Leanne

San Lorenzo

leanneensly — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 08:00:00 GMT

Saturday 13th February

Back in Cochrane again after four nights camping in San Lorenzo. My group of friends and Russell left camp together to take the easy 2-3 hour walk to base camp only to find the first group up the hill abit and unsure where to go, so we actually stayed together until morning tea then they disappeared as usual with the assistant guide. The walk in was lovely, following a glacier river until we finally got to camp and it was literally at the base of the mountains, actually if you hike over the range to the left you would be in Argentina. The Refugio is just a spot to eat meals, we all preferred to pitch our tents. We wandered about the base but couldn't safely cross the river to get to the lagoon but got plenty of good views. The next day was a free for all, and people just wandered off with vague plans to reach the highest possible points. Iris and I found the rock scrambling too difficult so Bob and Nick continued on. That afternoon Jo came back with a badly lacerated finger, she needed stitches. The two guides did nothing. Bob, Iris and Derek walked her out then drove her back to Cochrane for medical attention, it was fractured and to late for stitches. On the way out Iris face planted with a full pack and ended up with a black eye. The rest of us walked back as well but at a slower rate then watched the rain and waited for a roast lamb feast the farm put on for us. Nick was keen to walk back to the cars to collect a couple of things so I elected to put up our tent, after an hour and a half I decided he was gone too long. I didn't bother with the guides but I asked Derek to come with me as he had just walked out the others only three hours earlier. I also alerted Steve and he was following us in ten minutes. Derek and I made it to the car and no sign of Nick, on the way back we found Steve who informed us that Nick got back to camp just as he was leaving, apparently he had been lost but managed to find his way back. So we are seeing some really amazing scenery, it is remote we aren't seeing any other tourists, do I think the guides know what they are doing? I think my actions speak for themselves. In fact if I hadn't found him on my return to the farm I would have gone to the farm owners for additional assistance.
We are in Cochrane resupplying for two nights then we are splitting into two groups and walking from opposite ends of the walk. This will be a relief as our group will be the six friends and the better 'guide'.

Chile

leanneensly — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 07:56:00 GMT

My apologies for not starting this blog sooner but I just didn't feel the motivation. Chile is enjoyable but not inspiring to me, just recently that situation has changed. I will start at the beginning and catch you up, we landed in Santiago on the 12th January 2016 stayed at Rio Amazonas which is centrally located with all the sites and the subway close by. We embraced the Chilian lifestyle with lazy mornings, afternoon siesta and late night dinners. The best thing we did was a tour for tips around the city as the guide was infectiously enthusiast about his city. We wandered off to Valparaiso for the day and basically enjoyed and holidayed. We then moved south to Pucon and continued the theme with a volcano hike up villaricia which I thought was a lot of effort for some great views but the actual volcano was a disappointment. This volcano had erupted in March last year so there was a lot of safety equipment, we had to wear all their gear and we had ice pick training. The best part of this day was coming down, there was a series of open tunnels down the mountain a bit of hard plastic to sit on and away you went. Very good fun, you controlled (I use this term loosely) your speed by digging in your ice pick. We also went white water rafting which again was fun and great to cool off in the water as the weather has been really quite hot. We then bused it down to Puerto Montt, the buses are great, we ordered lunch and that was delivered, everything is so easy. The Hostal staff are lovely the food is magnificent but then we flew to Coyhaique to meet our fellow hikers and pick up the 4wds. We arrived on a Saturday and it was like stepping back to the 70s, everything was closed. We slept in and arrived for breakfast at 9.25 to be told we had missed it by 10 minutes. The shops opened on Monday so we booked a cabin on a ferry for 3 nights, only to be told that the final itinerary for the month hike was incorrect and we had to change it. Our friends Bob, Iris, Jo and Steve arrived and that was great to catch up but a nagging and growing discontentment with the lack of communication from Russell the trip leader was starting. We got the vehicles and headed out to Rio Nadis, lovely farm good camping, totally uninspired hiking, got lost on both walks, only my friends cared about each other. Went to Villa O'Higgins for an overnight walk again left to our own devices, again only OK scenery........

