Gooey food

I am just going to come out and say it… some of us are really, really getting sick of the same food meal after meal after meal. It seems every lunch and dinner takes place around a lazy-susan, upon which dozens of rich, sauce laden dishes are placed before us. If it ain’t friend, it is covered in some think sauce.

 

 

Kathy is dying for some dim-sum or a Chinese noodle house. We just want some variety… variety that is not yak meat. There is no such thing as a salad (we couldn’t eat one anyway as the water they would use to wash the lettuce would likely get us sick). This is apparently a nation that has never heard of simple preparation of any dish. As Lisa Sheppard said with a sigh, “I just want some un-gooed broccoli,” a line that had me almost rolling on the floor in laughter. Here is a picture of Lisa incredibly excited that we actually got some fairly simple noodles to eat at this meal.

 

 

The other problem is the drinks. For some reason, the Chinese have a rule that you can only have one drink at a meal – including water. Often, the “one drink” rule applies even though our glasses are tiny, like only 6 or 8 ounces. It really feels like we are being nickled and dimed a bit. It is particularly troublesome here in this city because we have been eating a lot of spicy Szechwan food and we are only allowed a little bit of water or coke or beer to wash it down. My mouth was on fire at times (in a good way, I like spicy food). Lori Collins was so fed up, she went ahead and ordered a drink even though she had to pay for it. The waitress was sorta nasty about it but brought Lori a Coke and then thrust a bill at her to pay. Wanna know how much it was? 10 Yuan, about $1.50. We all started laughing. All this fuss over $1.50 drinks?!?!? Lisa Sheppard promptly plunked a 10 Yuan note down on the table and said, “bring me one too!”

 

 

 

PANDAS!!!!

We went to the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Center today. When Kathy and I were looking at a variety of different trips to China, I was pretty adamant that I wanted one that went to Chengdu to see the pandas. There was a piece of me that was worried it would not live up to my expectations.

 

WRONG!

 

Everywhere we turned, it seemed we would come across another panda, mostly draped all over the trees. They were eager to sleep, as pandas almost always are, but there would be little flurries of activity that were so exciting and wonderful. I shot some fabulous video! All of this took place amidst a sea of bamboo. The Breeding Center was laid out almost like a bamboo forest, with paths completely covered by bamboo plants. It was quite striking.

 

We went to the “teen-aged panda” exhibit first. There were 4 pandas there between the ages of 2 and 4, too old to hang out with their mommies but too young for breeding. They were moving around quite a bit, something you rarely see in pandas (we got there early in the morning, which is when the pandas as most active). I got some nice video. Eventually, they all settled into the nooks and crannies of the trees to rest a bit, which was incredibly cute.

 

 

From there, we moved on to the mommas and baby pandas. The Cengdu center allows you to pay to hold the young pandas, but the price is kinda steep. Gary Wiener tried to negotiate all kinds of deals, hoping to get a group discount, but the panda officials would not budge. So, Gary and Susan, along with Ildy Poliner, were the only members of the group who opted to do this. Gary has some incredible pictures of it that I hope to post at a later date. In his pics, Susan and Ildy just look like they are in heaven.

 

Meanwhile, the rest of us got a nice look at the young pandas that were hanging outside before they got taken in to play with Gary, Susan, and Ildy ;)

 

 

Right next to the young pandas were the newborn babies. The Chengdu Breeding Center has had fabulous success lately, with a total of 12 panda baby births in the past few months, which is a new record for panda breeding in captivity. The babies were all born in August and September. Here’s a pic of Kathy standing in front of a few of the newborns, who are still just beginning to get their fuzzy fur.

 

 

Finally, we came to the area with the “Senior” pandas. Ordinarily, you would expect the older pandas to be very sedentary, but we came across one who was happily moving around quite a bit (for a panda). I got a nice closeup of him licking his nose.

