Doherty Travels

My brother checks in on my blog from time to time, but doesn't maintain a blog of his own. That is a shame because he just had a wonderful 3 year anniversary celebration with his wife, Jill. He sent me a play-by-play of the trip as well as some pictures, so I figured that was his permission to post them! Enjoy!

From Ryan:

Our flight left Denver at midnight, direct to San Jose, Costa Rica. Five hour flight. We didn't rest well on the flight so our first day was spent sleeping. We did get up for lunch and dinner, which we got at the steak house next door to our hotel.

Day 2: Our guide, Paulo, picked us up and we drove to our new hotel, which is where we would be staying for the next five days. (pic attached) We went on a one hour horse ride, it was so the horse owner, Stanley, could see how well we rode and plan our future rides accordingly. Dinner and breakfast are provided at our hotel for our stay. Fresh fruits, coffee, pancakes, toast, fresh sea bass, fresh chicken. Our breakfast eggs were hatched by hens that the hotel kept in a coop on the property.

Day 3: A hike through a "National Forest nature walk" it was basically a gravel path laid through part of the jungle. We saw cool animals and bugs there. Then we took a longer horse ride. Our average ride time was 2.5 to 3 hours each day. Most of our rides involved a portion of through the jungle trails. Since we were there in the rainy season, the vegetation was growing so fast it overgrew the normal trails. Stanley was hacking away with his machete. On this particular ride, the preferred trail was too over grown to ride. So we went down a river bed that is normally so low it  barely gets the horses hooves wet, but this time it was full. I had to pull my legs up like a jockey to keep my feet out of the water. The horses were in past their bellies. Jillian was riding the Stanley's 5 year old stallion. I guess we are good enough riders that he offered us the opportunity to ride his stallion. Unfortunately, the stallion has not the same experience as the older horses the rest of us were on. We had to climb out of the river bed, up a muddy slope, into thick vegetation. Paulo's horse fell getting up the slope. We went riding down along a barbed fence, in between thick vegetation. It got so bad we had to turn back. Jillian's horse fell getting back down the slope and Jilllian jumped off the horse. She was fine, but she got soaked and had mud all over her. Her shoes never dried for the rest of the trip. Too much humidity near the ocean.

Day 4: We rode to the beach today. I was on the stallion for most of this ride. That horse has speed and always wants to go faster. But he was very well trained and easy to handle. We galloped on the beach, and stopped at a small local restaurant. This place was so out of the way that you would only know about it if someone told you about it. There are no signs for it or advertising. That was cool. The riding today was over 5 hours.

Day 5: Our guide, Paulo, and the horse owner, Stanley, are buddies and set up an extra day of riding that Jillian and I didn't know about. Our schedule said today was no riding, but we were to go snorkeling and kayaking. We did that early in the morning which was fun. After that we met up at Stanley's and rode to his favorite local bar. He has a couple tequilas, and was all about running the horses back home. He is normally shy, but tequila breaks his shell. Back at his house, his wife made us a sweet tortilla snack and some coffee. We sat on his porch and enjoyed our snack.

Day 6: Went on a boat on the river and saw crocodiles. The boat guide got out of the boat on the shore and hand fed chicken bits to the crocs! Crazy dude, but good photo ops. More horse riding after the boat.

Day 7: Took an arial tram up a small mountain, then zip lined back down along 10 different cables. That was fun. After that, more horses. Rode to a river where we had a picnic. Traditional lunch for ranchers on the road moving cattle or what have you. It was a burrito... go figure. Plus something that tasted a lot like brown sugar in water, but they claim it is some traditional drink. Paulo took us back to our first hotel, which is central in the country, in San Jose.

Day 8: We went on a tour group up an active volcano. Also toured a coffee plantation and walked through an animal rescue that displayed large cats, small cats, sloths, lots of birds, butterflies, and monkeys. The end of this tour took us on a hike to a water fall.

Day 9: Wake up at 330AM for our trip back to the airport to head back home.

