Traveling the World

After seeing the pandas in their natural habitat for several minutes, I got in line and waited for what seemed like forever. As the clock struck 9:30am, they opened the doors and we rushed in. They put robes on us and asked us to wait. Several minutes later, I’m sitting down on the bench with my heart racing, when I see the door open and a big ol’ Panda bear squirming about in the arms of a caretaker. They gently lay it on my lap, and wow it’s heavy! My guess is it weighed about 45 pounds (22kg)!

One of the other people waiting to play with the panda asked how heavy it was, to which I replied “about 45 pounds, but that’s nothing because my girlfriend weighs twice that and I’ve had no problems with her!” The Panda was insanely cute, and I hugged it. It sniffed my face, as if trying to kiss me hello. It felt so good to tick off one of my things to do in life, but at the same time I was a bit scared because they have been known to get aggressive for no reason. Just last year, an idiot climbed into a Panda habitat to “pet” it, and got mauled to death.

Sorry to end this post on a bad note, but it’s the truth! In reality, these Pandas are very docile and loving, but one thing we should all learn is never to enter THEIR habitat, always let them enter YOURS. I hope you have the opportunity to come to China and hold these majestic creatures, even if it DOES cost 1000rmb for 2 minutes ($145).

Many people who come to China do so for a few reasons: to see the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, to hold a Panda, to adopt a baby, or to start/expand a business. I came here for none of those reasons, but in this instance when my friends were here, holding a Panda became essential to my life’s mission.

I was nervous. Would the Panda like me? Would it try to bite my head off? We have always been taught that they are big, clumsy, playful, and docile creatures, but is that the truth? We so often make assumptions about animals, but we fail to remember that they aren’t human, and thus it’s impossible to predict their behavior. Just last year, a man entered a Panda habitat in an attempt to “pet” it, but the Panda slashed him to death.

As we arrived at the Panda reserve, I began to shake with excitement. We spend our entire lives watching about Pandas on Discovery Channel, yet only a small percentage of us have the great fortune to come face-to-face with them. Our first stop was at the breeding center, where the tiniest of babies were sleeping or being fed milk from a bottle. They were cuter than I had expected. We spent a few moments “ooohhing” and “aaahhhing,” before we moved on.

Then came the red “pandas,” which are basically off-colored raccoons. Those were annoying and fidgety, so we moved on to the real Pandas. These Pandas were sitting around, sleeping, eating breakfast, or playing with each other.

More to come next time…

Imagine entering the People’s Park in Chengdu after having watched shows about it for years. You know exactly why you’re going, and insist on the journey. You enter from the front gate, a bit nervous but excited at the idea of finally being able to tick off the experience in your mind as something you’ve wanted to do for a while. You reach the back of the park and find your man. You sit down in the chair and let him go to work…cleaning your ears.

“Heheheh,” you laugh, as the instruments he use tickle you. He wiggles it around inside your head, finally pulling it out and showing you just how bad you are. The cotton ball is FULL of guk and nasty wax, and he tells you to take better care of yourself. He throws the ball away, and pulls out his second tool, and thrusts your head to the side for a better view. It’s almost like a giant pair of tweezers, and you feel like his next objective, after having removed the wax blocking the path, is to remove bits of your brain and show it to you…like a frontal lobotomy, but through the ear.

You relax as you realize you’re still sitting in the peaceful People’s Park, and not some mad scientist’s lab. Within a few minutes it’s all over, and you smile at having endured the relentless prodding of your inner ear, for a price most foreigners would be shocked over: $2.50.

The most exciting parts about traveling are the adventures and uncertainty. That is, unless, they’re a bad thing. Such an example occurred when my friends and I decided to reverse the order of our destinations, as the woman at the train station assured me a train ride from Guilin to Chengdu in the neighboring Sichuan province would only take 9 hours. Because it was the peak travel period during the summer vacation, we were only able to get hard seats on the train, something I shuddered at the thought of.

