Lots of exciting news at Think Simple Now headquarters. In addition to having two new contributing members (lisa and scott) to the TSN team, we’ve had some press coverage.

1. Glamour Magazine

Glamour Magazine in the June 2009 issue.

The coverage was for their annual salary survey article in the Life & Happiness section for the magazine (page 124).

For those curious to know, I was contacted one year ago, answered a series of questions, they came up with a quote to best fit their article, and I approved the quote.

Since the article came out many months after its original planned date, the quote was modified many times by the editors.  At one point, it mentioned my trading in a six figure salaried job to have flexibility and freedom to follow my passion, and then later it mentioned me cutting costs by switching from my cell phone to skype, etc. 

I didn’t have a whole lot of control over what was quoted or how it was quoted. So technically, I did not actually say, “I get to work at home and no boring meetings, ever!”  The editors added that to spunk it up.

In all, I am very thankful for having had the opportunity to be quoted. I am now asking the universe for more such opportunities in traditional press (let me know if you have ideas).

2. Yes Magazine

Yes! Magazine had a small feature about Think Simple Now in their Winter 2009 issue (Issue 48) on Sustainable Happiness (page 37).

The feature was written by an editor of the publication in late summer of last year, based on articles she saw on TSN and Google web stats I had provided for her.

See the article online.

3. Book Mention

Think Simple Now and myself were mentioned as a sample case study for the online personal branding section in the book “Tell Me About Yourself” on page 174, published in April, 2009 – written by Katharine Hansen of Quintessential Careers.

4. Amazon Kindle

Think Simple Now articles are now available to be subscribed to on the Kindle – Amazon’s wireless reading device.

For 99 cents a month, you can have specially formatted TSN articles delivered to you, and stored on your Kindle. Support us and subscribe here (Free 14-day trial), and if you could leave a kind review (even if you don’t own a Kindle), I will LOVE you for it.

On an interesting note, Jeremy did the photos of the Kindle on the Amazon site.

5. Updated About Pages

We’ve updated the much needed about pages for Think Simple Now:

• About page – to include a more up-to-date description, social media links, bios of the team and contact information. Be sure to scroll down to read the bio descriptions for Blackie and Tommy – all in good fun.
• About Tina page – much of what I had posted prior to the update was no longer relevant. I have grown so much since the start of this site, and the description badly needed this update. This page was pretty much re-written. Check it out.

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There are some exciting new projects coming up on the horizon, I can’t wait to tell you about them.  Keep an eye out here and on TSN for announcements.

In other news, I’m heading to India in three weeks for a month long spiritual retreat.  While I’m gone, I will not be blogging.  If you are interested in submitting a top-notch guest post, send it to Lisa (lisa@thinksimplenow.com).

We just got back from Kauai, where Jeremy and I had our wedding and honeymoon.

From the beginning of our courtship, we had envisioned an intimate and private beach ceremony, and that vision became a reality on Feb 12.

Finding the right beach was a little stressful. After driving around the island, we were lead to Moloa’a beach based on Emily’s suggestion. Hidden behind a row of swanky houses built high off the ground, “It’s perfect”, we thought. Interestingly, it was here that the opening beach scenes of Gilligan’s island were filmed.

All photos were taken by the wonderfully talented Emily Helen. Being photographers ourselves, we were extremely picky when it came to finding the right photographer. We even considered flying in one of our photographer friends from Seattle. After searching through dozens and dozens of photographers on the island, we were ecstatic to have found Emily – we were certain that she was the best photographer on Kauai.

** Click here to see more wedding photos from this day (I’ll be adding new pictures to this album regularly) Click here for candid photos from the honeymoon**

Music

Here’s the playlist from that day:

The Ceremony

Photo by: Emily Helen, Best Kauai Wedding Photographer

Wedding Portraits

Photo by: Emily Helen, Best Kauai Wedding Photographer

More Photos?

We got around 250 images back from Emily. Narrowing them down wasn’t easy.
To see more photos from this day, check out the album on facebook. Click here for candid photos from the honeymoon

Kauai Travel Tips

• Car Rental – Book these way in advance. Last minute bookings usually mean $100 a day and often unavailable. We booked ours a month in advanced and we did so using priceline. It was our first time using priceline, a little nerve racking, but it worked out to our advantage. We bid $13 a day for a mid-size car, and got it. After taxes, it worked out to be $20 a day. When we arrived, they were out of midsize cars, and we ended up with a convertible. A great deal! I recommend bidding on priceline as early as possible.
• Hotel – Again, book as early as possible. A hotel is often cheaper when you book it together with your flight, rather than booking it individually. There are countless condos (vacation rentals) on the island – pros: full kitchen, laundry. cons: cleaning fee, no daily maid service. The cost works out to be about the same. Some are listed on craig’s list. Josh at Kauai Exclusive helped us find a swanky condo at Waipouli Beach Resort, and we absolutely loved it! Considering the cost of food on the island, having a kitchen is really handy! The guide book below has a detailed list of rentals and reviews. I recommend checking there first. Bargain for multiple nights and multiple bookings.
• Guide Book – “The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook” was recommended by our friends who also got married on Kauai. When you’re there, everyone is holding a copy of this book. Colorful, informative and very well written. I would skip the Lonely planet and get just this one book.
• Must See Sight – “Kauai Hindu Monastery” (p63 in guide book for directions) – This place is extraordinarily beautiful! Open daily from 9am to noon. We highly, highly recommend getting a guided tour, this is the only way you can visit the garden/forest section of the monastery containing all kinds of beautiful and rare vegetation. The tour is free, happens only once a week and you need an appointment (888-735-1619). We dropped in a few mornings to meditate and to participate in the pujas. Use mosquito repellent before you go (I didn’t and was bit, many times).

