Karen gets her "real travel" groove back

OK, time to redeem myself as a serious traveller here....The rest of my trip in Sri Lanka, once I pulled myself away from the gorgeous beaches of the south... was wonderful, too.

note: long skirt for visiting temples

I headed north.  I travelled by local bus (this often astonishes people, funny, 'cause it is such a terrific way to meet the locals and get some good glimpses of daily life).  And Sri Lankan busses are fun!  They have the music blasting, and vendors come on at various stops and sell their wares; others make political speeches (there was a local election coming up and the SLs really take democracy seriously). Was the flashing-light pictures of gods and other religious gear... I met so many  locals every step of the way - I don't think there was one instance where a great conversation didn't ensue, even if we began shyly...I found the SLs to be such a friendly and polite people, who are very keen to meet visitors and who speak excellent, rather formal English. It takes you aback a bit when they ask you to take their picture, with your camera, because they want you to have a picture of them!! (See story of the monks, below)

The buses (and trains) are terribly crowded, and if you don't get on at the start of a trip you will stand for hours.  I finally got tired of standing and sat down on the floor and I thought a bunch of them were going to have a heart-attack: they bounded out of their seats, "No, Madam! No!" and tried to force me into their seats.  It was hard to convince them that it was no big deal.  Also, if  anyone even sensed that I needed some help with when to disembark, etc (even when I didn't) many people took it upon themselves to see that everything went according to plan - even to the point of disembarking, with the driver waiting, as someone walked me to my connection. So sweet.

    

The children are gorgeous.  (Education is a priority there, and I loved seeing all the school kids in their white uniforms and satchels.) 

Living conditions are thus:

                                                                         and thus:

Overlooking it all is Buddha:

Buddhist monks are certainly a part of daily life:

And speaking of monks, there is this AMAZING rock-palace - Siguryia - 

and among the crowds visiting were many monks. Now, I wanted to take a picture of them but did not want to be disrespectful and tacky, so I did some very lame spy-stuff to try to get a picture secretly (jacket over the camera, fake coughing - embarrassing, really)... 

but it turned out that they were not offended in the least and took so many pictures of us together in all sorts of configurations that became almost silly!  Here is one of them (their guide on the left ensured he was in ALL the shots :>))))

Very nice interesting boys, who are studying Buddhism part-time (weekends - this was a Saturday) and will make a decision whether or not to become fully commited in later years.  After that is is onward and upward:

                                            to see these drop-dead magnificent rock paintings:

                                                              and a still-higher climb:

yielded this ruin of the palace at the top (that supposedly the king came down from every day to meet with his people)  and this wonderful vista:

Well, I am tired from the memory of all that climbing, so I will sign off and return soon with wildlife, tea plantations and other hopefully interesting details of my short time in old Ceylon

KAREN.

Nothin' at all to do with China or Sri Lanka

It was Daffid's birthday - a nice quiet conservative Welshman, who was about to have his world rocked by Kerry.

Coming Up: 

a lovely high-brow post about the ancient sites and beautiful Buddhas of Sri Lanka.

I'll just pull myself together first....

Karen

Off I Flew

I booked a plane ticket and one night at a hotel and got through the final days and nights until the holiday - unusual for me, I did no background reading or planning.  I travelled light - only a tiny carry-on bag;  I landed in the evening at Colombo airport and paid a driver to get me to the small town on the southern coast, to my hotel.  This is what I woke up to in the morning:

                                           ....these 2 bay ends with lots of just plain waves and sand in between....

Sri Lanka – OMG – I landed on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world and spent a good deal of time frolicking in the buffeting waves.  The sand!  Oh, the heat and the sun!

That's me in green, above, and that is my toe, below

The biggies come in mornings to be fed, but catching the teensie ones scampering from their eggs to the sea was amazing good luck! 

On Day 2I was wandering around the old Dutch fort (a walled town) in the city of Galle when got caught up in the madness that was Kerry and James, two happy lads from Ireland.  And I mean very happy – carefree-like, in a Pricilla Queen of the Desert kind of a way. (I leave you to make up the title on this:)

Here they are signing YMCA outside the Young Men's Buddhist Association – locals not quite sure what to make of it. 

