Our trip to Hua Shan spring 2009

Trip to Hua Shan,

First of all I am really sorry that I am not able to add photos ,as recently this site is blocked in China and I am using thevproxy site to open it which means can't add any photos.
I am so sad though,btrreaders can understand I am not so pathetic..
back to the story:


We had another short holiday this weekend and decided to go to the Mount Hua, which is located 200 Km on the East part of Xian.
As we used to for our trips we got up around 7ish and get the cab to the train station and surprisingly saw a huge queue in front of us.
Well I admit that mountain is pretty famous in these area ,and as we all(who live in China) know ,in any public holiday every where is jammed and crowed by Pack of locals who are going somewhere.

Chinese citizen who are employed ,in 99% of jobs which they are dealing with ,just have 5 days off per year.

Anyhow back to our trip it was 8ish we started our trip and it took 2 hours to reach to Hua Town. Bus dropped us on the bottom and we saw the gate and plenty of mini busses ready to take people up .

Most of mountains you have to get a cab or mini bus to reach to part of mountain which you can climb.
In fact some mountains are pretty famous and crowed or in peak seasons have so many visitors ,like mount Hua ,which you don’t need to be worried for vehicle as there are plenty.
Some mountains like Mogan Shan near Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, is harsh top get down or climb as rarely mini- buses or taxis give you a lift.
It took around half an hour we reached to the main entrance .and there were 2 different area which you had 2 choices of using a cable car or climb on foot. As majorities get cable we decided for one way till we know about more about distance and areas. I am so happy we did .

Apparently it could take 3 hours and really hard to climb up. We reached to the final station of cable car and our real journey started. By that time we arrived there was almost 12 and we climbed a bit and reach to the North peak which is almost 1800 M .This mountain as Huan Shan( Yellow Mountain) has different peaks and different directions to summit area, after we reached to the North part went back and passed y the only freaking Hostel there.

We were wondering if we could stay over night there ,but it would cost each of us 340 RMB per night and I said screw it .It is not going to happen, so let’s climb the whole freaking day and go back and sleep at night on the bottom which is much cheaper. Moreover we were totally prepared this time with food and snacks and drink as in mountain if triple price for any thing.

So we chose anther direction to the West peak which took another hour and meanwhile we ate .The main problem was ,crowd .Chinese love taking freaking photos for hours and we had to wait for the whole ,entire family over 10 people to get their memorable photos ,then continue climbing. No complain …

Another difference between this mountain and others as I have been to more than 6 mountains in China was chain climbing .
Well you may not believe but some parts were unreachable and we had to hold the rusty chain and climb peacefully, well it is not fun though in 2000 Meters believe me or not.

We were lucky and ecstatic that could find some other paths to avoid the crowd and have a bit fun climbing and enjoy the beauty of nature.

It was almost 3.30 P.M we decided not to discover the whole mountain range and let climb down and calculated it has been 4 freaking hours climbing up non stop so lets e pathetic and go back..

The way back we decided save more money and even don’t use the cable car so you can imagine how it was. With chain stuff we had to deal half of the way down. but I was so happy it was the way down not up, as it is easier, if you can control not look down.
I have aqua-phobia but I love mountain climbing. So determined not to look down other wise feel giddy and the rest of story would be unfinished.

Anyhow in 2 hours we were down and I hardly could feel my legs and they were completely numbed.
And by that time we saw the bus ready back to Xian ,so decided to back home and sleep in our lovely bed and no point stay a night there.
Anyhow It was great trip though.

Old street in XIan and Great Masque

Xian Old street and Muslim area.

Another place which worth visiting is Muslim area and old street in Xian which is located inside the city wall.

The day me and Wijbren were walking of the city wall and had our lunch in one of local places and visited old art street ,we noticed that in another side ,which approximately is 20 minutes walk in distance form city wall you can see Drum tower and Bell Tower.





These 2 towers basically were built the exact time that city Wall was built due to keeping the ceremonies there and moreover keeping an eye for enemies attack who Want to subdue the

city.
Nowadays there are nothing especially left from those era and these 2 towers are completely isolated and forgotten, but still they are nice to see and be there.
Another day we decided to go there and take some photos.