Kauai Wedding Tips

• Photography Emily Helen, Kauai Wedding Photographer Hands down, Emily is the best person for photography on the island. She combines commercial fashion photography into wedding portraiture, really clean and beautiful. She also charges a lot less than many of the crappy photographers on the island, trust us, we’ve looked.
• Hair & Makeup Christie at Main Attraction Hair Studio. Christie is really sweet and thoughtful. She can come to your hotel room to get you all prettied up. Or you can make an appointment to visit her in the salon. It’s cheaper to visit the salon. For my nails, I had a french manicure at the plaza across from the salon for $22. The place is called Acrylic Nails & Lucy Alterations, (808) 821-9009, Wailua Plaza.
• Cake – We really debated with the cake, having the option to get it from Icing on the Cake. But because we had a small party, one could get a simple cake from safeway for much cheaper. $70 vs. $18. We chose the latter. We order 2 cymbiduim orchids at $5 a piece and a bunch of small white orchids ($0.20 each) and decorated the cake ourselves.
• Flowers – “JC’s Flowers & Mini Mart” is a small family run shop that many locals recommended, based on our research, they were also the cheapest, especially if you know exactly what you need. The bouquet of mini calla lillies (30 flowers) costed $130, cheapest you’ll find on the island.(808)822-5961, Attached to Wailua Plaza.
• Dinner Reception – We went to The Beach House. This place is super popular, make sure to reserve way in advance, else you’ll get late seatings. Get a table beside the window and you can hear the sea crashing on the beach. Roughtly $50 a person with wine, so-so (slightly annoying) service, but exceptional food. I recommend the Sea Scallops.

The beautiful topic of relationships has occupied much of my mental space over the past few weeks. This is apparent through my recent articles on “How to Get Over Breakups” and “How to Find True Love” (New) via Think Simple Now.

To write these articles, I had to dig deep within myself and recall my own romantic journey and all of the empowering things I’ve learned through the ups and downs of my own relationships.

The most significant day in my personal growth was November 19, 2006. It was through the state of despair and depression I was in that the pain I was experiencing helped to nudge me into sudden clarity about what I’ve been doing wrong all these years.  It was an exceptionally exhilarating and liberating day for me.

The following is a snapshot of my realization from that day, as written in my journal.

From that day on, my life has never been the same.  The cycle of destruction had finally come to an end. Sometimes, life can only turn around when you’ve hit rock bottom.

I hope that by sharing this slice from my diary, it will help to shine some light on your story and whatever it is that you are going through.  For anyone who’s ever felt insecure and insufficient, you are not alone.  There is hope, and the future is VERY bright!

” November 19, 2006

Uncertainty is the topic of my day. No, actually it’s insecurities – the insecurity of not being liked, of not fitting in, of not belonging, of being alone, of not being loved. Through much realization about myself in the past few days, I discovered that I used to have a psychological dependency on men, or the idea of having a man there for me.

In the most extreme sense, it was as if my entire self worth relied on this dependency, on this idea of support. Once that dependency is challenged and uncertainty is added into the equation, I become this insecure little girl, unable to continue. I scramble, I panic, I look for plan B, I start to seek out alternatives, replacements … pads to protect my body from shattering into little pieces should I fall from that balcony of visions that I’ve created.

Visions and fixation, of hope, of ideals, of situations, of longing… all of which I have projected onto this man who is the current holder of my self-worth and whom I’ve depended on such that I cannot function normally without. He helps me to feel together, to feel complete. But he also hinders me from achieving my ultimate goals.

In a deeply unconscious state, without knowing it, I’ve asked him to put an invisible leash on my self-worth and my security. As a result, he’s got all of my time, my attention, my heart, and my love and a momentary pause has been placed on my true passions.

I have goals, but in the pursuit of keeping him happy, I set aside my goals and grace him with my attention and time. Deep down, secretly, I feel that without his image around, I will not be able to excel, and that I will not be okay. This of course is a false illusion, but because it’s been deeply buried in my subconscious, I have not been aware of it until now.

With each partner, when their true, ugly qualities re-surface above the perfect image I’ve projected upon them, I abruptly leave and start seeking the next holder of my invisible leash.

Today, I declare to the Universe that with this self revelation, I shall let this go, completely. I do not need it in my life, for it is no longer serving me.

My true self worth comes from myself, my heart, and my perception of my world. I adore myself, I love myself, and I am a wonderful being with lots of love to share.

I am in complete control of my life and my experiences. I gain more security in myself each time I do something that pleases me. I gain when I read wonderful books and learn new things. I gain when I am writing and exploring my feelings. I gain when I re-organize my life (living space, routine, health, goals). I gain when I think about all the wonderful blessings in my life. I gain when I take pictures that capture truth. I gain when I have meaningful conversations. I gain each time I accomplish a goal. I gain each time I think – with absolute faith that – I will always end up in the best possible place no matter what happens. There is something wonderful and valuable from every situation I encounter.

I learned something today:
Love yourself, and love others as if they were me.
Smile lots, and spread joy.
Be truthful, be compassionate, be patient, and be forgiving.
Live with the big heart you were born with. ”

I started training for swimming a month ago. For a sprint triathlon, one will have to swim 800 meters without stopping.  Alright, that’s my goal.  I’ve calculated the length of the pool I use: 25 meters. Okay, 32 laps it is!

On my first day I started with great optimism. “Okay Tina, you can do this! 10 laps without stopping! Go!” By the end of lap 2, I was collapsed over the edge of the pool lane, huffing and puffing to catch my breath.  My performance was pathetic and it brought with it the clarity I needed to practice harder. I continued to swim laps every other day, stopping only to catch my breath when needed, until I’d finished a cumulative of 32 laps.

Two weeks later, I overheard an older lady talking about her experience with a sprint triathlon, and I went over to ask a few questions. She said for the swimming leg, I’ll need to prepare to be able to do 40 laps, since it’ll be in a lake and the measurements are not very exact.  And also that it was important that I train myself to be able to swim all 40 laps non-stop, or risk drowning.