Cochrane 9th February
We are now well into the hiking and it hasn't been running as smoothly as I hoped. The main guide doesn't say much and the assistant guide is an over achieving walker with a contemptuous attitude. Our group of six are enjoying each other's company but the others are a bit trying at times. We have been lost several times and Nick and I have been left to walk on our own, which is OK except for the challenging river crossing. I have completely lost confidence in them so didn't want to go on the Tigre glacier walk, then the local guide didn't turn up so they decided to go them selves. I worried about Nick all day and apparently it was a nightmare and dangerous but that is his story to tell, they didn't make it and were lost most of the day, at least they stuck to the turn around time.
We have just finished a two night walk in Tamango national park, it was the first walk we have done that had any form of hiking etiquette happening such as making sure people had maps and waiting at turn offs. The scenery was fantastic, lake Cochrane was an amazing blue. Again I don't think you are suppose to be navigating those sort of heights with a full pack, but we did it without incident. I swam a couple of times both days, so much for the cold and wind! Actually the weather is about to turn so we might be using our winter gear yet.
Tomorrow we are off to San Lorenzo, I will be picking and choosing what walks I will be doing with them depending on weather and if our guide has a clue.
The up side is he is a fantastic cook so having good camping meals.

San Lorenzo 9th February
Only about 30kms out of Cochrane some very rough roads and a river crossing we decided not to take so we had to hike in 30 minutes to our camp site next to the farm house. Of course we got lost trying to find the farm house, we had to loop around to a makeshift bridge of a couple of logs to get over the river and once we could see the cars on the other side walk into the camping area. We could have tried to make the crossing in the morning when the water level is lower but I think this was a much safer option. We have been told that the hike to base camp is only three hours so we are just doing to whenever we feel like it, at least this time we know not to expect any guiding.

Mt Kinabalu

leanneensly — Tue, 8 Nov 2011 12:46:00 GMT

You might notice a lack of photo’s, that’s because I spent the last two days shrouded in mist. So obviously the scenery was rubbish but the experience was interesting. I paid 850 Ringget ($260) for 2 days and 1 night. I was picked up at 7.30am Sunday morning, along with 2 men we were driven two hours to the bottom of the mountain to meet our guide ‘Nice’. He quickly handed us our packed lunch (sandwiches and fruit) and joined us in the taxi to the entrance of the national park. Five hours later we had risen to 3272m (you start at 1866m) and walked only 6.5km, the altitude makes your heart pound and of course it becomes more difficult to breathe but a nice slow ascent means no headaches. The climbers we met descending sadly informed us that they were not allowed to climb to the summit due to bad weather. Laban Rata turned out to be a very well run well stocked restaurant but the hotel part had no heating or hot water. We tucked into a 4.30pm dinner then in bed by 6pm, amazingly I slept at this time. I did wake up around 10pm and heard the sheets of rain pouring down outside and snuggled in feeling sure we wouldn’t be allowed to make the ascent either. Before I knew it the rest of my dorm was stirring at 2am to get a report from their guides and eat a first breakfast. I was right the ascent wasn’t possible and I really wasn’t that fussed, the conditions were pretty terrible. Suddenly 3.30am it was on and we only had 2 hours to get to the summit to see the sunrise, a little more than 2km away and an ascent to 4095m. With only the light of my head torch to guide my way (thanks Steve and Julie for that birthday present) I start the lonely arduous task. I quickly realised that I was severely underequipped for the journey. My wet weather gear was a 5 Ringget pancho, my warm clothing was a huge sweater, gloves and hat borrowed from Lucy the owner of the homestay I was based in KK, I did have good shoes but they were soon completely drowned in water. After a couple of flights of stairs I got to the ‘white rope’ initially this was used to absail up the face of a rock but mostly it was the only source of guidance. Our team of three quickly abandoned each other, the Italian was determined to be first to the summit, the lovely guy from Hong Kong and the guide were really slow going and I was plodding along in the middle. I was checked in at the summit hut and the cold really set in, at 5.40am I had 200m to go the viewing point and if there had been a sunrise I would have missed it by 10 minutes, the Italian descended saying he couldn’t stand it any longer, as the arrangement was to descend as a group this meant I had to turn around (thank goodness) we descended with the pale morning light giving us some confidence. Back at the hotel I scrambled to find my dry clothes and after a quick second breakfast headed back to bed in an attempt to warm up. The descent was a muscle tingling, knee crunching 4 hours, I was grateful that Lucy had convinced me to take a hiking stick with me as I am happy to report my knees are fine and only have only slight muscle soreness in my thighs, though this may grow as the day goes on.