We went out to explore the small streets of the old town. I wandered around the small streets of the old town through the markets and small temples that dot the area. Eventually we ended up at the Great Mosque, which is not what you expect to find in the center of China.






Great Masque was built in Tang Dynasty and renovate later on. When you get in the masque you realized unlike the masque in Middle East or Arabic countries this one the construction and architectural style in totally Chinese, include 4 courtyards and arch shape chambers, which makes it completely different. In fact this masque had 3 different corridors you pass on and then a great big square which I assume is for praying on Fridays.

This Masque was built to show great honor to Islam in China during the Tang Dynasty when a lot of Merchants came to China from Middle East to trade and married with Han National in China.

But Xi'an once the capital and end (or start depending on perspective) of the Silk Road has a large Muslim population that has remained to this day. The most interesting thing about the Mosque is it really looked like a Chinese Temple, even the Minuret was disguised as a Pagoda.

Xian museum and Small Pagoda

We ( me and Wijbren ) have been to Xian around 3 months already. During the May holiday and mostly in our weekends we arrange to have a tour around the city, as Xian is one of the oldest capitals in china.

On day we decided to go and visit Small goose pagoda. In fact there are 2 Pagodas in Xian ,Big and Small one. It is around 2 kilometers far from center of city.

This pagoda as other Pagodas is a symbol of peace and dignity in Xian .In fact it was built on 15 storeys in Tang Dynasty but due to an earthquake in 1556 ,2 floors were collapsed .It has a brick ,pentagon shape structure.
It was hard to climb up as too many people at the same time are trying to reach to the top and you have pass though a narrow dark tunnel, but the eye-birds view was totally amazing.






Inside the Pagoda the area which is around 5000 meters,as you can see so many silk shops, painting, calligraphy and Chinese paper cutting .

Moreover there are few places you can sit by side of bamboo trees and have your tea ,in fact there is no tea houses there,which I wish there were some.

Actually Wijbren was trying to find something for his Mum there, and I was looking and chatting and basically mumbling Some Chinese words to the shopekeeper inorder to get some discounts.



A lot of Chinese have this habit to boost you and in fact praise you and say “oh! Your Chinese is so good”. Well it is part of their culture, as they usually ask you we you are from and what you do in China and so on…


On the West part of building you can visit the Xian Archeological Museum which has 2 floors and has 2 exhibition halls which shows the history of the city and how it built and shows the city wall and other surrounding areas which grew during the time and the basement( first floor)shows the treasure and underground treasures.

I ALWAYS HATE BEING SO LONG IN Museums and in fact always be curious to get in and see what is inside.

In fact that day was like a short ,nice tour .It is good sometimes being far from other responsibilities and hang around and see somehistorical,cultural places and have a nice picnic.

My sixth Birthday in China

My Sixth Birthday in China:

My Birthday is on 23 of March and this year, as I was thinking before and planning few months ago .
I could be at home(Iran),which my plan ttally chage due to my new postion and new job and travelling to a new city.
The point is every year I passed my Birthday somewhere in China ,just 3 years I was in Hangzhou and every year there was totally different as I had new colleagues coming and going and I had different plans for my birthday ,like dancing being in pub or choosing my special restaurant..

Celebrating Birthdays in a tradition between every nation .But I can say it is completely personally as some people even from the same country have different attitude toward it, celebrate it or not.
I know some people say well we are too old for this shit now and some want on purpose to forget it as they think they are getting old or somebody might ask their ages.
.
In fact I personally think your age is the age you feel inside and not necessary your Birth certificate age. They are so many I have seen in middle age ,really healthy, do sports regularly and have healthy diet ,a great partner who cheer them up and lovely life and feel great every year that pass.
In fact that effects your body metabolism and your mind like a therapy.
Having a person understand you and make your life more bright is a special Birthday gift In fact.

I do believe specially for women having a perfect lover, partner who care enough makes them much happier and younger every year than`pass by.

To me, Birthday is an important issue and always will be .
I would like to have it as I want to remember the day I was born and enjoy it with my beloved ones, as my family ,close friends and my partner from now on.