Forty LAPS??? Holy Crap!

I recall hearing a small voice in my head whispering, “I‘ll never be able to do that”, and then a few pulses later, I heard Tony Robbins’ voice yelling, “If you can’t, then you must!”

Well, all I can say is that there’s nothing like the threat of death by drowning that motivates one to get creative.  With that in mind, that very same day I was able to swim the 40 laps without stopping.

Four to Forty Laps in One Day

For one thing, I noticed that I had been experiencing breathing issues when I did the freestyle stroke, which made me super tired and in need of catching my breath at the end of every two laps. So, I started to do back strokes – something I am more comfortable with.  My goal wasn’t to look like a professional freestyle swimmer, my goal was to stay afloat and swim the length of 40 laps continuously, so that in an emergency situation, I wouldn’t drown.

Now I do 40 laps each time I hit the pool.  Here’s what I’ve observed:

I start with enough confidence and energy to complete all 40 laps.  The first 2 laps are easy.  But then I start to feel tired.  The next 10 or so laps are the hardest. I start to witness my mind looking for excuses to stop. I feel it finding and pointing out the discomfort in my body so that it can maybe convince me that I’m too tired to continue.

Once I get myself to complete 10 laps, things gets significantly easier, and my body is just riding out the repetitive movements.  Laps 20 to 30, and from 30 to 40 are a breeze.  When I actually hit lap 40, I feel that I can easily do 10 more laps.

Life Patterns

Upon further thought, I have noticed that this pattern of easy-difficult-easy can be seen in many other aspects of life: starting a business, starting a blog, learning a new skill, long distance running, etc.

Let’s take blogging as an example. When a blogger first starts out, they are enthusiastic and hopeful for the future. Pretty easy so far. But all bloggers will go through a period near the start of their blogging career where they experience friction. They may feel discouraged that it’s tough to attract new readers or to market themselves. Or they may run into technology issues and they feel the urge to quite. But if they just hang on and persist through the discouragement and friction, they’ll reach a certain threshold where blogging and marketing become natural and easy, at which point they will be capable of continuing on indefinitely.

The same is true for starting and running a successful business. It starts with fresh enthusiasm which makes the job appear easy. But soon, we experience some form of hardship or problem where we have to work long and challenging hours. The friction makes it tempting to quit, but more likely than not, if we soldier on, staying innovative and persistent, we will succeed.

Take Away Lesson

What I’ve learned through this observation is that persistence is the key! The ability to hanging on, when others have easily given up separates the failures from the triumphs.  In life, it isn’t about finding the most comfortable route, but rather finding destinations you want to arrive at and keeping moving until you get there.

No matter how insurmountable a goal may seem, if you just keep trying, one step at a time, there will be a point at which the steps necessary to get there become an easy and effortless trek.

Anything is possible.

Now Do This is bloody genius!

It’s a productivity tool that gives you exactly what you need (& nothing more): the task you should be working on right NOW.

I now have one window open to just this page. And when I start to browse around online aimlessly, I’ll see this window and be reminded to get back to work. I totally underestimated this trivial tool when I first saw it a few months ago…. until I started using it this week, and baby, it works!

Today, I accidentally discovered a mysterious “about” link in edit mode, clicked on it and discovered that the site was created by Jakob Lodwick and William Cotton. I was totally inspired when I saw Jakob’s extremely simple homepage with just the essential links – including a mention that he created Vimeo(!!!).

What can I say, brilliant people create brilliant things, time and time again. And each time I find someone brilliant, I become inspired and infused with creativity. Through Jakob’s page and his sites, I am completely inspired by the power and sheer beauty of simplicity.. that and a sweet balance of style, function and usability.

Who or what inspires you? Please do share!

My Daily Routine

… has been changed to something like this:

1. Sit at the dining table for 10 minutes to plan my day
2. Review tasks from various life categories
3. MITs – Pick out the 3 most important items I want to get done today.
4. Optional Tasks – Pick out additional tasks that would be nice to finish today, but are not the top 3.
5. Transfer the MITs into NowDoThis (and give it a MIT label.)
6. Transfer the optional tasks into a tab called “Bonus Tabs”
7. Start with the first item on my MIT list.

This way, I’ll feel like a superstar when I am working on tasks from the Bonus list. It’s very self motivational!

Tips Using NowDoThis

(via NDT blog)

1. Create Tabs – by starting sections with @

ie. Starting a newline with @later followed by a task on each line, creates a tab called later that you can switch to. Coolios!

2. Firefox sidebar

Six weeks ago, I had written about my encounter with a puppy on the streets of Beijing. Many have since written asking about his safety and status. This is an update following up on the first post.

After spending four happy weeks in Beijing with friends and family, Blackie and I have successfully, safely and stress-free-ly landed in Seattle.

Blackie would like to thank you all for your concern and curiosity regarding his well being. Your love is gratefully received and gladly reciprocated.

Blackie in Beijing

After spending 2 weeks in a doggie hotel with a loving care taker while I traveled to XinJiang, Blackie and I reunited. Surprisingly, dogs weren’t allowed on Beijing public transports, and you couldn’t try to sneak him in, since all bags need to go through X-ray machines. So, we took taxis everywhere we went.

He was small enough (under 3 lbs) to fit into my day purse, and we brought him along with us pretty much everywhere we went: restaurants, shopping malls, people’s homes, museums, the Olympic Stadium, the Great Wall of China.

My parents and I were to rendezvous in Beijing, they had arrived from Toronto a week prior. Since we live in different cities, it was super nice to spend time with them while seeing a ‘foreign’ city (so much about the city has changed and in unfathomable ways), while carrying a small puppy around. My parents loved their new grand-doggie, Blackie, and hope to see him soon on their next trip to Seattle.

Blackie touring around Beijing’s major tourist attractions in Tina’s purse.

