Shenzhen, China trip summary

this was in Hong Kong instead, not really what this is about

The following is from notes made on a trip to Shenzhen, China, which involved a lot of transiting and one whole day spent in Hong Kong as well.  It's partly about tea but doesn't get far with that subject.  I'll add a little more about the main tea wholesale market experience in Shenzhen to one or more review posts about teas and keep that part limited here, so people only into reading about tea could skip this.  It's more about travel with some observations about cultural differences.

visa on arrival processing; probably as well to get that in advance instead

We're in China, in Shenzhen. One odd part of that relates to being cut off from the main parts of the internet that I typically use: Facebook, Instagram, Gmail, Google, YouTube, Maps, my blog, Quora, and Line (the Japanese messaging program Thais use most).  That covers any way that I would normally contact my kids or parents. Wechat is it; that works, but my wife's mother (staying with our kids) doesn't check that or answer calls on it.

I've spoken to my son once in two days here and haven't talked to my daughter yet. They went on to do a whole month in the US as a summer break instead, traveling with us up until Hong Kong. That's the hardest part for me; they were by far my favorite thing about every trip I've taken for the last decade.  I would rather go to Nebraska with them than to a tea producing area without them.  This is really about impressions and travel in Shenzhen though, not that.

parting ways in Hong Kong as they went on to the US

last hours with them, of course catching movies on the plane

It's my second visit here, to Shenzhen, once earlier for work. Work trips don't leave enough free time to get to similar levels of exploration or contact with local culture.  It reminds me of Taipei, Taiwan here; the look and feel is similar. It's modern and developed, but to me it's more interesting how people take that, local variations in perspective or setting.

Huawei products demonstration site tea presentation, back in 2012

My wife is having someone look at something in the hotel room now, maybe an outlet that wasn't working, arguing with the hotel staff about them taking off their shoes. I thought that was common to all of Asia, freaking out about wearing shoes in living spaces.  Maybe the hotel staff get it that half the guests would wear shoes in a hotel room and are less into extending a norm based on practices at home to there.  My wife doesn't see it that way, and most Thais generally wouldn't.

We keep shifting between visiting different types of areas. We are staying in what seems to be a tourism and shopping area, like a very different version of local commercial area themes common in Seoul or Tokyo.  Later someone mentioned it's an older part of Shenzhen but it's my impression that the city itself was mostly developed in the last 30 years, so it's probably not that old.  There would have been a smaller town here prior to that and for all I know it was located where we are now.

Yesterday we visited a wholesale tea market.  That was very cool; I picked up a few interesting teas, even for using next to no budget allowance for that. Communication was a problem there, as it has been throughout this trip.  My wife studied Chinese (Mandarin) for the better part of a year not that long ago but didn't retain enough to get far in conversation.  Her knowing some basic words comes in handy though.  Little glitches came up throughout the trip, like road underpasses being labeled as a "subway."

this is different:  bundled ("witches broom style") Da Hong Pao, I think

Then we visited an old shopping area near the train station, the Luo Han area, or something such. Then onto two different versions of local neighborhoods to check out favorite shopping options of my wife, a Decathlon sports store in a mall and a Carrefour grocery store in a shopping center. It seems only a coincidence that both are French, or at least mostly that.

older market area near the train station

To me seeing the neighborhoods was more interesting than the stores. We have Decathlon stores in Bangkok, and I've been to lots of Wal-Marts and Carrefours. It is interesting seeing grocery stores in different countries to see novel foods (the minority of goods; most of what is in those in different countries is the same).  An example: Russia had good black bread, and Thailand has a broad range of curries and dried tropical fruits.  Japan, Korea, and China mostly have foods from those areas that are different, so mostly the same fruits and vegetables as in Thailand are here, given the proximity and Chinese influence there.  In our Chinatown I see dried persimmons as the most interesting novelty, along with herbs and flowers for health treatments that I don't know anything about, which of course came up there.

good mango selection in a local Wal-Mart; that's different

Bangkok is so heavily Chinese oriented beyond foods that it's less novel to me, in the grocery stores and elsewhere.  Modernization evens things out in both places too, the commercial focus.

They had cheap tea in one store, probably not good, but I bought Tie Guan Yin oolong and may pick up two cakes of grocery store pu'er, since I'm curious about it. Selling for $10 a bing / cake it can't be great but if it's drinkable that would be a steal. People worry about pesticides but I'm not so sure. They usually don't worry about fruit grown under the same conditions for some reason.  Later edit:  due to my wife's patience running out I only bought the sheng cake in that grocery store, which seemed really good for that price level, just heavy on pine flavor aspect.  I'll have to live with wondering about that shu.

that grocery store sheng

About culture, people seem normal to me. They're somber in Russia, even more reserved in Japan, unusually laid back in Bangkok, and normal enough in Seoul (maybe a little excitable as Asians go), and so it goes here, people don't seem unusual in any way.

In Hong Kong, where we just only spent a day, it seemed odd that people didn't give me a second look (for being a foreigner), and that applies here too. In cities in general people tend to be reserved, because if you are in the proximity of thousands of people every day you just can't pay attention to very many. As a tourist that's different; you don't take things for granted and filter them in the same way. It reminds me of the saying that you can tell who is a tourist in NYC by who looks up at the buildings. You can tell by who looks around at the other people too, in any city.

Freemont street meets a Chinese food and shopping area

Thais don't fit the mold well for urban culture. When I'm commuting in Bangkok people definitely get that closed-in look about them (beyond staring at a phone), but beyond that they seem less oppressed by crowding, less affected. They walk slowly and seem less withdrawn than in other urban areas. Shenzhen isn't made up of crowded urban spaces to the same extent that Hong Kong and NYC are; it's more open. Taipei stood out to me to strike a great balance of being developed, comfortable, efficient, and friendly, and this matches all that.