 

 

Kathy commented that you felt more of a connection and closeness to the pandas here than you do at the American zoos that have panda exhibits (such as DC, Atlanta, and San Diego). I think everyone in the group was just awed by the cuteness of these guys and how close we were able to get to them. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

 

There are a few other things I want to tell you about the Panda Center… but it is getting late so I will save that for tomorrow’s posts.

China's Got Talent

Our first night in Chengdu, we got a real treat. It was an optional outing to a legendary local tea house that also has a variety show kinda performance while you sip your tea. They also give 20 minute massages, for about $8 a pop. A bunch of us took advantage of that. So, to start this post, here are pics of me and of Lori Collins getting massages.

 

 

Ahhhh, that felt good!

 

We were somewhat skeptical of the show. The night before, we had seen the amateurish Crazy Yak show in Tibet. Well, this was 1000-times better. There was a wide variety of acts such as a guy who played a tiny flute that sounded exactly like bird calls, a puppeteer whose puppet was able to use her hands in some pretty impressive ways, and Chinese Opera with fabulous costumes.

 

 

At one point, Lisa Sheppard commented that is was like watching a live show of “China’s Got Talent!”

 

There were three acts that really stood out from the rest. The first was a comedy with a husband and wife – she’s supposed to be a “Spicy Chengdu woman” making demands on her hen-pecked man. She gets mad at him and demands that he walk around with a lit lantern on his head. She then forces him to do all kinds of acrobatics without dropping the fire. My description doesn’t really do it justice. We did not understand a word they were saying, but there was still plenty of humor going on and the guy with the fire on his head did some impressive stuff.

 

 

There was also a must-be-seen-to-be-believed finger-shadow-puppet guy. I mean, this guy could make his hands do anything. No picture could ever accurately describe it, but the below picture comes close. The guy is sitting in the middle of the shadow screen with his hands over his head. Then, in one fluid motion, he puts his hands on his head and his entire body forms an owl, complete with moving eyes that peered from side-to-side. Like I said, you had to see it to believe it—

 

 

Finally, they had this act where people dance around on stage and, out of nowhere, their costumes and face-masks change shape and color and expression. Again, it is hard to explain it to you if you have not seen it. Be sure to ask us more about it when we get home. Supposedly, the method they use to instantly change their face masks (and even make the masks disappear completely) is a family secret that no one knows. Several of us saw them pulling strings at their waist and the masks are made out of silk, so I think it would be possible to pull the mask up into the hat on their head, but it is still really impressive. The following picture does little to explain or show it. Sorry.

 

You want a massage?

So, Gary Weiner had an interesting experience last night in the hotel. His wife Susan was in bed asleep, it was around 10:30pm, when Gary heard a knock at his door. He opened it up and saw two women standing there. They asked, “Do you want a massage?“

 

Now, Gary knew the story I told all of you earlier about what “a massage” means when you are in a fancy hotel. It is code for prostitution. Gary quickly said, “No.”

 

The lead woman said, “I give gooooood massage” as she ran her hands down the length of her body, removing any doubt as to what she really meant. Gary again said “No,” and shut his door.

 

Gary claims he has no idea why the women came to his room and says he is going to send them to my room if they knock on the door again tonight. He also says he did not notice how attractive the women were. I must add that Susan was standing next to him when he said this, so perhaps I can get a bit more info later when the wife is not hovering ;)

 

Here is a pic of Gary relaying his story to the entire group…

 

 

 

The Spicy City - Chengdu

Allow me to give you some perspective on the city we are in right now, Chengdu. According to our local guide, it is known as the city of the beautiful girls and the hen-pecked men. The women supposedly go to tea houses and play Mah Johng in the evening while the men stay home and take care of kids, make the meals, and clean the house. It sounds kinda funny, but the city is really known for this. Mah Johng was invented in this city and is such a pastime that some people play it all day, trying to make a living by gambling on the game (which is illegal in China). The weather here is almost always overcast and the sun rarely shines. Supposedly, this makes the men in Chengdu unusually short and gives the women very fair complexions.

