In 1577, a monestary was built at the birthplace of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa sect of Buddhism. It was called Kumbum Jampa Ling, which means “supreme Buddhist temple with one hundred thousand lions’ roar Buddhist images”.
These stupas greet you at the entrance of the monestary.
In its hay day, this temple was home to 3600 monks. Rulers during the Qing dynasty donated Buddhist art, stupas, statues and many other treasures. Even today, Kumbum is home to more than 100,000 relics. In other words, it is a very important location for Buddhism, and also for history.
Judging by this photo courtesy of Wikipedia, the monestary looked like more of a village than a monestary. The place was huge!!
Now, around 400 monks still live at the monestary, and even though it isn’t the same as it once was, it is still a very impressive place to visit. We spent 3 hours roaming around the monestary, admiring the architecture, Buddha’s, art, and the scenic environment.
Photography is forbidden in the temples, so most of my photos are of the outside of the buildings.
What impressed me most about Kumbum temple was the architecture. I’ve never seen so many colours (except maybe in India!). Every building has elaborate designs and the most vibrant colors! There were a few rooms that allowed photos, so I was able to get some examples for you.
We saw worshippers praying, enormous prayer wheels and so many impressive Buddha’s. So much of the most beautiful things in the temple couldn’t be photographed, of course, but I was very happy that there were a few places where it was permitted.
There were quite a few tourists and pilgrims at the monestary. Kumbum is considered one of the most important temples in the Tibetan Plateau. Many people were there to pray, light candles, and worship in various ways. It always upsets me when I see people taking photos of pilgrims or items of religious importance. When we first walked in, several monks were telling off some Chinese tourists for photographing them as they were walking around the Stupas. I had actually been photographing the Stupas at that time and I made sure those pilgrims knew that I had my camera up and focusing on the structures, and not on them.
There are plenty of interesting things to take photos of without disrespecting the people there worshipping.
One other thing that really made me feel good about monestary was the wildlife. There were also many friendly felines roaming the monestary. They seemed well fed and friendly. A good sign that the people living there treat them well.
I certainly recommend this monestary for anyone visiting Qinghai. Located about a 1 hour Didi ride from Xining, Kumbum is a beautiful place to visit and with an entrance fee of less than 100rmb ($20), it’s an affordable place to see.
Love the Tibetan style windows!!
We’re just getting started on this trip! Check back soon for more!!
Qinghai is a massive province in China. I hadn’t actually realized how big it is, until I started deciding what we would do here. And in this massive province, there is also an enormous lake by the same name: Qinghai.
It is so large it even shows up on most maps.
Qinghai is China’s biggest lake, but it only actually ranks 36th in the world. Lake Superior, Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg are all bigger, but I have to say that Qinghai’s setting was still something quite beautiful to see!
Endless water
Nearly 4500kms square, this giant body of water is located in part of the Tibetan Plateau. There is Tibetan culture here everywhere you look. From the Yaks to the prayer flags, you can feel that you aren’t on the east coast of China anymore!
Yaks are way too cute!!!
On the lake itself, there isn’t a lot to do. You can rent a motorbike or bicycle, but we chose to walk along the beach instead, taking in the cool, fresh air. All along that particular area, you can rent traditional Tibetan Robes for photo ops, and you can even ride a Yak into the water.
We skipped this
Of course, getting to Qinghai Lake is half the fun, as far as I’m concerned. We originally intended to take the bus, but when we saw the lineup, we opted to hire a van instead. The roads were a little scary, and our driver was under the impression that we were in a Nascar race, but we made a few stops that certainly made the trip worth it.
Not that Qinghai wasn’t spectacular… But it was nice to get more than just this one thing out of 5 hours on the road.
On our way to the lake, we stopped at one lookout, and got some photos. I was happy to have my Canon with me so that I could zoom in. We didn’t get very close by, but at least I got to see some of the beautiful art!
On our way back, we also stopped for some more Tibetan culture at Jia Yi Temple. This particular spot was a bit off of a road and we were able to get out of the car and explore a little bit.
Such a nice spot to stretch our legs!
I actually prefer taking buses over hiring a van most of the time, but this last stop actually made the van ride worth it, as far as I was concerned. Sometimes it’s better to be a little cramped, and to spend a little more, because you might end up with extra experiences too!
Tomorrow we check out more Tibetan Culture! Check back!!
Sanya is a hot spot for tourism in China. It’s considered the Hawaii of China, and every Christmas and Spring Festival tourists flock to the beaches to catch some sun and do some surfing. It is quite possibly one of the most touristy areas in China, and it’s easy to see why.
Who doesn’t love palm trees and ocean?
I do think that a lot of tourists make the mistake of never leaving Sanya though. Aside from a few days trips, people head to the south coast of Hainan province and don’t really venture out to the rest of the island. It’s a shame, because there’s so much more to Hainan than just Sanya! The island’s capital, for example, has been one of the highlights of our trip!
From our very first stop in the city, we were in love. You’ll find Coconut ‘everything’ in Haikou!! This was a small cafe we found just a few doors down from the hotel where we were staying.
