Roland's Travelog

Where Am I Now ?

2007-11-19T11:53:00.001+08:00

Current Location: Beijing, China
Telephone: +86 1355 2722 012

Backlog of Updates from Asia

2007-11-12T16:18:00.000+08:00

During the last couple of months in Asia, I lost some of the enthusiasm of updating this blog regularly, "writer's block" a writer would call it, I call it "laziness". Anyway, thanks to the encouragement from all those who complained, I have been catching up with my diary notes and will add links to any newly published, old updates, in this section. Just click on the links to read.

At the same time I am adding some bits from the last few weeks in Southern Europe, just look below this update for more..

Added 11/11/07
Wheeling In Ninh Binh (July 2007)
Historic HoiAn to Hectic Hanoi (July 2007)

Added 05/11/07
Wat? No Angkor? (July 2007)
Night(mare) bus to Vietnam (July 2007)
Mekong boat to Charming Champasak. (July 2007)

Added 04/11/07
Savannakhet, Pakse & Bolivean Plateau. (June 2007)
Khon Kaen & into the Land of Elephants. (June 2007)
Beautiful Buddha & Ancient Sukothai (June 2007)
Penang, Bangkok and Ancient Ayuthaya. (June 2007)

Added 30/10/07
Tea in the Cameron Highlands. (June 07)

Latest updates added at the top. For recent updates, scroll down

Drinking coffee with the Albanians

2007-11-11T18:22:00.001+08:00

In Albania, many people asked my why I chose to go there, simple, I hadn't been there before!

After a cold overnight ferry journey from Bari, on a ferry with no more than about twenty people I arrived early morning in Durres, a port in Albania. First observation of Albanian life is that it seemed no one had a job and everyone sat around drinking coffee all day. There were lots and lots of cafes and all had plenty of customers inside and out on the pavements, all drinking coffee. So first thing I did was join in. Durres is nothing to write ~~home~~ errr, a blog entry about, other than it's fine, friendly and the people helpful. The seafront is a bit of a mess and does nothing to encourage people to the sea view tourist restaurants and hotels that have and still are being constructed there. The remains of an amphitheatre are ok, the old Byzantine city walls are worth a quick glance and there are plenty of places to drink coffee and eat doner, souvlaki, hotdogs or hamburgers . Worth mentioning is the amazing guesthouse, Tuschenis, which I, after roaming lost, was guided to by a friendly old lady. The house used to be home to the embassies of Italy and Austria and pictures of famous people, museum like furniture and mementos from around the world made it an interesting place to stay, and the lovely owners Josef and Alma were kind and helpful and made a decent Albanian breakfast.

After some hard work finding the right place to pick up a mini-bus, (every destination has its own bus stop in Durres) I took a trip to Kruje, perched on the hillside with castle, museums, old bazaar and good views. It was a decent day out. The kind and friendly Albanian hospitality shone through when trying to find a connecting mini-bus at the junction of Fushe-Kruje, I was guided to the right bus by a friendly lady who insisted I took the best seat left as she crammed herself onto the edge of another and then paid for my trip as we alighted! There was no arguing, she just would not let me pay. I lunched in a hillside cafe, surrounded by begging cats, dying to taste my yogurt and spaghetti napoli. Back in Durres, I found a bar showing Champions League football and had a fine doner kebap complete with fries inside, something I haven't had since Central Asia, yummy..

During my first few days here, I became aware of two more things about Albania. Firstly, they get regular power cuts, apparently controlled and with the intention of saving power, by switching off for around three hours a day, randomly, at any time, sometimes more than once a day. The result is a peaceful walk along a street can turn into a bit of an ear bending experience when all the businesses' generators kick in. Secondly, it's very useful to learn the words for yes and no (I learnt too late), because head movements are confusing and do not indicate what you think they do. From Durres, I went to the capital, Tirane.....

When in Rome...

2007-11-11T18:22:00.000+08:00

Do as the Romans do, so I did, I ate pasta, pizza and queued for hours at the Vatican City.

Before I got there though, there I was in Rimini, friends heading back to wherever, but I hadn't booked a flight. Mmmm, I've never been to Rome I thought to myself, and it's just a few hours down the railtrack, people always rave about it, so off I went to the station and bought a train ticket to Rome. Unfortunately, the train was late arriving and I missed a connection in Ancona, I had maybe a minute to catch it, but the train left, not from a normal platform but from platform 2 North or something silly like that, Platfrom 2 was easy to find but 2 north was not an extension of 2, like they have in Netherlands, a 2A, 2B type setup. 2 north was hidden round the corner, by the time I found it, the train had gone, I wasn't the only one. So I wasted 3 hours wandering around Ancona and caught the next one arriving too late in the day to do anything worthwhile.

So, early start next morning and along with Steve who I met in the hostel, went off to see the Pope, arriving at the Vatican City around 9am, there was a bit of a cue to say the least, it ran along about 150m of a wall, round the corner for another 50m at least. What I didn't notice until the Monday was at the top of the queue, it went around the corner again for another 100m and then another 50m round another corner, ridiculous, and it wasn't even opening until 10am. In longest queue terms, second only to that at Fratton Park for FA Cup semi final tickets, Portsmouth v Liverpool in 1992. Well, it was too much so took a look at St Peter's square and the basilica. Then onto the Colleseum, queues here not so bad, just 30 minutes or so and we were in. From some angles, it's great, from others not so, I still think it looks better from outside rather than in, that's just my opinion.

After that, I kind of followed a tourist map to pick out a few sites, but in the end realised that in Rome you can just walk anywhere and you'll see something of interest. It is a pretty remarkable place, churches, museums, ancient roman ruins, fountains, sculptures, grand architecture, the city is full of it, I think it would take quite some time to get to know Rome.

On the Saturday, I had a good night out in Rome, watching South Africa win the World Cup final with some English people ;) and some USers , who needed some help with the rules, but I think they enjoyed it. Met a few people and just explored some of Rome's nightlife, that's what the Romans do!

Sunday the Vatican City was closed! I can't believe that really, if someone is given a country to themselves, then the least he should do is keep the bloody borders open seven days a week, especially where there is clearly an excessive demand to visit. Mondays it's only open a half day too, so I went along early again, was there before 9, doors opened at 10, I was in by around 11. Well, it's full of impressive paintings, sculptures and of course wall and ceiling murals, I don't have to explain to anyone what it's like, I think everyone knows the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo's work etc. Glad I have been there and seen it, I won't go again though as there's just far too many groups and people there. Be warned!

Streaker in "Serene" San Marino

2007-11-09T22:50:00.000+08:00

Arriving in Rimini from Ancona, we met up with a load of other Welsh fans in a designated bar, typically some British/Irish bar as was the case here. Sad, I don't like it, but at least I could find the people I wanted to see and then decide what to do. Found Rich and Em from Brussels again along with others from the boat and had an evening of interesting and educated debate over a few beers!

Next day, thanks to Dymock's Tours a bus was arranged to San Marino, the world's oldest constitutional republic apparently, which sits atop a mountain. We passed through the municipality of Serravalle, where the match was to be held in the evening and into San Marino the eponymous capital of "The Most Serene Republic of San Marino" by early afternoon.

Wandering around the centre of the city, contained within historic walls and defended by three towers, seems a bit of a maze at first, winding cobbled streets lead off in random direction but seemingly all meet up eventually and it's so small you can't get lost. Most of the businesses are restuarants, or souvenier shops, strangely selling, an array of dangerouns weapons, such as crossbows, samurai swords, machine guns and daggers, very bizarre. Really glad to bump into Mike Ings, his Kazakh wife and meet new son Daniel.

So, the game; first half Wales were ok, not great, but good enough to take a 2-0 lead against a poor San Marino, even Carl Robinson looked to have time on the ball in this game and played a dominant role in midfield! (cue comments from Phil). Second half we were shite, the most excitement was from a streaker, idiot, but provided some entertainment. The bus back was full of heated arguments about the match, players, the manager, the result, I was just relieved we had won the game, it doesn't happen often these days.

Athens' Acrapolis

2007-11-07T08:20:00.000+08:00

Flew from Cyprus to Athens, stayed there just one evening, but was just enough time to get to see the Acropolis, which was a must do as I'd never been to Athens before. So on arrival, straight to hotel, dump bags and walk to the centre. On the way I saw a number of Lua Lua football shirts, the ex-Pompey star is now a hit in Athens where he plays for Olympiakos and still wears the number 32 he wore at Fratton Park. His popularity was clear by the fact his shirt was hung in front of the globally popular shirts of stars like Ronaldhino, Rooney, Ronaldo and Kaka.

The Acropolis was littered with heavy scaffolding on most sides, which thoroughly spoils the view, the crane sat alongside also didn't help. Good to see one of the most famous worldwide sites but pretty disappointing in its current state. On the way back we stopped for some traditional Greek food and were annoyed by one of those accordion players trying to entertain everyone. I really fancied following him after, wait until he was having his dinner some place, then stand by his table singing Welsh football songs and ask for money, see what he would do! Athens isn't that nice really, bit gritty and dusty, just a standard city in the main, except for the historical sites of course.

Next morning off to the bus station and caught a bus to Patras, crossed the Corinth canal, though I didn't see it, I was snoozing I think, and to the port for our boat from Patras to Ancona.

A twenty hour journey, there were twelve Welsh fans making this journey as a way of getting from Cyprus to San Marino for Wednesday's match. Perry kept us all guessing in the journey with his trivia quizzes and we played some poker with peanuts from the bar. Peanuts are better than chips as they don't get cold during the game, so you can still eat them after! Grabbed a couple of hours sleep on a couple of chairs, but was woken early when the cafe bar opened again and another day began. I went out on deck to get some fresh air and to wake up and caught a beautiful sunrise, the sky a multitude of rich colours made it worthwhile getting up so early for once. A few hours later an we arrived in Ancona, Italy.

Woeful Wales whacked in Cyprus

2007-11-07T08:19:00.000+08:00

No sign of a job offer, so I decided last minute to join up with some friends to watch Wales play Cyprus in Nicosia. Flew to Larnaca and stayed a few nights. Got straight into the local ways by getting a souvlaki at a nice cafe and went in search of the local social scene. Strangely the bars were all staffed by Eastern Europeans or ex-USSRers, the first I went to had two Ukranian girls working, the next, two Moldovans, the next Romanians, the last one Uzbeks. Was fun chatting to some of them about my time in their respective countries, but the last two became tiresome as they wanted to be bought drinks to talk to them!! The Romanians just ignored me the rest of the time when i didn't buy them a drink, what a stupid way to run a bar! Next evening i met Paul from NZ who had escaped from home for a break after the heartbreak of seeing the Kiwis lose to France in the rugby world cup. He was still devastated. But he was a funny guy and we had a cracking night out chatting a lot with a Slovakian this time, what is it with Cyprus, why is noone who works in a bar here Cypriot?

Phil arrived the next day and we spotted Perry and some other Welsh fans around the town, evening before the game, was good to see familiar faces after not having been to a match during the last 16 months away.

Day of the game arrived, minibus to Nicosia, bit of a walk around the old town, with it's cobbled lanes, tourist shops and cafes. Went to the game and Wales were woeful. Despite taking the lead which gave some optimism, the second half we were very poor and ended up losing 3-1 to an average Cyprus team. Very disappointing. Another enjoyable but subdued evening out with a few people and the next morning I was glad to get out of Cyprus.

Wheeling in Ninh Binh

2007-07-14T22:50:00.000+08:00

Ninh Binh is friendly little place near the coast a couple of hours south of Hanoi. There's not much to see in the town itself apart from friendly locals trying to usher you into their house for food/drink. The main reason to visit here is the beautiful surrounding countryside rich with karst hills, waterways, rice paddies, temples and small villages.

I arrived by train and stayed right next door to the station to save walking far. Along this street almost everyone has converted their housefront into a part time cafe or shop, a 'cafe' here being a plastic table and chairs outside the house, but it would mean that you got some real "home cooking" yes? Well, no, in most cases it was instant noodles from a packet. But they were all really friendly and always gave a handful of longan or lychee fruit to go away with. Strangely, everyone in the street had the exact same printed English language menu too!

The places worth visiting lie outside of NinhBinh and require transport. I tried to get a decent route map to get myself around, but noone was able to provide a good one and kept insisting it was difficult to get around, which is surely a ploy to get you onto their trips. So, I decided to hire a motorbike and driver for the day. First we headed off to Tam Coc, where I jumped onto a row boat with two ladies. They were mother and daughter and it was the mother doing all the hard work rowing. The boat takes you along the Ngo Dong river, through paddy fields with karst hills protruding all around, through some karst caves and to a couple of temples. It's a peaceful trip with beautiful scenery all around, similar to that surrounding the Lijiang (Li river) around Yangshuo/XingPing in China.

Not such a peaceful trip was the bike ride to the next location, a series of Buddhist temples and again the scenery along the way was fantastic even if the temples were not so. Located on a hillside with shrines carved into caves, the site was ok, but having seen many temples around Asia, it doesn't rank so highly. Oddly, here I found some young girls asking me for money, in French! Clearly some things from the French colonial period still linger on.

We then sped on the final stop, the ruins of a citadel at Hoa Lu, which reigned as the capital of Vietnam from 968-1009 during the Dinh and Le dynasties. Sadly, the citadel is almost entirely destroyed. The views and the crazy motorbike ride journey there and back to Ninh Binh though was well worth it, even if the citdel wasn't. Through small villages, past more paddy fields and surrounding hills, waiting for flocks of sheep to clear the road, gave a pleasant, if speedy look at the local life in the countryside.

That evening was the first night of the Asian Football Championships and so I went for a walk to find somewhere to watch. Only a few doors away from my guesthouse I found someone at home watching, with their doors wide open and sneaked a look. The viewer insided spotted me and dragged me into watch, his wife immediately gave me their now familiar English menu and I sat down to watch Thailand v Iraq. As we sat and chatted - as best as we could without knowing each others' language - I inspected his motorbike that was sitting in the front room and suddenly realised this was the guy who had been driving me around on his motorbike that day! I suppose I'd been looking at the back of his head most of the day and hadn't got to know his face so well.
Bit of a surprise! Anyway, his wife's cooking was sadly as unconvincing as his motorbike driving had been, but they were ever so friendly and delighted to have a visitor. I left with the usual handful of longan and good feelings about the residents of NinhBinh.

Historic HoiAn to Hectic Hanoi

2007-07-12T22:51:00.000+08:00

Hanoi, well what can you say other than it's chaotic. Stepping out of the station after a long journey from Hoi An, during which I shared a cabin with a British couple living in the Cameron Highlands on Central Malaysia, where they taught at a local school, I was bombarded by offers of xe-om (motorbike) and car taxis, wherever I paused, I was approached. Fortunately they are not as persuasive as in some places, so was able to escape and made my way to find a guest house.

The most striking thing about Hanoi is the traffic, it's never ending, a stream of mainly motorbikes constantly passing by day and night. In the few places where they now have traffic light controls, it's amazing to see the stampede as the light turns green, hundreds, thousands of bikes just whizz off dodging and weaving their way through the traffic, never stopping, just slowing down to swerve around pedestrians and other vehicles that are heading in a similar or perpendicular direction. It's amazing to watch, a bit hairy to be involved as I was on a few occassions. The thirty minute ride to and from the football stadium was memorable, I didn't know whether to close my eyes or to watch alertly at the route, so I was prepared for any sudden weaving, slowing or other evasive actions. Of course the drivers know what they are doing and that gave me confidence, but it's strange to be driving just a leg's width away from another bike and see them swerve towards you, then edge away just in time. Roundabouts and crossings are unbelievable, slowing down, dodging and weaving and everyone just gets through with little problem, it's amazing! trying to walk across a road is another thing and takes some nerve and practice!

As for the rest of Hanoi, it's got heaps of chracter, old buildings, a mixture of colonial and Vietnamese, a mix of food places, some of which blend Asian and French style for some interesting cuisine, ad hoc morning markets, which seem to appear anywhere, generally nice people, though you have to watch them as they do try to take advantage of foreigners and a just generally non-stop scene of activity. I didn't love it, but it's certainly fascinating viewing.

More from the AFC Asian Cup

2007-07-10T13:39:00.000+08:00

Last night I went to watch my favourite Asian team, Japan play against Qatar in Hanoi. During my trip to Japan during the WC2002, the enthusiasm and love for the game of football the Japanese displayed was amazing and has kept me watching them whenever possible since. So a chance to see them live in Hanoi could not be missed.

The turnout was sadly pretty low, over half were Japanese, there were a handful of Qatar fans with what looked like some Oman fans backing them up, the rest local Vietnamese and the occasional non-Asian who seemed to consist of British and Ozzies.
It was defending champions Japan who made all the early running and it was the two Nakamurus were controlling the game in midfield for the Japanese, picking up the ball all over the pitch and spreading the play out wide to the flanks from which Japan caused the Qatar defence a few problems, but despite their dominance, they struggled to put away any chances and it was still goalless at half-time.
In the Second half it was more of the same until eventually after around an hour Japan found the net through Takahara who turned in a cross that for once found a blue shirt in space. While Japan missed more chances and Qatar created few threats it looked like it would finish 1-0 until defender Abe - who appeared to have a few female admirers wearing his number 6 shirt amongst the Japanese fans - gave away a free-kick on the edge of the box (looked like it could have been a dive, but not sure) with just three minutes remaining. The resulting free-kick was blasted towards the wall and deflected past ex-Pompey keeper Yoshi Kawaguchi, giving him no chance at all. The best chance of the match was still to come, but with a minute remaining Japan failed to convert a great chance when they put a close range effort over the bar.

At the far side of the stadium, there was one Qatar fan, standing with a Qatar flag, wearing a typical middle eastern, long, white robe and holding a mega-phone. At various stages, especially during the second half, he started singing through the megaphone. They weren't football songs that I had heard before, they were very middle eastern songs/chants and caused some grins amongst the Japanese, whose own musician, who had started playing earlier, responded by playing his trumpet. At one point a familiar chant came from the Qatari man, to which the Japanese trumpeter responded by playing it back to him, backed up by the estimated 600 Japanese fans it was all good fun. The wonderful thing about Japanese fans is their female following, a very excitable lot who are frequently seen at matches on TV. The majority of these seemed to be sitting in one corner of the stadium last night and it was great when some chanting of 'Nippon, Nippon' coming from the mainly male groups to my right and around me, was then repeated and continued by the mainly female contingent to the left, but at a range two octaves higher! (Len will remember this when we watched some Japan games in bars in Japan 2002, it's fantastic). It's something not often heard around football grounds, but great to see their real enthusiasm and support for their team, top marks to the Japanese girls, they're just adorable.

There's only one Le Cong Vinh !

2007-07-09T23:10:00.000+08:00

That's what the Vietnamese fans were chanting when star striker Le Cong Vinh put Vietnam into a 2-0 lead last night at the My Dinh stadium in Hanoi, Vietnam. Underdogs against a stronger, supposedly more skilled UAE team, Vietnam used their home advantage and the backing of their passionate fans to deliver a performance full of determination, that resulted in a thoroughly deserved 2-0 victory. It was Gulf Cup champions UAE who came closest to opening the scoring in the first half with a shot that was heading for the bottom corner until it was excellently turned past the post by keeper Hong Son Duong, but Vietnam also created some openings which gave them confidence to come out in the second half with confidence still high. They continued to pressurise their opponnents whenever they had the ball and forced errors which gave them chances to move forward and create their own openings. It was a defensive slip that gave Vietnam the opening goal, a ball over the top of the defence was not cleared and gave Huynh Quang Thanh the chance to hammer the ball home to the delight of the home crowd. Ten minutes later it was 2-0,when another ball over the top caught the UAE defence asleep and Le Cong Vinh, nonchalently lobbed the keeper to wrap it up for the co-hosts.

Wat? No Angkor?

2007-07-08T08:59:00.000+08:00

So the new Seven Wonders of the World were announced, I agree with most of the selections, but how can that Christ the Redeemer status in Brazil be included and Angkor Wat not be included. I don't know, while it's impressive, sure, it just doesn't seem such a 'wonder' to me. Certainly not as remarkable as Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Now that is what I consider to be a true wonder of this world!

New Seven Wonders

2007-07-07T19:28:00.000+08:00

So today, on the 07/07/07 is the day when the new seven wonders of the world will be announced. The New Seven Wonders Foundation was created by some Swiss guy, presumbly looking for some publicity and fame (cynical aren't I). About six years ago their website opened in order to accept nominations, by the end of 2005 there were almost two hundred nominations and from the top seventy seven, the foundation selected twenty one candiates from which the public were to vote for the new seven wonders of the world.

They promoted the campaign with "The key difference is that, this time around, they will not be chosen by one man, but rather by millions of people all over the world."
Yes, to a certain degree, but what were the criteria on which the 21 finalists were chosen? What about the other 56 of the top 77 nominees? If the people of the world are to chose, then why did they not just select the top 21 nominees? Why is there no more than one nominee from any country? Is that a realistic way to choose the new seven wonders? Surely they should choose the best 21 regardless of location. Already in the selection of the final 21 nominees, some selection has occurred based not on the opinions of "millions of people all over the world", but by the N7W panel.

But why the concern? Well having seen the list of 21 finalists, I just wonder and worry about what the outcome may be. While most of the obvious candidates are there (in my opinion), there are also some 'wonders' missing (in my opinion).
What about:
o The Terracotta Army near Xi'an, China?
o The Registan in Smarkand, Uzbekistan?
o Both Borobudur and Prambanan near Yogyakartya on Indonesia's Java island?
o Bagan in Myanmar (Burma)?
o Sukothai old city in Thailand?
o Cardiff Castle? (ok, just kidding there)
o Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australia

And why are these included:
o The Statue of Liberty?
o Sydney Opera House?
o The Eiffel Tower? (it's just a big electricity pylon !)
o Christ the Redeemer Statue

How can the Terracotta Army in Xi'an not be included? It seems to be because they chose The Great Wall of China and there is this restriction - not that I have seen it mentioned, but it seems pretty obvious - of one site per country. Otherwise China would potentially have many other candidates; The Forbidden City, Dafo (The Giant Buddha). And surely France has better candidates than the tower?

If natural wonders were also included - I assume they have been excluded intentionally - as only architectural sites are in the list, there would be far more to argue about I'm sure. e.g. Why Sydney Opera House and not Ayers Rock?

So, I will wait and see what the result is. For the record, it's tough but I would have voted for (in no particular order), but this is just my opinion:

o Great Wall of China, China.
o Terracotta Army, Xi'an, China.
o Registan, Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
o Machu Picchu, Peru.
o Petra, Jordan.
o Easter Island Statues, Chile.
o Angkor Wat, Cambodia

but I'm sure someone will disagree

Note: The Pyrmaids of Giza are not included as they are already one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.

Night(mare) bus to Vietnam

2007-07-05T22:50:00.001+08:00

A long bus journey was the only option to Vietnam from Southern Laos. I bought a ticket from an agent for once, which was probably silly and it turned out to be so. The bus station was some 5km out of town which is why I made this rare choice to line some agent's pockets with extra cash for no real reason but I guessed it may be less than a taxi out to the station and back in order to guarantee a ticket. It meant for some reason I had to leave 90 minutes earlier, so he could take me the wrong way to some collection point outside a tailor repair shop, where I had to wait another 30 minutes for a sangthaew to the station which I could have just got myself anyway. This was his way of providing a 'taxi' to the station as he put it. Anyway at least I had a seat on the bus, some slept on the floor or on the boxes and crates of various consignments loaded on by the drivers and passengers, fruit, clothes, those conical hats you see in the fields and who knows what else. Only half of the bus had seats, the back half was full of merchandise! Reminds me a little of the journey from Tbilisi (Georgia) to Zaqtala (Azerbaijan) many years back when there were many times more boxes of satsumas on the bus than people, we even had to give up our seat for some boxes of bananas at one point!!!