Kinabatangan River

leanneensly — Tue, 8 Nov 2011 12:33:00 GMT

I have just been travelling with two lovely Dutch girls – Judith and Marjolein (I had to call her May) they were great fun to be around and not just for their keen sense of humour but also it was a chance to observe how two gorgeous 20 something girls get around – and to think I was concerned about dressing appropriately! It all started on the bus from Semporna to Sepilok. I boarded nice and early and was settled into my book when the seat next to me was taken by a nice looking young man, I had to force a Hi out of him, that’s when I noticed (and I’m sure he did to) two gorgeous looking girls board the bus and take seat’s across the aisle from me, they saw me and were quick to give me friendly smiles. As the bus left Semporna it was apparent the seat infront of the girls was vacant so the young man (Australian) quickly scooted across. After a couple of hours he then tried to get a conversation going, all he got out of them was yes and no answers and a polite interest in his diving photo’s. At the Sepilock junction about 8 western’s including me got off the bus and looked around for some hint on which direction to head, I had arranged a pick up but was an hour earlier so I stuck with the group. We headed to the nearest backpackers about 400m down the road, most of them were staying there but the two girls didn’t want to, so I offered them a lift with my driver and we quickly became firm friends. They turned out to be medical students starting a six week internship in Kuala Lumpur next week. As soon as we were settled into Sepilock we headed to the 3pm feeding of the Orang-utans, after waiting in silence we were rewarded with one big Orang-utan swinging through the forest, he quickly established himself as a show off then drank all the water and started to pick through the food. I thought that was pretty good but it soon became more entertaining with several females and babies arriving to sort through the food and lick the empty tin tray for water, I guess they will have to make the trip to river for a drink. I was impressed with their obvious strength and I couldn’t believe the size of their feet and hands. Even though there wasn’t a barrier between us they didn’t take much notice of us.

The girls had rejected all the ‘tours’ of the Kinabatangan river as they felt they were too expensive (280 = $80 per person for 2 days), so they invited me to travel with them to find our own way, stating they wanted an adventure, I am a bit over doing anything adventurous at the moment but couldn’t resist having the company of these two girls. After a bus and two minivans later we ended up at the Gomantong Caves, the girls excitement turned to disgust as they discovered the cavern was splattered with bat droppings with a very healthy supply of cockroaches covering everything, we slipped our way along the boardwalk until we came across some ‘cavemen’ hanging out at the back of the cavern, one of them was keen to show us the ‘famous’ Swiftlet nests, the girls were groused out even more when they learned they were made from spit and Swiftlet nest soup is considered a delicacy. Being away from the tour pack was now a problem as we needed to make the 25km journey into Sakau, a local was hired and we drove along the murky river to our B&B at the very edge of the forest. We boarded a tinnie for a 4-6pm afternoon cruise of the river and the first thing we saw was an Orang-utan with a baby – very special, we floated there for a while enjoying watching the baby taking some test runs out on to the branches. We enjoyed this cruise so much we ended up taking another cruise the next morning, loads of monkeys long tailed, short tailed and the Dutch monkey. Not as many birds as what I imagined but did see loads of Hornbills, Egret and a magnificent blue and gold kingfisher and a lovely synchronised pair of ?? with light blue beaks. Obviously the jungle was alive with mosquito’s, all three of us were reminding each other to take our malaria tablets and apply repellent. May would report on her growing number of bites, I think Judith was losing interest in the topic but I kept up the sympathy and never pointed out the correlation of clothing vs bites. I was dressed in loose trousers and long sleeve top no matter how hot it was and didn’t have any bites where as she was dressed in a tank top and shorts and was scoring an alarming number of bites! Go figure.