It made me wonder what the downside of local culture or environment even is. NYC has crime and people are edgy, Hong Kong is more crowded, people in Moscow are surly (no offense intended; they're great once you talk to them, for the most part); so what's the catch here? Bangkok splits lifestyles by haves and have-nots, but it's not clearly a problem. It's not as I imagine India (which I've not yet visited, so this is based on almost no exposure), where the have-nots might not have a toilet. Poorer Bankok residents eat noodles from food courts instead of mall restaurant foods; it's not so bad. I eat that a lot in those places too, as most people in Bangkok do.

There will always be income and social status levels, but I'm not seeing it as worse than average here.  If anything the opposite stands out, and no one looks particularly poor, or wealthy, for that matter.  Some of that is surely due to my limited exposure.  I know some of the wealthiest people in Bangkok, only a few, and you don't tend to see them in malls.  Even running across people much further down the scale but still high on a percentage-income basis just requires going to different places.  I wonder how so many people in Bangkok can afford to eat in mall restaurants, for example, where spending over $10 on a meal seems like a lot to me, due to the lower end range being so much lower.  It's not that we're poor but it works well to live modestly to have more money to spend on travel or on things like kids' education and activities.


People are friendly here. They typically don't speak much English, so there is that. As usual we've made a hash of planning and rely on others for help to get around, asking directions instead of using a map app, and they're good about helping out. There are a few tea shop locations in Shenzhen saved on my Google Maps, which I'll be able to access again back in Hong Kong--bad planning.

Yesterday a girl took us to a Carrefour--that grocery store theme--walking with us for just over 5 minutes from the subway station. That act of selflessness was touching; she really didn't need to do that, and almost anyone else would have did some pointing and let it go. She seemed gender neutral; interesting those themes carry over here. I don't care how she manages image or personal identification (or how anyone does, for that matter). I wanted to give her something to let her know what it meant to us but just failed that part. A tip seemed a little insulting and we couldn't come up with anything else fast enough.  I tried to think through if I would have done the same thing she did and I can't say for sure that I would have.

the nicest person we met in Shenzhen, even though we could barely speak to her

It's impossible to describe local culture, even beyond only getting a limited feel for it as a visitor. A lot comes across about how people experience their reality but it's vague, and hard to place an impression versus an actual reality.  I've expressed elsewhere that it took between 2 and 3 years to get a feel for the Thai perspective from living and working in Thai society, to begin to see things as they do. I'm not completely there yet, after 11 years, and for spending three weeks in total in China--across three visits--I'm not far along at all with that related to here. I can mention anecdotes or parts that are interesting to me though.

The other trip I haven't mentioned yet was to Beijing and Shanghai, coming up on 6 years ago now, just before this blog was started.  I think an early post is even reviewing a tea from that trip, but since we had traveled a lot back then (more than now) I don't think I made a big deal of having been there recently.  Again as a tourist you only get so much exposure; I could tell how people were on the surface in that visit, and not much else.  We had a nice local guide there in Shanghai for one of my son's best friends being part of a Chinese family living here stationed for work for a year or two, then moving back.  I suppose that made for more exposure, visiting them for dinners and such back when they lived in Bangkok.  For whatever reason my son's two best friends at an international school were both from China, and my daughter's two at the same school were from Taiwan and Japan--international enough.

embracing looking like tourists; Kalani is sort of in the photo, in one sense

at the Bangkok zoo; the guide I mentioned is on the left

Yesterday it occurred to me how novel it is that restaurant servers here don't need to be particularly nice. Some of that relates to tips being a main component of pay in the US, but Thais are pleasant across the board, even though tipping isn't a big part of their culture.  You most typically add 20 baht as a thanks, 60 cents, and the restaurant pays them to work instead.

late night local dinner, more a snack

We stopped for a very late night dinner yesterday, after 11, and the server seemed more like a customer for not interrupting his meal to talk about our options. He didn't even stand up. People are generally pleasant but it's only an option, and even in service roles they often take the other option. A lunch server was just as short with us in a different restaurant.  My wife brings it on by being demanding; it's good that they push back a little to set up a proper balance.



Both meals were excellent, by the way.  Even the service seemed fine to me, they just weren't as nice as I usually am to random people, without being in a service role. I'm finally getting into dim sum, some dozen years after first thinking the texture of steamed foods was too soft trying it for the first time back in Honolulu.

People seem genuine. That's hard to place, how in being agreeable and pleasant Thais give up expressing their real experience.  No one in any culture expresses exactly what they think and feel all the time but as an American I can appreciate people being more open and genuine, filtering things less.  I really liked that about Russians.  They take it a little far, in not valuing being superficially pleasant even as much as in Chinese culture, but to a really cool degree what you see is what you get, and they'll say what they think.  I just met a very kind Russian woman here who seemed very reserved personally; of course that kind of thing varies by person and per local area culture too.

Digital detox has been an interesting experience, coming to what is essentially China's version of Silicon Valley to get off smart phone use. Again they block a lot here. Even though my phone works my Huawei only has Chrome loaded for a browser so it can't access the internet.  Later someone claimed in online discussion that there was a way to adjust for that, it would just be hard to sort out since Google search would be the main way to look that up, and he cited a reference about it on Youtube, both of which you can't access in China. I know a couple of people on Wechat; of course I sent them messages.

this cool Norwegian infuser only cost $6, but I didn't buy it

Second set of notes

Onto final thoughts about visiting Shenzhen already; the time just flies. We've done an unrealistic amount of shopping, and so much walking that my legs are sore.  The subway is amazing here, cheap, efficient, and easy to use, but that always brings up the walk from whatever station to where you are going. Surprisingly I'm coming back with 2 kilograms of tea. It's modest versions, mostly pu'er, with 4 200 gram packs of cheap Tie Guan Yin for gifts (which to me doesn't count). All the pu'er could take a few years to get to, due to how aging concerns work out, so it's not too much.

