Motti in China 2007

Email No. 11

2007-08-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

-----Original Message-----
From: Motti Mor [mailto:motti_mor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 3:46 AM
Subject: Trip to China (part 6) - when it's over

Hi everybody,
I hope you enjoyed the pictures of Yunnan. I tried to describe by taking them the beauty of this amazing province. After almost two months in Shanghai, those ten days were an experience which showed me the real China: the feeling, the smell, and taste that I've been looking for all this time. What I mean is that when we read about China and look at the pictures of China, we're really seeing this place, the real China, a place where everything is simple, happy, and time is not a concern: just relax, enjoy the air (which is hard to find in China), and the wonderful weather.

A place like Dali which is full of different minorities and cultures is one of those places which are hard to find while traveling, but when you find it, it's the best feeling you can get. Lijiang and its amazing old city and surroundings, which although is too full with local tourists, has its own and unique charm. (The place really magnifies the potential that Jerusalem as an old city has).

And finally Kunming with its cloudy weather, small tea houses, parks, and wonderful people. I think that what made it special for me was that I decided to go alone but wasn’t really alone the whole time, which means that you can find friends anywhere.

Time for conclusions now as I’m getting ready to go to the airport and catch my flight back home. The China that I’ve seen during these last three months has many faces (maybe too many for one country). It’s a country with so many different places, different tastes, and different cultures under one country’s name. You can visit in a quiet place such as Dali and just sit in a park with a few people or walk in the subway in Shanghai with millions (and I mean millions). In Dali I entered a park and sat down to write something. I took out my big bottle of water and put it beside me. Two minutes later a 3- or 4-year-old kid with glasses that one side of them was broken and covered with tape came by and didn’t say a word. I asked him how he was but he didn’t reply just walked across me, took the bottle of water, and walked away.

In Shanghai while walking the street (and trying not to get run over by cars, bikes, bicycles and the millions and millions of people), one can find many DVD stands. There is one stand that is always funny to see. The guy there has a thing for Harrison Ford. He likes to create his own original sequels (that haven’t been made yet naturally) of Harrison Ford’s movies. He invents movies, makes his own posters for the movies and their tag lines such as Indiana Jones 4 (“The man with the whip is back”) and Air Force One 2 (“One man has another chance to save America, The President”). I just buy it for the creativity because the movies inside are not truly connected to the outside.

China is rapidly changing, building, and growing. I had to fly all the way to the south to find what I was looking for. I know that there are many places that are still like that, but it’s getting harder and harder to find as all the villagers want to come to the big cities to find a better life for themselves. Many new big cities are emerging instead of the old villages and the cities are exploded with people. Only Shanghai in five years has multiplied its population and -- I’ll say it again -- it’s really amazing the amount of people you see in the streets.

The food is China is extremely diverse: spicy, sour, sweet, and strange. You can find everything you want here, and if you know what to order (mostly you don’t), it’s really amazing. I was really surprised to learn that most of the food here is fried. Many things are fried with many different kinds of oil, even the rice and vegetables. The food is so different from one place to the other, and sometimes when you order the same dish in one place, you’ll get a different one in the other even though you are in the same city. McDonald’s and KFC pop up on every corner and are very popular among the kids here. Kids are becoming fat, mainly in the big cities where the parents are working and the only kid is raised by his grandparents.

I can go on and go on but it’s time to go…. I think that this is the time to visit China before the Olympics and the big change that is going to affect this wonderful country. The conclusion is that China is unique because of it’s people their lives, way of living and behavior and not only from the places you visit (that are amazing in any way).

I’m now on my way back and the experience was far more than I expected.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my thoughts and my stories because there are many more to come…..

See you all soon…
Signing out from China,
Motti

A COMMENT FROM MARGE: Motti, this was a fascinating missive on your extraordinary trip. Soooo interesting!!! Thank you!!!

