One crazy adventure! Part 3

Before I get to the final part of my story, I believe it is key to create the setting for you so that you can truly understand the final blog.

So, last thing I mentioned was that we decided to purchase sleeper bus tickets. And like I said, I thought a sleeper bus was an awesome idea... I stand corrected.

Side note: 2007 was a unusual year of weather for China. They had a blizzard and cold front that made it as far south as northern Vietnam. The temperatures dropped very low and caused problems all over China. Power outages, train crashes, and loss of lives all happened from this front. We were about to get on the bus the day the front started to make its way into our area of China.

When we purchased out tickets we asked about the time it would take to get to Chongqing. The time they gave us was about 17 hours. We left at around 5pm. That would put us in Chongqing around 11-12am the next morning. Keep this in mind!

Now to the setting of the bus. I will start off saying that the sleeper bus setup is nothing like I thought it would be. I expected this nice area for you to stretch out. That there would be plenty of room to sit-up and move around. I pictured a step up from a regular bus. Less people, and more room. Well, it was the complete opposite!! Instead there were 3 lines of beds. One down each side, and one up the middle. So, you might think, “hey, you still have plenty of room to sit-up.” Wrong!!! It was bunk beds! I was amazed that so many beds could fit in one bus.

Everyone knows that I am a rather large person. Both big and tall. So, I have learned over time that I never get the opportunity to travel comfortably. I have learned to just deal with it. What you may not know about me is that my feet are extremely claustrophobic. I cannot stand to have my feet pinned down or restricted in any way. Sleeping bags are not an option, and I cannot stand when people tuck sheets under mattresses at the foot of the bed. Well, the setup on this bus was my worst nightmare. Not only were the beds small but you tucked your feet under the bed in front of you. So, where my upper body laid was angled up, this allows for the feet of the person behind me to stretch under your upper body part of the bed. I had two problems with this. One, I was not putting my feet into that small area for 17 hours. Two, I was to long to do it even if I wanted too. Instead, I had to stratal the bed. One foot in one aisle, and the other foot in the other aisle. It was not comfortable at all.

Here are a few photos for you





You may have noticed that I still have all my winter stuff on in these pictures. One normally takes things off and gets comfortable on long rides. Well, one normally is not sitting on a bus in 5 degree weather, with no heat on the bus. That’s right, NO HEAT!!! It was COLD!!! And, if you look at the picture again you will see a blanket on me. Yeah, it only is big enough to cover just a small portion of my body. It really did no good.
Three more things real quick. In addition to the uncomfortable bed and no heat, we had to deal with smoking. People still do it here with no consideration for other people. So, we had about half the people on the bus smoking all the time. It left a constant haze in the air. Every time Emily opened the window to let some smoke out people would fuss at her for letting cold air in. I vote cold air over lung cancer any day, but that is just me. Then we had two Chinese movies playing on the TV over and over again. They came across as an early 80’s movie in America. A lot of smoking, gun fights, regular fights and half naked women. Kind of like any Steven Segal movie. Just bad acting all around. Then the third thing. A little kid was in the bed next to me with his grandmother, and this kid was scared to death of me. So, anytime I turned that way the kid would just start screaming in terror, even if I was just looking out the window he would start. So, I had to look forward or the opposite way.

For the final part of this adventure it will be important for you to remember all of this stuff. Especially the kid, the time to get there (17 hours) and the weather (cold and starting to snow).

One crazy adventure! Part 2

Part 2

Okay, now that we got the destination out of the way, let’s now focus on how we got there.

Some of you may be familiar with how people get around in China but others may not. So, before I start into the worst, most adventurous bus ride ever I am going to talk about some of the common forms of transportation in China.

As we all know, just about everyone in America owns a car. Okay, not every person, but most will own one at some point in time. Most families will commonly have 2 cars. Some kids will get one for their 16th birthday. However, in China, mass transportation is still the way to go. Not saying that you will not see cars here, more people are owning cars each year in China. A car is a huge status symbol. People owning cars is becoming a major issue with moving transportation through a huge city. But, your everyday average Chinese will still use mass transportation.