Anyway it was a hellish journey, crappy old bus, rattling along all the way on rough roads, and a gale blowing in my face through the night as the guy in front of me insisted on keeping his window open, I slept as best as possible with my coat over my head. We stopped around 2am, at a night cafe, 1 km short of the border, for five hours until it opened. In the morning I had the annoying shyster bus drivers, trying to charge $3 to register my passport details, and refusing to drive me to the border unless I paid, so I walked there anyway just to spite them and of course didn't have to pay anything as I went through. It was hours before we moved on though, some dodgy moments about the merchandise I think, sniffer dogs on board and things being taken off, don't know what, the bus drove back to Laos for 15 minutes then returned and on we went, very odd.

Arrived in Danang around 20 hours later and jumped on the back of a xe-om (motorbike taxi) and sped away to Hoi-An, some 30km away. Hoi An is an old town situated on the Do river, In the 16th-18th centuries it was an important trading port that connected Asia to the rest of the world, today it is a "living architectural museum", but one also full of tailors and cobblers, desperate to make you something to wear.

A pretty place, nice buildings, riverside cafes, a busy market, lots of handicrafts, historical architecture with a mix of Chinese, Japanese, French and Portuguese influences and the cobbled streets and riverside setting make it a tourist hot-spot in Vietnam. Only the much touted museums were a bit of a disappointment, though I enjoyed the music performance that was included in the "all in one" ticket (which in fact lets you see only one in four of the sites, not "all" as it suggests). A bit touristy, you even get coachloads of retirees and families coming here, but it's an easy and pleasant place to hang around.

I hired a bicycle and cycled around the town's sites, the village across the river, where there are plenty of offers to go out on a boat with local fishermen if you like, and out to the rice fields and local villages around Hoi An. All quite nice if you survive the crazy drivers. Second day I took a tour, "what was I doing ???" not my way at all, but here it was the only simple way to get out to My Son, the ruins of the 4th century Champa Kingdom and at, I think $5, it was the cheapest way anyway and ultimately not such a chore as after an initial introduction at the site, there were no flags or umbrellas in the air to follow, but were allowed to wander our own way, and meet back at the bus later. Only one of the sites at My Son has any remaining structure of interest, sadly much of it was destroyed by US bombs!!!! Part of the journey back was by boat, stopping off at a handicraft village to see woodcarvers, potters and sculptures at work creating the souvenirs that fill many of Hoi An's shops.

Mekong Boat to Charming Champasak

2007-07-05T22:50:00.000+08:00

There were two ways to get to Champasak, take a bus down the highway to a town on the East of the Mekong and then across on a ferry, or take a boat! No choice there, even it cost a bit more. There turned out to be seven of us on the boat, it wasn't the largish boat I had expected from photos, but a small typical Mekong river boat large enough for about 8 people, out of season they use this cheaper option. It was a pretty nice trip, around 3 hours floating peacefully along the Mekong river, past mountains and fields. It's the third time I've been on a stretch of the Mekong by boat, it wasn't the most scenic, but it was certainly the most peaceful stretch of Mekong water I've been on.

We were surprisingly dropped off at the bottom of a steep ladder along the banks of the river, rather than at the ferry port. Up the ladder we ended up right in a guesthouse, obviously a favourite of the driver, i.e. a good commission. But it turned out to be handy as the port was quite a walk away from any accommodation, the place was ok and we bargained a cheaper price than the one we had planned to stay at, so was happy with it. Five took a taxi straight to the Champasak ruins site as they wanted to leave again the same day. Francoise and I stayed here and hired bicycles to cycle the 10km or so to the site which was well worth it. The road was surrounded by paddy fields, mountain views and the lovely Lao people who would spot us and shout out 'Sabai dii' (hello) as we passed by. The children however young would get excited at the sight of us and some even ran out to the road to wave at us. Younger ones cradled in mother's arms who had probably not been speaking for so long were encouraged by mothers to shout and wave at us. Laos is surely still home to the friendliest and warmest people in any country I have ever visited.

The ruins at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Champasak are worth the visit, the best part being the view from the top of the slope at which there are some temples overlooking the ruins and the landscape far around. Soon after we climbed the steps we were joined by a large group of mainly female, Lao students from Vientiane. After some interviews and photos with some of the pretty girls, which I was happy to partake in, I was allowed once more to get on with my sightseeing which was interrupted for twenty minutes by a thunderous downpour during which I sheltered under the umbrella of a ladies snack stall.

The cycle back was just as interactive with locals once again stopping us to chat and we stopped at one cafe overlooking beautiful paddy fields and distant mountains for a refreshing bottle of the excellent, unbeatable Beer Lao. After a visit to check out the ferry docks, just a path, a slipway and a small vehicle carrier, a quick look around the market and a few photos later, I headed back to the guesthouse just before the storm came. I managed to get some dinner before the power cut and with no lights except a couple of skinny candles, went to sleep before an early start. The next morning I was up and breakfasted before the last sangthaew left to the ferry at 07:00, yes that was the last one!! It drove onto the vehicle carrier and I met Champasak's English teacher who has given me details in case I fancy a job there. Over the other side, more people got on to the sangthaew, a vehicle designed to fit maybe 10 people, but carrying I think it was 27 at one point, (There were about 6 down each side, maybe 8 or 9 on sacks of rice or the floor in between, a couple hanging over the edge at the back and 5 standing on the steps hanging on to the rear of the vehicle) though I might have missed someone in the crush, but this is normal in Laos and they don't seem to find it too uncomfortable, though I did, and had to enforce a little repositioning of legs once or twice to stop them from dying underneath me. Anyway I arrived and could still just about walk to a ticket agent to sort out a ticket to Vietnam that evening.

Savannakhet, Pakse & Bolivean Plateau

2007-07-05T22:49:00.000+08:00

Once in Savannakhet, I walked down to the riverside where many mini-cafes were set-up, serving drinks and snacks overlooking the Mekong. I sat near to the ferry port, bought a bottle of the infamous Beer Lao and watched the overcrowded, overloaded ferry that I wasn't allowed onto arrive. The passengers disembarked and unloaded their merchandise from the boat bit by bit, it was so packed, it took forever for everything to be carried up the slip to the roadside. A pleasant place to sit and watch the river, the locals and Laos life go by. Around the rest of friendly Savannakhet, you see immediately the relaxed Lao lifestyle, people asleep or just lying around the front of their houses, many of which double as a shop, sheltering from the afternoon heat, monsoon rains and just letting the day roll on peacefully until something is required of them. The only buzz of activity arrived at end of school time when school children took over the streets, hanging around chatting and snacking with friends or whizzing around on their bicycles or motorbikes, yes even young children drive around on motorbikes here! But an hour later everything was back to normal, quiet, unruffled and soothingly tranquil, this is a town that almost defines the word 'relaxed'.

Moving on, I took a bus Southwards to Pakse which has a bit more of a town feel, not for that reason, but to try and get out to the Bolivean Plateau a forest area packed with wild waterfalls and forest exploration, which had been recommended to me. Being low season there were no groups or mini-buses to join so I hired a motorbike and drove the 50km there, past fruit stalls, small villages along the roadside, looking for the pointers that had been given to me by a tourist info cafe. I didn't find them at all so just followed any signs that signified a waterfall or site to be seen and although it turns out I missed one of the highlights (because I missed a major junction due to it being some 15km earlier than I had been advised) , I found some remote fruit farms, some apparently, newly discovered, little visited falls as well as some better known ones. So all in all, it was still a worthwhile afternoon dash. The nicest part might have been my failed search for a waterfall that brought me to a few scattered wooden houses, some coffee, tea and fruit plantations and some amused locals in traditional clothing, collecting fruit from the fields, who were clearly not expecting me, but kept smiling and chatting away to me although they knew I couldn't understand. The toughest part was trying to get to grips with using a motorbike on ice-like slippery mud paths, I slipped a couple of times but fourtunately came out unscathed.

Back in Pakse, I spent the evenings checking out the local cafes. There is an Indian cafe there run by an Indian family who migrated to Laos many years ago and now runs a cafe/tour agency, nice people and some nice Indian food, especially the breakfasts. I passed one tiny bar, where a group of locals were having a good time, celebrating a birthday, they invited me over as I walked by and I had a great, fun evening singing Lao songs with a few Beer Lao, they were mainly teachers or student teachers so were keen to practice and show off their English skills. But Pakse won't keep anyone there for long, so I turned down the offer of an interview for an English teaching job at their school and the next day headed down the Mekong to Champasak.

Khon Kaen and into the Land of Elephants

2007-07-04T08:49:00.000+08:00

Early start to catch a bus for the long journey from Old Sukothai to KhonKaen, apparently there is a direct bus that stops outside my guesthouse, unbelievable. A bus arrives at the time I was told but it only goes as far as Phitsanulok, but I'm told to get on and change there. No problem, I haveno better plan! On the way, the Khon Kaen bus flies past us !!! Aaaarrggghhhh!!! 'Wait', I shout, but it doesn't hear me. Fortunately at Phitsanulok station, the bus is still waiting, unfortunately it's now full, even though I have a ticket, but that's normal in this region, busses have no maximum person limit, so I stand for 96% of the the 9 hour journey. We cross mountains, traverse countless towns, villages and masses of paddy fields, that give the first indication of how Thailand is the world's largest exporter of rice. For a short while I had a seat, but then we passed a broken down bus and picked up their passengers, as some were fairly elderly I gave up the seat I had had for all of 20 minutes.

At KhonKaen, one of the tuktuk drivers seems to know a popular guesthouse where most travellers end up, so I go there. I'm about the 5th person to have signed in their guest book in the last month, "it's out of season" they tell me, but they also tell me that five years ago, they were always full. Thailand tourism has been hit badly since the tsunami apparently, they think that's the primary reason. I suspect it's also an effect of the increasing popularity of other countries in the region, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and China whose visitor figures are increasing rapidly year after year. Some other people I met had other reasons I won't mention here.
Khon Kaen isn't anything special, I just stopped to break up the journey and because it gives access to various border crossing to Laos, and I hadn't yet decided which crossing to use. But while here, I found the one site worth visiting, contrary to the advice of the LP, it is not their museum, but Pra Mahathat Kaen Nakorn a pyramidical temple, near to the lake, quite sparkling it is.

Left: Elephant at the Mukdahan market.

Right: Mukdahan's Pra Mahathat Kaen Nakorn.

Next morning, having decided on which route to take I found a bus to Mukdahan and then a decent hotel near to the Mekong river ferry terminal and customs house for the crossing to Laos. Took a walk down to the riverside and met some elephants in the road, yes, quite normal here and after all just across the river is Laos, "The Land of Elephants". Although nothing to really see for the tourist, Mukdahan had a nice feel, it feet quite deserted at times, except for the busy night market where I found some fine fresh fruit drinks, snacks and friendly locals.

In the morning I tried to cross over to Laos, but the customs would not let me. It seems since the Friendship Bridge II (number I crosses the river between Nong Khai /Vientiane) was opened earlier this year, foreigners can no longer use the ferry to cross the river to Laos between Mukdahan and Savannakhet. Shame as this would have been a far more colourful way to cross international borders. So, anyway, I backtracked to the bus station and took the international bus across the bridge to Savannakhet and to my favourite country in the world, Laos. A bit of painless form failing and a slightly overpriced visa fee later, I had a Laos visa in my passport and continued to Savannakhet, it all took less than an hour before I was at my hotel of choice. But it would have been quicker and nicer on the ferry!

Beautiful Buddha & Ancient Sukothai

2007-07-02T08:49:00.000+08:00

I left Ayutthaya and took the train to Pitshanulok. Getting onto the train you had to take a huge jump up from the platform onto the train. Normally no problem for a flexible, agile guy like me, but with a rucksack on my back and a bag of food in hand, my leap resulted in tearing my trousers, badly. And at the front too! Anyway, they had lasted well for a 4 dollar pair from the 'green market' in Almaty, I couldn't complain. So, holding my bag of food in the right place to 'cover up', I shuffled to my seat and luckily being at the back of the carriage and sitting alone, I don't think anyone noticed when I dived into my bag, found a pair of shorts and sneaked into the toilets to change. Embarassing.

Phitsanulok, so what's there? you might ask. Well according to everyone in Thailand, Phitsanulok is home to the most beautiful and revered Buddha statue in the country, Phra Phuttha Chinnarat. Its home is Wat Phra Si Ratana Mahathat, or known more simply by its local name Wat Yai.

Left: Fruit sellers outside Phitsanulok's busy market
Right: Thailand's most revered Buddha statue in Wat Yai.

My hostel was East of the centre and had a nice outside bar with live music just a short walk away, where the staff were quite amused to see me. As usual the Thai hospitality was warm and friendly but here where tourists are less frequent and English is not always spoken it was funny to see them a little scared to serve me until one brave young girl who spoke some English decided to step up to the challenge. From the hostel to the temple was a longish walk through the town, past markets, the station packed lined with tuk-tuks and along the river, it's an OK town but nothing special. Wat Yai, though was packed, Thai families, couples, school children and visitors from all over Thailand wandering around the grounds making offerings at each altar, then inside the main temple, everyone kneeling on the floor praying and photographing. Though I can't explain exactly why this Buddha image is the most revered of its kind in Thailand, it is quite impressive and no matter what my impression is, you can be sure the Thai people will still flock from all around the country to visit.

Onto Sukothai. I thought I would be staying in new Sukothai far from the historical ruins, but luckily the lady selling bus tickets at the station suggested there was now accomodation in old Sukothai, so I took a chance. And, right where the bus droppped me off were two or three guesthouses, perfect. They also had cafes, hired bikes and were located just metres from the amazing, ancient Sukothai ruins. Sukothai was from 1257 the original capital of the first Thai Kingdom until it was overtaken by Ayuthaya. Majority of ruins are in a beuatifully designed, enclosed park, with lovely scenes, day and night. Some others are further out, in all directions from the centre, in total over 90 sites within a 5km radius, the number of temple sites is mesmorising. The highlight here is Wat Mahathat in the centre if the park, which is where I started early one morning. It took a whole day, non-stop cycling, walking and gazing, and quite some effort to see all I wanted to see. Two days would have been far more sensible and relaxed, but I saw enough, maybe around 75% of the sites listed from maps and guides. Skipped by many on the Thailand tourist trail in favour of the more accessible Ayuthaya, I would suggest that apart from a couple of gems in Authaya, overall Sukothai is a far more rewarding journey to make.

Left: Water Lilly pond at Sokothai's ancient historical site
Right: Wat Mahathat in Sokothai.

Left: Elephant decorated wat in Sukothai.
Centre: Workers in the fields around Sukothai
Right: A Lotus flower placed at a Budda's fingernail.

Pool in Penang, Bustling Bangkok and Ancient Ayuthaya

2007-07-02T07:35:00.000+08:00

My return to Georgetown was worth it, it's a great place to be, nice atmosphere and good fun and friendly people. One evening I became involved in a lengthy pool session at a bar with some locals and had a great night yet again. But it was time to move on, out of Malaysia and back to Thailand. It was a 1 day journey, leaving lunchtime and arriving the next lunchtime, I like these trips, plenty of time to relax, read, gaze out the window and chat with whoever is next to you, who on this occasion turned out to be three lucky Filipino ladies on holiday. They run a mountain climbing and adventure tour agency and I have a card, so if anyone is interested in that kind of thing in the Philippines, just let me know.

Arrived at Bangkok and it's just the same as ever, hot dusty, noisy, busy and the tuk-tuk drivers still try to prey on naivety and try to take you somewhere to rip you off. I've seen enough of it before so didn't need to stay other than I wanted a Vietnamese visa and this seemed the best place to get one. So I had a break there, waiting, observing people, and checking out the latest t-shirts in Khao San Road. Along with the perennial "Singha Beer", "Beer Chang", "Beer Lao", "Red Bull" shirts, you now see, "iPood" with a picture of someone sitting on a toilet listening to a music player, the fine band "The Killers" get a look in, only the band members faces are no longer Brandon, David, Mark and Ronnie, but now Sadaam, Osama, Joseph & George, funny. Puma's famous leaping puma has been turned into a leaping fluffy dog with the name now "Poodle" and last but not least, for those who have been there, you'll know the Thai (And Laos/Vietnamese have picked it up too it seems) whenever using the word "same", always duplicate it, "Same same!!", this has also been adapted in the t-shirt collections in the funny and sometimes used phrase (honestly, I have heard them say this !!), "SAME SAME..... BUT DIFFERENT". That one always makes me giggle when I hear it.

One evening I had a bit of a surprise when I heard my name being called out and saw Darren (who I had met in on the bus from Kuala Lumpur to Cameron Highlands) in the street, so I joined him, Rachel and some others for a evening of live rock music in a Bangkok bar, good stuff. Anyway, after a week hanging around watching, I got a haircut, collected my Vietnamese visa and was off to the old capital of Ayuthaya. At the bus station I struggled to find anyone who understood me for a while, until I found out how badly I was pronouncing 'Ayuthaya'. Once one lady deciphered what I was trying to say, she pointed me through the busy market where I eventually found out I had been in the wrong bus station, or at least the wrong part of the dual bus station complex!

Left: Bangkok's infamous traveller's ghetto of Khao San Road.

Centre: My whizzy bike in Ayuthaya.

Right: Lotus flower, significant in Buddhism.

In Ayuthaya I found a nice guesthouse and took a walk to investigate what would be in tomorrow's plan. A boat tour would have been nice as part of it, but alone it was an expensive option, a bicycle would have required many days to see everything I wanted to see, so a motorbike was the way to do it. Late in the day while riding out to the extremes of the city, heading to some site, I saw a large advertising banner, all written in that illegible Thai script, except for the words "BIG ASS" somewhere in the middle of it, I can't imagine what the rest of it said, but would love to know. Pity I was on a busy main road when I passed it and could not stop to photograph it.

Ancient Ayuthaya is set on an island formed by the convergence of three rivers; Mae Nam Lopburi, Chao Phraya and Pa Sak. The ancient town, a UNESCO world heritage site, has temples all around and between 1350 and 1767 was the cultural centre of the emerging Thai nation which eventually fell to the Burmese invaders who then looted the city's treasures. Even narrowing down the list of "should see" sites to a manageable number is a challenge, but then as I drove around, I realised there are far more sites than just the thirty or so recommended on the tourist maps. So, I made a selection, a proposed route and whizzed off on my motorbike to see a few, stopping now and again to see extra places that caught my attention on the way. Some of the ruins are quite amazing and there is a huge variety in the styles, age and historical importance of all the sites which inlude 'wats' (temples), 'chedi' (Bell shaped tower also know as a stupa), 'praang' (tall khmer style spires) and 'wihaan' (where the temple's Buddha sculpture is placed).

Left: An iconic symbol of Ayuthaya, the Buddha's head embeded in roots of a tree.

Right: Amazing Wat Chai Wattanaram in Ayuthaya.

Apart from the Buddhist ruins that take up your entire day(s), and the fact I improved my motorbike skills, I found a lively social scene in the evening, after chatting with one of the cafe owners who was full of information about the city, he invited me along to a local bar where the entertainment was provided by music and singing. At first there was just the guitarist, but he was later joined by drummers, singers and anyone else in there who cared to join in. After closing time the doors were shut and on it went through the night. Four hours later when I decided I needed some sleep before tomorrow's journey onwards and Northwards it was still going strong.

Left: Three stupas of Wat Phra Si San Peth.

Right: Khmer style Wat Phra Ram surrounded by a moat of lotus flower.

Strawberries & Tea in the Cameron Highlands

2007-07-01T16:34:00.000+08:00

The country that has the symbol of Portsmouth on their flag ! What other reason do you need to like Malaysia ;) But after this good start, it has plenty more to offer and so as I headed back through Malaysia once more, this time South to North, I stopped to discover some more of its interesting culture and nature. A brief stop in Kuala Lumpur to break up the journey and then it was to the busy station to find a bus to Tana Ratah, a town in the Cameron Highlands. No, it's not in Scotland as it sounds, but the Cameron Highlands are surprisingly in Malaysia; a cool, hilly, picturesque region in its central highlands.

After a rather chaotic departure from Kuala Lumpur last time I was here, where the bus Rebecca and I had bought tickets for did not exist! I suppose it shouldn't have surprised me to encounter more problems at the same station when trying to get to Tanah Rata. This time I was being told the bus did not leave from the station at all but from a market somewhere up the road from one of the rear exits. I just couldn't grasp what she was saying, I was expecting a platform number, but she was giving me some complex directions! What? Where? Why? Thinking I had mis-heard I kept re-asking until the poor girl trying to explain got up from her desk and walked me to a rear doorway, pointed out some green sign a long way up the road that I could not see and told me to wait there. So, I headed in that general direction and eventually found Darren, Rachel and a few Malaysians standing around looking like they might be waiting for a bus. They were, ten minutes later the bus turned up! Daz and Rachel from Blackburn were on a one year round the world trip and also heading to Tanah Rata.

Tana Ratah is in the mountains so has plenty of cool fresh air, a nice escape from the humid, tropical lowlands I had just left. I stayed in one of the strange looking corrugated iron huts in the garden of "Father's Guest House", an odd looking structure, but perfectly fine and the Indian owners were very helpful. The town was full of cafes offering Indian, Malay and Chinese foods, the surrounding area was full of thick jungle to explore via its numerous trails. I chose a combination of three routes to try out one day, starting with one path, joining another and then descending the mountain via another, just to stretch things out! The paths were at times far from clear and a couple of times I had to backtrack and try again before finally getting thoroughly lost on the way down and ending some way from where I intended. The walk was not simple, at times it turned into a crawl and a struggle using hands, knees and any available tree trunks/branches to scramble up and over, made more difficult by the bags of melon and pomelo that I was carrying for lunch. It was tricky at times, but good fun and certainly gave the muscles a good stretch and workout.

Even more of a workout was the day cycling to the region's other attractions. Cycling along the hilly route north of town with steep inclines was hard work in hot weather. The region's fertile land is home to many fruit and tea farms and my first stop was the "Big RED Strawberry Farm" whose cafe was a strawberry lover's dream as it sold almost every possible type of strawberry dish; strawberry juice, strawberry flan, strawberry shakes, strawberry sundae, strawberries with yoghurt and honey, strawberries and cream and even strawberry "ais-krim goreng" (deep fried ice-cream!!). The shop held even more strawberry products; toothpaste, soap, shower gels, hair gels and shampoos for your personal hygiene; strawberry jam, sweets, cake, chocolate, biscuits and cereals for your dietary needs and strawberry posters, tea cloths, jewellery boxes, jigsaws and much more as a souvernier option. Strawberry plants however are not that exciting to look at, the cactusses (or cacti if you prefer) were a more interesting view and photograph oppurtunity. Then, even more cactusses were to be found next door in "Cactus Valley" where there were more varieties of cactus than you can possibly imagine. A bizarre and varied collection spread over a huge area, most of which looked awfully painful to bump into.

Left: Crawling through the jungles.
Centre: Lots of Cacti!!
Right: Yummy, strawberry ice-cream.

