Before we tumble Down the Rabbit Hole directly to the Balinese Ngaben (cremation) Ceremony, I want to give a little history of how I ended up being invited to this ceremony and a little history of Bali and Hinduism.

 

 

 

Bali, Island of the Gods, is one of 17,000 islands in the Indonesian archipelago.  A small island 95 miles east to west and 70 miles north to south, it is located 8°south of the equator and is inhabited by approximately 4 million people. Unlike the majority of Indonesian Islands which are Muslim, Bali is 85% Hindu.  So how did I end up visiting this island paradise?  We must travel back to Paris 2014……..

As you may or may not know, I spent a period of 2014/15 living in Paris, France.  I fell in love with Montmartre and in Montmartre at the foot of Sacre Coeur had my “go to” café.  I became a regular and the staff got to know me and my “usual’s”.  Since I normally stopped by at least once a day for “un café” or “verre de vin rosé”, I often chatted with a waitress named Julie.  She talked to me about her desire to move to Bali. I left Paris to return to the States in February of 2015 and we said we would keep in touch via FB. I happened to return to Paris for a 2-week holiday in July of 2015 and of course one of my first stops was Café Chappe.  Lo and behold, Julie was there.  She had indeed gone to Bali, but had returned to Paris because of her youngest son, they planned to go back to Bali at the end of the summer and suggested I should visit her there.  In August of that same year, my adventures in the Middle Kingdom began.  I moved to China to teach English. Julie and I kept in touch over the next few years and finally in February of this year, 2018, I planned a trip to Bali.  Travel to Bali is quite convenient and relatively inexpensive from the Middle Kingdom. Julie was living in Seminyak which is a seaside community and was teaching yoga.  The first part of my holiday I planned to stay in Ubud, which is more north and inland, as there were several things I wanted to experience in that area.  The end of my holiday I would go to Canggu and finally meet up with my friend from Paris.  That my friends is how I ended up going to Bali for the first time.  The second part of the story is how I was invited to the Ngaben Ceremony.

In February, I had a homestay about a 20-30-minute walk from Central Ubud.  During my homestay, I had a room with a private bathroom in a family compound.  I say compound, because in Bali families usually live together.  Together meaning there are several free-standing homes often with a central kitchen in what is called a compound.  There is also always a family temple shared by all the households.  These compounds make up a tight-knit community.  The communities, in turn, make up a village.  Kenari House, my homestay was in the community or Banjar, Teges Yangloni the village of Peliatan.  My hosts, Ketut and Koming and their two young daughters immediately made me feel like part of the family.  Ketut, trained as a chef, would let me join him in the kitchen when he prepared my meals, explaining Balinese cooking and teaching me how to use traditional herbs and spices.  Finding them so open, I always seemed to have a dozen questions about Bali and Hinduism whenever I was with them.

Bali is an assault on your senses, vivid colors, temple music, fragrant flowers, and incense await you at every turn.  One of the first things you notice in Bali are small baskets with various flowers placed everywhere. They are on statues, bridges, steps, and in doorways.  I asked Koming about these colorful baskets with incense.  She told me they are canang sari or daily offerings.  Canang is a small woven basket from palm leaves and sari means essence.  Broken down further can = beauty (like you feel the view) nang = purpose and sari = source.  Typically, a family places about 15 offerings per day, more on special ceremony days.  The canang sari is handmade daily and it is considered self-sacrifice with the time it takes to make the offerings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The offering must have certain elements representing the Trimurti or 3 major Hindu gods; white lime for Shiva, red betel nut for Vishnu and green gambier plant for Brahma.  On top of these are placed petals. White petals facing East for Iswara, red petals facing South for Brahma, yellow petals facing West for Mahadeva and blue or green facing North for Vishnu. The offerings also can contain food items, rice, crackers small cakes, etc. Along with an incense stick, these offerings are placed with a prayer ritual to deliver the sari (essence) of the canang to heaven.  A flower dipped in holy water is sprinkled over the canang along with a spoken prayer as in a symbolic merging of earth, fire, wind, and water.  The smoke from the incense carries the essence of the offering to the gods.  These offerings are to maintain balance and peace on earth amidst good and evil and between heaven and hell.  Within this ritual is an understanding that both positive and negative energies exist in the world.  It is up to us to seek balance and harmony in our personal lives, in our community, and in the world. What appeared to be a simple basket of flowers was my first taste of Balinese Hindu rituals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As my time at Kenari House was nearing the end, I wasn’t quite ready to leave.  I extended my stay by one day before heading south to Canggu.  Staying this extra day turned into my first experience with a Balinese Ceremony.  There was a wedding in the community.  Koming invited me to attend with her family.  What a privilege to have this opportunity.  Koming loaned me a Kamen (sarong/skirt) so I would be appropriately dressed.  It seemed the entire community was there, and they welcomed me with open arms.  I didn’t get to learn much about the wedding ceremony as I was leaving that afternoon.  As I was saying my goodbyes to Ketut and Koming, she told me since I enjoyed the wedding so much, I should return in August.  She explained that Ketut’s mother had died in 2016 and every 3 years the community held a Ngaben or Cremation Ceremony.  She would be part of the ceremony this August.  Would I like to come back for the ceremony?  I told her I would be honored to return and would do my best to make it happen.

