lingering intro

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bangkok, december 22-23

We flew back to Bangkok, eager to see the new hotel called Reflections that Madhavi had just discovered and booked the day before. We arrived and were totally enamored by this place. It is a super hip kaleidoscopically funky pink oasis of 30 totally unique rooms, each with its own bizarre theme. We chose Bohemian Rhapsody for our first night. See the picture to the right and others.

We headed out to casually discover this new neighborhood, which surrounded the Ari Sky Train stop. It was middle class with endless street food and a couple nice alleys where we met shopkeepers who were so nice – they kept giving us oranges and offering us their stool seats. We went to Siam Square, where we exited the L-train into a super-high-end mall that was as depressing in Thailand as it would be in the U.S.. Got out of there quick, eventually saw Jim Thompson’s House.
Mr. Thompson was an American who settled in Thailand after WWII, discovered the small native Thai silk industry and made it world-famous, before disappearing mysteriously in Malaysia in 1967; he is the country’s most famous “farang”, which means foreigner, and his house is now a museum. The most interesting thing we saw there was a multimedia contemporary art exhibit created by a local Thai-Indian artist celebrating Mr. Thompson’s 100th birthday. The main event was a large mural of eclectic chaotic Bangkok – it included stoned kids huffing stuff from small bags, a guy diving into a moving bus totally naked with his entire lower half hanging out of the window, all behind a life-size sidewalk lined with life-like garbage.

We wandered around a canal street and saw the life of ordinary working class people, living in tin-roofed homes in tiny rooms, women doing each other’s hair/watching a small TV/preparing skewers for dinner, men gathering in a dim dusty subterranean bar drinking beer and laughing around a rickety wooden table. This was no different from similar scenes we’ve witnessed in other countries on other continents – it’s the way many people, poor not desperately poor, seem to live in cities throughout the world. We walked up a few steps from the canal to the busy city street and were transported ahead 50 years and several social strata. I think we each felt like going back downstairs for a little while longer though.

But the truth is (not trying to be ironic) we didn’t have time because we had plans for dinner at Cy’an in the Metropolitan hotel, a sleek modern cyan blue restaurant headed up by an Australian chef serving mostly Mediterranean-influenced food. We sat on the veranda on another perfectly temperate night, had brightly colored cocktails, and savored a sublime goat cheese tortellini with giant prawns, pine nuts, and raisins, among other delicious dishes, paying literally 100 times what we had paid on other nights for street food. This was non-Thai and unabashedly indulgent, but in the international magnet metropolis of Bangkok it somehow felt OK. I want to randomly say right now that Thais revere their king quite passionately - see one of the pictures in the Thailand link.

The next day we moved into the Graffiti room, which was even more interesting and weird – again, see the pics. We saw the Temple of the Emerald Buddha – see several pictures including the window-like shot in the first Bangkok entry. We shopped for cheap knock-off name-brand jeans at the 8000-shop Chatuchak outdoor market - a truly disorienting experience. We came back to relax at the colorful hotel pool before yet another Thai massage: I don’t quite remember why I asked for more punishment but it was even more aggressive the second time around with the male masseuse squeezing my pain fibers into overdrive while intermittently walking or sitting on various body parts. Madhavi and Srini had better experiences, though.

(As an aside I should say if our experience in Thailand sounds ridiculously touristy and unauthentic, it’s because it was. No two ways about it, even if we tried to veer off that path a few times. But this was the vacation phase, more so than China. India, Iran, and most of the rest will have a different flavor. Not that I’m apologizing - it was great, especially with Srini joining the party.)

