Snowshoeing near Independence Pass

We went up to Independence Pass near Aspen for a weekend of snow shoeing and cross country skiing.

Hwa Shan...

We visited one of the 5 sacred peaks in China in Hwa Shan. When we arrived at the peaks there are two ways to get to the top, the gondola or a 3 hour walk up to where the gondola drops you off. We chose the gondola and then went up many steep steps to two different peaks. On several of the peaks there are Buddhist temples (I kept thinking while I was hiking why anyone would want to carry the supplies up these mountains to build the temples is beyond me) However they did and was great to spend a day hiking around these beautiful tree covered peaks with steps carved into the rock our built. We just never get that in Colorado. Maybe we need more Buddhists willing to do that kind of work. We did have to hike this with thousands of people though. One interesting thing is there are many locks with red ribbons along the trail. This is a symbol for couples to "lock" their love. It is also done on the great wall.

Xian...

While in Xian we visited the tourist must see, the Terra Cotta Warriors. There are over 8,000 warriors each with their own facial expression. The warriors were created to guard the tomb of an emperor. Currently there are three pits to visit. Archaeologists have restored many of the warriors in Pit 1, the largest and they stand as an army. This is by far the most awe inspiring site, both because of the immensity of the place, the work it must have taken just to build it in general and the fact they army has had to have been restored. Shortly after the army was buried a warring faction set fire to the tomb. Many of the warriors survived, but the wood beams above them did not. As they burned they fell sending many of the terra cotta warriors to pieces. Pit 2 and 3 are the next ones you visit and shows how the pits were laid out, but with less of the warriors exposed and put back together. None the less the size of the place is incredible and it is amazing that the warriors were built in the first place. Unfortunately, the workers building the statues were also killed upon completion so as to not let out the secret.

Xian is a very historic city in China. It is one of the few cities that still has the original wall standing. We rented bikes and were able to ride our bikes around the entire wall. I can't think of any place in the world I would be able to do that. The nice thing is it gave a great view of the city and we didn't have to contend with the traffic of regular Chinese roads.

The Yang Tze...

Currently the mighty Yang Tze, China's largest river, is home to the construction project that will ultimately be the largest dam in the world. The project itself is an engineering marvel as well as the social costs. Over a million people up river from the dam have had to be relocated to higher ground. Homes have been dismantled, historic buildings have been moved to higher ground, and fields have been lost in the name of progress and energy demand. The dam is mostly completed and by the end of next year the river will rise to a depth of 175 meters. It currently is at about 140. We took a boat cruise down the river. Interesting as the tour guide sold it as the foreigners cruise, but there were about 6 foreigners on the cruise. The rest were Chinese. I had ample opportunity to practice my Chinese and many were patient with helping me learn and understand. We definitely had and opportunity to learn more about Chinese culture as well. While on the cruise we chose to partake in three side trips, two of which included Chinese performances of music and dancing. These were interesting, but the music was way to loud. It is interesting to see the costumes of various time periods of Chinese history. The other side trip and most stunning was a cruise through the Lesser of Three Gorges. It was beautiful with touring cliffs on both sides of the small boat were were in. I can only imagine how much larger the cliffs must have felt before some of the water has risen.

Guilin...

So, to update you on our travels:

So far it has rained every day on our trip, but two days. It is raining today again. We have been to Hong Kong and Macau, which you have already seen on the blog. I have been doing a lot of barginning for Laura in Chinese and obviously been getting to practice.