We didn’t get to spend a lot of time in Haikou, unfortunately, but we made the most of the time we had. There were 2 things that really stood out to us in this city (aside from seeing our friends Jonathan and Duygu, of course): The Food and the Volcano Park.
Christmas walk with friends!
The Food
We tried several great restaurants in Haikou. The first was for Christmas dinner. The Chimac is a popular western restaurant. The owner, David Chon, is a Korean American who clearly takes pride in his restaurant. He put together a special menu for Christmas dinner and we were lucky enough to get a table. I was so impressed with the smoked salmon! They smoked it themselves and ran out so quickly that they had to get more in before their Christmas event!!
A lovely way to spend Christmas Dinner!!
Chimack is not the only place to get great food in Haikou either. We also enjoyed a great dinner at an Indian restaurant near the train station and University. Chilli Delhi honestly had some of the best Indian food I’ve had in China, and at much better prices than we pay in Suzhou. Best of all, there’s no loss of quality!
Chicken in a saffron and almond gravy! Unreal!!!
Our favorite foodie stop in Haikou though, was for breakfast. Now… I’m not really much of a fan of Chinese breakfasts. I’ve never cared for congee, which is essentially watery rice, and the dough sticks are pretty flavourless. I did like the spicy pancakes they serve in Guiyang, but overall, I generally stick with fruit here, if I have breakfast at all. Of course, there is 1 exception to this general rule of mine: DIM SUM!!
Dim Sum is a collection of many different types of dishes. My favourites are the steamed dumplings, but there are also plenty of meat choices, noodles and steamed bread.
When we found out about Yipinwei Food Garden, we knew we were going… Even if we had to drive the wrong way across the city to get there (which is exactly what we did). We were not disappointed! The food was fabulous. The service was fast and efficient. The price was amazing!! From start to finish we were impressed. The first thing our server asked when we sat down was if we wanted coffee! I think this was the first time that ever happened to us living in China! There are plenty of coffee shops in Haikou… Just one more thing making it a great city!!
They even made it with a Syphon…. Possibly my favourite method of making coffee!!!
Honestly, as I write this, I wish I was back there now! If we lived in Haikou, we would be at Yipinwei Food Garden every weekend!! Unfortunately, there isn’t much about the place available in English online, but the link I imbeded above does at least give you the address. (Just click on the blue text!) I encourage you to try the place out!!
Any restaurant this busy is gonna be good. Finding good places to eat in China is easy! Just look for a loud, happy group of diners!
We didn’t have a single disappointing meal in Haikou, but food isn’t the only reason to make a trip to Hainan’s capital! I’ll be writing more about that in my next post!
Huge thank you to Jonathan and Duygu who recommended all these awesome places!
We’ve seen more of China this year than I ever really expected to see. Although the rest of the world is still in lockdown and trying to stop the spread of COVID, China has remained quite safe since March. They’ve closed boarders, done mass testing, required people to wear masks in public places, done massive contact tracing and kept the public very aware of any pop ups of the virus. It’s kept us safe and has allowed us to travel this Christmas.
We are kept up to date on every case that arrives in China and every person who has been quarantined for the virus. They tell us where the person was exposed (if they were able to trace it) and what measures were taken to stop it from spreading.
We waited until the beginning of December to really make our travel plans, and even then, the plans remained tentative. We initially wanted to go to Hainan for 10 days, and then spend 2-3 up north in Harbin, where there is a large ice festival every year. To our dismay, a few new cases showed up in cities close to Harbin, so to play it safe, we cancelled that portion of our trip.
The cities that have COVID cases are on the boarder of Russia. The likelihood of ending up with the virus in Harbin is slim to none, but if any positive cases were discovered in Harbin, I’d be quarantined until my tests came back negative. It is an ordeal I’d rather avoid, so we cancelled that part of our trip.
In fact, we nearly wound up needing to cancel our time in Hainan as well, but all ended well and no positive cases were ever actually in the province, so on December 20th we head southward to the beautiful sub tropic island of Hainan!
Airport breakfasts are the worst, but hey…. At least we could go to an airport!!!
Hainan island is China’s southernmost province. It’s been called “the Hawaii of China” and tourists flock here to enjoy the beaches of Sanya. But there is more to the island than just sand and ocean. There is a rainforest here and large geoparks. Because this island was once volcanic, there are hot springs to enjoy as well as plenty of geological diversity. It’s a great place to see with a tonne of stuff to do.
Haikou is the province’s capital. Currently we’re on the southern tip of the island, but we’ll be heading up to Haikou for Christmas.
It seems that the island is very popular with Russian tourists, because there is Russian on most signs and menus. This year, the island is quite empty, and most of the tourists are teachers like me, who just wanted to get out of the big city and enjoy some fresh air.
There are many places on the island you can stay. Yalong Bay is on the pricier side, and Clear Water Bay is great if you’re looking to be cut off from the world. Dave and I decided on Dadonghai Beach. We are right by the ocean, which is very nice, and there are plenty of restaurants, shops and ways to get around in this area of Sanya. There are some nice hotels, but with reasonable price tags. We are paying about $80 a night to stay at a hotel 5 minutes away from the beach. Our gorgeous balcony and comfy bed are worth paying a bit extra for, although there were certainly plenty of options cheaper than Sanya South China Hotel.