Finally Madh and I were off to the airport at midnight for our 2:40AM flight to India. Got there to find out our Air India flight had been re-scheduled for hours later and was delayed hours beyond that – no surprise to you Indians out there. We caught a cab back to the hotel, and the 30-minute ride back was simply classic – it’s best described in person but I’ll try to convey it in words. The driver spoke English pretty well but comprehension was another matter; he also happened to be very friendly and talkative, actually fitting the “I love Farangs” sticker that adorns all the cabs at the airport. “Hello, hello! Welcome to Bangkok! First time in Thailand?” ///”Thank you.
Not really our first time. You see, we’ve been in Thailand for a week and we just came to the airport to leave, but our flight is delayed, so we’re going back to our hotel for only a few hours” ///”OK, OK, where you going in Thailand - Phuket, Chiang Mai, or Bangkok only?” At this point we could have just gone along; it was 1AM and we were exhausted, but we really felt badly that he didn’t understand so we tried again. I sat up in my seat and spoke in slower and intentionally broken English: “No sir, we already in Thailand one week, tonight we come to airport and airplane no going now, airplane late, going in morning, so we wait at hotel…..” /// “Ahhhhhh, OK, OK: so you from America, where she from!?” So for 30 minutes he proceeded to tell us about all the things we should do during our upcoming week in Thailand, much of which of course we had already done. It was splendid, couldn’t script it better.

In the end this was obviously completely our fault. We had a guidebook with maybe 50 useful Thai words but we didn’t bother carrying a Thai-English dictionary, the pathetic Americans that we are. Anyway, the rest of the 26-hour trip to India (supposed to be ~6 hours) will be told next time.

chiang mai, thailand, december 19-21

Our time in Thailand was short so we did not quite get off the beaten path. But, we did head up north instead of heading off to the beaches. Chiang Mai is Thailand's second largest city, less congested than Bangkok and less tall but definitely still large- three days did not do it justice. We arrived in peak season without a place to stay but ended up at a nice lodge at the edge of the Ping River.

Nima still had some work to do so Srini and I went for a long walk and wandered into the old town which is surrounded by somewhat intact walls with four entry gates. By the time we arrived, many of the small shops and stalls were closing so we headed back towards the eastern side of town and the Night Market. The Night Market is full of food and clothing stalls and tons of tourists but still a fun place to walk around. We grabbed Nima and went to the seafood market to pick some fish for dinner. It was steamed at our table in a steel pan with peppers and ginger. Food played a much larger role in this part of our trip with street noodles, Tom Yum soup, and seafood being staples of our diet. We walked along the market for a couple of hours after dinner before we crashed for the night.

We spent out second day about 50 km away at the Doi Inthanon National Park. On our way there we stopped at a beautiful Wat with a golden Chedi all in classic Thai buddhist architecture. The number of temples is amazing. They adorn many streets with small shrines on many corners and at the entry to many Thai homes.

Doi Inthanon is a large protected park leading up to the peak, the highest point in Thailand. The mountain, named after the last king of Chiang Mai, is the source of many rivers and therefore waterfalls. It is home to a variety of birds and animals as well as beautiful Rhododendrons. Before heading off on the Kaew Mae Pang Nature Trail we had a delicious meal of grilled chicken and sticky rice and tried to learn a few Thai words from the kind woman at the grill. The trail took us through a dense cloud forest for about and hour or so. We didn't see much of the wildlife but could hear it above and below us. Perhaps the most amazing part of the trail was the transition from the cloud forest to the mountain savannah. It was a sudden change, from tall evergreens to the brownish grasslands, dotted with only occasional trees- rhododendrons are in season and added bright burst of red to the landscape. The openness of the savannah over the next couple of km allowed us distant views of the valleys below, green and lush, dotted with villages. It was a beautiful walk and quite a breath of fresh air after the urban days of Bangkok and Chiang Mai.


Our last couple of hours at the park were spent at the Twin Chedis built in honor of the king and queen on their respective 60th birthdays. The Queen's chedi was a mosaic of beautiful purple tiles with a serene Buddha standing within. The grounds of both were beautifully landscaped. After a stop at the Vachiratharn Waterfall we headed back to the city. We had a nice dinner at the riverside and another relaxing night.

