Okay, so it’s a bit late, but it took a while to get used to the new photo gallery. In any case, we took this class while on break in Chengdu, China. We made five dishes, but I think only these three are worth posting. Click below on the name of the recipe you would like to see step by step photos with instructions. In order to see all the instructions, make sure you click “detail” at the bottom right hand of the screen. This pretty much goes for the whole photo gallery if you want to see the full descriptions of the images.

Sweet and Sour Porkloin.

Kung Pao Chicken.

Spicy Eggplant (aka Fish Flavor).

So after Chengdu we hopped on an early morning bus to Chongqing. We had several hours to kill, in Chongqing, before boarding our Yangtze River cruise boat. So we checked out the Chongqing cuisine (delicious of course!) and lounged around the local internet cafe. At 8pm we finally boarded our cruise boat - the “S.S. Piece of Shit.” - Note to self: Never go budget on a Chinese cruise boat.
The boat was basically a floating piece of shit!. Disgusting room, the carpet was filthy - never cleaned, full of dirt and dried spit. The beddings had mold, therefore never washed (thank God for our sleeping bags and sleep sheets!). Our tiny bathroom was a combo squat toilet room slash shower facility, so showering required spreading our legs over the squatter. Since we had a bunk mate, for needed privacy we changed inside the tiny bathroom, praying that nothing fell inside the squat pot (Unfortunately Yvonne’s underwear fell in while she was changing - yuck, major heebie jeebies). My immediate thought - Why are we spending 2 1/2 days on this boat? Oh yeah right to see the spectacular Three Gorges!
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Not so impressive these Three Gorges. The scenery is not that spectacular. It didn’t help that we were on board with 100’s of loud, obnoxious Mainland Chinese tourists, who would use the Yangtze as their personal trash can. Done with that cup of noodle? No problem just toss it into the river. Finished blowing your nose? No problem just chuck your snot rag away. The Yangtze can be best described as a large trash dumpster.
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There’s more but I’d rather not get into a long, exhausting rant about the frustrating sequence of events. Basically the Yangtze was not a pleasant trip, and even not so pleasant getting dicked around from a travel agent who arranged our train tickets “No Problem” to Guangzhou. Needless to say we’re so happy to be in civilization- Hong Kong. Oh man such a contrast to Mainland China! Clean public restrooms, no one spits, everyone queues up in line, polite and well-mannered people. “Calgon - Take me Away!!”
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Like Yvonne said we’re basically chilling out in Hong Kong (the city where we first met) and having a great time hanging out with friends and Yvonne’s cousins. And of course, we’re eating the fantastic food out here! My wish list of eating congee and wonton noodle soup, in Central, was immediately fulfilled (it’s not the same outside of Hong Kong!) - so delicious! We also met our Dutch friends, Joep and Carola, again in Hong Kong. Yvonne being the willing tour guide, showing them the sites and introducing them to Cantonese cuisine. (A brave Joep tried the chicken feet during dim sum). I dragged everyone to my favorite congee house two days in a row (gotta get my fix before we leave HK!). Anyway, it’s all about the food so we’ll be in glutony heaven for several more days. (Today, I have a craving for pig’s blood jello and pig’s intestine, from this restaurant Yvonne’s cousin took us to. It may sound disgusting to most of you, but it’s sssooooo delicious!!).
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We’ll take off to Taipei on Friday and see another old friend of ours, then return to HK on Monday morning. Monday evening we’ll take a train into China - again. I know - we’re sadistic, but our China multi-entry visa had expired, therefore our stay in Hong Kong, but we can re-enter China with no problems. We’ll finish seeing Southern China (we’re making it a point to avoid the major tourist sites), then cross overland into Vietnam.

