Category Archives: Architecture

Day 319 in Beijing: Erlian, Mongolia Visa Run: Hours 18-24

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Leaving China makes a rainbow.

Leaving China makes a rainbow.

And the sun rose on Erlian.

And on us.

We woke up and looked out the windows of our hotel room.

Erlian is a pretty damn boring place, sad to say.

Honesty is the best policy, right?

As we got up, we decided to try the buffet breakfast, which was included in our hotel stay, we were pretty worried that it would be all meat and eggs.

Erlian is on the Mongolian border and Mongolia is a serious meat eating country.

We were pleasantly surprised since there was a decent amount of vegetarian options, although no fruit, and we ate up our food and decided to walk around Erlian and get some pictures of the people and the place.

There is one thing Jill and I love about China and that is the doggies.  As you know, if you follow this blog, we love the dogs and take a lot of pictures of them.  The dogs here seemed to be somewhat skittish, and we are guessing they are not treated as well as the dogs in Beijing, and they looked more like they were homeless.

Jill and I really enjoyed the Mongolia script for their language and how the signs were in Chinese, Mongolian and Russian in many places.

I had no idea that so many Russians would be near this area, but since it is part of the Trans-Siberian Railway, it makes sense for the signs to have all three languages written out.

After walking around for a bit, we went back to our rooms to get ready as we were meeting Diana at 9 am to start the border crossing journey.

Jill took the first shower and stepped out of it into a puddle of water.

The shower wasn’t built quite right so the water from it drained out into the bathroom.  There is a drain, under the sink, for the water to drain into as a back up but the floor was tilted towards the toilet so that didn’t help at all. I took my shower and we basically were walking in water whenever we went into the bathroom again.  It flat out didn’t drain at all.

Other than that, our stay at the hotel was fine and we would stay there again if we need to go to Erlian on another trip.  I guess that is about the best review I could give it.  In fact, I basically gave that review on Tripadvisor the next day.

As we would be returning to Beijing this afternoon, we checked out of our hotel, which cost us about 40 USD for the night, and waited for our driver, Diana.  We had no idea what she looked like and we had chatted, briefly, on WeChat a week before to make sure she had space for us.

A nice SUV drove up and his very cute and perky woman of about 35 showed up and said, “Hi!” to us.  We jumped in her car and she started playing American music on the radio and singing.  She was friendly and smiled a lot as we drove to our first destination.

Jill and I didn’t really have a clue what would happen.  Our friend, Moeava, telling us that she’s the best and she’ll take us on some errands during our trip.  We were looking forward to seeing what would happen and a tiny bit apprehensive.

We ended up driving to a big parking lot with lots of other jeeps and trucks with people waiting around.  This is where most the other visa run people meet and haggle for the lowest price to go over the border and back.

Three other people, including a 50 year old mother and her 25 year old daughter, got in.  The mother and daughter couple were from Mongolia, originally, and now live in Beijing.  They have to make this run every 30 days to be able to stay in China.  This gives you an idea of how much more they are paid in Beijing compared to Mongolia and why there aren’t a lot of people that choose to stay in Mongolia if they can work elsewhere.

The mother and daughter both spoke English and were very nice.  The other guy didn’t speak English but did speak Mongolian and they all talked among each other.

As we drove around, Diana did some of her errands and picked up, or dropped off, stuff that she had picked up in Mongolia.

She told us she does this run 4-5 times a day and usually takes about 4-5 people.  We paid about 25 bucks each, for our run, and if you add this up, that is a serious amount of cash just to take people back and forth across the border each day, especially in Northern China or Mongolia.

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Day 311 in Beijing: Wine Time at Carrefour!

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The wine, the people, and the view from Peter's apartment.

The wine, the people, and the view from Peter’s apartment.

Carrefour is a major grocery store chain in France.

It does a lot of business here in Beijing also.

We love Carrefour because they run a 4 day, all you can taste, wine event every 6 months.

