Playing Tourist in My Own Country (Trip's End)

NOTE:  Yup, this is a bit of a long one, trying to squeeze in my six weeks in the US into one post.  But, at last, finally finally I can now say I finished my RTW blog a mere two months late.  In fact, I feel like it's time for a...

Right, so after four weeks among the frenzied chaos and energy of China, my next leg had me heading up to Mongolia.  An abrupt transition from the Great Wall to the great Mongolian steppes and mountains intrigued me; I was pretty fired up to spend a month in this country that is more than merely exotic, more than merely a name I only knew from playing RISK back in the day.

Nope, Mongolia is far more than that... promising me sights of the birthplace of Genghis Khan and Mongolian BBQ, unforgettable (if not exactly tasty) cocktails made of fermented mare's milk and stunning vistas so sweeping that photographs barely do them justice.

But, life does have a way of throwing the odd curveball every now and again (um, that's like a googly to you cricket-loving Brits), and you just have to adjust.  In this case, my folks called a week before my China leg ended and gave me the scary news that my dad was going in for a fairly risky surgery on short notice.

Right.  Scratched the trip, and rebooked immediately a flight for SF...  With a frantic email to my travel agent, I was booked on a flight, not to Ulan Bataar, but a three leg flight from Beijing to Tokyo, LA, and then SF.

It was quite a culture shock, to go from the booming but raw energy of Bejing to the laid-back, "it's cool, man" culture of San Francisco.  But, it was a nice problem to have, and the first few days flew by in a blur, turning into weeks and then over a month.

First, the most important bit... my dad came through the surgery with flying colors.  Hurrah to the UCSF medical team - who rock.  My mom, brother, and I were all able to celebrate first over a burger in the always cool Carl/Cole neighborhood, and then a curry and several whiskies as we explored a bit of SF's Inner Sunset district.

Once that huge weight was off our shoulders, I took stock.  While not Mongolia, I resolved that with six weeks in SF, there was no good reason I couldn't play tourist in my own country.  It's the same old story - you live in an amazing place for most of your life, and keep meaning to get to certain sights "someday", yet never do.

Well, over the next few weeks, in between some good all-around faffing and catching up with family and friends, plus showing a remarkable lack of skill playing soccer on my brother's indoor team...

...I made a fair stab at reducing the list, starting with a day hike at Muir Woods.  Think really big redwood trees.  Huge.

... to finally exploring the north tip of the world-class nature preserve at Point Reyes

... checking out the trails of the Marin Headlands and their sublime view back toward SF

... climbed to the top of Mt. St. Helena, overlooking Sonoma and Napa counties, with the bonus of finding a hiking partner who was a spitting image of Gimli the dwarf from Lord of the Rings.

... day trip flying kites and exploring Mendocino with my friend Emily

... reliving my uni days at Berkeley, including gorging on the classic Cal institution - Steve's Korean BBQ...

... and of course watching far too much World Cup, including the final with my mom and brother at a pub which had me drinking a beer at 11am.  Quite a first in front of my parents!

... plus some day trips to SF and two reunions.  The first was super fun and a great excuse for all the Hawkins clan to come together, play golf and poker, and heckle every few years.  In this case, I found out that my youngest cousins are now drinking age, and one is even playing ultimate.  Crazy.

But the other was my (gasp) 20th high school reunion... I'm sure everyone says the same thing, but man, does it strain credibility to think that we've been out for so long.  It makes us sound very nearly adult, and that's a scary thought.  But, it was a great time, catching up with loads of fun folks, and realizing that despite all of the hijinks we pulled and (somehow) survived, we actually turned out okay...

I didn't just stick around the Bay Area either, as my friend Emily and I headed off on yet another of our road trips - in this case, a week plus exploring the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.  Way, way too many good memories to list here, especially as Dave and Drea met up with us for two days as well.  We'll just call it one of our best road trips ever.  Period.

Finally, I got in a few days up in "the city that I could definitely see myself moving to" - Portland, Oregon.  A great mix of San Francisco's culture without the sticker shock, plus Seattle's forests and mountains with a bit less rain, Portland's an amazing place.  Throw in a city that loves bicycles, and I'm pretty much sold on the place :)

In this case, I got to catch up again with my good friends Ross and Tracy, plus Dave and Drea in their fantastic new house.  Well, "new" can be misleading.  Built in the early 1900's, what would be a relatively recent subdivision in the UK qualifies it as a near-museum piece in our young country.