We did have some trouble checking in (they didn’t have our booking in their system) but they upgraded us as a result so that was nice!!Our nice balconyOcean is right behind us
One thing we’ve found about Hainan so far is that not many bloggers have written about all the things there are to do here (and how to do them). We’re figuring stuff out as we go, and are very glad we already have some basic Chinese and know how to order Didis (Chinese Uber) and use public transport.
This is my public transport face. Staying safe in Sanya!
Check back soon! I’ve already got lots of write about!
Our next stop was in a small(ish) city called Jiayuguan. Although an important area historically, Jiayuguan is quite small, with a population of less than half a million people.
It almost looks like Winnipeg. You can see so much sky!!
There isn’t a lot to see here, but we still reserved a day of our trip for a quick visit, because although this isn’t a big city, it’s home to the western end of the Great Wall of China!
A very well restored wall, anyway!
Historically, Jiayuguan was very important. Not only was it the end of the wall, protecting China from ‘the outside’ but Jiayuguan was also an important part of the silk road (which allowed China to trade with ‘the outside’ and gain power with a strengthened economy). It was also a place of poetry and deep sadness; at least for anyone who was exiled, because this is where that usually happened.
Exiled into the vast Gobi desert
The Great Wall was built differently in different areas of the country. Near Beijing, we saw bricks and plaster made from rice and dirt. Here in Jiayuguan, sand and compressed dirt were used. The wall blends in beautifully with its surroundings.
Sand below, sand behind, sand all around!
I really liked the crumbly and ancient feel of Gubeiku Great Wall, and I was complaining that Jiuyuguan Pass was too ‘inauthentic’, but Dave pointed out one advantage of having it so well-restored: you’re able to see how the wall functioned.
City center
Jiayuguan Pass wasn’t just protecting open country side, as was in the case of other sections of the wall; it was also protecting a city. The way it was reconstructed allowed us to see what some of the important buildings looked like 700 years ago when the wall was still functional. That aspect of it was pretty cool.
Lots of history hereSeveral reconstructed buildings are also on siteGuard towers and lookouts where soldiers could see invaders coming from miles away, across the Gobi Desert.
All in all, I’m happy we went. I think if I had known a bit more, I would have skipped this portion of our trip and spent a bit more time hiking around Mati Si, but still… It was pretty cool to see the western end of the Great Wall of China!!
There were lots of camels there too, so that was a bonus!!!
Next, we went to Dunhuang, home of singing sand dunes and lots of Buddha’s! More on that next time!!
It’s China’s birthday, so we get a week off of work! We are still pretty bummed about not being able to go home this summer, and the COVID numbers here are still very low (because social distancing, closing boarders and making people wear masks works…), so we decided to do a bit of traveling!
We travelled to a north western province of China: Gansu
We decided on Gansu for a few reasons. Of course, I’ve always wanted to see the rainbow mountains (I’m writing this post from a camp right next to this beautiful geological formation), but also, Gansu is generally less crowded than places like Xi’an, Beijing or Shanghai. We loved our trip to Xi’an 3 years ago, but we don’t want a repeat of those crowds!!
No repeats, thanks!!
Gansu has so much to see. This province is home to the Gobi desert, some gorgeous temples, unbelievable geological formations and also some rich history.
The silk road went through Gansu, and you can even find part of the Great Wall of China in this province. We’ll be heading there next week!
Our first stop in Gansu, of course, was the province’s capital city: Lanzhou. There isn’t a lot to see there, but it is home to some pretty great food! Especially if you like naan, lamb and skewers!!!
P1: Lamb Skewers. P2: Spicy Naan. P3: Lamb Ribs
Of course, Lanzhou isn’t without sites to see. We spent most of the afternoon walking around Baita Mountain, which is home to a pretty cool pagoda. There are some beautiful views from up on the mountain and it’s a nice walk. You can take cable cars both up and down the mountain, if you don’t feel like doing the work.
There are some nice temples and shrines on your way upNice views of un-developed China to enjoy as well! There are nice benches along the way too, which is good because there are a LOT of stairs!!
At the top, the view is nice, and the pagoda is definitely worth seeing. It’s different from any pagoda I’ve ever seen because it looks like it’s made right from the earth around it, while most others are made of brightly painted wood.
After our trip up the mountain, we decided to take the cable car down. It was a bit of a wait but we chatted with some local people and had a good time of it. From there, we head down to another of Lanzhou’s best sites: the night market!
Masks went up, and we went in.
The market was a bit nutty but I was able to get some crazy photos to share with all of you. We had dinner at one of the best rated restaurants on the strip, and opted out of the food-stall choices. I don’t regret that decision….
Spicy tofu
Big hashbrowns
Chinese hamburgers (super good!!!)
Skewers galore!
Octopus balls
Stuffed chicken wings
Fried potato, tofu and more!
