It don't come easy

I made it to Dhaka in a mere 23 hours. There was a bit of confusion around the India leg of my flight--evidently one should have an Indian visa to fly through Delhi--but I managed to get here in one piece. The food on the last two legs of my trip--chicken curry, dhal, naan, rice pudding, and some sort of vermicelli in sweet milk custard--was really good.
My first 14 hours in Dhaka were spent sleeping. I'm staying at the BRAC Centre Inn, which is housed on the first four flours of the BRAC main headquarters (BRAC being the NGO that I'm studying). The accommodations are quite comfortable--nice, hard bed, internet, and even a continental breakfast. I'll be here until Sunday, at which point I'll begin to housesit and keep company to an aging corgi, whose hind legs have recently become almost entirely paralyzed (it hasn't slowed her down though; she zips all over the place!). The place is beautiful and filled with art from all over the world. It's biggest selling feature though, is that it's located on the edge of a lake controlled by the army, which virtually gets no traffic. From the balcony today, I saw a 5-foot long monitor lizard, many kites and parakeets, and a family of gibbons (including a baby). Evidently sometimes you can see snakes and otters as well!
I've never been somewhere this visibly poor before--about 80% of the population lives on under $2 a day, and there seems to be a few really wealthy people and a lot of extremely poor (no middle class). As a result, there are not a lot of the industries that you'd expect--very little fast food or coffee/tea shops; it's either street food or a fairly expensive (and yes, by that I mean like your meal is $5) restaurant. There are starving little children asking you for money whichever way you turn, which is heartbreaking. Across the water from me is one of the densest slum settlements in the world. It at once reminds me of the importance of the work that BRAC and Global Health Delivery do, and the magnitude and immediateness of the issues.

Pictures to come--once I get a little more comfortable out on the streets I'll start taking pictures. I'm still too scared that I'm going to cause traffic accidents because rickshaw drivers and cyclists stare at me so long to focus on any sort of photo ops!

Shaoguan

Right outside of Shaoguan is a beautiful temple. We headed out there in a little minivan, and I convinced the driver to let me choose the music. As a result, we got to listen to the Dixie Chicks, DMB, and even Chamillionaire while cruising along; it was awesome.
We had the opportunity to drink tea with a monk who was also a self taught healer who ran the monastery's hospital. He gave me a book on herbal remedies, so I may start my Chinese education with all the different herbs in the world so that I can read it!

Guilin

We only spent an afternoon in Guilin (City of about half a million; closest train station to Yangshuo), but I thought it was beautiful. It's right on the Li River, and in the main square is a a park including Elephant Mountain which, if you're willing to climb up some really steep steps, provides a great panoramic view of the area.

Yangshuo

Some pictures I took during our bike ride through the countryside. The one with the rock arch is Moonhill, and the second picture of me is from the backside of Moonhill. Isn't it lovely scenery?!

A few Shanghai Pictures

1. A typical sign in old town.
2. Fuxing park, statue of Marx and Engel. On your marx. . .
3. Nicole and I in front of a Confucius Temple in Old Town.
4. Sam, Nicole, and I enjoying drinks at Cloud Nine, the highest bar in the world (86th floor).

Wahhhhhh!

Hey,
The last few days have been a whirlwind adventure. We left Hong Kong via commuter rail to Guangzhou, which I would describe as a business hub. We stayed with some of Walker's dad's friends out there--two gregarious and fun Australians who had a dinner party the night we were there. Learned a lot about the expat life in China and how the community interacts with the local culture. Pretty interesting, though I dreamed in Australian and British accents that night (all of their friends were European).
The next night we took a night train to Guilin, where we caught a little minibus to Yangshuo, a fairly small mountain town famous for its scenery. We ate breakfast in this garage-like noodle shop with the hotel manager, then hopped on bicycles and tore into the countryside. The mountains here are extremely different from any I've ever seen, they are narrow and go pretty much straight up, and just pop out of a flat landscape here and there. We biked along a river until the pavement ran out, and then continued through little villages and farmland on dirt paths. A woman on a bicycle offered to take us to her hometown, which was a 20 minute bike ride away, and we got there just in time to take cover during a huge thunderstorm. Lunch was good--more noodles (starting to see a pattern?)--while watching the rain and watching old men play cards. There are a lot of water buffalo out here, and I even saw a little calf (he was adorable). After lunch, we found our way back to the main highway and biked back to Yangshuo. Actually, we biked past Yangshuo and out to a site called Moon Hill. It was a long hike up to the top, but we were rewarded with a stunning view of the land and a really cool arch in the rock.
After that exhausting day, we went out on a boat that night to watch the fishermen fish with cormorant (the birds that can swim under the water). And slept soundly that night!
We tried to catch the sunrise the next morning, but there was no sunrise as the sky assumed a gloomy fog. We walked down to the Li River and watched the fishermen in their boats and the little old ladies on the dock doing aerobics to Beijing Opera. It was pretty cool (me being the public health fiend and all). I also got pretty excited an hour later when we were riding through a tiny little town and we happened across a guy with a mouth full of toothpaste suds.
A lot of beautiful scenery and fun exploration characterized Yangshuo and the surrounding area. Eager to see more of China in our limited time though, we caught a bus mid-afternooon back to Guilin and spent the afternoon there. In the center of the city there is one of these Karst mountains called Elephant Hill, and we climbed up it to get a great view of the city and the river.
Today I woke up on a train as we pulled into the station in Shaoguan. Shaoguan is a few hours north of Guangzhou, where we're planning on spending the night, and the home of Zen Buddhism. Figured we could check out the temple and see some more of the region's beautiful scenery before heading back to Hong Kong.

Home on Friday! Hard to believe how the time has flown. Looking forward to having a CELL PHONE again, wearing JEANS and SWEATPANTS (didn't bring any), not carrying my own toilet paper around(!), drinking ice water, being literate, listening to the Dixie Chicks, eating some cereal and NY PIZZA, and talking to you all! But, China has been a blast and I'll be back at some point soon!