Indeed, I made my way back to Bali and the Ngaben Ceremony.  I always thought my experience camping at EBC (Everest Base Camp) and watching the sun set and rise on the mighty mountain couldn’t be topped.  My experience with this beautiful Balinese ritual, the emotion of first hand exhuming a corpse, washing it and preparing it for cremation, witnessing the burning, understanding each step of the ceremony, and returning the ashes to the sea was truly overwhelming and something I will never forget.  I was included like family every step of the way.  I only hope I can put the sights, sounds, smells, and emotions into words as I next write about the Ngaben.

A couple of preview pictures from the Ngaben Ceremony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until my next post……The Ngaben Ceremony reminds the living to always create good karma in life. It shows us that Balinese Hinduism is not necessarily about getting to heaven but how to become one with Brahman or God.

Technically, this should be From Russia With Love, Part II, but, since I spent a good portion of today at the hospital, I pushed Russia aside and decided on part II of https://wendyjmarvin.com/2017/03/18/i-survived-a-chinese-hospital/. The first thing I will say is that this was a radically different experience than the first one.

Roll back to February of this year and Spring Festival.  I was traveling to Suzhou, Tongli, and Shanghai before leaving for my holiday in Bali.  My driver to the train station in Jinan dropped me off a short walk from the station.  I was pulling a small roller suitcase and came upon a small “fence” for lack of a better word.  Basically, it was an iron barricade blocking cars from pulling onto the square.  Me, thinking I am still young and fit decided to jump over the fence holding my suitcase.  Why didn’t I just set it over and then step over the fence, I have no idea, stupidity, I guess.  The fence was probably knee height and as I jumped my right foot didn’t make it. Yes, I was a spectacle landing on my suitcase with my ankle wrapped around the iron rail.  I jumped up as quickly as possible, which probably wasn’t quickly or gracefully and hurried on my way toward the train station not stopping to see who saw me face plant on my suitcase. I limped to the station, got my ticket and soon boarded the train for my approximately 4-hour journey.  Once on the train, I popped a couple of Advil as I knew soreness was in my future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I arrived in Suzhou, found my hotel, which just happened to be next to a noodle shop, ate and went to bed as I knew I had a long day ahead of me tomorrow.  The ankle was a little sore when I woke so I took some more Advil as I planned on much walking on the canals in Suzhou.

 

 

15km later I arrived back to the hotel for the night and planned to visit Tongling the next day, which included much more walking.  The following day I would head to Shanghai and more walking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All this walking was probably a really bad idea, but, I wanted to see the sights, so I pushed on.  By the time I returned to Dong’e my ankle was lovely shades of purple.  Luckily, one of my little’s father is a doctor.  When he brought her to lessons, I asked him to look at it. He said it looked worse than it probably was because of all the walking.  He advised me to rest and elevate as much as possible before I left for Bali.  By the time I returned from Bali, it was pretty much back to normal.

It’s now the end of April, I am jumping and dancing with my kids at kindergarten and twist the same ankle again.  No bruising this time, but boy did it swell up.  I elevated it and iced it which helped.  If I would stand for any length of time or do a little walking it was quite painful and would swell in strange tubular ways.  That is how I ended up at the hospital today.

This time, we (me and one of my semi-English-speaking friends) went to “The People’s Hospital”.  This is not the same hospital as my first experience.  This hospital is fairly new, within the last 5 years, I believe.  The Dong’e People’s Hospital is actually a partner hospital with The Loma Linda University Health Global Health Institute.  There are also international nursing service opportunities through the Global Health Institute’s International Service Program, visit lluglobal.com/nursing for more information.  I just stumbled upon this information by accident.