Our last day in Chiang Mai was our most fun. On the recommendation of our friends Jen and Scott we signed up for a one day course at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School. I wish we could have taken the full five days of lessons that they did, but our day was focused on Thai ingredients so we felt like we got a great introduction. The Master Chef Sompon Nabnian started the day with an explanation of herbs, sauces, and curry paste. We smelled and tasted three three types of basil, kaffir lime leaves, ginza, lemongrass, turmeric, fish sauce, and shrimp paste. Then we started cooking (and eating). Our cooking stations with large woks and gas flames were set up outside under the roof. Nima, Srini, and I were lined up on one side. Our first lesson was Tom Yum soup. Chef Sompon made it look easy and it definitely tuned out to be easier than we thought. But it was our introduction to rapid-fire cooking as we tried to add all the ingredients before the high flames burned the food. Srini's soup was the tastiest and the spiciest. Before each dish we were taken into the classroom and the chefs taught us the ingredients and we tasted their delicious examples. We raced to write down the recipes and order of the ingredients. In the end Srini's soup, Nima's Pad Thai, and my green curry could of made a fairly good meal. We enjoyed the food in the company of some nice people from the UK and New Zealand. We ate and ate, all day to the point where we couldn't entertain the thought of dinner. Luckily all of us have an extra dessert stomach so we could indulge in some chocolate later in the evening.

Our time in Chiang Mai was relaxing and tasty, even if it was a bit short.

bangkok, december 16-18

We arrive in Bangkok's very new international airport, an impressive hyper-industrial achievement that I photographed quite a bit. We chose our immigration/passport line very badly (totally my fault), so it was hours before we got to our street, Khao San Road. Khao San is quite a scene, with a teen/20-something hippie backpacker pop-cultured sea of people from all over the world (including Thais fortunately) roaming a quarter mile stretch of blocked-off pavement sporting Che and Diesel shirts, munching on street-cooked pad thai, listening to pretty good rock and dance tunes playing everywhere, and generally checking each other out. We entered and exited this stage many times over the next 3 days as our hotel, the D&D (another good suggestion by Pallavi - Madh's sister for those who don't know), was right in the heart of it.

Srini (Madhavi's brother for those who don't know) joined us the next day, which we mostly spent in the hotel's internet room pouring 10-baht coins into the computers every 20 minutes as we wrote our blog and I did some work on a painfully tedious project that I cursed myself with years ago. On day 3 we finally escaped Khao San and did some light touring of the town, happening upon some deliciously sweet samosas from a street vendor (we never could find her again). We randomly ended up on a public riverboat, just riding along and jumping off at a stop to find ourselves at the footsteps of the famous Oriental hotel. The hotel's facade is surprinsingly bland though the lobby is very elegant with a giant wall-window providing nice natural light and a view of the beautfully landscaped poolside. The smell of jasmine filled the air and orchids adorned every corner. Madhavi shook her head in disapproval and embarassment as I continued to shoot pics left and right - I was addicted to my (OK, our) new Canon Powershot G7, a very cool compact camera with SLR-like manual features; some of you may understand. We sat for drinks with the international super-rich; my "drink" was rum raisin ice cream swimming in espresso - mmmm.
We went back to our hotel for some Thai massage in a large open-air bamboo tent on the rooftop: $9/hour - I'm serious. We each had an hour and a half - Madhavi wisely chose an aromatherapy massage while Srini and I were assaulted by our masseuses in Thai style. Thai massage is all about point-pressuring or stretching every muscle to the verge of pain (or to actual pain). I'm exaggerating, of course, but it is scary at times and my little 95-pound masseuse giggled at her ability to make me squeal as she contorted my helpless body parts into previously unknown positions. You are more limber afterwards, no doubt.