Pictures to follow shortly

We’re in the capital of Sichuan - Chengdu. Despite Chengdu’s population of 11 million people, it’s a surprisingly managable place to wander around. It’s not so hustle and bustle compared to Beijing or Shanghai. Chengdu citizens walk at a slower, care free pace than their eastern counterparts. Taxi drivers (still crazy) actually obey the traffic signals, stopping at a red light before making a right turn! And there’s little harrasment from the local vendors. It feels somewhat civilized out here: We’ve actually had people wait for us pass on a narrow walkway (no barreling through necessary!); been greeted with similing faces from complete strangers; and I’ve also noticed less spitting and snot rocketeering out here. By no means is Chengdu a perfect place, but it’s been more pleasant than the other cities we’ve visited.
- While in Chengdu, we’ve had to change hotel rooms twice in three nights. We changed rooms the first night due to a falty air-conditioner (it’s fairly humid out here). The second night went without any complications, although we can hear rats scurrying outside. Well on night three we actually had the nocturnal creatures in our room - adios time to go. Too bad, the hotel was actually clean and nice, and it’s enclosed within a pleasant courtyard and garden. However, due to our room’s lush location it makes a nice hiding place for rats. Our hotel was able to give us a room at their annex down the street. So now we’re on the 5th floor of a modern building (the place has a kitchen Yvonne’s been cooking away!), so I don’t think we’ll have Mickey visiting us any more.
- We took a side trip to visit the Panda bears. Very adorable creatures, they’re so dopey and lazy (reminds me of a couple of friends of mine) - all they do is munch on bamboo and sleep all day. We were able to see a baby Panda behind an observation window - so tiny! The little cub could easily fit in the palm of my hand. There were also Red Pandas? Very weird - they look like racoons but have that same dopey face as the black and white Panda’s.
- We took another side trip to visit the largest Buddha statue in the world. It’s huge, the Buddha stands 71 meters tall (approx. 232 feet!!). The Buddha’s large toe alone is 8 meters long. Anyway, another place amongst the hordes of obnoxious Chinese tourists.
- Sichuan is famous for it’s spicy cuisine. The Sichuanese really know how to spice things up. Wow!! the food is a tongue killer! My Korean taste buds can only take so much!! The red chili peppers aren’t so bad, but it’s the Sichuan peppercorn that’s a killer. The pepper actually numbs the tongue and mouth. Keep eating and things eventually build up to an untolerable level. During a Sichuan meal, you can probably bitch slap me and I won’t feel a thing. There’s not a sufficient amount of beer that can cool down my tongue.
- Sichuan is also famous for it’s teahouses. They’re especially all over Chengdu. Great open courtyard spaces all over the city. Nothing like sipping a hot cup of tea amongst a pleasant garden setting…Aaahhhh!
- We’ll be in Chengdu until the 6th, afterwards take a bus to Chongqing, where we’ll hop on a boat and cruise down the Yangtze River for 3 days. Afterwards we’re Hong Kong bound, our intended arrival date of the 11th -yeah civilization!!

Pictures to follow shortly

Before we started our travels I thought I would adopt the mantra “It’s easier being critical than understanding”…. Whatever. That flew out the window after Russia.
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In China, it’s estimated that over 300 people are killed daily in a vehicle accident. China has less cars than the U.S., yet a significantly larger vehicle fatality rate. Sadly we’ve already seen 2 motorcycle fatalities.
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Mandarin phrases I’m constantly repeating:
“Wo Bu Yao” (No thanks)
“Yo Lah” (I have…) for example “Do you need a hotel room?” - “Yo Lah” (I have… a room)
“Duoshao quian” (How much is it?)
“Tai Guile-lur” (That’s too expensive)
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Taking a hint or no for an answer doesn’t apply in China. Politely repeating “Wo Bu Yao” and “Yo Lah” to the same soliciting person, is a test of my patience. Especially when they’re right in my face and walking along my side . I usually give the person 3 attempts to lay off. When attempt number 4 comes around it’s time to scream “Bu Yao!” or “Yo Lah!” directly into the person’s face. If they really piss me off the English obsenities fly out of my mouth (the Chinese obsenity is used as a last ditch resort, I’ve only had to curse in Mandarin once). Usually they back off. I cringe everytime we exit a train or long distance bus station. The cab drivers, hotel workers, map sellers etc.. congregate toward us like flies on shit. I wish I could swat them.
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Due to China’s one child policy, the system of addressing your Aunt or Uncle in Chinese will be virtually eliminated. In China, there’s a specific way to address your parents older or younger siblings. Since Chinese kids are growing up with no siblings, future generations will have no one to call Aunt or Uncle.
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Speaking of China’s one child policy. It’s unbelievable how spoiled and undisciplined the kids have become. The “precious” only child is treated like a little emperor or empress. There’s no effort to scold or teach a child what’s right or wrong (anyway, I can’t figure what’s right or wrong in this country). Kids free to roam around whenever and where ever they prefer. Nothing like hearing a screaming kid running down the hallway of a sleeper train, at 5 am in the morning, and the parents doing absolutely nothing! Who cares if everyone else is sleeping, the “precious” emperor has awoken and damn it he’s gonna do what he pleases! I guess I’m not helping the situation, thanks to me many kids in China have learned their first English words - “SHUT UP!” Oh well so much for being a role model.

