Meander with us

Last days

col_n_sue — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 23:06:00 GMT

Our trip to CHina is drawing to an end and I think I am ready to go home.

had a wonderful time and many great memories and experiences and met a lot of interesting people (not that I understood most of them though)

yesterday was probably our least auspicious day.

we got up early and the mist was still heavy where we were up in the mountains. The paths were narrow with a steep drop on one side, and every thing was damp. We had to pass a donkey on the path and as I went past him my foot just slipped off the path and I dropped about 1.5m giving me a huge bruise on my upper thigh. Not a great way to start out 8km hike across the mountains. I limped back to the hotel worse for wear, and had 2hard boiled eggs for breakfast as the menu there was very limited. We packed our backpack and arranged for it to be taken down to our driver, then headed off in the mist.

our English speaking guide, mai, was great and we had a some good chats with me limping along behind, but because of the mist we never saw anything of the famous terraces that day. Fortunately we had seen some the night before, and the view from our window was fantastic.

mae guided us from Dazhai to pingan about a 4 hour walk. Despite the weather and my leg, it was an enjoyable walk.

when we got to the carpark, the driver had not collected our bags. He dropped us off at the bottom of the mountain while he drove back to get our bags. After an hour and a half waiting we were getting concerned but he finally turned up after about two hours and we started with the rally driving again.

when we got to our hotel in guiilin air just crashed (into bed) as the dreadd stomach bug was coming back for a third visit.

then this morning we flew to Shenzhen. Contrary to expectations, the flight actually left early and we arrived ahead of schedule. At the airport I felt like a coffee until I saw they were $12 each. So I had an orange juice instead - probably better for me.

We went out to the shops this afternoon and out of interest were looking at mobile phones. The main shops had them at australian prices, though the little stores Just behind them had them at half price. Not sure if they were seconds or what. They had stacks of unlabelled phone batteries and were putting Samsung stickers on them as we watched. Made us think the phones might be dodgy too.

anyway, shopping is not really my thing at the best of times.

our hotel tonight is a two roomed suite in central Shenzhen. We ate at their restaurant tonight, but because of language issues ended up with a plate of pork and. A plate of fish. Both very tasty but no vegetables or anything else to go with them. I managed to order rice as an afterthought. We went to the supermarket afterwards and bought some mandarins.

well, that about wraps it up for china.

thank you for joining me on this trip. I have had a wonderful time and seen some very interesting places. It has all gone smoothly apart from yesterday's problems, and I am very fortunate to have had sue do all the planning and directions. She has also been prepared to carry backpacks, ride motor scooters, travel in the peak hour subway, and generally put up with me, so i consider myself a very lucky man.

At the top of the world

col_n_sue — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:46:00 GMT

Tonight we are at dahzai on the Dragons Back rice terraces and the views are fabulous even in the mist that has rolled in.

we left Yangshuo at 10 this morning and it took 4.5 hours of rally driving to get here. Then a 50 minute walk up a very steep hill with our backpack. One of the local ladies (4foot nothing) took pity on me (for a fee) and carried the backpack up here for me. My excuse is that I am coming down with something again!

anyway the views already are worth the trip and tomorrow is promising to be even better.

the houses here are made with timber which has a cedar like aroma. They use no nails in the construction. After we arrived in this idyllic spot sue went for a walk and I rested to the dreamy tones of buzz saws and power drills. All gone quiet now though.

even this remote place has phone and Internet connection.

the drive up here was a bit like a ride at the ekka, though once he got onto the mountain roads he drove much more to my liking. Prior to that though it really was crazy and I had to close my eyes. We passed other vehicles at every opportunity and even when any sane person would have said there was no opportunity. I think we spent one third of the time on the wrong side of the road! We squeezed through spaces between cars when I would have said there were no spaces but our driver proved me wrong. Sue, despite her dislike of flying, was starting to think that planes are not too bad after all. There was some rain today which made it even worse and we saw a number of -albeit small- accidents. At one point the ambulance and police bike were coming towards us through the traffic jam on our side of the road. The driver gave them some space. The problem is that so many vehicles want to drive at different speeds walking cycling scooters motorbike trucks , buses, trucks and our driver with desired speeds between 20 and 90km per hour on a two lane roaD with potholes.

anyway we are here safe and sound and loving it. Dinner just arrived so I had better go before sue eats it all.

Yangshuo village retreat

col_n_sue — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:05:00 GMT

We are sadly combing to the end of our 4 nights at the Village Retreat. It has been refreshing to stay here in this quiet spot about 2km from Yangshuo.

We are surrounded by the striking karsts. Striking - not in the sense that the karsts are on strike - but they are striking us visually with their unusual shapes and verticality.

yesterday we cruised up the river Li for 4 hours and the views Just kept getting better and better. While on the initial boring part of the cruise they played an old musical set in this area, and one on which the nightly light show is based. The music is somewhat unattractive to my ears but it was interesting nevertheless. We also ate some crispy sardines from the river. Once is probably enough.

we are really enjoying it here. The evening meal here is very tasty and inexpensive. We have resorted to australian wine - great Wall red is not really to my taste.

today we ventured out on a motor scooter. At one point there was a bus, a truck and a tractor all coming towards us side by side - and this was on a two lane road (theoretically one lane each way). Nevertheless we survived and made it out to Silver Cave. After a bit of language based confusion, we got a ticket and went inside this very interesting cave. The Chinese had somewhat overdone the coloured lighting, and it was a bit surprising to find a shop deep in the cave, but nevertheless well worth our risking life and limb on the scooter.

we then meandered back through the countryside on surprisingly quiet roads and eventually got back to our retreat.

tomorrow we head up to the dragon terraces and I am not sure if they even have electricity up there, so I may not be writing.

now for a glass of Tall Trees red.