Photos: Orang-utans & Kinabatangan river

leanneensly — Tue, 8 Nov 2011 12:03:00 GMT

Sepilok & Sawau

Sipadan Diving

leanneensly — Tue, 1 Nov 2011 21:37:00 GMT

All of those diving magazines in all those years and now I have finally dived Sipadan, lots and lots to see but I expected better visibility – though now I am looking back on the photos it is pretty good. More sharks than I can count (black, white, grey tips), gigantic turtles (green and Hawkesbill). On the smaller scale I saw an orang-utan shrimp (the underwater sign for that one is hilarious) a very colourful mantis shrimp and a tiny ornate pipefish. So back to the beginning, I arrived into Kota Kinabalu late Tuesday night and was relieved that the airport had a counter for fixed price taxi’s, the market outside the backpackers was just closing for the night and after a quick chat with the manager I headed off to bed. Wednesday I spent wandering around the shops, the city (town) itself is nothing special. Western food is plentiful so by the end of the day my stomache ached from eating unfamiliar treats like biscuits and bread. Once I arrived in Semporna I was told that I would have to stay the night there as my boat to Mabul island didn’t leave until the morning, I was not impressed as Semporna had an arrogant vibe that I would class as not good news for a single woman and there was no one around to team up with. I had already been asked the whereabouts of my husband a few times so I was now wearing a 5 Ringget fake wedding ring but wearing this still didn’t exempt me from a tirade of abuse (in Malay) from some random man as I left a local restaurant. I thought I was dressed appropriately so I don’t know what that was about. The trip out to Mabul was about half an hour, sadly passing currents of rubbish on the way, after passing several rickety long houses we arrived at ours. The accommodation is ok, no hot water but you don’t need it and they turn off the generator during the day but as long as it’s on to run the fans at night this was fine. Meals are included in the price (90 Ringgets per night) and it was great. I dived around the island the first day then spent Saturday and Sunday diving Sipadan Island. Sipadan was another 25 minutes away and though we landed on the island for lunch it has an army post either side of the designated area so I wasn’t able to get around and have a good look. As I said earlier I can see why it has become such a hailed diving site, both mornings we started the day ‘hammer head hunting’ as the guide really wanted to see one (I have never forgotten my experience so went along with it) this involved swimming (on scuba) at about 20 below for about 5 minutes into the deep blue gully using a compass to get back to the wall, both times we didn’t see anything and I mean nothing just the blue blue ocean all around us. I loved the tornado of barracuda and of course turtles and sharks are always interesting. Monday I spent lazing and snorkelling around Mabul then my final dive at Paradise which is where the photo’s have been taken thanks to my dive buddy, as my camera is now out of action, I hope Olympus will be able to help me once I get home.

Photos: Diving Sipidan and Paradise

leanneensly — Tue, 1 Nov 2011 21:14:00 GMT

Mabul Island Borneo

Photos: Mabul Island

leanneensly — Tue, 1 Nov 2011 21:04:00 GMT

Sanya

leanneensly — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:14:00 GMT

This is my last week in China so it’s only fitting I spend it in China’s ultimate holiday destination – Hainan Island or sometimes called China’s Hawaii. I have been to Hawaii and I can only see vague similarities. I feel like I am getting a decent farewell because a couple of great things have happened, the top of my list is that I have finally been reunited with my two favourite tea’s, blueberry and a mixed fruit, I haven’t seen blueberry tea since Harbin and the fruit tea was last sighted in Beijing. I have no idea why I can suddenly buy it but I am stocking up. The other great thing is the hostel is in a street that sells a Guilin noodle breakfast I have come to enjoy in Yangshuo and there is also a place that sells the chicken dumpling soup that Nina enjoyed. Besides thinking about my stomach the location of the backpackers is pretty good, very close to the happening beach, in the middle of the Russian hotels and restaurants. The Russian contingent is huge signs and menus are Chinese and Russian no English. Today I took a bus trip to the next bay along (Yalong), the resorts own the beaches but it’s not really policed so I just wandered past the sign saying resort guest only. The beach is a bit nicer and like the one here it’s a people watching paradise. A couple of my favourites are the ‘matching pyjama sets’ these consist of large groups (20) Chinese people all dressed in gaudy shorty pyjama’s with patterns on it, I tried to get a photo of a couple while pretending to photograph an island, love these people always happy, friendly and good natured. Of course there are hybrids of these, such as matching T-shirt sets or simply couples wearing the same tops. Another group I love to watch is the ‘floating ring set’ these people obvious can’t swim (as most Chinese people can’t) the scary ones are the ones that declare they were taught to swim one afternoon!! Anyway these people step into their ‘floating rings’ and brave the waist deep water, honestly I won’t turn my back on an ocean that is bringing in a set of waves to the shore but this ocean I don’t even bother to check anything, they are not really waves just big ripples. The ‘floating ring’ set squeal and laugh at every ripple then look around like they are have just survived something extraordinary. Probably they look like me when someone understands my Mandarin. Then my absolute favourite the ‘big kids playing in the sand’, no child anywhere to be found and these people are well past their 20’s. I found a memorable middle age couple studiously building an ordinary sand kingdom. He was working with a small plastic spade on the moat at the water’s edge and she had the bucket and her hands to construct the castle, I would have loved a photo but thought it would be too rude.

Last night I was invited to join a group of friendly Chinese people for dinner. We caught the bus into Sanya city and enjoyed and all you can eat cook your own type place. We started with a couple of stir fries then moved on to some hotpots. Loved the little bottles of cool drink, the dinner cost 59 Yuan each ($9) which strangely I thought was expensive as usually when I go out with Chinese people the prices are suddenly lower, maybe it’s because we are all tourists here.