Email No. 10

2007-08-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

-----Original Message-----
From: Motti Mor [mailto:motti_mor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 4:41 AM
Subject: Pictures from China (Part 4)

Hi,
What's up?
I've added pictures of Yunnan province. I'll write an email soon about this amazing place.
Have a great week. Enjoy.
Motti

MOTTI: THANK YOU FOR THE FABULOUS PICTURES AND EMAILS! YOU'VE DONE A GREAT JOB KEEPING UP WITH ALL OF US!!! Many new terrific pictures. Click on the picture!!

Motti in China 2007

Email No. 9

2007-08-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

-----Original Message-----
From: Motti Mor [mailto:motti_mor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 12:19 AM
Subject: Trip to China (part 5) - a night bus to another world and back...

Hi,
I'm writing again after a long time. Soon you'll understand why.

First of all I wanted to write about my experiences in Hong Kong but it was a long time ago so I'll have to write about it in another time. I just wanted to let you know about the feelings we had crossing the border from China to Hong Kong.

We arrived to Shenzhen which is the Chinese bordering city with Hong Kong after a long 13-hour ride and walked our way out of China. It was so interesting: as you cross the border, you feel like you’re entering another world, a different world, much brighter, newer and faster. After traveling through China, the Hong Kong trains look like they are straight out a science fiction movie. No smoking and spitting signs everywhere (whereas in China no one will tell you to stop, in Hong Kong you'll have to pay $200 (US) for smoking outside of the smoking area). You cross the border and in a matter of seconds you are in another world.

After our eight days in Hong Kong we started to miss the China feeling. (I will write more about it in my next e-mail) so we wanted to catch a flight to our last destination of the trip together before Arik went back home. We booked two air tickets on the 21:30 flight to Shanghai from the Shenzhen airport. We arrived at the airport as planned and went to the counter to pick up our tickets. Soon we realized that they canceled our reservation and now the flight is full. After a long and unsuccessful argument we went searching for tickets in the many ticket counters around the airport. Finally an hour before the flight we found someone that said she might have a ticket for us. So she was making phone calls for 25 minutes and every time I gave her an angry look, she said wait a minute. After 25 minutes when I said I'm going because I have a flight to catch, she looked at me like it was the first time she ever saw me and said, "Hi, how can I help you?" (I guess she couldn't find any tickets and just didn't want to admit it!)

We went to another ticket counter and they said a flight got delayed for two hours so we should come back at 23:00. “I promise I’ll have those tickets for you by then,” he said. So we went to KFC and waited for an hour and a half. At ten minutes to 11 we went back to the counter. We looked around us and realized that most of the counters were empty. Suddenly the air conditioning stopped, the lights went out, and as we looked around us, we saw that all the counters were empty. They closed the airport at 23:00 so I guess the person who told us to come back at 23:00 didn't have the energy for us and knew that when we would come back, he would be long gone. His counter was the first one to close. So at 23:00 the airport closed, and we had no ticket, no hotel, and no clue.

Right then we saw a light in the distance. (We’re saved, so I thought.) There was one counter that was still open so we ran over there and asked for a ticket for the morning flight. The man said, “No problem. I can do it but it will cost you double." We said, “Okay, anything, just give us the tickets.” He started to write in the computer and then we took out our credit cards (Visa and American Express). He looked at us and said, "What is that?" It didn't matter to him that his counter was full of Visa and MasterCard and American Express signs in all shapes and colors. He continued: "Sorry, I can't. I don't have a key." Before we could say anything, he closed his computer and ran away into the darkness.

We didn't know what to do anymore when all of a sudden the terminal B sign flashed in front of our eyes. So we took our stuff and ran in the dark all the way to the far terminal. From afar we could see another distant light. There was another guy there writing in his computer. As we got near the counter, he was astonished to see two foreign, bald, and sweating guys running towards him. As he stood up, I told him, “Don’t go!! Sell us a ticket to Shanghai for the morning flight, please. We have credit cards. We want to pay. Just let us pay!” “Okay, no problem,” he answered. “Why didn't you come sooner?" (Smart guy.)

