Tibet/China
7/25/97: Sign up for trip: do I want to stay in the Wyndham Hotel one night in Los Angeles? Put on a $500 deposit by Visa for the trip 10/13-11/4. Reservation number 40127. Total of $6705 from NYC including air. Total due by CHECK ONLY 60 days before departure, which would be August 13. Went on the telephone and told 1) Shelley, 2) Mildred, 3) Vicki, 4) Pope, 5) Sherryl, 6) Don, 7) Charles, 8) Marilyn (LW), 9) Marj, 10) Bob R., 11) Mary V. 12) Carolyn, 13) Eric H., 14) Bernice. 8 time-zones between LA and Beijing, so 4PM in LA is 8AM in Beijing, and a 12 hour flight would leave LA at 1PM (when it's 5AM in Beijing) and get in at 1AM LA time, or 5PM in Beijing.
SUNDAY, OCT. 12: Bed at 10:50PM, alarm set for 5:50AM for car at 6:15AM! Then from 11:15-11:25PM TRY to get China Eastern Airlines and CONFIRM flight, but there's no way to GET to them! At 11:35PM Jot down Don Maloof's California phone numbers, but when I GET there I'd FORGOTTEN I'd done this!
MONDAY, OCT. 13: 12:10AM: Note to John: reset computer if problem. 2:55AM: Up to pee. 4AM: Can't sleep, decide to stay UP; after all, it "is" mid-afternoon in China! What IS the "stitch" under my lowest right ribs? Breakfast and pills at 5AM. It's 54° at 6:15AM, note that I take cash of $544.49 and bags weigh: blue 14#, brown 16# (with all the camera equipment) for a total of 30#. LOW! Double-check car at 6:15, put machine on, down to car at 6:20, to airport (via Laguardia) at 6:45! Check-in says I don't NEED to confirm Chinese Eastern flight, and Bradley is CLOSE to where we land. Gate 9 is FARTHEST from where I check in, and my right side REALLY HURTS! Let's hope it PASSES, or at least remains bearable. At FRONT I switch from MIDDLE of middle 3 to ROW of middle 3. At 7:15 at GATE, she smiles, takes request for "right, not above wing," but say I'll take LEFT. She says "I'll check when computer unlocks in 20 minutes"--so you DO have to show up 30 minutes early! At 7:55 she gets me seat 31A! On left, but JUST behind wing. Move out at 8:07. Off at 8:20, said to be 5:20 flight, to 1:40, or 10:40PST. LOVELY Jersey coast, farmlands to about Pittsburgh at 9:05, then clouds. Breakfast of small omelette and bagel and lite cream cheese. BOUNCE for half-hour 10-10:30, in high clouds, then out and I take a SHIT. 25 minutes to halfway at 10:35. 10:40 CLEARS at Kansas City (on RIGHT). Over Pueblo (on RIGHT) and Rockies at 11:55. A WIDER rocky range at 12:03, when I get back from THIRD pee. 12:10 HUGE dammed lake-river with HUNDREDS of pale yellow building sites marked off roads. #16 jet flying over New Mexico? #20 MARS landscape at Cedar Breaks (?) as plane zooms EAST! 12:40 seems DIRECTLY OVER "Grand Canyon." "Passing over" I ONLY see southeastern-most start? Sun reveals houses on some immense road-grids. 1PM: down by 1:30! Land 1:35. EVERYONE stands up BEFORE plane stops. Walk to Tom Bradley, hit "info" and I'm right THERE. In at 2PM, to lounge at 2:10, boarding 3;15! 2:30 DEBATE going to ENTRY to change seat ro RIGHT, but it's JUST too much CHECKING IN again. Wait for clerk HERE. Change time to 11:30. AT 11:45 GET 31J, BEHIND wing, plane's almost EMPTY! Plane LESS than half full. But 31J IS over wing, as WAS 23. Move back to 39J. Board at 12:35. Meet Wambolds. He's wrinkled, she's garrulous. Move on DOT of 1PM. #20 Chinese Dragon Lake North of Santa Barbara. #24 San Jose---RED! SF airport, Oakland, Bridges! #31 Napa, #32 Santa Rosa. #33 Lassen? [1/4 way from Sacramento to Portland?] where coast turns EAST. Good pork and noodle lunch to 2:35, when, sadly, we turn WEST from coast! At 3:40 take pills to sleep and 6:40PM melatonin. DON'T sleep. Up at 6:15 for INCREDIBLE NORTH of Anchorage Alaska scenes, onto next reel. 7:43 #1 Diomede? NEAR end of Alaska and US and date line! #2 and #3 GREAT TV displays, also #4 and #5. BUT Russia is clouded, Kamchatka below. #6, 10:55, Russia! South of Sea of Okhotsk. 11:25 another meal, my STOMACH feels nauseous! Most of Russia clouded, but some peaks and rivers and NO towns. #8 11:20 northern Russian farmlands. Take "breakfast" pills, last 11 hours ago? Chicken and rice MUST be worse than beef and macaroni! Chocolate has little BUTTERFAT in it: it's DRY and plasticky. #9 unknown "leopard-skin" farmlands. ALL land is cultivated. Set watch AHEAD; very smazy (smog/haze). 70°F. Land 4:18PM. I'm out and wait LONG time for couple---HE lost his bag! NO OAT sign. 5:50, getting DARK. STILL waiting for lost-luggage forms! Leave at 7:20, con taxi for 100Y to take us---to GRAND! Ask, drive, drive, drive. Ms. Li "went to pick us up." Meet Jenny and have ribs and TIRED to room at 9:50. Shower, brush teeth and fuss to bed at 10:55PM, very elegant hotel, but far from center of Beijing itself.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 15: She CALLS at 11:35, saying we LEAVE at 6:30. Wakeup call at 5:45! Wake at 1:05 with ODD-tasting reflux and SAME leaking-down-underside pee! What's HAPPENING to me? 5:45 call. Try but don't shit. 6:05 BAR check. 6:20 Gene knocks. Double checking, he was down at 6. JENNY knocks. Bill for TWO restaurants: my ribs and Les Continents too. WE pay for dinner! THEY pay for the taxi! Jenny will stake me yuan. Pay hotel with credit card! Li Wei confused and NOT very good in English. Off at 6:39. Busy city, much new construction, sun coming up hazy, all trees planted in SQUARE ARRAYS. To busy airport by 7:30 for 8:30 flight to Chengdu. I TOLD Li to get me a WINDOW seat when possible and I hope she REMEMBERS. We go to Xian first because fall schedule CANCELED Beijing-Kashgar flight. Li says I get ONLY window: 13F. She remembered! Flight scheduled for 8:45! TINY waiting lounge. Through LONG security line by 8AM, sitting now at 8:06. Few Caucasians, but many signs and announcements in English in VERY small international/domestic airport. After only SIX hours sleep I feel QUITE good, and HUNGRY for food! Just not by window boarding pass is E. Wambold! He can't HAVE it! 30 seats in TINY room for flight of at LEAST 13x6=78 people. Packed breakfast is two boiled eggs, two croissants and a bottle of water! Same self-important people taking loudly on cell phones. Special "smoking" room next door is FULL and foggy. First, Chinese woman in China Eastern with MENSTRUAL smell, now halitosis next to me. Board 8:30 and sit and EAT. Stomach content at 9AM at "excess luggage" removal and ENGLISH safety directions at 9AM. AND have water-bottle for rest of trip. HEY, things look GOOD! Off at 9:15 for 2:10 flight, absolutely NO apprehension! #10 snow-capped mountain only 10 minutes flight from Beijing! Misty! at 9:30AM. Land, VERY foggy, at 11:40AM. Big traffic jam, to restaurant by 12:45. Chrysanthemum(?) tea, pickled cucumbers, bacon-like pork and scallions, daikon and pork, french fries and sweet runny tomato sauce, and long green vegetable. Too much! To Minshan Hotel at 1:50. #11 Minshan Hotel lobby. Chengdu panda museum at 4, when it was closed at 3:30. Out of Du Fu at 6PM. Du Fu (712-770) even MORE venerated than Li Po, nothing of HIS left, but moon-viewing platform reconstructed in 1890, monastery-type building in 1996, other statues and plaques and writing (Mao and Liu Shaoqi, etc) added, and exhibits of lifetime, exhibits of this place, new buildings going up, crowded and popular with Chinese---NOTHING in English but 5-6 major plaques, as opposed to butterfly museum where every caption was in English. All HUMID and dusty. TIRED by 6:45, writing this. No TIPS from me! 6:30 across street for tofu soup, great eggplant, sweet and sour pork, SPICY tofu, "potatoes" and pork, others til 8:05. Walk, buy fruit with Li for Jenny. Pack, bed TIRED at 8:50 for 4:45AM call!