Photos: Sanya

leanneensly — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:07:00 GMT

Hainan Island

Photos: Inner Mongolia

leanneensly — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:22:00 GMT

Around Hohhot

Tibet

leanneensly — Sun, 9 Oct 2011 01:36:00 GMT

Well to get to Tibet is a hassle, to be granted a permit you have to be in a tour group with a set itinerary. The flights and train tickets are bought up by touts then sold at inflated prices. As we wanted to travel in the October holiday week we paid a lot for our transport. The cost of the 6 day tour was 4300 Yuan (this included van, driver, guide, accommodation and breakfast), flight from Chengdu to Lhasa was 1700 Yuan and the train from Lhasa to Xian was 1600 Yuan. According to our guide we could have bought a cheaper train ticket once we got here but that is really for the travellers on no fixed agenda and are willing to go through the hassle of extending their permits if necessary. In summary I had an enjoyable time in Tibet, the blue sky was startling and the endless hills/mountains are incomparable though disturbingly barren. Lhasa was just a big new westernised city but it does have the best palace and temple. As always I was looking forward to getting out into the countryside and wasn’t disappointed with the beautiful turquoise Yamdrok Lake (70km long). The distances between towns and tourist attractions aren’t too bad but there are many checkpoints and time stamps that are based on about 70km/hr (I think), I assume there are penalties for vehicles that get to the next checkpoint too fast. Unfortunately it didn’t stop our driver from speeding then taking a huge break just around the corner from the checkpoint, what a tool, we requested that we would prefer to simply drive slower and his response to this was to pointedly drive dangerously slow whilst trucks etc whizzed past us, suffice to say he didn’t get a tip at the end of the trip. If we had stuck to the original itinerary we would have visited a lot more temples and monasteries but thanks to Gayle’s research she cut that down to just the good ones. The rapid ascent is also a potential problem but with a bit of luck and with the help of Diamox and some special tea along with taking it easy for a couple of days we were fine, Shigatse is even higher but it’s perfectly manageable after acclimatising in Lhasa.

We stayed in Lhasa for a couple of days and visited the amazing Potala Palace, the forgettable Sera Monastery and finally the museum. We took the old road to Shigatse and came back on the new friendship highway. Then on Friday we boarded the train for the 34 hour trip to Xian. The train left at noon so after dumping our bags we headed down to the dining car and were treated to uninterrupted views of the countryside, we settled in for the afternoon as did a group of Italians. The train doctor (?) set up shop behind us and methodically recorded the blood pressure of the train staff, returning our smiles with a grim look of seriousness. Not sure what that was all about I can only speculate. On a visit back to our cabin I found a lone Brazilian girl so invited her to join our little festive group. Then by promising the staff that we would order another meal at 6pm and then ate really really slowly we managed to keep our booth with its fabulous views until the night fell. I know I will have to put up with the boring day tomorrow but this part of the train trip will definitely make it worth it. I just woke up so it’s only about 13 hours to go! We are in the last carriage on the train so last night was really quiet no passing bathroom traffic, I did wake up a couple of times and had to ‘pop’ my ears to adjust to the new pressure.

Itinerary

Sunday – arrive, staying near Norbulinka Palace. Barkhor market Monday – Jokhang Temple, Sera monastery. Tuesday – Potola Palace, Museum. Wednesday – Thru Gangbala Pass, visit Yamdrok Lake, Gyantse - visit Kumpum stupa, overnight in Shigatse. Thursday – visit temple in Shigatse, shopping, back to Lhasa via Friendship highway. Friday – city tour, train 12pm. Saturday – 10pm arrive Xian.

Photos: Tibet

leanneensly — Sun, 9 Oct 2011 01:23:00 GMT

Tibet

Lhasa

leanneensly — Mon, 3 Oct 2011 23:52:00 GMT

Arranging this trip was a test of perseverance and patience but thanks to my dynamic friend Gayle it has actually happened and here we are. By Chinese standards this week is going to be expensive but my guess is that to arrange it from Perth the costs would be a lot higher.

Little did I know that my last day teaching Lucy was Wednesday morning as she had meetings on Thursday and Friday so I could have left Shanghai earlier, but that’s the nature of being a private teacher. After being generously paid and a fond farewell I jetted off to Chengdu and stayed at Sim’s Cozy which is one of the best backpackers I have ever stayed in, the attention to detail was amazing and the lovely verandah’s to relax on were great. The internet was excellent so I used it sort out my holiday arrangements for the next 6 weeks. Then up at 4.30am Sunday to catch my flight from hell to Lhasa. As one of the other sympathetic passengers reassured me it could only happen once in a life time then added it may have been karma for something I did in a past life. Anyway I was all settled in my window seat waiting for take off when I young woman arrived with a crying 4-5 year old. Her efforts to pacify the child had no effect, the little girl just kept sobbing ‘I want my Grandmother’ (in Chinese) and crying. Once the plane started to move and the little girl slept for 25 minutes she told me the child had been living with her Grandmother for a year and was returning to her Mother and that she had met the child only yesterday. Grandparents doing the child rearing is very common here.