Anyway this year in Xian I had 2 birthday as we celebrate one week early to be in a fancy, exclusive restaurant and in the next week on my real birth day we had a nice lunch in Korean restaurant and I received a beautiful ring and Wijbren officially proposed for marriage.

Our trip to Tai Bai Shan,winter 2009

There are two mountain ranges around Xian which both of them are around 2 hours by bus far from Xian , the same distance in 2 different directions.

We decided in one of our short holidays or better to say our long weekends (3 days off) go there.
We found out there is a main bus station beside train station located in the center of city and by taxi takes 15 minutes to get there.

We( me and wijbren) were so panic and wanted to be punctual in matter of not losing the bus ,so we woke up early and arrived there 7:30 ,as one of the locals suggested. Well as things works like that in China, we had to wait there for another hour till bus arrive to the station and enough passengers then get ready to go.

Well ,somehow we managed to start our trip 8.30ish and it took approximately 2 hours we arrived to the bottom of the mountain. All the way we passed from farm fields and fruit trees. Actually around Xian is pretty green.
The way coming to Xian we were sitting on the train and had plenty of chances to look around and from 3 hours before then arriving to Xian districts we saw so many fields, paddies and cultivated areas.

As I have been to so many mountains in China I knew how it works and I told Wijbren don’t worry we have to climb from bottom to top, as there are stairs always to climb up.

In China mountains are not just like Iran’s mountains which definitely need equipments and tools to climb up .In fact at least after 500 meter high ,if you are not a regular climber or not having proper equipments and boot not good enough you won’t be able to climb.
But surprisingly we discovered that it is 45 Km zigzag way.

Which means at least one day completely walking ,more than 12 hours. Sound terrifying. Well they has some taxis waiting for costumers as hunting fish .I tried to ignore them and deal with entrance get and pay the entrance fee ,but finally we had to get taxi up to be able to reach to the top .

I have been to Mogshan Mountain, Tian mu Mountain and Yellow mountain. In China and all the way we could climb on foot or use cable car and as a record I should mention this Mountain was different.

Anyway ,By taxi it took 4 hours to reach up and some people get car sick the mid-way cause is so high and all the way is spiral and rocky and pretty shit in winter.

As this mountain is called Tai Bai Shan, which means” white snowy mountain” ,you can imagine from 1500 meter up we could still see snow on the way up and it was April already.
The way top we stopped few laces and we took some nice photos and on the last station taxi waited for us for 2 hours and we managed to climb a bit on 3700 meters height which was nice though ,but some part was unfortunately really slippery ,due to un melted snow and icy in fact and too dangerous to walk even one by one step.


Any how we had some snacks and asked the taxi drop us some where we could get some food. In fact in this mountain there is no restaurant or any other places to get even water, so you should be equipped completely.

We had a plan to stay there overnight ,so we asked for a room form the only restaurant ,hostel place ,better call it local lodge. But it was just few smelly small rooms and a shitty noodle restaurant in 2000 meter high.
They wanted to charge us a 150 Kuai per night ,so we decided we go back in the after noon and get a room on the bottom and the next day we could go for hot spring and climb a bit around.

Actually there were some places before the gate you could climb a bit and see some temples on the top of 500 meter.
And in the afternoon we got the only bus which, usually gets back to Xian around 3ish in the afternoon.

One day tour on City Wall in Xian 2009

As sometimes my memories and mind live in present while I am writing I need to come to present time and I apologize to the readers see my blog swinging between present and past.

As we are living in Xian I had a great desire in one of our weekend walk on the wall. Can you imagine ,it never end .It took us 4 hours walking and still long way to go.

There are some booth and cashier centers on the wall which help the tourist to rent bikes by giving them a 100 kuai deposits.

There are plenty of chance in China and a lot of East Asian countries to do exercises more than West. Especially in China still most of people use bike for daily tasks and the size of a lot of cities let you do that. The lane on the roads are built for bikes and each Road has 4 lane plus one lane for buses and one lane for bikes.


