[Raion]

I've never really talked much about the countries I've gone to but rather than just toot my own horn by myself I'm going to want to know about other people's travels as well.

Everyone who knows me for a while hat probably known I've been to China, so I won't bore you with those details off the start. 

I'll talk about my time in Latin America first. I've been three times, twice to Mexico, and once to Guatemala. 

In 2010 I visited Guatemala as part of a group that was performing community service for rural people in Cobán and Antigua, the city, not the island. I was basically 16 years old at the time and I'd only been out of the country once before to China so I had no idea what to expect. 

I flew into Guatemala City and I stepped out into one of the most tropical areas of the world I've ever been to. But it also made me acutely aware of just how much I stuck out. You can't go more than two city blocks without "Gringo!" being a chant from people driving by and such. Vuvuzelas are also everywhere. 

It was a five and a half hour drive without much water or food to Cobán over treacherous mountain roads and past mountains that were either completely jungle or turned into cornfields that grew up to 12 ft tall. 

First meal that I had ironically was Domino's as we met up with a local guide named Julio. Older guy in his 60s and a former monastic of the Catholic Church. Guatemalan Domino's tasted virtually the same as it does in the United States but you could get pizzas with things like mango or puerco pibil. 

Eventually late at night we got to a local compound for volunteers and it was topped with 15 ft concrete walls with barbed wire and had guard dogs everywhere. We stayed in a cold concrete building with no doors and a constant supply of mosquitoes. We had to sleep in mosquito nets and deal with other crazy things while we were there. 

Everyday for 2 weeks we rode in the back of a pickup truck bed clinging to a steel frame and going across mountain roads to local Mayan villages. Yes you heard me right the majority of people in this village don't speak Spanish as a first language much less English or anything else. You'll smell the village before you reach it. Open sewers in the gutters and you constantly are seeing stray dogs scavenge whatever they can. 

Roads are often overgrown or eroded, we had to stop everyday and manually turn the 4WD hubs on the truck. At certain points, you're surrounded by nothing but jungle and you can sometimes hear gunfire in the distance. 

One day to and from the various villages where we were repairing houses our truck had a flat. Some of the locals we had become friends with helped us, and Julio took me and a couple of others through the jungle and you could actually find old Mayan shrines and statues in places. I asked them if archaeologists knew about it and they basically told me that they had no intention of showing these to them because this was part of their history and it wasn't for white people to take. Keeping in mind that this was translated from a local Mayan language (Kakchi) to Spanish to English, that's the gist I got. 

Mayan is hard to speak. Very difficult language with a lot of weird cases and such so after the first couple days of people from the villages trying to eagerly teach those of us who knew sufficient Spanish most of us gave up. 

After, we got a break from the jungle and eventually went to the city of Antigua which is much more Hispanic in style. Much cleaner but it's ironically the only place that I got dysentery. From a McDonald's no less. I would argue that this leg of the trip was harder. We had to carry all the supplies up the mountains into slums. And trust me considering several of us were sick this was not a fun time. 

Anyway, the food was good. Good black beans and platanos. Lots of pork and chicken, very little cheese, lots of tamales and tortillas. My favorite tamales that I had were poblano. 

Meanwhile I travel to Northern Mexico as an adult, both Sonora and Baja California. Baja California is much more familiar feeling but Sonora definitely had the better food. Northern Mexican food does make use of a lot of flour tortillas and things that most people in the US assume aren't authentic so it's not exactly as if it's very different from what you might have in many restaurants across the US. On both trips I had somebody with me who was fluent in Spanish. I gained a huge amount of respect for Tequila, as I had begun to be a drinker several years ago. That stuff is wicked. 

Maybe I'll tell some about my China trips another time if people are interested.

Tell us about the countries you've been to and what you liked and disliked about them.

[stormy]

I spent a month in China up at the Wudang Mountains, stayed at a tea plantation on the side of a mountain learning Tai chi. The mountain was of course very lovely, the temples were beautiful and the history of the place was extremely cool. I was often shocked at the Chinese visitors though, they didn't seem to have much respect for their own places of heritage and often I'd see them just throw rubbish and plastic bottles around temples and such, where visitors from over seas always showed the greatest respect and binned all their rubbish appropriately.

Arriving in the local airport was horrendous - beware all - it is well known that Chinese taxi drivers will do all they can to 'rip off' tourists. I made a terrible mistake and forgot to exchange some money into the local currancy before arriving, I also forgot to tell my bank I was travelling so my card was locked and would not allow me to withdraw from local ATMs. All the taxis only took cash, no such thing as a taxi that takes card in this particular place. I ended up getting a lift with a driver who seemed to take card, or I thought took card, but when I got to the hotel we ended up in a terrible argument because he wanted cash. In the end I had to ask the hotel staff to just sort him out some way and I pay the hotel electronically.