I wouldn't live on that inexpensive oolong, since quality and traces of pesticide contamination could be a real issue, but I don't think drinking one pack of it represents a significant risk.  I think "tea people" tend to overstate that though.  It gets used for marketing a lot, and people extend interest in tea drinking experience to health concerns, wanting it to be a positive input, which also maps onto concerns about risk.  If you drink 2 kilograms worth of one type that is contaminated with one type of toxin the risk becomes very real, but if you mix sources of teas and mainly use sources that seem trustworthy the risk seems lower than for food items, which seem to not be as thought-through.

one inexpensive cake from the wholesale market, Bulang, I think

the 20 yuan oolong version relates to around $3 per 200 grams (I think)

We made it out to see a bay-side park in what seemed to be suburbs, a better outing for getting a feel for the layout of town and different areas than to see a beautiful natural area. Apparently there is a whole main section of town over on the West that we completely didn't get to, where a few even larger buildings are. In the middle there isn't as much, but there is subway system coverage throughout. It's the opposite of Bangkok, with the system built out to handle expansion, while Bangkok works on linking old neighborhoods little by little, by small station extensions. It has to be easier and much less costly to build it all out first, but then they do pay ahead for an infrastructure they're not fully using yet.  There's probably enough build-out that it makes sense now but in 20 years it will work out much, much better than delaying all that building by 30-40 years.

by the sea, more or less

My impression of China didn't really change; I like it. It was nice to get more of a feel for local culture here.  On the culture side people seem nice, just normal, really. The appearance of people might serve as a marker for how the local culture comes across.  The look is a little casual, not as far developed into trendy and specific looks as in Korea and Japan, distinct clothing styles. Bangkok is closer to here in that regard with a bit more for observed trends shifting looks. Or maybe I'm only judging from seeing plainer people here, while in Bangkok we go to the whole range of demographic level settings for visiting lots of types of places in different contexts. I get the sense that we're seeing tourists in the area we stay in, but I don't know that for sure.

As clothing trends go younger women are wearing cut-off jeans shorts a good bit, and there's a trend towards wearing formal-originated flowing styles that are cool. Neither seem familiar in Bangkok. I lose track of what is trendy there but specific garments and colors seem to come and go there. At a recent party for college age girls in a restaurant we visited (back in Bangkok still) they were all wearing two piece matching skirt and short shirt outfits; that must relate to a current trend back there.  Guys seem to get a pass on wearing anything specific, in Bangkok and in general.  Dressing better or more informally are still options but it never seems to carry over to wearing specific things.


My sense is that the cultural is informal in general here. That works for me, being from a rural area in PA, and spending a lot of time in the CO mountains. People don't look backwards or poorly dressed, just informal.  Japanese people dressed better with more style, and it seemed to vary in Korea, with one part of the culture emphasizing public image quite a bit, and the rest not so much.  Russians looked a lot more serious; that stood out more than what they wore, and went along with not wearing much for different colors. Winter had them wearing a lot more clothes there. I didn't notice much for trends in wearing specific colors here but lighter clothes somehow work better in light colors, with plain black and dark blue mixed in.

In Bangkok people are more colorful.  I lived in Hawaii last in the US; casual clothes and brighter colors worked there too.  Little did I know there that mostly wearing flip-flops would carry over for another decade here.

the typical Western-culture input in the background

Food here would depend a lot on your budget, which is why we ate some really basic versions. Dim sum finally made more sense, after over a decade of getting used to different flavors and textures. We ate in local places, including twice in a version of a food court style diner. We even ate street food, a Chinese variation of pad Thai, fried noodles, with a pickled vegetable included that really worked.  One eating street nearby was amazing, with different stalls selling lots of odd foods. We had an odd sour and spicy noodle dish there, along with different snack foods, fried potato and steamed buns and such. My wife had bubble tea a few times, and we tried grape ice cream sold at McDonald's. We never really did splurge to go higher end.

absolutely not where tourists would go

The main thing that stood out to me was how much the neighborhoods we walked to through looked like Seoul or Taipei, especially the latter. They were spacious and comfortable, modern but not new looking, with lots more parks and open living spaces than comes up in Bangkok. There were bike paths and running trails all over. It felt like a modern and comfortable city, nothing like how crowded and urban Beijing and Shanghai felt.  Bangkok is kind of a mess in comparison, although the old mixed with new theme has a different sort of appeal.  But snarled Bangkok traffic has no upside.

The one new mall we visited seemed relatively empty; that part is familiar from Bangkok, that they build those before there is really demand for one in some cases. Compared to what I've seen of Hong Kong it seemed new and open, with a more positive energy.

I liked the old-style market by the railroad station better

a 12 story mall in Hong Kong; a cool touch to add a sky in it

Conclusions

Not much for conclusions; we spent a quick five days and took a nice look around.  I never really did get a sense of what was limited there compared to in other places, to what potential downsides were to local culture or perspective.  More newly developed areas like that tend to lack as deep a connection to older forms of culture, but then that fades away fast enough in places like Bangkok too.  People might like other areas or cities better for lots of reasons, or experience what isn't there as a gap.

from Hong Kong; we made a request to a tea-related deity

We definitely didn't do exploration justice related to experiencing culture, or natural themes, or anything beyond shopping and eating, with higher level dining never even coming up.  Wikitravel fills in everything we didn't get to.  The people were nice enough, but then people almost everywhere are.