 

We left for the hospital at 8:00 am by scooters.  When we arrived, we had to check in at the desk and pay 200 RMB or about $30 which was to see a doctor and have an x-ray.  After the doctor examined my ankle, he decided I needed an MRI instead of an x-ray.  Back to the desk to pay another 300 RMB or about $45 since the MRI is a tad more expensive than an x-ray.  Next to wait for my turn for my MRI.  At this point, it was about 9 am.  With the number of people in front of me, I was told they would probably call for me around 10:40 am.  Ok, no problem, we would just wait outside the MRI area.  The hospital, I found out is also a teaching hospital.  As we were waiting, a group of doctors and students came by.  What?  A foreigner!!! They stopped to chat, and the lead Dr. spoke very good English.  He wanted to know why I was there, is there any way he could help me, etc.  My friend asked him to see if he could get us pushed up in the line.  He went to the office but came back and told us he couldn’t move us up.  No problem, thank you.  AND then they had to take pictures. Of course, this isn’t anything I am not used to.  Off they went and finally around 10:50 I was called for my MRI.  After having me remove my earrings, I followed the Dr. into the MRI room.  It was a nice open MRI.  He got me set up and 15 minutes later I was told the results would be available anytime after 2 hours.  We decided to head home for lunch and a nap and then return to the hospital around 3:00 pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3:00 pm, we headed back to the hospital, checked in at the desk and got our instructions.  We were to return to the MRI area, swipe my card (I was given a type of ID card when I first arrived) at the machine near the MRI area and it would print my results. We were to take these results back to the original Dr. I saw when I arrived.  After viewing the pictures on his computer and reading the results he decided he wanted someone with more expertise to take a look.  Great! We were sent to the Orthopedic Surgery floor where another Dr. was waiting for us.  He reviewed the pictures and explained everything to me using a plastic model of the foot.  He explained there were no fractures and no tears in the ligaments or achilles.  Good news.  He did say my achilles was stretched which is why I was having pain there and that I also had soft tissue damage.  Treatment….4 to 6 weeks in a stabilizing boot.  Here’s the funny/not funny/funny thing.  They didn’t have the boot.  The Dr. had me order one from Taobao, the Amazon of China.  It will arrive in 2 to 3 days, until then, elevate and stay off my feet as much as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not nearly as exciting as my first experience with a Chinese hospital, but I wanted to share this very positive experience.  I can’t say enough about the kindness and helpfulness of the staff.  That being said, I am not sure what an MRI cost in the states, but I saw 3 doctors and had an MRI for $75.

China never ceases to surprise me and here are some boring photos of my ankle, which I was glad a photographed as all the doctors looked at them.

I leave you with a quote from Peter Pan, “To live

will be an awfully big adventure”.

 

 

 

 

 

Happiness: ha-pē-nəs  The state of being happy.  Simple, right?

New Year’s Eve, a holiday, even more so than Thanksgiving or Christmas, that leaves me feeling melancholy.  This year, I spent New Year’s Eve quietly home alone, not lonely, there is a difference, with a glass of pink champagne, well actually, sparkling wine, although it was from France.  Confession, I did have a martini, well maybe two, until it was time for bubbles at midnight.  So, what does all this have to do with Down the Rabbit Hole ~ My Adventures in the Middle Kingdom?  A LOT!  I started contemplating my life.

As usual, my melancholy had my head spinning.  Am I happy?  Have I ever been extremely unhappy?  Was I a happy child?  How did I end up in China? Am I happy in China?  What was the best day of my life?  Where is home?  Am I ready to go back to Warren, Ohio?  If I am not ready, do I want to stay in Dong’e? Were my parents happy?  Would they be happy with the path my life has taken?  Was my relationship really happy?  And so on and so on…..you get the picture.

It’s now 5 days later and some of these questions and more are still running around my head.  I’m not losing sleep or anything trying to answer them, but after a couple outings with new and old friends and a couple of movies that made me think, even more, I decided, hey, write about it, even if it opens up emotions I have kept to myself.  So, here goes….

I probably would have gone to sleep and forgotten my melancholy, but on January 2^nd, I decided to watch a movie I had read about, “Paths of Souls”.  A documentary chronicling the 1200 mile pilgrimage of 11 actual residents traveling from their Tibetan village to Lhasa. The pilgrims included a young girl and her pregnant mother who gave birth on the pilgrimage and her father.  They (all 11) made the journey on foot wearing animal skin aprons and wooden blocks on their hands.  This is because every few steps they must “dive” to the ground or kowtow, followed by touching the earth with their forehead and clapping the boards together to complete the ritual. I was blown away by the dedication of these people. They ended each day in prayer, song and for the most part happiness no matter what obstacles they had faced that day.  It made me reflect on my time in Tibet and what a peaceful feeling I had there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next night, I chose “Hector and the Search for Happiness”.  A movie I had for some reason downloaded.  After watching, I figure it must have come up in a list of travel/wanderlust movies.  I initially thought it was a movie about a child.  I quickly found out that although Hector often reflects back on a vision of himself as a child, it was definitely not a movie about a child, or was it?.  Hector is a psychiatrist who lives a very organized, routine life in London with his girlfriend Clara.  One day Hector decides he needs to search for happiness and boards a plane for China.  Of course, I was hooked at this point.  Clara slipped a journal in Hector’s carryon and he scribbles pictures and notes on happiness, such as, “Happiness is a long walk in beautiful, unfamiliar mountains”.  My personal experience with this, “Happiness is watching the sunset and sunrise on the beautiful, powerful Mount Everest”.  As Hector travels around the world seeking happiness and jotting down happiness phrases, I started putting myself in those phrases.

