Various updates + more cycling pics and video

Various updates (from John):

One week of Chinese New Year visiting is over. Lots of goodness. One more to go.

My "permanant" crown was installed last week by Docter Shen. Smooth.

Reading The Alchemist.

SL and I are trying to walk for 2 hours every day.

Installed (recommended by Sun-Ling) some software that so far provides a hole in the Great Firewall, so I am able to fb, tumbl, tweet, and blog.

We will be flying to Kunming on Monday Feb 6. Looking forward to warmer dryer weather in Yunnan Province.

Pulled my Shanghai-based guitar out of the closet, dusted it off. Downloaded some software that does basic recording and used it to record some music for the video below.

Tried out some various free panorama programs. The results are below. None are as good as the free stitchers that came with my last Canon and Panasonic cameras and which are NOT installed on this computer. Argh!

As we said in previous post, we had some amazing bike rides around Guanshan, Taiwan. So here are more photos from those rides; some panoramas and one video. Enjoy!

Floral display along one of the Chishang bike routes and next to the Cultural Center and Rice Milling Co-op.



Looking out on the flooded rice paddies near Chishang. You can see the bike path at left heading down the terraces and out into the paddies.


Looking south down the East Rift Valley.


View of Beinan River with a new bridge in the distance. We are about to head up to Wulu, a 500 meter elevation gain, as the road continues west along the river.


Sun-Ling spinning along across the valley. Shot from my bike of course so it's a bit shakey.

An Unplanned Visit to the Dentist

Just back from an unplanned visit to the dentist. Last week a piece of a molar that surrounded a filling came off while I was eating a bing (chinese pancake). Luckily, there was no pain or discomfort so the visit can be categorized unplanned instead of emergency.

Short version: I now have my first ever temporary crown and we are off to Taiwan as planned the day after tomorrow.

Longer version: I've been to the dentist in China several times as noted here (http://meckleychina.blogspot.com/2007/11/going-to-dentist.html), but only for cleanings. In fact it's been over 30 years since I've tasted the Novocaine and smelled the drill. So I was a bit apprehensive when I walked into Dr Shen's office even though he had cleaned my teeth twice before, speaks English well, and is my mother-in-law's regular dentist.

I arrived at 3PM. An exam, an x-ray, a shot of Novacaine, an impression of the lower molars, lots of drilling, more impressions, a bit of waiting with Dr Shen's finger in my mouth, the fitting of the temporary crown ,the  touch-up of  the bite, a down payment on the actual crown, an appointment made for Jan 27, and we are out the door a 4:10. Whew!

On the way home we bought for a bottle of Oro Del Mundo Cabernet Sauvignon at Carrefour and all is well.

Random thoughts: I think Dr. Shen gave me a tremendous shot of Novacaine - not complaining - as I couldn't feel anything on that side for 4 hours....The "flavors" of the impression materials and bite paper were very Chinese.

Drinking water on the road

When traveling we pretty much drink and eat as locals do although as vegetarians we don't eat meat or fish. In particular I take my cues from cleanly dressed ladies when it comes to selecting food stalls, restaurants, or street vendors. The fact we are vegetarians and we travel with Ciproflaxin for major episodes and a Chinese medication for minor upsets makes us pretty liberal with food and drink.

For water, we drink tap water from the hotel if the locals say they drink the town's tap water, and we almost always use tap water for brushing teeth. When tap water is considered non-potable, we get or boil our own water (as in China), get filtered water from hotel (pretty rare), fill from hotel's water cooler (not very often), or buy water as a last resort in order to cut down on the amount plastic we use. Our family mule not only goes through a lot of feed, he can drink a lot of water each day. When we do buy water, we buy the largest size bottle we can comfortably handle. For this trip, we have been able to get 5-liter bottles in Ecuador and 5-liter bags in Colombia, which we decant into our two, 1-liter nalgene bottles: one wide-mouth and one narrow-mouth. We also carry 2 small metal mugs.

Our strategy has worked pretty well in general, except John got parasites in Burma which he got over by himself. In fact he did not even know he had them until well after he was all better. I got parasites in Nepal which took me a while to diagnose and had to take medication.

This trip we have been doing well so far. We have been mostly over 2000m (7000ft). It is either sunny and dry or cold and wet, not very conducive for bacteria growth. Besides, boiling water does not help as much, since water boils at lower temperatures. We can even tell just from drinking boiling hot coffee which seems to be "ready to drink". Even at lower altitudes I suspect people are pretty apt to use pesticides. Lastly the population density in the New World is not same as the Old World; that makes everything better.

Zhenyuan

We arrived in Zhenyuan immediately following Sisters' Rice Festival. Zhenyuan seemed like the opposite from the festival: plenty of comfortable lodging, quiet, beautiful setting...

We decided to stay for a few days, while Sun-Ling tried to sleep off her cold.

Sun-Ling resting on our hotel room's balcony. That's an historic group of temples across the way.


Sun-ling not resting but walking along the old city wall, refered to locally as the Miao Great Wall of China.


The old quarter in foreground and newer, but still old, quarter at back.


The old bridge on a foggy morning.


Shrine to Grandfather Earth.

The Vegetarian and the Water Buffalo

You would think that a water buffalo and vegetarian could become good friends. But no. The water buffalo in the left foreground below, head butted me in the side of my left knee just a few seconds after I took the pic. Ouch! He knocked me on my butt, dirtied my clothes, and left me scratching my head. Three days later my knee is still a bit tender and Sun-Ling is keeping a watchful eye on me.




A few more photos from the Yangdi to Xingping hike which crosses the Li River three times. The third crossing is at the famous Nine Horses Mountain.

Looking downstream.


Nine Horses Mountain


Just the two of us.

Impressions from Burma

Most of the sights in Burma are not that spectacular in themselves. It
is the encounters along the way that fascinate us, take us by
surprise, touch our hearts, and put us in awe.

In the 11th century King Anawrahta set out to make Burma the center of
Theravada Buddhism. This is still very much evident today. We have
seen more buddhas and stupas in than our whole lifetimes' combined,
not even counting those we pass by en route.

The Burmese are a gentle people. They work hard, and unlike the
Chinese, they know when to stop. This makes it pleasant and easy to
travel here. Relative to the level of development, there are
comparatively few thefts, scams, begging, and peddling, except for the
painting and postcard peddlers in Bagan.

For the level of development, or the lack of, we consider Burma clean,
though it has a fair amount of trash. Toilets do not smell (this is
huge for Sun-Ling); trash is gathered and burned, largely at the
individual level; horse carts wear diapers in town. The Burmese are
clean. Men, women, and children, can be seen at every body of water,
at all times of the day, bathing, doing laundry, and scrubbing
sandals.

We would be lying if we said Burma has no roads and no electricity,
but it would not be that far from the truth. Without a doubt that
responsibility lies with the government. Nevertheless it makes us
wonder why the UN has to build foot bridges in villages where people
are goldfoiling buddhas beyond recognition in fantastic temples.

By the 3rd week we have lost most of the weight we have gained in
Shanghai over the past two years. If it were not for antibiotics, we
could have died too.

We are now trying to work Burma in for our trans- Eurasia trip next year.