Resting on the shoulders of Tina’s dad on a road trip just outside of Beijing.

While shopping, Blackie met his long lost twin. We had to take a picture. :)

I had to smuggle Blackie in and out of hotels, since dogs are generally unaccepted in public places, even (shockingly) in parks. Luckily, Blackie is a peaceful dog with a quiet demeanor, never barking. I made sure that the “do not disturb” sign was up at all times, and called hotel housekeeping when I needed towels or toilet paper. We did well.

All Packed for America

Getting all the paperwork ready for Blackie was fairly easy, but time consuming and procedurally bureaucratic. Basically, it took a total of two days of filling out forms, and a lot of waiting in line. In the end, we had a government issued export permit and a health certificate, and we were ready to rock! (If you’re curious of the detailed pet permit procedures and costs, I’ve included it at the end of this article)

We picked out a nice Japanese made, airline approved, plastic crate for Blackie at the animal hospital, confirmed his “seat” in the flight cargo area and were ready to go.

Minutes before the flight at the airport.

Ahh… New Home & New Brother

After 15 hours of flying and waiting, Blackie lazily waltzed out of his crate, stretched his little paws, had a pee and started exploring his new home with great interest. Soon, he was running, spinning and sliding around on the wood floors, freely.

A few days later, he met his new furry brother, Tommy.

Tommy, completely ignoring Blackie, except to growl at him when he bit Tommy’s butt in a friendly gesture. For the next few days, you could see the dismay on Tommy’s face, as if thinking, “Oh god, I thought you (Blackie) were just a bad dream. You’re still here! Crap!”

It took a week of adjustment time before the dogs started playing together. I almost cried a tear of joy and cuteness-overload, when I first saw the dogs tugging at a rope toy together, or the time they fell asleep next to each other at the foot of my bed. Awwwww….

A happy family, at last!

In new home. Left: resting in unpacked luggage – a nice bed for a small dog. Photo by Tina Su

Playing tug war with Tommy.

It’s been roughly 2 months since we first picked Blackie up in Beijing, he has since doubled in size, now weighing a sturdy 5.5 lbs. And just recently, small signs of black dots are starting to show on his front legs, resembling a Dalmation.

Blackie’s hobbies include napping, taunting Tommy and biting everything in sight. His favorite napping spot is on top of a small camera bag under my desk. You’ll often find him there, curled up in a ball.

For those curious of Blackie’s breed, he is a Japanese Spaniel Mix (日本狆).

Chewing on Tina’s foot.

“Roommates” – sharing the bathroom together in their respective ‘houses’.

Napping on his towel after a hard day of playing.

Related Posts:

• An Unexpected Encounter: Impulse or Destiny?
• China, Baby! 中国, 宝貝儿!

Extra: Doggie Immigration Details

The following details my experience with preparing my dog to move from China to the US. Hope this will be helpful for other pet owners traveling with their pets out of China.

Paperwork

Getting the paperwork done was time consuming and I highly recommend finding someone who speaks Mandarin to go with you. You need to make two stops.

1. Health Certificate By Vet

• Go to a government approved animal hospital. There are only a few in each major city.
• Apparently, it’s a pretty standard procedure to prepare an animal for export.
• After the checkup, blood test and exams, they’ll give you an exam report.
• Hand the exam report to the registration window and wait. It needs to be signed by the head doctor and stamped by the hospital to be considered official. Waiting can take up to an hour. Check back at the registration window regularly, as they tend to forget to call you when it’s ready. I waited around 20 minutes for this. The result is a hospital issued health certificate.
• Cost: around 400 RMB (~ $65)

2. Government Issued Paperwork

• Take the hospital issued health certificate and head to a government issuing office. The vet will give you the address. Be sure to ask someone there to write down landmarks near the office so taxis will know where it is.
• Go to window that says Export (it’s written in Chinese), or if that window is closed, go to any of them and tell them you need pet export paperwork.
• Fill out a form. Hand it in at an adjacent office. Wait. When the waiting is done, they give you a case number and a computer print out. Waiting time can range between 10 minutes to 60 minutes. I waited around 30 minutes.
• Take print out to the export (or neighbouring) window. More waiting as they prepare for the official government issued documents. Waiting time is minimum of 1 hour. I caught their lunch break and waited 2.5 hours.
• The result is two blue papers. The export permit and health certificate issued by the government are both valid for 14 days.
• Cost: 100 RMB (~ $15)

Other Costs:

• Crate – we got ours at the animal hospital where we got the health exam done. They only had one type for air travel and it was a little pricy. 360 RMB (~ $60)
• Airfare – $275 on air canada and counts as one check-in bag.

Airline & Immigration Experience:

When checking in pets you go through a different channel than checked bags. After checking in at the counter and relieving yourself of all your check-in luggage, you wait with the animal until the actual plane is ready and confirms that the animal section of the cargo area is safe and at the right temperature. We had to wait until 30 minutes before took off to check him in. Then we took him to the over-sized luggage drop off, sent him through x-ray, showed the blue health certificate and then they had a person bring the crate directly onto the flight.

After this point, you don’t need to show the blue paperwork again. The Chinese immigration, when exiting the country, do not care about it. The bag security is the only place that needed it.

The US immigration didn’t say a word, even though the box for “Bringing Live Animal” was checked off.

A reader from Australia wrote last week to inform me that he had found out about Think Simple Now via Sydney‘s biggest newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald. Coool!! Unaware of this press mention until his email, I was stoked to learn of it and attempted to get my hands on a copy through local libraries and international news stands… without too much success until …

Jason (the reader) was kind enough to then scan a copy of the paper.

Here it is if you wanna check it out (click on the paper on your left to enlarge).

Otto – my best friend from College, who also happens to be living in Sydney just informed me that he got a physical copy of the paper and is mailing it to me. YAY!! *bounce bounce*

Thank you Otto and Jason!