In a city, like the one I live in, taxis, buses, and a soon to be finished subway are the most used form of transportation. Then when you want to travel to other cities you will usually go by long distance buses or train. Side note, I use to like to take trains but have gotten over it since being here. Well, except for the really fast train to Shanghai. It is faster then Nascar. I think we have got close to 220mph on it. Side note ended. Also, airlines are starting to compete with trains as another major form of transportation. A train ticket to Beijing from Hangzhou will cost around 400 yuan and take about 11+ hours. You can usually pay 500-700 yuan for a 2 hour flight. Just a little more but saves a lot of time. At times we can even find flights cheaper than trains.

My first year in China I still loved to take trains. And it was still the cheapest way to cover a long distance. When I say long distance, I mean a LONG distance. We lived in the city of Ningbo my first year in China. It is a coastal city, located on the east coast of China. On a map you need to look for Shanghai and then look below it to find Ningbo. Compared to a US map, it might be in the area of Savannah, Georgia, or maybe a little north of it. The city we were heading to was called Chongqing. It is where the boat trip started. Looking at a US map it might be in the area of Utah, not exactly Utah, but just think about the distance compared to where Savannah is.

We needed to take a train to get there. But, one thing about traveling with trains in China is that you cannot purchase tickets all the way to certain places. You purchase a ticket so far, then you get to your destination and then purchase your next tickets. This does not always go smoothly. There can be times where you show up to your destination and go to purchase your next tickets, but there are no tickets available for the next 1-5 days. So, you either get standing tickets or you wait.

So, we went to the train station and got our tickets to Wuhan. It was a 12 hour overnight train, and was about the halfway point to Chongqing. We were going to have to wait to get tickets to Chongqing after we got to Wuhan. We get to Wuhan, get in line only to find out there will be no tickets for 3 days. It was a Friday and our boat reservations were for Sunday night. Doing the math, you can quickly see that we are not in a good place. After waiting for 3 days, we would then have another 15 or so hours of traveling on the train before we would get there. Making it about 4 days until we get to Chongqing. We talked to a few people around the train station and was told that we could get a bus to Chongqing from Wuhan. We decided that we would check it out. Lucky for us they had tickets leaving in a few hours and it was going to be much cheaper then a train. So, we got the tickets. And we were told that the bus was a bus with beds on it. I have never heard of a bus with beds on it but was super excited about getting to ride on a bus with beds. In my mind, it was the greatest idea ever. Or at least I thought it would be...

Next up: The bus ride

One crazy adventure! Part 1

The story I am about to tell took place about 4 years ago. I have told this story to many people and every time I finish telling it everyone says I should write about it. So, I decided that now is the time to do it. It will be a long story so I decided to write it in several different parts. I will try to post the whole story over the next 2 or 3 weeks.

I will begin the story by telling you a little about the culture of China and why we travel for over a month each year. I will also mention something about what we were going to see that caused this adventure.

We break up our holidays in America over a 1 1/2 month period. A week for Thanksgiving, then we go back to work or school. Then we get another break for Christmas and New Years. Well, in China they take off for about 1 1/2 month straight from school. It is at this time they have all their major celebrations. Chinese New Year, lantern festival, birthdays, etc. At this time the schools want us to leave their campus. That way they do not have to worry about us and they save money on utilities. It is to expensive to go back to America so we usually travel. (I know, traveling is so bad. Poor little Kevin. :))

My first year here in China, me and my friend Emily decided that we wanted to go to see the Three Gorges before we went south to warmer places. The Three Gorges are one of the many things you should see in China according to the Chinese and all the books on what to see or do in China. They are a series of rivers and canals that run through some mountains in central China. The Three Gorges are connected to the Yangzhe River, Asia’s longest river. It runs from the mountains of Tibet, in western China, to Shanghai, located on the east coast.