THURSDAY, OCT. 16: 2AM: JOLT awake at LIGHT outside, MUST have missed CALL! No! Street lights! Dream: Bill Peterson reads AWFUL plays where he tries to seduce young man using his AWFUL voice and innuendo and describing himself as a woman. Pee and feel FEVERED---worry about TIBET and HEIGHTS! Up at 2:30 to move sweater/scarf/beret/gloves to TOP of bag. Up at 2:40 to move TIBET book to read on flight! Wakeup call at 4:45 AWFUL. Did SLEEP but still TIRED. GOOD ham and egg breakfast to 5:40, all TOTALLY dark off lobby, to dark streets with ENORMOUS constructions. Li: gates are VERY important in China, particularly facing south and north for feng shui (yin and yang). In to hectic terminal at 6:15. Departure scheduled for 6:45. Pee-smell. Caucasian nods and smiles at me. Onto bus (front seat yet) 6:20, on board plane 6:40, jammed. #25 early Himalayas ten minutes west of Chengdu. Cloud-tops BRIGHT by 8AM, but all below obscured. Off at 6:54AM, THEY say 1:40, BOOK says 2:00, Li says 2:30! HM! Sound channel 5 gives Cello Concerto in left ear and Chinese orchestra in right ear. 8:25 we land in cloudy Lhasa in 10 minutes. Land at 8:43 amid TREES and snow-peaks and sandy rivers and cattle. #27 DC-10 in Lhasa airport. Bus leaves 9:15 for 1.5 hours to Lhasa, 3600 meters up to 4000 meters. #31 yaks at 10 o'clock. Valley source of Brahmaputra River. Ydentung Village to 10:30. To Lhasa (Holiday Inn) Hotel 11:30. Tickets for Everest Restaurant for three breakfasts. Room 1322, 3rd floor. Long drive to lunch 12:25-2:10. Rest to 3:10, up to CLOSED museum of History (after [almost!] blundering into Party Congress Building. See entrance of Norbu Linka. Pay 30Y and in at 3:35, through ONE palace WITH group on ONE level, back to zoo. Across to Jismai Palace alone and VIDEO before "No!" To Min Palace at 4:30, then RACE back toward hotel, getting EXHAUSTED, and they're walking TOWARD me and BACK to Superm-arket! (#10) Still there til 5:45, starting to get COLD! Back at 6:05, saying to meet at 7. I repack at last, then FRANTIC unpack of locked camerabag to get THIS pad and pen and race out at 7:01: to meet Li and Mark AT elevator! Down at 7:02 to find NO one down! Jenny down at 7:05, just as sun sets. Down at 7:07, to restaurant for pork, chicken and cashews, fish, awful fatty "hot and sour" soup, bananas, onions and beef, and only WATER, not tea. Rice comes LAST. Out at 8:45 and back at 9, saying to meet for breakfast at 8:45 and 9:30 for the day. VERY tired, room cool, but MUST brush teeth! Room QUITE cold, leave underwear on, bed at 9:35.
FRIDAY, OCT. 17: Pee at 12:10AM, and my watch STOPS at 5! It's 7AM when I call operator. FINGERTIPS TINGLING! Read the handbook on Norbulinka and it's NOTHING LIKE what I saw and I'm even MORE depressed. The city is cold and gray and poor. Streets are rutted and sidewalks in total disrepair. History Museum nonexistent. Mark is clearly anti-Tibetan (96% Tibetan in Tibet INDEED!) and no source of information. Li has never been here before and I can't forget her "No one has window seats" and she and Jenny had TWO. Food is never Tibetan, most people we encounter are Chinese except in first village, where poverty and pathetic qualities ruled. Altitude and lack of sleep probably doesn't help, nor does moldy soap, stained sink and tub, lack of heat, dark halls and stains on rug and fringes on towels give good impression of Lhasa Hotel as TOURIST mecca after LUXURY of Minshan Hotel in NOWHERE Chengdu! Sorry, sorry, sorry! Now 7:40 and I'm HUNGRY. Earlier, BRILLIANT stars amid clouds lit by BRIGHT moon. TV reception flawed, too, and TOILET drips. 8:30 to breakfast: cereal, fruit, omelet, and to room for bag at 9:30, to Potala at 10. Out of Potala at 1PM. To square for photos at 1:25 and right across to lunch at 1:30. Potala: enormous old chapels in red part, huge lamas and buddhas and monks and avatars and taras with banners and statues. Joyce pulls muscle! "Same" lunch. Back to hotel 2:35. Read guide, leave 3:30 to bank to 4PM. To INCREDIBLE doctor at hospital: 80 curing tankas, to 4:45. Jokhang 4:50-5:50. Shop 5:50-6:10, WAIT 6:10-6:40, MAD! THEN he talks on the phone with Gene and gives Mark the idea he wants a THERMOS, rather than a hot water bottle, to 6:55. Told to meet at 7:45 for dinner and go to totally empty, cold place for USUAL meal, "Of COURSE Mark gets a cut." Out at 9 and hotel at 9:10. Bed at 9:35! Up at 11:30 to piss and shit to 11:50!
SATURDAY, OCT. 18: Up at 1:40, 3, 4, and 5:25 to pee, 6:10 to doze. 7:25 to dress. Call at 8 but shop is CLOSED. Stupid TV to 8:40, to breakfast with GENE. Sad about leaving from Beijing. MAYBE she'll get a wheelchair. #1 Drepung from rug factory. To room to get book for waiting on bus, but Li takes Wambolds and Mark takes Jenny and me on taxi to Drepung by 10AM. Climb and climb (fay blond got black car-coat in Palm Beach!) and monks care for place and it's almost empty. See about all, long SLIPPERY rocky road down, but cell phone won't work. Around hill to downtown Lhasa. Bus to road with monks and kids (video) and second bus to rug factory at 12. We say we want someplace DIFFERENT for lunch, please, NOT first or second place. I take photo while Jenny rug-shops and Mark gets told I index. Do this to 12:20. Pee. She FINALLY buys a carpet for $375 and pays $199 to get it air-shipped to Puerto Rico. Take rug company's truck to China Bank at 12:50, still not out, as I read Bradbury in truck, at 1:10. Leave 1:20 to hotel, talk to Joyce, who has a torn ligament, and down to Silver Palace for lunch, which I'd NOTICED but was too shy to SUGGEST. Got there about 1:40 and saw English menu which was PER PERSON, as opposed to Chinese "for table." Got vegetable soup with mushrooms, pork and WHITE mushrooms, great tofu, eggplant, pepper beans, WHITE noodles and GREEN spinach soup, and I had a Heineken's. TOO much food, out at 2:50, and Jenny has to go back to hotel for her camera! I write this in snit til almost 3PM. Agree to hour at Jokhang Market RATHER than at hotel. Nasal mucus STILL blood-red, but took what I hope was LAST Diamox at breakfast. She gets on and we're off at 2:55. Sera is lower than Drepung and features DEBATING monks and a main room whose lights go off after Jenny sees a rat. Out at 4 and drive to Potala where we wander sundries market, food and meats, then complete square and down to islet in lake. Past more market to lot where bus is not. Buy 20 postcards for 40Y. Red car picks us up---bus driver's license taken by surly cop. Drive to back of Potala for more pictures and he takes us back to supermarket for last shots by 6:15. Up to shower to 7 and lay down. Up at 8 for yak burger and fries (65Y) and Heineken (35Y) to 9:15. Up to brush teeth to 10, still feeling not so great. Pack tomorrow. Oh! Forgot about INCREDIBLE last-second shit at Hotel Airway at 4:30, finally asking for "toilet," when "men's room" was translated into "You want a home for the night?" Bed at 10:17.
SUNDAY, OCT. 19: 1:40AM pee, a record 3:20 asleep! Ludicrous dream: Mom is in decorating business and allows me two new overflow customers, for which EACH and EVERY cake and pie FLIPS upside-down onto floor while messenger from ONE customer waits MOST impatiently as her SUBSTITUTE dessert flips upside down onto floor. Ludicrously awful! To sleep at 1:50, 2:50 wake with AWFUL dry throat. 3:30 SO short of breath that I TAKE a Diamox---odd dream of dancers mimicking dwarfs---VERY FUNNY, heater permanently off. 4:55 pee and shit, so THAT'S OK: no diarrhea! Then up at 6:55, GOOD! Only FOUR wakings, good! UGH!! Park to 7:35. Pee, and downstairs. Corner table and ONE HANDSOME ecological guy attracts me. At 8:15 we're told of 9:30 departure. Joyce and Gene come down and we talk of travel to 9:20. Jenny suggests we MAKE SANDWICHES for lunch, which we put in her plastic bag that I carry. Wonderful. On toilet when they pick up our bags. Down at 9:30 to give in key and check my bag on rack with EIGHT bags. At 9:38 I write this, no sign of bus. Gene tells endless story about tungsten and Colombia and Ecuador and Cleveland and cobalt and nickel and emeralds, and bus arrives at 10 and we load and leave at 10:05! #18 Buddhas on way to Tse Dang---carved by Atisha in 11th Century! #19, 20, and 21 scenery from that point! Airport by 11:48AM, by 12:50 to ferry. Eat box lunch on bus and board ferry with Joyce in wheelchair at 1:50. #28 fueling ferry at 1:55. Ferry OVER from 2-3:10. HARROWING open truck ride 3:38-4:08! #32 Samye. Leave Samye 5:20-5:50, smaller boat 5:55 faster, onto shore at 6:30! Speedboat! Joyce pees behind bus. Bus 6:40-7:30. Dim grim hotel. Room 206 unlit and unheated til she turns switches and heater is SIX FEET up wall---why isn't BED up there? I seem to be next to a DISCO! Loud music. Write this at 8, down to "dine in town" at 8:30. Fairly exhausted from TOTALLY different (and adventurous) day. To dinner 8:20-9:20, TIRED after TV, bed at 9:56PM.
