Naraita city layover

I had a one day layover in Japan before I could catch my flight home (poor planning on my part). What could have been sheer boredom in Narita city ended up being one of the best days of my trip. Turns out the the monk who runs the local temple is the coolest guy on the planet. He booked an 17 piece experimental/jazz/rock/funkadelic/punk/gypsy band to play under the pagoda at his temple!!! Some of the highlights:

• singer who danced like james brown and only wore red thongs and an open shirt


• interpretive dancers who could have been from a tool video


• theremin solo!


• planes flying overhead every few minutes


• the band marching off the stage into the crowd to play!


• 2 and half hours of sweaty non stop dancing

Even with all the shows I have seen over the years, this still makes the top 5 list (and I have seen a lot of shows).

Last night in China: best restaurant ever!

I was a bit sad because the huge gallery district that I had saved for
my last day was closed. I had to take the subway and a cab ride only
to find out that ALL the 50 plus galleries close on Monday. I decided
that I would treat myself to a fancy meal to cheer myself up. The
super cool Australian guy I made friends with got 5 of the girls from
the hostel to come with us. I picked this gourmet veg restaurant
called Pure Lotus that is run by monks. It took forever to find, but
when you show up there are men with lanterns waiting for you. As they
guide you to the restaurant women come out and clean your hands with
rose water. The door into the place is literally ten feet wide. We got
a private room for free because there were so many of us. The menus
are works of art: 5 inches wide and about two feet long. All of the
foods have poetry and phrases instead of names, so it is impossible to
know what the heck you are ordering. Our plates were giant oyster
shells and the place mats were real lotus leaves. We were all in awe
during the entire meal. The presentation, ambiance, and food were just
staggering. As you leave they hand you a beautiful purple lotus. I
doubt I will ever have a dining experience like that for the rest of
my life. Way to say goodbye China!

sorry the pics are bad. the room was very dark.

Hiking the Great Wall

The part of the great wall that most tourists go to has been completely rebuilt by the government. It is a total Chinese tourist zoo. I didn't want to deal that so I booked a tour of the wall that was three hours out of the city. It was a perfect day with a bright blue sky and just enough fluffy clouds to keep the sun from frying me. In all I hiked on 22 of the walls towers. They have not been renovated so may of the stones are missing and the wall is falling apart. It is also is incredibly steep going up and down. I thought my heart was going to burst a few times. Crazy old Mongolians follow you the entire way trying to sell you "water coke beer". That is all they know how to say in English. I don't know how they do it all day with out keeling over and dying.  The great wall by far exceeded my expectations. I can't think of a better way to end my trip than hiking on such an epic piece of history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

summer palace

When it got too hot in the forbidden city the emperor went to chill out at the summer palace. A huge compound surrounding a beautiful lake, this place is the opposite of the busy city. Cool breezes, willow trees, and boats shaped like dragons. I only planned to spend an hour or so but ended up walking around the entire lake. It must have been good to be the emperor

The park by my hostel is famous for being the sight where the last Ming emperor hung himself. For some reason it is filled with stupid animatronic dinosaurs. I have no idea why.

Buddhas and Guns

Lama Temple-

I have never seen or smelled so much incense burned. People burn huge boxes in front of each alter. They have a three story tall Buddha that was carved from one sandle wood tree!!! It is in the Guinness book of world records. I couldn't get a picture of it (no photography allowed, the monks get mad). I kept getting the feeling that it was going to start walking around like the marshmallow man in Ghostbusters. I think it might be the best Buddha I have ever seen.

 

Military Museum-

How the  lonely planet left out a four story building full of guns, bombs, tanks, and giant concrete propaganda statues is beyond me. China is a major military power and one walk through this place makes it very clear. Not a place to missed.

Out and about in Beijing

Beijing is exhausting. Everything seems to be a kilometer or two walk away from each other and with heat pushing the 100's everyday it has been brutal. There's tons of cool stuff here though. 

I spent half a day at the Forbidden city. It is sooo huge. It was jammed packed with Chinese tourist so I am lucky that I made it without choking a tour group or two. So pushy and rude.Hung out in Tienaman square. Very underwhelming. It looks much cooler at night when they light up the giant picture of Mao. There is a huge spaceship like performance hall that they call the "egg". It is spectactuclar at night. When you walk around it you feel like you are on another planet.

I woke up really early to see Mao under glass at his mausoleum. The line wrapped twice around the building. I heard that people cried and fainted when they saw him but they all seemed pretty happy to me. His body looked fake. Ho Chi Mihn was much cooler. I went to a crappy natural history museum. It clearly hadn't been updated since the early 90's. They did have a bunch of body parts and fetuses on display (which i liked) and a bunch of bugs (some were alive in cages!), but over all not really worth my time.

The Heaven Park was about a kilometer away. That was much better. Beautiful temples and lots of 400 year old trees. Not too many tourists and some traditional opera being performed by a small group.