Off on the bike again, through the town of Brinchang and on past more strawberry farms, butterfly farms and plenty of flower gardens. By now the roads were getting tougher, steeper and longer and it was a relief to reach the top of the mountain, so I could fly down the winding road towards my goal, the "Sungai Palas Boh Tea Estate". Approaching the estate, the rolling hills around are almost entirely covered in Camellia Sinensis, tea plants. All around, you are surrounded, wherever you look, you see nothing but tea plants. The estate offers a brief guided tour of the production factory, explaining the processes involved in production of each variety of tea, and then you can sit in the cafe and sample some while gazing at the amazing plantation below.

Left & Right: Tea plantations at Songai Palas Boh Tea Estate.

It was hard work getting back up the hill even after some refreshing tea, but after that it was an easier journey home, even if my clothes and body took a battering thanks to the thunderstorms, muddy roads and lack of mudguard on the bike. Back in town, I picked up a bus ticket to Ipoh for the next morning and an enormous indian meal to top up all those calories I'd lost due to the day's cycling.

The nest morning I left for Ipoh, choosing to stop there for a few hours on my way back up to Butterworth and a re-visit to Penang. Ipoh is an old town with none of the shiny lights of KL. It made its name thanks to the tin mines of the nearby Kinta valley when tin was Malaysia's largest export. Now it's an average Malaysian town with old colonial style architecture and some friendly Chinese cafes, where I spent most of my time once I realised there was not so much to see or do here. So after a typically Chinese noodle soup for breakfast, some exploration and a lunch with some of Malaysia's finest Tiger beer, I headed back to the station and once again towards Georgetown, Penang.

Left: Tanah Rata's fine Indian Meal.
Right: The streets of Ipoh.

Singapore: Lion City

2007-06-30T08:36:00.000+08:00

Wasn't planning on going so far south, but having already come as far as Kuala Lumpur, I thought I would make sure Rebecca got back to Singapore safely, plus it was only another few hours and would be a chance to see Gavin again.

Singapore, means "Lion city", while I do like lions, I wasn't so keen on Singapore last time, it feels as if it is misplaced in this world, as though it doesn't fit into the SE Asia environment. It's clean, tidy, efficient, polite, expensive and full of rules and laws that people obey. That's just not South East Asia, but maybe there are some postives to it???

This time around I did get to see a bit more of the local culture, a walk up to 'Little India' an area full of ethnic Indians with market stalls and cafes galore was a hot, humid, but interesting days outing. An evening visit to Singapore zoo, which they claim was the first 'night safari' in the world, gave a chance to catch a glimpse of some wild animals in the dark, though you could not see everything clearly, some were visible and appeared to be real and not just models! Among the cast were Elephants, giraffes, a tapir, a fishing cat (it just hangs around the edge of water and when hungry flashes out a paw and nabs a passing fish, cool), Malayan Flying Fox (the largest bat in the world), civets, leopards, hippos, lions, sloth bears, malayan tigers (sponsered by tiger balm ;-)) and a few others I'm sure. You can walk the trails or take a tram like vehicle along the main loop, or do both if you have time.

I spent one morning and lunchtime around the Chinatown area, - I must have been missing China again - it's a big market area, with as you might expect lots of Chinese food, Chinese art and handicrafts and Chinese people who speak yet another strange dialect of Chinese, Hokkien, that I also could not understand. One evening while wandering with Gavin we also stumbled across a Chinese dance performance in the street which was a lively one to catch.

Left: Rebecca and me on the Singapore night safari.

Right: Singapore's government building.

Good news on the football front! Thanks to South Africa's satellite channel Super Sports, I was able to see Wales' match against the Czech Republic live on TV all the way away in Singapore, a reasonablr performance from a young team, really needed to win it, but I settled for a 0-0 against one of the top 5 in the world.

Finally, one afternoon we all spent at the bach on Sentosa island that is just a bridge away from Singapore island, it has some nice sandy beaches, lined with bars and cafes, people playing football, volleyball on the sand and out at sea you can gaze at the oil tankers in the port, hmmmmm, not quite the seaside view you normally expect..

Left: Watching Wales v Czech Republic live in Singapore!

Right: Sentosa island beach.

After a few days at Gavin's luxury appartment, I took a bus back up to KL. Despite the fact that it's the same bus companies that run the route in both directions obviously, it costs around twice as much as the other direction! Hmmm, that's Singapore for you. Bye bye and off I went back up North.

Kuala Lumpur

2007-06-29T08:36:00.000+08:00

Left Georgetwon for Kuala Lumpur (KL to locals) on a colourfully decorated and furnished bus, the roads are lined with various species of palm trees, banana trees and other greenery making a quite picteresque journey. Once in KL we spent most of the time around the Chinatown area, the old centre which is dominated by the Jalan Petaling street market, a busy trading centre selling all kinds of clothes, foods, bags, jewellery and plenty, plenty more. We also visited the Menara KL, which in my opinion is better than the Petronas Towers, as although not as tall, it is higher because it is built on a hill and you can therfore look down on the Petronas towers and the rest of the city. It also helps you can go to almost the top of the tower which is not an option open to the public in the 'twin tower' Petronas.

Left: Kuala Lumpur including Petronas Towers from the KL Tower.
Centre: Enjoying a refreshing coconut.
Right: Rebecca and some 'worm' noodles.

Best things about KL are the markets and the food, there is a great ethnic mix of people which creates the grate choice of foods. We ate most evenings in the street cafes at the market, indulging in various, Indian, Malay and Chinese delights, supplementing the diet with plenty of fruit from the markets, bread or salads from a nice little bakery nearby and a few beers at an old favourite, 'The Reggae Bar' which I discovered on my first visit here, it's changed a little but still a good place for an evening out. One evening we ate at "Roland's Seafood restaurant", suppose you should try these places. Here and at other places around the market area, there were plenty of rats around, you could see and hear them scuttling across the awnings over the restaurant and shop fronts or along narrow ledges on the buildings, you saw some running along the side of the road, under stalls and scaffolding. We had a rat spotting competition on the short walk home one evening, Rebecca won 5-3, and it was barely 400m back to the hotel.

One day we took a trip through the suburbs of KL and to the Batu Caves, some Hindu temples of which the most important is built inside some caves in the side of a hill a few kilometeres outside the city. This temple is once a year host to an important Hindu festival, Thaipusam, to which Hindu people from all over make the pilgramage to watch or paticipate in masochistic rituals that involve piercing their bodies with all kinds of large and evil looking weapons, arrows or hooks etc. while in a trance and then climbing up and down the 272 steps that lead up from the ground to the main cave temple in the hillside above. Some newspaper cuttings at the site showed reports of foreigners who had also joined in the rituals, hooks piercing their backs with ropes attached with which they would pull heavily laden carts. Ouchhhh. You won't catch me doing that.

Left: Jalan Petaling market.
Right: My seafood restaurant in KL!

Coming Up Soon...

2007-06-28T00:01:00.000+08:00

As you might see I haven't updated anything for ages, busy and lazy I guess... Just added a couple of updates today, will try get the rest on soon.

But coming up are:

Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur.

Singapore: Lion City.

Malaysia: Cameron Highlands, Tea, tea and more tea.

Thailand: Bangkok, well it's just Bangkok isn't it.

Thailand: Ancient Ayutthaya.

Thailand: Phitsanulok, Thailands most beautiful Buddha.

Thailand: Sukothai, more ancient temples.

Thailand to Laos: Khon Kaen, Mukdahan and into Laos, the land of elephants.

Phuket to Penang

2007-06-27T08:35:00.000+08:00

Rebecca and I left Phuket and headed towards Malaysia, she needed to return to Singapore for her flight home, so we decided to travel back in that direction bit by bit. Briefly stopping in Hat Yai in Southern Thailand, (we got a minibus within five minutes), we carried on to our intended next stop, Georgetown on Penang Island, Malaysia. It's a great place, real mix of old buildings in colonial style, Chinese style and I guess Malaysian style. The people are a mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian as is the food on offer at the hawkers market which is where we went for dinner. Great choice of foods available, noodles, curries, barbecues, sushi, fish and chips even. We went for 'stick food', various shapes of fish, meats and tofu on sticks, with noodles, great. There's a lively nightlife in Georgetown too, plenty of bars and pubs, live music and DJs playing 1970s rock classics such as Deep Purple and Rainbow!

Left: A betel nut palm or 'pinang' after which the island was named.
Centre: Georgetown bay at night from the hotel window.
Right: Colonial Georgetown architecture.

Penang Island is named after the local Malay name (Pulau Pinang) for the Areca catechu palm tree or betel nut palm which is common on the island.

Next day, we lunched at a Chinese market stall I've been missing Chinese soup noodles believe it or not, so I insisted on going there, saw a few temples and found an antique shop selling some pieces of stone, with the Welsh flag on it, I had to look twice as I couldn't quite believe it, but sure enough they were exact replicas of the Welsh flag, I had to pop in the shop and ask where they got them from and to my surprise they came from Pakistan !! Good to know the Welsh flag is a popular piece of art in Pakistan.

Left: Welsh flag found in Georgetown, Malaysia.
Centre: Chinese wish decorations at a temple.
Right: More Chinese temple decorations.

Reunion in Phuket

2007-06-26T08:35:00.000+08:00

Met up with Gavin and Rebecca in Phuket (pronounced Poo-khet), on the evening of the 22nd May as planned. I was a little surprised to be there on time, as 27 hours earlier I was still in Chiang Rai, and that's about 27 hours away ! I'd stayed in Chiang Rai a little longer than anticipated and only left there the previous evening around 18:00.. I intended to spend the day at least, maybe a night, in Bangkok but despite it not yet being quite 6am when I arrived, I decided to head across town to the Southern bus station, found there was a morning bus to Phuket, leaving in about 30 minutes and decided to continue the journey right away. A top up of water and snacks from a 7Eleven and only another 14 or so hours on a bus to go and I'd be there.

So despite the bus breaking down on the way (they managed to fix it within an hour), there I was in Phuket a couple of hours before Gavin and Rebecca arrived, relaxing in the hostel lounge with a beer and Snatch on DVD when they walked in. It was great to see familiar faces again after a year away. We had four days in Phuket:

Day 1: Thai breakfast in a local muslim cafe, sangthaaew (a kind of truck/taxi) to Kata Noi, found a nice places to stay, lovely room, nice terrace, nice staff, to the beach and lunch by the seaside, chicken and mango spicy salad for me. Picked up some lovely fresh pineapple and papaya to go with the beer and watched the goings on at the seaside. . Out again in the evening, dinner, foot massage and searched for a bar that was showing the UEFA Champions League Final. Avoiding the falling coconuts and ladies offering sex on the beach, we found a bar still open by following the noise of chatter and TV and after watching the match got home around 4am..

Day 2: We hired motorbikes, drove up the coastline as far as Patong, the crowded, overdeveloped, backside of Phuket island. It looked ugly on the outside so we headed off in a new direction. Visited Wat (temple) Chalong, went to the Southern most part of the island, where fishing seemed the main trade, small stalls lined the harbour front selling fresh fish and various crustaceans.. The quiet, tree-lined seafront at Rawai with beautiful views of the water and nearby islands was aglow as the late afternoon sun drifted towards the horizon. The drive back was green and hilly and fortunately we didn't bump into any elephants on the road, always a risk here. The evening we had dinner and a few drinks by the seaside and Rebecca experienced hallucinations of monkeys on the beach, maybe it was the heat.

Left: Water Lillies at Wat Chalong.
Centre: Fishing boats at Rawai village on Phuket.
Right: Boat and karst hills at an island stop.

Day 3: Happy birthday to Gavin today! After a champagne breakfast, we left Kata and went to stay at Chalong Bay, a quiet harbour with a different choice of cafes and restaurants to eat and drink at. In the evening we decided to check out Patong's nightlife, so as it was Gavin's birthday, today seemed the day to do it. It was busy, packed with tourist bars, tourist restaurants, tourist souvenir shops, tourist hotels and all things touristy from A-Z. It's an OK place to drink, eat and in some cases shop and after the eating and shopping we continued the drinking while watching some live music on an open stage, before eventually heading home. Fine for a night out, but glad we didn't stay there.

Day 4: Day trip by boat around Phang Nga bay, whose many limestone (karst) hills rise sharply out of the emerald water, creating dramatic views. One of these islands is now famous for it's part in the James Bond film 'Man with the Golden Gun' and seems to have forgotten its real name, Tapu Island, the large rock next to Khao Phing Kan, is simply known as 'James Bond Island' these days. Hmmmm. Using inflatable sea kayaks we were guided through small tunnels, caves and into large interior lagoons in the centre of the hills, amazing scenery with sheer cliffs rising all around, mangrove trees growing in the low waters and above, a crystal, blue sky. Fish and chips for dinner, last night in a local cafe over a game of scrabble and as Gavin was leaving the next morning, we let him win.

Left: Tapu ("James Bond") Island.
Centre: DJ Barnee hanging around on the boat trip.
Right: Fish for dinner.

The next morning Gavin flew back to Singapore for work commitments, it was a fine few days in Phuket and as always with Rebecca around, every moment was a joy ;). Something of note there was the emergence of tsunami alert signs, showing an escape path, apparently procedures are now in place for evacuation in case it should ever happen again here. There are still signs of what happened although generally most of Kata and what little I saw of Patong seems to have been rebuilt again and things are back to normal again, however it still seems there is a lack of visitors, there are plenty there, but far fewer than there would have been this time of year before December 2004. I have spoken to many people arond Thailand about the relative lack of tourists that appear to be visiting, there are obvious signs such as many cafes or bars for sale, guesthoses almost empty where before they were full. There are many various responses as to why; the tsunami, the terrorist bombs in the south, these have scared people away, there is the recent military coup, the government's new restrictions on foreigners of 90 days in the contry every six months, there is also the increasing tourism trade going to Laos, the huge number of travel agents all over Thailand promoting Laos helps this, as well as similar trips to Cambodia, maybe the emergence of China has also take many away to this new exciting option, one old timer even suggested it was because the Thais are becoming rude, arrogant, *****, well, some are certainly annoying and they aren't as friendly as maybe the Lao, but I can't totally agree with that one though. Most people I met around Thailand, especially in Central and Northern parts have been as warm and friendly as ever and I look forward to going back.

Chiang Saen & Chiang Rai

2007-06-04T08:34:00.001+08:00

Arrived unexpectedly in the evening in Chiang Saen, I thought it took two days to get there, it certainly used to and people I asked in Jinghong said it took two days still, or at least one day, one night and some of the next day, but it wasn't the case in the end. So I got there in the evening and there were no busses going to Chiang Rai at that time, so it resolved my question mark over whether to stop in Chiang Saen or not. Asked around and was guided to a guesthouse, surprisingly run by some guy from the US, who seemed a bit spaced out. At a guess, considering the area and its history of opium cultivation, that may have been part of the reason.

Chiang Saen is a charming, quiet, little place, on the banks of the Mekong, with a few boats heading up and down occassionally, few people, little traffic, though there were a few coaches full of foreigners passing through on their way to the tourist crazy 'Golden Triangle' and a 7/11 shop selling things I haven't seen for ages, such as deodorant (yes, impossible to find in China!), Lays Sour Cream & Onion crisps (yummy) and Cadbury's chocolate (Mmmmm).

Left: Motorbike converted to a mobile shop with sun umbrella.
Right: One of Thailand's colourful local busses.

Went the next morning to Chiang Rai, which I missed out on my last time in Thailand, it's a calmer version of Chiang Mai, maybe not as much to see culturally, not as many tourist agents and not as many courses in Thai language, Thai massage, Thai cooking or mediatation but it's very laid back. After getting caught in a monsoon which lasted around an hour, causing some roads to be completely flooded for a while so that you had to splash your way across roads barefoot, I found the Tepee bar and waited for the weather to clear. The Tepee bar is apparently the oldest bar in Chiang Rai and run by a great Thai guy with a very interesting story of life in Thailand, but I won't divulge his secrets.

Left: Chiang Rai Temple.
Right: Owner of Chiang Rai's oldest bar.

Mekong to Thailand

2007-05-19T16:36:00.000+08:00

With destination Phuket, Thailand due in a few days time, to meet Rebecca and Gavin, I took a boat down the Mekong river to Chiang Saen in Northern Thailand. I've been on a two day slow boat trip on the Mekong before five years ago from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang in Laos, and it was beautiful, this bit of the river is just as good if not better. This section of the Mekong river (Lancang Jiang in Chinese, or MaeKhong in Thai) forms the border between Laos and Myanmar as it winds through hilly landscapes, mostly covered in a lush, dense jungle. You pass an occasional pier, a few mountain villages with wooden huts and a few mountain people walking somewhere, who knows where.

Leaving China was in stark contrast to entering China six months ago in Xinjiang Autonomous Region. At the Irkishtan pass crossing from Kyrgyzstan to China, everyone had to get off the bus, take all luggage some 50m away and line up in front of a gate, while hard faced border guards, searched bags and questioned random people like some army sergeants barking at their troops. Here in the relaxed South of China, the border official smiled and spoke politely to everyone in a soft voice as she quickly checked passports on the boat. I liked Southern China. It was sad to leave.

Left: To Thailand, from China, via Laos and Myanmar, 4 countries in a day.
Right: Scenery around the area where Myanmar, Laos & Thailand meet.

Winding their way between Myanmar and Laos through to Thailand alongside me were a mixture of Chinese and Thai. While sitting outside on the tiny deck area of the boat, I chatted with some of the Thais, who generously forced some of their whisky onto me after our boat lunch was over. A bit of a disaster struck at one point just after leaving a pier on the Myanmar side, the boat got sucked into one of the mini whirlpools that are a common feature along the Mekong due to it's fast currents and as the boat lunged sharply sideways, a few bottles and boxes slid off the boat deck and into the river, they realised a little later, that a valuable bottle of Jim Bean had been lost amongst it all and one man particularly seemed quite upset.

Top Left: Myanmar hill village.
Top Right: Longtail boat used by many along short stretches of the river.
Botom Left: Temple and Stupas in Southern Myanmar.
Bottom Right: Lao children watch our boat with interest.

The Mekong certainly has some of the most stunning scenery anywhere, in many places it is very narrow, maybe no more than 20m at times and there are rocks poking out of the water everywhere, which means a zigzag course needs to be followed to avoid crashing into those visible and those that lurk below the surface of the water. The hills around are beautiful, the thick green vegetation everywhere and the glimpses of hill villages and villagers especially along the Laos side are memorable. The views of the day are spoilt only by the large modern casino and hotel buildings that greet you once you reach the Thai side of the 'Golden Triangle', (the area where Thailand, Laos & Myanmar meet), there is a notable difference as nature makes way for tourism, wooden huts replaced by large buildings, then I know I am now in Thailand.

Jinghong, Xishuangbanna

2007-05-16T23:50:00.000+08:00

Am now in Jinghong, a tropical climate, rainy season and plenty of thunderstorms, but a relaxed, slow and easy lifestyle here. Very nice, very much like South East Asia's Thailand or Laos which are not so far away, and the temples here resemble those in these countries in complete contrast to Buddhist tempes in rest of China. Even closer though is Myanmar and the town has plenty of Myanmar men here selling Myanmar jade, all very friendly and often speak English too, which is good. Although they obviously want to sell something, and I don't want to buy, still nice to have a chat with them about Myanmar.

I arrived in Jinghong on an overnight bus around 5:30am and walked into town, looking for somewhere to stay. I found a place called "Dai's Village", which I decide to stay at as I thought it might have been run by a Welshman ;) But it wasn't, it was run by a Dai family, and was a garden with some bamboo houses surrounded by banana trees. Dai are the predominant ethnic group in this city. I also met Buyang, Bai and Akhe people here and there were probably some more as I didn't ask everyone what ethnic group they were from. These were just a couple of those I spoke with, but clearly there is a wide range of people here and can be seen by the different faces, skin colour, even shape and clothing styles.

Left: Dai's Garden Building guesthouse in Jinghong is not run by a Welshman.
Centre: My bamboo hut and banana tree at night time.
Right: Coconut palms line the streets of Jinghong.

It's a small city, slow pace of life, lively night barbeque packed with young locals eating and drinking beer, some nice parks, markets, streets lined with mango and coconut palm trees and I liked it, despite the rain and thunder every day. Hired a bicycle and cycled along the Mekong and around fields out of town to small villages next to Jinghong and sat in a lot of cafes avoiding the rain.

Today at 4:55pm, I experienced my first ever earthquake tremor, not sure where from, but something I wanted to experience sometime and glad I did and that it was not too serious. I was in an internet cafe, the table was shaking but I thought it was someone opposite me getting excited about some game, but then i realised it was not just the table, my chair was shaking, I looked up and the pictures on the wall were shaking, people got up and ran outside to take a look, I'm not sure at what... Strange feeling, it really felt like the world below me was shaking, which I suppose it was...

Update: Turns out the epicentre of the quake was in Northern Laos, near Luang Prabang. Less than 200km away .

Left: Crop fields along thedge of the Mekong river near Jinghong.
Right: Taditional Dai wooden house in the fields.

Anyway, just a quick update, am leaving China tomorrow morning and taking a boat down the Mekong river to Thailand, so next update will be from somewhere in Thailand.

Quick stop in Kunming

2007-05-13T15:24:00.001+08:00

So what's next? Well. for a while now, I have known that Rebecca was coming from Amsterdam for her holiday to see me and Gavin, who now lives in Singapore and it was time to start moving in that direction to meet up. We were still unsure where to meet, but once decision was made, I realised I had to leave immediately. Phuket in Southern Thailand is a long way away and the route there is not straight forward. There are a few options, but as I couldn't wait four days for a Vietnam visa, it was necessary to go to Kunming and then through northern Laos, or apparently there is an option of a boat from Jinghong that goes straight through to Thailand between the borders of Myanmar and Laos (no visa required I'm told) along the Mekong river, or the Lancang Jiang as it's known in China.

So, a beautiful train journey from Nanning to Kunming, passing kilometre after kilometre of never ending banana plantations in western Guanxi, through small towns dotted around a mountainous landscape. I had 5 young Chinese guys sitting around who were all friendly and spent the daytime part of the journey playing cards. Arrived Kunming at 6am and went to the Cloudland Hostel.

That day I spent with someone I met, first, eating a typical Yunnanese breakfast of "Crossing the Bridge Noodles", a huge bowl of soup, with plates of meat, mushrooms, an egg, spring onions and a few other unidentified things, which you are given uncooked and you throw into the bowl, in a specific order, to let them cook. Although I had heard of it before and seen it on menus I had never tried this, so what better place to try it than in the capital of Yunnan itself. And it's lovely !! We went to a "nationalities park" which is a park designed to inform tourists about the lifestyle and cultures of the 26 different ethnic groups that live in Yunnan province. To be honest, it's a bit of a theme park with a not very authentic feel. You get to meet people from each group and see their living style, houses, clothing, cultural habits, foods, music, rituals etc. I was dragged into a typical Daizu dance with a lovely Dai girl, snacked from some rice and nuts steamed in bamboo stick, entertained by some Wazu music and rained on for most of the morning in a typical rainy season downpour. It's set up by a lake with lovely views and is quite interesting if you have no plans to visit any of the ethnic group's real villages and see them living their lives in their true environment, but can't help feeling, the setting up of such a site and getting the young people from these villages to partake in the park, is just a way to encourage them to see how Chinese live, in a commercial world and is taking away some of the people of the future from their villages in an attempt to get them to see and live in the Han Chinese way.. May sound cynical, but it felt a little like that. When I have the time, I intend to see more of these ethnic groups, but in their remote villages in the mountains and along the banks of the Lancang Jiang, that's the only way to really appreciate their true environment, lifestyle and customs.