That night we had our best Thai dining experience at Tongue Thai restaurant - good ambience and great tom yum soup, pad thai, and green curry. Srini had somehow skipped the whole jet lag phase and we were having a good time. Off to Chiang Mai the next day.

tiger leaping gorge, yunnan province, china, december 13-14

Madhavi and I were going to just do a one-day trip to Tiger Leaping Gorge, but Mama insisted that the part we would see was "no beautiful". "Here beautiful, here beautiful, here no beautiful," she said as she slammed her finger on the map that she had just mercilessly yanked from our hands. "OK Mama," we said in submission.

The next day we sat in Mama's courtyard for one of her absolutely scrumptious breakfasts - hot fresh perfectly fried eggs with thick steaming hot bread and these slightly grilled tomatoes with a never-before-tasted spice (fafooya or something?) that was out of this world; not to mention the wonderful standard hot banana pancakes extra sweet! We set out on a 2.5 hour minibus ride and our first extended time with Aiden and Danya (the Aussies) - our conversation spanned the Iraq War, U.S. and Australian treatment of immigrants, places to visit in Israel (they are Jewish), Persian history, etc.. It was a really good time.

We took off on the 40km hike around noon. Starting at 6500 feet, it was uphill, uphill, and more uphill all day long. Villagers on donkeys were set-up throughout the trail to offer a ride to those waving the white flag. We resisted. At about 2PM, we turned a bend, looked up, and listened to our breath being taken away as we beheld the most awe-inspiring, magnificent scene of nature. Before us, kilometers away but dominating the picture like nothing else existed, was the deepest gorge in the world set against a mountain backdrop like a jagged curtain in the sky. Imagine standing there witnessing the earth rise 13,000 feet before you in a single field of view, a single blink of the eye. I wish pictures could capture the true three-dimensional grandeur of such a scene but they cannot, as much as I willed them to do so. This was the part Mama was referring to when she said "here beautiful", and we had almost missed it.

We had a nice lunch in a Naxi mountain village, then set out to enjoy more magnificence. Finally we reached our home for the night. We met some Canadians there who were itinerant adventurers - they had just done the hike we did like it was nothing: their ages? Son was ~50, Mom and Dad were ~75. Quite an inspiration.
Around 6PM we entered the dining room for dinner. Seated with us were 7 Dutch people, 2 French guys, a woman from Beijing, and the two Aussies. The meal lasted 4 hours - 1 hour of food and 3 hours of a raucous good time. We just laughed and laughed - Aiden the Aussie is hilarious: he did an amazing re-enactment of a Robin Williams skit about a drunk Scottish guy inventing golf. The French guys told us about a new slang called "verlan" whereby French kids and "hip" adults are saying words backwards: merci is cimer, etc. At one point we went around the table stating our ages: Madh and I were the only ones older than 26 - never felt so old in my life. It was great nonetheless.

The next day I froze my butt off in the ghetto shower and we headed out for another great day on the Gorge, though it could not match the scenery of day one: this was the "no beautiful" part though that is strictly relative. We descended thousands of feet into the depth of the Gorge itself, then realized we had to climb back up. Madhavi and a couple others took the same route back while myself and 4 of the Dutch used "the ladder". We won't go into that because my parents are reading this, but suffice it to say I'm fine.

The ride back was more good conversation, mild nausea, and progressive hunger and weakness. This was the biggest beating Madhavi and I had taken since the Inca trail in February 2000. We were soaked in sweat and had no clean clothes - we took the best we could find from the laundry bag and showered - tasting the salt dripping from your head is a sign that you need a wash. We reluctantly headed out for dinner with the Dutch and Aussie gang from the night before - we arrived at 9:30PM and food took forever. We were so hungry that we were getting desperate - when the food came we could hardly pick up our forks we were so weak. I've never had hunger manifest as nausea but it did then. After a half-hour of silence to stuff ourselves silly, we started talking and had another great time. Two of the Dutch kids had bought the super-sweet Dutch woman Maloush a birthday gift from all of us and we sang the song. The Dutch asked us about the U.S. and India all night. They in turn told us about how an orange tidal wave takes over the The Netherlands during World Cup: people wear orange, cars are draped in orange, even the food is orange. They are such great people: both this group and almost every Dutch person we've met over the years. Madhavi and I "fell in love with" one of the Dutch kids, a 20 year old woman named Pasquala who is so cute in every way.