Stinky tofu. Smells terrible
Dumplings
Empty skewer sticks
Ready for the bbq!
Seafood
Chopping block
Sheep heads
Naan baking
Fresh fruit
Only bones remaining
A milky fermented soup that I can’t decide if I like or not. Dave loves it
Food Fun!
Lanzhou was worth a short visit, but it can’t compare with what we saw next! Stay tuned for my post on the Rainbow Mountains!
We’ve been back in China for over a week now, and although our quarantine is now technically over, we are still spending most of our time at home. Most things are still closed, so we haven’t had much choice. I thought you may all be wondering what it’s like back in Suzhou at the moment, so a quick update is in order.
Just finished my 3rd novel since we got back. Nothing like a little perspective to remind me that this whole “virus thing” really isn’t that bad….
The Trip Back to China
Our flight back to China was fairly uneventful. We put on our masks, and tried to get a bit of sleep. We landed at around 9:30 at Pudong airport, and that’s when we started seeing the differences in this country we’ve made our home…
Waiting for our flight in Kuala Lumpur
Pudong was remarkably empty. Even at 9:30, it’s usually a very busy place. We made it through customs quickly and got our luggage in record time. The emptiness wasn’t the strangest thing though… The hazmat suits are what unnerved me.
Nothing like getting off a plane and being greeted by people in space suits
All over the airport, there were people taking temperatures, wearing heavy-duty masks and full on plastic suits ranging from ‘that kinda looks like a trash bag’ to ‘whoa, that guy’s wearing a hazmat suit’. It felt like a scene from the movies. Still, we moved through without issue.
My temperature was probably taken about 10 times throughout that Malaysia to China travel experience
Suzhou has a population of about 8 million people, but no airport, so our journey wasn’t over once we cleared customs. At the moment there are 3 options to get back to Suzhou from Pudong Airport….(I’ve been told now that there are more options, but these are the ones I knew about at time of writing)
Not all options are equal…
Option 1: Take the long distance bus from Pudong airport to central SIP. This option always leaves me extremely car sick, and it takes hours to get back home. It’s cheap, but time consuming. I hate this option the most.
The last time we took the bus, I had a full on breakdown at the bus terminal because someone had smeared poo all over the walls in the women’s bathroom. It’s not the most welcoming way to return to the country…I sat there and cried until the bus came (needed to pee…got very little sleep on the plane….so much poo……)
Option 2: Take a high speed train to Suzhou. This option SEEMS simple, but in reality, it can end up being more expensive than option #3, which I’ll get to in a minute. First, you need to go from Pudong airport, to the train station. There’s no direct way to do this without taking a very overpriced taxi (200rmb, just to get to the station…and that’s if you don’ t get ripped off). Then, you have to deal with the train station, which is smelly, smokey, crowded and dirty.
This is the “nice” railway station in Shanghai. The one we take has half as many seats, twice as many people and smells like la tiao (spicy tofu) It’s basically the worst smell in the world. Just a bad as poo…)
Option 3: Hire a driver. This option has been our go-to for the last 3 years now, and we won’t be switching back any time soon. It costs about 350rmb (about $70 Canadian), but is highly convenient, fast and actually often ends up being cheaper than Option #2 in the end. During this coronavirus period, there was no question…we hired the car.
They show up with your name on a paper. Dave’s Wechat name is “D’Rhymes”….
At this point, we usually walk past 100 illegal taxi drivers all trying to take us for a ride (literally and figuratively), and track down our guy… This year was easier though, because the illegal drivers were nowhere in sight! Still, I was nervous about the drive back to beautiful Suzhou…
Shanghai to Suzhou
Now, usually, getting back into Suzhou is simple. You stop at a few toll booths, but that’s it. Of course, this isn’t a typical year…
Nope. Not typical…
We’ve been following the news closely and I’ve been getting updates from various sources, including my school and friends who had already returned to Suzhou. It seemed like everyone gave us a different set of things we would need on that trip back, but we had no idea which ones were important and which ones weren’t. Here’s a list of some of the things we were told we would need:
Our rental contract & residency permits
An arrival form with the licence plate of the car we would be taking into the city (this was suppose to be done before we got back to China but our driver wouldn’t give us his licence plate number, making it impossible)
A health code (which we couldn’t get because the only two options you could choose were “I’ve been in Suzhou for two weeks” or “I’ve been in a different Chinese city for 2 weeks”… Neither of which were true..
A different code that we couldn’t get because we don’t have Chinese IDs cards
A signature or the presence of our landlord to get back into our compound.
Here’s a list of what we actually needed:
A bit of bare skin so that they could take our temperatures.
Whoever makes these little temperature guns is making a killing at the moment. I’ve had at least 2 of these things pointed at my head every day since we returned
Our First Week Back
We were thrilled to see our cats, and they were thrilled to see us. It was nice sleeping in our own bed once more. We were gone for 37 days total, and in a lot of ways, we were happy our travels were over.
My sweet Ollie is still stuck to me like glue
Life’s been a bit strange in Suzhou. We were technically supposed to be under quarantine for a week upon our return, but we were allowed to go out and get groceries or to pick up food, as long as we wore masks.