Meanwhile that you are strolling in a nice ,overcast day on the wall and enjoy the scenery , you can imagine that how long it had been taken to build that wall a few years with hands and pretty primitive tools to make such a strong wall with almost 20 meters.

The University That I teach currently has a big square in the center which is a gathering place for elderly that every morning show up there to do some Tai chi or Kong fu.
If it is your first trip to China you will be surprised or might be annoyed due to siren and noises and music for dances in the early morning. But beside that you can feel how much people pay attention of exercises here. Anyhow back to the wall..

There are 4 gates on the city wall and that was built on Tang dynasty
.In fact the point of building Great wall in Beijing and City wall in Xian was protecting the city from enemies attack ,as on those era the arsenal were pretty primitive so couldn’t easily break the wall .


The only way attack the city was pass through the gate which was really harsh .the are 48 ramparts on the wall which are built 200 meters far from each other on each side of 4 gates.

That day was a great time when I was standing in front of one of those old mortars to take a historical photo.

There are plenty of places around each gate of city wall that you can eat and get some traditional local snacks ,like dumplings, noodles, and that part of wall we stopped and dropped by, was in the center of old part of city and we could go to see some calligraphy and art exhibitions close by and surprisingly I noticed few Western café around with beautiful decoration .

Those places were build in Spanish and Greman style and had 2 floor and nice balcony which is facing the wall and city on the other corner. Those places quite nice to sit and chill out after walking for long distance n the wall and a mixture of traditional and modern architecture in fact.

My trip to tibet second part

Tibet trip the second part:
When I got my tour to the South to Himalaya I was so proud of being able to find 3 other people to be with me .It cost us around 2000 for jeep and guide .In fact we had to get another local permission to enter to other areas in Tibet. The permission from travel agency it is just for Lhasa and Namdoc lake, in fact.

It takes totally 6 days to go down and came back to Lhasa. We visited few small country sides and some other districts

.one of the small towns is called Gyantse which is not effected by Chinese culture that much, there is a monastery which is famous to see.

The first day we were going down the guy stopped in one of toll booths and within 2 hours got the permission for restricted areas this city is almost around 4000 above the sea level and there is another holy Lake which is called Yamdork lake which is located in Shannag region. It has 130 Km length and the second highest lake in the world around4400 meter above the sea level and the largest freshwater lake in the world.

There are a lot of pilgrims go there to show their dignity and appreciation to this lake and in fact it is the holy guardian of Buddhism in Tibet. The water is like a crystal and so clean and surrounded by mountains which is like an ice cream around the clear sapphire.

They way to lake is so zigzag and it is far from the main road in fact. It takes almost one hour from the main road to get there and you see in most of roads in Tibet people hang color paper and even most of the local cars and buses stop in some high roads in order to do their pray to the road and burn the papers or tear them down and spread them into air to avoid bad spirits and wish a good trip for travelers.
And in our 3 day after passing Gyatse and Yamdork lake we went to Shigatse another county village which has a nice view Tashilumpo monastery. At the foot of Mt. Everest is located the highest temple in the world, Rongbuk Monastery. At the altitude of about 5000 m. (16,404 ft.) and 25 km.

(15.5 mi.) in the distance, it is also the best point to appreciate the scenery of Mt. Everest. Rongbuk Glacier around this area is also the largest among all the glaciers here.In fact if you don’t madness of climbing or enough money or any other reasons youc an stay on the bease camp and climb around and see the great view of Mount EVEREST AND IT TAKES 2 HOURS WALKING IN FACT TILL REACH THE NEPAL BORDER.I

My trip to Sichuan and Tibet ,August 2007

Before than I go to Tibet I landed in Chengdu .This is a very quiet city and not developed so fast .Cost of living there is pretty cheap compare to East cities.
As Giant Pandas are in danger and under the protection.

There is a green national park theme which has a breeding panda center as well as having a big park as Pandas home to take care of Pandas.
That place is 130 km far from Chengdu city and daily they have tour bus to take the tourists there and it is a half day tour include visiting Panda breeding center and strolling in the park and taking photos with pandas .There are 2 type of Pandas there .One Big Giant Panda which cost almost 500 Kuai for one photo and small ones which are much cheaper.