We went in October of 2013, for the first time, and met a bunch of wonderful people who have become dear friends here in Beijing.

We went last night, with our friends, Brandon, from Pleasant Hill, California, Jimmy from Philadelphia (who we met the day before on our trip to Mongolia…that is a blog post that is coming up soon!), and Rachel, who was born here in Beijing but has lived in Boston and Buffalo and is sadly moving to Hong Kong in a month.  Jill and I met her at a Jing A Brewer’s Table beer event last month and we will miss her greatly.  She’s wonderful, funny and sweet.  She also helped us do the negotiations for our new apartment and is like family to us already!

The best part of the night is taking time to talk to the people selling the wine and getting so much information and seeing how friendly everyone is with each other.

We also enjoy the free wine, of course, and the chance to try wines that we normally would not have been able to try, or even afford, in many cases.

We had our palettes opened up to new wines and new wineries and we will be sure to visit them all when we go visit France in the very near future.

Some of our favorites were Chateau Coufran andChateau Verdignan, which our new friend, Federic Vicaire, was pouring for us.  He told us interesting stories about his family history and that his grandfather and his great grandfather owned two different wineries in Haut-Medoc region of France.  The family still owns them and the wine was amazing.

The other wineries we really enjoyed tasting were Albert Bichot and Jean Bouchard, which Christophe Bichot, was pouring for us and everyone else.  He had an amazing white wine,  from Mersault, named, “Les Charmes” the we loved.  Neither Jill nor I usually like whites but this was truly amazing.

We loved spending time talking to Federic and Christophe as they obviously loved the wines, the history and talking to people about them.

Last but not least, we were able to taste some wines from Margaux and Saint Emilion which were elegant and wonderful.

One of the true joys of the evening was the my co-worker, Peter, and his girlfriend, Gabrielle, came by and we were able to spend time with them drinking wine and discussing life and being expatriates in Beijing.

Peter was kind enough to invite us over to his apartment and we had pizza, wine and a great time with friends and his wonderful kids, having incredible conversations about everything we could think of and talk about together.

I honestly love being an expatriate 99% of the time.

The only time I don’t is when I miss someone’s birthday, or a wedding, or if a loss or death occurs and Jill and I aren’t able to return home for that event.

The trade offs, of missing those events, are balanced out with the chances to meet people from all over the world, see new places, and learn about our own strengths and how we can respond to adventures and changes in our own world.  We are tested, each day, by something new and we grow from it and learn more about ourselves, what we want, and what we value.

Jill and I have been thinking more and more about what we want to do in the future and where we want to live.

We probably won’t end up back in America for a very long time since we want to live somewhere by the water, live cheaply, and continue to explore places we’ve never visited yet.

According to Tripadvisor, I’ve been to 15 nations at this point, traveled 399,346 miles and seen 10% of the world.  I’m 45 years old.

I really would like to get that up to 100 nations, 1,000,000 miles and 50% of the world by the time I’m 55.

Being that Peter is from the Netherlands and Gabrielle is from Quebec, we now have connections there and will make sure to visit them if they are there when we go.

The 100 nations is not an actual goal but more of a journey that Jill and I want to accomplish as we travel, meet people, see the world, and experience life on the road.

I’m incredibly lucky and honored to have the job I have, the chance to live this way, and to be with Jill on this journey.

 

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Day 306 in Beijing: Birds speak better Mandarin than I do.

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I count 7 cages. Did I miss any?

I count 7 cages. Did I miss any?

Sad but true.

This really is absurd.

It is high time for me to start learning Mandarin.

I know about 10 words, or so, and that is pretty pathetic for someone living in a foreign country over 10 months now.

I’m pretty sure, when learning a foreign language learning one word a month is exactly NOT the way to become fluent.

I’ve decided I will start learning it and will try to learn about 5-10 words a day.

We are planning on going to France and Spain for the summer so we may start being a lot more serious when we get back but at least we are starting now.

These birds, in their little cages, actually kept saying, “Ni hao” to us and each other.