We flew from Hong Kong to Guilin. Guilin is a town of about 1 million people. A small town for China. The Li River is carves its way around the city and karst formations. The large rounded rock formations that seem to grow out from the ground. They really are stunning. The weather is warm and humid and there has been a lot of rain. Many things are flooded. The river is very high as well. We took a boat down the river and enjoyed a Chinese tour. The food wasn't bad. We then headed into the town of Yangshoa for a night. A much smaller town than Guilin, but still busy and flashy like most Chinese cities. It is a major tourist haven and a lot of foreigners are found around there. It is also surrounded by the karst peaks. We were able to spend an afternoon renting and riding bikes around the countryside, which was by far my favorite thing to do so far. The villages are so different than what we are used to seeing. The pace of life a lot slower and calmer than the cities. Although life is changing. Most villages have electricity and those power lines were always getting in the way of my photos. What was fun was watching chickens and ducks freely roam the streets. People tending to water buffalo or other cattle would lead them down the road to an open grassy patch to feed. It wasn't uncommon to see the animals grazing near the road side. They were often only tied up near busy roads.




We road back into town with sore bums (not very comfortable bike seats), planning to ride the next day. This was not going to happen as the rain started pouring down that evening and didn't seem to stop. We took to the bus to back to Guilin. We tried to book a tour to the Dragon's Back Terraces (Long Ji). But found this difficult with the rain our hostel said it was too dangerous. We ended up taking the bus from the bus station, transfering busses to the terraces and spending the day hiking around. This part of the trip was rather beautiful and it did rain off and on. We met a fluent Chinese speaker from Vancover on the bus and he was able to negotiate a faster way back to Guilin. We decided to go have the local specialty of beer fish (pi jiou u). This was fantastic, fish cooked in beer and spices and when you are done with the fish they give you noodles and vegtables to mop up the sauce, for desert we had my favourite, pearl milk tea.



The next day we headed for Chong Quing. A city the Chinese government is investing a lot of money for development. It is working and many people are moving here for work. The city itself isn't great, but we did try the local specialty here as well and that was hot pot (how gwo). We were completely clueless how to eat it, but it worked out great. We had a Chinese person write down what we wanted, took it to the restaurant, and they showed us how to cook it. This was different than Taiwan. They had two pots, one on the outside and one on the inside. The inside was spicy with a lot of chilis and the outside had vegatables. The waiter then put the meat and vegatables we ordered into both pots. While they were cooking we prepared a bowl of seaseme oil, garlic and spices. We were told to take the things cooking in the spicy part out and place them in the oil mixture and then eat it. This was fantastic. We finished eating the things in the spicy side and then ate the vegatables and meat. This was fantastic as well. I do have to say I love many things about Chinese food.




On the whole, China is a fascinating place. The people have been great. Aside from all the hawkers in tourist places constantly asking if you want to buy things and we constantly hear hello from almost everyone. This was no different than Taiwan. It must be because we obviously stand out. So far we are enjoying the trip!

So today we head off for the boat and of course it is raining. I wonder how long it will do this for.

Macau

Macau has been very quickly and is the Las Vegas of Aisa. Lots of casinos and some very large ones at that. All within the last 15 years. The Venetian of Las Vegas has and continues to build an extremely large building here that replicates Venice. It is said to be one of the largest buildings in the world. Definitely a lot of excess. We did visit the first casino here, Casino Lisboa and tried our hands at the slots unsuccessfully, simply for the sake of saying we did gamble in Macau.

However there is so much more to the city of Macau. Historically it was once controlled by the Portuguese. In 1999 they handed it back to China. Signs are in Portuguese and English and it is somewhat easy to get around in English. The streets have a distinctly European and Chinese feel. I most enjoyed the smaller fishing village we visited and had Macanese food by the ocean. The areas is steeped in history and unfortunately we did not get to visit the history museum to learn more. I guess I will have to add another book to the list to read about the history now that I have visited. Macau is also a nice change from the busy streets of Hong Kong.

