Hiring A Guide Can Enhance a Travel Experience

by Jamie Rhein on

I’m a huge fan of guides–not necessarily guide books, although I do use them to give me a running start on figuring out where I might head before my interests lead me in other directions, but living, breathing human guides who know a place well. These folks are worth hiring for a few hours tour–or a day. Or even a week. Guides can save lives even.

When trekking with a guide and sherpas through the Markha Valley in Ladakh and on the Annapurna trail in Nepal, I saw fliers for missing hikers who had set off on their own. Either they become lost or hurt. Regardless, they were unable to get back from what they probably imagined as a solo adventure. With thieves not uncommon in Nepal’s mountains, guides offer protection. The trails in Ladakh are so rugged and faint and head in so many directions, it would be easy to get lost. It’s certainly easy to get sick. The sounds of people in my group heaving at night from altitude sickness on my Ladakh trip was not exactly music to my ears. We had a trip that involved people cooking for us and mules carrying our bags, so I can’t fathom what it would be like to attempt 17,000 feet while carrying belongings, food.and water. And, by the way, the people who got the most sick were the ones who fancied themselves the most athletic. They pushed themselves to prove something and BAM!!! a real puke problem.

Even if you don’t need a guide to save your life, guides are a way to find out little tidbits of places and people you wouldn’t know otherwise. In Benares, (Varanasi) India, we hired a guide for a day who took us on a city tour that began early in the morning and ended late in the day. We clicked immediately and since we were traveling with our son, who was not yet a year and a half, and our daughter who was nine, having him take us to a boat for our crack of dawn boat ride on the Ganges River made this excursion seem less daunting. He also filled us in on facinating details about who gets cremated and who doesn’t and pointed out prominent people’s houses and details about the architecture. He also took us to places to buy the best masala tea mix and filled us in on details about trying to get a job as a professor in India’s affirmative action system. One of my favorite moments was listening to him sing in one of the temples we went to to show us how the sound carried.

When we went to Sri Lanka (before kids) but with my father, we hired a guide and a driver for the entire trip. Since we stayed in budget hotels (clean and airconditioned but no frills) and ate simple, local food, the money we spent on our guide/driver/car helped us to see most of the country in nine days. Since my dad got sick for a couple of the days, having a driver allowed for my dad to wait with someone while my husband and I continued to sightsee. Our guide also took us to his house to visit his family at the end of the trip and helped us make a delivery of art supplies and books to an school for kids with developmental delays. We could go at our own pace.

In Beijing we hired a guide to take us around for two days. He was a guide who a friend of ours knew. Besides pointing out historic details when we went to various places, he knew exactly where to shop and where to get the best, local spicy food. As my husband said, “Hurt me.” The hot pot restaurant he took us too was excellent and filled with neighborhood locals.

While living in New Delhi, we mostly headed out on our own, but one of my highlights was the personal guided tour we took with a guy named Nigel. He is British and has been giving guided tours of Old Delhi for years, but unfortunately, I think he may have stopped.

Although, I also like the experience of winging it, guide free to see what comes our way, guides can make traveling easier and provide the details you might miss otherwise. Here’s a helpful tips article, Hiring Guides in Foreign Countries from Wendy Perrin over at Concierge.com.

New Beijing Airport to be World’s Largest

by Justin Glow on

China is building a new airport in Beijing that is expected to be open in time for the 2008 Olympics. At over a million square meters, and an expected 53 million passengers per year, it will surely become the world’s largest and most technologically advanced. “It was built using sustainable design principles,” according to Business Week, “including southeast-oriented skylights (to maximize heat from early sunshine) and an integrated environment-control system that uses minimal energy.” Check out the gallery below. (Thanks, Marilyn!)

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It’s Monday. What Are You Doing Driving Your Car?

by Brett Atkinson on

The 2008 Olympics in Beijing might still be blighted by bad air pollution, but at least the organisers are doing their best to ease the lungs of marathon runners, long distance walkers and overseas visitors. Already China has restricted the number of planes in the air, and a new grassroots solution involving two wheels has just been announced.

Beijing is already a city of bicycles, but during the Olympics an additional 50,000 brand new two-wheelers will be available for rent at more than two hundred outlets handily placed near subway stations and Olympic venues. It’s the latest initiative sponsored by the Beijing Environment Protection Bureau. The Chinese capital has just finished a four day trial where private vehicles with even numbered license plates were banned from roads on Friday and Sunday. On Monday and Saturday odd-numbered cars had to stay in the garage.

Like anything to do with China, the numbers were impressive. An estimated 1.3 million cars were taken out of circulation each day, and subway traffic increased by 200,000 passengers each day. Beijing 2008 should be quite a show.

Thanks to TravelMole for the lead.

Chinese Buffet – Part 10: Day Train to Shanghai

by Kelly Amabile on
Chinese Buffet is a month-long series that chronicles the travels of an American woman who visited China for the first time in July 2007.