Rafting

col_n_sue — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:43:00 GMT

Today was magnificent, rafting down the river near Yangshuo, though I think our photos will not present the landscape well, because it was foggy (not smoggy) for most of the day. But the place is constantly surprising, with huge mounds popping up out of the ground each time you turn the corner (Well they presumably don't actually pop up as you round the corner - probably been there a few years now - but new surprising vistas are constantly appearing.

Rain was predicted for today, so initially we just went walkign into the village. It brightened up a bit so we took a bamboo raft ride and are very glad we did. It was a very relaxing, quiet float down the river (except for the poor guy who had to push us down the river!). Every now and again we went over a wall and dropped a metre or so - all very exciting. At the end of the ride we found a spot where all the local tourists were taking short rides - glad we didn't do that. It was all very noisy and crowded.

Then we walked back to our hotel and the weather started to clear up more. Had a glass of (Australian) wine and the world is looking very rosy.

Tomorrow we plan another boat ride, and perhaps take our like into our hands with a scooter. (The traffic here is crazy in the village - though quiet where we are now. Scooters go everywhere. If I don't write again tomorrow night, check the obituaries!

Karst aways

col_n_sue — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:21:00 GMT

I am sitting on our king sized bed typing this up, looking out the window of the Yangshuo River Retrat to the nearby mountains (I wouldn't be able to see them through the mist if they were further away.)

We only just arrived here in Yangshou, in amongst the karst mountains. It is similar to Halong Bay in Vietnam, but on dry land. It is warm and steamy, and I imagine it is hot in summer, but very pleasant here now.

It is a very relaxed place - the only noises I can hear are the crickets and Sue having a shower on the verandah!

We disembarked from the Yangtze cruise this morning, saying goodbye to most of our new-found friends. (Not to all of them though, because Jan from England flew with us on a bumpy ride to Guilin.) We then had a one hour drive to Yangshuo, and then out to this riverside retreat. There were many rice paddies as we drove down here, and we also passed a few duck farms. We are having lemon duck tonight for dinner to help reduce the duck population and thereby reduce the risk of HxNx.

Jumping back to this morning in Chongqing, we visited a 300 year old immigrants meeting place. In this case, the immigrants were from southern China. It was a beautiful old wooden building, built without nails, and a cheerful guide with excellent english showed us around. Greater Chongqing is a city on a junction in the Yangtze River, set among the mountains, with a population larger than Australia. Apparently the river here can rise 25m in one day with the large catchment area nearby. Chongqing was apparently the capital of China during the second world war due to its safe inland location.

We are here at the riverside retreat for the next four nights, and we are already starting to relax, though there is a lot to go and see. Tonight we are off to a world famous light show, just in case it rains tomorrow (It hasn't rained significantly in any part of our travels so far, for which we are very grateful.)

Only a week left of our holiday - it has all gone so fast!

Gorgeous Gorgeous Gorgeous

col_n_sue — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:56:00 GMT

You will no doubt have guessed from the title we have been cruising the three gorges. They are quite stunning, and we have had great weather (though still a little hazy as always).

The dam was quite controversial but now that it has been completed the general feeling here (based on my random survey of english speaking guides) is that it was a very positive move. There is a huge body of water in the Yangtze River behind the dam (we have been travelling on it for something like 600km), and the water depth has risen something like 80m, but the steep gorges still tower over the river. About 1.3 million people had to be moved as part of the project, and there are now a lot of highrise apartment buildings along the riverbank, but there is still a lot of uninhabited (and uninhabitable) land. People were given new apartments in exchange for their houses. One articulate guide said (with honesty I thought) that he and many others felt unhappy about the change initially, but in retrospect are now very happy with the dam.

The dam provides a huge amount of hydroelectric power and also makes the Yangtze navigable for even fairly large ships like the one we are on. The scenery was spectacular, though because of the haze I don't think our photos will have captured it well. (Still took a lot though)

One of our side tours was to the "Three Gorges Tribe" which is occupied by one of the Chinese minority groups. I can't recall the name of this ethnic group, but I do recall that there are 80million people in this minority group in China! Anyway, this small village made a good income from tourists by presenting their old way of life in a colourful way. Various members were sitting on fishing boats in the small stream, or singing across the stream to one another, or showing how they used to manually tow barges up the Yangtze. They also put on a mock wedding. I'm not sure I actually learned much about the minority group, but it was a pleasant and colourful afternoon. (We caught a bus there, and that was a bit scary at times, looking out of the window straight down a 60m cliff into the Yangtze.)

Today we visited another temple - this time the Ghost Town of Fengdu. The usual strange mixture of Buddhism, Taoism and Conficianism with this "Village of the dead" idea thrown in. I think it is now mostly for the tourists, though a few Chinese were praying there. Apparently it was one of the few temples that survived the Cultural Revolution of the 1980's, indicating that it must have been fairly popular, at least amongst the locals.

This cruise has only about 100 passengers, the majority of whom were northern Chinese. English speakers were a minority group. We were placed at a dinner table with english speakers, and enjoyed chatting with that group. Ate too much of course, as you do when there are buffet meals laid on.

We had a short lesson in the Chinese language today, and I am sorry I didn't do more of that before I came. I think a few hours of lessons would have made it a bit easier to get around. All in all, I can highly recommend this cruise (and visiting China in general), provided you get good weather. We have certainly enjoyed ourselves. Later tonight we arrive in Chongqing (pronounced Chong ching)

Now it is happy hour and time for a glass of Great Wall red wine. Cheers.

Yangtse Cruise

col_n_sue — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:58:00 GMT

Nothing much to report today.

Went for a walk around the centre of Wuhan and had a coffee (Starbucks is omnipresent).

Ladies were dancing in their pyjamas in the city mall. Some had swords but we only saw them putting the swords away.