One of the entrances to our compound has been boarded up so that everyone goes through 1 gate.
Most restaurants are still closed for dining, and are only doing take out. The few restaurants that ARE open for dining still have to close by 7pm, and being the late eaters that we are, we’ve ended up missing our window a couple of times now.
We have had to resort to fast food more than once. Even there though, you can’t dine in. In fact, you can’t even walk in… They take your order at the door and you take it home to eat.
Cooking at home is just not really something we’ve done much in China, simply because the groceries we want are hard to find and really overpriced, so for the past 6 years, we’ve go out for lunch and dinner pretty much every day. Of course, the virus has changed all that, and our fridge is now actually stocked with more than just coffee creamer and a few bottles of hot sauce.
We were annoyed when we had to pay the equivalent of $15 Canadian for a 1 liter of cream… Dairy is expensive in this country!
Online purchases are making their way to us now, slowly but surely. Delivery drivers can’t actually drive into our compound though, so we need to walk out to the front to get anything that’s brought in (including jugs of water for our water dispenser).
They’ve put plastic wrap over all the buttons in the elevators. I have no idea what that is supposed to do because people have to touch it anyway. I’ve taken to hitting the button for our floor with my elbow to avoid it
You have to wear a mask if you go outside, which makes sense to me. I know they don’t really help prevent you from getting sick…but they DO help prevent people from spreading their germs in the first place. The way I see it: if I have to wear a mask, that means the sick people need to as well. It makes me feel safer.
It keeps my face warm!
We’re being very diligent about washing our hands, washing our phones, washing down tables we sit at, and just basically not touching anything. I walk around with both hands in my pockets and I don’t take off my gloves unless I need to.
We’re starting to see more people out and about now but everything is still closing down early. This was the shopping mall near our apartment earlier this week. It’s usually full of people.
As of this week, a few restaurants have opened back up for dine-in, but with strange restrictions like ‘there must be 1.5 meters between each customer’ and ‘only 1 person can sit at each table’. Dave and I went out for dumplings for lunch yesterday and were suppose to sit at two separate tables. Of course, foreigners can kinda get away with ignoring some of the rules, so we sat down at a double table and sat beside each other instead of across from each other, and nobody said anything.
Tables only have 1 chair at them in any restaurant that is open. In order to have more people than that at a table, restaurants need to be given special permission from the government. To get that permission, they need to follow a whole lot of rules, like properly cleaning things, and wearing gloves if you’re handling food… Basically, they just need to have proper standards of cleanliness
I’ve been smelling actual cleaners being used since we returned! It took me a second to realize why our apartment building smelled different the other day… Then I realized: they’re using more than just water to clean the floors!! Hallelujah!!!
Getting into a Routine
For now, we’re continuing to try and stay in a routine. I teach online Monday-Friday, and that keeps me busy. We’ve been cooking most of our meals at home (which has been really nice!), and doing a lot of reading in my free time. I’ve finished 3 novels now in the past 8 days, and I’ve been slowly working my way through our photos so that I can finish up my last few blog posts. Life has been slower, calmer and more relaxed, which honestly has been a really good thing.
Hugo likes to curl up on me while I read
Teachers across China are still waiting for schools to re-open. It seems ridiculous now that my boss thought we’d be back in classes by February 17th, when in reality, we’ll be happy to be back before the end of March. For my own students, online learning has been okay. SIPFLS has done a good job of keeping students accountable and giving us tools we can work with. I have friends who are working with awful systems and whose students aren’t doing any of the work, making teaching an even more difficult task.
I teach lessons using a program called Zoom. I can upload files for them to see, share my screen and we use video and audio for class discussions. Not quite the same as a conventional classroom, but not too bad either!
I have a few posts left for Langkawi, including one about the island’s wildlife, and also one for the eco-tourism offered on the island. Malaysia has become a very high contender for the next country where we will live. Our experiences there were great, and I can’t help but wish I were back there right now…
We haven’t seen blue skies since we got back. I miss Malaysia so much!!!
At this point, I’m no longer on holiday. We’re still in Langkawi and I’m still not physically teaching classes, but I’m still back at work in a sense. The wonders of the internet have allowed me to teach remotely.
My poor students have had to put up with my awkward video lessons
This Strange Holiday
We were originally supposed to be back at work as of Feb 10th, but that was extended to Feb 17th in an effort to keep the virus from spreading further. The government also requested that people avoid flying into China unnecessarily, so we changed our flights to February 15. It wasn’t an issue. Most flight companies are kindly offering refunds on flights to China throughout the virus.
Many airlines have cancelled all flights to and from China until March at this point
Just last week though, the government decided that February 17th was still too early to reopen schools and has now declared that schools should not open before the end of February. This time, they didn’t give us an estimated return date.
We knew we wouldn’t be back in February. That’s all we knew
Shortly after the announcement was made, our February 15th flights were cancelled by Air Asia, and the company announced that they were suspending all flights back to China until March.