After handing us our tickets, he closed the lights and went home and we waited for 8 hours with no air-conditioning on the bench at the closed and dark airport for our morning flight. The night at the airport is another story I'll have to tell you about later.

Shanghai is an amazing city. I've been here for 5 weeks now and every day I still see and discover new and amazing things about it. When you live in one place for a long time, it's harder to write about it because every day you have another experience from the same background. So I guess one can best write about a location only when he leaves it. I will have to write about it in my next email because there is so much to write about. I'll just say that the amount of people you see in the streets, bus terminals, malls and metro stations is really huge and can't be described in words.

I'm now leaving Shanghai and will continue on with my travels alone. I'll be going to Yunnan province which is bordering with Tibet, Burma, and Laos and located at the beginning of the Himalaya Mountains. I'll write from there. Thanks for waiting (and reading). On the road again...
Motti

HI FOLKS: Marge here. What a fascinating email from Motti. Thanks, Motti! I am loving your missives and I'm sure everyone else is, too. Looking forward to hearing from you again soon!!!

Email No. 8

2007-07-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

-----Original Message-----
From: Motti Mor [mailto:motti_mor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2007 10:58 AM

Hi Marge!!!
What's up???? What's new?????
I'm still in Shanghai which is a great city. I started teaching English to little kids a few days ago. They are very cute. I'll let you know as it continues and send pictures of course.

Thank you for updating my blog. I can't see it from here but everyone is saying it's a real riot!!!!! When you search for Motti Mor in Google, my blog is the
first find. I love it!!!! Keep it up!!! I'm happy you like the stories because I have many more. I'll send another update soon.
Love,
Motti

NOTE FROM MARGE IN FORT LEE: Well, folks, yes, it's true. Try googling Motti Mor and VOILA on the top of the page is this blog. Are we cool or WHAT????!!!!

So all of Motti's friends who are telling him about the blog, why don't y'all leave comments to Motti?? Yes, you can email him, of course, but comments on blogs are fun to read. Just click on the word comments at the bottom of this post and write away!!

Email No. 7

2007-07-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

From: motti_mor@yahoo.com [mailto:motti_mor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 2:42 PM
Subject: Trip to China - Pictures (no. 2)

Hi,

I've added more pictures to the Journey to China album. Enjoy.

Motti in China 2007

Folks: There's 36 more wonderful pictures! Go look!

Motti has used Yahoo Photos to upload his pictures. View Journey to China

Motti, I am loving your interesting and very humorous emails. Try to write more! And wonderful pictures!!

Email No. 6

2007-07-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

-----Original Message-----
From: Motti Mor [mailto:motti_mor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 1:14 PM
Subject: Trip to China (No.4) - a look back

Hi,

I know I didn't write for a long time but I just couldn't find the time to write a long e-mail. Every time I sat down to write something I had to go. (Can you imagine how many drafts I have saved????) I'll start from where I finished my last e-mail and break down this email in three parts because I don't want you to fall asleep in the middle. So here we go....

Chengdu-Guilin-Yang Shu
After flying from Chengdu to Guilin airport, we took a bus straight to the Guilin bus station in order to catch a 2-hour bus to Yang Shu. The area of Guilin is known by its amazing landscape of hills, rivers, and rice terraces.

When we arrived to Guilin, we saw a different city from the sparkling Chengdu. Guilin was smaller and as we searched for the bus, many non-Chinese look-alikes started to run after us to ask for many things we didn't understand. (I guess it was money but it had so many different names.)

At first we didn't understand how they came to China. We guessed they came from the surrounding countries. But there were so many and they spoke perfect Chinese so we figured that the Chinese in this area looked like that. (After finding the bus we didn't really care any more.)

When we arrived to Yang Shu, we found ourselves in a long street filled with local tourists (and some foreigners), and we wanted to find a good place to eat. We struggled ourselves out of the busy street to a side street and sat down in an empty restaurant with 20 (!!!) workers. (You'll figure out why. Wait a second.) We wanted to sit outside, but a huge wave of mosquitoes reached the chairs before us so we were forced to go back inside. It was really dark and we couldn't even see the menu. We asked to them to turn up the light and they did but just a little bit.