The weather is warming up, and it was very pleasant today.

We caught the subway out to the high speed train and watched the country side go by. I'm not sure if I mentioned earlier, but we rarely see animals - mostly cereal (rice?) crops and brassica of some sort. Most flat parts of the countryside either have buildings or crops. We saw a couple of buffalo today. We also rarely see a tractor, so I guess a lot of the work is done by hand.

When we arrived as Yishan we had to work out how to get into town. Guessed one of the busses was probably heading into town so we hopped on. The mobile phone mapping function helps in these circumstances.

Then we caught a taxi to the "cruise terminal". We wondered what he was up to for a while, as there were potholes a foot deep on the road he was taking. He was passing busses on corners and I had to close my eyes, and suspect he was too. Anyway we arrived at the "terminal" but the cruise didn't have our name registered. Fortunately they realised we were trying to board the wrong ship, so they took us t the right one. Here we are now in our room - very comfortable.

Tomorrow we head off to see the Three Gorges. I am looking forward to a very relaxed time.

Wu Who

col_n_sue — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 23:37:00 GMT

Well its WuHan actually, but we'v e now been travelling for a month so Woo Hoo!

Nothing much happened today, but don't worry, I'll write for a while anyway.

We caught the high speed train from Xi'an to Wuhan then went for a wander about WuHan.

The High Speed stations are all brand new and sparkling. Very spacious. The trains themselves (which can travel at nearly 400km/hour) are very comfortable and spacious, and everyone gets a seat (WooHoo for that too. We have very often had to stand on public transport, even when carrying our backpacks. Challenging!)

Wuhan is just a detour on the way, but it is a huge city in its own right. However, I don't think anywhere near as many english speaking tourists make it here. I have had a number of people here who can't grasp the idea that we can't speak chinese. One lady was insistently tryng to get me to sign some sheet which had signatures on it, and kept pointing to the chinese writing above it. I tried everything I could think of to explain that I had no idea what she was on about. I said "English", I showed her my mobile phone with english text on it, I tried looking blank and uncomprehending (a practiced look for me), but she just kept shoving the thing at me to sign. I've still no idea what the petition was about. The guy behind me was trying to supress his laughter, but wasn't going to explain it to the woman. In the end, I directed her to talk to him and I moved on. A stationmaster started to talk to me tonight and it took me a few moments to realise he was speaking english because we haven't had much of that today. At the end he asked for my email address - not sure what for. People also kept handing us chinese pamphlets (including a Christian one). In other places we have been they automatically know you are not chinese and either avoid you (if it is chinese only information) or target you (if it is tourist information). Not here though. We are only here overnight.

China is a country on the move. Lots of construction everywhere - not all of it very professional looking but things are happening. We went out to find a place called the Yellow Crane Tower, and ended up walking 5 or 6 km. That in itself is not too bad for us, but there was so much construction impeding the way - barriers, holes etc. And walking on the footpath you still have to run the gauntlet of motor scooters. People are generally OK here and it mostly feels safe, but tonight we got a bit lost and roads that looked wide and busy on our maps turned out to be dark backalleys. Probably safe enough even so, but I don't want to tempt fate.

All the way from Xi'an (which at a guess was 800km) the smog just kept getting thicker. It seems to me that the whole of South East Asia is covered in smog. Australians should learn from the situation here and make sure we do not follow suite. I would hate to think that a future Australia might be like this. Time to take action now. Enjoy the clean air and blue skies and work to keep them that way for our grandchildren (or other peoples grandchildren if you don't have any of your own).

Thats it for tonight. We are off to Yishan Dong tomorrow - another fast train but only a 2 hour trip. Then it is off on the Yantse Cruise and I am not sure if I will have internet there.

Wild Goose Chase

col_n_sue — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:10:00 GMT

This blog starts out with a visit to the Chinese museum adjacent to Tianenmen Square, and then jumps around in space and time for a day or two, visiting a wild goose on the way.

The recent 150 years of history in the museum was blatant propaganda, starting with the Opium wars. Accepting my current limited knowledge (in this case a generous description) the British did not appear to help the situation, but the blame seemed to be equally allocated to the Emperor and the British. The English subtitles in the museum were much more sparce post-1840, so it was more targetted for Chinese consumption. There was no mention of Tianenmen Square or anything that might seem negative. Nevertheless, the country is definitely becoming more open, at least in a commercial sense. (Diverging for a moment to Tianenmen Square.. It was near our hotel and we went past it often, but most of the time it was closed to the public, with sentries everywhere, each standing next to a portable fire extinguisher - not sure why. Anyway, coming back to the hotel last night the square was open. We walked up towards the main flagpole, and they has put an Australian flag up beside the Chinese flag especially for us (well thats what we assumed as we could not see any other Australians). We were very pleased with the recognition of our visit.

After the museum we made our way (with some difficulty) to the Beijing art district in 798 St, and it is obvious that considerable freedom is being given there than would have been the case 30 years ago. We did not have a lot of time (we had to catch the overnight train to Xi'an) but the art there started as grafitti as soon as we entered the district. Most of it went over my head (physically, artistically, intellectually and politically), but I detected some implied criticism of the authorities in the art.

The museum had a section on the development of Buddhism, but made surprisingly little mention of confucius (though it is just possible in this large museum I missed it.) There is, less surprisingly, no mention of christianity or Judaism, though I did see a book in the bookshop on Jews in China - a long history apparently. We learned a bit more about BUddhism in Xi'an today (which is the titular reference to Wild Goose chase). The Wild Goose Monastery in India was visited by the Chinese buddhist around 700 (my guess) (The Silk Road started in Xi'an, making India fairly accessible. He spent 16 years there and returned to Xi'an and set up a monastery here, taking the name, Wild Goose. The pagoda is still standing. I met the current abbot. Apparently Buddhist monks have to complete a university degree before entering, and once accepted, they are well paid and drive good cars. There is certainly plenty of evidence of wealth in the monasteries. Our guide did talk about the apparent contradiction of the simplicity espoused in buddhism and the obvious wealth in the temple (which can also be seen in some areas of Christianity). BUddhists even have a special deity you can pray to for wealth.