Schools React
This is where things have gotten a bit ugly for a lot of the teachers in China. Many foreigners have decided to move home due to the virus, breaking contracts and leaving their schools and students in the lurch. On the other hand, I’ve heard of many schools demanding that their employees come into the school to do “paperwork” until the schools reopen
I couldn’t find an appropriate meme, so I made one…
In some cases, schools have tried deducting wages or flat out telling their staff that they aren’t getting paid for February. Now, this might make sense if teachers aren’t doing online classes or producing online material for their students, but some schools have gone so far as to demand these materials but to also claim they won’t be paying their staff.
Once more…I put Pic Collage to good use…
Our Situation
I’ve been very lucky. My school administration has asked me to work during this shut down period but they’re making sure to track our work to guarantee that we will be paid for it. I think this is the best way to go about all this (for middle School and high school anyway) because at the end of the day, students still need to pass their final tests to get into good highschool’s and universities, and honestly… As crazy as all this has been… Life can’t just stop.
Those tests won’t write themselves!
Of course, life isn’t normal either. We are safer in Malaysia for the time being so this is where we’re staying. Suzhou has over 80 cases now, but the virus does seem to be slowing down. Every day we check the news to see what the new numbers of sick, dead and recovered patients.
We’re happy to be seeing much lower numbers these days. We live in SIP. It’s finally starting to disappear.
Dave and I have been incredibly fortunate in many ways. We’re in a safe and beautiful country (Malaysia) where money goes a long way and the internet is good. I work for a good school that is treating us well. We also have a cat sitter who is visiting our pets every day and an apartment complex that allows her to go in and out. We’ve been on the lucky side of things in a lot of different ways.
The world’s greatest cat sitter right here! This is how she dresses up daily to come visit our kitties
Facing Challenges
Still, it’s been hard. The most difficult part for me has been to remain positive for the sake of others. A lot of people are really scared. A lot of our friends are back in China, and some of them are immunocompromised, and less likely to survive should they catch coronavirus. We have friends from Wuhan, whose family members are sick, and who can’t go home. We have friends whose parents are doctors, working around the clock and putting themselves at risk. A lot of medical personal have caught the virus and have died from it. Scarier yet, a doctor passed away last week from sheer exhaustion. He was only 28, and he died of heart failure after working hour after hour, day after day, trying to save lives.
Doctors from all over China are being sent to Hubei province to help with the outbreak. Many of them have gotten sick and even died
I am a community leader in the suzhou expat circles, managing multiple Wechat groups, with up to 500 people in each. These forums are invaluable resources for people living in China, and they’re how we stay in touch with other Canadians, teachers and how we get advice on everything from where to eat to how to renew your passport if it expires while you’re abroad.
Some of the groups I run.
I run several communities regarding animal rescue, which has really been a big job through all of this. There have been so many rumours spread about the virus… Some people claim the virus was bio warfare. Others claim that it was a leaked virus from a lab. The one that has been personally quite difficult for me has been the idea that pets can transmit the disease and get their owners sick.
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about already…
The day that rumour began, pets all over China were killed. Their terrified and misinformed owners threw them off balconies and poisoned them. One woman came down with coronavirus and while she was in the hospital, someone broke into her home and killed her cat out of fear. People began to fear that their pets would be killed in all of this. To make matters worse, British tabloids tried saying that the government was telling people that if they didn’t kill their pets, the government would. It was all nonsense… But just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean it won’t be shared and that it won’t spread like wildfire.
You wouldn’t believe the amount of misinformation I’ve seen…
Life Back in China
People out west don’t seem to really know what’s all going on. They imagine people dying in the streets and a callous government who doesn’t care if its citizens die. None of it really captures life in China at the moment.
This is Wuhan right now. These streets are usually full. China is never this quiet…
In reality, people are going stir crazy in their apartments, quarantined for safety measures. It’s difficult to get supplies at the moment because delivery companies are shut down. Finding masks and hand sanitizer has been difficult. Items like pet food and food with long shelf life is harder to find. People fill shopping carts with cheap ramen and canned goods ‘just in case’. There is limited fresh food and it runs out daily.
In Suzhou it’s been better, but most grocery stores have empty produce shelves by the end of the day.
Most public venues are still shut down and many restaurants are doing take away orders only. Some restaurants have a strict 3 person limit at each table, in an attempt to reduce crowds from forming. Malls, vets and grocery stores all have reduced hours and many apartment complexes even have curfews. In other cities, people are only allowed leaving their apartments once every few days, so really, Suzhou doesn’t even have it that bad.
People are having their temperature scanned before they can get into their own appartment complexes
Teachers and students are both struggling with online classes in a country with very closed off internet access. Students still have exams to pass but are mentally checked out, which I completely understand. No one is sure when schools will reopen in Jiangsu province, where we live. Shanghai has announced that schools will be online only through March, but each province is coming up with their own rules.
It turns out teaching in your pajamas isn’t all fun and games… Especially when you’re dealing with the great firewall of China…
Wuhan and is still overwhelmed with the sick, and short on supplies and medical workers. People are still dying every day, but the number of new deaths is starting to go down, which is a good sign. The number of recovered patients is also on the rise. Soon, we hope the latter will be the bigger number in our daily updates.