We bought drones for both our kids; they'll be happy we focused on such themes related to that.  My wife wasted half a day on IT gadget shopping only to buy a spare phone battery and to have two cracked phone screen covers replaced (probably nearly for free; she's a fierce negotiator).  We almost bought a family friend a $150 tablet but didn't.  It was nice enough for me just to take a look around, and all the more fortunate I could buy three sheng cakes and one aged brick of modest-quality while there.  I'll say more about the tea part in reviews, with notes already made up for two of those cakes.

at least the silliness comes across online too

Travel in Russia, to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Murmansk

This post shares experiences traveling in Russia, to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Murmansk (within the Arctic Circle).  It's not about tea, although I will write about what turned up related to that separately.   I did attend a tea tasting in Moscow, with two of the Russians involved with making Laos Tea, and found some interesting shops and teas.

Russia was amazing, on a few different levels, so there was lots to cover.  I had made notes on the trip, explaining the shifts in time-frame in this.  There was a challenge related to covering so much range of experience in a moderate length summary.  The solution:  let it run long.

I completely get why a typical reader attention span is under 1000 words, and this is quite a bit  longer than that.  Make of it what you will, and feel free to share feedback or discuss parts with me in comments here, or in the FB page for this blog.

not in Kansas anymore

the recurring Christmas theme was nice

Moscow based intro

Why Russia, one might wonder.  The short version:  to see snow and Northern Lights.  Thais love the idea of cold weather, even though it takes work to prepare for it, and then the actual experience is a bit mixed.  We visited the US last year around the holidays so my family knew what was coming, except for the experience of the Arctic cold.  It was a separate goal to experience a little of Russian culture (especially tea, but not mostly that).

I might start by saying that I do like Russia and Russians.  They're a bit somber, and wear so much black and grey that along with their reserved demeanor and the industrial looking buildings things seemed a bit dystopian.  People having that limited clothing color option--or they could also wear maroon--and the ever-present security staff intensified that impression.

hotel room view in Moscow

But they really do seem very nice, once you talk to people.  What about the Thai stereotype that a lot of Russians are gangsters?  We went three for four in getting scammed by airport shuttle van services, and our SIM card data credit level wasn't as-sold, so there's that.  In general we aren't experiencing much related to crime or petty scams though, or even people being unpleasant.  When seeing guys in track suits I might think "they're mafia!," but that could just be a fashion choice.

Architecture is cool here, and the subway system is magnificently decorated and fixtured.  Red Square and the Kremlin is something to see (although we skipped most of the touring options there), and lots of other infrastructure is very impressive.  It's the opposite of China, where it's all obviously brand new, even far-removed from lots of Bangkok being modern, with other parts a bit more dated than here.  The industrial look in Moscow reminded me of my past in the American Rust Belt, of being from near Pittsburgh.

typical nicer hotel in Moscow

The trip itself, air travel on the way to Russia, was interesting for being awful.  My wife mentioned a long layover, and I basically just said "yeah, whatever," but we ended up spending a night in the Hanoi airport.  I've traveled a lot but never actually experienced that.  On the one hand it was really not restful, and uncomfortable, and on the other cool, related to the novelty.  We camped out in a baby nursing room, that extra bit removed from blaring announcements about departing flights, which seemed to let up around 2 AM.  In a special violation of Thai culture I used my boot wrapped in a newspaper as a pillow.  It all worked out.

Hanoi airport at 3 AM

Moscow is really something.  I'd already mentioned that it looks a bit bleak and industrial but there is a style and beauty to it as well.  That one cathedral beside the Kremlin is every bit as cool as it looks in the pictures, or maybe just a little more, so unique looking that it doesn't seem real.  Christmas is ramped up to several times over Bangkok's observation of it.  That's a bit odd given that Bangkok seems more modern in lots of ways, quite Western in a few senses, but Russia has much deeper ties to the West, and they're not Buddhist.

at Gorky Park; not that cold, but still too cold for good packing snow

A Russian contact mentioned language would be difficult and it was.  We more or less knew exactly what we wanted for metro (subway) access and it still took 15 minutes and the help of a couple of bystanders who spoke some English to set it up in Moscow.  The sales staff could use the minimum amount:  the words "no English."  It was odd noticing that some metro station signs are only in Cyrillc lettering.  One guide later clarified that both Roman lettering and that system were based on an earlier Greek alphabet, which explains why there is limited commonality and also so much difference.

Long after we sorted out work-arounds I realized the best fix would be to hold onto two sets of subway maps, in English and also Russian, and transliterate on your own.  I guess next generation app support would involve character recognition software and automatic translation, or a Jarvis-like AI personality just translating for you, which is almost as practical.  On one frantic solo Christmas shopping outing I realized the only Roman lettering in that station was posted inside the train cars, giving me around 30 seconds to determine if the car was the right one or not reading from the platform to the top of the opposing inside car door.  I found out that I wasn't standing on the right side of the platform but it worked; I just crossed over.

Moscow metro decoration theme:  classic

more of the Metro system

long metro escalators (St. Petersburg's version, which was just as cool)

St. Petersburg metro, equally stunning, with cool murals

Christmas was the first full day in Murmansk, posing a special problem.  We had nothing for either child, and my wife's stance was that since she's Thai they didn't need to receive anything.  Even for me putting it very explicitly she wasn't getting it:  not everything is about her.  The munchkins picked out Legos they wanted but I snagged a Snow White Barbie and Russian fighter jet model and that was going to have to do.  Santa would come through in a pinch, barely, and on the parents side they got an IOU, along with a lame story about us not wanting to carry toys through two travel legs.

It turned out that excuse worked in their favor when two more days of toy shopping in St. Petersburg netted a much nicer haul.  In the world of Legos there is one clear goal:  the "big set."  The one Keo finally did get only cost us around $120, versus $200 or so in the states, and $300 in Bangkok, where toy import taxes are crazy.