Beers were drunk, and we regressed big-time, from playing with Ross and Tracy's great kids to getting our video game fix in a pub that featured 50+ old school games from the 80's and dozens of pinball machines besides.

That should have been it for the RTW trip.  I had it planned that I would fly back to SF, have a full day with the family, and then head out the 16th for London.  Except... except for one minor detail that didn't smack me in the face until 1:00pm on the 15th.  Yup, turns out my flight back to the UK was that very day, at 5:00pm.

Drat.  Darn.  Sugar.  (or insert your own favorite swear word here)

It all worked out, but after frantically trying to contact customer service, my travel agent, and whomever else, then chucking the heaps of stuff I'd accumulated in my travels and in the States into two bags, my Mom, Emily and I all piled into the car and bombed down to SF at warp speed... only to find out I missed the flight by 10 minutes.

(Repeat swearing here.)

But all's well that ends well, as Virgin was decidedly UN-RyanAir-like, and rescheduled my flight for the next day at no extra cost.  So, after all that stress and anxiety, I got to do a last BBQ for my family and Emily as we originally planned.  Perfect, and I'm sure I'll be reminded of my error many times down the road - heckling by the family is a great way to end three and a half months of travelling...

Now that I'm back in London - my next task?  Forget Kilimanjaro or Everest... it's all about finding a job back in London.  Know anyone who's hiring? ;)

Beijing: Big, Burly, and...Bodacious?

Vanessa Williams, one hit wonder from the 80's, got famous singing that you should save the best for last... and planning a trip to China was no different. After taking in stunning natural surroundings in Yangshuo and Dali, pandas in Chengdu, and the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an, my last stop saw me with three days in the ancient city of Beijing (or Peking as the diplomats often insist on calling it)... and I wasn't all that confident that Beijing would be able to measure up.

The city was quick to prove me well wrong.

Since it's early in the morning as I write this and caffeine is just starting to course through my system, AND since Beijing is a massive, complicated city that defies easy characterization, I figured I'd go the Sesame Street/Cookie Monster route... and describe Beijing around words that start with B.

BIG: Duh. Might as well get this out of the way... Beijing is big - really big. With something like 22 million people and growing, it sprawls all over the place. Thankfully, you've got the choice of a great underground metro system, sitting on buses in traffic, or seriously getting your walk on.

BRUSQUE: Yeah, this is one of the downsides of China. Like a lot of places, there's a noticeable inverse proportion of politeness to the size of the cities. In a nutshell - "The bigger the place, the less smiles on the face." For example, in the smallest of villages or towns, the Chinese proved so incredibly friendly and helpful, from offering a ride in their tractor to surprising us with free tea and coffee on our hike rest stop.

But Beijing echoed my experiences in China's other cities... with such masses of people, politeness does go out the window a bit, with being bumped as you walk in the street a common thing, and a smile of apology a jaw-dropping rarity.

BOISTEROUS: With the economy booming, and China being justifiably proud at the incredible progress they've made in the last generation, there's a definite energy to the city. From the fast-walking people, and everywhere from the poshest of skyscrapers to the most local of street stalls, Beijing feels like it's on the move, with everyone keen to get a piece of the action.

BEAUTIFUL: Taking all of that aside, the bottom line is that Beijing and its surroundings are gorgeous. Sure, there's pollution, and traffic, and a host of other problems that this rapidly surging metropolis has to deal with, but that just makes the petite pockets of prettiness (sorry - couldn't resist the alliteration) stand out that much more. From the quiet halls of the Forbidden City, the tiny alleys of the hutongs, and of course the Great Wall, Beijing continually surprised and impressed at every turn.

BODACIOUS: Well, not really, but as a child of the 80's, I couldn't resist throwing this in.  For bonus points, I'll even add in one more - gnarly.

Right, coming from Xi'an, I got settled in my hostel, smack dab in one of Beijing's hutongs - historic neighborhoods famous for their narrow alley roads, hidden courtyards, and all around coolness. They used to be all working-class areas, and many have been flattened for development, but thankfully the Chinese government has recognized what a treasure they are and protected many.