Even with 2 new hospitals being built in under 2 weeks and several public buildings being turned into care centers, it’s simply not enough… People are still left untreated in Wuhan.
We’re set to go home on February 24th. I miss my cats so much, and Poe has been quite sick, with an interestinal infection, so I’ve been extra worried about her. I also miss my friends and the comfort of my own bed. I miss normalcy.
My sweet girl
Change is in the Air
I think things are going to change in China, after all this calms down. Ideally, wet markets will become a lot more strictly run to avoid outbreaks like this from beginning in the future. I hope that the government will start taking measures to teach the general population about unsanitary practices like spitting, and force companies to put soap in all bathrooms. I also think the Chinese people trust their government a little less after all this.
Wet markets are a bad idea all around. Having love animals, uncooked (and often unrefrigerated) meat lying around alongside produce… It’s a recipe for disaster
I’m not sure if anything will change, but I know that this whole experience has changed me. Being in Langkawi had reminded me how much I miss being around nature and how much I miss having work/life balance. In China, all we really do is work, but here, we spend our free time animal watching, cruising around on our motorbike or even just swimming in our guesthouse pool. I don’t think I’d ever have time for any of that working in a country with such an intense work culture.
Being surrounded by so much green has really made me miss having nature to enjoy
Coronavirus has forced me to slow down and it’s been a good change. I’m not sure what’s in store for us in the coming few years but I can say with certainty that although life in China has been amazing… This chapter in our life is coming to an end. Before long, we’ll be onto a new adventure. We aren’t sure what that will involve yet, but I’m sure it will be grand.
There is so much more of the world to see! We really do live on a beautiful planet!
So there you have it. This is our life at the moment. Hopefully we’ll be back home on the 24th, to cuddle up with our kitties and get back into our routines.
We’re pretty sure at this point that Hugo prefers the cat sitter. At least Oliver still loves me!!!
I still have a few posts left to write about Langkawi! They’ll be up soon!
Sneak peak: one of my posts will be all about wildlife!
The last leg of this trip is being spent in Langkawi; an island in North Western peninsular Malaysia. We chose this island because the rainy season isn’t as bad here as it is on the east coast.
We’ve visited 4 destinations in this trip. Langkawi (top left) is our final stop
When we planned out this holiday, we were going to be staying in Langkawi from January 30th to February 6th. Of course, all of that has changed with the virus. Schools are now closed until the 17th (originally we went back to work on the 10th) and we don’t want to go back to China until we need to, for obvious reasons. So, we decided to stick around Langkawi until around the 14th instead.
Our setting during this stressful time…
All jokes aside, we have no idea how long we’re going to be here. A lot of different factors are at play. On one hand, our cats are being looked after and we can get pretty much everything we need here in Langkawi. The virus is still spreading in China, and doesn’t look like it’s going to relent very soon. Solid reasons to stay away.
And I mean… This is our back yard at the moment…
On the other hand, I don’t want to leave our cats for too long (I miss them so much!!!). My teaching responsibilities are resuming on time, although the school is staying closed until the 17th. I’ll be teaching online, which is a bit of a problem because my laptop is back in Suzhou.
Oliver misses me almost as much as I miss him!!
At this point, we’re just playing it all by ear. I think 5 weeks is the maximum I want to be away from the cats (that’s the longest we’ve ever been away from them), plus, life sort of needs to go on. Suzhou is quite safe and the virus hasn’t caused any deaths there. There are 54 cases total, and the virus hasn’t spread as quickly in Suzhou as in other places. We’ll be ok when we go back… The question is simply: “when?”
Suzhou is still a ghost town. Normally, you would see cars on the streets and people walking around. Right now though, people are staying indoors. (My friend Li took this photo. She’s still in Suzhou, waiting out the virus)
So, until Feb 15th at least, we are staying put. We can do laundry here and the guesthouse where we’re staying is owned by some really nice people. We have a pool and we rented a motorbike so we can get around easily enough. Food in the area is cheap and Malaysia hasn’t been hit hard by the virus. Malaysia has only actually had 8 cases so far, and all of them were Chinese nationals. We’ve chosen a very good place to ride this out.
Dave doing laundry in a very old machine. Still, it’s free and we can do our own laundry, which is nice. Plus, the Malaysian Sun dries our clothes in about 2 hours!
As far as relaxing here goes… We’re about as chill as we can be. Dave is still working and studying, and I’m getting ready to start making the video lessons that my students will watch from the safety of their homes. There are lots of beautiful birds in Langkawi and we’ve seen plenty of lizards too. We even saved one from drowning in the pool the other day!!
Poor little guy was startled when we came out of our room and ran straight into the pool! He couldn’t swim very well and couldn’t grab onto the side to get out so Dave basically splashed him out with a big handful of water. He just sat there in the sun for a few minutes, catching his breath. Poor little dude!
Between work, school and keeping up with the news, we’re making the most of our time here! I’ve got plenty more to write about so check back soon!