Moment in Peking

This blog post is named after a book I read last year, shortly after I arrived in China. The book was written entirely in English by a native Chinese author and was a tremendous read. I recommend it entirely.

Beijing used to be known to us in the West as Peking, and thus the title is appropriate for my recent travel to Beijing. I spent three awesome days with my relatives, but looking back it all seems like but a short moment…

Arrival: My flight was delayed from South Korea to Beijing, but that turned out to be a happy coincidence because I walked into baggage claim at the Beijing airport just in time to spot my aunt Celeste, Uncle Kevin, and cousin Miranda’s boyfriend Russ collecting their bags. We met our tour guide, Vicky, and the driver, Mr. Zhang, who then drove us to the Sheraton Hotel downtown. For dinner we went out to Hot Pot and I really enjoyed introducing this experience to my relatives. Hot Pot is a popular dining out tradition for Chinese people. Think fondue dining where you cook the food at your table but in spicy soup instead of cheese and different Chinese foods instead of Western foods.

Day One: After a good power breakfast at the Sheraton, we visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We had a nice lunch at a traditional restaurant along the water. This was the group’s first experience of a Chinese feast: we must have had 12 or 15 different dishes presented for us on the “lazy susan” and spun around for everyone to share. The waiter asked if we also wanted some rice and we accepted, though we all wondered where we could find room for the rice on the table and in our bellies!

 

That night we went for some Peking duck. The duck was not just food, it was an experience: a chef came out to our table to cut the full duck into tender slices of meat. Then a waitress showed us a few ways to wrap/stuff the duck inside two types of Chinese bread then to add vegetables and sauces, etc.

Day Two: The Great Wall! But before we got there, we did visit the Summer Palace. A historical figure that kept surfacing in the stories from Vicky was the Dragon Lady, who was operating behind the throne, pulling the puppet strings of the Last Emperor. She suggested watching the movie: The Last Emperor.

The Wall was as big and as impressive as we'd all imagined and been told to expect.  The section we were on was well-maintained for the purpose of tourism, but other stretches were wildly overrun with plants and trees that had grown into the rock. The long stretch of wall running through the forested hillside was a sight to behold.

Going up and coming down wasn't bad either: we took a chairlift up to the wall and rode the alpine slide back down!

 Beijing Opera for the show that night. Interesting. We had a taste of this earlier in the day so we were prepared for the out-of-tune, high pitched sounds, but not prepared for how long those sounds would last! The tea was served by a kung-fu master who poured from a three-foot long spout and made twists and turns in between pours. We were joined by two Colombian women at our table so Kevin and Celeste got to show off their Spanish skills!

After dinner, we caught up with Miranda at a posh bar downtown for her class party. I showed up under-dressed, so the bouncer required me to rent some yoga slippers and leave my sandals outside. My dear family bugged me about those slippers that night and for the rest of the trip, never letting me live it down J Pictures? Oh no, I did not even think to take pictures of my rental yoga slippers!

Day Three, morning:

We finished another good breakfast meal at the hotel then loaded into the van and were taken straight to the airport. Our guide, Vicky made sure we checked in OK and had no issues with baggage weight limits, and then we made our way to the gate bound for Xi’an.

Seoul, South Korea

My former roommate here in China, Anthony (Panda), and I had purchased a ticket to South Korea last year but never had a chance to use them, but an opportunity finally presented itself. After eating dinner at his new restaurant in Tianjin, China, we flew to Seoul. We called our other former roommate, Paul, who is Korean-American and has returned home to Texas to finish college.

Three different factors influenced our Korea itinerary: 1) Panda has been there several times and has seen most of the major attractions 2) I was tired of doing the touristy “take photos” routine and was expecting to put a lot of miles on my camera with a trip to Beijing and Xi’an later in the week and 3) my brother and his wife were taking an adventure vacation to Costa Rica complete with horseback riding and kayaking. So I got back in touch with my Colorado “adventure” roots and decided on wakeboarding in the river!