MONDAY, OCT. 20: 12:35AM wake with SORE dry throat. Pee. 2:25 dry nose, pee. At 4AM DRY nose, breathless---take Diamox. 5:40 THINK I hear phone. 6:20 pee. Lay til 7:40, then up and wash face and get wakeup call and again push footstool against recharger plug to hold it in wall. Room still needs sweater but Jenny was right: bathroom IS bigger (though toilet seat is scratched) and room IS nicer, but still cold and VERY dry---though it looks WET outside. Put another Diamox in AM pills and for "hill climb" today. This to 8:15. Read guide to 8:40. Breakfast (bread, tea, butter, jam) at 8:45-9:05. Jenny's room has "Do not disturb." She knocks by 9:25: "I said 9AM. I'm right!" Mark calls at 9:30, "We all eat together." I'm back for two eggs. On bus 10:17AM. To base of "oldest house" at 10:45. Climb to VERY top. To bus 12:15, back 12:50, bus's gears clashing, NO more tours possible! Charge camera battery. #23 park behind Tse Dang Hotel. To Ya-Xiang-La-Po and get Huanghe (Yellow River) beer. Sensational pork-stuffed eggplant. Lunch to 3:05. GENE feeling tired, so THEY go back to hotel while I wait. Jenny slipped on stairs at Sera---when's MY turn? Meet at 3:40 to shop: market, department store, jade shop. To hotel 5:30, watch TV to 7:25, BORED with Tse Dang! And Tibet's heights and dryness! 7:30-9:30 dinner at Gesaer's Restaurant: comedy of errors with SCRAMBLED eggs over noodles and Mark spilled beer and arguments OVER bill while Li pushes Joyce back to hotel for john. I decide to take SLEEPING pill to hope to stay ASLEEP! But DON'T. Bed 9:22.
TUESDAY, OCT. 21: Up 12:21AM! To pee. 2:30 pee. Dream of Lina Marks asking me to read and punctuate her book, and my "masterful" explanation that "even IF I find the book poor, it won't affect our friendship." 4:15 shit and piss to 4:30. Dream: Sexy guy "with amazing abdominals" looks forward to sex with me, and JOAN SUMNER tries to get me to fuck her but it doesn't work. Odd combination! I'm also entertaining a group in my "newly cleared out" apartment, serving a Chinese-style dinner. Meditate WELL. Call at 5. Pack. Finish double-checking by 5:25. Slightly breathless, but for LAST MORNING, looking forward to Beijing for hotel-heat, shower, teeth brushing, oxygen, and clean surroundings! No more "if" for Diamox, no more "Chinese have taken over," we'll be IN China. So, what ABOUT Tibet? Chinese seem to be DISCOURAGING tourism by letting things fall into ruin. But it's good to see WORKING monasteries like Samye (and sad to see bad shape of Norbu Linka). Sorry "Tse Dang closed, can't go anywhere without permission." And the arrogance of Army and police is the same all over. Sadly, I NEVER got used to altitude, breathless NOW at lower 3500 meter Tse Dang. Tour partners NICE, but problematic: Jenny's "Why?" after Mark's "This was built three years after other," got an astonished "Why?" as in "Why have a future buddha?" Though places like Shigatse and Mindroling will always have a fascination, I can say I KNOW what bowing, buttering Tibetans are like in ALL temples, and what room-overseeing monks look like, and money and white gifts of scarves like snowfall (hata) and texts and rocks and statues that fall from sky. Write this to Jenny's down at 5:40. Scrambled eggs and watery orange juice and bread, butter, and jam. To bus 6:15 and Jenny's last again. Bus 6:30-8 to airport, cloud pink ONLY at 7:45. Rabbit runs across, HUGE dead cow and small dead rabbit, few cars and fewer pedestrians. Again MASSES of people. Airport WAS empty, but 6:50-8:30 plan from somewhere DID arrive. Joyce's seat changed and she and Li vanish. I CHECKED bag, which had LEAK. Nyquil? Turns out if was from OTHER bag OUTSIDE mine. Check in by 8:30, to boarding lounge 8:50, onto plane 9:10. Good window but SHORTEST seat-space EVER. Jammed plane. #27 and more on flight. Lhasa airport opened ONLY in 1993, fly to Chengdu. Boeing 757. Off at 9:39 and GREAT flight and peaks and valleys and settlements and bridges and roads and glaciers and lakes and Chengdu is RIGHT AFTER mountains! Land at 11:07 and CRUSH (of army) to get out to SMOKE on bus that goes at 11:19. Pee with relief. Pick up bags to waiting room 13 with seat 13C at 11:55. Flight at 1:20! WAS 2:10 coming, should be two hours or LESS in return! Sit and read til 12:15 and Li INSISTS we go eat soup and chat to 12:55, boarding. Off at 1:30, 2:10 flight. ASK for window and GET it, in BACK. #3 river farmland. #5 Yellow River. GREAT views!! Land 3:33PM, get bags and wait for Gene to get his lost luggage at 4. Out to car at 4:15. By 4:45 at International medical center FIASCO of entrances and parking. They go in at 4:54PM. Sun sets in smog at 5:15 after we go off at 5. Arrive hotel at 5:40. Beijing unimaginably huge. I abdicate mountain of luggage in car and take my two small bags and wait for Li to get room-keys and announce meeting time. Get key at 5:55, meet Diane (of woman pair) from Vancouver (who paid 76Y for bus to hotel!) and to room at 6:05. LOVELY shower and skim TV movie "Jericho Fever" (pretty bad) and get laundry ready to go out and dress in PANTS (not jeans) first time and ALL clean! (but teeth) at 7:25PM. Down to be only one there. Gene and Joyce will probably go home. Four late-comers won't join us. So dinner will be Li, me, Jenny, Gene, Diane and her friend. NOT Gene. Dinner, and I tell Diane and Laara I'm gay, even AFTER they talk about their boyfriends. Back at 8:45 and watch end of "Eiger Sanction" and other TV to 10:25. Brush teeth and more TV to 11PM. Bed.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 22: 3:30 wake: 4.5 hrs!! Pee. 7:10, after 8 hrs! Glory, glory. Up and pee and unpack, PERFECTION in a hotel: bed-light on a DIMMER, DIM light in bathroom, phone at toilet! Laundry out and room OK by 8:10. Breakfast to 9, meet Tom and Lynn and two more women. 9:15 to FRONT seat on bus! Start #12 photos. #15 (right) old city WALL tower. 10AM Tien An Man Square. 10:10-10:40 free walking and photos. #18 Mao's Maosoleum (closed for renovation). #23 Party Museum (and soldiers leaving, lower left. #25 Grand Hotel from CENTER of Tien An Man. Monument to People's Heroes in center, Forbidden City "to right", Congress "top", Maosoleum "left" and Museum "below." Leave LATE, of course: 10:35. Buy 10 cards for $1. #26 roses! Diane lost! Into Forbidden City 10:50. #32 Taihe Men (gate and lion). #34 Supreme Harmony hall. Buy GREAT Forbidden City book for 100Y. Out of Forbidden City at 1PM, except Laara (for numerology!). onto bus at 1:07 (she was waiting OUTSIDE gate) and SOME of us (Jan) are complaining about chronic LATENESS! Off at 1:09. #12 (round building to right) Ministry of Foreign Affairs. To "Temple of Sun" restaurant at 1:25. THIS morning I FIRST pack a spare pen and I had to USE it NOW!!! Chat with Tom and Lynn about Abercrombie and Kent trips---theirs on French canals, to 2:15. To hotel 2:50 and plug stays IN to recharge battery! STILL not FULLY recharged at 3:05 and MUST get back to BUS. Laara and Diane back at 3:25 and I said I TRIED to get bus to LEAVE, but they DIDN'T. To Temple of Heaven (only Emperor allowed in!) at 3:30. From #17 Temple of Heaven precincts. #27 "Nine-Dragon Pine" about 500 years old. Out past long-tailed birds (magpies?) at 5:05. Bus to Peking Duck 5:15-6:10. Out at 7:10, MEDIOCRE duck: fatty, skin NOT crispy, meat tasty, at New Ark Restaurant. Opera in time? Opera 7:50-8:40: love duet-comedy and Monkey King. Buy 10Y program. Leave 8:55, NO one complaining of shortness. At Qianmen Hotel. Back 9:05, get laundry, 6:30AM call for 8AM departure. Fill pills and bed at 10:30.