Back in 2006, when I was roaming around Tibet on my own, I was approached by a couple of Americans to join them on an overland Jeep trip to Nepal. I remember how relieved I felt knowing that I wouldn’t be venturing out all alone. Besides, it’s so much cheaper to split the rental car costs and much more interesting doing a trip with other souls.

In Kashgar, when I saw the very colorful Jason Carter in the hotel lobby, I knew I had to approach him. He was traveling alone and he decided to join us on the 2 day road trip to Karakul Lake.

As my intuition had suggested, Jason is one of the most interesting characters I’ve encountered. A bloke from London living in Spain, has sold everything he owned and plans to travel for the next 3 years. Jason was hilarious, fast talking and he swore twice with every sentence he spoke. He had just spent a month in Mongolia and passionately disliked his remote highland prairie experience. Oh the stories he had… I laughed until tears came out.

Top: Jason mingling with locals at rest stop.
Bottom: On Karakoram highway.

We learned that there are group day trips to Karakul Lake at 300 RMB ($45) a person. But when we learned that driving one way took 4 hours and we’d only be stopping at the lake for an hour, we wanted a rental car to go at our own pace. I still don’t understand how people can be okay with sitting in a car for 8 hours just so they can dabble at their destination for an hour, before being rushed back on the bus again. I don’t get it!

So, we booked a car for two days, a driver and a guide from a travel agent attached to the Chini Bagh Hotel. We were told by the agent that a travel guide is mandated by the Chinese government, so we reluctantly got the guide. We later learned that we had over paid and could have traveled alternative ways for less (See travel tips at the end of this post if you’re planning to visit here and learn from our mistakes). Anyways, we paid 800 RMB ($120) for the car, gas, driver, and travel permits for two days and 300 RMB ($45) for the guide . Not a bad split between 3 people.

The drive along the highway was breathtaking, literally, as the driver sped along the curvy mountain side roads at alarming speeds, often driving on the wrong side of the road towards oncoming traffic. Several times, I had to shout at him to slow down and only when I began swearing in Chinese did he actually slow down.

Top-Left: Tina riding a horse. Top-Right: Main lake area of Karakul Lake.
Bottom-Left: Kyrgyz yurt. Bottom-Right: Kyrgyzstan embroidering design with rice sak material.

In all seriousness, the scenery along the highway was stunningly beautiful. It reminded me of the high altitude overland trip from Lhasa to the Everest base camp in Tibet. This famous highway is the highest paved international highway in the world, took 20 years to complete, 800 people died during its construction, and serves as a direct link from Kashgar, China to Islamabad, Pakistan.

During a rest stop along the highway, we were surrounded by a swarm of souvenir sellers. Many held up colorful stones in the shape of eggs for us to see under the sun; “come have a look, I give you good price.”, they would say. I had walked past them oblivious and immune to the common harassments found at tourist traps, but when I turned around, Jason had struck up a conversation with several of the sellers. Instead of being sold to, Jason thought it’d be funny to try to sell something to them, as a form of mockery and self-entertainment.

Video (press play):

Video of Jason playing around with souvenir sellers

Above is a video I recorded of Jason trying to sell his watch to them. Comically, in the end, one of the guys offered a bartering trade to exchange Jason’s sunglasses (worth $260) with a plastic camel statue, and the dude was totally serious. Note the random women holding up egg shaped rocks for me to see as I walk through the crowd.

At around 2pm Beijing time, our guide announced that we have arrived at the lake. Jason shouted “this doesn’t look like any of the pictures I’ve seen!”. He was right. We later learned that there are two sections/openings/entrances for the Karakul lake (next to one another), and the guide had taken us to the first one (not the main destination for the lake) hoping that we would stay at his preferred yurt for an extra commission for himself.

Top: Jason face covered with sunscreen. Horse drivers in the back ground.
Middle: Jeremy and Jason hiking around the lake.
Bottom: Cute camel for rent.

The guide turned out to be useless and completely shady. He lied several times and had tried to “guide” us into situations that would cost us more money, which would result in a little extra money for himself. It’s a matter of a few dollars, but we didn’t comply with him out of principle. I hate that feeling of being ripped off and taken advantage of by locals. They seem to think that travelers are stupid and gullible. I missed Mr. Happy from TianChi, it’s so rare to find an honest person at tourist destinations.

To protect ourselves, we decided to separate from the guide and driver, and went about finding our own yurt for the night. Even then, the guide continued to follow us for about 10 minutes, before we bluntly told him, that we do not wish for him to follow us around.

The settlements around the lake are inhabited by people of the Kyrgyz ethnic group (from Kyrgyzstan). And several Kyrgyz yurts are sparsely sprinkled about on both land sections near the lake.

All the yurts we saw were pretty primitive and basic. These yurts made Mr. Happy’s Tian Chi yurt look like a 5 star hotel at hostel prices. We decided on a yurt made of stone and wood instead of the Mongolian-style canvas tarp, for warmth. The high altitude made the whether extremely cold in October, I was once again decked out in two pairs of long-underwear pants and two winter jackets. The 3600 meter elevation, from sea level, also caused us to experience slight altitude sickness (Bring Advil if you’re coming here).

The Kyrgyz yurt where we spent the night.

The Yurt cost 50 RMB ($7) per person. They promised us 3 meals, but that turned out to be one meal of rice, and two meals of tea without food. I’m serious. And even tho we were told that we would have the yurt to just the three of us, we had to share it with other travelers who arrived later. The more people per yurt, the less blankets to go around for everybody, the less comfortable it gets. Basically, you don’t get what you’re promised. If you come here, have very low expectations.

Many tourists spend the day walking around the lake. Our lying guide told us that it would take 8 hours to walk around the lake, but only 3 hours on horse, hoping that we would take a horse under his commission. Turns out, it took Jason 2.5 hours, and another traveler 3.5 hours to make it around the lake on foot.