While being driven around China you'll see massive arrays of camera systems, like speed cameras we have in the West, but they're not for speed - they are for surveillance. Every single signage over-pass had these rows of cameras, they all took photographs with proper flash just like a speed camera, so they probably had about 100 photos of me in the taxi on the way to Wudang. Then when I got to Wudang there were surrveillance cameras hidden in trees covered in fake foliage too - very creepy.

If you can get past the fact that everyone is out to exploit you, rob you, swindle you - you keep your cool and stay organised, it can be a nice trip. Otherwise it could be other peoples living hell.

Oh and another thing - we had to boil all tap water and store the water in large thermos flasks. Because the water was not sanitory. If I knew this before travelling I probably wouldn't have gone, I lost a lot of weight while I was there, not just due to the exercise but just lack of eating and drinking lol. These are the little bits that travel vloggers leave out.

[Raion]

I spent a month in China up at the Wudang Mountains, stayed at a tea plantation on the side of a mountain learning Tai chi. The mountain was of course very lovely, the temples were beautiful and the history of the place was extremely cool. I was often shocked at the Chinese visitors though, they didn't seem to have much respect for their own places of heritage and often I'd see them just throw rubbish and plastic bottles around temples and such, where visitors from over seas always showed the greatest respect and binned all their rubbish appropriately.

You learnt any Chinese there? Have you read when I wrote Chinese?

Yes, Chinese people can be very... slovenly and unappreciative. That's caused by the CCP and poor education, corruption etc.

Arriving in the local airport was horrendous - beware all - it is well known that Chinese taxi drivers will do all they can to 'rip off' tourists. I made a terrible mistake and forgot to exchange some money into the local currancy before arriving, I also forgot to tell my bank I was travelling so my card was locked and would not allow me to withdraw from local ATMs. All the taxis only took cash, no such thing as a taxi that takes card in this particular place. I ended up getting a lift with a driver who seemed to take card, or I thought took card, but when I got to the hotel we ended up in a terrible argument because he wanted cash. In the end I had to ask the hotel staff to just sort him out some way and I pay the hotel electronically.

Been there, done that. Drivers will expect laowai to pay exhorbitant rates. Thankfully, many times I've not had to deal with that. Last time, baidu maps allowed me to use the bus... except one time where I fucked up and ended up at the depot.

While being driven around China you'll see massive arrays of camera systems, like speed cameras we have in the West, but they're not for speed - they are for surveillance. Every single signage over-pass had these rows of cameras, they all took photographs with proper flash just like a speed camera, so they probably had about 100 photos of me in the taxi on the way to Wudang. Then when I got to Wudang there were surrveillance cameras hidden in trees covered in fake foliage too - very creepy.

MMHMMMMMMMM! you gotta register with the PSB too when you enter the country... or don't go to a hotel.

If you can get past the fact that everyone is out to exploit you, rob you, swindle you - you keep your cool and stay organised, it can be a nice trip. Otherwise it could be other peoples living hell.

Oh and another thing - we had to boil all tap water and store the water in large thermos flasks. Because the water was not sanitory. If I knew this before travelling I probably wouldn't have gone, I lost a lot of weight while I was there, not just due to the exercise but just lack of eating and drinking lol. These are the little bits that travel vloggers leave out.

Chinese people can be among the most generous and warm, loving people, but some are assholes. Like when three I thought were my friends took me on a bender in Shanghai and I ended up eating dog/cat meat and was paraded around like a monkey.

Yes, Chinese people actually believe cold water is dangerous, and in 110 degree F weather will drink it at a temp that scalds white people tongues. More CCP antics.

[vishnu]

I've only been to two foreign countries of my own volition, Mexico and Canada, everywhere else I've been has been on field service for my employer:

UK (where the company I work for is headquartered)
France
Sweden
Germany
Italy
Israel
Philippines
Marshall Islands
Diego Garcia

[stormy]

@Raion yes just to clarify, like you say, most Chinese people are great and generous, you just need to be off the 'holiday' path - I don't blame them for trying to exploit holiday makers who have plenty of money (comparatively to themselves) Although these practices would be illegal in any other country

I can't read Chinese, I tried to learn it but just too difficult for me. But I did translate your old signature which was about living a life of happiness.