We ordered our food and as I started to take my first bite, I saw a rat in the size of a dog looking at me from the stairs behind Arik's back. So I told him, "Arik, we have to move." He turned around and ran to my side of the table. The rat did not move. He stayed there looking at us. It was his domain. We were intruding in his space.

Suddenly he jumped up three meters and went to the second floor and kept on looking at us. He won. We left . . . . and the 20 workers did their job and laughed.

A day later we rented bicycles to go to the Moon Hill Mountain. Soon enough we reached a turnpike with three possible ways and no signs once or ever. We didn't know where to go so I went to ask three old ladies that walked on the other side of the road. Guess what happened? I asked them and immediately each one of them pointed in a different direction. Then when they realized that it was funny, they all changed in the same way and pointed in other directions. What could I do? I laughed and they did too until another lady came and they started shouting in Chinese at one another. At the end I found the place. By myself.......

Hope you managed to keep up! After three days in Yang Shu we took a 12-hour night bus to Hong Kong. To be continued.....

P.S. The next email will be about a night bus to another world.

Email No. 5

2007-06-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

From: Motti Mor [mailto:mottii@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 4:15 AM
Subject: Fwd: songs.....

Hi,
What's up? I know that I'm late with the trip stories but I will do it soon. I promise. In the meantime I'm sending a song we wrote while staying in Hong Kong. (I hope it works.)
Enjoy
Motti

From Marge: Here's the song, folks. The audio comes through loud and clear and is GREAT! The video is too dark. Maybe done at night? Without knowing what they're saying, I love it. Imagine if I understood Hebrew!

Email No. 4

2007-06-06T10:52:00.000-07:00

-----Original Message-----
From: Motti Mor [mailto:motti_mor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 8:38 AM
Subject: Trip to China (Part 3) - a few notes

Hi,I'm back to Cheng Du after a two-day trip to the biggest Buddha in the world and climbing a 3,000-meter mountain. It was nice but not as good as the time in the Tibetan mountains.

Now after almost two weeks in China I would like to share with you some experiences I've had.In Songpan after the horse tracking [Motti, do you mean trekking?] we had to wash our clothes (we really had to!!) from the horses and the smoke so we asked the restaurant lady. She said that there is a place which [we] can make it fast just 200 meters from her. So we went there but didn't find it so we started asking people and everyone sent us to another place. And when we reached the other place, they sent us to another place and so on.

A Chinese person will never say he doesn't know but send you to another place and will let the other one handle it.

After about 45 minutes we decided to go back to the first place and on the way, we found the place just two stores next to the lady's place.

But really the Chinese are very helpful and always want to help. So when you ask someone a question, suddenly you'll find 20 people surrounding you and trying to help. You turn your head and it becomes 100 and you find yourself walking in the street with 100 Chinese people walking behind you. Now, go handle 100 people that can't say "I don't know"!

The other day we went to a small internet cafe and there was only one computer free so we wanted to sit together. Arik sat down and I went to the manager to ask for another chair (in Chinese of course). He gave me a folding chair that even a 3-month-old baby wouldn'tbe able to sit on. It was a modle [what word did you mean here, Motti?] of a chair but still a chair. He basically said to me, "I gave you what you asked for. Whether you'll be able to use it or not is your problem."

When we were starting our horse tracking, the whole group already departed to the mountains but our guide received a phone call on his cellular (everyone has it!!!). We understood that he was informed of having a grandson. His boss, who looks like a town boss from the old western movies, didn't care so he came shouting at him to leave already. So we asked him do you have a baby? He said, "No, no baby. Baby baby." (A grandson I guess)

For now that is all.
Later....Motti

(Another interesting post from Motti!)

Email No. 3, first set of photos!!

2007-06-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,

Motti sent some fabulous pictures today:

From: motti_mor@yahoo.com [mailto:motti_mor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2007 8:46 AM
Subject: Pictures from China
Hi
Here are a few pictures of my first 10 days in China.
Enjoy....
Motti

Oh, we'll enjoy! It's clear that Motti is finding his way around China! Get a load of all these places he's been in just 10 days!