China was well advanced in technology 2000 years ago, and had advanced irrigation systems running
perhaps a bit later than the Egyptians. The museum had a model of a bellows driven by a water wheel. The artisans were also very busy and produced some beautiful artifacts. There was a claim that weapons from 200BC showed evidence of chromium plating to retain sharpness. They developed paper and writing systems, and systems of government. They had a world leading economy for many centuries before it started to collapse. Why did that happen? The suggestion was that it was due to the excesses of the emperor leading to dissatisfaction in the people. There is plenty of evidence of that excess in the huge palaces and gardens for the exclusive use of the upper class, so that may well be a reasonable thesis. Today (in Xi'an) we went to the Terracotta Warriors, and again saw the extravagant use of resources by the emperor (in this case around 200BC). The place was huge, even with many of the areas still not excavated. Unfortunately our guide, though well meaning, did not have a good grasp of English so could not explain too much. She did mention to Sue that here Chinese visitors do not usually ask questions, but we did not take the hint and kept asking. (Actually, there is a bit more of a cultural story here. The driver met us at the train station and his English was excellent. However, he explained that he did not want to embarass the guide, so he was going to pretend that he only spoke Chinese when she arrived. He kept up that pretence all day, for her sake. Unfortunate for us, but very tho9ughtful on his part. She was only just changing over from being a guide for Chinese to being a guide for English.)

Our final activity for today was to cycle around the old city walls of Xi'an. The weather was perfect, the sky was blue, the birds were singing (well I am sure they would have sung if there were any birds around, but I didn't happen to see or hear them.) We rode the tandem around the top of the walls for a distance of 13.76km. Very easy cycling as the going was flat (except where there were pavers missing), and we took it slowly, stopping for photos on the way.

Ravelling religion

col_n_sue — Tue, 9 Apr 2013 00:44:00 GMT

Executive summary: Today I had hoped to get a greater understanding of the various religious expression on display here in China, unravelling the various ideas and philosophies, but unfortunately I think it still remains mostly ravelled for me, and I will have to do a bit of post-holiday reading. We looked at modern tribalism, Tibetan Buddhism, Confucianism, Sport and KungFu with a slight detour into vegetarianism. Sorry I can't contribute much to your enlightenment in any of these areas.

Today was spent in temples of various sorts.

But first, breakfast. We wandered up through the centre of Beijing, heading towards the Lama Temple. The area between the main streets is filled with back alleys, and it is like a maze. At one point we came across a hospital. The road leading into it was only wide enough for one car and the carpark was full, and a car was trying to turn in. That left a traffic jam behind it of several hundred metres. Drivers obviously understood because there was no honking of horns. Most cars had their engines turned off and were playing mobile phone games etc. Cars will push through wherever they can, but when they can't, they are mostly patient.

We came out eventually on one of the main north-south roads, and had to walk around a group of about 20 staff from one of the shops. The staff were standing in 3 or 4 rows, evenly spaced, and I thought it must be to take a promotional photo or something. But I was wrong (happens occasionally). They were out for a pep talk. The boss said "Good morning" (guessing here as it was in chinese), and the staff all replied collectively "Good morning sir". After a few exchanges, he started jumping and waving and they got active too. Finally they all went back into the shop. Then half an hour later as we were having coffee, the same thing happened at another shop. Slightly different but the same idea. At one point someone came out from the group to the front tell about how his sales were down but he had a positive attitude, and everything worked out. Hurrah for the boss. (I am making up the content, but that was what it looked like to me - modern tribalism.) Sue thinks it was all just group callisthenics. Anyway, the coffee was good.

The Lama temple is a famous spot in Beijing. All around the area they sell incense and statues etc (though there was an incense burning ban today because it was windy). The mixing up of Buddhism with other religions and gods and emperors and buddhas and gurus got me somewhat confused, but I did find it interesting. I'll have to check out what wikipedia has to say. The Lama Temple itself is several hundred years old, though it has been modified reasonably often and has been both a palace and a place of worship. One of its claims to fame is a 26m (8m is underground) high Buddha carved out of a single piece of sandalwood, giving the place a Guiness record. Much the same architecture as we saw at the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace, but this was an active worshipping site for Buddhists. Many people were coming in with their incense sticks and just leaving then at the burner because of the wind ban.

From there we went out past some beggars. One guy had been cut off at the waist and just "standing" on the pavement. I don't know how he was surviving (medically I mean - people were giving him money).

Down the road was the Confucius Temple. It didn't have the beautiful gardens or the tea ceremony like the one in Shanghai, but it did have an educational section about Confucianism. Again I was inere3sted but confused. As I read it, Confucius (put simplistically) is an humanitarian philosophy, but since his time (700BC) there has been lots added to the religion. It was recognised for its focus on learning, and all around the temple were stone pillars with the names of students who had passed the official tests over the centuries. Reminded me of the Courier Mail publishing Senior results each year. Communists rejected Confucianism early last century as a tool of the ruling class, but have embraced its "true form" in recent years, so I don't know how much of what I read in the educational area was a re-education about Confucius. I guess I'll have to go back to the source of all truth (wikipedia) about Confucianism too.

Sport is of course a major religion (though not one that I personally subscribe to), so we detoured via the "birdsnest" - the Beijing Olympic Stadium. It was an architecturally interesting place to visit, but the cold wind was biting, so it was a quick visit - but enough to say that we paid our respects. One the way out I noted that Beijing promoted itself on Patriotism, Innovation, Inclusiveness and Virtue (sounds like a variant on some of the Confucian ideas).