Dragon Boat Races

Last time I went to Dragon Boat Races I was in Taiwan. I had some chance to watch them, but was also a participant. It was fun to attend the races again and be a spectator. I did forgot how hot it got though. Hearing the drum beat as the the participants on the boat tried to paddle in unison was a lot of fun. The festival is commemorates the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan. It traditionally falls on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese calendar, which was June 8th this year and we were lucky enough to be here. The Chinese traditionally prepare and "zongzi", (the z's are pronounced like ts as in "cats") a pyramid- shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, and racing dragon boats. I have had them in past and recommend trying them, but wouldn't eat them regularly. The wikipedia article in the link attached does an excellent job of explaining the history the boat and the race: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonboat What I found really fascinating is the history in Chinese culture and the stories. It is said, the poet, Qu Yuan, The poet is said to have committed suicide by wading into the river with a rock. The people, devastated tried to save him in their boats. They beat drums and paddles to scare away fish and evil spirits (sounds like the dragon boats). They dropped in rice and dumplings to prevent the fish from eating the body (possibly one the reasons the traditional food, zong zi.

Views of the City

Hong Kong is a rather densely populated city for some more information on exactly how populated type in this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Island to the browser. The architecture is fantastic and especially across when you can view the buildings across the harbor. A light show is also performed at night to music as the buildings have different light patterns and colors. I am not sure if the electricity used is good for global warming, but definitely interesting to watch.

In Hong Kong

We left Colorado in rain, arrived in Vancover in rain and arrived in Hong Kong in rain. It hasn't stopped and doesn't look like it will tomorrow either. I don't just mean light rain. This is a nice constant down pour. We have rain jackets, but the wetness still seems to penetrate. But I must remember we are in a tropical area in the summer and it is bound to rain! One just does not want is on their vacation. Pictures will be added when I can get my camera out.

Back in Colorado...

Happy New Year! Kim and I are finally back home in Denver, Colorado and starting to adjust to life back home. What a great year we have had traveling in Australia and a wonderful experience. Kim starts back at school tomorrow and I am looking for work as we speak. Well the near year brings exciting possibilities and Kim and I look forward to what's ahead for us. For now though it is off to the mountains to snowboard as a huge snowstorm has left plenty of fresh powder to enjoy...

Winter in Wisconsin

Patrick and I have made it home safely, sort of. We are both visiting family for the holidays and heading back to Denver on January 1st. While I have been visiting my parents we had one nice snowstorm. The snow has been on the trees for three days and looks beautiful. We have had the opportunity to do some of the fun things we do in the snow, sledding, snowmobiling, and cross country skiing. Unfortunately our snowboard equipment is in Denver. As Patrick and I talk with each other and reflect on our experience we have both realized how great of a time we really had in Australia and we are looking forward to visiting again. Although we are happy to be home and visiting our family and friends, we both realize it is easy and difficult to be back home. We miss our friends, the time in Australia and the things we had the opportunity to experience. We have grown and changed as we learned more. This simply just makes it different to be around our friends and we will eventually learn to adjust. Many who travel say it is more difficult to adjust being back home. We can't say it is any more difficult than adjusting to living in a new place, maybe just not as fun.

Reflection on Teaching

Our year is almost complete and we are both sad to leave some of the great new friends we have made. However we are also excited to see our family and friends. The year has been fantastic despite the difficulties. The ups far out weigh the downs and make the work and uncertainty worth it.

Teaching in the beginning of this year was difficult. Transitioning and learning the system took some time. The vocabulary, everyday procedures, and process take some adjusting. It often took every ounce of energy I had to not say my school (in the States) does it better. It isn't because your school does it better it is because you are used to that system. All schools have processes and procedures that function really well, based on the students, staff, and sometimes the architecture of the spaces. As an exchange teacher I felt it wasn't my job to question it, but to learn to understand what I was having difficulty with. What I eventually learned was that schools are constantly making choices about how to deal with issues that arise. Often times the choices made have a positive consequences and a negative consequences. The question I that often came to mind was, what are we gaining from this choice and what are we going to loose?