So I arrived into 3650 metres (very rapid ascent, I have been worrying about altitude sickness) with very little sleep and shattered nerves. As I waited for Gayle to arrive from Xian my brain started to struggle and a headache developed. She bounced off the plane full excitement and we exchanged congratulations on actually making this happen. On the 40 minute trip into Lhasa we flipped between catching up on the last 2 months and admiring the mountains. By the time we had arrived at our hotel I was struggling to put 2 words together and just wanted to eat and rest. Gayle hammered out some of the details of the next few days with our guide Droma then we rested. About 5pm we headed out to the Barkor market, the sun was still very strong, amongst the tourist shops the pilgrims were whirling their prayer wheels and making an odd number of circuits around the temple. I was aghast at the energetic salutation of worship some of them were making, it involved a ‘burpy’ then lying flat on the ground. I couldn’t even walk fast let along do something like that. Hopefully these symptoms will ease after a good nights sleep.

Photos: Lhasa

leanneensly — Mon, 3 Oct 2011 23:15:00 GMT

Tibet

Boring to Busy

leanneensly — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:29:00 GMT

Tuesday started off with the usual English lesson, interrupted by a couple of phone calls after which Lucy managed to convey that she was going to a university and would I like to come along. It was a gloomy wet day so I was intending to stay home again so in the spirit of adventure I decided this was a good idea. We ended up at the China European International Business School (CEIBS) inquiring about an EMBA for our driver, who turned out to be a business associate. I can’t really work out the relationships that are going on here but Tong (the one that normally drives us around and had told me his job was investing money) met us there for lunch, the menu was completely western in fact the whole place was crawling with Americans both lecturers and students. Then three long boring meetings later I was pleased to note that we were finally heading back to the cars. Lucy took an active interest in one particular form and her name and details were written on it but I am 99% sure that the EMBA was for the driver, does that mean that she is his employer? maybe financial investor? That’s the big disappointment when teaching level 1 students, so many questions are inadequately answered. I was starting to look forward to spending the afternoon at Starbucks with a hot chocolate and the internet but we took a detour into a shabby part of town or maybe it was a more normal suburb as I have become accustom to spending my time in the nicer parts. We were met by a real estate agent or landlord and shown a set of offices obviously meant for the EMBA guy, after a cursory look we were shown to the real estate agents office and fussed over with cups of tea then he disappeared. Three hours later (6pm) he reappeared looking hassled, ushered us out and locked up the office, after a short walk we entered his home and were treated to a meal with homemade wine, by 6.40 we were in the cars finally heading home.

After the lesson on Wednesday morning, we went our separate ways. I got off the metro near the Bund and immediately spotted a double decker sightseeing bus so spent the next hour cruising around the city, then headed to the Bund as I wanted to take the sightseeing tunnel under the river to Pudong. I boarded a capsule on a track with a couple of other people and was treated to a light/film show all the way across, it was hilarious - so garish, even the shots of a ‘scary shark’ was just a white tip. I then teamed up with two Polish guys, Cooper and Peter, and happily went along with their plan to see the city from the world’s third tallest building the World Financial Center. We speed up to the 100^th floor standing 474m above ground level and took in the views, the glass floor was little disconcerting. These two guys are just beginning their holiday and are full of infectious enthusiasm – just what I needed. We then visited Jing’an temple set amongst a very new and modern background. After dinner, then we went to a Toastmaster’s meeting! The whole meeting was conducted in a very high standard of English, probably only 3 native English speakers in the room. After two hours and some interesting points of view, unfortunately the most interesting speech on the handling of the bullet train tragedy was delivered by someone those English skills were not as good as most of the others. We declined several invitations to dine with them and speed off to the Bund to capture some photo’s looking over to Pudong. Great interesting day, even accidently missing the last train on my line was Ok because I was encouraged to follow a group of racing chinese (one of them managed to turn back and yell ‘here’ at me) so a jagged another train to a stop I had used before and cabbed it home from there.

