Great Wall of China

It's been a crazy three days. Tuesday was our travel day, which I won't get into here. Wednesday was the greatest day we've had in a really long time. We went to the Great Wall of China, the Summer Palace, and Bug Street (not to mention got to eat beef hamburgers). It's late here, and we're so totally and completely exhausted from two full days of crazy site-seeing that I'll just briefly showcase our fantastic experience at the Wall. For me, it was a life moment- one of those moments that help define life, that you will remember forever. There were several times during that day where I found myself close to tears, moved by the magnificence and magnitude of this experience for me, personally. We hiked/climbed the Wall for more than 6 km... my best guess is closer to 8 km, but what do I know?

The Great Wall

The boys enjoying the Wall

The Littles and the McIlleces

Did I mention that it was spectacular? I wish I could spend hours just trying to describe how awesome the day was, but I'm so extremely exhausted and am going to enjoy sleeping in a little tomorrow. I promise to try to blog a little bit about each site or experience we have, but we have a very full schedule, so please be patient. I am keeping notes of each day so I'll have all the info to post in detail when we get back. Just in case I forget to say anything... this was one of the most amazing days of my life!

Taking Tokyo by Storm

I will keep this one brief, if only because I need to get some sleep tonight. I promise more pictures and details for those who can stomach it when we get back to Delhi. But here's a run down of our trip to Tokyo and the excitement of today.

First off... here is the gigantic apples photo I promised. I honestly have never seen an apple even close to this size. When we checked out of the Kanto Lodge on base, we hiked about 20 minutes to the Fussa Rail Station where we picked up the first of three trains we needed to take to Tokyo and the New Sanno Hotel. The Japan Railways and the Tokyo Metro system are awesome! It's amazing to me how efficient this system is. You've all seen the reports of people cramming onto the train like sardines? Well, it's for real... it wasn't the entire trip that way, but definitely as we neared Tokyo the trains became more and more crowded. What was amazing to me, however, was that even with the cramming, everyone still stood in line, and no one ever touched you! I was also surprised that one child, maybe 7 years old, boarded the metro by himself, and got off by himself. WOW! Japan is a safe country.When we finally exited the magnificent metro system almost 2 hours later, we hiked with our bags a few blocks to the New Sanno Hotel, which is a fabulous hotel run by the Navy as a benefit to service members. Highly recommended! We ate a wonderful tempura dinner in their Japanese restaurant, and soaked in the hot tub to relax from the journey. It was a very exciting birthday for Dave.
The next morning we ended up sleeping later than we thought, ate an early lunch and headed out for another metro adventure. 2 trains, several stops and about 45 minutes later we ended up at the Imperial Palace East Gardens. Wow! What a lush and beautiful area. This used to be a castle, a long, long time ago, but now is just walls and mote and beautiful grounds. We were hoping for a glimpse of the Imperial Palace itself, but were disappointed. So we headed over to the other section of the park and were able to catch a very minor glimpse of what appears to be a magnificent building--everything else was off limits. However, as we were walking we heard someone blowing a whistle with a purpose and sought out the source. Much to our surprise and delight, a policeman was beeline-ing several 100 yards to the middle of the park where an elderly Japanese man was relieving himself. The man finished his business, and continued on his way long before the policeman got close. The policeman continued blowing his whistle. The offender, finally turned and then waved the policeman off and continued on his merry way. There are not even close to enough policemen to enforce that law in India, in fact, you'd have to ticket the policemen themselves to change that aspect of Indian culture. We had a good chuckle over that episode.We then headed back underground to find our way to Shinjuku--the heart and soul of modern Tokyo. This is often referred to as the Times Square of Toyko. There are massive jumbotrons advertising everything under the sun, and neon lights as far as the eye can see. The massive monuments to consumerism is a whole other subject in itself, but we really enjoyed seeing it, and being able to say we were there.
By this time, we were feeling our new, older ages, and decided to head back to the hotel and get some dinner. We were now confident in our metro skills and were able to find our own way back without trouble. It was off to dinner, and another soak in the hot tub, foregoing the suggested massage, due to the INSANE prices Tokyo demands. Yikes!

Imperial Palace

We just finished watching Memiors of a Geisha in our room to continue with the spirit of Japan we've enjoyed today. Tokyo is a fantastic place, and Dave and I have enjoyed many interesting discussions relating to historical significance of Japanese culture and relations with America... should prove even more interesting as we visit Hiroshima on Saturday.

I LOVE AMERICA!

