Not a huge fan of sci-fi, but....

I've had to liken myself to John Hurt's character in Aliens, of late.  I've been generously hosting something parasitic for over a week.  At first, I mused that perhaps a cranky waitress in Mui Ne had drugged my food.  But since the little beast has reared its head again upon arrival in Cambodia, striking Ed too, I'm pretty sure it was something we ate.  Or, more likely, the lack of sanitation, refrigeration, and hand washing in Vietnam.

Last night I finally called my Moms, read her the labels of the prescriptions our doc gave us before we left, and started on the good stuff.  We were supposed to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat this morning, but decided to put it off, since we weren't sure hiking around the jungle with a fever was going to be the most enjoyable way to experience the majesty of the temple ruins.

Being sick while traveling is the pit stains.  Its not like at home, when being really knocked out meant staying home from work, blackberry on the coffee table, watching DVR'd TV and napping.  Away, its postponing the fun times we're meant to be having, confinement to a hotel room and 4 English speaking channels, and trips outside in 95 degree heat to pick up strange food (note to SE Asia - PLEASE stop putting sugar in our coffee when we ask for no sugar.  I know you think its gross to drink it black, but the good news is you don't have to drink it, I do.  When it tastes like a coffee-flavored dum-dum, I have to throw it away).  That said, considering neither of us has been sick for more than a day or two since leaving, I'd say we've been pretty lucky and were about due.

On the upside, staying in last night gave me the opportunity to view some high quality movie entertainment.  Have y'all seen "Wanted?"  Most absurd and absurdly watchable action flick I've watched in ages.  I'm even coming around on that James McEvoy.  Ah, the healing powers of cinema.  Or, was it the antibiotics kicking in...

Hong Kong Livin'

The thing that I miss most about home is walking into our old apartment, flopping on the couch, and watching DVR'd TV.  I was never a TV addict and didn't watch so many hours a week but I liked having the option to completely zone, you know?  I know that if the thing lacking from our travels is excess ass-sitting, its not so bad, but the luxury of a living room really can't be overstated when you no longer have one.

Our friend Christina generously invited us to stay at her place in Hong Kong, and was leaving for a business trip the next morning.  Not only was our hostel there a dump (I'm talking to you Yesinn, see my review on hostelworld.com, dirtbags) but Christina's apartment is beautiful and felt like a home.  As we checked out, a couple of cockroaches saw us off and when I told the proprietor we'd be leaving early, he didn't even look up from his monitor, but grunted "there's a key box, drop 'em there."  So you can imagine that evening, having showered in a room where I didn't even consider wearing shoes, sitting on a big couch watching 'How I Met Your Mother' reruns and flipping through Vogue was nothing short of miraculous.

I wouldn't trade the experiences we're having on this trip...  The amount of world we've seen in 3 months floors me every time we tell a story or look back through some photos.  But once in a great while, a fluffy comforter and working remote control is paradise found.

CCTV

There was nothing I loved less about China than CCTV.  But, sometimes, after a long day of temple-roaming and noodle sucking, you need a little downtime.  In Beijing this was provided by CCTV in the form of distinctley uninformative world news, delivered in English, which I could usually only stand for about 12 minutes.  In Shenyang, there wasn't an English station, or an English speaker that we could identify.  So, I watched some sports.

When you need a hott second of familiarity sometimes its hard to get into a Chinese teen drama.  But sports are the great leveler, no commentary necessary.  Hell, I could've watched that shit on mute.  This was kind of a revelation, because I don't watch any sports at home (including the Olympics) except occassionally to turn on golf for napping along to.

Oh, but did I mention what sports were on the telly?  In order of appearance, not preference:
- Skeet shooting (world championship)
- Table Tennis (Chinese Nationals)
- Women's Volleyball (College World Finals)

I think if I can find the channel that plays these at home, I might be a convert.

Everybody Shenyang Tonight

We're now in Shenyang, which was supposed to be the first stop on our Northern China loop. We were going to be here for 4 days, then head to Harbin, and Dalian before we went back to Beijing to start our travels in the South. Sadly, nature is not on our side. We initially canceled the Dalian trip because of the oil spill there. We were told by a friend who lives in Beijing that if the news was saying it was no bigs, we could pretty much rest assured that it was, indeed, bigs and that our beachy fun would be ruined.

Then came the floods. Initially we thought this would only impact the towns we had intended to visit in the South (Chengdu, Xi'an, Yangshuo) but now the flooding has spread to the North and the worst impact in Jilin separates us from Harbin. Considering the massive toll this is taking on the people of China and their economy, the inconvenience to
us really shouldn't be overstated. That said, it is frustrating that you can't access hard news about the situation or get a real understanding of how travel and transit are impacted. No flood maps, no in-depth news coverage, nada. Basically, CCTV will be like
"Flooding rocked the 3 Gorges area today with a massive death toll and billions of yuan in damage. And now this feature story about how awesome China is. Back to John Chang in the studio."

Its hard for me to accept that I can't control the weather (we're supposed to be making memories, here, people), but I'm trying to muster some travel zen and soldier on. Those of you who know me well understand that for me to release the strangled bunny and go to plan C is no easy ask. I'm working on the perfectionism/compulsion complex. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, but Shenyang! Its GREAT! People call it the armpit of China. The Newark, if you will. But its so so much more - its at least a shoulder and I highly recommend a visit. Since it rained, like, 4 inches yesterday we were rewarded with blue skies today for our visit to the amazing Bei Ling tombs in the North of the city. Having visited the Ming Tombs with Jose & Tichi & the fam, this was a very interesting contrast. Shenyang was the capital of the Manchurian dynasty, so many of the monuments were built before Peking was the big dog. Its smaller and less obsessively and overly restored and there are almost no tourists. So, you kind of get the run of amazing parks and grounds and ancient walls and tombs to run amok upon. Not that we did. Amok it.

Tomorrow we hit the Imperial Palace which is supposed to be Forbidden City-ish but on a smaller scale. I've fully recovered from the cold/fever/bug thing that was holding me back, so I'm back in full effect as Planny McPlannerson. While Ed is outwardly pleased that I'm
feeling my old snarky self, I know there is a part of him that misses the slightly sluggish and dialed back Rodney. The few days where I requested naps and didn't insist on sucking the very life out of every moment were maybe a nice respite for him. Hm.