Next we headed back to the city, Nanjing, mostly as a means to get to our next non-city destination. This was my first true Chinese train experience – crowded, smoky, dirty, only one cheek able to fit on the seat. While I am by nature a pretty calm, easy going person who doesn’t mind being dirty, I am battling a mounting germ phobia, what with all the respiratory secretions flying around. I’ll leave it at that. This mere six hour train ride took some serious deep breathing and meditation. But overall, trains are really fun. Full of life… chatter, hawkers, music, food, strange smells. There are lively exchanges going on between total strangers, a far cry from the quiet, isolating, almost sterile train experience at home.
Moganshan
We have seen so much since leaving Shanghai. When we had our fill of large city, we headed out to Moganshan, a small mountain village retreat, originally established as a European hill station. It was quite a journey getting there (as are all travel days in China) but well worth the effort (which included a cab, a train ride, haggling in Chinese for a second cab (Coalter) to take us the rest of the way when no nobody seemed to know where it was, an irate taxi driver who had no idea he had to drive us all the way to the top of the mountain, vomiting child in the back seat). We finally arrived to find the whole village was shut down for the winter. We were almost the only people in the whole town, the only guests in our large hotel. Very eery. While we had peace, solitude, stunning views of mountains and bamboo forests, we had no heat (sleeping in down sleeping bags in the hotel, eating in front of a space heater with long underwear, hats, gloves, down jackets), one dining option, no way to get cash (which was running out and the bank closed for the winter). But we had beautiful hikes through bamboo forests, sunshine and fresh air ( a real commodity in China if you have been reading the news about the pollution – which is staggering). All in all, a funny adventure that we are sure to remember forever.
Departure
Well we are finally here and I am finally writing my very first blog entry! What a process, extricating yourself from your life for a while. We had a hectic week of packing and preparing the house for house/dog sitters, preceded by many months of methodical planning (not to mention years of just talking about a “big trip.”). Predictably, I was awake all night the night before leaving thinking, why am I doing this??? 24/7 family time for five months. No job. No routine. No school or soccer practices. Homeschooling, my God. Also predictably, about half way through the flight, flying somewhere near the Arctic I thought, wow, no school, no routine, 24/7 with my people, I’m flying over the Arctic to China…. how amazing!! For better or for worse, the adventure has begun.
The boys, now ages 12 and 9, are doing great, they are already turning into pretty seasoned little travelers. And what’s not to love? They get unlimited screen time on airplanes in contrast to our pretty strict screen time rules at home. They watched 14 straight hours of movies on the plane ride over, no lie. It was a site to behold. But they are troopers. They take the hassles of travel in stride, they view the world with fresh eyes, they are infinitely open to new experiences, and they are able to see the humor in some of the ridiculous situations one finds themselves in while traveling to new places. For instance, we all had a big laugh on day 1 after making our way one by one to the living room of our Shanghai apartment at midnight, completely awake due to the time change, in our underwear, eating Luna bars thinking “this is weird.”
Apologies for the delay
We’ve made it to Vietnam and out from under the oppressive Chinese internet censorship regime (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China). At first we thought the choice of blog name was the cause of the problem, but apparently the censorship applies to all WordPress blog sites. We will try to fill in the gaps retroactively with some of our impressions of China, and we hope that other governments are either less oppressive or less tech savvy.
The competition
As it turns out, we’re not the only family that has decided to check out for a brief international adventure. Check out some of these crews from Top 10 Family Travel Blogs at familyonbikes.org/blog/2011/12/my-top-ten-family-travel-blogs/
Very intimidating stuff!!
visas and vaccinations
With less than four weeks to go visas and vaccinations, two items that have required some advanced planning, are underway. Visas for China and Vietnam have been secured. Other visas, for example for Laos, Cambodia, Nepal and Thailand, are available at the border or upon arrival at the airport. This is one of those items for which we did not budget and have been a bit surprised by the costs (over $1700 for four Chinese and four Vietnamese visas). When researching visa requirements we found the US State Department website a useful place to start (http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis_pa_tw_1168.html). From country-specific pages you can get to the consular websites of each country for forms and specific instructions. Unless you live in a city with a Chinese embassy or consulate, you’ll need to use a visa service. The folks at mychinavisa.com (http://www.mychinavisa.com/index.php_) did a great job.
We’re undergoing a barrage of vaccinations to prepare ourselves against Japanese encephalitis, typhoid, rabies, tetanus, and the various meningitis(es) and hepatitis(es). Admittedly, we may have gone over the top with the rabies vaccinations. Malaria prophylaxis is on order too. These precautions, of course, don’t cover the most likely health issues we’ll face (traveler’s diarrhea, skin irritation, dehydration etc.) or the statistically most likely sources of danger (e.g., traffic accidents) but they seem to give us a much needed false sense of security leading up to the trip. Like the visas, this part of the prep is also not cheap. We’ll top $5000 with these items before we depart.
T-Minus two months
We will touch down in Shanghai two months from today. Stay tuned.
AsianSpring 