Then tonight we went to the KungFu show (Thanks to Margie for recommending it). KungFu is associated with Buddhism, with the physical training being one aspect of the monks development. It reminded me of Christian asceticism, as I couldn't think of any other parallels in Christianity. Anyway the show was colourful, vibrant and energetic (exhausting) and told a story of the development of a young novice through to his becoming the abbot, emphasising that the physical control was only one aspect of his enlightenment. Great entertainment, but it also fitted in with our theme of the day of looking at religions.

It made me realise how little I understand about these different religions.

On the theme of asceticism, we didn't have dinner tonight (if you don't count the coffee and cookies before the show). Makes up for all the extra meals we had on board ship. We did have a nice lunch today though at a well known vegetarian restuarant near the Confucius Temple. It was a buffet with lots to choose from and was very tasty. Lots of simulated pork and beef and chicken, but also veges, mushrooms, fruit etc etc.

On a more practical front, We took our clothes to the chinese laundry today. They did a great job, but it was a bit of a rush getting back in time for the KungFu show, so I caught a motorbike/rickshaw. It was a bit bouncy, and I couldn't see around the driver to see where we were going (or where the bumps were), but I got back to the hotel in one piece.

Tomorrow night we catch the train to Xian.

Talk again soon.

Photos: China

col_n_sue — Mon, 8 Apr 2013 10:05:00 GMT

China 2013

Gone to Heaven

col_n_sue — Mon, 8 Apr 2013 09:38:00 GMT

Executive summary: We visited the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. Magnificent, colourful
old buildings with lots of open areas.

We started the day with a coffee. Breakfast is one of the most difficult meals when travelling.
My stomach gets used to pretty much the same breakfast day in, day out, but when travelling it is
difficult to get the same food (impossible here). Anyway, at least we had a reasonable coffee
from Starbucks this morning.

While on food, I'll skip straight to dinner. We decided we would only go to a restaurant that at
least had pictures of the food. We went back to the Lama Temple area where we know how to find
reasonable local places to eat. Tonight we got spare ribs and barbecued fish and some veges,
washed down with jasmine tea. Far too much food as it turned out, but it was all very tasty. The
fish as BBQ'd, but then put in a pan with veges and water and placed on several burners on the
table. We were probably supposed to drink the soup after, and it probably would have tasted good,
but we were full. Great meal for A$40 (and we got to see Julia on TV into the bargain!)

To digress, I noted that Julia was one of the very few women at the Asia Pacific conference.
Women still have a long way to go in politics in this region (there are some in politics but rarely in the top job).

Today was sunny and 16C, so not too bad. But the smog rating climbed again. It seems to be
roughly one week cycles. We had wonderful blue skies for a couple of days but the smog is coming
back today unfortunately. I have no idea what they are doing about it - apart from some people
wearing face masks (though I was told that the face masks are really just to keep the skin from
getting dark in the sun.)

Back onto my story. We went to the Temple of Heaven this morning. It is a massive park in
southern Beijing with ancient elaborate and colourful buildings spread over a wide area. The
locals make good use of the park (especially as this is the weekend - and a long weekend at that).
There were singers and dancers, and people with twirling ribbons, and groups playing cards or
knitting or playing some sort of draughts. We joke that chinese all look the same. Most don't
have facial hair - not even the men! (which maybe is why they often look younger than they are)
Most are shorter than Sue and I - which is an advantage travelling on the train for reading the
signs over their heads. Very few are overweight. But apart from that, there is a wide variety of
people here.

I haven't figured out their rules for walking. In AUstralia, we usually step to the left to avoid
running into one another. In Beijing I have tried left and right and staying in the middle, but
no matter what I seem to confuse them and there have been some near collisions. Also nearly had
several mishaps thinking I was safe on a zebra crossing with the Green Man. One time it was a
police car coming around the corner that nearly collected me. Other times it has been buses or
taxis or bikes. I haven't seen anyone hit yet, but I have seen some close shaves.

After the Temple of Heaven, we went to the Summer Palace directly across town (about 27km). We
used the subway. Reasonable speed and no traffic problems and only 30c no matter where you go.
I had been to the Summer Palace before, but this time coming in through the north gate there were
constant surprises. It is a very colourful and distinctive place. Lots of steps to climb, but we
took our time. From memory, it is about a 300ha site, with about 75% of that being a man-made (or
enhanced) lake. Unforunately the smog was affecting views across the lake today, but we still
enjoyed the beauty of the place (along with many others).

So today we got to visit two places. Some organised tours take in four or five sites in a day,
and probably tell the visitor much more information about the places. However, we just prefer to
wander around by ourselves and take our time, even if it means we don't get to tick off as many
boxes. One of the advantages of being retired! (We did enjoy the organised tours in Egypt, so
maybe it is just a matter of finding the ones that suit you.)

As I mentioned earlier, we had dinner in the Lama Temple region, which is where I stayed in 1998.
My memory was vague about the area (most things were organised for me then, meaning I didn't have
to pay attention). However, as we walked past the old hotel, images kept coming back. I recalled
the streets I had walked down in the hutongs, but as we got there I only found new multistorey
buildings. As we walked to the train station, Sue asked where it was and I described having to go
left around a corner with little shops and men out the front sitting and chatting. The station
entrance was where I expected but again there were multistorey buildings. It made me wonder where
all those people were from 15 years ago.

Now its time for sleep again. Goodnight

Peeking around Beijing

col_n_sue — Sun, 7 Apr 2013 01:09:00 GMT

We got to Beijing in a flash on the train, and found our way to Day's Inn.