Hector noted,  “A lot of people think happiness is being rich or important”. I grew up on a dead-end street that most people didn’t even know existed.  We definitely weren’t rich, I remember my mom counting change to put gas in the car.  Important, ha, far from it.  My dad was self-employed because an accident had left him with a head injury that made holding down a normal  9 to 5 impossible. I do know they loved us and our happiness came before theirs.  My personal take on Hector’s note, I know now that rich doesn’t necessarily mean monetarily rich and you can be important to more people than you ever realize in your lifetime.  My father died at age 63, far from rich and important only to his family, so we thought.  We had planned 2 hours for his calling hours.  That sad afternoon brought much happiness to me, my mother and brother.  People came, he was my baseball coach, he used to buy me ice cream, you guys had the best tree fort, etc. 5 hours later we were finally ending a tribute to a man that wasn’t rich in dollars and unimportant, so we thought.  Two years later at 60, my mother also passed.  She had the same tribute.  Yes, I had a happy childhood.

“Happiness is doing a job you love”.  I loved my job at the YMCA until I didn’t.  There came a point in time I no longer looked forward to going to work.  What used to be fun and rewarding had become one of losing sleep and dreading the next catastrophe.  This also, unfortunately, coincided with the decline, demise, end of my relationship.  I made a decision, I am definitely not happy right now.  What makes me happy?  Travel! Paris! How can I combine the two?  First thing I did was run away, yes, I ran away.  I decided to spend Christmas in Paris, away from everything, everyone, away from unhappiness.  I was happy in Paris. When I returned, I started researching how I could travel and still make money.  I got my TEFL certification from the University of Miami of Florida and I haven’t looked back since.  Things didn’t work out with my work visa for France, but I had an opportunity in China.  So that’s how I ended up in China teaching English.  When you are almost knocked over by a group of kids when you walk in their classroom, you have to smile.  “Happiness really is doing a job you love”

“Happiness is to be loved for exactly who you are”.  This is so true.  Living abroad really teaches this lesson.  Walking away from a secure job, that was making me unhappy, ending a relationship that was for the most part, at least in my opinion happy, until it wasn’t, can change who you are.  Those pounds I put on, used to bother me, but tell the truth, I like to eat and drink, it makes me happy.  Nobody abroad knew me “then” and guess what? They like me for who I am NOW! I have made friends all over the world and they don’t care who I was back then.  They like the person I am now, so yes, that is happiness.

Well, if you are rolling your eyes at this point, I don’t blame you.  I will try to wrap it up even though Hector has many more happiness points.  I will say I do agree with his point, “Happiness is feeling completely alive”.  Life abroad and the opportunities it gives me for travel to places most people only dream of make me feel completely alive.  Camping on Mount Everest, Tibet, Angkor Wat, Moscow, camel riding in the Gobi Desert, living in Paris, Tokyo, Seoul, Vietnam and Dubai to name a few….traveling makes me feel completely alive!

Finally, am I happy? Yes, most of the time.  Have I ever been extremely unhappy? Yes, and I ran from unhappiness.  Was I a happy child?  My memories say yes.  Was my relationship really happy? It was until it wasn’t.   How did I end up in China? I ran from unhappiness and I’ll always have Paris.  Am I happy in China?  Most of the time.   What was the best day of my life?  Maybe I haven’t had it yet, although I have had many amazing days.   Where is home?  I have discovered the world is my home.  Am I ready to go back to Warren, Ohio?  I really did ask myself this question several times this week.  The answer was always no.  If I am not ready, do I want to stay in Dong’e?  The answer was no I am not ready to go back to Warren, but I am considering a change of venue.  I have applied for some jobs inside and outside of China for later in 2018.  Were my parents happy? For the most part, I would say yes.   Would they be happy with the path my life has taken?  Definitely and I know they would try to visit me wherever my journey takes me.

If you stuck with me through this random post, thank you!  Back on track to Moscow next post, I hope!

PS, I recommend both movies.