I kind of liked the military models myself

It won't really work to convey my impression of Red Square, or seeing Lenin (who looked great, all things considered), or the impressive subway system, or Gorky Park.  Gorky Park was cool, especially the idea of being there, but instead of ice skating we caught the afternoon one-hour ice maintenance break.  That park staff was rude about not being able to use English, unhappy about working through bystanders as translators, noteworthy mostly because almost every other Russian was patient and kind about that.


One favorite destination of the kids was Detskiy Mir, or a children's world mall, a large building full of shops just for kids.  They were taken with the idea of experiencing a "Dino World" play area, which in a way made no sense since it was just like a few others in Bangkok, with slides and trampolines and such.  The several hours that took freed up time to find the only tea I had so far, outside of that Laos Tea tasting outing.

GUM mall near Red Square (Gosudarstvennyi Universalnyi Magazin)

Children's World mall, Detskiy Mir

view of Moscow from Children's World observation deck

Kalani and Sputnik

A second favorite was a space museum.  Per my take and both kids' opinion it was definitely on-par with the Air and Space museum in the Smithstonian, which is no small achievement.  I knew Russians initiated the space race (about Sputnik, and Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space), but I learned a lot there.  Much to their credit that museum covered the American moon landings too, and included the actual space suit worn by that third guy on the Apollo 11 mission.


There seemed to be no crime, nothing really in general to worry about, although I guess pickpockets could be anywhere.  We had our pictures taken with people dressed as characters beside Red Square and they wanted to charge $80 instead of accepting a tip after, but of course we just said no.  That actually turned into an amusing version of a scam since the one guy kept claiming they were performing actors, and that our tip offer of $8 was "piss."  He kept miming himself pissing, funny enough that if I'd acted faster video of it would've been worth a second $8 tip.

with a troupe of Russian actors

That certainly doesn't exhaust what we experienced in Moscow but I'll switch it over to Murmansk.

Visiting Murmansk, the largest city within the Arctic Circle

We saw the aurora borealis, or northern lights, on the very first evening, two hours in, which was very cool.   Keo saw one from the plane, and I did beside him, a green arcing cloud in the sky, a good omen.  It was cold that first evening, around -27 C at the lookout area, down to around -16 F.  If it hadn't been so breezy undershooting clothing required for that temperature wouldn't have mattered, but as it was the experience was intense.  Given how hazy timelines became I could've sworn I picked up a touch of frostbite in Moscow instead, although it would make more sense that the blister at the end of one fingertip came from that first night.  I would take off my gloves to take pictures (not often in that initial cold outing), and if the kids needed help with gear I'd do so for that.

It's impossible to describe the Northern Lights.  So I'll not even try, except to say they're amazing, and to note that camera images don't see them in the same way as your eyes.  The green and other colors are there but not as pronounced as in photos, which can adjust exposure time.  The way they move is hard to describe, hard to even take in really, and different in different forms of them.

this wasn't even one of the more interesting variations of them

again impressive, with a cool pose, but nothing like the shifting forms version

In Murmansk it was only starting early dawn at 10 AM.  The days are four hours long, so fully light at 10:30, and back to dusk at 2:30, completely dark at 3.  The funny part about that near-complete darkness is how barely light it does ever get, straight from a grey dawn to a grey dusk.  As I first wrote these notes in a tour bus (on one of the two-a-day outings) the two elves with me are passed out beside me, the little one snoring, just like her mother.

1:30 or 2 PM, getting on towards dusk

everything was frosted in a way that wasn't familiar

On the first day we went for a snowmobile sled ride, on the second to see husky sled dogs and reindeer.  We went out both evenings to see auroras, lucky the first night but not the second.  There were glitches but all told all went well.  One mitten seemed to have been a casualty, no small loss when there's more - 20 C / -10 F weather to deal with.  We got by on spares, backed up with hand warmer packs.  The stress of losing that mitten took a year off the end of my wife's life, and made for a season's low point for our guide hearing about that, but the mitten did make it back, only stuck between the seats in a tour van.  Keoni explained that in Thai culture if you lose something small it's bad luck related to potential for losing something important.  I can't help but wonder if my wife losing her father to cancer as a child didn't tie back to her obsession over things like puzzle pieces and mittens.

My wife picked up her own case of frostbite from dipping her hand in the Bearing Sea to see if it really was cold (unless I've got the body of water name wrong: I'm not going to Google search everything).  It probably wasn't that cold but it was not at all warm out (maybe -12 C / 10 F).  Coupling that with taking pictures without gloves on with a wet hand gave her a much nastier case of frostbite than mine across her knuckles, dark patches of dead skin that would be healing for the rest of the trip.

Eye put her hand in this water

a real reindeer drawn sleigh at one outing

tea break in a lodge

The rest wasn't exactly what I expected; the town is quite developed.  Except for the bitter cold it could be a small resort town anywhere, and because of the Gulf Stream it's not as cold as it really should be for being that far North.  I suppose it would look a bit more dated and industrial to me if we hadn't just been in Moscow.  The terrain does look a bit strange and eerie, with sparkly powdery snow clinging to everything, so I guess that matches arctic expectations.  That first night as temperatures plummeted every trace of moisture fell out of the air, not as a fog as it would at other times, but as a fine frozen dust in the air that really looked unique.

plaza beside the hotel in Murmansk

The foreigness, rugged beauty, and presence of the cold makes for a cool environment.  As much as visiting the tropics for the first time overwhelms you this does.  But the tropics are almost too well suited for life, with strange versions of plants and insects all around, and this is the opposite.  Back in the mountains in Colorado it was always strange to me being outside below zero (F; more like -15 C), feeling that you would only need to stop and sit for awhile and the cold might take your life, even if well dressed.  Of course gear comes in degrees; I would still go out snowboarding at -10 F, almost as cold as it was outside here.

with Ivan, our Murmansk guide

I had tea with breakfast when I wrote this (Dian Hong I brought) but I'm not focusing much on that subject here, or food.  I tasted vodka once, from the guide, and I could see how that seems to warm you based only on a sip.  That guide, Ivan, was an interesting sort, a basic, good-natured, simple sort of guy who my wife really didn't click with.  I kept translating them to each other even though both really were speaking versions of English, which seemed just a little absurd.