I didn’t video it because they often took their time and didn’t seem to respond to us laowei as much as they did to each other and it would have been a long time in between words.

I do love that there are 7 cages and so many different kinds of birds that were talking to anyone that would listen.

Jill and I plan to grab a bottle of nice red wine, some snacks, and hang out in this courtyard over the next few months.

Day 290 in Beijing: Xalapa!

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Xalapa is a restaurant that Jill and I visited when we were hanging out with our friend, Nick.

I wrote a very nice blog post about it but it seems to have disappeared.  I have no idea why, I have no idea where it went, and I have no idea what I actually wrote.

I have to say I’m a bit bummed out about it but as Kurt Vonnegut wrote, “So it goes.”

And so it does.

So, I will post some pictures and let you see if the atmosphere, food and fun was worth your looking at it.

It was for Jill and I and we will definitely return again!

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Day 284 in Beijing: The Guard Booth.

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The entry way into the parking area with the guard booth on the left.

The entry way into the parking area with the guard booth on the left.

There are a lot of guards all around Beijing.

They tend to stand in these tiny little glass booths, with not much else to do, but stare at the world outside and try to not go crazy from the boredom.

At least that is how it seems to be from what I can see.

They do walk around outside the booths but usually not very far and not very often.

This is the guard booth near the parking structure under our apartment complex.

These little booths are in front of a lot of apartments, shopping centers, train stations and other places that “need” security.

The little red guard booth.

The little red guard booth.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to sit this booth all day long and have very little to do.

I did see one guard who had put newspapers on the ground and stood on it as he read it.

He would step out, change the page, and then step back in to the booth.

I doubt he would have seen if there was any crime committed but it probably helped relieve the boredom.

Also, when it is cold outside, there doesn’t seem to be any heating mechanisms in most of the booths so it would probably be very cold.

Whenever I think my job is tough, all I have to do is look at these guards and what they go through, day after day.

Day 282 in Beijing: No Bugles Allowed!

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Around and around we go but no bugle playing!

Around and around we go but no bugle playing!

This is a sign by the roundabout at our apartment in Sanlitun.

It is pretty simple and self-expanatory.

It still makes me laugh everytime I see it.

People seem to honk, almost constantly, in Beijing.

Drivers honk to let people know they are coming, they are there, and they are past.

They honk because someone might turn into their lane, and they honk because they want to turn into someone’s lane.

They  honk because they don’t want to wait for someone to move and they honk because they want to stay in a place and have people come to them.

Maybe this isn’t so different than other places I’ve lived but it seems to be honking on a monumental scale here in Beijing.

Anyway, I like the way they let drivers know that they are not supposed to honk their horns with this sign.

It allows me to think of a different time when horns were actually horns.

Day 258 in Beijing: Geographer Cafe.

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Welcome to the Geographer Cafe!

Welcome to the Geographer Cafe!

After walking around for a while, we decided to grab a bite to eat.

We love Malaysian food and we decided, on New Year’s Day, to start being vegetarian.

This is somewhat difficult in China because we can’t speak Mandarin and there is so much meat in the food in most restaurants.

However, in Malaysia, where English is a primary language, it is quite simple.

We walked into the Geographer Cafe and thought it looked like a good place to have a nosh.

So, we ordered up some vegetarian spring rolls and some other Malaysian food that was delicious.

As we looked around the place, we noticed how it was a “world traveler” kind of cafe and we asked to go upstairs and into the closed areas of the restaurant.

The staff smiled and agreed.

We really enjoyed checking out this place and definitely recommend stopping by if you ever get a chance.

Heck, they even had an tango floor upstairs!

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Day 257 in Beijing: Shantaram.

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Shantaram on the horizon.

Shantaram on the horizon.

And we bounce back to Melaka, Malaysia on our around the world post today!

Jill, Dipesh and I were walking through the back streets of Melaka and just taking in the sites.

Jill has been reading the book Shantaram for about a month now and seems to enjoy it.

