Sailing In Xiamen

Well, isn't that the way it always works.

The month before I leave Xiamen I find a new western grocery store (with tons of yummy things like whole wheat bread, baking powder, and New Castle Brown Ale!), a rent-able practice room full of instruments for cheap, and a new marina with rent-able sail boats!

Sigh. This would have changed the way I live here! (In good and bad ways I think...)

Oh yeah, PS everyone. This is my last week in Xiamen! Can't believe its been a year! I guess I should do a blog on that later.

At least I made the best out of all of the new fun stuff in the last month of being here. I had a great day of sailing with a french friend of mine the other day. The sun was out, the pollution was at a minimum, and the wind was kicking!



The marina is located on the northern tip of the Island boarding the mainland. There really isn't a whole lot more there. It's actually one of the least developed areas I know of in Xiamen. It does however have a big bridge and a pretty spiffy looking Posiden looking statue that make the Marina look pretty neat.



I'm not sure exactly what kind of boat it was we rented. If any of you sailing people can figure it out form pictures/description let me know. It easily seated 6 and was probably 24 feet long. Should have checked it out more carefully... maybe I'll go one more time and check it out.

It was quite a challenge to scrape off a years worth of rust while only having two people in a tank of a boat, in really heavy wind, and being the only one of the two who knew how to sail.... but it was actually super fun. It pressed my abilities to a comfortable limit and we really got going at some points!

I risked taking my new Camera out on the boat, but it was worth it because Ashleen (my French friend) also got some great action shots out on the boat. Unfortunately I left it on a really low quality setting, so most of them only look half way decent with a fair amount of editing.

Here are a few:





Then I took over the camera while I let Ashleen give sailing a shot.



Unfortunately I will never see the funniest pictures of the day but I can at least tell the story.

On our way in, we noticed a MASSIVE yacht (Wow there is some crazy money in China. Holy income distribution discrepancy Batman!) with 5 or 6 young Chinese women in bikinis being photographed by some very professional looking photographers. We sailed in for a closer look and from the logos on the boat/cameras it was obviously some kind of magazine.

As soon as we got close enough to see, one of the girls jumped up and started smiling and waving at us. This of course got the attention of the photographers who then spun around to look at what she was so excited about.

Before we knew it the boat erupted in flash. My ridiculous pose instincts is now instinctively activated by Chinese camera flash. We struck some silly over the top James Bond-ish poses for them and sailed on.

Whats more exciting than 6 bikini clad 20 somethings on a yacht? In China, apparently its two Vanilla faces on a dinky sail boat.

I really hope I end up in some kind of yachting magazine striking a killer action pose! (To any of my Chinese friends, be on the look out in 中国游艇网 !)

Anyway, the marina was gorgeous. I hope to get out again before I leave since it will be cold back in RI! There were also some little colorful boats that we were hoping to see in the water, but never went in. To bad.

Here they are on land.



Well, that's it for sailing. I guess I'll be doing an entry about leaving here pretty soon.

Stay good.

Khumjung: First Look at the Top of the World

I realized that I posted the whole lead up to Everest and then never posted it! Whoops!

Well here it is.

I started the day early on a loop hike to Khumjung. The first part of the climb was straight up the mt. from Namche.

Here is a nice view of the village on a clear morning.


Early in the day I met a nice Italian women (who I though was just a little older then me and ended up being about 40...) and we did most of the hike together. Turns out she has lived in China for 11 years and wants the next place she lives to be Afghanistan. She says China has lost its thrill and she needs something new.

Surprisingly after year, I am starting to understand.

We chatted until the guide told us that we had arrived at the first viewing place of Everest, and sure enough, there it was! Looming up another 17,000 feet after I had already gone up 12,000 in 4 days!



Everest is actually the one directly over my head, even though it doesn't look like the tallest of the 4 from this angle.

We hiked on until a Ukrainian guy stopped us and clued us in on a really good viewing spot right off the path. And what a view it was! No one else was there and nothing was in the way! Thank random Ukrainian guy!