Then we went for a familiarisation walk around the area, down to Tianenmen Square. Lots of people around (including large numbers of police/army) , but it was starting to rain and get cold, so we toddled off home.

The next day we decided to "do" the Forbidden City. Unfortunately half of Beijing decided to "do" it too, as they all had a long weekend - it was the national "Clean your grandmothers grave" weekend. (I think I may have lost something there in the translation from my informant)

Anyway, the Forbidden City was amazing - in fact it was a bit like a maze. Fortunately I had Sue to tell me where to go! I was impressed, but I was ready to leave after 5 hours. I felt sorry for the emperor having to look after such a huge place - but then he had 9000 concubines to help othe place clean!

Back at the hotel, they gave Sue a cake for her birthday. Very creamy. Sue had decided on Peking Duck for dinner, so we found an authentic chinese restaurant. Boy, was it authentic. Crowds of chinese outside, and an old guy kept a ledger of who was in the queue. We had to wait 45 mins in the alleyway, and then head inside. There was an open fireplace where the ducks were being "browned off". Very simple layout and our table looked directly into the kitchen. It was a hive of activity. The food was good, and it was a memorable birthday for Sue. We decided to walk back to Days Inn to walk off some of the effects of the dinner and wine. We have felt very safe here wandering around, even at night.

This morning dawned cold blue, with the lowest smog rating for at least a month. Fabulous. So we decided to go to the Great Wall. We caught a local bus there which worked OK. Coming home the local bus was a disaster as there was a mad rush for seats and we didn't get one so had a long stand up trip.

However, the Great Wall itself lived up to it's name. It was fabulous. We went to Mutianyu - not the most popular part of the wall but a close second. It is narrower than Badaling, but much longer. We only walked about 800m each way but got great views. it is hard to imagine how it could have been better (apart from the bus trip).

After getting back to Beijing, we visited the section of Beijing that I visited 15 years ago, and as those memories came back, I realised just how much had changed. In those days, most people travelled by bus or pushbike. Now there were cars everywhere. Some of the hutongs (inner city villages) had been "cleaned up", and shops had been replaced with upmarket restaurants with loudspeakers on the footpath to encourage guests. Had the opposite effect on us.

Fortunately some of this part of town retained some of its character. We found a small restaurant there to eat. They spoke absolutely no english which made it interesting. Lots of pointing and laughing, but we got some tasty food and another memorable day.

(Just remembered didn't tell you about the Shanghai Circus (or did I - will have to check) It was a fabulous show, ending with 8 motorbikes in the "Globe of death". In retrospect though, I guess they do get some good training for that on the roads here.

Time for me to hit the sack.

Hi from Shanghai

col_n_sue — Sun, 7 Apr 2013 00:12:00 GMT

Executive summary: Shanghai came and went in a blur, but left us with positive memories. The architecture around the Bund, and the presevation of older parts of the city make this an interesting modern city.

I prepared this on the high speed train "Harmony" from Shanghai to Beijing - 300km/hr as I typing this up. - Thats fairly fast typing! I didn't get around to uploading it then because I feeling "poorly" with the flu and couldn't make the effort. I very rarely get sick at home, but this is now the second sickness in as many weeks. I am still getting over the flu now, but feel much better than before.

Back to the story..

We arrived 14 hours late (as per my previous blog), which threw out our sleeping plans a bit. After a short nap at our Marvel-ous hotel (The Marvel), we donned our walking gear and hit the streets.

We decided to buy a mobile phone sim. For the benefit of other China travellers, we bought a SIM from China Mobile for RMB80 (A$13) with 500Mb of data for the month. We needed to show them our passports.

The Bund was a great spot to admire the architecture - both past and present. There are a lot of creative building designs on the east bank in particular. The two popular hawker activities are to take your photo with the buildings in the background, or else to buy a laser with which one can point to the buildings. Must be a great city in which to be an architect.

We avoided contributing to the Chinese economy in that way, but did take one or two photos on our own camera. We walked from the Bund, through some gardens to a preserved part of old city. The weather was quite mild, and we even had blue sky on the second day which was great to see. Nearly .every day since leaving Brisbane has been very smoggy, so the blue sky was fantastic.

We wandered through the old streets and buildings and came to a Confuscius Temple. Beautiful gardens, rocks, trees, water features etc. We also got to taste different teas including a jasmine "flower" tea where the flower opened up as it was brewing to create a "party tea". Not many people in the temple. In fact, not too many temples at all in China compared with Vietnam and Thailand.

We caught the subway (I think we saw more of Shanghai from underneath than on top!). The subway was very efficient but packed. We rarely got a seat on the subway. But it was fast and inexpensive (<$1/trip). Last night at 10pm we just missed a train and had to wait 10 mins. Apart from that I think about 4 mins was our longest wait. Our current intercity train is a bit more expensive - A$100 each for the 5 hour, 1500km trip. The train is packed, but everyone has allocated seats and it is comfortable and quiet. Takes about 3 mins to get to 300km/hour, and it is a very smooth ride.

We caught the subway to the new building area and wandered through the open walkways between the buildings and down to the riverbank to see the sunset over the western bank. That really is our favourite part of Shanghai though we did only get to see such a small fraction of the city. That was brought to us when we visited the Urban Design Museum (I am making up the name as I forgot it and my memory (Sue) is asleep.) Anyway the museum had a model of the whole of Shanghai aned it was huge!

Anyway - I've carried on long enough. Suffice to say we loved Shanghai and would be happy to revisit it sometime.