[Raion]

That was Japanese though LOL. I can read Japanese and Chinese but I can't actually seem to get into a mode where I can read a Japanese sentence with Chinese readings and make any sense out of it.

[hamei]

I spent a month in China up at the Wudang Mountains,

Jeeze, stormy … if the bait's shiny enough, fish from every ocean will eventually come to look --

First, go to opencircuitdesign.com  I haven't used the PCB program but xcircuit works well in Irix, can be configured to look almost native, and is useful not only for circuit design but also for 2d vector graphics, as a simple cad program, for flow charts, network layout, and probably other stuff. The guy in charge is very cross-platform strict, knowledgeable, helpful, and supervises the pcb program as well, I think. I think there was even a nekochan tardist.

Now, about the taxi … c'mon d00d. You went to a country half way 'round the planet with no money and an atm card that didn't work and you're upset with the taxi drivers ? Responsibility, captain. It's not too hard to spell

While being driven around China you'll see massive arrays of camera systems, like speed cameras we have in the West, but they're not for speed - they are for surveillance.

Doesn't the fact that they are placed over the roads give you a clue ? They are, in fact, for giving tickets ! I'm personally kind of ambivalent about these as it used to be a real life 3d survival game just walking somewhere, with the trucks and buses going through red lights, the motorcycles on the sidewalk, people running over pedestrians in the crosswalk: it kept you on your toes. Now, walking to the store is almost boring. The thrill of the chase is gone :( 

The downside, from a US point of view, is that the cops don't get to shoot black guys 48 times in the back for having a bunrt-out tallight. Altho china cops don't even have guns, so maybe they aren't missing a real big opportunity.

when I got to Wudang there were surrveillance cameras hidden in trees covered in fake foliage too - very creepy.

Very creepy, for sure. Unlike the US or the UK where banks, convenience stores, antique stores, gas stations, buses, harbor offices, atm's, thrift stores, the library, apartment buildings, social security office, city hall, police stations, grocery stores, schools, elevators, you name it all have surveillance cameras. Agreed, creepy, but it's the world we live in, bunky. China ain't no different. If you get robbed or pickpocketed or your car hit-and-run crunched you might feel different.

If you can get past the fact that everyone is out to exploit you, rob you, swindle you

Might have something to do with your attitude ? Other than the usual businesss disagreements (which are just as common in the US, believe me, I have stories) and the occasional taxi scenic-route trick*, this has not been my experience at all. In fact, generally speaking I've found China to be way more flexible and willing to go out of their way to accomodate you than other places. Canada tends to be that way too. US, not so much.

https://youtu.be/_MJERTr8gfU

* If you keep the receipt and know the taxi overcharged you, you can call the company and they will reimburse you. They know pretty much what the fees should be so if you paid twice as much there's no problem, they send you the money post-haste. Or quicker, in fact - they just transfer the money to your bank or wechat or zhifubao account.

Oh and another thing - we had to boil all tap water and store the water in large thermos flasks. Because the water was not sanitory. If I knew this before travelling I probably wouldn't have gone

Not sure how you could miss this ? I've never seen an article about China travel that didn't mention it.

I lost a lot of weight while I was there, not just due to the exercise but just lack of eating and drinking

Eating I can see, some people don't like Chinese food. I unfortunately gain weight … but drinking ? You can't go fifty feet without tripping over a store with bottled water. There's at least ten different brands, one of which is nestle (my fave, due to a long-term love affair with Farfel), and at ¥2 a quart (aka liter), that's approximately twenty-five cents US or a dollar a gallon, well …  it's hard to feel sorry for you. Btw, beer and coke are not much more, at about ¥2.5 to ¥8 a can or bottle. They even have budweiser (not recommending it, just sayin').

No sympathy here, hip. Bottom line is, if you're not into drama and flexibility of one sort or another, then China is probably not a good place for you

Yes, Chinese people actually believe cold water is dangerous, and in 110 degree F weather will drink it at a temp that scalds white people tongues. More CCP antics.

Oivay. Chinese food superstitions are documented back to the Shang. Hot foods cold foods longevity noodles lucky eggs don't turn over the fish, sympathetic magic, daoism chan tai ji quan, wuxia, accupuncture, moxibustion, fox demons, heaven realm earth realm demon realm, human relations, it's all one biggish Unified Superstition Theory that predates the party by a few thousand years. Also there is no 'CCP", it is officially the CPC, "Communist Party of China."

Sort of illustrative of the integration, if you don't mind dra-ma …

https://youtu.be/-oSUun-c6vU

Speaking of fox demons, Painted Skin (both I and II) are not bad. I especially like when the girl demon - chinese are no fools, most demons are attractive girls - reaches in and pulls the obnoxious jerk's heart right out of his chest, then eats it. Mmm, yummy I think they are on youboob, maybe. II might be a tad better.