Photos: Third tallest building

leanneensly — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:16:00 GMT

Shanghai

Photos: West Lake - 1 Yuan banknote

leanneensly — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:02:00 GMT

Hangzhou

Back in Shenzhen

leanneensly — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 08:35:00 GMT

Well, I thought I was in a routine, woke up bright and early had our English lesson around 7.30am. Lucy was working pretty hard so she needed a break after just over an hour but we never got back to the lesson because she announced that we were on the 12.30 flight back to Shenzhen, she also conveyed that I should pack lightly and leave stuff in Shanghai, so I packed everything because you never know you know. Again we were met at the airport by a driver and whisked into the middle of Shenzhen to the very very nice Crowne Plaza Hotel. The only downside is that we are sharing the room, the upside is that it is very large and quite luxurious. I like Lucy but it would be nice to have my own space. As soon as I got in the room I fired up my netbook and it instantly connected to the WiFi, within 10 minutes I was talking to Nick, it’s been over a week and I was missing our chats. Lucy and I hung out in the room for the rest of the afternoon, did some more English practice with the use of internet resources – much more interesting. I tried to get out of dinner but Lucy insisted and I must admit the company was quite charming. We picked up a couple from Hong Kong that spoke very good English, apparently they were in staying in Shenzhen for the sole purpose of meeting Lucy to deliver some documents. When the meal was pretty much over, a man arrived followed soon after by Vivian, she told me later that the man was May’s father. He didn’t swop to English to speak to me so I didn’t meet him properly but when he asked about me I answered so he may have thought I could speak Chinese and not that I had just got lucky with the few words I know. Vivian didn’t eat, she had probably already eaten as it was late but she did read through the contract being passed around then give us all a lift back to the hotel, our driver must have gone home. I’m still trying to figure out her job. The Hong Kong couple came back to our hotel room and Lucy has signed the contract. I am just leaving them to it as I am happy playing on the internet.

The Bund

leanneensly — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:37:00 GMT

After a rushed lesson we once again were picked up and driven to the Beauty Hospital, this time I turned down breakfast and made my way to the train station to catch the subway to The Bund. I expected Shanghai to be a lot more crowded than what I have experienced so far, though admittedly I have avoided rush hour. After a quick look at People’s Square I made it to The Bund. Great views of the city and the original buildings are there as promised. The sight of the Pearl TV tower helped me feel I was in Shanghai not just any other big city in the world. So even if I’m shuffled on to a plane tomorrow at least I have been to The Bund. I got back to the Beauty Hospital early so settled into their waiting area and flicked through the brochures of before and after photo’s. Then when I saw Lucy again I noticed she had a plaster on her hand where an IV drip had been. I was aware that in Yangshuo the students would go to the hospital for a cold or stomache ache any minor ailment and they always got a saline drip, in fact I met an American with a spider bite on his face and he had unsuccessfully tried to refuse the drip. So I still can’t figure out what Lucy has had done, she did have a cold or did she have a drip for a bit of botox? Over kill for both. So many questions, so few answers.

After checking that if I could tolerate spicy food the three of us then went to a restaurant for lunch, Lucy ordered and while we waited we worked on English food words – great because then I might have a clue about what we are eating. The goose had a nice flavour but the beef just seemed to be slabs of thinly cut fat with a bit of meat, I made the excuse that it was too spicy for me. Then a nice safe dish of normal beef and beans came out, only the friggin beans turned out to be green chillies, yes hilarious for all involved – except me! It was several tissues later before I could resume eating. After lunch Lucy was off to a business meeting and I declined the offer for a lift home instead I went in search of a bookshop and/or an internet bar. Found the internet bar with a bit of help from one of the many English schools in this district, I see more foreigners here than even in Yangshuo and there is plenty of western restaurant’s around. Pleased that I was now reunited with the online world I grabbed a taxi home. Dinner was left over’s from lunch and last night’s dinner. It’s quite normal to go to a restaurant and order ridiculous amounts of food then simply take away the left overs. Chinese take away. After dinner Lucy invited me for a walk around the apartment’s park, lovely idea for a warm night. We came across the indoor swimming pool which I took an interest in then before I knew it we slipped into the massage parlour and our feet were being pumpled and prodded. I have found that chinese massages are not really relaxing, more of an endurance test to find your pain threshold. I was determined to have a weekly massage in Yangshuo but realised I was dreading it and if I had any sort of sore spot on my body I wouldn’t go because I knew at some point I would feel extreme pain. Like the food and bedding and probably a lot of other things I am not aware of, in China these things should be good for you. None of these western idea’s of eating food because you like it or sleeping in a soft bed because it’s comfortable.

In Yangshuo I had become accustom to seeing little girls get suck the bones of chicken feet or whatever but I noticed May (Vivian’s daughter) would only eat rice. Vivian use to make her eat some meat and vegetables which she tolerated in small doses. When May questioned me about what I ate in Australia she was very disappointed to learn that it was meat and vegetables, I think she expected more from the western world.