After a few 100 photos and a good half an hour of just sitting there in bewilderment of how fantastic it really looks and babbling about how lucky we were to have such good weather and all kinds of other nonsense, we moved on to the famous "Everest View Hotel"

The Everest View Hotel holds the world record for being the highest operational hotel in the world at 13,500 ft above sea level. It was built by the Japanese with a heli-pad right out side to bring tourist directly up from Kathmandu. Of course almost no one can acclimatize to 5000 ft of elevation gain in one day, so it almost never gets used!

The view however is great! We did find out AFTER being lead in, that you were expected to order something from the menu if you wanted to check out the view (which was annoying since the view was hardly better than the last place we had just sat and enjoyed for free and with out others chatting all around us...). So we got a pot of tea (the only thing that didn't cost mortgaging your first born child) and relaxed for a bit.

This picture is of the reflection of the Mts. off the big mirrored windows that allow guests to see Everest from their rooms (but don't allow guests to see into the rooms).



After an hour or so we moved on to Khumjung, a valley village craddled between some "Smaller" peaks. We ate lunch here and went to see the Sir. Edmund Hillary School and Hospital which have transformed the once desperately poor village into an oasis for the Sherpa people.

This is a monument to him.


This lovely guy watched over us while we ate lunch.


The lunch placealso had nice flowers in the garden.


And they fueled the fire that cooked our lunch with this...


Which are of course made by these guys...




After lunch we also check out the "Yeti Skull" at the local monastery. Legend of the locals is that it used to run around eating Yaks and small children until it was killed and given to the people of the village as a gift from another village. The village took it as an insult and kicked it all the way home. It didn't have any real significance until tourist started showing up and wanted to check it out.

A small donation was enough for them to open the box so that we could see it, but no picture were allowed of the skull it self. The inside of the monastery was quite colorfully decorated though. Here is a shot of all the different prayer books.



On our way back to Namche the fog started to roll in. I was REALLY glad that my guide recommended we do the hike backwards from the way most people normally do it! We would have been arriving at Everest just as the clouds were covering it up!

We spent the rest of the day at the local market who's merchants roll in from miles around every Friday night and Saturday. Our guide said some people hike in as much as 9 days from Tibet just to trade here.

We did also go straight to the bakery in Namche for apple pie since French guy along the trail told us he had had the best pie of his life in Khumjung, but failed to tell us where! But the craving stuck and so we satisfied it with some pretty delicious apple turnovers when we got back!

The next day was just a hike down in a foggy day so I didn't take many pictures. Then of course there was the 3 1/2 days stuck in Lukla. But thats a post for another day.

Namche Bazaar: The coolest little city at 12,000 ft

I found time for another update. The weather in Lukla is much too cloudy for my flight back to Kathmandu to take off, so I am spending an extra night on the mountain. Strangely (or not strangely, I guess) there is a Starbucks up here, so I am mooching the off the free Wifi. (Really!? There is a Starbucks in LUKLA but not Xiamen?)

Anyway, the second day of trekking was shorter but involved quite a bit more elevation gain. I stayed the night in a tiny village called Laraja Dobhan that was about 8,560 ft above sea level (2610 meters) and the following day hiked to Namche Bazaar which is 11,2000 feet above sea level.

We left at 8 because I was told it would take 3-4 hours to make it to Namche and I wanted to be there by lunch time so I could take an afternoon hike. The the slog to Nmache involved a lot of going straight up rock faces...

crossing bridges...


and negotiating Yak Jams.


Turns out the hike to Namche really only took 2 hours. (Maybe one day I will write "The guide to Hiking in the Himalayas for People Who Aren't Funding their Trip with Money Fresh out of Social Security")  so I had an early lunch, checked into the hotel, and headed off again.


This time we were heading for Thamo, a small village where you can see the Tibetan side of the mountains. This hike was much more of an easy day hike. Very little elevation gain with lots of nice flowers




stupas,


and some interesting hydro electric power projects. The projects were set up by Sir Edmund Hillary with the objective of supplying renewable power to the rural villages and Forest Nurserys. A vital boon to local farmers who spend their whole lives trying to grow food sustainably in the last place on earth I would ever try to start a farm.


After 2 hours or so I made it to Thamo. The big peak way in the back ground is in Tibet.


The walk back was about 2 hours as well. I met some nice people on the way and went for a beer at 1 of the 2 local bars. Somewhere in between I took a few shots of Namche at night. Here are a few.

The main street.