Personally, it took Patrick and I time to find our way around and what was around. This takes as much time as you put into it. We had to learn what the neighbourhood had to offer from shopping to parks to classes. We had to try a variety of things to see what we enjoyed doing as it wasn't different than Colorado. When you start learning this you start to establish patterns and habits. The place starts to feel more comfortable when you have a few habits developed. Those habits were often as simple as when we go grocery shopping or go to the gym. Shopping is interesting here, because most shops close around 5. Neighbourhoods have 1 late night a week and are open on Saturdays but not Sundays. If you are working all day and travelling on weekends it make shopping more difficult.

Making friends and establishing relationships also takes time and is probably uncomfortable in the beginning. It is uncomfortable because you know back home you have all these friends and you know who to call to do something fun, or who to call for problems. When you start in a new place you have to establish and build these relationships. But once you establish these as most do, it is sad to go. And that is where we are at, sad to leave.

The Things We Will Miss

There are many things Patrick and I will miss about Australia. We narrowed the list to 10 things list below. The items are listed in no particular order.

1. Sparkling Red Wines
2. The birds singing (especially the Kookabarra)
3. The Gum Trees
4. Beaches
5. Our Friends
6. The Staff at Hamilton
7. The Landscape and Wildlife
8. The neighborhood bakery, butcher, and fruit and veg.
9. Visiting Wineries
10. The Australian Accent

I also began to think while I was making the list, what I missed about the States. The list below is again in no particular order.

1. Good, Cheap beer from the Micro-breweries
2. Our Friends
3. Our Family
4. The Mountains
5. Snowboarding
6. Percipitation
7. Green Landscape
8. Snow
9. Mountain Biking
10. Carpool

Worlds Biggest Guitar Band...

Guinness Book Of Records: Biggest Guitar Band Attempt

Adelaide had a fantastic two week guitar festival last week, to kick off the event they tried to break the world record by forming the world's largest guitar band with everyone playing "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple.

They didn't quite break the world record but a record 1,350 Australians took part in our Biggest Guitar Band attempt, with many hundreds watching on. Around 2,000 people showed up and enjoyed the event.



Patrick and Larry rocking out trying to make history.



The guitar salute at the end of the performance.







Someone posted a youtube video online from the world record attempt.

Canberra...

Recently we had the chance to visit the capital city of Australia, Canberra. Kim has a friend she knew from traveling years back, Marianne and her husband Steve, who had recently relocated to Canberra from Darwin. They were gracious enough to put us up for the weekend and show us around. We had a fantastic time. We went to a great formal party that had some amazing food and interesting people. We also spent two days wandering around the city and went to the capital buildings, the war memorial, and the national art gallery. It was neat to see and learn the history about the Australian government and its political system. Canberra is a well laid out city that is easy to get around. It has small satellite areas that are all connected together throughout the city with a lot of surrounding trees and parklands. It has wide streets, and many walking and biking path, so many people commute by bike or walk. We spent one day driving out of the city and went bush walking out in the surrounding mountainous countryside. Canberra is very similar to Washington DC back home in the states.




Vintage cars lined up outside of the old parliment government building.



The capital building and national lawn.



Looking out across the lawn to the hill with the impressive War Memorial gallery.

Our favorite beaches...

Well our time in Australia is coming to a close here fairly soon. We have about a month left and are very busy trying to plan for some last minute trips, parties, packing, cleaning, etc. The year has really gone by fast, before we know it we will be back home in Colorado. One of the great things we have enjoyed this year are the amazing beaches and coastlines in Australia. So we thought we would share a top ten list of some our favorite beaches we have been to. (We included a few from New Zealand as well). Who ever coined the phrase life is a beach, must have been from Australia!



1. The "Twelve Apostles" along the Great Ocean Road.



2. Sunset over the beach at Marino Rocks viewed from our friend Dave's balcony.



3. The beach from Innes National Park on the York Peninsula contains the remains of an old shipwreck "Ethel".



4. Wineglass Bay in Tasmania is spectacular. You hike about two miles up to this rocky overlook where you can see the hourglass bay and beach down below. It is another two miles down to the beach which has crystal clear blue water.