So, we spent the last two days at Yakota Air Base in Japan while Dave got his flight physical, dental and optometry check-ups. He is taking his 6 hour DLPT (language) test as I type. Yikes! We've been staying in the VOQ here, and so consequently, haven't really felt like we were in Japan. On that note, let me say a few things:

• I LOVE AMERICA! I love seeing men in uniform, and American flags. I love seeing jets flying overhead. I love the freedom all those things stand for!
• I love American standards. I love the military commissary, and the quality and selection there. I love the BX. I love the health clinic, and more specifically flight medicine! I love that I can get a real answer from the optometrist about my post-LASIK vision. I still see almost perfect, but "no one can see 'two lines better than 20/20'...it's physically impossible" as my Delhi eye doc said I could see.
• I love food! I love Whoppers, and fountain Diet Coke. I love, love, love MILK! Of all the things I miss from the US (not including people) I would definitely say MILK is at the top of the list! I'm going to have to eat some veggies soon, after eating so much protein, but I'll enjoy it while I can! I will admit though that I had my cholesterol tested yesterday, and it has improved alot since we've been in India--lots of delicious veg!

We're headed up to Tokyo as soon as Dave finishes his test, and I'll show include a picture of the largest apple I've ever seen in my next post!

I'm not in Kansas (or India) anymore!

Because I am determined to keep my blog on the McIllece Family website, I am unable to blog while we travel, so I've decided to do some mini-blogs using Dave's site.

Saturday in the wee small hours of the morning Dave and I boarded a plane to Hong Kong. We had a 22 hour layover. It was so awesome. We were fortunate to be able to enjoy the hospitality of Chris Johnson (Olmsted '06) who is just finishing up his time in Hong Kong. He picked us up at the train station, set us up at his apartment, and showed us around town. Mimi Waters (Olmsted '07 - Taiwan) was also there, and we met up with the Denaros (Olmsted '06 - Guanzhou, China) for dinner. It was an awesome mini-Olmsted get-together. So, here's the brief run down of our time in Hong Kong.

• Arrived at the fantastically modern, clean, airport/shopping mall, and boarded the Airport Express train to Hong Kong station. This took about 25 minutes. I was amazed at the cleanliness and efficiency of the transport system. I know India is a 3rd World country and all, but I was even comparing it to the US. The infrastructure in both Hong Kong and Japan, makes the US seem closer to India than either of these super efficient places.


• Chris took us for a Dim Sum lunch. Dim Sum isn't so much what you eat for lunch, but how you eat. It is a Hong Kong original, and the answer to British tea time. You drink tea (or in my case, Diet Coke) with a smattering of light dishes that they keep bringing to you on carts. You pick what you want and then eat it. I am proud to say that I ate chicken feet, prawn dumplings, and something with fish eggs on it... and I ate it all with chopsticks!


• We went on a walking tour, that included several really cool buildings, the largest escalator (outdoors even) in the World, and and 75 minute foot massage at "Happy Foot".


• We ditched Chris (had previous plans) and went with Mimi to the "Peak" formerly known as Victoria's Peak. The tram ride up was really steep and totally cool. There was a gigantic shopping center at the top (which was the theme of Hong Kong, I believe) and took some pictures out in the rain from the observation deck. We ate some gelato, grabbed a taxi to the metro, went under the harbor, and met the Denaros in Kowloon for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. It probably wasn't, but it seemed like the best steak I've ever eaten.


• We slept at Chris's 23rd floor apartment, and headed back to the Airport Express train station in the morning. I was amazed that we could actually check in to our flight at the train station, including checking our luggage prior to our 25 minute train ride back to the airport.

Our overall impression of Hong Kong was very good. It's a fascinating, beautiful clean place. However, after living in India for 11 months now, we were shocked at the level of consumerism we saw. I have never seen so many shopping centers/malls/stores in my life. And everything seemed totally upscale and "lifestyles of the rich and famous". Hong Kong has definitely earned it's place as a Global City. It is an amazing place to visit, but I think living there for an extended length of time would prove very challenging for me (well, at least for my bank account!) It was so much fun to hang out with other Scholars. Dave and I both believe that meeting and hanging out with such fabulous people is one of the greatest benefits of the program.

The REAL reason China's economy is booming

Yeah, I know its been forever since I've blogged, but I couldn't help but post a note about the latest shocker. We are planning to take the trip of a lifetime to China this summer. We have good friends living in many cities there, and so we realized this was our big chance to go as a family. We researched early and found relatively cheap tickets, and we made plans to stay with our friends and see China with their expert help. We have to manage the costs as we are a family of 6, and since D (youngest) is no longer 2 years old (passed that mark over 4 years ago), my four super-kids magically become "adults" whenever the wallet is opened.

So I went to the travel office to ask some passport and visa questions about our trip:
Q: I assume I need visas to travel to China, correct? A: Yes.
Q: How long do they take to process? A: About 5 days.
Q: How much will they cost? A: 130 US Dollars.
Q: That's not bad for all 6 of us, that's like...22 bucks a head! great! A: Uh, no..
Q: No way - that's 130 USD each? Even for my kids?!? That's almost 800 bucks!!
A: Yes, and it has to be a money order, please, no credit cards.