Jeremy and I rented two horses, each costing 40 RMB ($6) an hour. Each horse came with a guide. Instead of agreeing to the 3-4 hours to go around the lake, we asked to have the horses for 2 hours to ride around. Believe me, riding a horse for 4 hours would resulted in one being unable to walk for several days. Even after 2 hours, my tail bone was bruised and I was in a lot of pain. *smiles*

Each horse came with a “horse driver” that pulled at the horse in front of us. We convinced them that we knew how to ride horses (which we didn’t), and they let go. When we got to the area of flat land (similar to Mongolia) on the right end of the lake, we took off with the horses and roamed freely away from the horse owners. I felt like a wild Mongolian chick – hair flowing in the air, horse under my control, and riding freely amongst a massive field of dried grass. It was loads of fun! It was here that I learned to ride a horse, the natural way.

Middle: local Kyrgyzstan girl feeding her dog.
Bottom: Jeremy having a hard time jumping due to high altitude.

Other Related Posts on Kashgar:

• Video: Glimpses of Kashgar
• Kashgar: In Pictures
• Kashgar: A Colorful Celebration of Life – Part 1
• Kashgar: A Colorful Celebration of Life – Part 2

Travel Tips for Karakul Lake

Transportation & Permits

We had arranged a car from the travel agency at the Chini Bagh Hotel for 1100 RMB (800 for car + driver, 300 for guide), and this included travel permits. I do not recommend these guys, unless you enjoy being ripped off and lied to.

We later learned that there are alternative ways to get there and a guide is not necessary if you go by public transport. You can ride in a bus that takes you there directly for around 40 RMB, if you’re not pressed for time. Alternatively, you can hire a cab for around 400 RMB round trip, you may need to pay a little extra if you want to stay over night. Ask around, approach taxi drivers, as someone is sure to take on the job.

If you go without a travel agency, travel permits are pretty simple to get, and are mandatory. Go to the police station (ask your hotel where it is) and the English speaking officers will gladly help you out. The station is close by and the permits cost 50 RMB per person.

Things to Bring:

• Advil for high altitude sickness headaches
• Bottled water (very limited our there)
• Food and Snacks (again, very limited out there)
• Warm clothing

Annoyances and Warnings

If you go with a guide, be warned that he will want to take you to places where he gets a commission. If he recommends something, yurt, horse rental, side trips, stores, etc… it’s because he’s getting something for it. be wary of prices for things he recommends and bargain before parting with your cash.

The locals may try to charge you a 50 RMB entrance fee. This is a scam they have and the guides are in on it. Do not pay it!!! Just ignore the dude who tries to charge you an entrance fee. This is not a government regulated site and as such, no entrance fees are formally charged.

Finding a Yurt

Yurts are worth 40-50 RMB per person including meals. Don’t let them fool you into paying more. Just walk away if they are trying to charge you more. Starting price if you are with a guide is 80 RMB. They will be glad to accept 50 RMB if you start to walk away. Trust me! Prepare to put on your bargaining face.

Renting a Horse

There are plenty of horses and camels for rent, they all charge an hourly rate that ranges widely. In the main lake area (near the Chinese restaurant), you’ll find a large number of horses to choose from. Be sure to test out the horse before agreeing to pay. I had made the mistake of trusting my Yurt owner to find a horse, and paid before seeing the horse. I ended up with a horse that didn’t want to move very quickly.

I was quoted 80 RMB an hour for horses from several sources, but ended up paying 40 RMB an hour. Make sure to bargain!

They will also try to convince you to take the horse around the lake. This takes 3-4 hours and you will end up in a lot of pain. If you’re set on going around the lake, you’re better off doing so on foot. Ask for a horse ride for 1-2 hours on the grass field.

Also, if your horse driver gets on the horse with you (behind you), and you are a female, be prepared to be dry humped and hit-on. I’m totally serious. I was hit-on twice while riding with the horse driver behind me, and it was completely gross and uncomfortable. Wearing a backpack is a good idea to keep a physical distance from these nomadic perverts. Alternatively, tell them to get off the horse.

For Part 1 of the post, go here.

The old town takes up about a 20 block radius. Here life is still of the traditional Kashgar-ian flavor, with the pounding and chiseling sounds of the hundreds of craftsmen seated along the back alley ways, and where every imaginable handcrafted item can be negotiated for in the tiny shops that line the streets.

Kids roam freely along the side alleys in the old town, most of whom are packing plastic bee-bee guns. We were shocked by the sheer number of unsupervised children running about during the day time.  They were constantly either harassing us for a picture, or shooting at us with their bee-bee guns when we weren’t looking.

The kids were cute, until we became targets of their harassment. Lemme tell ya, those bee-bee gun shots really hurt!! They can take an eye out! An accident waiting to unfold, I can just feel it. A few times, I had to physically remove the little plastic guns from the kids’ hands when they shot too close to me, or were about to shoot someone else.  They actually listened to me when I pretended to be mad (well, sometimes).

Local Conveniences:

Interestingly, I’ve noticed a few Uyghur words thathave the same pronunciation and meaning in English:

• Naan (bread)
• Bazaar (market)
• Pilaf (rice dish)
• Chai (tea)

The planet describes the old town as something “right out of an early-20th century picture book.” It is true! There are street side barbers, and tiny stores with a singular focus or specialization. Like stores that only sell (homemade) cooking pots (one model), keys, fresh vegetables, fruits, tea pots and cups, bread, knifes, etc.

Like in India, every city in China officially lives in one timezone, despite the obvious inaccuracies due to the sheer size of China. When a local Kashgar-ian speaks of time, they are referring to “Kashgar Time”, which is 2 hours behind the official “Beijing Time”. This was a point of confusion when dealing with local travel agents.

Local pay phones.

Street side barber shops.

Local “Whole Foods” grocery store.

Naan Bakery.