The street leading to "The Liquid Bar".


The village form a little ways up.


And a carved and painted prayer rock in the middle of the village.


All in all a great day of hiking and hanging out. Namche is a great little town. The perfect balance between quite, hiking, and things to do at night. I will absolutely come back here, eventually.

Hopefully my flight will leave on time in the AM or I am going to be spending quite a bit more time here then I planned on! (which I wouldn't mind at all except for my flight is non refundable...)

More soon. Stay good.

The Bottom of the Top of the World

Hey all!

Just checking in from what I am told is Highest Broadband connection in the world!

After 2 days of trekking, I have just arrived in Namche Bazaar in the Nepali Himalayas! Namche is approximately 12,000 feet above sea level (4,000 meters for all you non Americans) with a population of about 1,500.

It is sort of the last major out post before Everest Base camp. Traditionally it is a trading village for Nepalis and Tibetan people.

The hike has been impressively beautiful. Between glacial melt rivers, prayer flags, a huge varity of plant life, and more amazing mountains than you can count the walks have been super enjoyable.

Here are some of the picture of the first day.

On day one I took a Charter flight from Kathmandu (4,000 ft) to Lukla (8,000). The landing strip is "the most dangerous in the world". It is tilted to slow the plans down before they land (in order to prevent you from crashing into the mountain).


From there, I met up with my Sherpa and started my trek from Lukla to just past Monju.

A street in Lukla


The start of the trail to base camp.


One of the many prayer rocks along the trip.


A fancy place to stay along the way.


This way to Namche.


Glacial ice melt river.


My Sherpa's Village


Yaks on a bridge.




A little water fall I discovered.


The altitude hasn't been a problem, and I am hiking faster than I expected! Its been a great trip.

There are just a few pictures I mananged to upload in the 1 hours worth of internet I bought up here. There are TONS more to come!

Stay good.

Swains (and a Turner) In China

Well, after 4 months of inactivity, I decided it was time to start working on the blog again.

I seem to have stumbled on a bit of a bloggers paradox if you will. That is, when life is busy and interesting enough to be worth writing about, you are too busy being busy and interesting to write about it.

But now I have some free time and some truly great (and some not so great) experiences to document.

This particular post is about the most recent and certainly one of the greatest. This morning I put 3 wonderful family members on a train back to Shanghai where they will start their long journey home after a 2 and 1/2 week whirl wind tour of China.

I met my Mom, Dad, and Aunt Joan in Beijing on September 12th to kick things off.

Here are a few select photos of places around Beijing

The Summer Palace


The Forbidden City


Teinamen Square



The Great Wall




The Birds Nest (Olympic Stadium)


The Night Market




and the Hutong Area


We spent 3 nights here with a great local guide (Johnathon) and National guide (Ling). While the stops were a little short (and the mandatory shopping excursions in the Jade and Pearl "Museums" a little long) We had a fantastic time seeing some of the most impressive parts of Beijing (not to mention China).

For the sake of time and readability I guess I will do a new post on each city we visited. There are certainly enough pictures!

Its good to be back!

What making 168,000 Trolley Bags Looks Like

It has been a damn long time coming, but production of my first big sale is finally under way!

For those interested that don't know, I am working for an export and manufacturing company that focuses primarily on producing bags. This order is for a rolling trolley bag that will end up in the US eventually.

This is actually our biggest sale to date and I am just beginning to see what that means. Until now 168,000 was just a big number in a bunch of emails. Now as the fabric and handles are starting to roll in the ridiculous size is starting to sink in. Going to the factory now is like being awash in a sea of girly colored fabric with the occasional island of zillion handle frames.

Here is what 40,000 disassembled handles looks like in boxes. (You can use Chris for scale)


And here is what they look like what about 1/2 of them are assembled.




This is just one of the dozens of stacks thousands cut bag pieces that line the hallways and floors.
There are about 50 in each bundle.


Here is a stack of 100 or so lovely fake crocodile skin handles. That will eventually be sewn on.


And this is of course where the magic happens 6 days a week 10 hours a day...


Tomorrow there are supposed to be 2,000 done (1.1%!) done for us to go check out and then we really ramp things up. At this rate we need to make 5,000 or so a day to catch the dead line! It's going to be a hell of a month!

More later.