The food in Seoul was great: I am an even bigger fan of Korean cuisine now! And the people were very nice and seemed to enjoy having foreigners explore their city.

Saw Batman: Dark Knight Rises, while in Korea since the film will not be released in China until September. 

There was definitely a chill that came over both me and Panda, since the news of the tragic shooting in Colorado was still fresh. I know this feeling must be even worse for those watching movies in theaters back in Colorado and the other states.

HongShan Zoo

The animals, sadly, were not the highlight of this visit. The beautiful mountain (more like a hill) setting was. The zoo is built into the side of a hill on the far end of the city, but is conveniently reached by the subway. Trees cover the hillside and there are a few nice lakes that provide a relaxing atmosphere. Despite being surrounded by natural scenery, the animals are kept in small cages with concrete floors, in most cases, rather than grass or dirt.

The layout was a bit similar to the Wildlife Sanctuary in Colorado, but the Sanctuary actually provides much more comfortable cages for the animals and room to roam. The wolf area had a walk-over bridge for guests to look down at the animals and their cage was one of the few with a more or less dirt/grass floor and some trees and bushes. But the tigers, leopards, and lions were all kept in dreary prison cells. The giraffes, at least, did have a larger grassy area.

The Chinese operate by a very different culture and this shows in their treatment/respect of animals. I had to bear in mind that cultural differences should not be judged because we really do grow up and live worlds apart. Their view of animal husbandry is different from mine and most Americans and I will leave it at that. There were small fences designed to keep the visitors back away from the cages, with signs posted in English and Chinese to stay behind those fences. Well, some of the locals didn't think twice about jumping over the fence to go right along the cage for a closer picture. What's worse, many felt that it was OK to throw small things like sticks or paper into the cage to get the animal's attention. I even saw one guy throw his cigarette butt into a tiger cage. They were also very noisy and made calling or barking noises sometimes to try and get the animal to look at them.

I was reminded of the tiger in CA who escaped, tracked down, and attacked the specific tourist who was harassing it at his compound. 1 point tiger, 0 points humans, and a major rallying call sounded to caged animals everywhere!

These looked like fun: parents get to lock their kid up in a clear orb, then float them out on a small pool of water. When the kid starts to stand up, the parents can jerk on a rope connected to the ball to unsettle the contents!

Hong Kong part 2

One of my favorite professors, Darrin Duber-Smith, informed me that he would be giving a presentation in Hong Kong, on April 22nd. Being close to HK (relative to the flight he had to take) I decided to make an appearance at the conference.

The conference was for Global Sources and Darrin was asked to speak about his area of expertise: Green Marketing. Altogether, he spoke for an hour. The presentation was very interesting and informative. The bulk of the attendees were English speakers (some foreigners, others from Hong Kong where English is one of their main languages anyhow) but the powerpoint slideshow had Chinese translations added for clarity.

For dinner we had exquisite food at a very nice restaurant. The pasta was better than anything I've had back home, and the desserts were great! Darrin's wife made the trip as well. They both liked what they had seen of the city in the previous day when they arrived. I was expecting to have to play tour guide (my 2nd time to HK) but these two are professional travelers and they actually did most of the leading!

Also got to see my real good friend here, Panda, who was in HK for his visa. He is my former roommate who recently moved closer to Beijing to run an upscale foreign restaurant. He is very happy now! I got out of the subway after dinner, called his phone, got in a taxi, only to drive around the block. He told the driver my location in Cantonese (the main language in HK that he speaks) but the driver didn't say I was so close! I walked into the restaurant and there was Panda doing his thing: ordering too much food and instructing the wait staff about their business. It didn't matter that I had already ate great food for dinner, he always has to see to it that the people he cares about are taken care of and well-fed!

The next day was full of sight-seeing with the professor and his wife, but the weather was not cooperating. The fog was so thick! We went up to a temple and giant Buddha statue but could hardly see. Darrin is in the red/black shirt.

The trip to this temple was exciting: a cable car over the hills and across the channel!