I visited that place before than earthquake 2008 in Sichuan province ,but after that a lot of them became homeless and they moved them to Beijing and made another New place for them in Chengdu city.

There is another place which is great to visit is the Dufu’s cottage which is basically house of one o the famous poets in Sichuan province. Which is located in the South part of the city centre and in fact the atmosphere inspiring the visitors that they are in a poet’s house as the whole path till hallway are full of bamboos lining the sidewalk and give a perfect shade and warm welcoming to the visitors. When you arrive there the building has zigzag corridors and the whole path through is full of Flowers’s pots.

As China is famous for its Operas .in the East costal cities you can see Shaoxing opera and Beijing Opera ,but when you go to the West the most famous Opera there is Sichuan opera or face changing and fire blowing.

In fact this Opera is pretty colorful and amazing as you see the actor and actresses change their mask unbelievably fast which no one can get how they put a new mask on their face. They do t at least 10 times faster than normal movements and our eyes make makes of recognizing the right moment of changing mask .This Opera as other Operas in China come up with legendary stories .There are more than 10 different masks with different appearance which hooked on the face. Each of painting and color on the mask represent special them , story and character in fact.

In fact this Opera has performance few times per week and the ticket is quite reasonable and you can get it from travel agencies who have advertisement about it. Show starts in the evening and it takes approximately 2 hours and include free tea ceremony which shows the traditional way of serving and pouring Tea, Moreover in that area there are plenty of crap, cheap handy craft shops which you can find something as mostly ,puppets, shadow faces dolls ,masks and other wooden crafts.

Jilin street is another common meeting point for tourist and visitors to buy their souvenirs there. That street has pretty much all you need form West part of China as Embroideries, wooden tools, handy crafts ,paper –cutting and Chinese painting and puppets, and masks. When you are strolling Down the street you will feel the quiet ambience which is mixed with snack ‘s aroma.

I had a perfect break time to pack my bulging bag pack and move on to Tibet for a month.
In fact for all foreigners is required to have a permission to enter the Tibetan border, which is easy to get. I could find a travel agency trogh Web site and ask for help.

In fact they need copy of passport and resident permit in China and the rest leave it to them ,just give them some money, but the fact s most of them ask you to buy the plane ticket and sometimes if it s not high peak you can get train ticket. There is a fast train which take 3 days from Shanghai to Lhasa, but for I loved to be in Sichuan for a while and then more there. I flew there.

Before going there is better consider your health condition as it is almost 3500 altitude in lowest place around Lhasa and mostly higher than that in other places and districts and even if you go to South towards Himalaya it get worse.

Anyhow, back to my adventure I must admit t was pretty harsh and annoying to get all these stuff done ,but the trip was great in fact.

For record I should say Tibet is autonomous region in China and in fact you have heard a lot about the riot there during 2008 till now and Dalai lama their religious leader, but in fact I was quite lucky to be there, it is happened to be there before all these fuss.

In fact Tibatian people are very religious and mostly Buddhist, there are pretty much Muslim live there from 19-20 century. Most of these people moved from India ,Cashmere and Turkish countries.
As you can presume culture , food and tradition is a combination of all these neighboring countries and their language is totally different from Chinese.

I did like Tibatian, beside having great time with perfect shiny bright -dry days and chili mornings and heavy rains from midnight and nice, tranquil places where I went ,people were poor but so friendly and warm hearted.

People in Tibet have their own cuisines ,in fact butter milk and cheese from Yak ,mutton and Yak, cow, meat is pretty famous .Every day they use pretty much fresh ,smelly Cheese with Milk comes from Buffalo, ( Tibetan cows).
A lot of restaurants have great service for Indian, Nepalese food, which is spicy, but different spice from Sichuan in fact.

They have different festivals in Tibet in fact as I arrived there in middle summer (August) they told me one of the festival in washing Potal palaces which they do every year and that palaces has a great history and magnificent for Tibetan (I will be back to that later on) and another festival is Yogurt festival which might bring this illusion in our mind, what’s the point and why Yogurt is so important but infect as we don't have there we can't feel how life can be difficult.