THURSDAY, OCT. 23: 3:40AM (5:10 sleep!) pee. 5:35 dream: I'm walking in New York City, realizing I'm actually on a trip in ITALY and can't POSSIBLY be in NYC. My apartment door (on West 57th, but not 309) has a new lock that I can't lock. I'd gotten a piece of porno mail that REALLY turned me on (I had a shorter, MUCH stiffer cock) and I wanted to j/o in privacy. BUNCH of guys come in, including a swarthy hooded-eyed guy who keeps saying, "No," until I address him: "I don't know the history of this, and I don't WANT to know, so would you please leave my apartment!" He gives me a malevolent stare and he and his cronies all get up and leave, but I feel I have to FEAR for my safety and will be MICH intimidated by them in the FUTURE. VERY real dream. To 5:50 and shit a tiny bit. 6:35 bell wakes from DEEP sleep. FIRST time feeling really TIRED on waking. Breakfast 7:10-7:55, pee and NO attendant so I can wash my hands! To bus at DOT of 9 and Lynn gives "Peoples" map back. Now old LINDA'S last at 8:08 (8:10 by bus clock). Til 9AM to get OUT of city! At cloisonné factory 9:15-9:45. SHOP 9:45-10:15. Biggest vase about $30,000. Off at 10:22. He DIDN'T use EXPRESSWAY to Great Wall. Pocketed tolls? To Ming Tombs 10:55AM. #9 flowers in front of Chingling Ming Tomb. #12 from "Soul Tower." Buy 24 slides for 20Y! Buy ball and stand for 80Y! Leave 12:10 for LUNCH---not even SEE tombs. AT tombs: 35km to Beijing. Friendship shop's Golden Palace Restaurant has "Western style" johns. Take photo. GREAT pagodas! Out at 1:30. Shop and see "Dragons in Sphere" for "only" 110Y and BUY it! Leave 1:50PM. Arrive 2:30 and told "to 4" and Diane and I race to LEFT top and halfway to RIGHT top to 4. Leave 4:10. Traffic gets worse and worse (video) until 4:50 a cop car flashes by and we stop. 4:55 pass a WRECK in LEFT lane and a LONG line of stranded traffic. Pearl World (of COURSE) at 5:40. Out 6:55 with pearl rings, to restaurant 7:25-8:20. CHECKED luggage to lobby by 9AM. Wakeup call at 7:30. Kin-Li-Qan-Branch Restaurant. To hotel 8:25-8:50. See end of "Jewel of the Nile" with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito---HAD I seen it before? (Now check: I HADN'T.) To 9:45, just too TIRED to do ANYTHING. Bed 10:10! 11PM, up to pee.
FRIDAY, OCT. 24: 3:05 pee. Wake 5:05, up at 6:10 to shit, shower, and find I FORGOT to bring 15 days of CALCIUM! Pack neatly to 7:25. Phone at 7:30 and breakfast to 8:15 with same couple: Jan and Linda, and Jenny. Brush teeth and watch blind violinist, get down to visa laundry bill and check out by 9AM. Diane and Laara still NOT seen. GET cap in BUS! Leave 9:15AM, give him 50Y, and he says we go to zoo for giant pandas. Laara thought Shu said "Human sacrifice replaced by human FINGERS," not figures. They DECORATE buildings from TOP-down, so LOWER decorations won't be DESTROYED. BAD traffic. #14 Russian-style exhibition hall. To zoo with FOUR pandas 9:55-10:25 SHOULD be but last in at 10:39. Jenny, and THEN she has to make a PIT-stop! Leave 10:45! CURSE Jenny! 11:05 into Summer Palace at East Gate, seeing EACH building. Out at 1:15 and buy three carvings in box for 100Y. It was instant love. "180." "No." "You say." "100." "OK." 1:30 back INTO awful Beijing TRAFFIC. TOWER 409 meter, highest in Asia: TV tower. To Zi Yu Hotel Restaurant 1:45-2:45, pretty poor! To airport (LOUSY traffic) 3:45, 4PM Lynn's lost her wallet! 5:15 flight. Onto security check line at 4:20. Board to 21F by 5PM. Lovely BEHIND wing. Has something BROKEN in my camera since the Great Wall? Light meter DOESN'T seem to work. Boeing 737 FULL with 150 passengers. Jan born in 1950: 47. Laara said she's 51. As we sit past 5:30, it starts getting dark. Off at 5:40 for 1:25 flight. Land 7:20, almost NO lights, FILLING noodles and chicken and stuff. Diane is 52, son in Olympics for field hockey, one daughter, and she's a grandmother, per Laara. Beijing: two men/urinal; Xian: electronic sensor-flush. Tomorrow: 5:15 call, 5:30 to restaurant, depart 7:10AM. To Airways Hotel Room 412 at 8PM. Down at 8:30. MORE dinner 8:30-8:55, then Li comes up to take my SOUVENIRS and says her HUSBAND will bring them to hotel when we come back. I take my bag back down and HOPE it'll be checked onto plane tomorrow. To room at 9:20 exhausted, ALREADY less than eight hours to 5:15 wakeup! Bed at 9:30! Bells and jabber in hall! Bed 9:35!! Phone call. Bed 9:40!!
SATURDAY, OCT. 25: Wake 2:50, after 5:10!! Dream: Visiting a sound/TV studio where they've HEARD of some computer-generated film I have a COPY of, but I've never SEEN it (Gregg Toland is the film-maker's name). They might have copies of tapes I've been seeking for YEARS. "Mystic" leanings toward Dunhuang? Turn light on just a SECOND before phone rings at 5:15AM! Down at 5:30. Laara: my cardigan is Scottish "Fair Isle" pattern. To bus at 6:10 and Tom "forgot his jacket," and boards by 6:18. To airport instantly, stand, onto plane 6:40. Only about THIRTY people on plane: sit anywhere! I move behind jets (4) hanging from OVERHEAD wing. On BAE 146 plane. 2:40 flight off at 7AM! Breakfast of one awful greasy pasty, a bean-curd bun, a gingerbread cake, juice, raisins, and dried chickpeas as peanuts. TOTAL clouds til 4:45, when it breaks into FOUR layers: one above plane, one we're IN, and two below. TURN at 7:52 and SUN streams in window! See GROUND at last at 8AM! Flay, with winding river. Move to LEFT window, clear for 20 seconds, then clouds. #10 WRINKLED mountains. #11 has TINY TINY towns. #12 Taklamakan desert lake. #13 community beside road. $14 mountains, lake and CITY and ROADS. IS water in a few small lakes IN DUNES. #17 town and orchards. #18 towns at foot of mountains. Fairly decent shit at 9AM. Dams form lakes. #20 great wall? Can SEE faint straight tracks and roads, VERY isolated HOUSES, in NOWHERE! Great desert! Start down 9:25. #21 Dunhuang? Land 9:40 exact. To museum at 10:10. #? town gate and museum entrance. POOR Dunhuang section, better Great Wall pieces, and group spends ages in shop. Buy Dunhuang book for 90Y (no bargaining?) Leave museum 11:20, to Dunhuang Hotel for lunch at 11:30. Done at 12:20, bus leaves for caves at 2:30. Leave at 1:20! GREAT market and pool-players. Into caves 2:05---no photos. See caves 16, 17 (ORIGINAL ceiling) (NEW walls put up in 1993), 328 (ORIGINAL statues), 329 (redone), 427, 428, 431 (peek), 264 (niche), 260 (peek), 259 (EARLY, 4th Century!), 257 (four best apsaras), 256 (peek), 254 (peek), 251 (peek), 250, 249 (peek), 248 (peek), 094 (ruin), 94 (HUGE), 130 (26 meter Buddha from 8th Century), the BIGGEST is 34.5 meters in cave 96. 148 (16 meter sleeping Buddha), 172-173 (8th Century focus-point perspective (and 4-point perspective). INTO 96 (made in 695). In Szechwan, Laoshin has biggest buddha, near Chengdu, 73 meters. Biggest is Laoshin, then numbers 2 and 3 in Bamiyan, and fourth biggest is THIS one. To 4:20. 24 Buddha slides for 30Y. Leave 4:40. To dunes. CAMEL ride 6-7PM. To hotel 7:20 to dine. Out at 8:15 to rug shop to 8:35. To rail station 135 kilometers or 2.5 hours. Cold sleepy drive til 11PM. I have no change; I own Tom 20Y. ON train 11:56. GET four bunks, I get top, jacket and sweater off.