5. This is one of the many great beaches just north of Cairns in Queensland. They have the poisonous "box jellyfish" during the summer months.



6. The Coorang National Park along the coast of South Australia contains miles and miles of wide empty beaches.



7. Johanna Beach along the Great Ocean Road, just outside the town of Apollo Bay.



8. Another great beach in Tasmania is the Friendly Beaches outside the town of Bicheno. We hiked out to this beach from a great nature conservatory were we saw some Tasmanian Devils.



9. New Zealand has some great beaches as well. This was one of the beaches on the north island near the capital city Wellington.



10. Moreaki Beach in New Zealand on our way to Christchurch on the South Island. They have some great boulder shaped rocks on the beach.

Kangaroo Island...

Our latest travel adventure took us to the remote island of the coast of South Australia, Kangaroo Island. Kangaroo Island is a very isolated part of South Australia. It was fairly pricey to get to, as they only have a private ferry operating to get there (you could fly if you wanted to from Adelaide). The island is one of the nicest parts of South Australia we have seen. Great quite beaches, wonderful wildlife, neat natural features, and great scenery. The island is about 50 miles wide, by 150 miles long.



Australian Sea Lions up close on the beach at Seal Bay. The are quite docile animals and laze around on the beach.



We took a great scneic drive down to the cape of Hanson Bay.



A sea pelican wandering near the beach at Pennshaw point.



The Remarkable Rocks in Flinders Chase Park. They are aptly named and are a bizarre formation of wind and water weathered and shaped rocks high on a sea side cliff. The rocks are covered in a orange color from a certain type of lichen moss. They were fascinating and we spent a good part of the afternoon climbing and walking around the large area of rocks.



The north part of the island has great sea side roads with magnificent views out into the ocean. We went down to several nice beaches and bays.



We hiked down to a underground cave that looked out into the ocean at the western tip of the island in the Flinders Chase area.



We saw a lot of wildlife, and had to stop many times for them as they crossed the road. Here is an echidna hiding in the bush.



Kim took a great photo of the scrub brush trees.

Dreamtime Story...

This is a series of five Aboriginal Dreamtime stories illustrated by the incredible paintings of Ngarrindjeri artist, Jacob Stengle. These paintings were commisioned for the Department of Enviornment and Heritage and are on display at the Flinders Chase Visitor Center on Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

This story tells about the creation of Kangaroo Island. It is of the Ngarrindjeri people, whose country land in Australia extended from the upper Murray River to Cape Jaffa in the South East. The story is passed down from many generations about the great Ngurunderi and his two wives.


NGURUNDERI AND PONDI



As Ngurunderi paddled his bark canoe along the small stream, he was able to spear a very large cod which he named Pondi. The great fish struggled so fiercely that it widened the river with its tail and flooded the nearby swamps and billabongs by spilling the water over the banks.

THE RUNAWAY WIVES



Ngurunderi was searching for his runaway wives in the southern end of the Coorong. He searched for many years and continued searching as far south as the lakes, continuing all the way to the beach along the Murray River until reaching Encounter Bay. Here he finally found his wives laughing and splashing in the shallow water.

THE PAGES



Ngurunderi finally found his wives who had deserted him and was full of anger. He summoned a great storm that caused the waters to rise and drown his wives. His wives spirits were formed into the two rugged and rocky islands known as the Pages.

THE LAST WALK



When Ngurunderi's anger subsided he realised what a dreadful thing he had done to his wives. He fled over to Kangaroo Island, full of remorse, to try and cleanse his soul. Here he rested in the scrub among logs, gum trees, yaccas, and sheoks. The morning sighing sound among the trees helped him to temporarily forget about his terrible actions.

THE FINAL ACTION



Ngurunderi rested a long time on Kangaroo Island. The time had come for him to return to his heavenly home. His final action on earth was to leave instructions for his people to follow his steps to the western end of Kangaroo Island and pay respects to the rugged Pages Islands. In remorse for his wives, he leapt from a cliff into the sea and drowned, but his cleansed spirit rose to the sky.