She’s the kind of person that when she starts something, she doesn’t quit.

She almost never gives up and stays on track and keeps a positive attitude.

The few times I’ve seen her have a rough patch, we do a little Daily Mood Log work from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and she’s right back on the beam!

I only write this because I’m a huge fan of people practicing what they preach, and I preach behavioral therapy.

I also use the mood logs, downward arrows, cost benefit analysis and other techniques myself.

I’ve found they allow me to let go of the automatic negative thoughts and cognitive distortions I used to believe and that caused me incredible pain and anguish.

They still pop up, once in a while, and it is now so easy to defeat them and continue on with my amazing and happy life.

Jill is able to do that now also which is something I’m quite glad she was open to learning and able to master so quickly.

Notice the interesting masks just below the overhang.

Notice the interesting masks just below the overhang.

Suffice to say, she’s an amazing person.

As to how this pertains to the blog post:  She has been reading this massive book for over a month and is continuing to work through it and finish it.  I applaud this sense of personal drive and hard work.  I’m also glad she enjoys the book, because, if she didn’t, it would be a pretty miserable way to spend her time.

We happened to pass by this little eccentric bar and noticed its name immediately.

This is one of the reasons I enjoy traveling so much: The unexpected surprises and “connections” that I make to other parts of the world and to my, and other’s, lives.

Unfortunately, the bar was closed so we didn’t get a chance to go inside but I’m guessing it probably was just as amazing inside as it was outside.

Day 251 in Beijing: Christ Church of Melaka.

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The Christ Church of Melaka.

The Christ Church of Melaka.

Jill, Dipesh and I continued on our tour of Melaka and came across the famous Christ Church of Melaka.

It is the oldest functioning Protestant Church in Malaysia.

The Dutch conquered Melaka from the Portuguese in 1641 and turned the churches into Dutch Reform.

For the celebration of the centenary capture of Melaka, the Dutch built a new church which is the Christ Church of Melaka.

In 1824, the Dutch and British signed a treaty which then gave control of Melaka to the British and the Christ Church became the property of the Church of England.

It was originally painted white but was painted red, with many other nearby buildings, to remind people of the original Dutch heritage.

The paving stones have inscriptions in Portuguese and Armenian.  One in particular, captures a bit of the history of Melaka and the person buried within the tomb.

Greetings, you who are reading this tablet of my tomb in which I now sleep. Give me the news, the freedom of my countrymen, for them I did much weep. If there arose among them one good guardian to govern and keep. Vainly I expected the world to see a good shepherd came to look after the scattered sheep.

I, Jacob, grandson of Shamier, an Armenian of a respectable family whose name I keep, was born in Persia near Inefa, where my parents now forever sleep. Fortune brought me to distant Malacca, which my remains in bondage to keep. Separated from the world on 7th July 1774 A.D. at the age of twenty-nine, my mortal remains were deposited in this spot of the ground which I purchased.

 

An interesting fact of the Christ Church of Melaka is that it was built without any nails.  We guessed it was because the nails would rust in the tropical air but were wrong.

They built it without nails because Jesus Christ had been crucified and they didn’t want to remember him with the nails in his hands and feet.  Therefore, they built a church that would not have any nails in it.

 

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Day 244 in Beijing: Not To Be Cryptic.

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Head stones.

Head stones.

Not being cryptic, but I like graves.

I always have.

I find them intriguing, interesting and artistic.

I’m not afraid of walking through them or superstitions so I just simply enjoy the beauty of them and respect how people choose to show love to the ones that have left this world.

As Jill and I were walking around Johor Bahru, Malaysia, we wanted to see the Sultan’s Mausoleum.

We walked through a rather massive graveyard to get to it and took our time looking at the other grave sites.

Some are very ornate, while others are very simple with only a marker for a headstone.

When we reached the Sultan’s Mausoleum, it was closed and we wouldn’t be able to visit it again on this trip so we walked around it and enjoyed the silence and peacefulness of the graveyard.

 

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