We had 3 full days to enjoy in the jungle, and we did our best to spend them well. Of course, the heat was certainly a factor for how much we could do every day, so river and evening activities were always our preference.
Who doesn’t love being out on a river?!
We decided to begin our stay in the jungle with a “rapid shooting” activity. Basically, we got into a boat and moved through some tiny rapids and got a little wet. Then our tour guide rocked the boat back and forth to make sure we got REALLY wet. That was the end of that part of the tour.
Don’t worry. The sun has us dry in no time!
The second part of our trip was to visit an Orang Asli (Aboriginal) village. I didn’t have high hopes, because these types of activities are often very kitsch, but I was pleasantly surprised with the way the tour was done.
They still live in traditional huts that they built themselves. These huts can last several years.
Unlike many tours, where you just awkwardly walk through the town and look at people… In this tour, we actually learned about the tribe. Most of them didn’t speak English, but they all speak Batek and Malay, so our guide acted as a translator.
Our guide, showing us the tools that are used by Batek people, and explaining where they get these tools from
I learned a lot about the Batek people here. We watched how they traditionally started fires. No one tried telling us that it’s still how they do it, because now the tribe uses matches, but it was cool to see that they learned to use the best material the jungle had to get their fires lit. In under a minute, the villager had a flame growing. It was impressive.
Handmade rope and a very light and dry type of woodThere was smoke in about 30 seconds
We also learned how they still hunt. Blow pipes are still used today and are quite accurate and a reasonably good means to catch prey up in the trees. They taught us how they make the tranquilizer darts as well as how to use the blow pipe.
Every piece of the dart and the pipe comes from the jungle. Even the paralyzing poison they use comes from a treeThey use a special leaf from the jungle as sand paper. It’s very rough and helps make the blow dart balancers more smoothHe carefully made a dart for us, showing the process from beginning to end
Some tourists even gave it a try! I bowed out because I’m feeling a little paranoid about putting my mouth on something other people have put their mouths on at the moment…
A local using the pipe with expertiseDave is pretty good! He said that the pipe is very easy to use
What I found most educational about this visit was the way that these tribes have been allowed to continue living traditionally in Malaysia. In Canada, aboriginals had their identities stolen from them through residential schools and even now, they are given useless land and people don’t understand why that’s a problem. They lost their way of living and have never been given the chance to get it back.
They were taken from their homes, put in European clothing, forced to take on the Christian religion, and quite often, were victims of abuse and sexual assaults. It’s no wonder things are the way they are in Canada even now. None of this happened very long ago after all…
In Malaysia, the tribes have been given much more freedom. They are allowed to live and hunt in large designated areas, and they’re allowed to live traditionally. We saw plenty of young kids going into town for school, but usually at about 11 years old, they start to learn how to live off the land. They are learning to read and write but they also know how to make traditional weapons and how to rely on the rainforest
This tribe has been living in this location for about a year now but they are nomadic. They can leave at any time, and eventually will. Our guide explained that tourism dollars is a very small part of their income. They are much more dependant on the rain forest than they are tourists.
The Batek people use the rainforest to make an income. They search for sandle wood and other rare jungle items that they can sell to the villagers. This particular tribe wore “regular” clothing and shoes they they could buy with the money they earn from the rainforest and tourism. They also use the rainforest for medicine, but if an illness is serious, they know to go to a nearby hospital. They are a part of Malaysia, but are still allowed their traditional way of life. It was really beautiful to see.
They make little souvenirs for tourists to buy, and they make a bit off the tours, but overall they do just fine without our money.
It got me considering my own country, as traveling often does. It made me sad that we can’t have this in Canada. Any chance for this was lost when the government took kids away from their families and never let them learn the traditional ways of their tribes. Too much was lost during that time and it’s not something that can easily be brought back.
Imagine for a moment if your kids were taken away by the government and you were told that you don’t have the right to raise them or to live the way you have always lived your life.
Of course, things aren’t perfect for the Batek people. An outbreak of measles killed 15 Batek people last year. With a population of only around 1500 people to begin with, this perfectly preventable disease did a number on the tribe it affected. A simple vaccination would have saved a lot of lives. As much as it’s wonderful to live off the land and stick to natural remedies when possible… It’s still foolish to avoid modern medicine when it’s available to you.
People forget just how horrible the measles are because vaccines have more or less erased this disease from North America. The disease is highly contagious and can quickly result in death if left untreated. There is a reason why there is such a push for vaccines in Canada.
Our last day in the jungle we heard that some tourists from the Netherlands would be bringing the Batek village some medicine for a Gibbon who had fallen out of a tree and had been abandoned by its mother. The poor thing has a broken arm and an infection as a result (as best as I could understand). The village wants to protect this baby Gibbon, but because gibbons are endangered, they are reluctant to send it away unless they know it will be well cared for. The tourists are doing a great thing by bringing the medicine to the village.
He ended up pooping all over me but I didn’t care. The poor thing was so nervous, and everyone was holding him like he might attack. He just wanted to be cuddled close and feel safe.
I have 2 more posts planned for the jungle. One will be about all the wildlife we saw there! Check back soon!!