We did not realize until later that it was YMBA - personally, I would have loved to see them try to contort themselves into a B.... They made me laugh constantly: Their outfits were changed frequently;   in a brief, snippy mood Kerry sneered at me – “And you’ve worn that dress 3 times!!”  Also in their thrall were Julia and Daffidd, from Wales (he was husband #3, but now they are just happy divorcees who do a bit of travelling together) and the brother and sister team of Eugene and Tony (hard-cores, late 60s,  who sucked roll-yr-own cigarellos as the whiled away hours in the local public houses of Asia).   Kerry, James, Julia and I became 2 Poufs and 2 Post-Menapausal Woman as we shopped and generally hung around together.  You can see that James and I were the quieter of the quartet:

Day 3 we wanted to go to another beach - Marissa - where the famous stilt fishermen hung out on poles. James was the least keen of us and throught the morning I had been the voice of reason to him, as he  kept threatening  to jump onto trains going opposite us.... Older and wiser Karen:  “No, James, no one except actors in movies jump from trains!”  But when he disembarked at a stop Kerry and I looked at each other,  faces aghast.  The train began to lumber forard.  “What do we do?!”  squeaked Kerry, as he watched his fiancé walking off the platform.  “Jump!” I shouted.  Now, I am not quite sure why I thought it was so important to us keep up with James, or me to keep up with the lads – really, I was a woman travelling alone, and I could very easily have resumed my solitude for that jaunt.  But no, madness overcame me.  As three railway men tended my wounds, with James hissing, “why would you DO that?!” Kerry and I fell into hysterical nervous fits of laughter.  The rubbing alcohol on my scrapes brought me up short only temporarily. I was actually so damn pleased not to have re-injured my thumb and wrist that anything else was a relief...Once we got back to our little town of HIkaduwa, we heard from locals that not only were the stilt fishermen NOT in Marissa but that they now did not really fish at all, but instead sat on their poles asking for money to pose for pictures – with fake fish glued onto their poles!  Ha! 

 There were many tears when the boys left and their departure forced me to reluctantl pull away from the beach to go to around the ancient sites. I knew that Hikaduwa was just not going to be the same without them.

Lots more later....K

bitz n bobz

Jesus, that just took me a half an hour to find how to log on to my own blog!!!!!!
I flippin' hate computers sometimes.
Anyhow, calmer now....
And all just to share this with you:

And to tell you that I spent an evening in a new Chinese hospital.  I fell off my scooter - slipped on some gravel - and hurt the left wrist and right thumb and ground away a layer of skin on one knee.  I was taken to the hospital by the principal Mark and we took along the long-suffering Helli to translate for us.  I was in a lot of pain, but when I slipped on some water in the hospital hall (near the water cooler) I re-slammed everything down and ...er...yelped very loud.  I had x-rays and that was interesting, as I surprised the technician when I asked for a lead vest (she was wearing one - and standing in the other room).  But the best was when 4 doctors came in with the x-rays and went over their thoughts and analysis with Hellie.  A security gaurd came in and then a stranger and then the stranger's wife and they all stood listening and looking in great fascination.  It was a hoot, really.  From that point, a week ago tomorrow, I have struggled with managing to clothe and clean myself, to make food and to clean up my place.  The pain, which was considerable, is slowly going down.  

But coupled with that has been the snappin' freezing weather with little to no heat in the school.  The heaters are "broken" - except in the staff room and the offices.  Susan says the situation is better than in her last Chinese school, where there weren't even heaters in place. At least we live in hope that they might fix them one day.  I sure appreciate the body heat of a full classroom, and like everyone I wear layers upon layers - scarves, sweaters, coats - as I teach.  Any sense of dressing professionally is long gone - I just want to be warm!  At "home" I go onto my couch and under a blanket to try to get warm - amazingly my bed is lovely and warm.  I am going to a hot place in a couple of weeks and I just want the sun to sink deep into my bones.  I was going to go to Nepal but I cannot bear to pay good money to continue to be cold - no matter how magical the place. 

Not much else to tell - school continues interesting and rewarding and thank god for that.

Thought this was an interesting way to go:

                                                               "That's all," she wrote.
                                                                             and
                                                                 That's all she wrote.

transport fun in China

After almost a month of blog-silence, I am back.  I'm safely settled again in China, after a 3 week Christmas break in Germany and a week of jetlag coupled with frantic teaching prep - at the mo I am under a fuzzy blanket under the ceiling heater in my apartment, drinking a nice cuppa.

First things first - I left you with a question about what the chubby-curvy pink things at a banquet were...No, they were not pigs' tongues, which was my initial guess.  In fact, all they are is peeled, diagonally-cut weiners.