As I arrived to the kindergarten in the countryside this morning, I realized how many things that are now “norm” for me in China.  Things, I would either not accept or probably complain about in America. It is also funny how I refer to my country as America and not the United States.  I often get the deer in the headlights look if I say the United States and then usually say 美国 Meiguo followed by America.  I had originally planned on a post about Moscow to follow up my visa experience, but as I sit in the office at Teeny Oak Kindergarten in Yaozhai wearing my coat, sipping hot water and typing with cold fingers, the plan shifted.

When it comes to heat in China for the winter, it is either feast or famine.  The kindergarten, unlike my apartment, has individual units in each room.  Smaller rooms have wall “air conditioning” units while larger rooms have bigger free standing units.  The units in the classroom only get turned on during certain hours. Roughly 8 am to 12 noon then 2 pm to about 4:30 pm and they are not to be set above 23 celsius or a reasonable 73.4 degrees.

 

 

 

 

 

Now some of the children come to school looking like they walked out of “A Christmas Story”. You know the scene, the one where the kid waddles because he has so many layers under his snowsuit and when he falls down, he can’t get up.  Okay, I am sure you have a visual by now.  As far as the offices in the 3 kindergartens I visit, they have yet to have any heat turned on.  When I asked why the principal of the school where I am currently writing this told me she is rarely in the office so she doesn’t turn it on. I explained to her that in America we turn the heat on and leave it on, adjusting as needed, but, I would never sit in an office wearing my coat if there were heat available.  She pretty much shrugged it off while telling me she was also cold.  Now, my kindergarten in the other countryside, JiangLou, usually escort me to a room and turn on the heat, just for me, but by the time it warms up to comfortable it is usually time to give lessons.  As for the kindergarten in the city, I am never in the office long enough to worry about the heat.  Although, I know that the accounting person is in there the majority of the day, never has the heat been on while I was there.  It is also not unusual to have entrance doors open in winter which means the hallways are always cold. When you see people in my photos wearing coats indoors, it is just a “norm” here.  Even in rooms that are heated or somewhat heated, people still wear coats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, as far as my apartment, heat goes on November 15^th and off sometime in March.  You know how you people in Ohio can have the heat and air on in the same day?  Not happening here!  If it happens to be one of those days where you just want to take the chill out because it got a little cold overnight, forget about it.  But, let me tell you this, when it does come on, you get heat.  When I was in the tiny studio in Qingdao, I think I spent most of the winter with my window cracked.  Here, in Dong’e, my apartment is quite large, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, living room, dining room and kitchen.  It also has large floor to ceiling windows in most of the rooms, so it isn’t quite the sauna I had in Qingdao.  I do tend to keep the bathroom window cracked to let some air in as it is still quite warm. Warm being you can sit in a t-shirt and be comfortable.  The best part is the heat is hot water in the floor. Getting out of bed barefoot, I step on nice warm porcelain tile.

I do have to tell you that on November 15th, I didn’t have any heat. Not to be one to complain right away, I did a bit of investigating.  Sure enough, the valve on the heating unit was perpendicular.  Luckily, thanks to Steve Alexander teaching me the ropes about heating a building the size of the Trumbull County YMCA, I turned the valve to the correct position and waited.  Hmmmmm, the next morning, still no heat!  Come to find out, my whole district (as they call my complex) didn’t have heat.  The factory that supplies our water did not get the pressure and water temperature up to what was needed in time for the November 15^th “heat”.  The said, “give it a couple days”.  A “couple days” turned into a week. Okay, I am getting stories relayed to me from 3^rd party sources, etc., time to take the bull by the horns and go to the office myself.  Thank God for google translate and also that the word fuck/fucking is universal.  “Insert apologies here if I have offended anyone!”  Needless to say, the crazy, yellow-haired foreigner, got some attention.  They sent the maintenance person to my apartment and he bled the lines.  Again, give it a day or two, you are on the 24^th floor, the hot water has to get up there.  I will admit, the radiator, got slightly warm almost immediately, but and that should be a capital BUT, it was cold by morning.  Okay, let me go about my business and see what happens…….NOTHING!  So, we arrive at day 12 (I feel like I should insert the McKenzie Brother’s 12 days of Christmas here, eh, Cathy?). Day 12, no heat.  I had a plugin heater that heated the space within 2 feet around me. Back to the office, I go.  Sorry, yes I dropped a few more F-bombs, well, at least I knew they understood that word.  Then with the help of google translate, I explained I had guests coming in 4 days.  Crazy, yellow-haired foreigner had the attention of the district manager.  He took me and showed me the stats for the water entering the district, it was still below pressure, the temperature had reached 45, that’s Celsius, and it should be 60.  Give it a couple days……to which I responded, are you F’ing kidding me, my heating unit is cold, it has no warm/hot water coming to it.  He finally accompanied me to my apartment.  Guess what, the main valve from the hallway to my apartment was off.  He apologized, turned it on, bled my lines again, which in my bathroom there is a wall unit that, well, gave him a shower, in his suit and tie.  It should start to warm up by tomorrow he told me.  Later that evening a maintenance man knocked on my door to check the situation as he did the next day also.  My guests arrived for Thanksgiving and all was warm and cozy.  Feast or famine…..