So I go to the Chinese embassy website and I see The following table under "Visa Fees":

Number of Entry	American	Citizens of other countries
Single Entry	$130	$30
Double Entry	$130	$45
Multiple Entry for 6 Months	$130	$60
Multiple Entry for 12 Months	$130	$90
Multiple Entry for 24 Months	$130	$90

Do you see a pattern here? It turns out this is actually the effect of something called "Reciprocity." If you go to the US Embassy Beijing website you find that if anyone wants to come to America as a tourist it costs them...$131 USD. So the benevolent Chinese are giving me a one dollar discount! So long as you can see that your $780 gets you 6 glasses of water that are half-FULL, you will realize there is a bright side to everything!

All kidding aside, we are very blessed to be in India, to go to China, and to have these mind-broadening, life-changing opportunities in the first place. We always try to plan ahead, do our research, and otherwise make the most of every penny of our Olmsted experience. The real effect of this will be lost opportunities to experience other peoples and places. But stuff like this...just hurts!

Christmas Catch-Up

बड़ा दिन मुबारक हो!
Merry Christmas from New Delhi!

After a long spell of failing to keep up the blog with life events (or keep up with Ange as she blogs faithfully), here is a Chirstmas catch-up:

In November we enjoyed celebrating the Indian Festival of Diwali to the fullest. Ange's blog captures this in both pictures and words, so I will not re-hash what she has so expertly done. We went to the famous camel fair of Pushkar, Rajasthan over the Thanksgiving weekend - an awesome event we will never forget. Again Angela captured wonderfully our experience there, and I hope to add some elaboration on our main website on the Olmsted Travel page. Look for a link soon.

Now as we get into December, I must report that I survived yet another season of final exams. I also had a moment of pause just before starting my last exam on December 3rd...I thought I was done with this sort of torture years ago as an engineering undergrad at BYU in 1995! Although not the technical challenge of previous degrees, all the memorization and hours of handwriting was new for me (all finals are 3 hour essay sessions, no notes of any kind allowed).

During and after these tests we had Ange's Mom Peg here to see the wonder that is India. We loved having her here and we had a great time together. Ange and her Mom were very adventurous shoppers and travelers, and I was able to join them on a great visit to Old Delhi to see Chandni Chowk and the Jammu Masjid. I accompanied Ange, Peg, and some friends on their first (and my second) trip on the shiny new Delhi Metro.

It is being built at a rapid pace (by Indian standards) in hopes of being ready for the Delhi-hosted Asian Games in 2010. It is a nice system that is obviously inspired by the London Tube in design and feel. It was quite a visual, auditory, and olfactory contrast to step out of the 21st-Century Metro into the filth and choke of the 18th-Century Chandni Chowk Bazaar. Since most shopps were still closed, we made our way on cycle rickshaws to the Jammu Masjid.

Although Ange and I have visited before, today was much less crowded and the weather was just perfect. Besides the haze of pollution, it was an ideal time to visit the largest active Mosque in India. We climbed to the top of one of its minarets in a very dark, narrow, medieval staircase that spiraled to the top. From above we had great views of Old Delhi and the Red Fort. If the air quality were better we would have had even better vistas of the city and the Yamuna River.

After leaving the mosque we enjoyed a great Indian feast at Karim's, a great little restaurant hidden in an alley in the bustle of Old Delhi. The Mutter Paneer was particularly good. We then spent a hour or two wandering in the labyrinth of shops and commotion of Chandni Chowk. I was overwhelmed the first time I came here, but now I really love the adventure of it all. After coming here perhaps six times, I still have yet to explore a tenth of it! Any who come to visit us absolutely must come with us to experience it - just try to come this time of year when it's not so blasted hot!Besides Old Delhi, Peg was able to see Qutb Minar, The Taj Mahal, and Becca's Birthday party. A few days after bidding goodbye to Peg, I was able to join with our Church young men's group in another great service project. On a brisk evening (temperatures are dipping into the low 40s overnight) we took a stockpile of donated blankets, scarves, caps, sweaters, and other clothing items and drove through the streets of Delhi looking for families in need. We met as a group several weeks ago to plan how to best make a difference and the young men decided that we should seek those who have come to Delhi to seek a better life working as day laborers. They are plentiful in Delhi and most have few possessions, living with their families in makeshift tents on their work sites or on the streets. Although the ubiquitous street-corner beggars are equally needy, the boys thought it better to help the unseen workers - who never ask for handouts, only an opportunity to make a better life. They said a prayer and we drove into the city, seeking them out. We found most on their work sites, and the boys' gifts were gratefully received. Particularly touching was the last blanket, which two boys silently placed on a homeless woman sleeping on a park bench.