We’re back in Lijiang after spending a couple of days in Dali. We wanted to visit Tiger Leaping Gorge (don’t you love the name?), but my blister wasn’t healing anytime soon, so a three day hike was out of the question. Instead we opted for a 4 hour bus ride to Dali (beautiful scenery between Lijiang and Dali. Miles and miles of rice patty fields with these beautiful lushed, terraced hills in the background).
Turns out our friends, Carola and Joep, would also be in Dali. Via e-mail we arranged to meet and stay at their hotel, the Friend’s Guesthouse. A nice reunion after being separated for a short time.
Upon our arrival to Dali, we decided (among the 4 of us) to take a drive around the nearby lake and local villages. It’s about 150 km to circle the entire lake. We arranged a driver, for the following day, through the Tibetan Cafe.
Our driver - nice guy and honest. It’s rare with these drivers. Usually when hiring a driver there’s always a catch. You’ll be taken to your planned destination, but somewhere along the way they’ll start pushing other side trips - “…by the way this place is along the way..” Keep in mind nothing is ever free in China. The magic question to ask is “How much?” - it’s always expensive and in most cases we refuse. Even after saying NO several times, the insistent driver will prod several times hoping we’ll give in - it can be quite annoying. Since the guy is driving and in control, not a good idea to lose your temper. The only thing to do is pray that the driver will keep his mouth shut and not mention any more side trips. Throughout China, especially in Tibet, we had experienced this scenario one too many times. Thankfully, our Dali driver just did his job - driving. He even acted as local tour guide, explaining such things as: the local area; the interesting looking wild vegetables and nuts; the local people etc… He never pushed any side trips on us - amazing! In appreciation we asked him to join us for lunch and gave him a nice tip at days end.
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We, the four of us again, decided to take a Tai Chi lesson the following morning. Instead of being a one hour lesson, our passionate instructor stretched the lesson into two hours. A nice old man who would demonstrate these graceful, slow movements (he also couldn’t help burst out laughing at our pathetic attempts to repeat his movements). All great fun. Man - Tai Chi is very difficult, these slow, deliberate moves really work out the muscles. My body is still pretty sore.
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Dali has it’s similarities to Old Town Lijiang: cobblestone streets; canals’; cafes to chillout and relax.. quite the backpackers hangout, except it’s missing Lijiang’s charming narrow streets. What’s especially nice about these narrow streets, not a motorized vehicle in site. One can walk around without worrying about some psycho running you over. It’s also nice not hearing a car horn blaring off every 5 seconds.
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We’re spending one more night in Lijiang, then we’ll fly back to Chengdu and hang out there for a week. We’re using Chengdu as a base during the first week of October. This is suppose to be the busiest travel period throughout the ENTIRE country. October 1st is China’s independance day and apparantly it’s a full on Chinese tourist rampage. So to avoid any loss of our sanity we’ll stay put in Chengdu until the storm clears.
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Click on image below for pictures of these areas.