SUNDAY, OCT. 26: Move at 12:05AM. Sleep ALMOST at once. Wake at 6:15AM, astounded to have slept and not needed to pee in crowded train! Wake fitfully, recall dream about a guy asking "Do I REALLY need a passport?" and Li knocks on door at 7:30! I put on shoes and sweater and wait for occupied john at 7:50. Sky JUST getting pink over Gobi (sand WITH rocks) hills. (DESERT is sand WITHOUT rocks.) Bed long enough, buckwheat-filled pillow NICE, quilt warm, and wake once to find train STOPPED, so even starts and stops are easy. Breakfast 8:20-8:45: fried eggs, angel-food-like bread, jam, coffee and hot milk, and STRONG tea. Sit in corridor and block traffic at 9AM. Take over window in our compartment, tour the "hard class" in next two cars, get rather solemn stares when we photograph, and have LONG stop at 9:25. Off train at 10:40AM, into bus at 10:50, Xinjiang province has 1/6 the area of China and 16 million people. China is shape of chicken, and Xinjiang is the bottom. 200,000 in Turfan, 70% Uigar. To room 1105 at 11:50. Shower and clear A&K bag to 12:45. Brush teeth and watch (and video) TV to 1:25. Tom and Lynn are 69, Linda 75, Jenny 68, Diane 52, Laara 51, and Jan 47. Tammy is 32 and Li is 30 or 31. To "fast Muslim food" restaurant at 1:40. GREAT food (LOVELY green leaves and bean-curd noodles and fatty bean) to 2:20. Jenny STILL with upset stomach and Tom has to go back for medicine FOR her AT 2:30. WHY ALWAYS at END of period!? Leave 2:35: Uigar hello is "yak sheem sis"; goodbye is Hosh. Thank you is Rach-met. To Turfan rites(?), Gaochang ruins and Astana ruins from 460-640AD. Tall, narrow straight trees (with yellow leaves in Tibet) are white poplars. #18-20 RUINS of Gaochang, 460-640AD. Wall 11 meters high, tapered from 12 meters thick at base to one meter at top. #23 right tower seen through INNER city wall. #28 reconstructed monastery with buddha-outline. #29 buddha-paintings from 640AD. Ruins of Gaochang 3:30-4:30. To souvenir shop for watermelon and everyone resists to 4:50. 5:10 to Astana ancient tombs (3-8th century). They dug 400 tombs, we saw three, two bodies in third. #30 Astana tomb entrance from 273-782. Frescos: 1) four men: earth, gold, stone, wood. 2) six birds: lovebirds, mandarin duck, duck, turkey(?) with three chicks, white bird, no postcards of two murals. Third ONLY has bodies. Leave 5:35, to Thousand Buddha caves (5-10th Century) frescoes destroyed by Muslims. Bezikelek caves. Lecoq (German) too stuff. #32 road to Bezikelek. To 6:20, VERY depressing! Buy ten pictures for 5Y. #36 at 6:43: "Flaming Mountains." Sunset at 6:55 goes FAST! To hotel 7:20, shit a GREAT shit by 7:40, dinner with whole roast lamb to 8:35. To Night Market, and shish kebab, then to look at fruit and dried apricots and plums, then find a ten-month-old baby celebration across the street and the Uigar MEN (particularly) dance to 10:10. MAGIC! Bed 10:40.
MONDAY, OCT. 27: 3AM (boo!) wake after dream-knock on door and fragment of 1907-1909 food being sent to rooms. Pee. 6:50AM: crescent moon BRIGHT in window. STRONG dream: I've put on some eggs to cook for last few seconds but have to LEAVE with two people to OTHER house. Woman keeps insisting she wants TEA (like Jenny), and little boy wants to stop, is tired, but doesn't want to be carried and finally HE starts to demand tea. It's finally an HOUR later, 9AM, and we're STILL far from place which I feel is AFIRE from incinerated EGGS on low flame so long. I say "I'll just LEAVE you to do what you WANT," but of course I CAN'T because I'm responsible for their safe conduct. Wake and try to shit. VERY little mucus and NO blood at LAST when I blow my nose. Meditate very nicely to 8:30. No call [Told to read Paul Bowles "Sheltering Sky."], and NO one got call. Laara late, feeling bad. Leave table 9:35, people going in and out of rooms as others SIT on bus at 9:50. Leave 9:55. Jiao-he kingdom (ELDER sister of Gaochang) started in 2000 BC. 10:15 arrive. #1 Jiaohe main street. They DUG DOWN: VERTICAL cave! #3 biggest of three temples (5100 square meters). #8 east gate and six wells. 11:10AM #9 with people WAY back in temple. MANY tourists. 37,000 people (troops) lived her in 1150. Buy book on Turfan for 150Y on visa. Leave 11:40. SALT important: SWEAR by it, CURSE by it, ADORE it. To Kerez 11:55. DANCING to 12:40. Buy raisins to 12:50, to family to 1PM. Stop for pictures of LEAVES on grapevines for Jan. I sit in bus and sulk. In jade factory 1:15-2:10. A loony: smiling, one bare foot, dragging white bag. Linda talks doom and gloom of overpopulation and money-grubbing rich. SO much for Tammy's "We eat at 2PM and get to Kashgar BEFORE dark." Lunch at 2:15 (charge battery) to 2:55. ODD potatoes ala bananas in syrup dessert, sweet and sour pork, soup, vegetables, beer, etc. Pack and Peking Opera on TV and out at 3:15. Diane and Laara NOT down by 3:20. Leave 3:23PM. 4:20 Jenny moves BACK a seat and I move UP. #16 old highway and WORKMEN on LEFT on NEW highway. #17 Mt. Bogda at 5:10-5:40 stop in "Mountain view village." #19 Windpower! To Urumqi at 7PM for TRAFFIC jam. To Grand(I)slam Hotel restaurant for dinner at 7:50. BRIGHT place and GOOD sweet tea with TOP SLANTED that filters dregs. I finish at 9PM and to Holiday Inn for room 1308. Watch TV to 10:15 and bed at 10:22.
TUESDAY, OCT. 28: Midnight: wake to j/o VERY weakly to 12:52AM. 2:45 pee. Wake 3:45 and 4:30. 5:45 awful dream: Helen is helping me get a scholarship to Columbia and writing me a letter of introduction. She tells me she leaves stuff in her work area in another building. I go to this building, open the door, and sit on the toilet to shit, but people come in and I realize this is NOT a bathroom: my toilet is just SITTING on the floor. A woman gets angry and demands I be arrested. I show her the letter but she dismisses it. She says that I could have written it. I try to get away but they grab my legs. I try hitting them off but they cling like glue; finally I break free and run away with a dream's awful "glue-pad" run when legs are weak and just won't MOVE. But I elude them and wake musing, to pee, and try in vain to shit. Up at 7:20. Shit a dot. AGAIN no call (Muslims?) 7:47AM: Knock on door, "This is morning call." Breakfast 8:05-8:45. TV: Dow Jones dropped 500 points! Down at 9AM. Mill unknowingly around lobby to 9:09. To Heavenly Lake 9:12-11:30 (Red Hill with pagoda on top is symbol of city). #20 Urumqi factory smog. #21 Heavenly Lake (into sun) with north side of Bogda. Boat ride 11:55-12:15, then piss, video spruce woods, to bus 12:45-1:50. Yurt photos at 1:15. GOOD weather: usually SNOW by mid-October! To Fu Kang country restaurant 1:50-2:40. Sit after lunch and TALK of Dominica and Tom and Lynn's housebuilding. To museum at DOT of 4PM. History, 8-10 mummies, 15-20 ethnic groups, to 5:10, and to airport. #28 at 5:20 Urumqi apartments and construction. I'm TIRED; coming DOWN with something or just cumming last night. To airport 5:35. Board 6:05 and wait for LAST window on right at 6:25, when we move. #29 Tien Shan mountains at 6:50PM. Complete turn over airport, then peaks of pure white, rivers braided, roads straight, clouds covering, far phalanx glowing. Land 8:05, 1:5 hours, STILL LIGHT, but FAR from town. Nine cookies on plane, and apple juice. Only plane here. Bags by 8:30, hotel at 9, dine 9:15-10, try TV, bed 10:40PM. 11:56PM pee.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 29: 2:25 pee and 7:05 pee. AWFUL time breathing with STUFFED nose during night. Up at 8:50, obviously I copied times WRONG when I recorded: Call at 8AM, breakfast at 8:45, leave 9:30. K2 is impossible to visit. Room FRIGID. Shit, brush teeth, morning call at 9AM. TV comes on at 9:10 and says it's 7:10! Total confusion. It's LIGHT out at 9AM. Breakfast 9:45-10:15, peanuts, half coffee and half milk, bread and honey, and two hard-boiled eggs. Chat with Abdul as we wait for 10:30 bus loading. Not THAT cold out, and my "cold" isn't any worse. Infuriatingly, Jan goes to CHANGE MONEY at 10:42! Leave 10:47 for tomb of concubine. #30 11AM Kashgar, Mao statue surpassed only by the one we didn't see(?) in Chengdu. #32 small mosque, almost EVERYWHERE they have signs: no video, only photos. Twenty-four buried in Abakh Hoja tomb and 72 others. #33 and #34 inside. Pasha is WOMAN, Hojam is man of Mohammed. Tomb enclosure to 12 noon. EVERYONE LAGGING. Leave kids 12:25 to go to bazaar. Great CLOTH. Leave at 2:10. Hotel at 2:15, lunch at 2:30, market: INCREDIBLE colors and light, about twenty minutes of video. Wonderful bargaining sessions and mule-cart faces. Charge battery during lunch at 2:30-3, Abdul may get $60 taxi to Hanoi and Three Buddha Caves. Leave 3:40 for Handicraft Street from 3:50-4:55. 5:05 0.2Y for pee. #2 Islams bowing at Idkah Mosque, biggest in China. Into mosque, 5Y for photos, in 5:10-5:45, to handicraft factory. To 6:35, see hand and machine embroidery, musical instruments, etc (take video). [Tomorrow: 8:30 call, 9:30 breakfast, 2PM for visit; dinner at 7:30.] To hotel at 6:50. Abdul coming with us to Hanoi! Photo front of Seman Hotel; look in tourist shop, Urumqi booklet NOT worth it. Don't want to bother key-maid for my room, so I sit in cold lobby and write. My cold seems no closer than it was, but I'm TIRED of all the SHOPPING. Taxi tomorrow at 10, I pay $40 and Linda $20. Abdul walks in and passes by without a word. He MAY be sweet but he ALSO may be a ripoff: goes to mosque only twice a YEAR. Wander town tonight? Watch TV? Gave Lynn my Baker book, she LOVES to read it. Dinner to 8:45, watch TV to 10:06, bed at 10:20. 11:45 pee.