Here are some pictures for you










I will finish this blog saying one more thing about the Three Gorges. About 15 years or so ago China began to build the largest Dam in the world on the Yangtze River. This dam has caused many debates over safety and the destroying of cultural sites and relics. After the dam was completed, everything before the dam started to rise. Here is a quote from an article I found talking about how much the water will rise, "The river was blocked in June 2003 at the end of phase 2 of the construction project, and the waters started to rise. In 2004, the water was 443 feet above sea level, but will eventually reach 575 feet above sea level in 2009." That is a crazy amount of water being contained by the dam. In fact, some think the Sichuan earthquake may had been caused by all the weight added by the rising water on the fault. We decided to go see the Gorges because of the rising water. We wanted to see some sites before they were buried under. Some of the sites we got to see where just weeks away from shutting down for good. The Gorges are still there but you much less of the mountains today.

Coming soon, part 2

Sugarcane Kevin

Many may not know this but Vietnam is much like China when it comes to celebrating the New Year. However in Vietnam they call it Tet. Many of the same things that are done in China are also done in Vietnam.

The place we are staying at is called Mui Ne, and is located close to a bigger city called Phan Thiet. Phan Thiet is a fishing village for the most part. The few nights leading up to Tet, the city of Phan Thiet hosted a night market and carnival to help bring in the New Year. We were invited to come one night by a Vietnamese person we got to know, and her husband. We jumped on our motorbikes, (we being Stan, Juliane, Justin Hill, Shannon Hill, and their son Conner), and rode to the night market and met our friend Jane and her husband there. (If you came last year with us, you might remember Jane from the Sunset restaurant. Stan got to know her really well.)

As we were walking around seeing the sights we came across some people making sugarcane juice. I had it one time in Cambodia and thought it would be neat to have everyone else try it. We sat down and Jane ordered for us, and she paid. Nice people the Vietnamese!! While we were watching it be made I remembered how on one season of The Amazing Race they had to make some for themselves and drink it. I thought it would be cool to try it myself. So, Jane asked for me and this is what happened.

I became a sugarcane juice salesman.

One Incredible Day in Vietnam

Five days ago I was blessed with an awesome opportunity. We have grown close to some people here in Vietnam, close enough that some of them invited us into their homes. We were able to meet their families, pets, and learn a little more about how they live life. It was a day I will never forget!

We got up early to meet one of them at a restaurant they work at. Only one of the girls, Thuong, was there to meet us. We had to rent motorbikes, (Vietnam's number one method of transportation is motorbikes, and they have more motorbikes then any country in the world), then we had to travel for about a hour and a half to another girls house we had met at the same restaurant, Fie. The motorbike trip was really fun, I now see why people in the states like them. After arriving at Fie’s house we got the chance to meet her family, all which did not speak any English. They were kind and offered us many things to snack on, including rice paper. I mention rice paper for a reason. We had the joy just a few minutes after eating it to see how they make it.

The process is rather long to explain, but Stan managed to get some video.




While we were watching them make rice paper they asked if one of us wanted to try and do it. So I stepped forward and gave it a try. This is what happened.


Not my best effort, haha!

Next we left Fie’s home and said goodbye, maybe to never see her again. From there we went on to Thuong’s house to meet her family and friends. The only way to explain where she lived is saying that “she is a country girl.” I mean turn off the gravel road to a dirt road country girl. All of her family are farmers and farm dragon fruit. Dragon fruit really does not have a taste but for some reason is very good.

We met her parents and her best friend. Then her parents served us an amazing lunch on the floor. It consisted of cauliflower, 2 kinds of meat, carrots, and a soup with tomatoes in it. We also had rice paper yet again. What you did was take everything and put it into the rice paper, like a burrito, then wrap it up. After that you dip it into the tomato soup. What made the experience really neat was sitting on the floor. I have never done that before, but knew it existed in some Asian cultures.

After lunch, and a short nap time, we went to meet the rest of the family members and to see the farm. She had 10 uncles that all lived within 200 yards of each other and we had to meet them all. As we arrived at each home we were met with more food. It was some of the most natural and best tasting food I have had in a long time. Fresh dragon fruit right off the tree, coconut shavings that had been sugared and sat in the sun to dry, and my favorite, coconut pancakes. They were like wafers but made with coconut and flour. I could not eat enough of those things. After meeting the family it was time to go back to our resort. I may never see those people again but the kindness and things they showed me will always be in my heart. I learned a great deal about family and kindness from these people.