(Technical note: Motti sent me his pics in a Yahoo Photos album. I saved them all to my computer and then imported them into Kodak EasyShare software where I "enhanced" each picture, which basically lightens them. And then I imported the lightened pics into Picasa and put them in a Picasa album. See the same pics in Yahoo Photos.)

Email No. 2

2007-06-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

Happy to receive Motti's second email this morning. He tells me he can't access the blog from China. And apparently no one else can since no one left a comment. So I have no idea if anyone but yours truly has read this blog. But no matter. It's a fantastic memorialization of Motti's missives to us. Motti, thanks for the great emails and looking forward to as many as you can get around to doing.

From: Motti Mor [mailto:motti_mor@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 8:40 AM

Hi,

Thank you all for responding. For those who used the blog, I'm sorry for not responding. I somehow cannot get in the site from China.

OK. After a week in China I can tell you that it is not only different here but funny as well. It is not easy to travel around this huge country although my Chinese helps quite a bit.

The traffic system here is so strange (and sometimes dangerous) because when there is green light on one side, it seems it’s a green light to everyone so everybody starts driving in every direction. (I mean cars, busses, bicycles, some sort of 3-wheel cars and many more strange things.) But somehow they manage to maintain traffic flow in that mess.

Yesterday I saw an old woman riding her bicycle. A taxi was in front of her. The taxi made a sudden stop and the women crashed in the rear of the taxi. (And I mean crashed!) I was the only foreigner in the street and I was the only one who stopped. I was sure she got injured. But after two seconds she gathered herself up and kept on riding.

Now to continue with my journey stories. We arrived to Cheng Du a few days ago and traveled around the city which is much more organized and modern then Beijing. After seeing the Panda bears we decided to pack our bags and go south towards the rear side of Tibet. We took the early morning bus (6 a.m.!!!) and started our long trip north. As we boarded the bus, we realized that we were the only foreigners on the bus.

The 12-hour ride was really hard especially when all the passengers on the bus (both men and women) spit on the floor smoke and throw everything they have on the bus floor. But it was a great adventure and we became good friends with the people on the bus who offered us everything they had to eat (chicken legs, shrimps, dried yak and more).

After the long trip we arrived to Songpan, which is a Tibetan village with horse-riding treks. The trek was really amazing with an amazing view of mountains, clouds, rural villages, and snow.

I'm running out of time and I can keep on going for days so for now it's enough I guess.

To be continued......

From Tibet on the way to Jiuzhaigou (9 villages Valley).
Miss you all already
Motti
P.S. Pictures soon...

Email No. 1

2007-05-27T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hello to all of Motti's family and friends!

Welcome to Motti's blog of his China trip created and maintained by Marge. Each email he sends us plus the pictures will be posted here. I will find out from Motti whether he can access the blog from China and read "comments" so for now, why don't y'all post comments but continue to email Motti as well. And now -- drum roll, please -- is Motti's first email from China:

Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2007 7:22 a.m.
Subject: The trip to China (part 1)

Hello hello! What's up?

I'm writing my first email from the China trip as I'm about to leave the first destination and continue to the next. I landed in Beijing three days ago and thought that the Chinese I knew would not be enough. Well, I can tell you it's not an easy thing to get along here but I think I'm doing a pretty good job.

After a few setbacks I managed to get to the Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Those are very impressive and huge places but full of tourists (a million or so) and mostly locals. It was a really hot day but we managed to walk most of it. (At least I think we did as I tried to help a lost English woman who lost her way around this maze of temples. Mrs. Colbert to the east gate please... At least I tried to help.)

Now I'm back from the Great Wall which was really spectacular and again full of tourists but still an amazing site to see.

I'm now on my way to the airport, flying to Chengdu. I'll write again from there and will send pictures as well.

Have a great week and enjoy yourselves. I know I am.

Signing out from Beijing
Motti