दशहरा - Dussehra Festival

This weekend we enjoyed one of India's greatest and most widely celebrated festivals known as Dussehra, which comes from sanskrit meaning "10 days". It is the culmination of nine days of fasting - called "Navaratri" (meaning "nine days") - and worship of Shakti, an embodiment of the Hindu concept of the "Divine Mother" Durga.


The 10th day is celebrated in grand fashion, culminating in the burning of massive effigies of Ravana - the arch foe of Lord Rama as told in the Hindu epic scripture Ramayana. The Demon-King Ravana is flanked by Kumbhakaran and Meghanad, his partners in crime, and all three are symbolically defeated by Rama after he rescues his wife from their clutches, having kidnapped her to their kingdom of Lanka (which most associate with the island of modern Sri Lanka). This is a boiled-down oversimplification as Dussehra is not celebrated uniformly across India, varying in custom and emphasis depending on the region. But the general purpose of the festival is to celebrate the "Victory of Good over Evil" - a particularly auspicious time to initiate a new venture, dedicate a new building, or seek blessing upon tools, weapons, machines, books, etc.


The exciting part was the evening event held to culminate the week's festivities and burn the effigies. These are set up in big venues and in small neighborhood parks throughout the city. We drove through Delhi (to drop off fellow scholar Chris Wilkinson at the train station - he was here for just one day on his way to Kolkata) and saw some very impressive effigies setup near the Red Fort. We also noticed that it was only 4 PM and there were already tens of thousands of people massing for the carnival-scene...way too dense for us to venture into!

We decided to attend the locally-produced event in the next neighborhood known as Rama-Krishna Puram. The picture here shows a close up of Ravana, who is normally depicted as having 10 heads looking in all directions (that's what those thingys hanging off the ears are). He has the trademark mustache and is armed...but he was in for a big shock, as were we, for his demise was imminent! You should know that this is really just a wood and bamboo frame covered in paper and plaster, but is about 45 feet tall! (notice the neighborhood water tower behind him) He is also held up by four ropes, the idea being they will keep him from falling on the crowd as he goes up in flames! Nevermind there were people sitting within the perimiter of its fall - OSHA has no juristiction here. In fact an OSHA inspector would probably have an aneurism if they saw this setup. Ravana was packed with enough explosives to...well, you'll see below. There were fireworks (the REAL BIG boomer-type stuff with awesome colors) that was cooked off literally 40 feet in front of us by guys with matches or sticks that were on fire! And they shot right up over our heads, showering debris onto our laps! Yahoo! It was like the good-'ole-days in America before the Lawyers took over! (Tone...no slight intended, Bro!)


We bought some tickets to enter the "VIP" section, meaning we were in front of a makeshift wooden barricade (where the rest of the neighborhood sat on the grass) and behind a ropeline, which was all that was between us and all the super-flammables. Actually we wisely sat on the back row.


When the time came to begin, the Master of Ceremonies began to narrate a super-simplified version of the story of Rama, Sita, and Ravanna, while a small pack of local boys decked in costumes roamed about the no-man's land (in and around the effigies that were loaded with powder, and literally criss-crossing the launching pad while the fireworks were going up!) pretending to fight each other. It was not coordinated in any way, and it seemed to drag on forever as they just wandered around in 2 groups, occasionally meeting and having it out with their wooden swords.

Things finally got exciting after they finished a litany of motivational speeches and a few traditional songs. Suddenly the small hut near the effigies went off like someone just dropped a 500 lb bomb on it! They were some serious detonations, and most of the enactment boys were within spitting range. I was just waiting for someone to go running off screaming having lost a finger or a foot. We could feel the heat from about 50 yards away!

After about 10 minutes of more rambling, I became concerned about the sudden overpowering smell of gasoline fumes. They were dowsing the hay bales beneath one of the effigies with some high octane go-go juice, and they weren't being miserly about it! When this effigy was ignited by the dudes with matches, it was not just flame, it was loaded with explosives like those in the fireworks! The pressure waves of detonations and the heat were intense...

...And despite the decided elevated risks taken by a large number of people, only Ravanna and his cohorts were burned or maimed.

After his two buddies were reduced to smoldering heaps, Ravana himself had a nice touch - his belly erupted in a spinning wheel of sparks and noisemakers. This, however, did not trigger his demise, and the underpaid, overzealous ignition guys had to creep up to his formidible, half-lit and smoking tinderkeg corpus to try to get him to go off completely. They succeed without bar-b-queing themselves...

And the neighborhood was much pleased to see that good does, in fact, triumph over evil. Even if you had to wait for a very long time to see it happen in such a spectacular and satisfying way.

दुशहरा कि हार्दिक शुब्कम्नाये !