When I originally decided that I was going to take a train from Beijing to Shanghai, I figured I’d take the night train, since it’s inexpensive and saves time by transporting you while you sleep. I’d done this to save time and money on several European overnight journeys in the past. But I realized that on this China trip, I wasn’t really in a rush. And I’m a big fan of train travel — I enjoy the experience of staring aimlessly out the window for hours, reading a book or catching up on journal writing.

Since this was my very first train trip in China, and I had the time to spare, I decided to investigate day train options. Seat 61 alerted me to news of the brand new express electric train that began daily runs between the two cities in April 2007. I decided that the D31 bullet train would be the way I’d go.

Budget backpackers on a tight schedule and no extra RMB might skip this pricier option, but since I’d only spent $30 on my four nights in the hutong hostel, I decided that the “splurge” for this train ride was worth it. At 327 RMB for a second class ticket, the D31 ten-hour trip would set me back a whopping $43 bucks. I pay more than twice that for a lousy 4-hour Amtrak from NYC to DC!

But before I get too excited, let me rewind to the ticket purchase process:

Although I didn’t have to persevere as long as Ember and her pals did when purchasing the ticket, it was a confusing process that could potentially cause major headaches, especially if you’re planning to buy on your own. I had heard about rules regarding when you can buy (usually only five days in advance if not purchasing through a travel agency) and so I waited till mid-week, and then feared I had let too much time pass. Thank goodness for my wonderful Mandarin-fluent Couchsurfing host, who sent me off to the main train station with my ticket purchase request written out in Chinese characters.

(Model of Beijing Zhan from the Urban Planning Exhibition – just imagine loads of folks queued up out front!)

It was early morning and the station was swarming with people. I didn’t know about the English language lines, so I just picked one queue from among the millions and waited my turn as best I could. A few folks cut ahead of me, and others just stared. I asked a few young Chinese students if I was on the right line and they said it didn’t matter, I would be fine on any line. And I was — but I think it was just good luck! Eventually I got to the window clerk, showed my precious piece of paper, received a nod, paid up and was given a small orange ticket that said D31 and showed the proper departure date. Relief! If only I had remembered to ask for a window seat!!!

A few days later I made my way back to the station. I was pleasantly surprised to find this comfy setup when I arrived ridiculously early for my 10:50 departure:

I verified with the cafe manager that I was in the right place and then settled down with a cold latte, amusing myself with the English translations of other items offered on the menu: Home gruel, Mexico popcorn, Turkey West disabilities, Toronto allocated winter hamburger fries. I munched on some of my own homemade trail mix instead.

By about 10 am the waiting room was packed and I soon befriended Bobby, a 12-year-old from Beijing who spoke excellent English. He was traveling with his cousin and grandparents, and it was cute how his grandfather motioned for Bobby to come sit next to me, and then began video-recording us as we chatted.

Bobby took me under his wing, asking me all sorts of questions about where I was from and where I was going. We talked a lot about American movies, as he had just seen the new Transformers film. He asked to see my train ticket:

“The train to Shanghai takes eight minutes,” Bobby explained.

“Wow! That is really fast!” I smiled at him, hinting with a wink, so that he would realize his mistake.

He giggled. “Oh!! I mean eight hours! But it used to take 15. Now they have faster trains.”

Bobby and his grandfather escorted me to the next room when it was time to board. I had my own bodyguard buddies! They were waiting for a different train that would take them to the coast. We said our goodbyes and Bobby waved behind me for awhile, as if old pals were parting ways. The last remaining nerves I had about the train trip were gone. I boarded and made myself as comfortable as I could in my middle seat:

The whole point of taking the day train was so that I could SEE things, but that proved to be quite challenging from where my seat was located. I made the best of it and was rewarded about an hour later, when the gentleman on the aisle of our row disembarked at the first stop. (The D31 only stopped two or three times the entire day — I can’t recall what the first stop was, but it did stop in Xuzhou later in the day.)

I still didn’t have a window seat, but I was happy with an “upgrade” to the now vacant aisle seat. I got up every hour or so and would walk to the end of the car, where I could stretch my legs and do my window staring. The landscape consisted mostly of cornfields and construction:

The train itself was very clean and comfortable. But as the day progressed, so did the smells. A woman across the aisle from me pulled a whole cooked chicken out of her purse at one point and just started chowing down on it. I’m sure it was quite yummy, but after awhile all the food smells started to linger. The train staff would move through the cars every hour or so, collecting new trash. I noticed these bags after awhile, piled up where I had been standing to look out the window:

No more landscape gazing for me. I snoozed for a bit, read a great short novel, and then pulled out my collection of compact Shanghai guidebooks. In only a few more hours I’d arrive at my next destination:

Chinese Buffet – Part 9: The Bookworm Grows in China

by Kelly Amabile on
Chinese Buffet is a month-long series that chronicles the travels of an American woman who visited China for the first time in July 2007.

