch of my good friends in Korea, the "who's who" of young Koreans, free alcohol, pounding techno music, two Korean bands, and a fashion show with New York runway models! Mix one part of each and what you have on your hands is a first class party. I truly felt like I was in New York during fashion week at a designer's party; it just had that kind of an air to it. Needless to say, it was good times had by all. Thank you Tommy for making it all happen!

The Infamous Tianamen Square

The end of our trip brought us to Beijing. We were staying in the Far East Hostel, that was only about a 15 minute walk to Tianamen Square. I have never seen such intimidating buildings as I did around Tianamen. Tianamen is framed on all sides by impressive structures. To the north of the square is the entrance gate to The Forbidden city, on the West side is The People's Hall (legislature,) to the East is the National Museum, and in the center is Mao's mausoleum (where the former evil leader's body is on display.) All of these buildings have, minus the Forbidden City, have one thing in common: intimidating communist architecture. Each concrete building has very similar designs, with large columns and very square design. Standing in the center of this large public square you can not help but to feel the power that is emitted in the epicenter of Chinese political power. To the North stands the Forbidden Palace, a reminder of the old Chinese Empire, but even this has been turned into a shrine for Communism; displaying a massive painting of Mao above the center gate (which was shot with paintballs during the pro-democracy protests that happened in 1989.) It was amazing to think of the events that took place there in '89. There is still a huge military and police force that patrols the Square and the surrounding area. The soldiers are ready if citizens begin to think that democracy is the solution once again, just like on that fateful day in 1989.

My volunteer experience in Korea.

While in Korea I only had three days a week where I had to go to class. This, obviously, left me four days a week for myself. My original plan was to travel all four of those days. This, however, did not work out too well because everyone else had Thursday classes. So I decided that I should do something productive with my time. I started looking for volunteer opportunities. I came across an orphanage in Anyang (just south of Seoul,) that was looking for volunteers to hang out with their kids on a weekly basis. It just happened to work out perfectly for me. Myself and a friend ended up volunteering there every Thursday night. We were paired with three kids that came regularly, and others came on occasion. Their names were Scott, Jayden, and A Rim (Scott and Jayden were their English names.) Scott was a grade 9 student who had excellent English skills, Jayden was in grade 11 and he could speak basic English, A Rim was in grade 10 and spoke very little English (about as much as I spoke Korean.) It was so great to have a chance to see these kids get excited about hanging out with us weekly. The highlight of my time as a volunteer came on December 23rd when the orphanage held a Christmas concert. The kids, ranging in age from 1-22, put on quite the show. They sang, acted, danced, and just generally put on quite the show. Scott happens to be quite the musician, playing both the drums and trumpet at a high level. To cap off the evening I was invited to the front to introduce myself, since I was the only foreigner in attendance. I got quite the positive reaction when I introduced myself in Korean (the few phrases that I had memorized.) Unfortunately that was my last night with the kids I had spent 3.5 months volunteering with. It was such a positive experience, and I would recommend anyone who is teaching English, or traveling for an extended period to look into volunteer options within your new community.

Korean Food Rocks!

Ahhhhh one of my favourite topics: food! Before arriving in Korea the only piece of Korean food that I had tried was kim chi from a former Korean roommate of mine. At the time I quite honestly did not thing much of the fermented cabbage that they so feverishly gobble up at every meal. This was quite quickly changed when I put some pieces of this red leafy national food on a grill. The whole flavour of this cabbage changed to a delectable treat. Kim chi, however, was just the beginning of my favourite Korean meal, degi galbi (marinated bbq'd pork.) My favourite part of this meal was that it was an experience. The pork is brought out raw and you get to grill it on the bbq that is at your table. Once the pork is ready you dip it in some tasty sauce, put it on a leaf of head lettuce, add some rice, spring onions, and whatever else that is able to be thrown in there, wrap it up and go. To go along with this delicious finger food there are many side dishes that usually accompany it. These may include a combination of spicy tofu soup, a hot bowl with cooked egg and onion seasoning, a "Korean pancake" with seafood inside, sea weed soup, and a variety of other possibilities. I'd highly recommend trying this for yourself the next time you are in a metropolitan center. Make sure to accompany your meal with a bottle of Soju, the favourite spirit of the Koreans. Chua mokayo (lit.: good eating.)

A Truly Universal Game!

So there I was, sitting down having a drink of water after running to this lakeside town that was a few kilometres from the town we were staying in. There was a group of old Chinese men shooting some pool in the town courtyard, so I was watching them shoot. They noticed me watching them play, so one of them gestured towards me to come over. I of course obliged, not ever wanting to pass by an opportunity for a good game of pool. I have found in my travels that playing pool is one of the best ways to meet people. Heck, when I was in New Zealand that is how I landed a role in The Lord of the Rings. The old man that I was playing against was quite the shot. I only won one game out of five (of course I blame home table advantage for the losses.) This experience was one of my fondest memories in all of China. It was so great to just play pool with some locals, and have all these different families watching these crazy foreigners, who speak no Chinese, playing pool against their local "pros." It wasn't, however, the only time I played pool there, in fact when we (Jose and I) were in this small Tibetan town we went to the local pool hall for a night of entertainment. The power went out while we were playing (one of many blackouts in China,) and they just lit a lantern and kept playing. When we were playing in this little Tibetan town we were basically the focal point of interest in this hang out. There were about 20 guys in there, ranging in age from about 12 to 25. At one point (when we first arrived) probably 75% of them were crowded around our table rooting on their local favourite. This time I was a bit more successful, probably winning about half the games, but these kids were also quite talented. So for those wanderers out there I recommend frequenting your local pool hall, bar, or in some cases city centers to meet people. It may just become a highlight of your adventures.

-Brice (the Shark) Peressini

Just plain beautiful!

So this is what China looks like? This area was one of the first places in China that Jose and I stopped in. This picture was taken on a boat in between a city called Guilin, and a town called Yangshuo. Amazing place!

It doesn't get any "Great"er than this!

So there I was on The Great Wall, and it occured to me: this is something that was on my "Things I must do before I die list." This is the first thing I've crossed off that list, so I like to think of it as pretty damn cool. It was my second last day in China, and I made it a good one. My travel partner Jose was along too.

Great Times!

So I'm in Kelowna . . .

Hey all,

I've showed up in Kelowna to undertake my latest adventure. This time it is a money-making venture (hopefully.) I have started a training program that will lead me to becoming a day trader. For those of you who don't know what a day trader is, well here's a quick explanation. I basically get given an account with a bunch of the company's money to buy and sell stocks. The goal is to make as much, and lose as little as possible in a day. I will make a few hundred trades a day in order to do this. Sound exciting??? I think so! Once I'm done training I will be moving back to Cow Town to work out of the office there. The company I am working for is called Swift Trade.

Enjoy,

Brice