Soon after that banquet-cruise it was time for me to head to the airport in Shanghai for the break... En route, because I had been talkiing too much to people on the subway car, I missed which stop we were arriving at (no signs as you come in to a stop - just an announcement, which, once missed, is over), I got off a stop too early.  No prob, but by the time I realized that I needed to get back onto the train I had gone up an escalator and there was no 'down' - just stairs.  Now, my luggage was HEAVY:  close to the 50 lb max for the large and prob at least 30 lbs for the carry-on (I figure that as they don't weigh it I can put bags of cement in if I wish).  Because of the weight and the awkwardness I did not want to clump down the stairs and along a long tunnel to go that one further tube stop.  "Catch a cab like the experienced expats do!" I thought to myself.  So I tried, but to no avail.  Cabs already occupied sped past, and I was stuck with more saavy (=pushy) cab-seekers who I knew would snap up whatever lone cab might finally pull up. Now, during this time of my frustrated hailing and cussing a scooter driver kept waving to me and pointing at his scooter.  Right.  I kept shaking my head, pointing to my luggage and shrugging my shoulders.  Idiot, I thought.  Well, in the end, I went for it - a friend of the driver's loaded us up and oh-my-god off we went.

Be aware that that 50 lb piece of luggage is delicately balancing on a small footpedal and I am holding on to it for dear life - while the man is going at speed...Whatever you do, do not try this at home.  The final point about this saga is that though my beloved purple suitcase (newish, such a great colour and by far the best piece of luggage I have ever had) survived that little jaunt unscathed, here is how looked after the return flight on Air China:

My return to the school complex was interesting:  I got from Frankfurt to Bejing to Shanghai, across town to the long distance bus depot, and to the little bus station in my village. When the little red 3-wheel-covered- motorcycle-cab (aka 'tin can') turned into the driveway we were almost taken out on a blind curve by a truck driver going at speed.

Here is what happened several days later on my first scooter ride out to pick up some supplies:  The school is doing some major building at the front gates.  The sun is going down into my eyes and I cannot figure out which is the new way to go when I end up driving onto some wet cement - and sinking fast!! 

 I spun wheels and pulled and swore frantically - all the while waving at the workmen at the other end to signal "I am sorry!!  Help!! I am an idiot!!"  I got out, wiped the cement off my shoes and the tires and wondered if I could get fired for doing something so idiodic.  But then, several hours later, I happened to bump into the principal of the school, and I admit to him what I had done. Good guy - he just laughs and tells me about seeing a car doing the same thing on a stretch of roadway.  The point is, I guess, that with no markings of any sort, pretty well anyone can miss the glean of wet cement looming ahead - and you don't have to be a complete idiot to do so.  I did feel bad for the poor workmen, however, as it was even more heavy work added to their burden.

So, business as usual.  

Karen

What a breath of fresh air!

                         I am writing from Europe, where I am spending the Christmas holidays.
                      I left China in a record-breaking, dangerous-health-level, smog-alert situation. 

A colleague sent a news article about government's 5 reasons why the country's air pollution crisis was actually a good thing.  Briefly, they were  1): a means of bonding between the Chinese people as they found solidarity in their complaints; equalised them, as both rich and poor people were vulnerable to its effects....  2):  a great security cover against satellite imagery and protection against guided missile systems ....3): has enlightened the Chinese people, as they realised the cost of rapid growth.... 4): has made Chinese people more humorous", as smog-related jokes proliferated on the internet.... and 5): has helped to educate people re: knowledge of meteorology, geography, physics, chemistry and history.

I sent the article to a number of people (with particularly black senses of humour) and heard back from a friend who is a scientist specializing in global warming.  Response:
           "A cold front cleared much of the smog away".......to where, you may ask?  Well, it   moved downwind, to Western USA, Canada, the Arctic in general, and eventually other places out of sight and out of the Chinese mind.  Colleagues of mine can see and track this plume on
satellite imagery. It, and the cold front, arrived in Ottawa this week.

I am now one of the many proud (?) face-mask wearers. 

I probably won't write again until I am back on Chinese soil, in 2014  :>) 
Happy Holidays, everyone!  KAREN


 

18 - a river cruise and more

The school turned 10 this year and the staff was treated to an evening dinner cruise on the river in Shanghai, along the Bund - the old European centre of Shanghai and now the pulsating heart of China's modernity.  It was pretty spectacular:

 

The two bits of Chinglish I have on offer are from school.  The first is from a student of mine, who confounded me momentarily by mentioning the 'burdenings' on a pizza. His on-line translator lead him astray, as he was aiming for 'toppings'.  The other goofy language did not make me or any English speaking staff member at school laugh.  The Chinese side of our enterprise spent thousands of yuan on hundreds of advertising banners for the school, without checking if the English was correct. (Infuriating, too, I guess, 'cause this is the way life goes here. There are continual little and big power struggles between the BCers and the Chinese halves of the school.) Anyhow, I used the phrase as a teachable moment, and added the 'eat healthy' posters made by the PE department for good luck. (Verb+Adverb... ring any bells, people?)

 

As for food, I leave you with the following. There was quite a array of foods at the buffet on the cruise.  What do you think this dish is?

The mind boggles....Answer next post!  KAREN