We got on the train, horrified to find that the train was an older model and thus had no centralized air conditioning, only ceiling fans that rotate. Now let me mention that in these train cars, people stay awake most of the night because the seats are so uncomfortable that it’s difficult to fall asleep. I have good hearing, which makes me a light sleeper. As a result, I can’t sleep at all in these train cars because of the people talking ALL NIGHT LONG.

The absolute worst part of the train ride, besides departing from Guilin at 12:30pm, is that at about 5 or 6 hours into the supposed 9 hour hellish experience, I found out by talking to someone nearby that the train was actually 25 hours long. I screamed and shouted and ran to a train employee and demanded to find out why there was such a huge difference. He showed me his train schedule, and sure enough, we had enough 20 hours to go. But why? I looked at the Lonely Planet book to see what route the train could possibly be taking! It seems that because of the mountains, it’s easier to have the train go AROUND them. We went from central Guangxi province, into Hunan Province, and around the top of Sichuan province and then down into Chengdu.

That made our trip 10 times worse, because now we had to sit in those damn seats for a whole ‘nother day!
Around midnight I went to upgrade to the sleeper cars, and had to wait an hour while standing up for the people to get off at Changsha so tickets would be available. After the hour had gone by, there were no seats. Sad as hell, I returned to the dreadful position of being wide awake on a hard seat. In them morning, we had two surprises. The first involved live chickens running around, while the second was a boy who collapsed suddenly from a seizure.

We all died a bit on the inside for having to endure such a terrible journey, but sucked it up and did what we had to. We chalked it up as amazing experience, and now we’re stronger for it. The lesson we learned was, never trust idiot employees at the train stations!

Disclaimer: Sorry my photo is blurry, but it’s the best one I have.

The day everyone has been waiting for: a total solar eclipse. I can’t remember the last time I saw one, if ever. I just so happen to be living in an area of the world where it’s possible to see the complete solar eclipse from the balcony of my apartment, and I’m so grateful for the chance. My girlfriend and I wake around 5am for the event, having planned to meet her friend by the river. By the time we get outside, we realize there are over a hundred people in the garden of our building, and this spot will trump the spot by the river.

Most of the people here have been gearing up for the eclipse by buying 2rmb special glasses, which honestly do a MUCH better job than my $150 glasses from the States. A random Chinese woman approaches me and offers to let me use her glasses for a moment to see the difference. I realize I can use these glasses as a lens for my camera. It’s from then on I begin placing the lens behind these glasses, my sunglasses, and even my girlfriend’s glasses to form different colors and shades to make good pictures.

At some times it feels like we’re waiting forever, and others it seems like only second’s have past and the moon is covering the sun ever quickly. After an hour outside, the sun is finally being covered by the moon, and producing amazing shades of a variety of colors I couldn’t even begin to say (as I’m partially colorblind, I can’t recognize the colors, only appreciate them). Finally! The sun is gone, and we’re plunged into darkness. Then, the worst thing ever happens. The lights in the buildings around us are turned on, removing us from our brief encounter with the Dark Ages.

My girlfriend is amazed because she’s never experienced anything like it, and at some times feels a bit scared by the weirdness of it all. After 6-10 minutes, the sky returns to normal and the day goes on. We feel lucky for the chance to experience this thing that occurs only once, maybe twice a year, and in only one latitude line at a time.

You take the wine out and begin pouring it into the cups. It tastes great entering your mouth and going down your throat, but as the taste begins to fade, you look into the sky and fear the worst: rain. Even worse, you didn’t bring an umbrella and your hotel is on the other side of town! As the drizzle becomes a full-blown storm with lightning and thunder, you huddle with several other people underneath a vendor’s humongous umbrella.

You bide your time in boredom and angst, waiting for the rain to stop. A genius of a man approaches those of us who’ve become trapped like prey, and offers to sell us umbrellas for 10rmb. You are surprised by how fair he is being, as he obviously has the upper hand and could easily sell them for twice the price and you would pay it just to free yourself from the hell you’re enduring. You open the umbrella, grab your best gal’s arm, and run as fast as you can across the river and through the town, trying hard not to slip on the flooded cobblestone streets. After a rough time, you collapse on your bed, soaked to the bone. It’s something you realize you’ll never forget.