We crashed like bricks at 1AM. Madhavi said she was shocked we stayed out so late after such an exhausting couple days. Though for both of us, in many ways, this night was effortless.

lijiang, yunnan province, china, december 12-15

A short 40 minute flight over phenomenal mountain terrain (the bus ride is 16 hours) moved us to the villages and towns in the Northwestern part of the Yunnan Province. We arrived at a single baggage claim airport and headed by taxi to Dayan (Old Town), Lijiang- a Naxi (a Chinese minority) town with courtyard homes, rebuilt after a recent earthquake. With our packs in tow we wandered the streets in search of Mama's Guesthouse- a place that my sister Pallavi had highly recommended. We got lost in the narrow streets and alleys but ran across an Australian couple, Aidan and Danya, who pointed us in the right direction - with whom we later had hours and hours of great conversation and great times - see last picture. We arrived at Mama's (with no reservation, of course) and were greeted with a resounding welcome, tea, and delicious banana pancakes. Pallavi was right. Mama is wonderful, an unforgettable character who you attracts you like a magnet from the first minute (see picture to left). She is an incredibly spirited woman (when Mama's mad, you shut-up and run) who runs a wonderful hostel -- the food was scrumptious but it was the atmosphere that made it made it one of the most memorable places we have stayed.

The main part of Dayan was overflowing with trinket, tea, souvenir shops, and tourists. But, as we looked up towards the clear blue skies, the Jade Snow Mountain towered above us at a distance. At night, the streets around Sifang Square (the main square) were alive with activity. Young Naxi women dressed in traditional outfits stood across the canals from each other (and young men) chanting songs, ending each time with a call for the next chant- "Ya-soh, Ya-soh, Ya-Ya-soh". We never quite figured out what it meant but it elicited laughter, cheering, and loud replies. In reality, this was all a sort of contrived carnival set up for Chinese tourists as many of the Naxi have been pushed to the outskirts of town over the last few years.

Our best times in Lijiang were the hours we spent with backpackers from The Netherlands and Australia. We ate plates and plates of steaming hot Chinese stir-fries family-style, sometimes fumbling with our chopsticks, laughing almost the whole time. On our last night there we celebrated birthday of Maloush, a kind Dutch woman who turned a young 25. (We definitely were the old ones of this crowd).

On our last day we rented rickety bikes and rode about 10 km to the neighboring village of Bai Sa. After multiple stops to ask directions, we ended up on brick-lined streets outside the home and clinic of Dr. Ho, a renowned Chinese Herbal Medicine Doctor. Dr. Ho is a kindly 84-year-old man who has survived severe illness and treated thousands of others - one of his patients had stage IV lymphoma in '99 and is disease-free on Dr. Ho's herbal treatment only; the patient's Mayo doctors are now doing research with Dr. Ho. Luckily we were his only visitors during our hour-long stay so he told us about his patients and then examined Nima to help determine the cause of his various musculoskeletal enigmas, diagnosing him with "weak chi" - Nima strongly disagreed with the diagnosis and immediately demanded a second opinion.