The Animal Market:

Outside the old town, everything is pretty modern and isn’t too interesting to see. We stayed a total of 10 days, and it felt too long. After about 6 days, we were itching to move on to another city.  After all, there are only so many times you can circle the windy side alleys of the 20 block radius of old town. There’s not much to do aside from wandering around old town and soaking it all in.

We arrived in Kashgar late on a Sunday afternoon and had to wait a whole week before visiting the ever popular Sunday Market and the Animal (Livestock) Market.  When the eagerly anticipated Sunday came around, we were up-and-ready, bright-n-early, camera-in-hand.  When we arrived first at the Animal Market at 9:30 am Beijing time, most of the market was just setting up; unloading truck loads of sheep, cows, donkeys and camels. At the same time, buses full of tourists were also being unloaded.

I tried my best to blend in at the retail sheep market near the entrance, and it sort of worked.I was particularly fascinated with the activities in this area. You have sellers holding onto their furry product, and buyers wandering through the tightly packed crowd of people assessing the animals with great seriousness – picking them up, checking their teeth, pinching their asses (Sheep have unusually large butts. I have pictures to prove). When the dance of bargaining breaks out, one might mistaken it for a verbal fight. Finally a deal is made, the new owner comes back to their newly purchased animal with a few pieces of lettuce, a tree branch with some green leafs on it, or a few pieces of dried corn. It was all very cute!

The wholesale sheep market area made me sad and sick to my stomach, as rows upon rows of sheep are strung together at the neck, unable to move, dehydrated, and kicked as they stand under the mid-day sun. Some seriously looked like they were gonna faint from the heat and over crowding (see picture below, 4 down).  Other than sheep, I saw cows, horses, donkeys and camels for sale, along with accessories for handling livestock. No chickens, no pigs, no dogs.

We went to the Sunday market in the afternoon and were horribly underwhelmed and unimpressed.  It was pretty touristy and you can find the same items for sale during any other day in old town for a lower price.

Retail sheep market.

Left: boy selling horse at live stock market. Right: garlic salesman.

Tina riding a baby donkey at the livestock market.

Wholesale sheep market. Sheep tied by the necks in rows.

Around Kashgar, Karakul Lake (More to be posted soon) is worth visiting. A travel agent said bluntly that it’s the only site around Kashgar worth visiting, and had convinced us that the one-day desert trips are not worth the trouble.  If you do visit Kashgar, make sure to have a full Sunday earlier on in your trip for the animal market.  If you’re not there for photography reasons, I would budget 2-4 days for Kashgar, 2 days for Karakul Lake (plus 1-2 days if you are interested in the Karakoram Highway, to visit the Pakistan border), and 2 days for Taklamkan Desert (note: this trip is highly prone to rip-offs by local travel agencies).

We stayed at the Chini Bagh Hotel (Qini Wake). I got a swanky double room with internet, it was supposed to cost 380 RMB a night, but if you stay longer than 7 days – which I did, you can ask for a discount resulting in the room costing 280 RMB a night (~ $40 USD) with breakfast.

According to the planet, the Chini Bagh has the best value in town. What I loved most, is the super-fast high speed Internet in some double rooms (More on this below if you’re planning to stay here).  I spent two whole days in the hotel room writing, and had produced this article (see picture below).

Three evenings before we left, I experienced my first earth quake. At around 11pm, the entire building shook back and forth for about a minute. I was in bed reading and was completely immersed in my book when the shaking started. It took about 30 seconds before I realized that my room was moving!! I jumped up, heart thumping out of my chest and was in instant survival mode.  Oddly, my first thought after jumping to the door ledge was, “I gotta save my pictures”.  Within a split second, I had mentally listed out the things I would run out of the building with if I needed to: (in order) camera, laptop hard drive, backpack containing money and passport.  I would just like to say that “it was pretty freakin’ scary!!”.

Overall, I loved my experience in Kashgar. It is the most culturally exotic place I’ve ever been to. With landscapes and ethnic richness similar to Tibet, and a cultural resemblance to Morocco; It’s a bold and beautiful mixture of Asian, Eastern European, and Muslim culture.  Leaving it, I felt humbled on many levels and was thankful for having experienced it. I’m ready to move on to Beijing.

Tina working on this article in hotel room. Kashgar, China.

Other Related Posts on Kashgar:

• Video: Glimpses of Kashgar
• Kashgar: In Pictures
• Kashgar: A Colorful Celebration of Life – Part 1
• Roadtrip: Karakul Lake via Karakoram Highway

Travel Tips for Kashgar

The following was prepared especially for those visiting Kashgar. Hope you find this helpful. :)

Lonely planet doesn’t do that extensive of coverage for Kashgar, or any of the cities in XinJiang. So, if you’re just visiting a few cities in XinJiang, it might be really worthwhile to photocopy pages from the planet to bring with you, instead of lugging the tome that is the China book.  For example, the whole of Kashgar and Karakul Lake is covered in only 4 pages (front and back). Lame!

Air Tickets:

Your best option for booking air tickets (for all of China, not just to Kashgar) is through CTrip.com, where you can comparative shop from the various Chinese airlines. It’s the Expedia for China travel and has display options in English and takes International credit cards (for a 3% fee).

Hotel:

Chini Bagh Hotel has 5 types of rooms: dorms (30 RMB, $4.2 USD), fancier dorm room (35 RMB, $5 USD), double in old building (280 RMB,  $40 USD), double in new building (380 RMB, $54 USD), and suites in new building (600 RMB).  If you stay for 7 days or longer, an unadvertised 100 RMB ($15 USD) can be discounted per day if you ask for it.

It’s super busy here with frequent bus full of international tourists being unloaded here, so I would reserve a few days in advanced. They speak very good English.  If you have a laptop, and want internet in your room, ask for it at reservation time, as only a limited number of rooms have hard wired DSL internet access.  Internet costs 20 RMB/day, or you can follow my instructions below to access it for free in these rooms.