I had intended this post to have a little more variety and it ends up all about heat.  In closing, here are a few other “norms” in China that wouldn’t fly in America.  Taxi drivers smoke, they do open the window, but bottom line, they smoke.  I once had a taxi driver watching a movie while he drove me to the kindergarten in Qingdao.  People smoke on buses.  They say no smoking but move to the back, open a window and have at it, because no one will say anything.  People smoke in restaurants. Expect hot water when you go to a restaurant. Don’t even think about asking for冷水 bingshui or cold/ice water. Napkins or tissues, bring your own unless you are in a better restaurant.  The same goes for toilet paper, bring your own, this applies to EVERYWHERE!   There is no such thing as a queue and forget ladies first. It’s every man/woman/child for themselves.

I could ramble on and on, but as I sit here, too warm in my fleece (the adult beverage may also have a slight warming effect) finishing this post that I started when I was wearing my coat and typing with freezing fingers at the kindergarten, you may ask, why do I do it?  Why do I put up with some crazy things in a country I only know a few words of the language?  Truthfully, in the beginning, it was an escape.  Why do I stay?  Because I can, but more importantly, I am seeing the world from a different perspective.  I want to experience as much as I can.  Yes, it does your soul good to be riding your scooter down the road and the little old man who does bike/scooter repairs gets a huge grin when you zoom by and wave to him. Have you ever literally been knocked off your feet by 15 4-year-olds who all try to hug you at the same time? Have you walked out on a still night and looked at the stars and listened to the deafening silence and realized, WOW, I am sleeping on base camp at Mount Everest?

Here are a few “travel” words that sum it all up for me. Peripatetic, a person who spends his time wandering.  Querencia, a place where one feels safe, a place where one feels at home.  Sturmfrei, The freedom of being alone and having the ability to do what you want.  Novaturient, a desire to alter your life; the feeling that pushes you to travel. Strikhedonia, the joy of being able to say “the hell with it”.  Solivagant, wandering alone! Fernweh, an urge to travel even stronger than wanderlust.  Eudaimonia, the contented happy state you feel when you travel.  Why? I am happy and content and yearning for new adventures!

Well, this probably isn’t the best time to be writing about Russia, but here goes!

From February until June of 2016, I lived in Changning, Hunan Province, China.  My roommate at the time, Yulia, was from Moscow, Russia.  Actually, Dolgoprudney, which is pretty much like Howland is Warren.  To be perfectly honest, even with my extreme case of wanderlust, Russia has never really been a bucket list destination.  Yulia and I got along fabulously.  After a trip to Hong Kong, where we bought fresh beets, she made me Russian Borscht and talked passionately about her mom, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and her friends.

When we parted ways in June, after 2 weeks of traveling in China, I said goodbye and promised I would visit her in Russia.

Now, I feel I have fairly extensive travel knowledge and her being native Russian, you would think the need for a travel visa would have entered into one of our pretty little heads.  Nope!!!!  I was planning a trip back to the states in July 2017, Teri had lured me into a London and Paris excursion,  but I had about a 2-week window where I could fly off to Moscow before my flight to the USA.  I messaged Yulia, who was ecstatic that I was fulfilling my promise and insisted that I stay with her and her mom.  She was also going to book an overnight train to Saint Petersburg so we could spend a few days there.   Well, she messaged me that she needed my passport info to book train tickets and gave me a couple of options for travel dates and plans.  Easy peasy, right?

Well, as we all know, time really does fly……maybe 3 weeks before I would need to take the train to Beijing to catch my flight to Moscow, I decided to do a little research,  Now I knew Yulia was planning everything and would make sure I saw all the great sights, but, I like to know a little about where I am going before I go.  I knew about the Kremlin, well, I thought I did but learned so much when I was there.

St. Basil’s looked really cool and I knew I wanted a selfie there, but other than that, I realized I knew very little about Russia or Moscow.

