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.

My trip to Vietnam Jan-Feb 2006, first part

After we stayed around 2 Weeks in Laos decided to go to Vietnam.In fact from Laos are so many ways to reach to Vietnam.I chose the cheapest and hardest way.we got a sleeping bus ticket from the Vientiane to one small city ( Vin) near border of Vietnam and it took around 13 hours .
The road was pretty much good and asphalt and bus not too bad.

But when we arrived there it was almost 4 o'clock in the morning boarder usually open 7 and we ad to stayed there 4 -5 hours and surprisingly they way was like climbing up the hill and the last few hours road was zigzag and it started to rain .But the brder was pretty much crowded and so many buses and locals as well and in the costum area we had to get out of bus and walk for around 20 minutes to reach to the office and put a stamp and our stuff checked in the bus and then move.Better to say it was just such an adventure in fact.


The people of Vietnam regained independence and broke away from China in AD 938 after their victory at the battle of Bạch Đằng River. Successive dynasties flourished along with geographic and political expansion deeper into Southeast Asia, until it was colonized by the French in the mid-19Th century. Efforts to resist the French eventually led to their expulsion from the country in the mid-20Th century, leaving a nation divided politically into two countries. Fighting between the two sides continued during the Vietnam War, ending with a North Vietnamese



It took few hours from border till arrive to the Vinh city .That city is pretty small and literallybetter to say no one can speak English there and No Chinese either.

So can you imagine what I did!.Well taxis and people were like dying of hunger look at me and wanted to grab me t the taxi to pay..

Anyway try not to exaggerate ,but finally found a cheap hotel and I just wanted to rest and the next day got the ticket to Daneng.Daneng coastal city.I had 10 days minimum to spend time in Vietnam and I wanted to use it in the best way.

Daneng is a touristic city and beside South Chinese city and it is famous for it's sea food.I spent few days there and it was totally peaceful and less tourist in that time ,but sea waves was strong enghnot to be able to swim there.The food in Vietnam is so different at least with Chinese food they don't use that much spice and can ay it has a bland taste in fact.

Vietnamese cuisine uses very little oil and many vegetables. The main dishes are often based on rice, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Its characteristic flavors are sweet (sugar), spicy (serrano peppers), sour (lime), nuoc mam (fish sauce), and flavored by a variety of mint and basil. victory in 1975.

In Danang most of the building and houeses have French style sturture as shows colonal time in 18 -19 centuries there.Many shrines and temples have been constructed over the centuries both on the hillsides and in the spectacular natural caves concealed within the hills.