Mostly Tibetan people economy is depending on breeding livestock as sheep, cows, yak and horses.
Lhasa the capital is known as "Light city" as Tibet is known as a dark, grey sky land with rainstorms and plateau snow.
In fact in Lhasa you will see different life style and even streets are affected by modern civilization and traditional one. If you stay in Lhasa for a while which is pretty wise to stay far a while in matter of getting used to high altitude you shouldn't miss visiting monasteries and temples The best well-known one is Potal palace and The three main monasteries in Lhasa are also not to be missed.
They are Sera Monastery, Garden Monastery and Draping Monastery.

In fact Johang temple is in walking street which is called Barkhor street in Lhasa, which provides variety of handy crafts, souvenir shops and plenty of restaurants with different cuisines. Locals are pretty proud of this street as it is very old and symbol of Tibetan traditions
In Lhasa as the matter of fact ,if you want to get into temples ,need to be very precise with timing ,cause a lot of days and lunch break is for monks to pray and temples are closed to public.
You see a lot of tourists coming and going tin that street from dusk to dawn and even though pilgrims pass by due to being surrounded in The West part by Johang Temple.

You need to be very careful about prices when you pass by vendor and good a t bargaining as a tourist you might receive a very high price first.

Johang temple was build in Tang dynasty and has Tang dynasty ,Nepalese and Tibetan cultural heritage. In fact in that period one of the kings married to Nepalese princess and they brought 2 statue as symbol with themselves. This temple has a 4- storey timber and on the top is golden.
In fact you will the pilgrimage and monks have a totally different way of raying form the other part of China ,at least. They mostly pray on the bare floor and bow and bend completely and fall into the floor and do it a hundreds times, and even I have seen some of them walk all the way from far distance into Lhasa with bare foot and all the way ray and people and passengers give them some food till they arrive to their Holy place Lhasa city.

Potala palace is one of fascinating palaces to visit though. In fact I just visited outside case getting the tickets means you have to stand in line for few hours and be there at least day ahead and even sometimes in peak tourists’ season you might need to be there before 4 a.m.. In fact the regulations of selling ticket has changed and nowadays individual tourists are able to buy their tickets and no need to book it in advanced.

Potala palace has 7 stores and when the 5 and 6 Dalai lama died there they chanced the color of 6 floor as he used to rule and lived there and painted in Red which is the symbol of prosperity and power and good luck.

Almost every season they repaint the whole Palace wall n white as it is the symbol of purity and peace. This palace was very important in so many decades for Tibetan as it was the center of politics and religion there.

In Barkor Street you can find so many travel agencies which locally help you to find other tourists ( if you are travelling alone) and get at least 4 people then you can hire a jeep and go to the South or West( if you want to see the Himalaya and other mountains in South Border of Nepal and travel to Nepal)
After I stayed few days in Lhasa and did some shopping and visiting palaces and monasteries’ wanted to see Namdoc Lake and another lake which are around Lhasa and not too far so I have got my bus ticket and tour in that street .But you should be ready for all these activities in the early morning .

There is just one travel agency and actually sport shop which has climbing equipments which provide one day tour for Back horse riding and White water rafting.

It doesn’t cost too much and you can have all the equipments plus tour guide and food .
I had a great experience of horse riding for 6 hours there and the point is you mixed with locals and see the grass land and river bank as well.

If you want to see Namdoc lake which is the highest lake in the world 4700 meter above the sea .It is better you just have a day tour .there are few hostels( camp) you can stay over night ,but need to be careful of your health as it gets dark much harder to breathe.
This is lake is not just ne of the highest ,but one of the 3 holy lake in Lhasa.
It is covered by snow and ice most of the year.

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My trip to Burma 2006,First part

After we took-off from Vietnam( Hanoi airport) we planed to go back to laos and stay there for a couple of more days in order to get our visa and our flight to Burma via Thailand and to China ( Shenzhen).



As we arrived to Burma the capital (RANGOON)I noticed something very clear.In most of my trips in China and some other East Asia I realized so many back packers ,but in fact non were in Burma.
A lot of my friends when heard that I am planing for Burma asked me ,why?