The hilly nature of HK, surrounded by ocean water, makes it a scenic place. But there are lots of crowded skyscrapers that you have to ignore!

Special treat in HK: two servings of Ben and Jerry's ice cream! I can't get that on the mainland but its quiet popular on the island!

I stayed one more day after my professor's flight left. That day was fairly casual: good local food with Panda and a workout in the park!

Then back to Nanjing the next morning.

胜利 Victory!

Since arriving in China, I have been very fortunate to have made great friends and training partners with the coach, Fred Greenall, and athletes at Frontier Asia http://kunaifightwear.com/frontierasiabjj/
I've been having a lot of fun with it, but I know it makes my mother worry :-(

So when I learned that the 2012 BJJ China Open was to be held in Shanghai on May 19, of course I signed up!

I competed in the blue belt 65kg division. Three matches and done: winner! I won each match by submission (my opponent's gave up) rather than points.

I also competed in the blue belt open weight category, in which I won two matches. The first was by a technicality because my opponent did an illegal technique. The referee disqualified him, but I didn't want to win that way. So I teamed up with my opponent and we both argued with the ref to let the match continue for the remaining minute to determine the winner. But the ref did not capitulate.
I won the next match by a submission, but I lost my next match by points to a man who outweighed me by maybe 15kg. I hate losing by points, but I wasn't able to submit him.

I was really proud of the Frontier Asia BJJ team. Some were competing for the first time, like Sarah, who fought admirably! Overall, we won the team prize for the most individual first-place finishes and medals. Fred has done a great job training us and helping to develop these champions!

The majority of competitors were Chinese people, which is great to see as this sport is still growing in the country. And with such a large population, there is huge potential for the sport to do big things here! I know Frontier Asia BJJ will be at the forefront of any such movement!

Also gotta give respect and thanks to Michael Sullivan and the coaches at FusBoxe where I received the bulk of my training. http://www.fusboxe.com/

Suzhou

The Chinese have a saying: “above us, there is paradise. On earth, there is Suzhou and Hangzhou.” With the celebration of Labor Day on May 1^st here, I decided to put that saying to the test and made a trip to Suzhou with my roommate, Paul. You may be wondering: “what did Sean do to end up behind bars in paradise?” Don’t worry- that’s just me in a taxi!

Suzhou is about an hour away from Nanjing on the bullet train. The two cities are similar in many ways: big, Chinese city with big buildings, and a development focus on including trees and a nature mix within the city. 

Because of the big city feel, I never felt like I was really, “getting away from it all” to explore a wonderful, natural, and secluded paradise. Granted, I’m a bit spoiled coming from Colorado and having just visited home but three weeks prior to this trip.

Despite the Colorado-nature-snob in me, Suzhou did prove to be quite pleasant. We took a tour bus to four different spots and enjoyed a variety of different sights. The first stop was something of a palace or estate of old with nice flowers.

Another stop was a large rock garden, and I mean large. The paths were made of rocks and you climbed up some of the big ones to walk along rock bridges to other parts of the garden. In the center was a nice lake surrounded by some traditional pagodas. Some of the rocks formed together to make small caves that were big enough to walk inside.

We took a river boat along the canals of Suzhou and saw some traditional houses and traditional lifestyle living. Another stop took us up a twelve story (or taller) temple for a 360 view of the city, as well as a large Buddha statue.

After lunch consisting of some yummy Suzhou local food (every region in China has its own variety of Chinese food), we were taken to a silk store and pitched by many different sales agents to buy the silk.

The last stop featured another, larger part of the canal and some more pagodas. The canal was spanned by a large bridge where many of the tourists went to take pictures. By this time, I was pretty burned out from standing in front of canals, bridges, or pagodas, and didn’t really take any more photos.

The trip was fun and well-worth the time and money. Even though the city was similar to my big city, Nanjing, it was nice to go somewhere different and the various tour stops were a small relief from city life. Next stop: Hangzhou!