Time to GTS (google that shit),  ummmmmm, WTF, I need a visa to visit Russia and a tourist visa is only good for 10 days, shit!  I only communicate to Yulia through WeChat or Instagram Direct Message, I don’t even have a phone number for her.  “YULIA, yes I was yelling in all caps, I NEED A VISA TO COME TO RUSSIA”. My reply from her, “SHIT, I was so excited you were coming I forgot about the visa”.  Yes, we both felt pretty stupid.  So, the research begins, her on her end and me in CHINA, which after reading many things online, told me it was difficult for a foreigner to get a Russian Visa while in China.  I told Yulia, “I’m screwed”  but, let’s work on this, I already have a plane ticket and there is a Russian Embassy in Beijing.  A little more research and even though I am a foreigner in China, there was the possibility if I went to the Russian Embassy, they could issue an expeditated visa, for a cost, of course.  At this point, it was my only option.  Expedited visa takes 3 days, cool, so, I made my train ticket to Beijing 4 days before my flight for a “little” wiggle room.

Nothing I can do now, but wait until I get to Beijing and see what happens.  I arrive in Beijing on a Sunday evening, my flight is Thursday.  Again, not too bright, it is Thursday at 01:25 am yes am, which means I really don’t have 4 days, but 3, no wiggle room.  No worries, I will arrive at the Embassy when they open Monday morning and have my visa by Wednesday afternoon.  NOT!!!!  I was 2^nd in line when the Embassy opened.  PERFECT!!!, NOT!  Because I am a foreigner and not a Chinese citizen, and I didn’t have an appointment, even though, which I forgot to mention, I filled out all the Russian Visa paperwork online, they wouldn’t see me.  Really, yes, really.  They said I could go to the Russian Visa Application Agency.  Okay, grab a taxi and off I go.  The place was packed.  I waited my turn and “Yes, we can process your visa, but not in 3 days, our expedited is 4 days.  If all your paperwork is in order, you can pick up your passport (yes, I had to leave it with the agency) on Thursday after 3pm.  Again, WTF, my flight is Thursday 01:25 am.  They told me, there was no way to get it any sooner and I would have to change my flight. Did I want them to process my visa and expedite it?  I had no choice but to pay the fee, ugggggg, okay.  I remembered there was a café on the main floor of the building, I headed down to use their wifi and work on changing my ticket for Friday, still not knowing if my visa would be approved, but I had no choice.  90 minutes and $400 later, I was able to change my flight to Friday.

Not much to do now but wait…….may as well enjoy Beijing.

I haven’t spent much time in Beijing so I figured the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace would be on my agenda for the next couple of days, but for now back to the hotel and have them extend my stay for another night.  Easy peasy…….not!

I got back to the hotel, in my best Chinese and their best English, that’s a joke, my best google translate, I explained my situation.  No problem, come back to the desk on Wednesday and we will adjust your reservation.  Great, back to my room have a little rest, then dinner and plan my next few days.

Fast forward to Wednesday, which by the way, I had totally enjoyed the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, but more on that later.  Oh, also, I had made Yulia aware of the situation and we decided that Saint Petersburg wasn’t an option given my decreased time in Russia after the flight change.  So, back to Wednesday, I went to the desk and again explained I needed to extend my stay.  We don’t have any rooms available, we are booked solid (I actually got someone that spoke a fair amount of English).  I relayed the whole story that I had spoken with someone on Monday, no problem, come to the desk on Wednesday, we will make the change…..We can’t make the change, there are no rooms.  WTF, this seems to be a recurring theme in regards to this trip.  So, I pull out my phone and check ctrip (Chinese app I use to plan my travel).  It let me book a room, WTF.  I booked it and waited while the receptionist waited to get confirmation and, big sigh of relief, didn’t have to try to find another hotel at the last minute.

Long story, not so short, I received my Russian Visa, flew to Moscow on Friday and had a most wonderful experience.

I am now planning a return visit so I can take in Saint Petersburg.  Moscow was beyond anything I anticipated. I will do another blog just on Moscow, but the moral of the story is, no matter how well traveled, how much you think you know, do your research!  Better safe than sorry.  In the end, everything worked out, but I really could have saved myself a lot of aggravation and money!!!

So it wasn’t easy peasy, but in the end, all was right with the world, well, at least in my little part of the world.  To quote Hannah Arendt, “Loving life is easy when you are abroad.  Where no one knows you and you hold your life in your own hands.  All alone, you are more master of yourself than at any other time”.

Well, I have been quite lax in my blog posts recently.  My only excuse is that beginning on June 18, 2017, and over the next 112 days, I traveled 46,623 miles, give or take a few hundred here and there.  I did return briefly to Dong’e during that time and worked a couple weeks before heading back out on my travels.  I plan on staying put for a while, so, hopefully, some new Down the Rabbit Hole Adventures……..