- We’re in the town of Lijiang. We’re staying in the old part of town, a quaint area with narrow cobblestone streets, canals and pedestrian bridges. Lijiang seems like a nice place to chill out for a while, I’m in need of a much needed break after hiking around Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong . We were planning on going to the city of Dali, but thanks to this painful blister on my toe, I need to lay off my feet for a while.
- Speaking of Juizhaigou and Huanglong these are the cleanest National Parks I’ve ever visited - in the entire world. No joke, both places really frown on littering and stress throwing rubbish away in a trash can. I just wish the rest of China would follow suit. It’s frustrating seeing trash thrown out of a moving train or tossed on the ground as if littering were not a big deal. Also, the buses at Juizhaigou are runned on clean burning fuel. I commend the park officials for keeping the water crystal clear and the skies blue!
- Another plus to Juizhaigou and Huanglong, tour guides are not allowed to carry megaphones! Chalk another one up for the park officials for reducing noise pollution. Chinese tourists are still loud, but at least we don’t have to hear the chorus of megaphones polluting the airwaves.
- We found out Lijiang has a restaurant that serves Korean food! After eating Chinese food for over 3 months, words cannot express how happy I was to eat for lunch: a bowl of Dol Sot Be Bim Bap (a typical Korean dish consisting of: a fried egg; meat; vegetables; hot sauce; and rice - all mixed together and served in a sizzling iron bowl which makes the rice nice and crunchy); Kim Chee (spicy fermented cabbage). In the evening, I needed another Korean fix, so for dinner we had: Kim Chee Bokum Bap (Kim Chee Fried Rice) and Hae Mul Panjeon (A seafood/green onion/egg pancake). Today I reached Nirvana! However, Yvonne doesn’t find my garlicky breath to be so spiritual.
- The great thing about traveling, is the people you meet along the way. We’re pleased to have met our new Dutch friends, Joep and Carola, out here in China. (Don’t worry Shelley we still love you).
- I told Joep and Carola to visit us in L.A. (whenever we get back). I asked Joep if he likes dogs. He gave me a weird look and answered with a not so confident “Yes, I like dogs.” He was relieved to find out I was only mentioning our pet dogs instead of food.
- Prostituion or whoring (as I seen it referred to in a hotel info. book as an annoyance) is quite rampant out here. If you stay in a budget hotel (3 stars or less) in China, you’re guaranteed to get a phone call in the middle of the night asking if “you want a massage.” What’s worse is getting a knock on your door from a prostitute. At the crappy hotel in Juizhigou, a startled Joep and Carola got a loud bang on their door. Wisely they did not open the door. Doesn’t matter if you single or coupled up, you’ll still get a phone call or a knock on the door from a desperate prostitute.
- At our hotel in Xi’an we noticed the A/C was not working (even with a remote control in our possession) and asked to have it fixed. Can you guess the answer? You guessed it! “…since the weather is fine, we feel you don’t need the air-conditioner so we turned it off.” (The hotel had specific access to our air-conditioner from the lobby!) But a pleading Yvonne managed to have it turned on. No screaming and yelling necessary in this situation. In this case, the customer was number one.

To see pictures click on image below.

The Dragon Hostel turned out to be quite nice. It was the first time we staying in a place that actually felt like China. It’s located in one of these neighborhoods full of courtyard houses, the Dragon Hostel being one of them. Our private bathroom was out on our balcony. Very nice and clean. Worth a stay.

While in Chengdu we ran into a Dutch couple that we previously met on the bus to the Terra Cotta Warriors. We were at Sam’s Guesthouse’s office in the midst of purchasing our plane tickets for Jiuzhaigou and Lijiang. It turned out that they were thinking of going to Jiuzhaigou as well. So after some pitching of the place, including postcard photos, they decided to come as well. Next morning before the crack of dawn, Carola, Joep, Eddy and I were on a shuttle to the airport. Before arriving you can see these amazing mountain peaks jutting out through the clouds. Great beginning. Nothing like a sunrise in the sky.

We decided after much searching our cheapest option from the airport was to buy the 90 yuan per person airport transportation that will take us to Huanglong, wait for us to finish walking around, and then take us to Jiuzhaigou that afternoon. It worked out pretty well, it was only the four of us in the minivan. Unfortunately, Joep had not been sleeping so well the past few days and the winding roads to Huanglong did not help, he was not in the best of shape when we arrived. But like a good trooper, he went for the 4 or so hour round trip walk in the park. Huanglong is at 3,553 meters above sea level, almost as high as Lhasa. So we all had a slower walk then usual. I have to say, this has been my favorite natural site yet, even with the heavy sticker price of 200 yuan a person. The terraced pools of blues and greens took my breath away. Gorgeous! By the time we finished, Joep was ready to pass out from: the elevation; his lack of rest; and the motion sickness of the car ride.