Left: Lunch from a steamed bamboo cane.
Right: Scenery from the nationalities park.

In the evening we went to a Bai (one of the ethnic groups) restaurant and I had one of the best meals for a long, long time. Everything was great, tasty and plentiful. So this day I ate two great meals, one error I made was not to take a leaf out of my friend Tina's blog and snap some photos, I'm always to keen to eat and forget about getting a good photo of good looking food before it's all gone !! The night finished with a night out in a Yunnan pub, playing drinking card games, not always recommended with Chinese as they are very enthusiastic about the drinking bit. The game was "shi dian ban" (ten and a half) and involved lots of topping up the glass and frequent drinking from the glass or more often glasses (at least the glasses are very small!). It was a fun night out and after many many bottles had been consumed, we called it a day and went home. Thanks to my English student HeWei and FeiFei for a great day out in Kunming.

Surprisingly I also met Tatsu from Japan today. Who? Well back at the beginning of November I met Tatsu in Kashgar in NorthWestern China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region. We were in the same room in the Seman hotel in Kashgar for a few days, chatted a bit each day and then left at different times in different directions. Around 10 days later we met in Dunhuang, in a cafe and later on the road as we cycled by each other in opposite directions to/from Ming Sha Shan just outside of Dunhuang town. To see each other in a hostel in Kunming over six months later is remarkable, both of us having seen much of China in the meantime, but in totally different ways, following different routes. Was good to see a familiar face again.

Yichang, Wuhan and now Nanning

2007-05-12T19:11:00.000+08:00

At Yichang, I found a decent hotel and contacted others that I had met on the trip, who were also planning on staying there, to give details on how to get there. 'Leave the bus station, cross the road, walk 30m west and you are there', thought I would make it simple for them. Kiran arrived a bit later having gone on the dam trip and I went to meet her at the bus station anyway, but she wasn't there. Called again, "where are you?", "at the bus station, by the gate" she replied, "Hmmm, me too, don't see you !" Turns out they had been taken to a different bus station, why on earth would they do that ??? Well, that's Chinese tours again for you. Anyway, problem solved, she and later 2 others arrived by taxi from their remote bus station in the North East of Yichang.

It seemed a decent town, quite calm, relaxed atmosphere, riverside location, we went to the train station to get tickets for tomorrow, Kiran got hers no problem, the train I wanted, had no tickets available, as Yichang was a transit station for the train and so only had a small allocation of tickets that had already gone. Bugger. Went out for dinner, practiced some Dutch with the Dutch lady (forgot her name now!) and had a local dark beer, brewed in the bar where we drank it.

Got up early and walked around an awakening town, and decided to try again for a train ticket. As I boarded a bus to the station, I was a little surprised to see the floor covered in vegetables, huge stacks of leeks, herbs, chinese cabbages and alike which I had to jump over to get to a seat. A few stops later a few ladies, got off, hauling their stacks of vegetation off the bus and to the nearby grocery market. I guess they came from a nearby village with produce ready to sell in the big town. Not quite as bemusing as the endless boxes of bananas and mandarins that I once shared a bus with from Tbilisi, Georgia to Zaqtala in Northern Azerbaijan, but it's just one of those moments when you catch a brief glimpse of real life going on in China.

Unsurprisingly, still no train tickets, so I headed to the bus station, had a nice bowl of 'mizhou' (rice porridge) and took a bus to Wuhan, where I hoped to get a train ticket to Nanning.

First attempt at a ticket office around the corner from the bus station failed, no tickets, sold out, Guilin? (which is on the way), also sold out, they tried to sell me a flight, but I was not falling for that. Checked at the bus station, there was a bus leaving in the evening, Ok that would have to do. Queueing for a ticket, some local who spoke English came and chatted to me and asked where I was heading, I told him and he said, that Nanning was a long way to go by bus! And that I was crazy! Yes, I already knew, but there were no train tickets I explained. He pointed out a train ticket booth at the bus station I had not seen earlier and told me to try, but surely if they are sold out they are sold out, I said. Anyway I thought maybe it was a sign, an omen and thought I would just check one more time. Unbelievably they had a ticket !! Amazed, I headed off to the train station. No idea what was going on at that first ticket office I tried. (It's the one at bottom of Xinhua Lu, and is mentioned in The Rough Guide to China, don't bother with them.)

Not much to report from brief stop in Wuhan, apart from lots of old men with white beards around the station offering palm reading and that I bumped into someone I had met on the boat trip again. He seemed excited at seeing me again as he ran out of his hotel chasing me ! He was from Dunhuang and we had chatted a little about my visit to his city, he was very pleased I had been and liked it there! Anyway, off to the station, on the train and settle down to another overnight journey to Nanning. Plenty of the usual entertainment on the train, with young children staring at me inquisitively and their keepers teaching them a new word 'laowai' I heard one girl teaching her daughter the word for foreigner, as I walked by. Happy that I can help educate these children a little by bringing a new word into their vocabulary ;) One of these young girls, became more nosey and started sneaking looks around the partition to look at me and then run away whenever I caught her looking, nothing new, it happens often on trains, but ever so funny to watch..

Something I hadn't seen before is beef packaged like candy, I was offered some by a girl on the train, it's simply dried beef cubes, but wrapped in little wrappers in a packet just like sweets, really bizarre, I was expecting chocolate or some boiled sweet, I was surprised to find it tasted of beef ! Although I had enough noodles and fruit to eat, she kept offering me bits and pieces, beef, spicy chicken etc, which was very kind, maybe she thought my diet of noodles and fruit was not nourishing enough.

Spent a while in Nanning again which is now even greener than before with Fruit trees lining the streets, now in full colour, even more dance classes going on around MinzuDadao which we sat and watched for a while, intrigued by the fruit basket dance to a song apparently called 'The Lychee Dance'. After a lot of hectic travelling from place to place recently it was nice to slow down for a while, in a hot and humid Nanning. Signs that the rainy season is beginning were plentiful as heavy downpours temporarily flooded the streets until the sun came out again and dried them up before the next downpour.

One afternoon, Jane took me along to a school magic show that she had been invited to by a friend. Standing in the playground I was getting plenty of curious looks from the children, some would edge closer then run away, a bit more courage and next time they might say 'hello' and then run away, it was funny. But once, one or two started talking a little more, many more gained the courage to get closer and crowded round to watch, so for a while I was surrounded by the kids being questioned thoroughly as to my origins, reasons for being there, which of the women I was with was my wife and if I liked football and basketball. If I moved anywhere they all just follwed in a mob and surrounded me again ;) Once I had exhausted my chinese vocabularly it got a bit tricky, so had to try turn it into a bit of an English lesson and after a while I was relieved when the magicians appeared and I was left alone again.

Left: Schoolchilren watch the magic show.
Centre: On stage.
Right: After school ice-cream.

Yangtze River "Cruise"

2007-05-10T09:49:00.001+08:00

If you say to a Chinese person you are going on a trip on the Yangtze river, most don't know what you mean. In China, it's known as 长江, Chang Jiang (Great River), The Yangtze is actually just one of the many tributaries of the ChangJiang that flows from Western China to the East coast at Shanghai, somehow 'Yangtze' or 'Yangzi' has become the name with which the river is know to the rest of the world.

The journey levaes from Chongqing and goes as far as the Three Gorges Dam, just west of Yichang and via through the three gorges that give the trip its name "Yangtze, Three Gorges Cruise!" Some of this trip was a bit of a disaster, badly organised and wrongly informed by travel agencies through which you must book the trip, it turned an interesting, "last chance to see" trip into a disappointing shambles. But, this is what can happen when tourism takes over an interesting adventure and turns it into a moneymaking showpiece for tourists.

From Chengdu, the hostel at which I stayed informed me that they could book the river trip, or I could book at an agency in Chongqing, from where the 'cruise' starts. To make things easy I booked it there and to be fair to them, they probably only advised me from whatever information they were given by the connecting agency in Chongqing. I could book an "all inclusive" tour of boat trip, cabin, a few tours, plus transport to Chongqing or just the boat trip. Not wanting to be packaged into a 'set menu' as it was, I booked just the boat trip with bed, with knowledge i could go on individual tours whenever i wanted by just booking with a guide on the boat.

I took a train to Chongqing for 48 RMB instead of the inclusive bus option of 120 RMB so I could leave at a more suitable time. At Chongqing the agency who organised the ticket reiterated the facts, showed same pictures of the boat, explained they had restaurants, bar, disco, nice outdoor deck seating area and English speaking guides for the sights on route, and that nothing could go wrong. I met with two others who had also booked at the hostel in Chengdu and we were told to follow a certain guide to the boat. Twice my ticket was checked boarding the boat, but only when I tried to get my allocated cabin was I told I was on the wrong boat. So, to cut a long story a little shorter i eventually got on my 'correct' boat which was about a km away, back where I had left the agency. But this was a different style boat entirely, it was much smaller, older, rustier, poorly maintained, smelly, had no bar, disco, only a small outdoor deck, which you had to pay 55 RMB for, the deck had no covering to avoid the rain that poured down on the second day, you could only sit in a small little room, crowded with people or in your cabin. After questioning the agency they said I was on this boat because I had only booked the boat trip, not the tours, but this turned out to be nonsense as a Dutch lady (and others) who I met later on the nice, big boat had booked the same as me. It was also not as they also tried to tell me, because I had booked the 3rd class, because both boats had both 2nd and 3rd class cabins. So, I was separated from the two friends I had made, I was on a crap boat, the restaurants which had been promised was one small restaurant with just one choice of meal (although it was pretty good and cheap food admittedly) that opened for an hour at breakfast, lunch and dinner time, there was no on board entertainment at all, my new guide, who I eventually found, spoke no English at all and therefore avoided me, not knowing that I could probably have made myself understood well enough in Chinese anyway, but it made it difficult to arrange any other site visits, even though she happily helped everyone else with whatever they wanted. Finally this boat had problems which meant it ran late and therefore did not stop at one of the most interesting sites I wanted to visit, which was Asia's largest waterfall. A 'cruise' is not an appropriate word for spending three days on this boat !

OK, to stop the moaning, the good news was I met Michel from France. He was the only other non-Asian on the boat and we had a good time, chatting, moaning;), having a few drinks and sharing puzzles and stories. Michel had one of those metal disentanglement puzzles called in French "Le Casse-tête Chinois" (Chinaman's Broken Head!) with two metal 'M' shaped pieces that you have to separate, it looks easy but isn't, but was solved. I had my Rubik's cube, so we spent hours playing with these to pass the time. Michel has been living and lecturing in Russia for the past 10 months and so we chatted a lot about experiences in that country and he had brought a bottle of vodka with him from Russia, so was glad to find someone to share it with at last!

Left: Leaving Chongqing at night.

Right: Deserted, evacuated city that will be flooded within 2 years.

The trip was OK, some nice scenery, but nothing special until the three gorges which we passed through which were all picturesque and best of all there were the three small gorges, for which first we had to get on a smaller boat and then later, yet another even smaller boat, were even nicer as we passed through very narrow gorges with high cliff faces, waterfalls and rock caves. The first stop was a place strangely called 'ghost city' which I had not booked for, but I got off the boat a little later than everyone else therefore having a nice lie in and still made it to the nice temple there at the top of the ridge overlooking the river, without having to follow along with a guide I would have barely understood anyway, much better way to do it! 'Ghost City' was a strange name for this place that had nothing ghostly about it at all, but later on we passed by cities that were real ghost cities, cities now deserted, empty, gutted buildings where people not so long ago lived, but had recently been evacuated because within the next two years these cities will disappear under the water, flooded due to the construction of the three gorges dam further downstream that will provide energy for a large percentage of China in future. On the third day we stopped at Wushan city, thanks to Wang, a business student from Guangzhou who we met on the boat who was the only other English speaker on board I think, I learnt that Wushan was a new city, two years ago the original Wushan, which was now flooded due to the dam, sat below us as we sat and chatted on the boat. This was a story that was repeated for many more settlements along the river and will be even more within the next two years, as yet more villages, towns, cities are flooded, people evacuated and rehoused away from their origins to make way for the new China. This was all rather sad, thinking about what has happened to so many people's homes and lives in the past few years as they are moved away from the ancestral origins. It really is very sad indeed.

At Wushan, we had a cultural show experience with locals providing entertainment in the form of dance and local rituals at a city theatre. That evening I also sneaked onto the nice big boat and had dinner with Paul and Kiran, who I had been separated from earlier, in their nice luxury restaurant with large choice of menu. It was a very nice boat, with a nice bar to enjoy a beer and game of cards later and they even had some awful karaoke singers too, a truly typical Chinese evening experience!!!

Left: Beautiful Wushan girls from the local cultural dance show.

Right: Mini-boat driver from the 'small three gorges' section.

The boat ended at the Three Gorges Dam which we could barely see due to the fog, but I was not too bothered about it, many people were taking a tour around the dam, but I decided it's just a big wall, some engineering and was not worth the large fee for a tour around, after all I already now how a dam works. Some Chinese I chatted a little with though seemed very proud of their marvellous engineering feat and were excited to visit. They also seemed curiously fascinated by the bridges regularly placed along the river, where many would jostle for position on the deck in order to have their photo taken with these large metal structures. Interesting to see how different things appeal to different people.

So, at this point I jumped on a bus to Yichang where I decided I would stay a night, found a nice hotel which I managed to negotiate a good price with the friendly manageress and spent one night in comparative luxury.

Left: Shoemaker at some stop on the "Small Three Gorges" section.

Centre: This is what the Yangtze river looks like, typically foggy.

Right: ...and one of the three gorges

Chengdu

2007-04-25T16:42:00.000+08:00

Arrived in Chengdu at 5am one morning, watched a little of the market traders coming to life around the station, found the hostel I intended to stay at, left for a day trip to Leshan a couple of hours later, and later returned to the hostel. Mix Hostel in Chengdu is a great place to stay, at first appearance it is an ugly block building, but inside a lovely atmosphere, tastefully decorated and with a nice terrace on the top floor to sit outside in the warm evenings, although the piles of washing hanging everywhere to dry is a bit frustrating as whenever I left my room I kept walking into someone's trousers or towel hanging down from above.

It's a fairly large city and so bus transport was a necessity in Chengdu, this was complicated by the construction of a metro system, that results in some one way roads and the solution that buses follow a different route in one direction to the other. This left me hopelessly lost for a while on my first evening trying to get back to the hostel. I noted to get off at the first stop north of the river, but a few moments after alighting I realised this was a different street and completely lost my bearings for a while, confused by the route change of the bus. This was further confused by some friendly local who saw me looking puzzled at a map and tried to help, but he had no idea where I was either and in trying to help, made things worse ;)

Left: Performing Buddhist chants.
Right: Daci Si's tea garden.

I quite liked Chengdu, it has a nice atmosphere, a location convenient for travel to many interesting places around and generally friendly, relaxed people. As well as seeing the giant pandas nearby and visiting Leshan (twice - returned a few days later to extend my visa), I popped into a couple of nearby temples and also to the first 'Irish Bar' I have seen in China, (I never found "The Paddy Field" in Guangzhou) which gave the chance to watch some football and indulge in an excellent dish of sausage and mash. It wasn't all good though as it also meant being surrounded by noisy, drunk Australians for a couple of hours. Another evening I visited another ex-pat favourite bar, 'the bookworm', which I was taken to by TT, a Chengdu local who I met in Dandong some time ago. This place was a bit like a library in that it had bookshelves full of books all around, but was far from quiet as there was a horse race event and auction going on which involved lots more noisy Australians, can't get away from them!

No noisy Australians at the temples I visited thankfully, Wenshu Yuan was very close to the hostel and worth a quick visit as in one of the halls, monks and non-monks(?) were reading from Buddhist scriptures and performing chants. While the Daci si is a temple dedicated to the travelling monk Xuanzang, who at one time lived in Chengdu before starting his journey to India, from where he brought back Buddhist scriptures that introduced Buddhism into these parts. I have mentioned Xuanzang previously in my blog from a statue in Lanzhou, to artistic impressions in the Big Goose Pagoda in Xi'an where he lived much of his life, he was of course the subject of the books 'Journey to the West', dramatised in Europe as the TV show 'Monkey'.

A bit of a treat at this temple was a tea house in the back garden that I decided to try out, surprisingly for such a quiet place, I found it was packed with locals sipping tea and chatting, clearly one of the famous Sichuan tea houses which are a feature of Chengdu and Sichuan province. So I grabbed a table, chose some unknown tea, sat and read in the sunshine for a while as locals chatted away creating a busy atmosphere of relaxation. Nice place if you like to drink tea ;)

Also while in the hostel in Chengdu I learnt how to play some new Chinese card games with some Chinese guests from Kunming, Guangzhou and Xiamen. I wasn't sure what was going on at first and communication was a little tricky due to language barrier but I had some expert help from one of the players and soon became quite successful, beginner's luck of course ! Instead of playing for money, their payment for losing is that you get your face painted by the winner, this was the result.

See, I did quite well ! The guy on the right wasn't playing, hence no warpaint.

Yangtze River next..

2007-04-23T17:07:00.000+08:00

I'll be on a boat for the next few days, so don't expect any updates for a while...

I'll add more when I'm back on land...

Sichuan: Home of the Giant Panda

2007-04-23T16:42:00.000+08:00

Chengdu is the home of the very rare, endangered and beautiful giant panda. There is a research and breeding centre on the outskirts of Chengdu where you can go and see these beautiful animals in a reasonably wild and natural habitat.

The park has a number of giant pandas as well as some, unrelated, red pandas, ranging in age from babies to adults. It's best to get there early morning and watch them play around a little before breakfast time. Then at breakfast the park staff feed them bunches and bunches of bamboo which they sit and chomp on endlessly until they get tired and fall asleep. Jut watching them eat is fascinating as they lie half backwards, seemingly posing to the crowd as they rip the outer bark off the bamboo stalks before munching the remains. Great fun and if they hadn't all gone inside to rest after the breakfast I could have sat and watched them all day. They are such beautiful and cuddly looking things.

Left: Panda on the prowl.

Centre: Bath time.

Right: The red panda.

Something interesting for many travellers is the sign language used by people from different cultures to communicate a message when you cannot speak a common language. On my way to the panda centre I found a great example of this. I was at Zhaojue Si station looking for a bus to the panda research centre and was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of motorbike and rickshaw taxis who wanted to take me somewhere, anywhere, just to get a fare. I said I wanted to visit the giant pandas (Daxiongmao in Chinese, I had done my research that morning), but as is often the case, they reverted to sign language and started playing the miming game on me. They obviously guessed where a foreigner in that part of town was heading towards and started their little show. Now, without photos that I don't have, I can't vividly describe the pose, but basically, I learnt that day, that the way to mimic a giant panda when in China, is to hold your arms at your side pointing upwards, close to your body, with your hands close to your ears, let your hands relax at the wrist and fingers curl to point downwards. That and a cheeky grin and I gurantee you they will understand you want to go to see the giant pandas at the panda research centre ;-)
It's hard to describe in words, but it was so funny to see these drivers all together trying to imitate a giant panda with this strange action, in order to try a get a taxi fare. Top class.

Travel Tip: If you want to avoid the expensive transport tours offered by travel agents and hostels, take bus #1 (northwards) to Zhaojue Si station and then bus #107 or #532 both of which stop outside the research centre.

Dafo in Leshan

2007-04-23T16:41:00.000+08:00

I arrived in Chengdu (成都) very early one morning and almost straight away left again! There's nothing wrong with Chengdu, in fact it's turned out to be quite good, I left because I went off on a day trip to Leshan to see the largest Buddha sculpture in the world!! Dafo (大佛), Big Buddha is indeed very big, 71m high and carved into a niche in the sandstone cliffs overlooking the river in Leshan, at the point where the Dadu, Min and Qingyi rivers converge.

There are two ways to view Dafo; from the Buddha park or from the river. First, from the Buddha Park you can look down on him from a ridge just above his head and then after climbing down steps in the side of the cliff's niche, from which there are many more good views, you arrive at his gigantic feet, from where you can gaze up at this gentle giant in awe of the enormous size. Secondly, you can view him from a little further away, by taking a river trip or ferry from the ferry port at the West bank of the river in Leshan town, either on a round trip, or to the port on the East bank of the river.

The Buddha park is large and you can spend many hours wandering around if you want to view everything that is there. There are a many sculptures (copies) of famous Buddhist sculptures from around other sites in China, a couple of temples, pagoda and lots of walking around paths snaking through woodlands.

Left: Dafo's ears are 7m long !
Centre: His feet are enormous (see people kneeling beside to compare size)
Right: View from the boat.

The steps down to Dafo's feet can get very busy if you arrive at the same time as a few groups of Chinese tourists, so patience can be required. This is especially true at some viewing spots, where every single one of them insists on getting a photo taken in a pose which gives the appearance that their hand is touching his ear, this of course can take many attempts depending on the photographer and subject, and can get irritating if all you want is a photo of Dafo, without any over-excited Chinese tourist in the foreground.

Travel Tips:
- Buses to Leshan depart from Chengdu's Xinnanmen station.
- Leshan now has a new bus station in the South Western part of town (both Rough Guide and LP are out of date).
- Bus 13 takes you from the new bus station to the ferry port and goes onto all three entrance gates of the Buddha park site. Take your pick!
- Last bus back to Chengdu was around 7pm!

Xi'an

2007-04-21T08:15:00.000+08:00

I was actually slightly disappointed with Xi'an (西安), I had heard and read many positive comments but my feeling was that the city itself was (to quote a favourite term) 'nothing special'. I had visited previously in November and went to the one site that is worth visiting around Xi'an, The Terracotta Warriors. I returned to explore more of this city, see other sites and line it up as a possible candidate for a place to work.

Xi'an is a hugely important city in history, a capital of ancient civilisation when it was called Chang'an, it has been the capital of many Chinese dynasties and there is much to see and learn from historical times. In the city there are the Big Goose Pagoda, the Small Goose Pagoda, temples, ancient sites, drum and bell towers, a Muslim area with its 'Great Mosque' and the surrounding city walls, built during the Ming Dynasty. The wall is 13.7 km long, with ramparts built at 120m intervals all the way around, the wall is 12m tall and at the base measures between 15-18m thickness. Once on the wall you can hire a bicycle or be shuttled around on an electric bus, similar to a long golf cart. Cycling around takes around 90 minutes including stops to look and photograph whatever you find interesting. I didn't find so many interesting things to photograph on the way around, you have dull office buildings in some places, old crumbling or demolished buildings in others, busy roads most of the way around, only the wall itself and its towers are of real interest, but having said that, it's still worthwhile making the effort to cycle around.

One site of relevance to me in Xi'an is the starting point of the Silk Road, I was not aware of this memorial first time I visited, but when I found out it was there, I decided to check it out. Having travelled along the Silk Road from Khiva in Western Uzbekistan through to the eastern end at Xi'an, I felt it was a felicitous choice to visit and see the so called 'start point' (or is it the end point?) of this famous trading route.

Left: The starting point (or the end) of 'The Silk Road'.

Right: There are more terracotta soldiers in the street stalls than at the actual site!