I liked Ivan, and felt bad for him that most jokes fell flat, and foreign tourists just stared at him dumbly while he worked on stirring up enthusiasm.  The Arctic takes one out of their comfort zone, in a wonderful way that relates to experiencing completely novel things, and also in a potentially uncomfortable way, related to not really feeling at home with whatever might come next.


I focused on the kids more than the rest; that never changes.  I mentioned in an Instagram post that my kids are my favorite thing wherever we travel and that really is true.  That focus didn't extend to pulling off Christmas, which we nearly skipped.  The kids took that part really well, that Santa did find them, and that we owed them gifts coming later from where shopping made more sense.  In an interesting twist the Russian Christmas is really celebrated on January 7th, related to that Gregorian calendar adjustment way back when, so in a sense it really wasn't Christmas yet for the whole trip, which did cover New Years, and the typical build-up kept on building.

gingerbread houses (back at the hotel in Moscow)

hair frosted from breathing; it was a bit cool out

definitely wearing some layers

It can be hard to appreciate how special moments like lots of these are for being caught up in details.  Of course that applies almost as well to daily life, without visiting foreign lands or the Arctic.  I see those two grow up every day and I want to save up the time with them.  Even I had trouble completely taking in just how novel things were, but they really seemed to get it, in their own more cheerful way.  Dressing them was a bit of a headache, and being in charge of all the cold weather gear for three people (five, really, but I only actually dressed three, counting myself).  But beyond a couple of slips that part worked out well.  I just kept bringing extra gear along.


We visited a reindeer ranch and husky racing camp, two really cool experiences.  They had a reindeer (Carribou) sled for visitors to ride, and an even more exciting snowmobile version.  The one large-moustached, traditionally dressed snowmobile driver had the rubber-raft-like sled whipping around a football field sized track at near highway speeds.  The dogs were also great, excited to have visitors, and all very friendly.  One of them at the reindeer stop stole Kalani's mitten (the back-up; her better version was still hanging out between the seats of the other suburban).  That dog never would give back a hand-warmer pouch tucked inside to make up for the lighter glove type not being suitable for that intense cold.  I told her he probably thought she was an elf, there to give him a Christmas present, and her interpretation of the event warmed up a little.

caught in the act of stealing a mitten

A second husky racing camp was just as amazing.  I had no idea that Alaskan huskies are the real performance racing northern breed and working dog.  Siberian huskies have evolved to endure cold, and have a much cooler look, but can't handle workload or endurance like their North American cousins.  A friend had several Siberian huskies back in Colorado and they are a really intelligent breed.  One of them was always suspicious of me initially, slow to accept me as an acceptable regular visitor.  We had a nice bonding moment in running a 5k dog and human race together once, putting in a terrible final time because we stopped for 15 minutes in the middle for a water-hose cool-down break.

rides on a dog sled at 5 or 6 PM, in the early Arctic night

We had tea in a samovar on a nice break at that dog camp.  But I missed the guide's explanation of how a samovar works for walking around trying to get Mama Nid out of the van to join that break.  That was probably tea-blog gold he presented in that description; oh well.  The short version, for people who don't know, is that Russian tea is typically either black tea alone (mostly Ceylon, it seems), or that mixed with herbs (as it was that day), brewed very strong by a long infusion process, later diluted to taste.

Murmansk in review

In this round of notes I'm waiting in an airport again to leave Murmansk to go to St. Petersburg.  It's funny how travel alternates being busy and rushed and wait periods.  I'm feeling a bit spent, also normal for the context.  We finally had a few hours of free time the last day in the form of not booking a morning tour and I used the time to sleep in.  That worked out well, coupled with staying up late to pack and prepare.

I keep asking the kids what their favorite parts were, to hear their take and also to help them process it all.  I think a small sled riding slope outside the hotel would rank pretty high.  Keoni made Russian friends; funny how kids don't need shared language to share experiences.  Keo liked a snowmobile ride quite a bit and Kalani loved the reindeer.  I think of the two only Keoni really got what the aurora borealis was.

The Northern Lights were absolutely amazing that first night, at first just a whitish streaky cloud across a lot of the sky that the camera saw as green instead.  Later the colors emerged, and movement, with thinner streaks that seemed thinner shifting and twisting, but I was focusing more on how Kalani was doing in a very, very cold wind chill.  On the third day again a large distant cloud of stationary aurora started things off, transitioning to flowing bands of greenish-white energy patterns, all looking like nothing I'd ever seen or imagined (except maybe two days before).  It looked like something out of the original Star Trek series graphics, but it was real.

the shifting form of aurora was amazing (credit Aurora tours, Dmitry Tokarchuk)

newly built Greek Orthodox church in Murmansk

We did a city tour the last day, and it was really as interesting to question the guide (Roman) about cultural issues as hearing Murmansk history, although that was also interesting.  Of course it's all way too much to summarize, both sets of ideas.  I could sample something interesting from both though.


Murmansk is 101 years old, established right at the end of the Romanov rule in 1916, a year prior to the Communist revolution.  The current population is around 300,000.  That explains why it seemed a lot less like a tiny, remote port city than I expected.  On culture and perspective, he said that a lot of Russians blame Gorbachev for the end of the Soviet Union.  I suppose he played a part but my take was that it couldn't have been saved, and that at most economic reform speeded up what was coming anyway, partly from political causes and economic ones.  I also thought Russian national leadership played a role in insisting on independence to solidify and expand the power they already had.  But what do I know.