Even I said “wow” and wiped my brow when I looked back on my itinerary.  I started out on Sunday, June 18^th with a 2-hour drive to the train station in Jinan and then caught my train to Beijing.  In Beijing, the plan was simple, first thing Monday morning go to the Russian Embassy, apply for my Russian Tourism Visa, pay for the 3 days expedited service, enjoy Beijing for a few days and catch my flight to Moscow in the wee hours of the morning of June 22^nd.  Murphy’s Law came into play and 3 days turned into 5. Missed flights, visa problems, etc., I will address in a future post.

Finally boarded a flight from Beijing to Moscow. July 1^st flew from Moscow to Beijing, changed airports and caught my flight to Chicago. Chicago to Pittsburgh spent 5 days in Warren and left for London on a girl’s trip with Teri.  After several days in London, we caught the Eurostar for Paris.  After a fabulous time in Paris, I landed in good old Warren, Ohio for a couple weeks before heading to Cleveland to fly to Dallas and then back to Beijing.

Then the cycle starts again, taxi from the airport to the train station, train to Jinan and a 2-hour drive back to home sweet home, Dong’e where I planned to stay until the 1^st of October when I had planned a whirlwind visit to SE Asia.

What I failed to mention, sometimes friends and alcohol make for “a change of plans” and it happened not once, but twice.  The first, I was at a little dinner party with friends.  I happened to mention I was doing Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam during the Chinese Mid Autumn Festival.  Henry Sforza, the Deb of, as I have taken to calling her on Facebook, says, “I have always wanted to go to Vietnam”.  Long story short, I told her she should meet me in Bangkok and join the trip. Not many people say they will meet you on the other side of the world and actually do it.  Well, Deb joined me in Bangkok and we toured SE Asia together.

Next, my friend Pat invited me and my London/Paris mate, Teri, to her home for a garden party, on a continuous loop in your head, now insert Ricky Nelson singing “Garden Party”.  She was going to Paris with a friend in September and wanted to chat about our trip.  When you make and drink gin and tonics in a pitcher while eating French themed appetizers in a lovely garden setting, well, plans change.  Ahhh, I forgot to mention, we also had a little gin tasting of some special gins I brought back from the Beefeater Distillery in London.  It’s really all Pat’s fault that after mentioning several times that she wished I was joining her and Libby in Paris, that I made another plan.  Feeling giddy on gin with thoughts of Paris in the fall spinning around my already spinning head, I went home, which since I am currently homeless in Warren was Mike and Teri’s house, I got on the computer and booked a flight from Beijing to Paris to meet up with Pat and Libby. By the way, it’s a long way from Dong’e to Beijing, but hey, it’s Paris, and “Paris is always a good idea”.

Where was I?  Okay, I am back in Dong’e and I now have to tell Peter I am taking an early Mid Autumn Holiday, a little over 2 weeks early to be exact.  Well, we worked it out and I worked extra days to teach all my lessons in advance for the days I would be gone.  Here we go again, drive to Jinan, train to Beijing, quick dinner visit with friends in Beijing and catch a taxi to the airport, now the fun begins.  8.5 hours from Beijing to Abu Dhabi and then another 7 hours to Paris.  Did I happen to mention Jimmy Buffett was playing 3 nights at La Cigale in Paris which was literally a 3-minute walk from my flat?  More about that later.  After a fab time with Pat and Libby and Jimmy Buffett and about 900 of my closest friends I just met in Paris, it was time to meet Debbie in Bangkok for our SE Asia adventure.  Paris back to Abu Dhabi then Abu Dhabi to Bangkok.  We had our 1 night in Bangkok, insert Murray Head “One Night in Bangkok” and ok, it was really 2 nights. From Bangkok, it was off to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat.  From Siem Reap we flew to Hanoi and traveled by Car to North Vietnam near the China border, (I didn’t count these miles in my total), then back to Hanoi.  After a night in Hanoi, I bid Debbie farewell and headed from Hanoi to Beijing, Beijing to Jinan and Jinan to Dong’e.

It was a crazy, wonderful, exciting, bucket list ticking 112 days covering 46,623+ miles.  I plan to post about each of these destinations, eventually. For now, I leave you with a quote from Tom Freston, “Travel early and travel often. Live abroad, if you can. Understand cultures other than your own. As your understanding of other cultures increases, your understanding of yourself and your own culture will increase exponentially”.

Stay tuned for Beijing and Visa Problems! A few teaser photos from my travels…..more to come in future blogs! Goodbye, 再见, Прощай,  cheerio, Au Revoir, ลาก่อน, លា, Tạm biệt!