There is of course so much to see in and around Xi'an and should not be overlooked by anyone on a first trip to China, but perhaps for me, it was just one pagoda too many, I felt at many sites, 'Oh another drum tower', 'another bell tower', 'yet another Taoist/Buddhist temple of same layout and design'. It's another busy Chinese city, the wall around adds some charm to it for sure, but when I heard all these other foreign people who had worked or stayed there say how wonderful it is, I wonder what it was that made it so good for them, did I miss something somewhere ? Perhaps. Or was it just they enjoyed it because it's quite modern, quite 'Westernised', there are shopping centres, boutiques, western food restaurants and coffee shops around everywhere and a 'bar street', the common name given to a street in a Chinese city that contains western style bars. Maybe that's what was so good for these people, the fact they could live a western lifestyle but in a Chinese city ?? Maybe. Then maybe I had created high expectations of the place that were not quite met, whereas as other places I visit with little or no pre-knowledge, often surprise me as being better than I had imagined...

Whatever it was, overall Xi'an is OK, just not quite what I had hoped and dreamt of, but don't let this put you off, don't miss out on Xi'an. After all, it is one of the birthplaces of ancient civilisation and does have nearby, in the Terracotta Army, one of the most famous sites in the world.

Left: Etching of Monk Xuan Zang whose story is told in 'Journey to the West' lived in Xi'an.

Centre: Big goose Pagoda and gardens.

Right: 'Bigo' (chinese pronounciation of beagle !) in the 7 sages hostel.

Ancient(?) Pingyao (平遥)

2007-04-18T20:20:00.000+08:00

Pingyao is probably like nowhere else in China, nowhere that I have heard about anyway. It's an 'ancient' city according to tourist info, and the locals are proud to emphasize that the city walls and buildings are original and not rebuilt or renovated in anyway, just 'well maintained'. Most of this well preserved architecture is from 19th century, which is in real terms not really that long ago; I'm not sure what exactly the definition of 'ancient' is, though I always thought it hinted at something rather older than 200 years.

However, it is an interesting place to wander around and reminded me in some ways of Khiva, the ancient walled city in Western Uzbekistan. Though the architectural design is of course quite different, the layout and atmosphere of this small walled city has similarities; narrow, quiet, traffic free lanes, local homes hidden away down small alleys where old ladies hang out their washing and kids and animals run around chasing each other, tourist stalls and shops selling local arts and crafts, locals get on with their daily life, preparing food, washing, cleaning, repairing, playing cards, Chinese chess or just sitting around drinking tea. The town has a little buzz of life and activity everywhere you go. And in the evenings as the sun falls towards the horizon of the city walls, the town is illuminated with a wonderful orange glow.

Left: Archway by the Eastern gate of Pingyao.
Centre: Men sit around the streets all day, chatting and smoking.
Right: Communist Party magazine from the newspaper museum.

Left: Streets being improved constantly, by a strong female workforce.
Centre: Ying and Yang, the symbol of Taoism.
Right: Cycling is the best way to get around the city walls.

Pingyao's walls are 1500m long on each side, with four main gates one at each cardinal point. The walls surround a dusty little town, whose streets are constantly being dug up/replaced which generates a lot of dust and dirt all around, it didn't feel like the healthiest of places to walk around, which when you consider the pollution in many Chinese cities, is saying something.

I visited a number of sites, many are museums in old houses, home to exhibitions of different arts or places of historical interest, such as martial arts, ancient newspapers, the oldest bank in China and the home of its rich founder. Most are quite similar, courtyard, buildings, displays and seeing a few is enough. There are also a couple of temples, gate towers and the option to walk around the city walls which offer some nice scenes of life in Pingyao. Apart from the dust it's quite nice to wander, there are no vehicles within the old walled city, just bicycles and motor rickshaws which can run around the outside, there is no neon lighting here either! At dusk, the streets are lit only by the red lanterns that hang outside many of the local shops, cafes, guesthouses. Comparing again to Khiva, this was a difference, there the town descended into total darkness at dusk.

Outside the walls, this small city carries on much like any other, with food stalls in the streets selling mystery meats, water melons and pineapples on sticks, while cars, mini-buses, pedestrians, bicycles, motorbikes, motor rickshaws all weave in and out of each other in some seemingly chaotic fashion that seems to function quite well.

Last day I took a cycle ride to Shuanglin Si, a temple a few kms outside of Pingyao, on the way the roads were even dirtier and dustier that the old city. Dust/sand on the roads blown up by passing vehicles created a scene similar to a desert sandstorm, and, I was unfortunate enough to have a lorry full of sand drive by, scattering a large amount over me which made my head itch the rest of the day. Even if the pedal had not broken off the bicycle when I was a km or so short of the temple, making cycling pretty difficult, (have you ever tried cycling with just one pedal ?) and resulting in a long walk/ride home, it was still one of my least interesting and worst cycle rides ever !

New Quiz - WINNER IS........

2007-04-15T21:00:00.000+08:00

DJ PHIL OLYOTT.

Well done Phil, top banana, I thought it was a bit tricky, but you got them all right first go.

Torborg, good try, but number 5 was not correct, Romania do use the Lei as their currency, but this was a Moldovan 10 Lei note.

Phil, your prize, a bag of fragrant chicken feet, will be on its way soon ;-)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Identify the country of each bank note below:

Rules: First entry with all 6 correct wins. If no correct entry by April 30th, 2007, the first entry with the highest score takes it. Click on comments section below and add your answer there.

If needed, click on each photo to enlarge, some are easy if you can read the cyrillic alphabet

Prize: Not sure yet, I will find something on my travels for you

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Wutaishan to Taiyuan

2007-04-14T23:18:00.000+08:00

Wutaishan (五台山) is one of the four Buddhist mountains in China. Accessible via a long detour off the Datong to Taiyuan road, the route winds upwards through the mountains on its way to the pass at the Northern peak of Wutaishan and then descends into the village of Taihuai (台怀). There are five mountain peaks around here and the fresh air and alpine scenery in the mountains is a refreshing change to the polluted cities around. Many temples here survived the Cultural Revolution due to the remoteness of the village and they display some fine and ancient architecture in a village that has been a Buddhist centre since at least the year 58, during the the reign of Emperor MingDi. Taihuai is a quiet, peaceful place with monks wandering the streets, while tour buses hop around everywhere carrying groups of Chinese tourists from site to site.

There are too many temples to go into detail, but I visited a few, climbed up 1080 steps which I thought was just one or two flights, to the Dailuo Peak. There was a small temple just up the steps, which I was aiming for, but as I ascended I realised there were more and more and more steps and many, many people heading up this way because it turned out to be going to the Shancai Temple near the peak of the mountain. I could no turn back then, so carried on up with the occasional friendly companion who wanted to be with the strange, exciting foreigner.

Overall, the fresh air is nice, but apart from the temples in the centre, everything is far apart and it would take some time and effort to get to any of the five peaks, yet alone one of them. There is little else to see or do once you have seen a few temples, so after two half days in Taihuai, I felt it was enough and found a bus onto Taiyuan (太原) , a necessary stopping point to change transport before heading to my next destination, Pingyao (平遥).

Left: The white stupa at Tayuan Si, is the symbol of Taihuai village.
Centre: On the way up to Dailuo Peak, I found this man making stele carvings.
Right: Twin Pagodas at Shuangta Temple, the symbol of Taiyuan.

The minibus driver was a complete idiot driver, I have been in some pretty wild bus journeys before, but this guy was worse than any other I have experienced. Lucky I think I have grown accustomed to it and was not too bothered most of the time, but his regular driving on the wrong side of the road to pass cars waiting at a red light so we could just carry on and weaving in and out of vehicles on either side was a bit stupid. He was probably a driver grown up on computer simulations who cannot distinguish between games and real-life. But, we got to Taiyuan in one piece and was dropped at the train station. Train tickets are apparently notoriously difficult to get hold of for this journey, so I didn't try. There were no buses from the train station concourse area to Pingyao, none from the nearby long-distance bus station as it was not considered a long-distance trip and they in fact left from a station in Southern Taiyuan. I also could not find any shared cars heading that way, so I stayed a night there. This spare evening time gave me a chance to read something about Taiyuan and decided in the morning I would go and see its famous twin pagodas at Shangta Si (双塔寺 ,Twin Pagoda Temple).

It was worth the effort, it was a lovely sunny day and the temperature was good, it felt like Spring at last. The flowers and trees had begun to flower and meant the area with wandering verandas and pavilions was a colourful scene. I climbed the thirteen floors of one of the towers but sadly the view was poor, the windows became smaller with each floor you ascended, the inside of the tower became narrower, so the windows became gradually further away and on the thirteenth floor, there was a mini window at the end of a mini-tunnel, which I would have to have crawled a metre or two into to reach the small window and get a view. Good exercise but a waste of time. With the springtime weather I jumped into the town centre briefly and found the main square had a few drink/eating stalls so sat outside in the sun with a drink, first time this year it's been warm enough where I have been and how nice that is to do.

Actually managed to get a train ticket to Pingyao in the morning which was better that heading out to the southern station so was pleased with that and had an interesting journey chatting with an old man and a couple of young, cool, trendy Chinese, while surrounded by intrigued, or is it just nosey, onlookers. The train though was absolutely packed, especially around where I was sitting, seriously overbooked with wuzuo (no seat) tickets, so in the end was not so bad to get off when we reached Pingyao and I did so with a couple of new words added to my Chinese vocabulary.

Datong II & Yingxian's Wooden Pagoda

2007-04-14T09:55:00.000+08:00

Next day I met up with Trevor who is teaching Beijing and who I met on yesterday's trip. We found a bus heading to Datong South station and after a 30 minute drive through various parts of this larger than I imagined city (that's the case with most Chinese cities though), we arrived in Datong South bus station, bought a ticket to Yingxian (应县), went to the bus and found it was already driving out of the station. Quick dash and we caught it up at the gate, which is usually easy in Chinese bus stations as they have to fill out some paperwork nonsense before leaving the station, which usually takes a minute or two. Yingxian is a small town, but home to the oldest wooden building in China, a wooden pagoda (应县木塔, Yingxianmuta), built in 1056 during the Liao dynasty. It was originally constructed of entirely wood, with no metal nails, but there are plenty there now. The wooden structure is a network of beams and interlocking brackets that function well, as the pagoda has survived seven earthquakes. The area around the pagoda is currently under redevelopment with new (but traditional style) buildings being built in front, housing tourist shops and restaurants, while outside of here and to the west and east, new high rise flats are being constructed replacing the old buildings that used to be home to local residents. On the way back to the station we again caused excitement amongst the staff of a restaurant where we went for lunch. They seemed wary and kept nudging each other to go and serve us, but we eventually, as is often the case received, the full service with all three or four waitresses taking our order while we tried to work out and communicate what we wanted.

Left: Giant incense sticks at Huayuan temple (look relative to building behind).
Centre: A dragon form Datong's Nine Dragon Screen.
Right: Bundles of money used for I don't know what. (see previous Datong item).

Back in Datong, we visited the city temples and the nine dragon screen. At forty-five metres long and eight metres high, this is the largest nine dragon screen in China. With nine different dragons detailed in glazed tiles, different colours and curling in different shapes, it is colourful and lively display.

Huayuan Temple originally constructed during the Liao dynasty in 1062, has two parts, which annoyingly means you also have to pay twice. The main hall in the upper temple is the second largest in China and these temples are unusual for facing East, as they were constructed by a sect that worshipped the Sun, Chinese temples generally face South.

Datong - Yungang Caves and Hanging Temple

2007-04-13T23:18:00.000+08:00

Datong (大同) in northern Shanxi (山西) province was established as the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty in the year 398 by the Turkic Toba people. The Northern Wei people became Buddhists and during their reign built constructed the Yungang caves just outside Datong. A second period of capital status for Datong came in 907 when the Liao Dynasty made it their capital, this period created the Huayuan and Shanhua temples within the city and the oldest wooden pagoda in China at nearby Yingxian.
Datong is a dusty, coal producing city, which providing over 30% of China's coal. There are also lots of outdoor markets selling fruit, strange bits of meat and a surprisingly large amount of money. These notes look like perhaps old Dynasty notes, or maybe it's for Chinese monopoly, I really don't know and could not understand the explanation of what it was for. But it was strange to see at one night market, stall after stall selling nothing but this money, something I have seen nowhere else in China before nor since.

Yungang caves (Yungang shiku, 云冈石窟), whose construction began in 453, are a set of Buddhist grottoes carved into the side of a sandstone cliff. They are the first of the three major Buddhist caves in China, the others being the Lonmgmen caves in Luoyang and the Mogao Caves in Gansu. See my visit to Mogao Caves in Dunhunag, Gansu here. The caves were made by first digging out a section at the top of the cliff, then digging into the rock down to the ground and outwards. Craftsmen from India and Central Asia were involved in the work and this can be seen in some of the carving's foreign influences. There are around fifty caves in total, but numbers 21-45 were closed for repair, which is a shame, though these are supposedly the least interesting among the site. I saw twenty caves including the most famous of all, number 20, which sits in the open for everyone to see and because of its popular use in marketing of Chinese tourism has become known as "China's Minister of Foreign Affairs".

Left: Yungang Cave 20, "China's Minster of Foreign Affairs".
Right: Hanging temple at Hengshan mountain.

Next site was the "Hanging Temple" (Xuankong Si, 悬空寺) of Hengshan (恒山), which is one of the five holy Taoist mountains in China. Built on the side of a sheer cliff face and anchored with wooden beams into the rock, the temple does look rather precarious for sure. There has been a temple here since the Northern Wei Dynasty but the present structure is more recent. The temple was destroyed a number of times due to flooding of the Heng river below and so each reconstruction was built higher than the previous temple. Inside are halls containing shrines to all three major religions in China, Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Originally a Buddhist temple, the other religions were later incorporated after the destruction of the temple as they believed that that would help to prevent future disaster.

Chengde's Mountain Resort

2007-04-03T20:27:00.000+08:00

Here's a little more about Chengde I forgot to add to the earlier post..

Chengde in Hebei Province is a scenic summer resort about 250 kilometers northeast of Beijing. As well as the Buddhist temples (see previous post about Chengde) there is also the "Mountain Resort", which was also built during the Qing Dynasty. This rare scenic spot was discovered during a hunting trip and over the course of eighty-seven years the construction of a temporary palace known by the name "Mountain Hamlet for Escaping the Heat" took place, it was completed in 1792. The palace is enclosed by a wall over ten kilometers long, which rises and falls with the mountain ridges. It is the largest and best-preserved imperial palace outside of the capital and China's largest imperial garden, covering an area of over 5.6 million square metres .

Qing emperors often spent several months a year here during summer to escape the heat in the capital city of Beijing and the palace zone in the southern part of the resort was therefore designed to resemble the Forbidden City in Beijing. Many other scenic spots around the resort's lake area were copied from famous landscaped gardens in south China. For instance, the main building on Green Lotus Island, "Tower of Mist and Rain," (Yanyulou) is a copy of a tower in Nanhu Lake at Jiaxing in Zhejiang Province and some other features have been based on Hangzhou's famous West Lake.

Left: Building of the palace grounds.
Right: One of the apparently 90 towers/pavilions at Mountain Resort.

The resort is enormous and you can wander around it all day from spot to spot seeing gardens, lakes, streams, bridges, towers, pavilions, a stupa, wildlife, even a Mongolian yurt park. There are 72 designated 'scenic wonders' in the resort all named by Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong during whose reign the resort was constructed.

Near to the Southern entrance, I spent some time watching locals practicing tai-ji or Diabalo, a spinning, humming wheel that revolves on a string attached between two sticks. Some of the tricks on display were highly impressive, including flinging it back and for between people. Sadly, watching them has not enabled me to even get my damn diabolo even spinning yet.

Left: Yanyu house The "House of Mist and Rain" at Mountain Resort
Right: A bridge over the frozen lakes at the Mountain Resort

Quiz - We have a winner

2007-03-26T17:24:00.000+08:00

The Beijing 2008 Olympics begin on 08/08/2008 at 8:00pm.

So, with 526 days 3 hours, 12 minutes and 17 seconds to go until they begin, I took the photo at 16:47:43 on March 1, 2007

Nobody gave me the exact answer including seconds, but Geir was correct to nearest minute, so name your choice of prize Mr Haugen.

Quiz Time

2007-03-22T13:34:00.000+08:00

OK, let's see if anyone is reading and has time to spare...

When exactly did I take this photo. Date & Time ?
Click on photo to enlarge. It's not as difficult as it sounds

Click on Comments section below to add your answer please..

Choice of prizes for the winner:
Beijing 2008 panda / Chinese chopsticks / Pack of Longjing tea.

What else is going on in Beijing ?

2007-03-22T13:27:00.000+08:00

So what else has been going on here in China's capital... Well, I've been taking it easy recently, studying some Chinese, reading and generally just recuperating and contemplating, getting ready to switch back into travel mode and head off to some new and exciting places... or maybe get a job... or maybe something else. Meanwhile I popped into the Imperial Palace better known as the "Forbidden City", visited the Dongyue Temple and revisited the Sanlitun area and the Workers (Gongti) Stadium where I stayed in 2002, to see what had changed around the area. This was quite sad in some ways. While the stadium is being redeveloped ready for the Olympics, across the road where used to stand some nice cafes where I ate a few times, there now stands a building site.. Further into the old and full of character Sanlitun South area which used to be a maze of winding streets, full of local traders with little stalls or shops, kids running around, many homes and some foreign oriented cafes and bars, there now stands just piles of rubble for hundreds of metres around, the cafes I used to visit for a beer in the evening, the homes of the previous residents, all long gone.

Last time in Beijing I met a Norwegian called Torborg with whom I saw many of the sites. Something that amused us was when she spotted a toilet in the Forbidden City with a star rating, jut like you would have on a hotel, we had never seen this before and found it funny. I saw it again on my recent visit, the Forbidden City toilet had a 4* rating.

I also went along to another city temple called Dongyue. With spring festival holiday period now over, it was nice and quiet until a large tour bus of Chinese tourists arrived, but I managed to stay ahead of them and enjoy the peaceful surroundings in relative quiet. There were thousands and thousands of red new year cards, whose proper name I do not know, hanging around every railing and some stands around the grounds. This and a few other decorations made this a very colourful temple. I noticed though the toilet there had only a poor 1* rating, they must do something about that !!

Left: Red Chinese New Year decorations hanging at Dongyue temple.
Centre: Forbidden City's **** toilet.
Right: Dongyue Temple still have some work to do on their toilet, just one * rating.

Crossing Tiananmen Square, you can be sure of being approached by various people trying to sell you a kite, a Chairman Mao little red book of quotations (no other colours available ;-)), a Chinese flag, a map of Beijing, their services as a tour guide to the Great Wall/Forbidden City or maybe they just want to speak English, some unfortunately also want to take you to an 'art gallery' or have a chat over a 'cup of tea' with you, which are scams intended to relieve you of the loads of money they believe all foreigners have in abundance. Each day I walk past the square you can see the clock outside the Chinese National Museum showing how long until the start of the Beijing Olympics, now just around 500 days away.

Left: Something that hasn't changed, Mao Zedong still watches over the gateway to the Forbidden City.
Centre: On Tiananmen Square, everyone tries to sell "Mao's little red book" of quotations.
Right: More red New Year card/decorations at Dongyue temple.

Finally on my wanderings I found just off the main shopping street a newish tourist street,selling typical Chinese souvenirs. Often on my travels, I have mocked souvenirs available in various places; bizarre Soviet items such as cosmonaut's helmets in Kiev, Bush/Blair/Hussein matryoshkas (Russian nesting dolls) in Moscow, freaky masks in Transylvania, but here it's different. There are some oddities; I wonder why they sell Russian matryoshkas, CCCP (USSR) slogan t-shirts and Saddam Hussein playing cards (which some guy shoves in my face every time I walk past his stall), but there are many attractive and interesting items. Silks and traditional Chinese clothing which are really nice, if you like tea, there are all sorts of tea pots and tea-cups available, cuddly Beijing 2008 Olympic pandas, beautifully painted snuff bottles, jade carvings, Chinese scroll paintings, calligraphy and other art, decorative chopsticks and jewellery all of which are quite appealing even if sometimes of dubious quality. If I had space in my rucksack I could easily have bought a load of things.

Left: Here I am in the first main courtyard of the Forbidden City.
Centre: The Hall of Supreme Harmony, is not as attractive as last time I visited !
Right: Cute pandas in the markets.

I've been tagged

2007-03-17T10:14:00.000+08:00

Right, a game of tag is being played electronically and I have been tagged by Tina who I met in Sarajevo last year. <Read Tina's blog here.> Now I'm suppose to tell you 5 things you didn't already know about me:

1. My first job was as a ride operator at Blackpool Pleasure Beach...

2. Over the last year, I told everyone who asked that I was travelling alone. Well, this was in fact a big lie, as all this time I have actually had a travel partner, DJ Barnee. DJ was a gift from my dearest friends Nadja & Rebecca in Amsterdam.. Here he is on the Great Wall at JiaoShan:

3. I used to really, really, really like Kylie ! (This one's an Ozzie special for you Tina ;-))

4. I really, really, really don't like snakes.

5. My favourite dish in the world has to be sausages and mash with onion gravy and maybe some baked beans.

What's going on in Beijing now.

2007-03-16T20:40:00.000+08:00

Over the last 2 weeks the NPC (National People's Congress) and the CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) have been taking place in the Great Hall of The People on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, not far from where I am staying. Each morning and evening a cavalcade of cars and buses arrives and departs the square carrying the thousands of representatives from around the country who have come to discuss the shaping of China's future.

I was interested to know how China's leaders are trying to build China's future, how they plan to generate a "harmonious society" in a land of various ethnic groups with differing backgrounds, cultures, languages, standards of living, economies, education and much much more besides.
So I watched some on TV and for the first few days, it was quite interesting following proceedings, but after two or three days it became simply a repetitive sequence of reports and interviews, packed full of regurgitated buzzwords, that had recently been introduced by Chinese political leaders, in their communications regarding the future development of China.

It reminded me of a game we used to play in meetings when I was in my first IT job at IBM. We soon discovered that any meetings arranged with managers or business/marketing departments were always packed with a heap of IT and business buzzwords. So someone found a game called "Buzzword Bingo" which was a bingo card filled with management/marketing buzzwords instead of numbers. I think it's well I know these days and a game card looked something like this..

Watching CCTV for a day or two during the NPC/CPPCC sessions reminded me of this game and if you replace the words with those listed below you can make your own Chinese political Buzzword Bingo ! ;-)

"harmonious society",
"new socialist countryside",
"one country two systems" (this is an old favourite),
"private property rights",
"level playing field",
"peaceful reunification",
"macroeconomic controls",
"agricultural modernisation",
"five year plan",
"socialist market economy",
"social harmony",
"economic and social development",
"opposition to secessionist activities",
"equal education oppurtunities",
"independent innovation".

Back in Beijing for Spring Festival

2007-03-12T00:04:00.001+08:00

I came back to Beijing again as it was necessary before heading to my next intended destination Datong.. But after a couple of weeks I am still in Beijing. It was Spring festival so I had a look around a little more of the city, visited a temple fayre, which was a busy, bustling, noisy affair, with lots of stalls selling Buddhist souvenirs and loads of other typical Chinese things, as well as loads of types of foods from all over China. The most noticeable items were some round whirly wind wheels (no idea what they should be called) that make lots of noise when the wind blows and it was a very windy day! I also bought a diabolo which I still can't master.

Left: Diabolo master demonstrates.
Centre: A local boy holds one of those colourful, noisy wind wheels.
Right: This lady played me a song on this odd-shaped instrument.