Roman mentioned that religious observation is increasing in Russia; the opposite of in the West.  They were in the process of building a large Christian Church, the kind of thing that probably rarely happens now in the US.  The Greek Orthodox version of Christianity seems to focus on icons, saints, and rituals, not completely unlike Catholicism, but in a different form.

I guess my favorite trip experience up to that point would be seeing northern lights, after seeing my kids love all the experiences.  Really they do love local travel in Thailand too, just getting out a little, but in visiting the Arctic you can't miss that the experience is really unique.  This set of travel notes ends here but there was one more city to go, St. Petersburg.  I'll mention a bit about cold weather gear first.

Dressing for the Arctic

In a Trip Advisor forum discussion about visiting Russia in the winter someone mentioned "there is no cold weather, only cold clothes."  After years of living in a ski resort town in Colorado I knew exactly what we might be in for, and made sure we were over-prepared, even prepared for what we couldn't expect.  But how does one dress for -27 C / -16 F temperatures?

The obvious solution is to buy good technical gear, functional heavy parkas, good boots and gloves, heavy hats, snow pants, with insulated underwear and fleece layers for fill.  In short, spend your way towards a complete solution.  We didn't do that.  An alternate path is to use more layers, to skimp on technical gear by gaining the same function through layering equivalent clothing.  We filled some gaps with used clothing; I wore used boots and a used down jacket as an inner layer, the only "new" clothes I bought for the trip.  Keo wore two decent winter coats to make up one very heavy one, both light and easy to stash, a more functional set-up than most of us wore.  Kalani we just layered, using insulated underwear, multiple fleeces, a synthetic-fill vest and jacket, and an outer light shell to make up for no one layer really doing the job.  The approach works but it's awkward.

wearing just the inner layer

Eye also bought a used down jacket that would've made gearing up easy for her, but gave it to her mother since she packed light, not taking my advice to bring multiple jacket layers since her heaviest one would only be fine for the current Moscow-level cold.  I brought two extra jackets I couldn't possibly need and one of those made up that gap for Eye.

Neck gators made a difference; an exposed neck and face at below -20 C / -10 F is a critical gap.  Layering the light stretchy gloves Americans tend to use on grocery store outings under a winter mitten simulated better technical-wear gloves.  All the layering up got old, to be sure, as did trying not to lose parts of a pile / backpack full of gear on warm-up breaks, but it was functional.  One key to success any winter sport participant knows:  no cotton.  We had spent a month visiting most of the Decathalon sporting goods stores in Bangkok and the main issue was gauging just how many layers to use on a given day and outing.  The same would be true in St. Petersburg, but the clothing count would become practical again there.

St. Petersburg

It was going to be nice to ease up that guided tour pace adhered to in Murmansk, to get back to walking around when it worked out.  Of course that would come with a down-side:  covering less ground.

St. Petersburg was spectacular.  Where Moscow was a bit bleak, overbuilt in large-scale dramatic style, St. Petersburg was just awe inspiring.  Whole parts of the city seemed to look like palaces, with lighting fit for Christmas celebration anywhere further accenting what was already impressive.  Barely below zero (C) temperatures felt balmy after the Arctic, and although juggling an extra layer or two and hats and gloves was still a challenge, just a far easier one.


An overall trip highlight came in the form of a circus outing.  Limited availability had us buy more expensive ring-side seats, bumping up an intense experience to the next level.  Keoni shouted laughter in response to a talented circus clown performance, and animal and dancing acts drew vigorous applause from Kalani.  Towards the end two acrobatic segments were so enthralling we have almost no pictures of those, with us setting aside the role of documenting events and just enjoyed them instead.

Oddly the circus being narrated in Russian didn't detract much.  There was a story line about a princess being captured by an evil dark queen that we missed most of, but with dances informing a lot of the content of that story instead of speech the archetypes and standard plot elements came across.

An outing to a ballet the next night was also really a unique experience, masterfully performed, but not enjoyed by all on that level of the circus.  It was a limited scale production, an exhibition of dance sequences from various famous ballets, so not as extravagant as seeing the Nutcracker would have been, but it was probably better for us to catch a lower profile show anyway.


Mama Nid and I watched impressed and interested, fascinated by that high level of grace and athleticism, while Keoni fidgeted, and Eye and Kalani slept through parts.  After a long week of tracking technical gear for myself and the two kids, and double-checking Eye and her mother's preparations, I let up on the attention to attire so much that I accidentally wore a t-shirt to that relatively informal ballet event, a clear faux pas.  It was under a down-jacket layer that couldn't pass for appropriate indoor clothing, so I borrowed a vest from Eye more to cover a warming function and went along with looking out of place.

the wait before the ballet

Walking around St. Petersburg the pace kept seeming to slow, until eventually it seemed like it might just stop, with us frozen in place on a sidewalk.  At the very end in yet another miscommunication a hotel concierge directed us to a shopping complex that was essentially just a small grocery store.  It was probably not that much more than a mile's walk away, a half an hour walk to get there and 45 minutes on the way back.

In Bangkok you can wave your hand at a passing taxi anywhere, any time, but as with some other cities in St. Petersburg you either use the metro, figure out the bus system, or call a taxi.  Or Uber, of course, but we never did make it back to re-upping that SIM credit after that first glitch, dropping Google Maps support along with the rest.  Yandex maps works better in Russia, but the equivalent to that blue dot in Maps, where you are located, wasn't working in the off-line mode.