This was my hostel in Burma,pretty nice and cozy






In fact I wanted to touch and feel the real atmosphere from inside and see people's life there and more over some beautiful ,exotic places which is unknown to a lot of people ,wanted to discover.
In Burma government completely dominated the rules and control severely the nation.

This is colonial flag in Burma.



I mean control pretty harsh ,as we were tourist and we were been controlled every single time which wanted to connect to Internet.Connecting to satellite or net is under sever observation and locals have no access under some special circumstances to outsides.


Still this country is under military control and observation,in economic,politics and poverty has dominated in most areas.The slow grow economy mostly depend on other neighbouring countries and effected by agriculture and tourists.



If you would like to travel there you might consider using Malaria and cholera injection and anti prevention drugs especially in remote areas and countryside.
i did enjoy being there and local food was really great.

the majority of people there are mixed Indian ,Bengal people and hardly you can find Chinese .
British people
subdue Burma in 8124 and before than that Mongols were ruling there for a short time.They had few centuries of Kingdom there and some nice palaces half destroyed left.


There are few cities worth visiting as i can say beside the capital ,Mandalay and Began.




In fact Mandalay has it own great natural and untouched beauty .It still has kept the Births foundation,features in building structure and city atmosphere.The climate in Mandalay is mild and in Summer Balmy.that city used to be used as summer resort for British army and their families.
I f you go to the top of the hill there is a magnificent Buddha Temple landing there and viewing the city.you can enjoy using wagons and rickshaw which is very common as much as you can see taxis and cars around.Mostly very rich people there can afford buying a car.the style of houses there are mostly bungalows and semi-detached.
There are plenty of craft shops,antique and souvenirs' ones.





There was a maginficent unbelievable ,huge botanical garden in Urban part of Mandalay which cost of 10 dollars for ticket and for locals there almost impossible to get in ,cause not durable.

But as I can say it took us the whole day to walk around ,ups and down and beautiful lake which I took photos ,but seems like a post card and you could see more than a 100 types of flowers and rare black swans,unique wooden cafe fronting a nice swimming pool.

My trip to Burma,second part

In fact I really enjoyed being in Mandalay .It was pretty cool to get everyday a cheap rickshaw transport and stay in 4 start hotel just with $25 dollar per night and great swimming pool.

There is Mandalay hill and Muni pagoda which are famous to visit fro lacquer were , art craft products,silk wears,silver products and the rest is just a beautiful nature which you like to be there and do nothing.

Around Mandalay If you pay enough you can go to Bagan

The reason is because the only rich tourist,archaeologist and high class locals travel there,just for praying and visiting different temples, pagodas ,monuments and historical building.
In fact it is not very well-known touristic place for back packers or younger travelers as laos or Thailand for instance. which is nice too in fact the plane ticket is very expensive even though it doesn't take more than half hour by plane ,but just once a week they have flight to there.Another way to get there is get the bus as it approximately takes around 3 hours which is durable .

Bagan has a heritage of 13000 pagodas and caves and temples which is unique in beauty and style in Asia. Among the significant temples and pagodas are:- Ananda Tmeple, Thatbyinnyu Temple, Gubyaukgyi Temple, Htilominlo Temple.

Sir James Scot: describe Bagan one of the oldest cities in Easrt Asia and totally different view for tourist who are interested in culture and religions and archeology.


In the capital city( yangon) you shouldn't miss visiting Shwedagon Pagoda.This pagoda is called "soul of the Burma","golden pagoda" t is all made of gold and beside the magnificent architectural feather it has been absorbing a lot of Buddhist pilgrimage from all part of East Asia .


There is a temple which was build in 1100 and it is unique with mon architecture and style.it is located in the East part of city wall in Bagan.

In connection with the monuments at Bagan there is a saying among Myanmar people "The biggest structure is Dhamayangyi Pagoda, the tallest is the That binnyu and the best creative superb talents of artisans are found at Ananda Temple". In fact this city a holy city for a lot of Buddhist people.

In fact my 10 days trip to Burma despite being hard in some ways was really great and the way back my ticket was though Thailand to shenzhen back to China.Actually that trip was the longest trip I have ever had during my stay out of Iran.It took in tot all more than 60 days.