The Baiyun (White Cloud) Temple is the home of the Chinese Taoist Association in Beijing. On this day it was incredibly busy due to it still being holiday time, thousands of people heaving their way through the grounds from hall to hall. I spotted some interesting New Year activities there too; On the way in, everyone had to stroke a carving of a monkey on the archway to the entrance, it brings good luck. Inside there were tables full of old coins; people purchased bags of them and then threw them at a large hanging coin which hung from a archway over a kind of well. Everyone furiously joined in attempting to strike the coin as many times and as hard as possible. Other activitied involved people took their turns to walk three times around a Taoist symbol (the famous balck and white ying and yang symbol) on the floor near the cente of the temple grounds while a long queue formed for people to touch the carvings of a particular vase situated in the grounds

Left: Chucking coins at the lucky coin hanging below.
Right: Locals worship in front of a burning incense burner.

Five years ago on my first visit to Beijing, I visited the most important sites, but I decided to head back to the Temple of Heaven (TianTan) which is one of the best sites in Beijing and also later re-visited the Forbidden City, just so I can include a photo or two of these places here. An entry on Beijing would seem odd without mentioning either of these two most famous sites.
Construction of Tiantan, Temple of Heaven was finished in in 1420 and its architecture is based on elaborate symbolism and numerology. It's original design of round buildings in square- shaped areas, were designed in accordance with ancient Chinese beliefs that imagine Heaven as round and the Earth as square. Well worth seeing again despite the hordes of Chinese tourists, due to its original design which offers some variety from other temples.

The Forbidden City however, is currently being renovated (in time for Beijing 2008 Olympics of course) and sadly the two main halls are both covered in scaffolding and tarpaulin and entirely closed to the public, which left me with a pretty unfulfilled feeling when I left the grounds. Signs outside do state that the Hall of Supreme Harmony is currently undergoing renovation, but do not mention that the second main hall is also closed. I'm glad I had been there before or I would have felt disappointed with the visit. But it is still an enormous, amazing site, full of interesting halls and pathways which meander on for ever through the museum's 720,000 square meters, which can keep you occupied for many hours. However, if you must see an Imperial Palace in China and can make it there, at this moment in time, I would recommend the one in Shenyang instead !!

Left: Coins lined up, waiting to be bought and chucked!
Centre: Typical temple doorway at TianTan (Temple of Heaven).
Right: The centrepiece 'Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests" at Tiantan.

So, I am still in Beijing, for two reasons. First, the weather suddenly became very cold in Northern China and my next destination, Datong was a stop-off in order to see some hanging Buddhist caves and a series of temples in the mountains called WuTai Shan. Seeing as some of these are at an elevation of 3000m and there has been lots of snow, it is very likely most, if not all of Wutai Shan, would be unreachable in the snow, so I chose to delay. Secondly, this coincided with my getting some infection in my mouth/cheek which was quite nasty and so after a visit to hospital, I decided it best to stay here until everything was clear. Now, despite being better and improved weather, I will still stay a few days more as in my time of rest I found more things I wanted to do/see while here. Then, I will definitely leave Beijing, to Datong or elsewhere.

Global Warming ? Or Just Global Moaning

2007-03-10T14:21:00.000+08:00

Something that has for a long time bugged me is a recent trend for everyone to blame a nice warm sunny week as an effect of global warming. During any hot summer or warmer than average winter, news and newspapers produce sensationalist reports about how we are destroying our planet and how with the increasing temperatures and melting glaciers causing rising water levels, parts of the UK will be under water in 10 years. I don't deny that there is an issue, and a critical one too, but reliable sources report that average temperature changes within the lifetime of these people is still less than 1 degree. So I'm not convinced a warmer than average spell is nothing more than the normal cycle of weather variations that have occurred throughout the existence of our planet.

This subject came to my attention again during the last few weeks as China was experiencing a warmer than average winter and Chinese journalists were following the same path as their European counterparts harping on about global warming being the cause. Well I for one was quite happy because at the time I was in Dongbei, the North East and coldest part of China, which during my visit was no colder than around -15 degrees Celsius; usually they would expect temperatures of 10-15 degrees Celsius lower than this. So, was this an effect of Global Warming?

Well after a relatively warm January, last week, the Dongbei region received some severely bad weather, in Haerbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, temperatures dropped by 25 degrees, In Shenyang, capital of Jilin province, snow fall brought the city, its transport, its schools, its people, everything, to a halt. In Dalian I saw tv footage of cars completely buried in snow, blizzards, strong winds blowing people off their feet and then carrying them along the icy ground (quite amusing to watch actually), unable to stop themselves until they hit something. The regions worst snowfall in over 50 years it was reported. These are places I visited in February, I was lucky to got out of the area just in time. So, what are the views of these reporters now, was this a side-effect of Global Warming ? They've gone quiet.

Finishing on a positive, rather than cynical note, the response of the Chinese to the heavy snowfall was, for example in Shenyang, to employ ten thousand people for the day, give them a shovel and clear the roads. In a day everything was reported as back to normal again. I had previously seen this in action in Haerbin; when I arrived, the streets were busy with people clearing up the previous day/night's snow into neat large piles out of the way of traffic and pedestrians so life could go on as normal quite quickly. Amazing what you can do with a large and willing population.

Chengde

2007-03-03T22:20:00.000+08:00

Next stop, Chengde. Nearly skipped it as I had been feeling a bit "templed out", which I think is the appropriate phrase among Asian travellers' parlance. I found that every temple I went to see recently, whether it was Buddhist or Taoist, was just like every other one in China, no real variety in design, layout, artwork etc. except for Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) which is a little different (round instead of rectangular) and which I revisited as I remember it being fairly interesting last time. But when I went to the train station to ask about train tickets, I found there was one (just 2 in fact) available for next morning and tickets to Datong were not so easily available. So, despite a very early start, I decided to take it, as train tickets were still like rocking horse shit to get hold of at the time with Spring Festival traffic still in full flow.

Well, it turned out to be a good decision.. At last there was some variety in the temples, a breath of fresh air amongst the smog.

Chengde is home to the 'Eight Outer Temples' lying around Chengde. Originally, twelve were built but now only eight remain. Of the eight, one is closed to the public, but I managed to see seven, plus the imperial summer village, a summer retreat for emperors during the Qing dynasty which together filled most of a busy two days.

Left to Right: Pule Si, Anyuan Si, Puning Si.

Pule Si (Temple of Universal Happiness) is shaped rather like the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, with a round two-tiered roof, and is located on a hillside, in a remote spot that feels like the the middle of nowhere. Above which is the entrance to the area's park grounds, which seemed very difficult to get into, officially anyway. Numerous women outside kept trying to sell me second-hand tickets, and kept running after me, grabbing at me and shouting angrily when I refused to buy based on the fact the ticket was used, had no stub and were no cheaper than the official price anyway, I saw no point. But, when I reached the gate, the ticket man, took my money and had no ticket to give me anyway, he also pointed out the gates were closed and gave some signals which I did not understand. I eventually gave up, though it would have been quite easy to just walk through the trees into the park area, but by then I was fed up with the hassle.

Anyuan temple was closed, but I found a metal gate pulled to and latched by a metal bracket which I managed to unlatch and sneaked into the grounds at least to see the main building, but could not get inside.

Puning Si (Temple of Universal Peace), a Tibetan temple, which was a little varied from the Yonghe temple in Beijing, very colourful, prayer wheels, prayer flags, plus a temple whose outer and inner railings were completely covered in padlocks, the purchase and addition of one, is supposed to bring good luck. In the main hall is the huge 23m golden statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, with 42 arms and supposedly the largest wooden statue in the world.

Left: Outdoor Buddhas at Puyou Si.

Centre: Main building of Xumifushou temple.

Right: Putuozongshengmiao,the mini Potala Palace.

Puyou Si next door was strange, as you enter the grounds there are rows of buddhas all around, sitting outside and there were no halls. Whether it is always like this or is being reconstructed I don't know.

Xumifushou is a Mongolian style temple modelled on the Tashilunpo Monastery in Shigatse, Tibet, with large grounds, a colourful red building and some impressive dragons on top of the main hall. Here, once inside the main building area, my every act was closely scrutinised by a member of the staff. Photos of statues indoors were as usual banned, but I was surprised that when I tried to take a photo of a sign, just to note some details, my escort growled at me and almost took my camera away, amusing.

Putuozongshengmiao (Temple of Potaraka Doctrine) occupies 220,000 square metres and is by far the largest of all the temples and is based on the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Inside the main building you can get a bit lost wandering around the halls, pagodas and terraces, but there is quite a lot of interesting stuff on display as well as murals and of course the Tibetan and Chinese style decorations and some great views of the surrounding countryside from the roof terrace.

Shuxiang temple was also seemingly closed, but somebody spotted me and let me in a side wooden door, next to some buildings where he and some others clearly lived. After haggling over the price, I made it in for an acceptable charge and was shown around. This was home to a trio of Buddhas sitting on ancient beasts.

Left: Prayer wheels on the first level terrace of Putuozongshengmiao's main building.

Centre: A traditional Chinese New Year dance festival in street nearby to Puning Lu.

Right: Prayer flags at Putuozongshengmiao.

Dydd Gwyl Dewi

2007-03-01T23:07:00.000+08:00

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus i chi.

Shanhaiguan - The Other End of The Great Wall

2007-02-21T14:51:00.000+08:00

Around three months ago, I was at the Western end of "The Great Wall" (长城) at Jiayuguan (嘉峪关), <Read about Jiayuguan here.> now I have reached the Eastern end of the wall at Shanhaiguan (山海关). The town of Shanhaiguan (meaning 'The Pass between the Mountain and the Sea') was built during the Ming dynasty to defend the Eastern end of the Great Wall from the barbarians to the North. The main site in the old city is The First Pass Under Heaven (第一关下天) is a fortress built into the city walls as an entry point to the 'Middle Kingdom' (中国, Zhongguo), the literal translation of the Chinese name for China.

The old city dates back to 1381 but is currently under a bit of renovation, in fact, to be fair, it's like a war zone. The main north-south road which according to my guide book had the only places to eat, bike rental shops and internet access, currently has but a handful of buildings still standing, the rest on both sides is almost all rubble and a couple of building shells. Strangely there does not appear to be anything going on at all !! So I have no idea how long it has been like this, though it is probable there are no signs of work due to Spring Festival holiday. So when something happens there I don't know, but from some of the large posters scattered around some temporary walling built on some of the demolished roadsides, the aim is to rebuild Shanhaiguan into a"World class tourist Site", by the dubious sounding processes seen on three separate posters, described as "Setup a age-old city", "Build Orient Legend of World" and "Deduct Ancient Culture, Describe New Legend" Whether setting up an "age-old city" or "building a legend" are ethically correct I am not sure.

Left: Me at one of the fortress towers of the "First Pass Under Heaven".
Centre: This is the "First Pass under Heaven".
Right: Is this the best "Bank Of China" building anywhere?

Anyway, the fortress is impressive, you can walk a few hundred metres in both directions along part of the walls and see the full extent of the fortress and it's grounds. At the far end of the wall is "Lao Long Tou" (Old Dragon's Head), another fort, which has been overly re-constructed into a bit of a theme park, but has the impressive sight of the end of The Wall, coming to its end a few metres into the sea. There is also a temple, dedicated to the sea god, also on a pier a few metres out into the China Sea.

Left: A toilet building, one of the few left standing in Shanhaiguan's old town main street.
Centre: "Lao Long Tou" (Old Dragon's Head), the Eastern end of The Great Wall.
Right: Like I had done earlier, a few people got stuck a while in this maze.

The highlight in the area though is undoubtedly JiaoShan (角山) a section of the Great Wall a few kilometres north of the old city. I walked there from town and found you could walk most of the way along a grass covered mound about 4 metres high, which is a part of the original wall. As you approach the Jiaoshan site you can see the reconstructed section of the wall climbing impressively up the mountain ahead. At the site the path is blocked so I jump down off the wall, head to the entrance, pay and off onto the newly stoned and pretty steep climb up the mountain. The steps and slopes are at time very steep and you need a good pair of legs with you. You can climb the reconstructed section for around half an hour and then it is (nowadays) blocked. But if you continue up the footpath towards the temple at the top, follow the signs that faintly say 'Great Wall', (it seems there has been an attempt to wipe it out as currently they seem to want to restrict people from continuing along this part of the wall), you reach a section further up that is in its original form, untouched, crumbling, damaged, but undoubtedly original. Along this section you can clamber a further 30 minutes or so to the top of the mountain from where you have great views of mountains, a lake and the continuation of the wall with passes and towers weaving their way down and up another steep ascent in the distance.

Overall this is a great place to visit the Great Wall. There is the reconstructed part which gives a good impression of how it must have been originally, the crumbly original part with damaged towers, grass and plants growing around, a taste of the real wall and at this time of year at least, it was very quiet, just a few people climbing their way up the paths and nobody getting in your way. There is also a lovely peaceful Qixian temple at the top of JiaoShan near to the cable car stations which was a nice place to sit and rest for a while, while locals came and gave their thanks and offerings to the Buddhist shrines. Finally, a bonus is the lovely clean fresh air environment in the mountains as proclaimed on one sign, "The best oxygen area in negative oxygen ion" !

Left: The reconstructed wall at JiaoShan. (I made it as far as the second peak to the right)
Centre: The original, un-restored part, looking down from near the top.
Right: Archway at "The First Pass Under Heaven" fortress.

This leads me to a final note about Shanhaiguan, that is the abundance of beautifully worded, rather Confucianist sayings on signs scattered around their sites. Here are a few samples:

"You are beautiful when you are smiling,
You are good when you are sight-seeing,
You are terrific when you are behaving yourself."

"Civilize your language,
refine your behaviour."

"Be a spreader of civility,
be a protector of morality."

"This is our home and everyone should cherish it."

"Please don't chuck stones down the mountain"

"Take away the beauty of your memory,
but leave behind the beauty of your heart."

"Safety is mankind's best friend" (I always thought it was supposed to be a dog!)

"Politeness is your elegance,
kindness is your happiness,
humility is your virtue"

"Leave nothing behind except your footprints,
take nothing away except your pictures"

"A small step backward of yours,
a giant step forward of our civilization"

Beijing - The Start of the Chinese New Year

2007-02-20T21:24:00.000+08:00

Out of the freezing cold DongBei (North East) of China and into Beijing for a couple of days. I saw the important sites of Beijing on my previous visit here a few years ago and did not plan to stay long, but a glance through the guide book has revealed a few places I would like to see, places that I did not visit before and some areas that will have changed from last time. It has also tempted me to possibly re-visit some of the more well know places I have seen before. So off I go.....

First visit was to the Yonghe Gong Tibetan Lama Temple. Taking the wrong direction out of the station I ended up in Ditan park, which was as good as closed, because it was being set up with all kind of stalls ready for Chinese New Year's Day and Spring Festival. So, I retraced my steps and headed the opposite direction to the temple. Quite a grand, colourful affair, this temple was built in the late seventeenth century and unlike many is still in it's original form having escaped damage during the cultural revolution, thanks to its status as a national monument and having been closed for thirty years during this time. There are five main halls in the usual Buddhist Temple layout, first there is a large gate, protected by warriors, in the first courtyard a spirit wall, to keep away evil spirits (they cannot turn around corners), followed by each of the halls ordered by importance, the most significant temple halls are at the rear of the complex, furthest from the entrance just in case any evil should enter the grounds. In one of the temples I was lucky enough to find a Buddhist ceremony of some kind going on, exactly what I don't know, but many monks were seated around the large bronze statue of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Yellow Hat Sect of Buddhism, slowly passing around some object(s) from one to another while all the time prayer chants continued unabated. The highlight here is in the last temple, a 26m wooden statue of the Maitreya (future buddha) carved out of one solid sandalwood tree. Although not as high/long as two buddhas I saw some time back in Magao caves, Dunhuang, it was still an imposing sight that sadly, as is usual, you are not allowed to photograph.

Left: Yonghe Temple Hall.

Centre: Incense Burning in front of the halls

Right: Houhai Lake

Next, onto the nearby Confucius Temple, obviously a Confucian Temple this one. This unfortunately is currently under renovation and not such a pretty sight at the moment with scaffolding and wooden boards covering much of the buildings. One notable variation from other temples here is the presence of a number of stone tablets (steles) which celebrate the names of those who studied and succeeded in their examinations here. In the grounds a large pavillion in the centre of a small (frozen) pond, among ancient, enveloping trees soon helps you to forget you are in a busy city of 13 million people

Next day was a "park day". Beihai park, with large lakes, a 'round city' within which is a hall containing a white jade buddha carved from one large and perfect piece of white jade and on the central island a series of buildings on the hillside crowned by a giant white dagoba.

Left: 'Round City' in Beihai Park

Centre: North East corner of The Forbidden City and moat.

Right: Forbidden City's first gateway.

A little way to the East is Jingshan Park, this contains a man-made mound created from the digging of the moat around the Forbidden city which the mound overlooks. The park highlight is therefore the climb to the top of this mound for an interesting view of the Forbidden City, which in case you have forgotten, reminds you how vast the area is.

This day was also Chinese New Year's Eve, the evening and all night long was marked by a barrage of fireworks and fire crackers from all around the city. Fireworks are supposedly used to frighten away any evil spirits at the start of the new lunar year. This though is not just one night of fireworks, it's worth mentioning that this had been happening every night for the last week. A couple of nights ago in Dandong, I was startled by some of the loudest fire crackers ever outside my hotel. It will also continue for the next week!!

Left: Happy New Year Pigs, a common sight on shop fronts.

Centre: Buddha image from Beihai Park's temple.

Right: Beijing Railway station at night

Happy Chinese New Year

2007-02-18T03:17:00.000+08:00

新年快乐
(Xin Nian Kuai Le)

╭︿︿︿╮
{/ o o \}
( (oo) )
︶︶︶

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone. This Chinese new year is the year of the pig and is also a special year known as the year of the 'Golden Pig', which occurs only every sixty years, so this year is particulalry auspicious for Chinese. A year which should bring prosperity and success.

Left: Fireworks in Shanhaiguan on Chines New Year's Day
Centre: Bang the gong, for good luck in new year. 108 times is an auspicious number apparently.
Right: Chinese New Year lantern

For any of you that are pigs, then here's is a quick personality summary.

The Pig is a fun and enlightening personality blessed with patience and
understanding. People born under the sign of the Pig enjoy life and all it has
to offer, including family and friends. They are honest and thoughtful and
expect the same of other people. Pigs can be perceived as oblivious or gullible
because they do care about others so much that they will do just about anything
for a friend in need.

Dandong and a trip to North Korea !

2007-02-15T19:20:00.000+08:00

Next stop was Dandong (丹东). On the train from Shenyang, I chatted a little with my neighbours and someone asked me why I was going to Dandong, I couldn't answer this one really, other than because you could see North Korea from there, and I didn't want to say that to them in case it upset them, there was no justifiable reason.

I had only a hard seat unreserved ticket for the train so sat anywhere I found a place free, most were taken up by people lying gown not wanting to give up their 3 seats!! As I sat, a young girl to the side pointed at me and grabbed her fathers arm, saying 'weiguoren, weiguoren' which means 'foreigner', this is actually quite common, so no strange event for me now, but this time, as I sometimes do, I decided to fight back and with a big grin, pointed back at her and shouted 'Zhongguoren, Zhongguoren!' (Chinese). The lady next to me laughed and said something to me I didn't understand, but moments later, the young girl had swapped seats and was sitting with her (her mother) and opposite me, saying 'Hello' and 'What is your name?' as young Chinese kids tend to do. Well it ended up with me having to give a bit of an English lesson for her and she loved it, it helped pass the 5 hours by a little quicker anyway.

Arrived in Dandong, exit the station and there's yet another identical Mao statue pointing at somewhere in the distance. The station square is huge, open and strangely empty for China, barely any people around, except for a couple of hotel touts, one of which I use and find a pretty decent room with internet PC, TV, everything I need for 8 euros a night.

Next day I head down to the Yalu river, to get a glimpse at North Korea across the icy water, visually, it's pretty uninteresting but for some reason it has some kind of attraction, some kind of curiosity factor that can keep you watching the same scene over and over, purely because it is North Korea, probably the most secretive country in the world. Taxi drivers keep shouting at me here, there are abundant taxis and they clearly have no customers, so toot and shout whenever they pass you, some offered to take me to North Korea, I was tempted but I'm not sure how they would go about doing this and I guess I won't get far anyway without a visa, there must be a border control on the roads around here. Anyway I have some fun with the taxis, if they toot, I wave back at them, which causes them to immediately get excited at the prospect of a client and stop. Parked taxi drivers also have a habit of shouting verbally and typically Chinese, very loudly at me, I have no idea what they say, so I just shout something random back at them, very loudly too, they usually laugh ;)

Left: View of North Korea from Dandong.
Centre: North Korean boats in Sinuiju harbour.
Right: Another identical Mao statue! As in Kashgar and Shenyang.

Then I found out you can go to North Korean territory without any problems, you can't go onto land but you can take a boat trip into North Korean waters very close to the shore and watch closely what is going on there, so I immediately jumped on. Within metres of the North Korean land you can watch closely at what is going on in the North Korean town of Sinuiju, absolutely nothing !! One or two people sit around doing nothing, some men on a rusty old boat, walk around and that's it really, very quiet and boring !! All you can see is a close up of a heap of rusty old boats, some old factory like buildings, some cranes and surprisingly a big wheel ! A South Korean man on the boat told me that 15 years ago, Dandong, was not much different, now it has high buildings stretching out along the shoreline for as far as you can see, all kinds of bright lights shining, buildings everywhere, in contrast on the North Korean side there is almost nothing. Interestingly at night-time, you look across the river and you see absolutely nothing, there is no light whatsoever to be seen, no street lamps, no apparent lighting from buildings even, probably they have no electricity there, I don't know, but the difference between that and Chinese Dandong is overwhelming.

Left: Banknotes from N.Korea; 200 and 100 North Korean Zonks.
Centre: Pavillion on Dandong's seafron park area.
Right: Kite flying with a message if you can read Chinese.

I spent Valentine's Day in Dandong and kept having girls running after me with bunches of roses, great fun... I suppose though, they were trying to sell them, not give them to me, but...

"Polite Queueing" day in Beijing

2007-02-13T01:22:00.000+08:00

11 February was "Polite Queueing Day" in Beijing. Last time I was in China, queueing was an alien concept to the Chinese, even impolite queueing had no place in Chinese society, but how it's changed. This time around I noticed right away, that in some places, something resembling queueing and waiting your turn has started to be introduced. In many, busy bus and train stations, it has been enforced by placement of metal barriers, which prevents most (but not all) attempts to join the queue at the front rather than at the back. But in other places, shops, boarding metro's, buses, ordering in cafes, it is down to the individual's attitude still, there are plenty of occasions when standing at the front of the counter is of no value when someone three rows behind you has a long arm and louder voice, or when a metro door is about to open and the 10 or so people who were standing quietly behind you, suddenly burst through pushing and shoving everyone out of the way to get to a seat first.. But it is nowhere near as bad as it used to be, the Chinese (and the Russians) are becoming more 'polite'.

It is something I observed also in Russia compared to last time, a huge change in people's attitudes which make trying to buy something like a train ticket a far less harassing event than it used to be.. I even had occasions in Russia where the people behind me tried to help clarify things when I clearly had problems understanding some Russian question.

While, I found the old style to be an amazing, fascinating, unbelievable, cultural idiosyncrasy of some Asian countries' cultures, (when not in the middle of it that is). When involved in the scrum it is one of the most frustrating experiences in the world. I'm all for this bit of change though, although it will be a shame to no longer be able to sit and watch the endless jostling for position that used to take place, all just for getting a train ticket, it ws such an entertaining sight !