Fortunately, Jiuzhaigou is much lower in elevation and Joep seemed quite recovered by the time we had dinner. The hotel Carola and Joep’s friends had recommended did not have rooms, but our driver had recommended a place just a few doors down. Although the bathrooms seemed a bit gross, we decided to stay since we were all tired and didn’t know how much searching we would have to do. It turned out to be quite the bad choice. One of the rooms, the toilet was smeared with shit stains and the toilet did not work. After looking at two more rooms, one was decided as acceptable if they came to clean the bathroom. Of course this never happened. So after one night, we decided (even though we paid) to find another hotel and hope to get our money back. The Jiu Zhai Garden Hotel, which is where we had originally wanted to stay had rooms that day, so we went back to our hotel, took our things and just told them we’re leaving and wanted our money back. Initially they said no, but after a bit of complaining about the nasty bathrooms and not cleaning them, they relented. Yeah! Freedom from shit stains! All four of us let out a breath of relief as we stepped out of that nasty hotel!

With this heavy burden lifted, we went for our first day in the Jiuzhaigou park. Our pal, Shelley had told us that there was no need to buy the bus tickets , because the park assumes everyone buys a bus ticket so they’ll never check. We thought hell let’s try to save 90 yuan person by not purchasing these tickets. The entrance fee alone was 220 yuan per person. At this point we’ve been in China for over two months paying these crazy fees everywhere we’ve gone. So we thought this is our chance to beat the system, we’re going to do it damn it. Upon entering the park, it seemed everbody getting on the buses had their tickets out, the bus ticket is double the size of the admission ticket it’s pretty obvious when you don’t have one. Plus it was our first day, we instead decided to walk to the halfway point of the park. Let me just go over the distances one would have to cover by foot in order to see this park. The path basically looks like a ‘Y’. The entrance at the base of the ‘Y’ to the fork is 14.5 KM. Then each of the forks are 18 KM each one way. So added all together it would be about 103 KM to walk the whole thing. Insanity unless you stay there illegally in the villages. So we did the 14.5 KM the first day uphill. Dead tired but enjoyed every step, not a soul in site until you reached one of the major sites. At this point we decide it would be safe to hop on the bus to see the right fork, as recommended by Shelley as being worthwhile. No one checked for our bus ticket. Yeah! Victory! We all have huge grins on our faces as we’re pretty beat by the long walk. We get to the end of the right fork around 3 PM and hear this guy screaming that it’s time to board the last bus. We hadn’t checked when the park closed and none of us wanted to be stuck walking the 18 KM plus the 14.5 KM back to the park entrance so we hopped on and just basically saw this portion of the park via the bus. It turns out the park does not close until 6 PM and the buses don’t stop running until then. Oh well! We were tired anyway. Went to check at the Sheraton to see if we could get a cold beer. Yes, but at an extremely high price. So we decided to head back to the hotel and look for food around there.

On the way, I asked the taxi driver if he knows of a restaurant we could get a cold beer at, he said he did, so I asked him to take us there instead. It happened to only be across the street from our hotel. Yeah! The taxi driver asked the restaurant manager if we could get cold beer and the manager said he could do it. I didn’t think much of this comment until the waiter said we would have to wait half an hour for our cold beers! By then we had already ordered food and started eating some of the dishes. Ugh! Then we asked for rice, sorry you’ll have to wait about 10 minutes. What Chinese restaurant does not have RICE ready and waiting!?!