But wait, there's more (waiting)

col_n_sue — Tue, 2 Apr 2013 01:40:00 GMT

executive summary: still waiting at singapore aairport

After cancelling our flight, we waited for 6 hours at the counter while they sorted out what they were going to do.

the girl behind the counter was getting upset as she was getting flak from the customers but no info from china eastern!

at 4pm we finally got rescheduled for a midnight flight and they bussed us to a hotel back in town. At 4:45 we fell into bed for a nap. Between 4:45 and 7pm we had 7!!!! Phone calls from the hotel desk before we gave up the idea of sleeping and went down for dinner (Thereby missing our 8pm wake up call). Dinner wasn't too bad.

now we are back at the airport. Not sure what we are going to do when we arrive at shanghai airport at 4am!

For now, we just wait (and hope the ipad battery holds up)

April fools

col_n_sue — Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:28:00 GMT

executive summary: all going well. Singapore for two nights and now off to China.

sue still thinks we were foolish to bring backpacks. More on that as the trip progresses. It is a bit tricky on this trip as we are starting off in sweltering singapore and going to freezing beijing, so still need a range of clothes.

we arrived in singapore on Saturday afternoon and went straight to the post office as I may have mentioned. On the way back on board that night they confiscated my favourite penknife. No chance of me hijacking the ship now!

another 4 course meal! We won't have to eat now for 3 weeks (though we probably will). Said goodbye to new friends.

met with brother in law Mark for lunch with his kids. Then they were heading off hunting (for Easter eggs). Mark was telling us about the cost of cars and registration which pushes a even smallish car to hk$100k! Even so, there were lots of cars and few motorbikes. Public transport is cheap. We caught the train to the airport for $2 (And I thought the backpacks proved handy;)

we went to the gardens. They were amazing. They had huge artificial trees, with a skywalk. Unfortunately we couldn't be sky walkers because of an impending thunderstorm. We did however go into the cloud and flower houses. Fantastic And well worth the visit. Everything flowering at once! I would be happy to get one plant flowering!

That was about all we got to do in Singapore.

waiting now at changing airport for our flight.

talk soon from China

.....Still waiting at Singapore airport!!! Should have left 3 hours ago. Got to the end of the runway and discovered an air conditioning problem apparently. Looks like we were the recipients of an April Fools joke. I foolishly believed them when china Eastern said that we were leaving at 10am.

Sing Apore

col_n_sue — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:34:00 GMT

The cruise is over and we are in Singapore (though we still eat and sleep on board tonight)

The last 2 weeks have flown (or should I say, sailed).

As I noted in my previous blog, we were insulated somewhat from the local populace through our cruise tours. But nevertheless, there is a very cosmopolitan population on the ship itself.

The ship facilities and food were beyond our expectations. We had asked to be placed at a group table so we could meet fellow travellers, but we soon regretted that. The staff on board were very helpful and friendly, but some of our fellow guests complained so much about trivial things that it made me cringe and took away from our enjoyment. We went to see about moving tables, and found that another couple had also asked to move (perhaps because of us?). Anyway, both couples got moved together to a new table with some other people, and it all worked out well. We also met another English couple that we got on well with, and they joined our table too from time to time.

The new table included South African, Canadian, US and UK and another couple from Brisbane. The conversation flowed well and the waiter one night had to tell us to go at midnight. We had 4 courses most nights, and plenty to choose from. I even tried frogs legs one night, but didn't raise the courage to have snails. The food was good - too good perhaps.

We tried to go to the gym and spa each day, though a few days we took a break if we were on tours or in quarantine.

Overall impressions of the cruise were very positive, and we would go again, though preferably on a trip where the sightseeing was close to the port. Various people on board suggested Japan and Korea, Alaska and a few were thinking of coming to Australia/NZ.

The Ocean was extremely smooth for this trip, and it was often hard to tell if we were moving at all, though in fact we were travelling forward (mostly) at 17knots.

We are now preparing for the second part of our trip - to China. We just posted our 16kg of gladrags home using SingPost, and it should be there in 3 months. The rest of our trip we are using backpacks. Sue is not overly keen on that aspect of the trip, but I am sure she will see the benefits in time.(She is reading this over my shoulder)

Look forward to seeing you in China.

Yes Siam

col_n_sue — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:21:00 GMT

I should have noted at the beginning of my blog that none of this should be taken too seriously. I am just thinking out loud with unformed thoughts and I am just as likely to change my thoughts when I get more information.

My thoughts are also based on limited information. The cruise is great in that everything is done for us, but it also means we don't have much contact with the local people.

I am sitting in the cruise terminal at Laem Shabang and due to ddepart at 5pm. It is 37degrees outside. Yesterday we bussed(?) to Bangkok, and visited the Grand Palace and some other equally amazing buildings. But I am getting ahead of myself...

In retrosepct, this blog is getting very verbose, and needs an exeecutive summary: "Having a great time cruising past Vietnam and Thailand. Wish you were here;)"

Read the rest at your own risk.

Vietnam has come and gone. (Or at least our visit to Vietnam has)
The cruise itself is a great holiday. This mornings brunch had to be seen to be believed. Ice statues, 4 different types of smoked salmon, a huge chocolate fountain. A weeks calorie intake

just in looking at the food!

Anyway what are my impressions of Vietnam (Viet peoples of the south)..

Motor scooters - 45 million scooters and 90 million people. We regularly saw up to 4 people on a bike and occasionally up to 5! (In Thailand there is a much lower percentage of motorbikes. Thailand looks much more affluent generally - perhaps due to the stability provided by the 300 year old monarchy?)

Slow drives - took us 4 hours to get to Hanoi (approx 120km). I often had to close my eyes - and I think the driver did also!
We passed many house/shops/villages on our drives - multi storey narrow houses with shops on the ground. Those that don't have shops have an open ground floor room, big screen tv at the back, curtains open to the road. The cafe seats often faced the road - either for the entertainment it provides or so that the customer can jump out of the way should a scooter decide to shortcut past the tables!