More from Dongbei

2007-02-11T18:33:00.000+08:00

Leaving Harbin, I headed Southwards and made it as far as Shenyang (沈阳), the capital of Liaoning province, which is the only city in China, other than Beijing, with an Imperial Palace. So next morning I visited the palace, its temples, halls and gardens and some of the streets surrounding which together form the attractive old town of Shenyang. The palace and grounds are smaller than the Forbidden City in Beijing and just about the right size so you can, if you have the time, without getting too exhausted, explore every little pathway and every building to see what there is to offer. Something that would take you a week in Beijing's Imperial Palace. It's a quite peaceful and attractive site, not over-run by tourists (at least not at this time of year), worth visiting. In contrast, the rest of the city is quite the opposite, very busy, roads full of traffic, pedestrian streets packed with people and as ever pedestrian crossings and traffic lights are of little consequence, making crossing roads a nightmare. It took me ages to get across the road to picture the huge Mao statue on Zhongshan square, which incidentally was identical in look and pose as to the one in my first Chinese city of this trip, way back three and a half months ago in Kashgar.

All pics: Towers and Halls from the Imperial Palace in Shenyang.

As well as the Imperial Palace I came across an old mansion, a protected national relic, that was the official residence and private house of Marshal Zhang Zuolin, a famous political leader and celebrity of North Eastern China. The final site worth seeing in Shenyang was the huge Mao statue.

All pics: Dragon artwork from around the palace grounds and buildings

The three provinces of North East China are commonly referred to by those from outside of the area as Dongbei, Dongbei means literally 'EastNorth'. Because of the cold weather in this region during winter, every bit of water (except it seems the Yalu river in Dandong, see later) is frozen solid for the winter months. This means winter sports for everyone, whether you like it or not as even walking along roads, it is at times more like skating than walking ;) In Harbin there were ice slides and ice rinks made along the banks of the river and in Shenyang's DongLing Park where the lakes were frozen over, speed skating tracks were marked out. People also slid around on little chairs converted to move around the ice with the help of two ski like poles, this is called a pali and were common in both Harbin and Shenyang

Left: Ice seats called 'pali' are common in Dongbei.
Centre: View form inside one of the halls of Shenyang's Palace.
Right: A typical crowd of Chinese tourists, but in Shenyang this was the only one I saw.

Haerbin's Ice and Snow Festival

2007-02-10T18:33:00.000+08:00

After a couple of days travelling from Guangzhou, via Beijing, I finally reached Harbin (哈尓滨) early one morning. Alighting the train, it was like stepping into one of those giant freezers, with an added howling gale, which swept up the powdery snow off the platform and circulated it around in the air as if in a mini-whirlwind. Fortunately outside, the wind was not so noticeable, but at around minus 15 degrees, it was still a bit cold. The first thing you see as you step outside Harbin station square (apart from the piles of ice and snow) is a huge ice sculpture, an indication of the main focus of attention for this part of China during the winter months. Slowly negotiating the pavements and roads which is just like permanently walking along on a sheet of ice, I found my way to my hotel and checked into my oven like room. More varying contrasts in temperature in such a short space of time, I have never experienced.

So why would I chose to go somewhere so cold ? I'm not a skier, snowboarder or winter sportsman really, my reason is to check what the famous Harbin Ice and Snow Sculpture & Lantern Festivals are all about. I've seen these in the news before and I saw some ice sculptures in Leiden, Netherlands last year (indoors in an artificially cooled room), but here they have the biggest and best in the world allegedly, so why not check it out.

Harbin is so different to other Chinese cities, especially the area North of the train station up to and over the Songhua River. It is in parts very Russian-like, due to its close proximity to the Siberian Russia border and its history of Russian workers living in the area building rail connections from Vladivostock through Harbin to the Chinese port of Dalian. The main shopping street is a prime example of this with Russian/European style buildings subtly illuminated by lamps, rather than with glowing strips of neon lighting. Shop names are displayed with carved symbols, advertising on printed billboards, no bright neon flashing signs here as in most Chinese cities, quite a change. There are also many "Russian Shop"s selling the usual Russian souvenirs such as matroeshkes (those wooden multiple-doll things), communist memorabilia, badges, uniforms and of course Russian vodka. There is also an Orthodox Cathedral
which is of huge interest to the Chinese visitors who if they have not been outside of China have probably never seen such a building before ! So it is of course surrounded by Chinese people posing to have photos taken.

Harbin City

Left: Harbin station, early morning and the first ice sculpture of the day.
Centre: Harbin's Russian Orthodox Church, St Sofia's
Right : Harbin's main shopping street (Zhongyang Dajie) by night

So, onto the festivals:

Snow Festival

Walk across the Songhua river or take a horse & cart and then stroll around the quiet Sun Island, which contains a Russian Village with Russian style shops and cafes, large parks with snow sculptures, lakes which are of course now frozen solid and various recreational activities such as ice/snow slides, ice skating rinks, husky pulled sledges and snow buggies which you can drive around on the frozen lake.

Left: Street of houses, many were not just solid snow, but had shops inside.
Centre: A snow castle
Right: Looking along the Songhua river, while standing in the middle.

Ice Lantern Festival at Night (Zhaolin Park)

The ice sculptures are apparently made from ice blocks taken from the Songhua River once it has frozen over. There is a diverse collection of sculptures, including churches, pagodas, cartoon characters, bridges and walkways, a full-size stage, chess-set, a disney style castle with long ice slides and steps, everything is made entirely from blocks of ice. In the evening they are all illuminated with colourful lighting which turns the park into a bit of a winter wonderland. There are too many sculptures to be able to give a good overview without overloading this page with photos, but here are a few examples:

Left: Illuminated pagoda (and church in background)
Centre: The entrance to Zhaolin Park
Right: Chinese New Year Pigs (2007 will be year of the pig).

Ice Lantern Festival in the Day (Zhaolin Park)

Left: Ice Bridge.
Centre: Ice archways.
Right: Too late ! These poor fish didn't move around quick enough ;)

Since my visit I have found out (damn that Rough Guide for omitting this) that an even bigger snow and ice sculpture park also exists called "Harbin Snow and Ice World" !! I searched lots on the internet before the festival and found nothing to tell me what was going on in Harbin, other than the basic info of "ice lantern festival, annually Jan5 - Feb5, Zhaolin Park" and so knew nothing of this other park that has been holding the festival for 8 years now. Unfortunately being rather busy during the first few weeks the festival was going on I neglected to do any further research before I arrived and so just went by my guide book and what I gleaned from the one tourist tout I found there, who spoke any English. But, it turns out from info now readily available on the net, that I missed what is apparently the biggest and best part of the whole thing !!! Damn. Thoughts of returning have been dealt a blow by the newsflash I spotted on TV, that due to the unseasonably warm weather, with temperatures touching zero degrees and above in Harbin, organizers have decided to end the festival early and began demolishing the sculptures at the weekend. Damn, damn, damn global warming (that's who the Chinese news blame anyway). Looks like I will have to go back again next year, well at least I have the warm coat now. Going back again would be no great issue as Harbin is a decent place to visit. As well as the festivals, there are plenty of winter recreational activities going on and I also found two decent places to go out in the evenings, the Russian Bar and the Blues Bar, where I found plenty of young Chinese wanting to practice English with me, it was fun couple of nights out in Harbin, I look forward to visiting again next year now!

Hong Kong Phooey

2007-02-08T18:32:00.000+08:00

"Is it Penry, The Mild Mannared Janitor ? Could be !!! " A great cartoon hero....

First time in Hong Kong for me. Stu and Perry have now gone back to Guangzhou for their flight, Phil has also gone back to Guangzhou for a couple of days of Cantonese culture, I will catch up with him a day or two, I am staying in Hong Kong as my Chinese visa has expired. I want to stay longer in China so a trip to HK is the easiest option, I'm already in the area, visas are easy to get and I fancied seeing it sometime anyway. So boat from Macau, across the South China Sea and into the Macau Ferry Port in the North of Hong Kong Island. Found accomodation in the Causeway area (Eastern Hong Kong Island) and off we wnt to the infamous Lan Kwai Fong, the heart of Hong Kong's drinking culture nightlife. Well it was Saturday and therefore live football again. It's quite a weird experience going there after three months in China and a previous four months in Central Asia to find somewhere that feels just like you are out in London! After the football was over we found another club with a great live band, well the band was great, especially the guitarist, but the singer was not my favourite, they however played some great cover tracks such as Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Green Day, Killers etc which kept the dance floor packed and it made it a great fun night out in HK.

Left: Hong Kong Island skyline from Kowloon in the day.
Right: And at night.

As well as the nightlife part, I always want to experience some of the more traditional local cultures of course, so trying to ignore the British bars, the now odd sight of British people around me and sandwiches in shops, I jumped on the famous star ferry across to Kowloon, a place I have heard and read about in books and wondered what it must be like. On the Chinese mainland, Kowloon was ceded to the British in 1860 and was developed uncomprimisingly to create one of the most densely popualted areas on the planet. On arrival I was greeted by hordes of mainly Indian or Middle Eastern men selling fake watches, they don't give up these boys !! Walking through the centre of Kowloon, through the bustling streets, packed with shoppers, through streets almost covered overhead with advertising hoardings and banners, with shops, markets, hotels, the infamous Chungking Mansions crammed full of cheap guesthouses and looks like it could do with a bit of work, you can reach the surprisingly quiet Kowloon Park with a few people sitting around the fountains, playing cards, mah jong, chinese chess or performing taiji.

Further north again I headed out to find Hong Kong's most thriving Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian temple (Wong Tai Sing Temple) packed with Chinese making their offerings, shuffling around with bunches of incense, filling the air with a dense aromatic smoke due to the huge number of people. There were also some worshippers kneeling in front of temples offering traditional gifts of food, which is usually some fruit, oranges, bananas etc. but here I even saw two ladies with a roast chicken each!

Looking back at Hong Kong Island from Kowloon is a spectacular view (if you like the skyscraper kind of thing, I'm half taken but not completely), non-stop skyscrapers from one end to the other across the island, which in the evening (I went back again that evening) are colourfully illuminated with bright neon glowing outlines and signs.

Left: Wong Tai Sing Temple, possibly the busiest temple I have ever been to.
Right: Chinese chess players in Kowloon park.

Back on Hong Kong Island, the Sunday afternoon crowds were out shopping and it was even worse than Fratton Park at 14:59 on a Saturday, when everyone rushes in last minute from the pubs. There was an onslaught of people from all directions, waves and waves of shoppers, workers, tourists, whatever they all were, all seemingly heading around the same area of town as me. The mixture of faces there was also huge, as well as Chinese and British faces, there were clearly many from parts of SE Asia, such as Phillipinos, Malays and Indonesians, as well as Indians and maybe even some Middle Eastern people, as well as of course various other Europeans, Americans and Australians/New Zealanders. It's a real melting pot of people Hong Kong, more so than I could possibly have imagined.

My next target was to get up to the top of the large hill in the centre of Hong Kong Island which they have imagintively called 'The Peak' (it must have taken hours to come up with that). There is a fenicular railway going up there which I decided to take as it was the quickest and simplest way and from the top you have great vies of Hong Kong's skyline, Kowloon and the outlying islands. All very nice on a nice clear day. A bonus was the EA store on the way up to the viewing platform where you could tryout EA games as long as you wanted, so I spent a good few hours testing out the new release of FIFA 07 while I was there, great !!

Left: Hong Kong From the top of 'The Peak'.
Centre: Lady at Wong Tai Sing Si, gives offerings that include a roast chicken.
Right: One of Hong Kong's strange narrow trams.

A multi-coloured Macau

2007-02-07T23:26:00.000+08:00

Taking a ferry from Shenzhen we dropped into Macau for a quick visit, landing on the Eastern port side of the island. Found a hotel and wandered around the town which is very European architecturally from its Portugese heritage. Low storied, brick, brightly coloured buildings, lit by lamps rather than strips of neon lights. There are a few churches around which were all a big attraction to visitors, who crowded in front of them in order to take photos. But, despite the European feel, Macau's biggest pull these days is its casinos which attract Chinese gamblers from all around, especially Hong Kong. They are all huge, glittering, neon covered hotel/casino buildings whose illuminations stand out from afar in the evenings. We weren't tempted in, but instead found a Portugese style restaurant and some local bars and spent a relatively peaceful evening in Macau.

The next day we went up the 338m Macau tower, from which you can do the world's highest bungee or sky jump, None of us chose to have a go, but we watched a couple of other nutters jump off, while we enjoyed the comfort of a seat in a cafe with 180 degree views of Macau.

Left: Macaus casinos at night, you can't miss them really.
Right: View of Macau from the Macau Tower.

As evening drew near, it's back to pick up bags and off to the HK ferry port. Hong Kong here we come...

Guangzhou - The Dragons have landed

2007-02-06T17:36:00.000+08:00

Visiting friends were flying into Guangzhou airport so I went there a couple of days before they arrived to have a look around, check out the place and see what there is to be seen and done. A city of over 6 million people and arriving at the main Guangzhou train station, it feels like it. The square outside the station and the walkways between there and the bus stations are heaving during the day and evenings and pretty busy even at night. Queueing to buy tickets is a slow process which later on when I returned early this month when the train traffic was starting to increase with the upcoming Spring Festival, was unimaginably worse. They even have large marquees outside the station now where people have to sit and wait before they are allowed into the station, to ensure no overcrowding in the ticket office itself. Last week it was bad, I don't want to be there during this week prior to Spring Festival !!

Guangzhou (广州) - previosuly known outside of China as Canton - is an international business centre within the booming South East of China. High buildings, chaotic traffic, overcrowded streets, multiple flyovers, heavy pollution give a bit of a daunting feel at first, but by hunting around, you can find some nice places which are a little more peaceful than the bustling stations area in the North part of 'Downtown'. (Despite the fact everyone tells me they are proud to be taught British English in China, for some reason, China still has this disappointing habit of using Americanisms such as 'downtown'). Like many Chinese cities, Guangzhou has various parks which are well looked after and with many having an entrance fee, they are usually pretty quiet, even in the middle of the city.

Left: Buddhas in the main temple at Liurong Si.
Right: Outside the main hall of Guangxiao Si.

First day was a 'temple day', Liurong Si (Temple of Six Banyan Trees) and the 17-floor Hua Ta (Flower Pagoda) contained in its grounds were the first stop. A couple of monks sat around quietly reading, Chinese Buddhists bought bundles of incense sticks and shuffled around each of the temples or shrines one by one, making their offerings to Buddha. Not far away weaving my way through a small market street and some other roads, I found Guangxiao Si, Guangzhou's oldest Buddhist temple with halls containing various Buddha images, the largest being a familiar trinity in the main hall. Both were a nice break from the crowded streets and because they were the first Buddhist temples I had seen for a while.

Next day a visit to Shamian island, an old colonial area with colonial architecture, a peaceful park overlooking the Pearl river and a few touristy shops. Following the Opium Wars, the island was leased to the French and British, they shared half each and the architecture thoroughout the small island is still much as it was back then, with large, solid Victorian style villas all around.

The main shopping street is Beijing Lu (Beijing street) and as a foreigner I was constanly accosted in the street by vendors trying to sell mainly fake Rolex wathces, also Gucci/Armani suits or DVDs which you'll get offered somewhere in most cities.

Left: Buddhist monk at the Liurong Si.
Centre: Phil with his silly paddy field worker's hat.
Right: Photo of Perry taking a photo of me taking a photo of him in Yangshuo.

In the evening it was time to check out the Guangzhou nightlife, which although limited is quite busy. A number of ex-pat bars have appeared in Guangzhou's Eastern area around the World Trade Centre over the last years and there was quite a crowd out and about during the evening. On orders from my forthcoming visitors I found a bar that showed live Premiership football for the next evening's entertainment and having sampled a few places, I felt sure we would find enough decent places to go out for a Saturday night in Guangzhou when they arrived.

First night, we watched football in the Elephant & Castle and followed on to The Hill, one of Guangzhou's oldest established 'pubs', both are a good venues for a few drinks as is Gypsy Kings not far away, as long as you go there later in the evening.

After Guangzhou we headed off to Yangshuo to show them the hills, rivers and amazing countryside in the area, Phil bought a nice paddy field hat and Chinese fan, while Stu and Perry avoided the Chinese theme and bought some cheap North Face jackets, shoes and bags and all sorts between them.

Left: Perry & Stu in Gypsy Kings.
Right: Stu and Phil on the Li River.

Left: Yangshuo scenery.
Right: Cormorant fisherman in Yangshuo.

From SE to NE China

2007-02-05T17:42:00.000+08:00

Spent a couple of days in Hong Kong while I arranged a new Chinese visa, so I could get back into the real China. Macao and HongKong are now of course part of China politically, but administratively they are not and on arrival you are stamped out of China and into Macau or HK. Coming back with a new visa I got into a bit of trouble as I was caught trying to smuggle two bananas from China into China, which the quarantine inspection people were not happy about. I pointed out i had bought them in China (HK) , so why ? but they were not very understanding.

Anyway I left HK and went back to Guangzhou to catch up with Phil for his last night and a evening out in a couple of local bars. The next day I left a warm, sunny Guangzhou and after 2 days travelling, with a half day break in Beijing, I arrived in Harbin. In Guangzhou it was around 15 degrees when I left, in Harbin when I arrived Saturday morning it was around minus 15 degrees. Harbin is a very Russian town, being so close to the border with Siberian Russia, with architecture, roads, lighting that all reflect a Russian style rather than Chinese. Harbin is also the host of the world famous ice and snow sculpture festival held here each year, which is why I am here..

All I have time for now..

Brown Sauce Bemuses Chinese Shoppers

2007-01-30T01:12:00.000+08:00

One thing I have found myself doing a lot in China is asking Chinese friends, "what's this food?", "what's that?", "is this nice?", "do you really eat this?" before trying things in cafes or sometimes just when noticing some of the many strange looking packets, bottles, jars or boxes in shops or outdoor foodstalls. Of course there is a huge, huge difference in food products generally available as snacks, ingredients or dishes in Asian foods compared to those in Europe, more than I imagined and so many of which I was barely or completely unaware of before.

This I found out yesterady of course works the other way too, when I read an article about Tesco opening their new store in Beijing. Here's an excerpt

Most of the products on sale are Chinese, including soy sauce, sheep's feet and even live turtles.
There is one rather forlorn aisle selling food from the United Kingdom, including sage-and-onion stuffing and mint jelly.
A tin of baked beans and a bottle of Tesco's brown sauce seemed to perplex the early customers."I'm not sure that these are the baked beans, and it might be a Chinese-style yellow bean sauce," one person said at the opening. "This brown sauce, I think it's probably a fish-egg sauce or maybe a banana sauce."

It made me laugh and was comforting to see Chinese people also having the same bemused thoughts about European food products at times.

A friendly visit

2007-01-29T23:55:00.000+08:00

It's been a busy time the last week or so, I had a few friends from Wales come over to China for a bit of a trip. Phil, Stuart and Perry, arrived last Sunday in Guangzhou, where we watched the Arsenal v Man Utd match in the Elephant & Castle, not very Chinese at all... Guangzhou in fact has a bit of an ex-pat community, including British style pubs, serving foreign style pub-food, the first time I have seen this kind of environment for a very long time. To be honest I can't say I have really missed it as there's usually been some acceptable local alternative whenever the need arose for an evening in the pub, though of course I did enjoy it.

After Guangzhou we went to Yangshuo to show them the limestone hill scenery around Guilin and Yangshuo and stayed there a few days. After that, next stop was Macao and I am now in Hong Kong as my Chinese visa expired and I have had to organise a new one to get back into the 'real China'. Meanwhile Perry and Stu have returned home and Phil is back in Guangzhou, I may catch up with him tomorrow before he leaves for a quick drink in the classicly named Irish Bar, "The Paddy Field".

all for now....

Backlog of Updates

2007-01-13T15:26:00.000+08:00

The network connections are a bit better now, so have been able to publish a backlog of updates, here we go:

--> 31/12/2006: Welcome to Nanning!

--> 01/01/2007: Chili picking, Karaoke and Jiangtang

--> 07/01/2007: Guilin

--> 10/01/2007: Yangshuo, Xingping & the Li River

Yangshuo, Xingping and the Li River

2007-01-10T13:56:00.000+08:00

Yangshuo (阳朔) is an hour mini-bus ride from Guilin, there are boat trips that cruise down the Li river to here, which sounds an idyllic way of getting there and was my original plan, but the high prices, the fact that during winter, due to low water levels, the 5-6 hour trip is reduced to about one and a half hours without any discounts and the gloomy grey weather all convinced me it would be better to save it for another time. A good decision that turned out to be too. Arrived in Yangshuo and as usual greeted by someone trying to sell a hotel room at the bus station, which on this occasion I took a look at and found a nice room in the 'Fawlty Towers Hotel'. (This shows the amount of tourism that has hit Yangshuo). So after Sybil showed me a room, Manuel checked me in and I had dumped my bags, I went for a walk around Yangshuo, (I didn't see Basil anywhere).

Yangshuo lies in the shadow of 'Green Lotus Peak' and other limestone hills to the south. A small town turned into a real tourist centre, lying in a beautiful setting on the river. It's quiet vehicle free central street contains rows of art, craft, textile and clothes shops, mixed with coffee shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, and tourist info places trying to sell boat trips, tickets to evening dance shows, rent bicycles and tour guides. Despite the blatant commercialism, it's green, natural setting and peaceful, relaxed atmosphere (at this time of year at least, in summer I suspect it's completely packed with tourists) gives the feel of a little paradise in a rural part of China. Despite a few exceptions, even the tourist touts are quite relaxed and don't really hassle you, one was even really pleasant to chat with, giving no real pressure at all, just wanting to talk about my home country. In the quiet streets you see women walking around knitting, or cafe staff playing badminton while they wait for customers, it's a really laid back place to stay for a while.

Left: A boat trip view of the Li River
Centre: Relaxed Yangshuo: Card game in the middle of the street
Right: Relaxed Yangshuo: Knitting in the middle of the street.

Along the roadside overlooking the river there are also many interesting souvenir stalls selling typical Chinese art, scroll paintings, decorative Chinese fans, anything silk, coins and jade. Food is also always easily available in cafes or on the streets where locals are selling fruits, corn on the cob, fresh sugar cane among other things, the most abundant of which is the pomelo, a fruit something like a grapefruit, but bigger and sweeter, which must be in season during winter as heaps and heaps of these could be seen all around town and neighbouring countryside.

Left: Another view from the Li River boat trip.
Right: Yangshuo's "West street" at night.

On my second day in Yangshuo, the weather changed and it was almost like summer again, sunny, clear skies, warmer, though still a bit cold. So, having not done the boat trip from Guilin, I checked out the options available here and found that it was possible to arrange one from here for a lot less cost. Although you could take a bamboo raft along the river here, it would not go far, so a bus ride to Xingping was necessary, to where the water levels were high enough and from there I joined a 90-minute trip which is along the most scenic of the Li River and its limestone peaks. The bonus was knowing that I was seeing almost all the river route of the journey I would have seen had I taken the shortened (bus-aided) boat trip from Guilin to Yangshuo. It cost 70 yuan including bus to Xingping, instead of 240 yuan (or 410 yuan for English speaking tour boat!) from Guilin. So that's a useful tip for anyone travelling these parts during winter, in summer, maybe it's worth the extra for the whole trip, but I don't know yet.