Before I depart on any trip, I always do some research on bookstores in the cities I’ll be visiting. (My own personal Bookstore Tourism planning, of course!) As I researched the bookstore situation in China, I learned about the large state owned operations and at least one English-language chain. But one of the most interesting places I read about was this lime green literary hub, which sits pretty atop a water pumping station in Beijing’s popular Sanlitun neighborhood:

Primarily a cafe, The Bookworm is cushioned by shelves of books and supported by a growing membership and impressive events schedule. It’s a unique community library, cultural center and gathering place for both locals and travelers that opened in Beijing in 2004 and is now expanding throughout China.

I visited The Bookworm on an event night in early July, arriving several hours before the scheduled speaker, so I could enjoy the atmosphere, grab some dinner and chat with Bookworm founder Alexandra Pearson.

The first of the Bookworm’s three spacious rooms has the most social atmosphere, houses the bar, and is one of the cafe’s two smoking rooms. This is where most folks seem to hang out and chat or check email on The Bookworm’s free wifi:

Directly behind the bar area is a cozier room with lounges and a few tables. This is where members can check out books from the lending library, and also purchase select nonfiction titles that The Bookworm keeps in stock. There are cards and jewelry for sale as well:

The third room is the non-smoking room, and home to The Bookworm’s fiction collection. During the two times that I sat and worked on my laptop in this room, I observed a variety of folks browsing the shelves, meeting over coffee or dining with family and friends. The menu serves up typical Western fare with academic names like Plato and Pythagoras. The motto says it all – folks come to The Bookworm to Eat, Drink and Read:

The Bookworm operates to serve the local English-speaking population – expats and Chinese locals too, looking to improve their English language skills. Foreign travelers increasingly seek it out as well — a comfortable haven that may provide a “homesick fix”. It can be a peaceful place to relax in the afternoon, or a chill spot to party in the evening.

In the Bookworm’s back room I met Benjamin Tang, a Taiwanese-American based in Houston, TX, who has been traveling to China since 1990. Ben explained to me that when he visits China, it is usually for several weeks at a time, and what frustrates him sometimes is the lack of being able to obtain information from the “outside world”:

“After traveling in China for a couple of weeks, I somehow feel disconnected from the rest of the world. Going to the Bookworm has always helped me fill that void. The liberation of the mind is a wonderful feeling.”

The series of literary and cultural events that The Bookworm organizes throughout the year is exactly what draws Ben and so many others to visit again and again. As it approached event time, the fiction room transformed into a sea of curious faces, and by the time things began at 7:30 pm, there were about 120 people in attendance. They had all come to hear Dr. Kerry Brown talk about his new book, Struggling Giant: China in the 21st Century.

The Bookworm hosts author events like this on a weekly basis, and also runs children’s programs and monthly musical events — the bar area is home to a piano too. Owner Alexandra Pearson originally came to China when her parents moved to work at the British Embassy. She left, then returned to China in the early 1990’s to study at The Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Several years later, she had a business venture for which she purchased a collection of books. When ownership changed hands, Alexandra lost the books, but a few years later was able to buy them back. Those 2,000 books formed the foundation of The Bookworm.

The majority of books that make up The Bookworm’s collection – now 20,000 strong – have come from donations. Because foreign-language books are so expensive to purchase in China, Alexandra envisioned The Bookworm as a place for exchange — of books and literary ideas. The collection, while large, is far from comprehensive (by library standards) — but the real value lies in the community and cultural discussion that the Bookworm environment fosters.

And recently the Bookworm has branched out to offer that same community atmosphere to other Chinese cities. After the Beijing location was up and running successfully, there was talk of taking the concept elsewhere. Alex teamed up with partner Peter Goff to open a second library cafe branch in Chengdu in 2006.

And the momentum continues. While traveling in China, I had a chance to meet Peter and visit the future home of Bookworm #3, positioned along one of the canals of Suzhou, a popular “water town” about 40 minutes by train from Shanghai. In mid-July, the demolition and gutting process was well underway:

A former journalist in Hong Kong, Peter eventually moved to mainland China and was a Beijing Bookworm patron first, before teaming up with his friend Alexandra. He manages the logistics of start-up and expansion outside of Beijing, while she focuses on the book collection and event content for all three locations.

As Peter explained, there is obviously a much smaller expat market outside of Beijing, but he and Alexandra still saw great value in taking The Bookworm brand elsewhere. They see the opportunity to appeal to a larger Chinese market, which means offering a greater portion of events in Chinese at these smaller locations. The English speaking population is just not large enough at the moment, so while all the books on the shelves are in English, certain programs offered in Chengdu and Suzhou will be run in Chinese. The Suzhou branch is scheduled to open sometime in mid to late September 2007:

Beginning this fall, Alexandra Pearson will be booking authors to do mini-tours of all three library locations. The Bookworm branches will also work together on their annual Literary Festival, which will take place in March 2008.

News of a growing Bookworm network is fantastic for English-language readers living in China, but it’s just as great for lit-minded travelers too. Each store has an email newsletter, so sign up if you’ll be traveling to China — it’s an easy way to keep informed about events that may be happening during your trip. Visiting a Bookworm is sure to be an excellent way to connect with locals and other travelers too. And, if you’ve got extra books in your backpack that you’re looking to unload, now you know where to donate them!