There are always glitches in traveling but most of the trip details did come together.  By chance we were having a late dinner and experienced a New Year's countdown of sorts before paying out just after midnight at a local cafe.  The toy shopping went well, at a cost of spending a full day of limited time in a mall near our hotel (the Galleria; not really an ideal place for Bangkok locals to spend a day in St. Petersburg given the number of malls where we live).  I bought a second nice pu'er cake in St. Petersburg at a second Moychay branch, which I'll cover more about in a later tea-theme post.

Galleria mall in St. Petersburg

a break from sightseeing to make a snowman

We visited two palaces with garden grounds as a central attraction, mostly a waste of time given how those looked in the frozen winter (Peterhoff and Catherine's palace).  At least seeing different parts of town outside the central city was nice.  We walked straight by two Christmas theme events, one of which I ventured into alone, but we really weren't missing much.  Dozens of restaurants, bars, and cafes looked nice, but we didn't get far with exploring local foods.

Keo at an outbuilding in the Peterhoff palace complex

In one last highlight an overnight first class sleeper train from St. Petersburg back to Moscow made for a great experience.  We've been on some interesting trains in Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, and China but that was the first including private rooms, breakfast service, and a private shower in the two small cabins.  Kalani was so excited that she kept swapping top and bottom bunk locations, but I missed all that for crashing in the other room instead.  I was curious about the television and radio features in the room devices but not curious enough to pass on sleeping through it all.

on the train; Asians really do make that V sign a lot

with tons of luggage, the usual challenge

Back to Moscow

We felt like like Russia travel veterans returning to Moscow, but we still hadn't cracked van shuttle services yet.  After getting scammed that first time, paying just over double a standard rate, we were skimmed for an extra $20 on a shuttle set up by the hotel the second round, on the way to St. Petersburg, on the premise of us running late.

Our driver tried it again in St. Petersburg, squeezing us for whatever extra token amount it was, for an under-one-mile, clearly defined arrangement from the hotel to a train station a ten minute walk away.  But the concierge helping us there really wasn't into it.  Instead of that driver locking us in the car and demanding more for extra baggage cost--a standard ploy--she initiated a stand-off at the hotel.  The standing threat of a move to plan B led him to fold.  It was probably more out of spite than leverage but I took pictures of the cab service logo, the license plate, and him before we even got to that step.

back at Red Square

I'm now a fan of Russia and Russians.  Moscow's residents are on the gloomy side related to sharing commuting space with them but Russians are truly bright souls once you actually do interact with any.  Even that shuttle driver exception was like that mitten going missing for a day and a half; tragic, related to that feeling impossible to overcome (although we had spare gloves), but in the end not meaningful.

Christmas being held on the 7th of January instead meant that we never would see that holiday end, leaving on the 3rd as we did.  Our final night on the 2nd saw really intense crowds pouring into Red Square and that amazing looking mall beside it (GUM), the one with the hot air balloons inside, so we bailed to Arbat street for tourist shopping and a little local food instead.

lots of variations of Russian dolls

We had already snapped up a Russian doll for Kalani in passing (the kind where each fits as an outer shell for the smaller inner ones), but Mama Nid bought ten more in the perfect sort of tourist shop there in those closing hours, bargaining to a good deal as Thais love to.  Or probably from high retail down to medium level retail, really, but generally lower costs than in Thailand made the whole trip feel like a great value.

That part is a long story, about levels of goods and services varying in cost.  A bowl of noodles in a local Bangkok shop costs around $1, and a plate of spaghetti more or less covered in ketchup is more like $8, but Russians seem to have access to a wide range of much better Western foods and other goods at quite fair prices.

borscht!  we went light on the foodie theme though

Thanks

Random Russians got us out of a jam over and over helping with details, at times fixing problems we had directly caused through lack of planning, and I'd like to add extra thanks to a few people here.

helpful Russian woman, breaking form and smiling in the metro

Werabhat Komrat is a local Thai guide to Russia my wife knows, who really made the trip possible in the form we experienced it.  It's easy to see how to manage details of visiting anywhere, once you do the trip, but prior to that very difficult to know about specific problems and issues you need to settle in advance.

Werabhat (Pound), meeting us as our paths crossed in St. Petersburg

One local Moscow guide in particular, Keira Kasmimova, completely sorted out hiring two taxis from the train station to our hotel on short order for local rates, just to be nice.  Her positive karma is strong, for her to be able to snap that shuttle scam streak as easily as she did.  Just using Uber might have resolved the problem before it started, but often things aren't that simple and there can be exceptions.  The problem we kept running into related to carrying a mountain of luggage, in addition to travelling with five people.

Keira calling a taxi; you don't really need a guide but problems can come up

Thanks to Oleg of Visit Murmansk for everything (aka Aurora tours, FB contact and website).  In retrospect Murmansk is a lot easier to get around than we expected, so it's not as if someone is isolated in a remote shipping port village up there, but renting a car and visiting local places on your own is probably not really workable.  Tours help with just getting outside of the town to see auroras, since light pollution from the city blocks that.

A random Russian guy who spoke perfect English talked me through a good bit of the tea in one shop, in the Perlov Tea house, and a bit on Russian tea habits in general.  I think Eye also told his wife an hour's worth of our story in that 15 minutes, losing track of asking for help and information and just appreciating making a local friend.

a friendly Russian guy, and tea shop theme teaser

Roman, the other local guide (photo credit)

Roman Muravitskiy, a guide assigned by Oleg to our city tour, explained local history, the sights, and lots of Russian history and culture.  The aurora outings and seeing a reindeer farm and husky camp were more can't-miss but I learned more about the general Russian perspective from him in a couple hours than I did in the rest of the two weeks.



That'll do it for travel blog summary.  I'll check back in about tea in Russia in another post, since I did pick up some versions, and barely mentioned that tasting event with some interesting tea makers there.