My trip to Vietnam ,second part

Danang is located in Central of Vietnam and it was a landing point for both Americans and French troops.

danang has the same distance from Hanoi to Ho chiming city( which I wish I cold have enough time to got further to Soth).
Danang streets mostly lined by palm trees and in fact remind me South of Iran which has tropical weather and palm trees and Dubai as well,wide streets,hot and smell petrol instead of refreshing flower fragrance.

We decided after few days being by seashore move on tho Dalat I wanted to go to South ,but not enough time as travelling by bus has so much adventure but pretty slow.
It took quite few hours from Danang to DA LAT .


The scenery outside of Dal at is spectacular. There are beautiful rolling hills with perfectly tended coffee and tea plantations, and small villages that specialize in everything from silk to mushroom production.

Dalat is an extremely pleasant and picturesque city, and the climate is great, especially coming from hot Ho Chi Minh City! During our first trip to Dal at we stayed in a hotel that is no longer open. On our second trip, we stayed at the Dai Loi hotel in a very nice and clean room for just $22/night including breakfast. The staff were both helpful and friendly, and the location of the hotel was great.

It is about a 5 minutes walk from the beautiful Xuan Huong Lake and the central market.

During one of our days in Dalat we attempted to walk to Lam Ty Ni Pagoda to visit the monk there, listed in the Lonely Planet guidebook. After walking around for two or three hours, we realized the map in the Lonely Planet was missing a street, and decided to try again the next day. On the way back to our hotel, I ate a fried concoction from a street vendor, and was mildly sick the rest of the evening.


The next day we called Tuan to ask him for directions, and he offered to give us a ride. We never would have found the pagoda otherwise. Our visit with the monk was great. He is a very interesting and eccentric character.


There are plenty of places that you can find face printing and mask making and other type of handy crafts,specially puppet shows and clothes making shops and retailers.Vietnam is a good country if you want to have cheap and reasonable quality of clothes and other art wood and handy crafts.

In the way back we went too the North and passed from Hue city and flew to Hanoi( the capital).

Hue is situated in Thua Thien province and is in the central part of Vietnam. Hue situated midway between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
The former capital of the Nguyen dynasty of Vietnam, Hue is known for its beautiful imperial architecture and wonderful natural beauty. The Perfume River is the border between the city itself and the previous 'Forbidden Purple City', the Citadel.


Even though, Hue faced continual damages from natural disasters and wars, one can still see the proof of its previous magnificence. Hue is the only city in Vietnam that still has the integral manifestation of a complex of the monarchic capital comprising of walls, palaces, and royal tombs. Therefore, in terms of history and heritage, Hue is one of Vietnam's most valued national treasures and a house of several magnificent Hue Tourist Attractions.
Hue city has a great imperial part inside the city which has a great reputation of long constructions and took such a long time to build it.It has 5 gates and inside you c an see the warriors and states .

There are so many shrines and temples in He city as well but one was great to see as It has 2 magnificent gates and Central hall and inside the decoration is made of lacquer and oak red -wood and so many artistic paintings inside.


Anyway I went to One Pillar Pagoda,which worth seeing it.That pagoda was build by one of the kings as he couldn't have a child and one night he had a dream of having a baby boy and later on as saying thank and shows his appreciation to Buddha he ordered to build that pagoda and in Vietnamese language means ( luck and happiness) and more over it has one pillar which resembling lotus and bay standing on it.

West lake is one of the biggest lake in the country and it has approximately 12 km long and along the lake side you can see plenty of rest houses and temples close by.

In Our few days stay in Hanoi before moving to next destination to Burma .I was so eager to See around the Hanoi as my friend seemed to be bored or disappointed from that country.

Hanoi like other capitals cite pretty big and polluted .There plenty Parks and museums and especially War museum and history museum are famous among the others.

IN HANOI YOU CAN FIND SO MANY SMALL RETAILERS AND SHOE REARING SHOPS AND LOCAL MARKETS AND tok-to ks which are basically like rickshaws but has engine instead.