 

There is a saying in Chengdu, that the women are “Spicy.” This is because they are both hot tempered and really into fashion and how they look. Chengdu is the capital of the Szechwan province, known for its hot food, which also contributes to the Spicy nickname. A quick walk around the city, and you will believe the legend ;)

 

               

But, let me tell you something else we have seen in this city. For the first time, I feel like we are really getting a picture of real Chinese life in these big cities. The traffic here is incredibly chaotic. Cars and buses move all over the street, ignoring lanes and even their proper side of the street. Left turns almost always include a daring dash through traffic, often resulting in a car stopping mid-way through the intersection and cars coming the other direction weaving around it.  It is almost like the traffic laws are just suggestions here, not something that must be followed. There are an incredible number of pedestrians as well as people on little scooters and bikes too. They weave in and out of each other as well as the cars and buses putting their lives at risk almost every block of their journey. It is sorta insane. This picture I took from my window does not even begin to do justice to this semi-organized chaos.

 

 

Chengdu is a city of 10 million people, just a little bit bigger than Chicago. As we drove out of the city center, we saw wave after wave of gigantic cookie cutter apartment buildings. One look at them and you can tell how this city has such a large population.

 

   

Despite all this – a lack of sun, insane traffic, and humdrum living conditions, Chengdu has one more nickname… the Panda city. Because its residents like to take it easy and relax a lot. So, it is not that bad a place after all ;)

 

 

What happens in Tibet stays in Tibet...

….unless it is posted on my blog that is ;)

 

As proof I offer up the following photo of Betty Camp dancing in a Tibetan conga line from our final dinner in Tibet.

 

 

There is little question that Betty and others in our group getting up and appearing in the Tibetan line dance was the highlight of the show. That is partially because they had such a good time doing it and partially because the show… well… not sure how to say this… the show sorta sucked. It was mostly loud, over-modulated recorded music and some Tibetan men and women in costume dancing along with the music. We could not understand the music and the dancing was just kinda blaah. Kathy had two of the funniest lines of the night. The first was when she said she felt like she was at an elementary school play. The second came while watching the Tibetan women in costume dancing their repetitive dance to grating music – it prompted Kathy to say, “I feel like I am at Disney on the It’s a Small World ride.” That one left the table howling.

 

The dinner theater performance is known as the Crazy Yak show because it starts with 2 costumed Yak’s running around the stage. I kept on waiting for the Yaks to make a return appearance in the show, but they were only there for a couple minutes at the start and then disappeared. I would hardly call them crazy.

 

 

There was one other nice thing to come out of the evening – I got someone to snap a nice picture of my table toasting our time in Tibet with some Tibetan barley wine. I thought the wine was delicious but several other folks did not like it. Ahh well, that just allowed me to finish it for them.

 

 

That’s it for Tibet…. Up next, Chengdu, the city of the Spicy Women… and the baby pandas!

The Sera Monastery and the Slapping Monks

One reason we were rushing to leave the Potala Palace was that we wanted to make sure we made it to the Sera Monastery in time to see the monk’s debating. They do it every day from 3-5pm. It was one of the real highlights of the entire trip.

 

 

Now, I am sure that right about now you are thinking, “what the heck is a monk debate?” Well, the way it was explained to us is that some of the monk’s ask questions of the other monks – mostly questions about Buddhist scripture, but also philosophical questions like “how big is big” or “is the glass half empty or half full” or simply “why?” The other monks must then answer the question and they have a debate about the answer. If the questioning monk is not satisfied with the answer, and he generally is not, he will rear back and thrust his hands at the answerer culminating in an angry hand clap by the questioning monk. It is hard to capture it in a still photo but it looks something like this –

 

 

Like I said, pictures don’t really do it justice but I shot some video that was just fantastic. It really is a show. Everyone in the group adored watching the debate. It was quite striking to notice how angry and loud the arguments could be one second, and how the very same arguing monks could break into laughter the next moment (see the two pictures below). When you consider that these guys have to live together 24 hours a day, 7-days a week for the rest of their lives, I guess they better get along!