Shanghai

leanneensly — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:34:00 GMT

Well my leap of faith looks like it paid off. Vivian arrange our flight to Shanghai then drove me to the Hong Kong border to meet Ms Look (or Luke) and then dropped us off at the airport for a quick noodle dinner before boarding our plane. By the time we had boarded I had explained that the two names she had were inappropriate and consequently she is to be known as Lucy from now on. After an uneventful flight except that I missed out on moon cake, I didn’t want any of the other plane food but I would have put a moon cake away for later. It was mid autumn festival yesterday which I had celebrated with Vivian’s family and had given her a beautiful box of moon cakes but strangely we didn’t eat any moon cakes all day, we did have some Durian fruit which was delightful, but I was keen to try out moon cake. Anyway, a driver was waiting for us at Shanghai airport and we were very efficiently taken to Lucy’s 2 bedroom 3 bathroom serviced apartment, very nice place. Lucy wanted a 7am start so I dragged myself out of bed at 6.30am and accidently locked myself in my ensuite, the door handle was a bit dodgy but I closed the door anyway and it just didn’t open. Not sure if Lucy was awake and not really confident that she even know’s what the meaning of ‘help I am locked in the bathroom’ was so I decided to take a shower anyway and deal with the situation later. Well call me Uri Geller because I think the sheer power of my mind got that door open – much to my relief. Then we worked until 10am, Lucy was super keen hardly wanting to take a break. I could already see her improving. Then she announced we were going shopping – great I wanted to get out of the apartment. The same driver came and got us again, then Lucy turns around and announces she has to go to the hospital for her eye – strange, I hadn’t noticed anything wrong and I had just spent 3 intense hours with her! Turns out to be the Beauty Hospital. So the driver and I went and found some breakfast, then as we were near the Train Station I walked around there a bit looking to buy a new top to replace the one I had on. I am quite proud of my track record of not getting food all over myself in China as a lot of westerners seem to, I put it down to me embracing the teenie tiny chairs and tables which encourage hunching over your food bowl and my near professional chopstick handling. The soup I got for breakfast was served on normal sized furniture and the vegetables were cut so all the edges had a slope and when it slipped off the chopstick back into the soup my inadequacies was stained down my T-shirt. What a first day at my new job! Locked in the bathroom then looking like a klutz! It put me off breakfast so I didn’t eat much, even after I had done battle with the odd shaped carrots. It turned out to be fortuitous as when Lucy had finished at the Beautician we all went out to lunch and again it was a huge bowl of noodle soup. I am starting to wonder if Vivian had passed on my failure at eating Dim Sum. Once back at the apartment Lucy declared it sleep time, great, love the noon nap. About 4pm she announced she was going out and left me the only keys to the apartment, so I took off for a walk to find the nearest Subway entrance and got back about 6pm, grabbed a card from the restaurant across the street so I have my chinese address and flicked though 35 channels of Chinese TV to find one station broadcasting in English. At 7.30 Vivian rang to say that Lucy had rung her to ring me to see if I wanted Lucy to bring home take away or if I wanted to go out by myself. Not really hungry so I opted for take away – I always feel like these are trick questions as the Chinese have a habit of not speaking directly and I don’t always pick up on the direction that is being given, I have no idea which was the right choice.

Photos: The Bund

leanneensly — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:30:00 GMT

Shanghai

Photos: Shenzhen

leanneensly — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:20:00 GMT

Vivian's Apartment

Photos: Dafen

leanneensly — Fri, 9 Sep 2011 23:53:00 GMT

Shenzhen

Dafen

leanneensly — Fri, 9 Sep 2011 00:05:00 GMT

It took me 45 minutes by subway but I arrived in Dafen with my chinese note in hand asking to point me in the direction of Dafen village and I got there with minimum fuss. The village is full of quaint little shops loaded with paintings and art supplies. A lot of the painters are instantly recognisable but mingled in is some original work. I wandered around admiring their work and watched some painters industriously copying from photos. I was given a full tour of a 3 storey warehouse absolutely full of paintings but I wasn’t really tempted to buy anything, there is only one masterpiece I would really like to own and luckily I didn’t see it. After a visit to Wal Mart and lunch I set off back home. Even though I hardly saw any other westerners the locals are a lot more accepting and didn’t try to engage me in conversation like in Yangshuo. Then when I boarded the subway a group of teenage girls spotted me and tried out some of their basic English on me, this lead to everyone having a turn at being photographed with me but besides that I was fairly inconspicuous.