THURSDAY, OCT. 30: 1:15 pee. 2:40 wake. 3:40 wake. 5:15 wake. 7:05 wake and 7:30 pee. 8:40 wakeup call. 8:50 up, satisfactory shit to 9:03. Vague light outside. Dress and pack for day and go to breakfast at 9:15. TV not on YET. Breakfast to 10:05. Drive to Hanoi 10:10-11:15! To 11:35, road VERY hard on taxi. Pick up 2 riders. 11:45-12:15 north at 12:30. To DISTANT caves 12:45-12:55, back to hotel by 1:20. It SEEMS Hanoi round trip is 150Y, caves round trip is 100Y, and Abdul gave him 100Y for both, admitting to black market for changing our $60 for SURELY over 500Y, so Abdul CLEARS 300+Y for NOT much work. No TIP for him OR for pleading taxi-driver, who may be lying somewhat TOO. Wash and watch TV to 2:05. Leave for Uiger lunch at 2:15, til 3:35, meat STILL fatty, off for old-city walk at 3:45. Animal market 4-4:15. "Sunday" market 4:15-5:30, jade center 5:40-6, buy chocolate for 12.5Y. Back to hotel at 6:07, they DIDN'T touch bathroom FIRST day, but SECOND day I messed it up at 1:30PM and AGAIN at 6:10PM. Don't they know our SCHEDULE? Feeling SLIGHTLY ill---GLAD to be leaving Kashgar after 6:30 dinner! NO TV. I sit dejected in squalid room---tonight Urumqi, tomorrow Xian! Dinner 6:30-7:15. Get bags and into bus by 7:30 and to airport and check in at 8PM. Onto plane 8:50. Air Volga for both Kashgar flights. Off at 9PM for 1:25 flight and start down at 10:20. Land 10:40, bags quick, to bus, leave 11PM. [Tomorrow: 6:30 wakeup, 7:30 baggage out, 8AM bus leaves.] To hotel 11:30, room 923, CORNER again, DIRECT to bed at 11:40.
FRIDAY, OCT. 31: 1:15 pee. 2:35 nose AWFUL. 3:35 nose DRY and SORE. 4:05 nose a TORTURE. 5:20 towel still wet. UP ALL NIGHT!! 6AM hawk up GREAT gob of snot, just as yesterday. 2AM dream: untangling vacuum cleaner input nozzle, obvious reference to nasal problems. 6AM dream: Diane INSISTS "afect" is proper Scrabble word, even though it isn't in dictionary. Write in depressing agony of non-good night for sleep. Oddly, towel is STILL wet, so room aridity is NOT a problem? 4AM dream: four guys acting, one blond takes off shirt, wears leather pouch, and Ken says "Look at him flexing his legs." I remember a reviewer saying there WAS flesh exposed onstage, but I can't get BACK after intermission. Climbing on ROOFS and boy jumps onto a pair of FENCES and hurts himself and CAN'T find a good stairs down and I can HEAR second act starting and HOPE I'm not missing nudity. PAINFUL writing on elbow, and thumb-joint hurts and nose STUFFED. AWFUL! 6:25 wakeup call, shower, pack, clean shoes, and bag out at 7:25AM. Breakfast to 8, board bus at 8:17. Leave 8:15 and to airport 8:50. Check in and to lounge at 9, Flight not til 10:05. Laara talks of my "young" face and need to dress more "me." Board 9:30 and get RIGHT REAR seat at 9:45. 2:40 flight, Li says. Starting on #17 of next-last NEW Fuji film. Off at 10, NORTH past Bogda, circle Tien Shan, hills, cities, desert, SAME spotted-line town. Some clouds. Start down 12:15 after I pee. Land 12:42, smoky. 10°C. Start toward city. 1PM Xian has 5.2 million. "Best museum in Asia" opened in 1991. Video allowed! THEN city north to south, museum at 2:10PM. Museum (exhausting) to 4PM. SHOP to 4:15. Big Wild Goose Pagoda. 25Y to go up (borrow 20Y from Tom AGAIN) and take "same shots." NOT last on bus at 4:55. Hotel at 5:45, Diane VERY sick, get room 727, not READY at 5:20. Get changed to 736, charge battery, wash face, and put on jacket and tie! Laara can ONLY say "Oh, look at you!" at my jacket, so it obviously isn't "me" to her. Room change to 736 seems effortless. And awful noise has stopped. Lynn asked me if there was our FIRST day without SUN! Sit in lobby at 5:50 and write this. TOM puts on HIS jacket and we go to International Education Center for dinner 6:20-7:40 and leave for Dynasty Hotel (with Emperor HUGE in back) for "Spirit of Terra Cotta Warriors" and "Silk Road in Dance." VERY tacky that group seems to LOVE. Out at 9:20 and to hotel 9:40 for tomorrow's plan (wakeup 7:30, breakfast 8AM, bus at 9 for Warriors) and shit a bit and put battery on "refresh." Bed EXHAUSTED at 10:07.
SATURDAY, NOV. 1: 1AM (put ! for 11/1/1AM!) for water-up-nose. 4:45(!) for nose and pee. 6:15 pee. Up at 7:30. Counting down five final days. Mentally packing and managing last money. Trip winding down! Good shit!! Re-do pills. Breakfast 8:15-8:45, cash $40 for 323Y, pay Tom 20Y, hear that Diane got ampicillin and will be joining us. Good breakfast, Jenny down late---ALL late! Same odd flocculent scrambled-egg clouds across sun as was yesterday. Decided NOT to do laundry here. MUST write postcards tonight---hey, take them ALONG! Sort out FOURTEEN cards to send. Leave hotel at 9:15AM. Herbal market 9:30-9:50 for "ten minutes." "505 Herbal Belt" famous and helpful. Huge traffic jams (we make a U-turn to get out of it) to 10:20. To Warriors 10:50-11:05 to bronze chariots and horses (found in 1980), to 11:25. To Pit One: to NOON. Pits 2 and 3 discovered in 1976, Pit One was in 1974. Peasants, uprising, BURNT palaces built atop wood atop warriors. WOOD burnt too. Eighty BEST seals for HEAD-makers. Bodies made from molds. Pit One 230 meters long. 6000 statues in Pit One, Pit Two isn't ready, Pit 3 has 68 figures. By COINCIDENCE, no one working TODAY, as no one was working when I was here in 1981. Tallest warrior is 1.98 meters. 700,000 criminals worked 37 years to build tomb. To movie, 40Y, to 12:22, say MOST of 20-minute film. Pit Two (VERY undug) to 12:50, Pit Three CLOSED, but SMALL and only 58 figures and deer horn drinking vessels. CD-ROM for 100Y! Leave 1:10. Buy 12 cards for $1. To lunch 1:30-2:20. Herbal medicine: snake in alcohol, you can call it snaw-key (like sake). #31 Huaqing Hot Springs to 3PM. To pottery shop 3:30-4:30! I write CARDS. To hospital 5PM: talk, cure Jan's shoulder, take pulses, and sell 1-9 medicines from 360-450Y/month, and takes Visa. For me 810Y! GREAT! To 6:10. To 6:30 after MASSAGES. To restaurant 6:50-8:20: TOTALLY stuffed on DUMPLINGS, all of which tasted more or less the same. [Tomorrow: 7:30 wake, 8AM bag out, 8:40 leave, don't forget 90Y airport tax.] To hotel 8:30, Lynn insists I TAKE eight 5Y stamps, and at 8:40 I'm UNBELIEVABLY tired! Try flicking TV, bed 9:50PM. 10:35 pee.