Lijiang was the launching off point for our two-day trek through Tiger-Leaping Gorge, an incredible hike high above the Yangtze River.

kunming, yunnan province, china, december 10-11

We arrived in Kunming, the capital of the colorful Yunnan province of China. The Yunnan has the largest density of Chinese minorities and is known to be very laid back and beautiful. Kunming is a rapidly modernizing Chinese city where development has driven minorities and culture out to surrounding villages and left the city feeling somewhat stale. We tried to stay in a modest hostel but the room was too smoky; we dragged our backpacks and ourselves for kilometers and failed to find a place that seemed right - finally a cab driver accidentally took us to a 5-star hotel by a lovely park with a lake and away from the congested city center (we were trying to go to Yunnan University housing). We were so exhausted that we just said screw it and stayed there. The luxury, including a 50-dish buffet breakfast, was pretty nice though certainly not what we imagined we'd be doing on this trip. The hotel had such an overwhelming Christmas theme it was unreal: the porter was Santa, Santa figurines with parachutes were hanging from the ceiling, there were Christmas trees everywhere, and Christmas songs were playing constantly. This was strange until we saw similar though less intense celebrations of Christmas throughout China - it is a sort of strangely secular commercialized holiday here, kind of like it is in the U.S.

We visited the very nice Bamboo Buddhist temple where we saw stunning life-size statues (called arhats) - ~500 of them - with the most interesting (sometimes bizarre) facial expressions and great detail. We also saw the first of many people playing cards with a special gusto - they slam the cards to the table and say something like "neeeeyaaaaa" (see picture below with woman in the act) , which probably translates to "how 'ya like that" in English or "beeya bebinam" in Farsi when I play cards with my family. It was a blast to watch. Again, it was men with women, young with old, all playing together - this is an impressive aspect of Chinese culture.

Later we saw an amazing series of tunnels and temples improbably carved centuries ago from sheer mountain faces in the Dragon Gate of the Western Hills - touristy but very memorable: Madhavi and I looked down from this precarious structure and felt that drop in the stomach like we both did when we were kids and first peered down from the top of the Empire State Building.

the great wall, december 9th

We got up before dawn and hopped into the back of a private car - our planning was last-minute so we had to pay a large sum of money for this convenience but it was worth it (you'll see why). We asked the driver to take us to Jinshaling - 110km away - the farthest starting point of the Great Wall that's near Beijing. The duration of the ride via a public bus was quoted at 4 hours; we were told by private car it would be ~ 3 hours. Instead it took 1 hour 50 minutes. How? The trip is slow because the road changes to one lane about halfway there and there are tons of big trucks taking this path. Our driver, however, got many of these trucks and other cars to pull over slightly to the right so that we could easily pass. How? He turned on his police siren! He had several siren sounds blaring almost all the way to the Wall. It was hilarious!

We were told it was always colder at the Great Wall than in Beijing, which at that point was almost hard to imagine. So we each put on 7 layers of clothing - for me it was every clean article left in my backpack above the waist. It turned out to be a gorgeous and crystal clear day with temps probably hitting 10 degrees C, so we ended up taking off 4-5 layers and lugging them around all day.

Jinshaling was a magnificent starting point with endless rugged brown-green vistas in every direction, the serpentine Wall tracing the tops of mountains as the grandest roller coaster in the world and a perfect symbol of advanced and isolationist ancient China. We started a 10km hike on the Wall towards Simatai and one of the great things about this day is that we were virtually alone as there were probably <5 visitors per 1km stretch of the Wall. We were joined at one point by a Mongolian woman who made herself our guide for half the trip (for a payment in the end, of course). She convinced us to avoid dangerous stretches by recounting the time when a European guy broke his leg and had to be carried off by 6 farmers.

Near the end Madh and I sat on a ledge and had lunch, looking up at a tempting monstrous uphill segment of the Wall that we could have tackled for extra credit. We thought better of it, though. We had already passed our first physical challenge and did it on one of the great wonders of the world. That was good enough for us. We found our driver and were back home in 1 hour, 50 minutes. The siren effect is remarkably consistent.

beijing, december 7-10, 2006

We stepped off the plane in Beijing, onto the tarmac, and into zero degrees centigrade. Ahh, like being back home in Michigan but without the coats. So after checking into our cute Chinese-style courtyard hotel, we had to start our adventure with ... shopping. I think we bargained well as our offers were often countered by "you joking, right?". A couple merchants even passed the walk-away stress test, allowing us to leave without caving in.