Religious centres seem very confused. There are a mixture of ideas in the temples and pagodas.
The pagodas are for buddhists, but they have a variety of buddhas including a Lady Buddha.
And the temples are more strange. We went to a temple for whales - the idea being that whales protect fishermen. I saw very few vietnamese at these places though, so perhaps they are mainly for tourists? Or else the Vietnamese are mostly at work. We did see quite a few people around, but it was nowhere near as crowded as I expected. Perhaps they were all at work? (In retrospect, we don't see many people in churches in Australia either except on Sunday mornings, so quite possibly I was just in the right place at the wrong time. (I know the saying is the wrong place at the wrong time, but in this case only one of the parameters needed to be wrong for me to draw the wrong conclusion.))

There were a number of christian churches and a large statue of "Jesa Chri" (Vietnamese tour guides seem to drop the last syllables) on top of a hill. The cathedral in Hanoi was filled to overflowing on Sunday. So maybe I was in the right place at the right time on that occasion.

Sorry I don't actually know more about Vietnam. Internet on board is prohibitively expensive, and the tourguides can be hard to understand. I think there may be an educational opportunity for more in depth learning on board - but it would have to be good to compete with other activities. Nevertheless, the University might see it as a great interactive way to engage students. An opportunity for a degree in cruising?

The Vietnam flag is a five pointed star on a red background. The points represent the groups that make up Vietnam - Leaders, Farmers, Workers, intellectuals and young people. No star there for shopkeepers but thats who we saw most. We were harrassed a little by hawkers, but not much. They were easy to discourage.

Smog. The whole of SE Asia seems to be in smog. Our days at sea sometimes break free. Hong Kong was the worst so far, but we rarely saw the sun on land. One fellow traveller flew to Cambodia for a night or two and escaped the smog. Apart from that, the towns were relatively clean. Some places smelled a bit, and some rivers looked polluted, and some areas had rubbish, and many places looked messy, but generally it was clean-ish. Thailand is much cleaner - at least the parts I have seem.

Shopping: The same things seemed to be for sale everywhere. One street was just for second hand toilet cisterns! Another one for chinese lanterns. On the way to Ho Chi Minh City we saw lots of "rest centres" - cafe's with hammocks. Unfortunately we only got to see them as we drove past. A disadvantage of being on an organised tour. We haven't been buying much as we have a lot of travelling to do yet and don't want to carry more stuff.

We got to learn the geography of the country. Unfortunately sites of significance to the Australian involvement in the war did not appear in the program. Our guide near Hanoi gave us the party line, and spoke about Ho Chi Min with reverence (which is what we expected). Sue did a tour
by herself (I was sick) and the guide that day was much more outspoken - to the extent that Sue was surprised by his openness.

I finished the tour of Vietnam having learned a lot, but with many questions left unanswered. (The language barrier and our time frames made it difficult to ask.) Nevertheless, we would now feel very comfortable returning to Vietnam sometime in the future - and perhaps we will?

Time has run out - lunch is calling.

Talk again soon.

one the boat

col_n_sue — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:31:00 GMT

Boarded the ship yesterday.

Great food everywhere so we went to the gym to work up an appetite.

But internet is expensive so no blog for a while.

Memories

col_n_sue — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 01:27:00 GMT

Today is 16th March.
Today I also heard some bad news about the health of one of my close relatives. When I spoke to him this evening he was calm and said that he was at peace. I was a bit nervous calling, but he put me at ease.
Today is also the first anniversary mum's death, and I had a cup of tea and a cake to remember her. Together with my brother and sisters, we recently spread mum and dads ashes at the spot where we first settled in Australia.
Today we visited the Buddhist Monastery of 10000 statues at Tin Sha, and while we were there some people were depositing their relatives ashes in the columbarium. Everywhere was gold leaf, gold paint, or red paint. Even the ladder used to put the ashes casket in the wall was painted gold. And the body of the monk that started the monastry was buried for 8 months, then disinterred and coated with gold leaf. Not the way that I choose to remember those close to me, but it was significant for them.
In walking around Tin Sha we also came across an old walled village (nothing human in Hong Kong is really old - this was from about 1860). The village is still occupied, but we were allowed into the hall of the ancestors, with a series of photos (of Chinese characters) and accompanying Chinese characters;). This is how they remember their loved ones.
Jump back now to earlier this morning when we went to pick up our laundry. We were early so we wandered into the nearby park. There in amazement I saw my first Hong Kong jogger. As I watched I saw that he was not in a maze as much as running around the outside of the maze. There were a couple of ladies in the maze doing Tai Chi.
Further around the park we came across some bird cages with magnificent birds, and of particular note was the Rhinoceros Hornbill - a very weird looking bird from Malaysia. It is the sort of animal that confounds my understanding of "survival of the fittest". We then spent about half an hour working out how to manually focus Sues new camera so that we didn't just get a photo of the netting. I think we sorted it. Then we came across a flock of flamingoes. Beautiful looking birds - but weird.
That's about when we caught the train to Tin Sha. We had hoped to see (rather than hear) some Chinese Opera here, but the building was being remodelled. Never mind - maybe in mainland China?
The rest of Tin Sha had a large number of 30 storey residences. We walked through one and found a lot of older men playing a game that seemed a cross between draughts and chess. The high rises are inevitable given the population. We experienced some of that population pressure in that we couldn't get a seat in Starbucks. Tin Sha is apparently another popular spot for mainland tourists.
For dinner we found a table at what was obviously a popular restaurant, then had to share our table with a couple of young chinese guys. Food wasn't as good as the previous nights, but still tasty and fresh. Bought a couple of choux pastries to eat back at the hotel with a cup of tea (see my earlier comments re mum.)
On the way home we went looking for a cap for the cruise and ended up buying two new watches but that story is for another time.

Tomorrow we board the cruise, so I am not sure if I can update my blog.