Next day, we thought okay, we’ll be at the park when it opens so we can see both forks of the path at a leisurely pace. MISTAKE! There are no tour groups arriving early to crowd the bus lines, we were hoping to blend in and be ignored. We tried anyway, but was asked to see our bus tickets, so I pretended to only speak english and was looking for directions to the walking path. Ugh! We are now faced with walking the same path to the next bus stop that will have loads of tourist. This did not happen until we got to the second village, we think maybe 10 or 12 KM from the entrance. Needless to say all four of us we only walking just to get to the bus stop, not really enjoying ourselves, pretty much wondering why we were so cheap to begin with. Ha! The Chinese have their revenge. Anyway, we get on the crowded bus and surprised to be on the one going to the left fork. We thought great. We’ll see both sides. At the top it is tourist hell. We all rejected trying to see the other side and just walk this side at a leisurely pace and avoid the tourist. Unfortunately at this point none of us really knew how far we had to walk. This left fork only has one bus stop at the end and no stops until the junction which is 18 KM downhill. Plus it poured rain on us the first 1.5 KM before we found shelter. We actually made it to the junction in time to catch a bus down and finished the park having avoided buying the bus ticket, but paid dearly with soar feet and legs. That night we indulged ourselves at the pricey Sheraton buffet and even ordered very expensive cold beer and drinks. We all walked quite strangely that evening.

You know I haven’t even described the place. It was beautifully forested with immense pools of blue water and hundreds of waterfalls. The blue at some places was so intense, it seemed fake. Well worth a visit. Of all the water scenery so far, these two places really are unique and stunning.

We decided since we splurged to fly up there, we would take the bus back to Chengdu. Beautiful drive, gorgeous mountains the whole way. We had a see-you-later dinner with Carola and Joep and went to the airport to come to Lijiang (We plan to see them for a couple of days in Hong Kong). We are now here recovering for a few days. Eddy’s got a nasty toe blister. Our next destination is a three day hike in the Tiger Leaping Gorge.

To see pictures click on image below.

We’ve arrived in Chengdu at 5:20 AM. It’s still dark and the receptionist will not be available until 9 AM, not to mention our room will not be ready until some time after 12 PM. The people here at Dragon Town Hostel have been nice enough to wake the chef and we are now awaiting an American breakfast. Bacon and all. They even had two full pages of coffee choices. Can’t wait. To top it all off, they’ve got a computer with free internet access, at least they haven’t asked us to pay yet. I’m sure Eddy will let you know how this goes…

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Dinner we had later that night.

Last night in Xian waiting out the rain before attempting to find a cab to take us back to our hotel. Let’s talk about whether I am having a good time here in the land of my birthplace. Not really. Part of me wishes I spoke better Mandarin so I could express myself more fully, especially when agitated. Unfortunately, I have only learned enough to date to get us from point A to B.

For example, on the train back from Luoyang, our jumping off point for Shaolin Temple, I was so fortunate as to be seated next to a young mother and her precious son. After maybe about 3 hours of being shoved and kicked by the both of them I could only muster up enough Chinese to say to her, “Sorry, but could you and your son please stay on your two seats.” How I would of liked to a bit more sarcastic and to the point. That’s the problem of only knowing only travel lingo. The subtlety of the language is just not there, not to mention my lack of vocabulary. I would much more have preferred to say something along the lines of, “I’m sorry but did you actually buy 2.5 tickets because so far I’ve only had half a seat.” Or maybe “Does 1.5 persons actually need 2.5 seats?” Whatever, those are not the greatest example but you know what I am getting at.

It’s still raining, so you’ll have to bear with me. Xian is one of the most ill planned cities yet. It is surrounded by what looks like a fairly new wall with only about 8 openings. This wall surrounds the city center, basically downtown. This is a city of 7 million people! Can you imagine LA county’s city center only having 8 outlets? Does that not sound like congestion hell? Sorry if there are those of you that are not familiar with LA, but most people have heard of our traffic problems. We definitely have more than eight street openings out of downtown and we are considered one of the worst traffic areas in the world. Can you imagine this large city only having 8 street access points, all on what we would consider local streets, not highways or freeways. Getting around has not been easy or fun. Luckily we are staying within the walls and anywhere we are likely to go are also within these walls, but the few times we’ve had to leave has not been pleasant. Although I have to say it’s not nearly as bad as the congestion we experienced in Athens. So perhaps it’s not horrible as far as the world is concerned, but not great as far as Chinese cities go.

Okay, enough babbling. I will leave off with that. Thanks for your kind attention. Adios!