Left: View as our little boat starts its trip.
Right: View from Xingping dock at end of the trip.

Guilin (桂林)

2007-01-08T13:55:00.000+08:00

Guilin (桂林), lying in a lovely setting on the banks of the Li River, has long been a popular tourist resort for foreigners and nowadays more and more Chinese. It gets its name from the tree that lines its streets, the osmanthus, Guilin means literally 'osmanthus forest'. To be honest I had never heard of the osmanthus tree before, I always thought trees had simple, memorable, monosyllabic names such as elm, oak, fir, gum or ash, osmanthus doesn't sound like a tree at all ;-) so I learnt something new by coming here.

It's quite a touristy place which means there are some people who speak English making it easier to get around and discuss what to do in the area, but, it also means you get lots of hassles from tourist touts, many of who will just not give up chasing you. I also had many random people stopping me in the street wanting to speak English, English students, English teachers, or just those working in the tourist industry wanting to practice English with a 'westerner' who as far as they are concerned are all native English speakers!. Usually this was an innocent, friendly practice but occasionally they turned into touts trying to take me to a tea-tasting shop, an art gallery or sell some tickets for an evening show. I did the tea-tasting anyway as I wanted to and tried a few teas including osmanthus flower tea - which is good for the skin - and osmanthus leaf tea, which had a bitter, sour taste. This bitter taste in the mouth felt quite appropriate when they then tried to force me to buy some of their tea at silly prices and then asked for more silly amounts of cash for the usually free/small fee tea-tasting. Others I met were more pleasant and I had interesting chats with a couple of students who wanted to know absolutely everything about differences between Chinese and European cultures.

Left: Guilin's two pagodas at night.
Right: Osmanthus trees line the road and water sides in Guilin.

I arrived in Guilin on New Year's Eve and during the evening wandered around the lake area with its two pagodas, many bridges, trees and quiet paths all nicely lit, which creates a relaxing atmosphere. Each evening there is also a street market selling all kinds of clothes, art, food, souvenirs and many more such things which I wandered around before searching out a bar in which to have a couple of new year drinks. Pubs/bars are not common place in Chinese cities, but luckily Guilin, due to its touristic nature has a couple and I spent this new year's evening in one with a singer/guitarist playing some decent music.

Guilin's popularity is due to its location on the Li river, among many limestone peaks, that are familiar to many worldwide from Chinese scroll paintings or photos that are often seen depicting this strange scenery. It was interesting to see these peaks on the roadside travelling through Guanxi towards Guilin for the first time with my own eyes. The town has many peaks, which you can climb for views of the city and surrounding countryside. One of the more famous peaks is called 'elephant trunk hill' which remarkably, does in a way resemble a crouched elephant with its trunk drinking from the river, this has given rise to an elephant theme across the city, with 'golden elephant', 'elephant trunk', 'elephant hill' hotels, restaurants and shops all over. One peak within the grounds of the palace is less imaginatively called 'Scenic View Peak'.

Left: Guilin and surrounding limestone peak landscape
Right: Elephant trunk hill (just the front bit)

Karaoke, Chili Picking and Jiangtang

2007-01-01T00:22:00.000+08:00

One day from Nanning, Jane arranged a trip to the countryside, to a country home run by her sister's husband's family, where you can walk in the forest along a river, lunch, pick chilies and play mah jong in a lovely relaxed atmosphere away from everything. It was a lovely warm sunny day - which is great when it's just a few days to Christmas - and nice walking along the river lined with bamboo and other trees. After lunch, we were sent to work in the fields and had to pick chilies (to pay for the lunch I guess !!). After collecting a few bags full, it was back to the house and a bit of mah jong, which I kind of remember from playing at home as a child. However the Chinese play it a little differently, there are less tiles and some that are different or have different functions, you also have to play very quickly, a one or two second delay on my turn and everyone is looking at me wondering what's wrong ;) It's not a game for a learner/amateur in China.

Left: Jane2, Jane1's brother in law's mother, Jane1 and Liu in the countryside.
Right: Women at work in the fields, that's what I like to see ;)

Have also been playing a few sports during the stay in Nanning, a few games of 10-pin bowling, pool, and one day a badminton game and a 7-a-side football match on sand.

One day in particular stands out, where my sporting abilities were clearly on top form, first bowling with Jeff, Jane, Jane & Liu, I scored a 178 which has to be my best ever, including 6 strikes and 1 spare in the game, not bad for me ! Then just a short while later during a 6-0 demolition at pool I even cleared up one frame from the break, poor Jeff didn't even get a shot. Badminton was fun, such a log time since I played that and quite pleased that I could almost hold my own in a friendly knock around with 2 chinese, the football was the first time I played on a hard sand surface, kept misjudging the ball at first, quite fast and slipped a few times, was good game, but my lack of fitness showed and was out-run by the regulars.

One thing I'm definitely not so good at though is singing and on Dec 26 I went to a birthday night out for Ming. After dinner we went to a Karaoke bar, my first karaoke since Atyrau in Kazakhstan. You get your private karaoke room and system and waiters/waitresses bringing food and drink as you please, all very cosy and people just sing. It's not such a spectator sport as it is in Europe where everyone watches and listens, here, while someone sings, everyone else just chats, drinks, eats and then when they want a go, they sing and the rest chat, drink, eat, everyone just gets on with it with no great fuss, and if you're crap nobody cares. This though was already apparent to me from the screeching and squealing you regularly hear from KTV bars around town, those which have public karaoke sometimes have speakers on the outside of the building too, so everyone knows and can hear what's going on inside and sometimes it sounds pretty bad. Fortunately on this night, we had some good singers in the group.

Left: A bagful of chilies
Right: Ming singing at her birthday karaoke night.

Discos / nightclubs are different here, from about 11pm to 1pm there is usually a show of some kind, dancing, comedy sketch, acrobats etc, only after all this does anyone get on the dance floor and dance. You also get big dishes of nice fresh fruit delivered to the table, I'm not sure if someone keeps ordering this every time or if it's just a nice touch, but every table seems to have them.
My food and diet has changed a lot here, but generally I like Chinese food anyway, so that's been little problem, though it is of course at times quite different and certainly more varied than the Chinese cuisine in European Chinese restaurants. All those Chinese dishes I have tried before are available somewhere, but these and their variants are usually a small percentage of what's on a Chinese menu in China. There's plenty of meat dishes I haven't tried before, some camel's hump was put on my plate before I knew what it was, so I thought I'd give it a go, it tastes OK, but nothing special and a bit too chewy, frog is tasty but too many little bits of bone, paddy field fish is a tasty, small fish found only in rice paddy fields, not in rivers or seas. Pig's stomach and intestines seem popular, but I haven't tried any, though beer fish is a speciality around Guanxi which I must try sooner or later. I have avoided dog and snake so far and also did not go for the pangolins in a cage outside a cafe in Xingping, eating chicken's feet still makes me laugh for some reason. Taro, lotus root, rice porridge and a warm blended drink made from corn on the cob kernels are now regular in my eating, also frequent are roasted horse chestnuts, fire dragon fruit and my new favourite thing ever!! jiangtang, a stick of chewy sweetened ginger.

Welcome to Nanning!

2006-12-31T18:39:00.000+08:00

During my first week in China, I noticed a number of adverts on Chinese TV proclaiming the merits of "China's greenest city - Nanning" which at the time was hosting the 2006 China-ASEAN summit, there was also something else going on there too, which I forget, but it was getting plenty of media attention at the time. I was planning on going there sometime during my time in China to meet 娟-Juan (English name Jane), and also as it is a gateway to Vietnam which I want to visit, but I had no idea when or for how long I would stay. Well, then this wedding invite appeared from Jane and so I rushed down to Nanning for that and ended up staying for a whole month ! It turned out to be a good, relaxing, fun time, Jane and I got on really well, had great fun and enjoyed our time together, doing many things and a month just flew by.

First there was the wedding, for which I had to buy some slightly tidier clothes than what I already had in my backpack, but clothes can be relatively cheap here in China. So my first day in Nanning - with help from Jane - I explored some of the shopping centre of Nanning which helped to find my way around this new city. With the wedding over, we met up a few times with the wedding couple Jane & Jeff for dinner, visited the people's park, went boating on the lake, played some bowling, visited a couple of discos etc and explored more of Nanning, among other things.

Renmin Park or People's Park is a big green sanctuary in central Nanning, with a boating lake, small fairground, monkeys, skating rink, lotus ponds, bridges and many, many trees. It's a lovely peaceful place to wander around for a while and float around on the lake, feeding or chasing fish. In the centre of the lake is a bridge that is regarded as the symbol of Nanning.

Left: Boating in Renmin Park
Right: This bridge is a symbol of Nanning, so I'm told.

There was also the Camelia Park, named after the tree common in this park, an even quieter park than Renmin with locals sititng around playing mah jong enjoying a relaxing lifestyle in amongst the greenery and small streams. It was outside of this park that I found one of the many bits of badly translated Chinese to English phrases found all over the country, commonly know as 'Chinglish', it said:

"Welcome to Nanning, the Green and Hospital City of Guanxi"

Near to where I was staying is Chaoyang Square, a small square in the city centre where many of Nanning's residents gather daily to play music, sing, dance, play cards, chinese chess or mahjong and relax in the shade of the trees. Card games especially, attract large crowds, chinese chess and mahjong also do so at times. The old traditional Chinese instrument an erhu referred to by someone as a 'chinese guitar' even though it's nothing like a guitar, was a common sight in the park as well as other parts of town, where I even saw blind men playing the instrument. One Sunday morning there was also an outdoor orchestral & choral performance in Chaoyang Square. Music, exercise and game playing is certainly a key to life here.

Another park and the largest of all is called 'green mountain'. It's a huge nature area with forests, temples, parks, lakes and activities in which you could spend days wondering around. This is a little further away but very beautiful, a great place to spend a relaxing day away from the city atmosphere, despite still being in the city.

In the evenings ona big square in front of the large municipal offices, you can see groups of people taking part in dancing or tai ji classes, or just performing on their own. Every evening there are a lot of people there taking part, and it's nice to sit alongside and watch, especially the tai ji, which can also includes people performing with swords, spears or other accesories.

Left: Jane & Jane at a Renmin park fair ride.
Right: Dancing in the moonlight in one of Nanning's squares.

Earthquake problems

2006-12-31T17:54:00.000+08:00

Hi, no posts this week until now and may be infrequent until the network issues between China and the rest of the world are fixed. Not sure how well this has been reported outside of China as I cannot read about it, but in case you didn't know, the earthquake that hit south of Taiwan on 26 December damaged network cables feeding China to the American continent and onwards to Europe affecting communications from mainland China to phone networks and websites hosted outside of this part of the world, so this week I have not been able to access anything much at all except for Chinese news until now. Apparently satellite communications have been put in place to cover some of the traffic but it's only a part solution, and this is first time I have been able to access my usual sites and it's painfully slow, others are still not available. So all for now...

Happy New Year

A wedding invitation in Nanning

2006-12-30T09:50:00.000+08:00

My friend Jane in Nanning had invited me to this wedding, it was a marriage between a Chinese lady and an man from the US.I think I was asked so as he had some other foreigner there to keep him company ! So I skipped a few places I planned to visit and rushed south to Nanning as I thought it would be nice to see a (half) Chinese wedding. Although in a number of ways things are done similarly to what I see in Europe, there were plenty of little differences that made it interesting.

娟-Juan & Jeff were already married in the US a year ago and this was the Chinese version, so not a full wedding ceremony, but it was a full day of activites. It started with going around visiting the houses of family where small ceremonies, exchange of gifts, eating of noodles, burning of incense sticks and throwing of confetti etc were all part of the festivities, unfortunately the loud fire crackers that I heard and saw often in Xinjiang wedding ceremonies were not allowed here thanks to the Nanning municipal governers banning such things in their city... (boooo, boring people). The houses visited were all covered in pink heart-shaped ballons and Chinese good luck symbols, gifts were given in red envelopes (red is a lucky colour in China) and surprisingly I even received some of these too from the family members we visited.

After the visiting was over, photos were taken in one of Nanning's green parks and then back to their flat to rest and snack for a while. Here, I was amused by Lin Huang Ming, a young girl whose mother left her at the flat for a while, she spent most of the time blowing up ballons ad letting the air out again, chasing them round the room, or getting me to tie them for her and then drawing smiley faces on them, she was ever so funny to watch. At one point she wrote her name for me (in Chinese which I of course could not read). Later, when I was with her and Jane in a car, Jane asked her her name, she looked round at us and pointing at me said, 'he knows', which was embarassing as of course I didn't know having not been able to read it earlier. I know it now and won't forget !

Left & Centre: Some wedding photos
Right: The lovely 娟-Juan (English name Jane) who invited me.

The evening dinner and ceremonies took place in one of Nanning's hotels. The couple and best-man/bridesmaid greet all guests at the hotel entrance with plates full of chocolates, biscuits, nuts, seeds and cigarettes which guests help themsleves to. When everyone has arrived the married couple enter the dining hall to another shower of poppers and confetti, make some brief speeches, pour some drinks, cut some cake then go round every table toasting everyone while all the guests get to eat. There was plenty to eat so I ate as much as possible, met many new people, was introduced to lots of Jane's friends and had an interesting evening.

Happy Christmas

2006-12-25T21:49:00.000+08:00

So Happy Christmas to anyone reading who celebrates Christmas. Here in China it's not such a big event, though the younger generation of Chinese who deem 'western cultures' to be cool, have been celebrating a little. I have spent the day in Nanning, where most young people seem to be just wandering the streets and eating out, especially around the street market area where a wide variety of food is available. Some are carrying balloons and wearing red Santa hats, which also seem to have been popular among restaurant waitresses and shop assistants for the past weeks. There are also a few Santas among the western style shops, hotels and restaurants and some Christmas trees around.

Despite this Christmas theme going on , personally it does not feel much like Christmas, things seem to be carrying on much as normal really, people are working, shops are open, it's around 20 degrees centigrade, so no chance of a white christmas, I can walk round in a t-shirt, it just does not feel like Christmas, but I don't really miss that.

The street market has a row of cafes and stalls selling all sorts of food, last night I had a pork and vegetable 'porridge' which is made with rice rather than oats and was very nice. Food on sticks is big in Nanning, from pieces of marinated pork, mushrooms, squid, melon, pineapple or if you fancy it, pig's penis, and many are sitting in cafes eating noodle or rice dishes. There were also plenty of other options such as woks full of fried bird, the ubiquitous chicken's feet and on one stall a dog, as well as more appealing meat and fish snacks and tons of Asian fruits.

Left: One of the many snack stalls
Centre: Selection of foods.
Right: Tasty looking chicken's feet.

Anyway, I spent my day in Nanning doing nothing special, a lazy morning, met up with Jane, visited the local police to register my address before I can extend my visa, visited a pet and plants market, followed by dinner at a "eat all you want" buffet with plenty of western food as well as local specialities. I ate far too much and have been feeling fat all evening since.. Tonight I will watch one of the DVD films I picked up at the market at a ridiculously low price.

Left: Little fried birds. a popular snack.
Right: At dinner one evening showing off a yummy taro and sweet potato snack.

A day in Xi'an with the Terracotta Army

2006-12-22T11:14:00.000+08:00

With my deadline to get to Nanning (南宁), I was intending to skip Xi'an (西安) this time. There is lots to see around the city and I have heard good things about life in Xi'an from people I met who have lived and worked there, so I wanted to spend some time there, some time I did not have at that moment. But, train schedules meant I had to go there, change trains there and, in order to secure a ticket for the onward journey to Nanning, it was best I get there with plenty of time to spare. So taking the only feasible option, I arrived at around 5:30 am in Xi'an with 14 hours before my evening departure. I thought about it before and decided I would not go to see the Terracota Army, I would save it for the future, to ensure I did return to Xi'an, but as I arrived in the early morning and thought about what I could do for 14 hours, I decided that some kind of tourist attraction had to be visited, an all day trip was too much, walking aroung town all day was not enough. I knew the easiest one to make in a few hours was the Terracotta Army, so I found a bus heading that way and jumped on. It's about 25-30 km I'd guess outside of Xi'an and as you get closer the signs of expansion around the site are obvious, a town that is stretched out along the main road, with scores of shops making terracotta soldiers which stand on the roadside watching the traffic go by.

I arrived there early and was one of the first inside, which meant great peaceful viewing with only 2 or 3 other people for a while until the throngs of tour groups started to arrive and took over the place. This is a good tip for anyone going there, get there early, before it opens and be the first in, it was well worth it for the virtually private viewing you get for the first 20 minutes or so.

The Terracotta Army discovered in 1974 was built to protect the tomb of Qin Shi Huang. During his time on the throne of the western state of Qin, he managed to subjugate all the warring states and hence during the third century became the first emperor of a unified China; he was also responsible for beginning construction of the Great Wall. No records exist of the army and was probably designed never to be seen.
There are 3 pits in all, plus a museum. Pit 1 is the original find and most excavated, the first view as you walk into pit 1 and see the lines of soldiers stretching into the distance is something you will never forget. The pit has hundreds of soldiers lined up in battle formation, behind these are more unexcavated areas plus an area where the latest finds are being re-assembled into complete soldiers for re-placement in their correct position, I estimate only about one quarter of this vast pit has so far been excavated. Pit 2 has few reconstructed finds, though the best of these are displayed in cabinets and show a variation of positions and ranks to those in pit 1. There are also some unearthed, broken soldiers showing the damage state in which the soldiers have been discovered, and here you can also see the collapsed roof structure which still covers whatever is hidden below, waiting to be discovered in future excavations. Pit 3, a smaller pit has some reconstructed soldiers and clearly shows the layout of a building that is the battle headquarters.

There are also two bronze chariots being led by horses which have also been discovered and are on display in the museum. The design of the chariots is incredibly detailed and shows clearly that so much effort must have gone into the design.

Left: Army in battle formation in pit 1.
Right: Bronze horse-pulled chariot.

Finally there is a pretty interesting short documentary about the history of the site and its discovery which you can watch in a 360 degree surround vision hall. Just outside of here in the cafe was also a bemused looking old peasant signing guide books for visitors, he had a fan in one hand which he used to cover his face, probably as he did not want the attention and photos. I can only assume this was the man who originally discovered the site.

Found a bus back easily to Xian, traffic jams slowed us down, but I had time to kill, so even the driver becoming impatient and holding up all the traffic in the opposite direction turn round to go back a few kms to try another route was not a concern for me. Back in Xian, I saw very little, just found a place to lunch, walk around a little, eat dinner, get food and drinks for my 34 hour journey and head to the train. Nanning here we come...

Lanzhou, the centre of China

2006-12-20T03:03:00.000+08:00

Lanzhou (兰州) appears to be geographically pretty much in the centre of China, though it doesn't feel that I have travelled that far since Kashgar, and did not take too long, so maybe China is not as big as you are sometimes led to believe. With plenty of places to stop on the way and good transport links, overnight busses/trains etc, it has not been difficult getting this far at all.

However, there's not much to see here in Lanzhou, just a convenient place to stop on the train (overnight 11 hour journey from Jaiyuguan), train arrives here early morning and I thought it would be a good place to get a connection South towards Nanning. Turns out not to be the case, but never mind. I wanted to stop here anyway and visit BingLing Si caves a set of caves containing Buddhist art accesible only by boat along the Yellow river (黄河, Huang he). Unfortunately, often at this time of year, boats cannot get there due to low water levels, also the fact there are no other tourists meant it would be very expensive to arrange by myself, so this idea has been put to one side for a later date. There are a few other places in the vicinity too worth a visit, but because I need to get to Nanning by Dec1, I did not rush to to make any of these trips. Instead, I just hung around Lanzhou for a couple of days, finding my way around, drinkiing tea, eating Lanzhou beef noodles, thinking about routes to Nanning from here and after deciding the only thing I had time for was to just go there directly, then trying to decipher a Chinese railways timetable to find out how to get from Lanzhou to Nanning.

Above: Xuanzang, Monkey and friends from 'Journey to the West'.

The only things of note to see in Lanzhou were a couple of Buddhist temples, the famous Yellow River, which is in fact a dirty muddy brown colour and the statue of Xuanzang, Monkey, Pigsy from the book 'Journey to the West' better known in the UK as the TV series adaptation, 'Monkey'. Unfortunately the weather was pretty dismal when I was there, overcast and cold and even a little snow, the one day it was a little warmer, the sun could still not be seen very much due to the awful air pollution in Lanzhou, which is allegedly one of the world's worst. The city is not all that bad and will be a good base to visit Bingling Si in future and too head for other places in the region such as Maiji Shan or to head South to Xiahe which has the great Tibetan Labrang monastery before heading further South town by town towards Sichuan province, something I would have liked to have done given the time.

Anyway, discovered the way to Nanning is via a change at Chengdu or Xi'an. My original idea was to head to Xi'an and spend a week or so there seeing various sites, but with wanting to reach Nanning for a wedding soon, I won't have time for more than a day or two, so I do not really want to go there now and rush it. Chengdu is more interesting, but I'm told it's more difficult, involves more waiting and is more expensive so recommended to go via Xi'an. Therefore, bought a ticket on overnight to Xi'an, arrive early morning, and there is then a train to Nanning direct from Xi'an in the evening, so will need to go buy a ticket and spend a day wandering around Xi'an.

That's all from Lanzhou

Jiayuguan - The end of The Great Wall (长城 )

2006-12-20T01:02:00.000+08:00

From Dunhuang it was a 5 hour bus journey to Jiayuguan (嘉峪关). The last fortress and western most part of the Great Wall (长城, Chang Cheng) was built here by the Ming in 1372, marking the final defence of the empire, the end of China where the Western wilderness began. Good views of the fort and a bit of the Great Wall as you pass by on the approach to Jiayuguan from the West. Off the bus, I did the usual thing and took the hotel nearest to the bus station, the girl at reception was friendly, helpful, spoke some English and I got a reasonable deal out of them. Stayed just one night in Jiayuaguan, which included an afternoon aorund town, a day sightseeing and buying a ticket for the train, before leaving on the train to Lanzhou the next evening.

First evening I tried to arrange the train ticket, one agency were too keen and handed me a ticket I didn't want !! I kept explaining I wanted to know times, options and I wanted to go tomorrow, but I was just given a ticket for 2 days time and told that was all there was !! I wasn't convinced, so, I tried someone else who said she could help, but the next morning she changed her mind. In the end I just went to the train station and bought one myself, easier than I thought and wished I had done that straight away now !! And I got to leave that night too.. Lesson learnt.. !

So train ticket in hand, now for a few sites.. The Overhanging Wall as it's called, not very authentic as it has been recently restored, but a nice windy, climbing piece of the wall to walk and view the surrounding lands (if the air is clear). The fort (城搂, Cheng Lou) at the Jiayuguan Pass lies sandwiched between two mountain ranges to the North and South and marked the passage way to/from the West, the end of Chinese civilisation during the Ming Dynasty.

Left: The "Overhanging Wall" a few km outside of Jiayuguan.
Right: The fortress outside of Jiayuguan.

Final visit of the day was to the 'First Beacon Tower'. Although the tower was built later in the sixteenth century, it's significant that it marks the far Western end of the Great Wall stopping on the edge of a cliff overhanging the Taolai river.

Left: 第一墩 (Diyi dun) 'First Beacon Tower' at the western end of the Great Wall

Right: This is really 'the end' of the Ming dynasty Great Wall.

Finally, a bus to the train station and I prepare for my first train experience in China for this trip.