SUNDAY, NOV. 2: 3:35 pee. Up 6:25 to pack. STUFF to wakeup call at 7:30. Bag out 7:45. THEN there's my DOP kit! Stuff into shoulderbag. Down at 8. Mail postcards. Breakfast 8:10-8:50. Laara and Diane not showed up YET. Back to room to shit and brush teeth, watching old "Kreimhild's Revenge" to 8:55AM. Check out at 9AM and Li says "I'm the first one down" when I ask where to leave Jenny's carryon that she directs porter to follow me with. VERY smoggy, and Tom suggests THAT has a lot to do with ALL our respiratory problems! "Only" nine bags to be checked in. So I suspect others are toting backpacks AND carryons! Perverse Jenny decides to TAKE horn, needing to change check-in list from 10 to 9. Laara trips over my foot for the seventh time, "Oh, sorry, Bob," infinitely. Get on bus at LAST at 9:17AM! "Rong" apple juice brand. West City gate 9:40. #36 ORIGINAL Ming West Xian gate from 1380. RACE to 10:20, SHOP to 10:35. To silk embroidery factory at 10:45. TURN silk carpet and it CHANGES from dark to LIGHT! Mostly closed---everyone shopped out? 11:15 to airport, CNWA restaurant at 12:10---thumb REALLY hurts when I write EVEN TWO LINES!! Out at 1PM. Then check in by 1:40, sit on SIDE and others go to FRONT, after looking at SHOP. Lovely Jan gives me 10-A (seats to L), bless her! Board at 2 and everyone SCATTERS to windows. ONLY cute guy helps Jenny store her carryon. Get a MODEL PLANE as we PULL OUT at 2:13. Off at 2:40. #1 at 4:30 IMMENSE city. #2-11 Landing in Kowloon! at 4:50. 2:10 flight, not 2:30! Out "Group arrivals" and meet guy 5:30. To hotel at 6, to room 607 and at 6:09 find there are no PERSONAL listings by telephone, so no Doug Oxley. No CONSUMERS yellow pages so no restaurants, French. Watch Lois and Clark MARRY, and out at 7:10. Change $20 into 144HK, walk down Nathan to Cultural Center, ask for program, see "The Pilgrim," ask for $80 ticket. "Over 60?" Yes. "$40." "$50 for $100?" "OK." Good seat, neat auditorium with full western orchestra, small Chinese orchestra, soloists, chorus, and organ overtops them all. But music is pretty BAD, so I cough and leave at 8:45. See people dining on 4th floor of YMCA. OK for me. Ask for vegetable lasagna and water, but then it hits me: "Take Visa?" "Yes," so I ask for half a carafe of white wine TOO. Dine overlooking harbor 9-9:45. Walk back to 10:10. Watch "Total Recall" to 11:40. Bed.
MONDAY, NOV. 3: 4:35 pee. 7:05 shit big. Up 7:40 to shower. To 8, VERY nice. Breakfast 8:10-9:05, telling ALL about my evening, and board bus at 9:12. Victoria Peak 9:50-10:35, GREAT. Aberdeen flat 11-11:20. Boat ride 11:30-12. Tay Sin Lin (TSL) Jewelry, aka Dynasty Jewelry from 12:05-1:10! Sell last 40Y to diane for $5US! Afternoon bus to Stanley Market? Star Ferry to "Stanley" bus. To hotel 1:25. ONLY PM tour is Victoria Peak and Aberdeen, or Harbor Tour. Only undone DAY tour to Lantau Island is $77US! Better stay with MUSEUMS. Decide to "Stanley" after recharging battery and changing $20. Kowloon Park Sculpture Garden, lost in CHINA ferry underground, 2:50 Star for 2.2HK to 2:55, onto Stanley bus 2:57! Off 3:30 for 10HK (passenger gives me the correct change) and 3:35 have GOOD Delifrance tune mayonnaise for 19.50HK! With BEATLES tapes! To 4PM Sun Pat Kan Sitting-Out Area: UNBUILT beach and hills. To 4:40, buy two silk ties for 20HK! On bus for 8HK, double-deck, I'm on top, at 4:45. 5:25 to Star Ferry, lost for a good bit on streets. To Kowloon 5:40, circle Regent Hotel on viewway and get their brochure at 6PM and over for one from the Peninsula Hotel at 6:20PM. 6:40 McDonald's huffy: NO cameras, unlike prior Haagen-Daaz. To hotel 6:50, HOT and DRY. Shit, drink, wash face, see NICE fruit bowl, and down at 7 and at 7:12 Jenny STILL not down. Thomas's wife Camus designed the 9-course menu: 1) assorted meats (which we didn't have), 2) seafood sweet corn soup, 3) shrimp stirfry with nuts, 4) baked cheese garupa (fish), best of the lot, 5) bean sprouts with ham and mushrooms, 6) deep fried chicken, 7) fried rice, 8) noodles, 9) walnut sweet soup. Leave at 9:30, give them OAT's fax-number so they can check on my having or not having Wyndham Hotel reservation, watch TV, and bed at 10:45.
TUESDAY, NOV. 4: 3:20 wake. 4:40 pee. 5:20 leg cramp. 6:30 dream of riding in left front of sightseeing bus which hits the back of a truck entering highway from left. I turn my head and feel a dusting of dirt on the back of my neck. The windshield's unbroken, but Jenny is limping off between two women, saying her leg has been broken, which I think is just her hysteria. Up at 7:35 to brood and shit, and at 8 I shower, nose STILL stuffed and bloody. To breakfast 8:35. Left shoe is starting to tear above heel. SO MANY cell phones here! To room at 9:10, having hugged Diane and Laara goodbye. Take bags (THREE!) to room 606 and leave them in closet and hug Jan goodbye and tell Linda her nose is dripping blood. Jan says, "Tell Lynn and Tom to wait for me," but I assume THEY must but their bags in room 606 TEE. To lobby at 9:31 to wait for them. This time-recording may be SO useless! Leave AFTER checking out at 9:45 and walk to Fine Arts Museum. SO many paintings of things WITHOUT people, or immense landscapes with only two people or scholars attended by their smooth-faced boys, reclining while the boy makes tea. So many idle ladies in lovely costume. So many empty landscapes, where now what China has is PEOPLE. Get tired of animals and flowers and ceramics, collect lots of paper, NO photos. Go down at 11:55 to find SHOP. They buy stuff and we leave at 12:20 to FORCE our way inside Harborside Restaurant for lunch at Regent Hotel, GREAT layout of fries, salad, cornears and burger for me, club sandwich for Lynn, and shrimp for Tom. Chardonnay 1995 Wente for 250HK, and total bill is over $700, or $100US! They insist on paying and I say we meet at 6 for shabu-shabu, which our WAITER explains to them. Leave at 1:50 and I'm to Space Museum for 35HK senior discount for entry and two movies: "Whales" from 2:30-3:15, mainly around Valdez Peninsula in South America, and "Cosmic Voyage" from 3:30-4:10. Whales has GREAT shots, distorted from side. "Universe" from 4:30-4:35. Leave 5:35 after LOTS of exhibits. Back at 5:35, tired of walk from hotel to foot of Nathan Street. Phone room 606, no answer, and they meet me in lobby, give me key, I put bag in room and we go to shabu beef as first customers at 6:15. Good meal, green tea ice cream, and pay 594HK, 10% service charge for tip. Back at 7:30 to repack EASILY. They do down, and I leave at 7:52. Laara and Diane LEFT 170HK ROOM bill unpaid! Leave 8:05 and get to airport at 8:25: it seems to be right in the CENTER of the city! Check in at seat 64A at 8:30, boarding at 10. To waiting area at 8:45, TIRED! Pee, finish Bradbury: Quicker than the Eye," at 9:35PM. One hour wait, ten hour flight, 12 hour layover, 5 hour flight equals 28 hours, over half the time in the air. Board in row 64 of 69! 10:40: flight will be 11:35! DAMN! MOST APPALLINGLY shaky and LOW takeoff at 11:05! Side-to-side and up-and-down and rattling and roaring, all Kowloon JUST below us, and a HUGE circle around Hong Kong Island, would be GLORIOUS in daytime and VERY impressive at night. WASHED OUT by 11:35, no more lights below. TRY to sleep, refuse supper, but can't. "My Best Friend's Wedding" starts & I watch it til 3:20. Plane VERY bumpy and I HATE it! BUT it's starting to get LIGHT and I can at LEAST watch cloud tops and it IS 4 hours and 20 minutes over, over 1/3 finished. Listen to classical music & TRY to feel CALMER! "The Soong Sisters" from 4-6AM, pretty bad. Still over ocean. Change clock BACK four hours to Los Angeles time. 2:10-4:10 "Speed 2: Cruise Control" OK, no more. Pee. Getting HUNGRY. Finish SundayTimes puzzles by5:05PM. Sun's GONE from CLOUDS at5:30PM! BOO! FINALLY see San Francisco lights at 5:40, and down coast. Fabulous CLEAR LA lights; land at 6:35, 11.5 hours! 7:20 out to wait for Hotel Wyndham transport. No Don Maloof, natch. Bus instantly, into room 937 at 7:55, TIRED. Leave 6AM wakeup call and get to bed at 8:25. 11:40PM pee, feeling AWFUL!