Tasmania...

Well we finally got back this weekend after two exciting weeks of traveling around Tasmania. Tasmainia is the southernmost island of Australia located 240km south of Victoria across the Bass Strait. The island is fairly small compared to the rest of Australia (its the smallest state) and is 300km long by 315km wide. The highest mountain on the island is Mt. Ossa at 1617km (5300 feet). Nineteen National Parks covering one quarter of the island help to preserve the abundance of beautiful coastlines, beaches, rivers, forests, wildlife, glacier carved lakes, and stunning mountain ranges.

The island has a bleak history, Europeans discovered Tasmania in 1642. By the mid 1700s they were starting to settle on the island and wiped out most of the indigenous Aborignies within the next 150 years. Hobart was built around 1790 along with prison colonies around the area south of Hobart, Port Arthur. Convicts were shipped from mainland Australia and England. Over 74,000 convicts were sent to Tasmania between 1800 to 1850s. In 1853 government stopped the penal conlonies and convicts from being shipped and sent here. The island was originally named Van Diemens land, but was later changed in 1858 to Tasmania to free itself from the image of its tainted penal history.

Today Tasmania is a vibrant relaxed place. Although you can still visit the remains of the prison colonies, most notbaly Port Arthur and learn about its past. The biggest cities are Hobart, Launceston, and Devonport. The are very small cottage seaside towns and villages scattered throughout the island. For the most part, life is relativley laid back, rural, and unhurried here. There are about 500,000 people on the island. The people we encountered were very friendly and interesting to talk to. The main industries are mining, logging, tourism, and agriculture. The local cheese and fresh seafood were fantastic. Below are a few photos from our trip.





The sunsets over the ocean were breathtaking. Our favorite beach was Wineglass Bay in the Freycinent Pinensula.



We hiked around Dove Lake in the Cradle Mountain. The weather was raining and cold, and the rain later changed to snow.



The tall gum trees were massive. Here you can see Kim in the bottom right to give you a sense of scale. This picture only shows about the bottom half of the tree. We saw trees even thicker and taller than these, and some were close to 98m (300 feet high) and very old. I can't imagine the sound one of these trees must make when it eventually crashes to the ground.



We had a great place to stay in Hobart, thanks to Kim's friends Ron and Avril. The have a nice house in the hills overlooking the city and this is the veiw we got to see from their deck.





Kim and I went to a great photo gallery exhibit in Cradle Mountain. We found out that they had a photo contest from pictures taken in the world heritage areas around Tasmania, so we decided to send in two of our photos. The first one Kim took of Lake St. Clair, and Patrick took the other one of the the green moss along a hike named the "Enchanted Forest". Let's keep our fingers crossed, top prize is $5,000. But hey even if we get our photos displayed that would be great!



Here is the infamous Tasmanian Devil. We stopped at a nature park outside of Bicherno were we could see them up close and watch them feed. They are small, cute, animals, but have razor sharp claws and teeth, and can be hightly aggresive when feeding. They are under threat to a new disease that spreads tumors in their mouths and faces, and has devestated much of the population. The Tasmanian tiger went extinct in around 1940, lets hope that dosen't happen to the Tassy Devil.



We went up to the top of Mt. Wellington outside of Hobart, and saw our first taste of snow in Australia. Some kids earlier in the day decided to build a snowman on the summit.



Rocks and washed up driftwood along the coast.



This is the old historic church building in the convict town of Port Arthur. There is a great museum explaining the local history of the penal colony and you could walk around the grounds and visit 30 different buildings, jails, shops, houses, and prison quarters to see what life must have been like here 200 years ago.

Tasmania was great and we really enjoyed our time traveling there. It was such a contrast to the other parts of the country that we have seen so far. The area was rich in history and very scenic with incredible natural parks and beaches. There were also many interesting people, places, and things to see.