Tired and a bit cold even with our new fleeces and coats (and my grandfather's beret - thank you Baba Abbas!), we visited the Forbidden City, an enclave of 800 buildings where Chinese emperors lived in opulent isolation for centuries amidst splendid architecture and all the spoils befitting a highly advanced and powerful nation. We could have spent a couple days there alone but had to limit ourselves to a couple hours - it was an impressive first site. By the way, the walk along the moat of the eastern end of the Forbidden City is beautiful, lined with endless weeping willows, closed to traffic, and full of locals walking leisurely.

Our favorite morning in Beijing started early at Jing Shan park where we were hoping to catch the sun rising over the city. It was too foggy to see much of the city but we were introduced instead to a nice bit of modern urban Chinese culture. An attractive ~40 year-old woman in a purple jogging suit suddenly turned on a tape player and what came blaring out was alternating American and Chinese exercise music. A few women joined her immediately in an exercise program, then a few more joined, and after 10 minutes there were probably 50 people doing this routine that they all seemed to know by heart. Keep in mind now that it is literally freezing outside. Madhavi joined in for a good half-hour (me for 5 minutes). What was most impressive was the number of men and 70&80-somethings who joined in. It was quite a sight and was typical of other activities people were engaged in that day - badminton (which they are really good at), Chinese hackey sack, singing, dancing - all over the park.

Over the next couple days we of course saw Tiananmen Square and Mao's embalmed body as well as some hutongs - the small alleyways where you can buy fried bread and other street food. We had the famous Peking duck at the only good restaurant we went to in Beijing (we did not choose well overall), Da Dong Gao Ya Dian. The duck was sliced precisely by the chef at our table, the serving was large (the whole duck, albeit a small one), and it was delicious - a bit strong for Madh but she's never been a duck fan like me. December 9th was our trip to the Great Wall - see the next blog for details. December 10th we were off to the southwestern China - the Yunnan province!

introduction

First blog! I want to start by saying that I cannot find the apostrophe on this Thai computer, thus blogs from here may read like that 4th grade report you did on the blue whale (which you copied word for word from Encyclopedia Britannica).

We are thrilled to be able to communicate with all of you in this way during our December 2006 to ~August 2007 world trip! We will not be sending email updates; instead the blog will be a part of our journal and our communication with you, our family and friends. We hope this page is easy to navigate. We will post blogs with stories and picture links fairly often. We will post some pictures right on the site but many more pictures will be viewable via a link on the right of the page (right now the link is "China" and later more groups of photos under different country names will be added). Madhavi is working very hard to make this link work, which is why I am doing all the writing at this point. Please tell us if there are problems with the link so we (she) can correct them. (By the way, the photo at the top is the sun rising behind the mountains of Tiger Leaping Gorge [see story below])

We really encourage all of you to post replies, especially if you are reminded of a similar experience or you have visited a place we are referring to or if you just feel like commenting. If not, email us once in a while. We would love to hear from you!

Final piece of orientation: I've edited the submission time of this posting so that it shows up first on the blog. However, postings are otherwise listed from most recent entry on the top of the page to older ones as you go down. So after you read this one, please scroll all the way down to start from the beginning if you're interested. By the way, as you can see, I figured out the apostrophe issue (the keyboard was set to Swedish format).

We started our travels with a quick trip from S.F. down home to Southern California to see my family. It was a very nice way to start and we did the usual - told funny stories over great Persian food, occasionally speaking very broken Farsi with my grandparents - will improve!. Saw Mom, Dad, Bahar (thanks for coming!), Baba Abbas, Maman Parvin, Maria, and Ben. To the airport on the evening of December 5th for our midnight flight on Air China - off to Beijing!