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 5: 2:50AM pee (feeling HALF good). Real nasal-mucus problems to 3:45! Start Actualism at 4:10, when it's clear I won't easily sleep. Start thinking A: I need the "Joy" energies, but can't remember the fourth after 1) Joyous Warrior, 2) Joy of Living, and 3) Joy of Being in Form. B: I need to make a TRAVEL list that includes 1) Easter Island with Tahiti-South Pacific Islands, Fiji, Great Barrier Reed, 2) Souzhu, Guelin, Laoshin buddha, Sigatse, Mindroling, Tashkent, Samarkand, 3) New Borobudur and Angkor, 4) Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and Saint Petersburg, 5) Angel Falls, 6) MORE Himalaya fringes, north India, Switzerland Alps. C: I REALLY need more sex: 1) find what's with Tony, 2) smoke grass and videotape Bob Rosinek, 3) back to J's and Eagle for new partners. Write THAT 5:15-5:20 to clear mind to FINISH Actualism by 6, shower, breakfast, and get into DAY, now that, after 2.5 hours, my nose can BREATHE again! Up at 5:50, feeling pretty GOOD. CAN'T find LOCK key---MUST have slipped OUT of pant's pocket as I tried to sleep on Cathay Pacific flight! Breakfast 6:30-6:50. They WON'T give discount and I pay $147! NOT happy. Out to bus at 7 and "waiting for one more" AGAIN. Horrendous American Airlines ONE check-in line at 7:10AM! At 7:15 they open INTERNATIONAL desks for 8AM check-in! Get to gate, all set, at 7:28AM. Whew! Board nicely behind wing, plane fills by 7:50. 4:50 flight. 48° in NYC, YEAH! Off at 8:20, clouds over LA but for TOP of ONE hill, and CLEAR over west! #23 9:05AM GREAT red rocks. Breakfast at 9:15-9:35, ANOTHER omelet. Clear, then half cloudy. I read Baker's book. Start down at 3:35. Hudson River photos and land at 4:10PM. Into cab at 4:50. Fastish ride for $33 getting home at 5:43, late because of a DETOUR on HICKS Street, last glitch in glitch-filled trip! Return with $94.49 in cash, so I spent $450. Blue bag went from 14 to 32 pounds, shoulderbag from 16 to 21, totals from 30 pounds to 53 pounds, more than an 80% increase! Messages from Marilyn, Shelley, Mildred, Mercy, and Vicki. 5:50-6:55 phone Marj, John (no Times), Arnold, Pope. Find SPARE lock-key! Leave word with Shelley, Vicki, Sherryl, Carolyn, Charles, and Marilyn. Talk to Mildred and Bill Peterson. Cum, & bed at 10:55, sleep ALMOST at ONCE!
TIBET/CHINA TRIP - SUMMARY
MON,OCT.13: Four hours sleep. Take only 30# of luggage. American Airlines 5:20 flight to Los Angeles 8:20AM(NY)-11:35AM(LA), great views. China Eastern Airlines leaves 1PM, up California coast, Alaska clear below. Good meals.
TUE,OCT.14: Russia & China landscapes. Land Beijing 4:18PM. Not meet guide!
WED,OCT.15: 5:45AM wakeup, 2:25 flight to Chengdu; panda reserve, Du Fu cottage and exhibits, good (peppery/teary) dinner. Bed 8:50PM to 4:45AM call!
THU,OCT.16: Dark to flight 6:45-8:43AM to Lhasa after 1.5-hour busride. Stop in village, tour Norbulinka Palace & Superm-arket, mediocre dinner, 9:30 bed!
FRI,OCT.17: Cold! Breakfast buffet great. Potala Palace 3 hrs, square and markets. Tibetan Medical and Jokhang Temple, unappetizing meat & vegetables.
SAT,OCT.18: Poor sleep: altitude! Drepung Monastery & rug factory. Silver Palace poor lunch. Sera Monastery & debating monks. Markets & yak burger.
SUN,OCT.19: Bus to Tse Dang; reconstructed Samye Monastery by ferry over Brahmaputra and truck-back; dim, grim hotel, terrible dinner, exhausting.
MON,OCT.20: Dry clogged nose. Countryside for "oldest house. Lunch at Ya-Xiang-La-Po: good pork-stuffed eggplant. Markets. Awful Gesaer's dinner.UGH!
TUE,OCT.21: Dark bus-ride to airport to Chengdu, second flight great views to Beijing. Hospital for Joyce's ligament. "JerichoFever/EigerSanction"+6 group.
WED,OCT.22: Good hotel at last, Tienanman Square, Forbidden City, Temple of the Sun Restaurant lunch; Temple of Heaven, mediocre Peking Duck&PekingOpera.
THU,OCT.23: Cloisonné Factory, Chingling Ming Tomb, Friendship Shop Golden Palace lunch, Badaling Great Wall,traffic accident, PearlWorld."JewelOfNile."
FRI,OCT.24: TV in room, pandas in zoo, Summer Palace, ZiYu Hotel lunch awful, fly to Xian for Airways Hotel, another mediocre meal of greenery &fatty meat.
SAT,OCT.25: Empty plane for great Taklamakan flight to Dunhaung; Museum, Mogao Caves incredible; camel-ride in dunes, rug shop, night train to Turfan.
SUN,OCT.26: Coffee-milk-egg-angel-food-cake breakfast, "fast Islam food" lunch at hotel, Gaochang ruins & Astana tombs & Bezikelek Caves;Night Market.
MON,OCT.27: Jiaohe vertical cave, Kerez irrigation & dance, bus to Urumqi via Mt. Bogda; Grand(I)slam Hotel for good sweet tea dinner; Holiday Inn Hotel.
TUE,OCT.28: Heavenly Lake above smog in AM, boat ride, yurt tour; Fun Kang country lunch poor; Museum for mummies, ethnic groups; fly to Kashgar POOR.
WED,OCT.29: Cold room, no shower. Peanuts, bread&honey, boiled egg breakfast. Tomb of Concubine, bazaar, Handicraft Street, Idkah Mosque, many more shops.
THU,OCT.30: Hanoi ruins by taxi; distant Three Caves. Uiger home for lunch, walk old city, animal market, jade center, back to squalid room & poor food.
FRI,OCT.31: Sinus TORTURE. Great flight to Xian and "best museum in Asia" for two hours, Big Wild Goose Pagoda climb, dinner & Dynasty Hotel for Dance Eve.
SAT,NOV.1: Herbal market, traffic jams, terracotta warriors and chariots FAB. Huaqing Hot Springs, Pottery shop, Chinese Hospital herbs&massages.Dumplings.
SUN,NOV.2: "Kreimhild's Revenge" on TV! Original Ming West Xian Gate Race. Silk Factory. CNWA Restaurant lunch; fly to Hong Kong. "Pilgrim"&YMCA dinner.
MON,NOV.3: Victoria Peak tour, Aberdeen flat, jewelry. Stanley Market by bus. Good Delifrance tuna mayonnaise lunch. Regent Hotel tour, farewell dinner.
TUE,NOV.4: Fine Arts Museum, Regent Hotel Harborside Restaurant lunch, Space Museum for "Whales" and "Cosmic Voyage." Finish Bradbury&leave HongKong 11PM.
TUE,NOV.4 (dateline crossing): "My Best Friend's Wedding," "Soong Sisters," & "Speed 2: Cruise Control" movies, land in LA 6:35PM. Too-expensive Wyndham!
WED,NOV.5: Breakfast in hotel, fly 8:20AM(LA)-4:10PM(NY), taxi home, relax!
THU,NOV.6-SUN,NOV.16: Try to recover from jetlag, though I feel VERY tired every evening around 8PM. I have to PUSH myself to say that the trip WAS worth it, except the food was so poor, some of the hotels were so uncomfortable, and the group loved to SHOP so much. Undoubtedly the Dunhuang caves, the newly-found terracotta warriors, and Kashgar ITSELF was worth the trip. But Lhasa was SO uncomfortably cold and altitude-troubled, SO full of Chinese who hated the Tibetans, but Tse Dang was SO inhospitable UNDER the Chinese I get the impression they don't WANT us to travel to Tibet. But I still want to see Xigatse and Mindroling and other Tibetan locations & roads!
(RETURN TO JOURNALS 10/13/97).