Internet Access at Chini Bagh Hotel Internet-Ready Rooms:

Even if you told them that you were using the Internet in the rooms, all ready to pay for it, they would give you no instructions on how to set it up. I spent many hours of frustration before getting it to work. The hotel also doesn’t know how to track who is using Internet and will likely forget to charge you for it even if you’ve explicitly told them (several times) you would like to pay for Internet during check-in.

Pre-requisite: PC Laptop (not sure how to do this on a Mac. I’m on Windows XP), Internet Cable to plug into the modem (they don’t provide it).

Start > Control Panel > Network Connections > Create a New Connections (under Network Tasks)

New Connection Wizard, hit Next > Connection to Internet; Next > Set up my connection manually; Next > Connect using a broadband connection that requires a user name and password; Next > Type anything under ISP Name (example, “Room 4017”); Next

User name is your room’s phone number plus “-ks”. Example, in room 4017, the phone number is 2980821. Thus, the user name is “2980821-ks”. The password is “0000” (four zeros, or it might be ‘o’ if zeros doesn’t work). Hit Next and you should see a connection shortcut on your desktop. Double click on it and enter the password again to connect.

Please lemme know if this works for you. If it doesn’t, let us know the updated way.

Sunday & Animal Market:

The animal market is way more interesting and impressive than the sunday market. I would head to the animal market first and plan to spent most of the day there. The market takes place on dirt, so it’s a good idea to bring a scarf or something to cover your face, as it will get super dusty in the main livestock market area.

Kashgar (or Kāshí 喀什) is near the western most edge of China bordering Kyrgyzstan and within driving distance to Pakistan. Its remote location, vastly diverse cultures (mixture of Uyghur, Han, Kyrgyz, Tajik and Uzbek ethnic groups), and intense colors spread throughout the city are what draw in the curious tourists.

It was a long journey to get there, four flights from Seattle. And this was the fastest option, with trains being another popular option from Beijing. However, one would need to take two different trains at 36 hours a piece, making it a total of around 4 days of land travel. Yikes! We ended up booking flights from Beijing via CTrip.com, since the Chinese airline websites were virtually unusable.

Top: Kabob seller making fresh lamb barbeque kabobs.
Middle: Running girls in old town. Kashgar, China.
Bottom: Butcher shop along the streets of old down Kashgar.

After we landed, we eagerly immersed ourselves into the streets. Lemme tell ya, there was so much action going on and things to see along the narrow streets: people eating freshly barbecued kabobs, butchers dividing up the “day’s kill”, street barbers with their wooden chair and shaving tools, identically dressed kids walking hand-in-hand, bread makers baking naan in traditional outdoor-underground furnaces, donkeys and horses, women walking in unison, etc.

Everything seemed ridiculously exotic and foreign – the smells, the faces, the sounds, people’s clothing. Initially, we walked slowly through the bustling streets in awe, a little bit shy to approach strangers, and paying careful attention as not to get knocked over by a scooter, taxi or donkey along the crowded streets.

With portraits being a point of interest for me, I was initially afraid to take pictures of people (for the first day or two), it felt as tho, someone would whack me over the head with a wrack of lamb if I stuck a camera in their face.

Eventually, I learned to communicate with the locals to allow me to take photos of them. As with most cultures within China, when you ask for permission, people will almost always automatically say “No”, even if they want to say “Yes”. It’s totally counter-intuitive. I’m in the habit of always getting permission before taking someone’s photo, so after being told “No” a few times, I realized that I needed another strategy.

My new photo strategy in Kashgar went something like this:

1. Approach the person as you look in another direction
2. Take a photo really quickly of them
3. They say “no”
4. Show them the photo from the camera’s LCD screen
5. They will shrug their shoulders and say “yes!” :)
6. Spend time to take a proper picture

It worked like magic.

I was suddenly reminded of the saying, “It is better to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission.”

(Although, sometimes you can tell if someone really doesn’t want a picture, in which case I would leave them alone.)

Top: “Dave” the motor bus driver who would fit-in on wall street.
Middle: Taylor in old town after receiving him pictures I’ve taken of him.

The other striking thing about XinJiang in general and particularly in Kashgar, is how non-asian the locals look. Most people are of Turkish-Mongol descent and have those ridiculously good-looking central asian features. And some people were simply straight-up Caucasians of the Russian ethnic group (who consider themselves Chinese).

We saw so many Caucasian looking locals fully decked out in Borat-style suits that we started giving people names. Like the open air motor “bus” driver (3 pictures above), we named “Wall Street Dave”! Heck, since everyone is in a suit, the ones who are Caucasian, look like they would blend perfectly into any of the world’s business districts.

Top: A local lady’s home. She surprised us with displays of food to be photographed.
Middle: Many ladies dress identically. Many also wears the brown head cover.

Local diets consist mainly of lamb meat and (stale) naan bread. The local palif (rice) dish and noodles are delicious, but everything contains lamb meat. I was at a locally frequented restaurant in the square, and ordering from the only waiter (out of eight waiters) who speaks mandarin. The conversation with him went something like this:

Tina: “I would like to have something without meat.”
Him: “Sure, we could arrange that.”
Tina: “Yes, how about the noodle with vegetables. I’m a vegetarian.”
Him: “How about chicken? Does that count?” (he was looking completely serious)
Tina: “Nope, chicken counts as meat.”
Him: “How about tomatoes?”
…
I take it that was the first time he’s heard of the term vegetarian and couldn’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want to eat lamb.

True story.

(To Be Continued in Part 2 …)

Tina in front of a carpet shop. Kashgar, China.

Other Related Posts on Kashgar:

• Video: Glimpses of Kashgar
• Kashgar: In Pictures
• Kashgar: A Colorful Celebration of Life – Part 2
• Roadtrip: Karakul Lake via Karakoram Highway