A Good Person

I have always been told by people that I am a “good person.” There are certain people that I always call a “good person.” It is common for people to call each other a “good person.” We have all heard it or done it in our life. I believe everyone has good in them. I also believe that in some people it is harder to find/see the good that is in them. Some people are naturally good and some people really make an effort at being good. (I can continue with this idea of good but I think you get it.)

All this talk of “being good” started when me and some friends were talking last night about the idea of being a good people. I try to be a good person because I am a Christian. I see it in the Bible, so I try to model it. I am told to be that way in the Bible, so I do it. I try to be good because I feel and believe it is right, but is that the only reason why I am good? Does it take following God to be considered “a good person?” I think not. Before I was a Christian I would consider myself a good person. I know many really good people who do not share my faith or even believe in God. I am around them and interact with them everyday. You may even mistake some as being Christians until they tell you otherwise.

My question is this to my reader: I am always trying to find ways of telling people about God. One of the things I get most from people here is, “Kevin, you are a really good person. You are always so nice and thinking of others.” An easy answer to it is “I am that way because I am a Christian.” Which is an ok answer. However, I feel that it can come across to someone as “the only way you can be a “good person” is if you become a Christian,” or “Kevin only thinks Christians to be good people.” Which is not even close to the point I am trying to make. The question is “What would be a good way of telling people that I am a good person because of God, but not that the only reason I am a good person is because of God?” I do not want people to think that I am only good because of God, but by having God in my life I feel like an even better person and try harder to be good. I want to leave them thinking about how following God might make them a better person, and not how they are a bad person for not being like me. Or maybe get them to thinking, what is it about serving God that makes people want to be even better?

Back to Jerusalem

I have recently started to read a book called “Back to Jerusalem.” Most people may have heard about the book, or at least something about the “Back to Jerusalem” mission that many Chinese believers have committed their lives too. If you have not heard about it, I will give a quick summary on it.

In a nut shell, the Chinese Christians believe that they have an access to the East and Middle East that the West does not have. There is not as much tension and hatred towards the Chinese, so they are tolerated much more than if someone from the West would go in with the Word. By not having that tension they are able to open up and communicate with people that may have never been reached by others from the West. Also, Between the Chinese and Jerusalem is three major global religions that they will come across and be able to evangelize. They are Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. I encourage you to read more about this movement.

The first chapter talks about the growth of Christianity in China, especially focusing on the last 200 years. While I was reading I came across an interesting quote from a Chinese onlooker listening to a sermon by a Chinese Christian. Before you read it, I want to say something about why this quote was mentioned. This section was talking about what little success the foreigners were having spreading, what was considered, a “foreign religion” to the Chinese. However, the foreigners coming in started to realize that growth started to happen when they started to equip and enable the native Chinese Christians and then got out of their way and let them do the work. What happened is growth started to happen at a faster rate.

After all this was said it brought me up to this quote by the onlooker:

Once a forest was told that a load of axe-heads had come to cut it down. “It doesn’t matter in the least,” said the forest, “they will never succeed by themselves.” When, however, it heard that some of its own branches had become handles to the axe-heads, it said, “Now we have no chance.”

So as long as we only had foreigners to deal with, we were safe, but now that everywhere our own countrymen are enlisted on that side, certainly Christianity will flourish and conquer us.

I thought this was an excellent quote, and it teaches a great lesson. I hope this encourages anyone who reads this to carefully consider the words of an “onlooker.” It is important to ask the question, “Am I doing what I want to or what He wants me to do?”, or even, “Am I doing what my cultures says to do or His Word says to do?” One of the most amazing things about God’s creation is that He made us all different. Not only did He create us different but He established different cultures for us to live in and to experience, sometimes even within our own culture. What is even greater is that He gave us a Gospel that can be learned, obeyed, taught and applied in any culture, at any period of time. It is our job to make sure that we trust His plan and learn that “our way” may not always be the best.