It's a very strict language in terms of how it's ordered. There's absolutely no flexibility in word order in most cases.

I had never heard this. In fact, my problem is there's too many ways to say the same thing and unfortunately you're supposed to guess the meaning from context which is none too clear when there's only three sounds for fifty words and people happily use nouns and adjectives for verbs.  Then every other sentence is a reference to some story that's a thousand years old. So I asked the Assist's friend who teaches high school chinese in zhejiang and she had not heard this either. Possibly some misunderstanding involved.

(short example, this is literally "left hand finger moon" but what are we trying to say ? you can interpret it several ways, all of which make sense and none of which are definitive. Chinese is e.e.cumming's native language) … this lady is a graduate of the pla performance school, by the way. Maybe that's why she likes red

https://youtu.be/FXeLqYsiZlE

https://youtu.be/lxIzfbW37xQ

I'd say learn traditional Chinese, not simplified, and if you can try to learn things from the more proper standpoint.

To each his own, however there are 1.4 billion people who use simplified characters, so if you want to read a newspaper or book, watch teevee (it's all subtitled, with so many dialects everything is subbed with characters - the characters are the same but spoken is different), movies, teevee shows, dramas, whatever … only two dinky little places use traditional, everything you're going to want to use is simplified. And pinyin is a bazillion times better than any of the other crappy romanization systems, so my opinion, don't even touch that idiot wade-giles shit and steer clear of the weirdass crap they do in taiwan, it's goofy. Pinyin rocks. Taiwan is also very much like a Disney version of china, "Chinaland". It's all pretend there. Kind of pretty scenery but overall, fake.

One thing certain tho, you really don't want to learn with a Taiwan accent. It's so country and uneducated, it'd be like learning English by watching Deliverance. Just say no

I'm on an Ashes kick, feeling nostalgic for deng lun, here's a freeby link. Was just thinking that amber should have hired yang zi to play her part, Ms Yang can actually act …

https://youtu.be/2pmlESlbWE4

Or if you want to go to ktv and play six seven eight, better bring your simplified character reading skills along …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US54FpncMz4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04cHqPMD4So

miod, something a little different for you

https://youtu.be/m18mJ-gHbsY

too long, sorry, but ya know, it's a big country, lots to say. Plenty of misperceptions out there ...

[Raion]

Despite my misgivings, China is by far the most beautiful nation in the world. You have to realize, Hamei, that I'm just not a fan of who/what runs it plus the nasty Chabuduo attitude that permeates Chinese society.

[hamei]

Despite my misgivings, China is by far the most beautiful nation in the world.

I wouldn't say  China was so beautiful ... there's pretty places but scenery and nature are not exceptional for most of the country. There's a lot of flat and featureless, like the whole eastern half of the country. Out west there is some really pretty areas but nothing like Yellowstone or Yosemite.

Northeast is attractive to me, but in a wintry barren sort of way ...

https://youtu.be/MX75uExRCXE

(I see the embed thing doesn't work here ... should it ? Or am I doing something wrong ? [video and /video] tags ?

I'm just not a fan of who/what runs it plus the nasty Chabuduo attitude that permeates Chinese society.

You don't have to be ... and they don't care It's their country, not yours, and the government is essentially the same as what they have developed for themselves over the past few thousand years. It does its job, China is what it is. Orientalists like our man stormy who invent a China that doesn't exist, then are disappointed that the real thing doesn't match their imagination, maybe kinda sad but again, oh well.

China is not a different country, it's a different civilization. They get to be what they want to be, and the US is not going to tell them how to behave or what to do. Why the US seems to think it has the right to do that worldwide is the puzzle, to me. Especially considering what a wonderful job the US has done at home ...

[Raion]

I have to set an example for other users Hamei so I'm not gonna get into a debate over what the US does vs China or whatnot. Until I make another venue to talk politics let's save it for another time.

> I wouldn't say China was so beautiful

As someone whose been across the US, China just feels older, more primordial and somehow more... resilient. I suppose surviving a Great Leap Backwards will do that .

> Orientalists like our man stormy who invent a China that doesn't exist

China is a surveillance state. Sure it has speed cameras and stuff, but it also keeps close tabs on its people. Hell, in Xinjiang the internet is locked down to hell. I can't even get on Weixin!

But anyways I gotta get back to cleaning up my Yee Mein escapade today. So much greasy residue in the sink...