This place was pretty cool, with doors that opened into a blessed oasis of calm, and complete with super-friendly owners, and, if not helpful, then at least super-cute kittens:

My first day around was spent doing the standard tourist bits, starting in that most mammoth of city plazas - Tiananmen Square. Words like huge and gigantic barely cover it, as it can hold hundreds of thousands of people without a problem:

It's a must see location for tourists foreign and Chinese alike, with everything from Mao's tomb and proud statues celebrating the communist victory...

...to the entrance to the Forbidden City. Security is pretty tight here - and they tend to be a grumpy-appearing lot:

I got in some pics of the mammoth gate, with its iconic picture of Mao but then headed out to explore more of the city, saving the Forbidden City for another day.

Lonely Planet steered me to a great little local kite shop, and I picked up a few Chinese dragon kites that somehow made it back to London intact.

The rest of the afternoon was mostly doing my favorite thing - walking wherever struck my fancy. Making a reconnaissance run into the Silk Alley, a five story shopping mall famous for its knock-offs and fierce FIERCE bargaining, I ended up having a massive meal in a city park. My favorite chili green beans made yet another appearance, but i also got in some awesome, if very greasy, western Chinese-spiced ribs.

My second day was one of the best of the entire trip - hands down. I took up Lonely Planet's suggestion of a full day trip to the Great Wall that included a three hour drive each way. Painful, sure, but taking the longer journey to the Simatai to Jinshanling section meant that we ended up having the Wall mostly to ourselves.

The Wall just took my breath away... sure, I had seen hundreds of pictures over the years, but reality... reality is entirely different. After an hour hike up a steep slope, and then an even steeper climb up crumbling stairs, we got to look back on... well... this:

A grinning older Chinese guy selling sodas was up their grinning as we caught our breath, and in broken English we both agreed that he had a fantastic place to work. : )

All in, we got to hike about 6 km (4 miles) up and down the Wall, and we kept pinching ourselves at how stunning it was:

The history bit of the Wall is that it served a couple of functions. First, although mostly a non-contiguous border, it was always intended as ad defense against the Mongols, but the simple expedient of bribing the guards or just going around the ends of the wall defeated that.

But the Wall also served as a great communications link and highway - letting traders, messengers and soldiers easily move back and forth. It might even have served as ancient Keynesian economic tool - letting the Chinese emperors keep their subjects employed and busy even in a down economy.

After we headed back down, we treated ourselves to much-deserved beers to rehydrate from baking in the heat, and then it was back to Beijing.  A three hour drive stretched to four, fighting through some horrific traffic jams along the way, not helped by the Chinese view that if traffic rules don't work in your favor, make up new ones. It was... exciting.

My last day was a full one, as I got an early start with the Forbidden City. Getting there at 8am, I shared the dawn with the gardeners, and well in advance of most of the tourists.

The City is really a series of connected palaces, and were forbidden to commoners or foreigners for hundreds of years. Thankfully, we could now wander around and take in the sights - from the courtyard where tens of thousands of troops could be reviewed, to modern day guards training to be rigidly perfect in their marching:

The carvings and statues were almost too many to count, but at every turn, there was something else to take in admire, including these ancient bronze lions and brass firefighting water containers:

And I had a grin with a mom, after showing her this picture of her cute son clowning around...

Walking mile after mile of corridors wore me out, and with the ever-increasing crowds, it was time to beat feet, and check out Jingshan Park and it's amazing view over Beijing:

Cultural bits done, the rest of the day was devoted to stocking up and filling my backpack, as I had to get some non-backpacking clothes for my 20th high school reunion back in the States. From wandering around some hutongs and my favorite stop - an 80 year's traditional toymaker's....

...I did a quick stop at the sprawling Lama Temple complex...

... but it was time to take a deep breath and head into Silk Alley and its own brand of sheer shopping chaos. When my own frenzy came to close, I took stock and realized that I had stocked up on surprisingly good fake Polo shirts, picked up handmade trousers, and a whole bunch of stuff that just might make an appearance for my family at Christmas. By the end of the day, I was barely able to close my backpack, but more than content, the rest of the night was spent screaming myself hoarse at an Irish pub with a bunch of US expats, watching Landon Donovan score a last second goal to let us advance in the World Cup.

And as a final B-word nod to the 80's... bitchin'!  And a perfect way to go to sleep, before catching an early flight to Tokyo and then to the US to bring this leg of my RTW trip to a close.