nomadnorrie

Gallery: Prague

nomadnorrie — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:50:00 GMT

Gallery: Budapest

nomadnorrie — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:38:00 GMT

Gallery: Poland

nomadnorrie — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:06:00 GMT

Back on the Trans-Siberian

nomadnorrie — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:49:00 GMT

Three more days on the trans-siberian

So far my introduction to the stone faced Russians was enlightening. In comparison to China there are distinct differences and it certainly felt considerably less safe in Russia. Russian roads seem more ordered but somehow more dangerous too. At one point I was nearly knocked off my feet by a speeding car brushing past me so close that the wind made me wobble. My ticket this time was for the 4 night/three day trip to Moscow. I had downgraded to the commoners class called Plaskartny to save some money. Denise, who was leaving on the same train, did the same.

On the first day I slept for a long time and woke up just before we stopped. The train was packed with Chinese people going to work in Omsk and we were all in the same mess when it came to haggling for beer, food and water (none of us spoke Russian). Having so many Chinese people on the train made me feel much more comfortable. They work doing all sorts of things in Russia, cooking/farming/manufacturing and just making business (as the Chinese like to say). It was my last chance to practice some Chinese. They were not really welcomed by all of the Russians on board. One of the Russian speaking Chinese guys was abused for sitting facing ever so slighty into the corridor making it a tiny bit harder to pass. A drunk Russian was to blame. I asked the Chinese guy what the Russian said to him and he replied 'no good speak'. He did his best to avoid trouble though and didn't answer back apart from apologising.

Later in the evening Denise was talking to the people opposite her via her phrasebook. A Mongol looking guy called Chenghis (I deliberately called him Genghis) joined her and started reading random phrases from the book in English like "Is this self service?" or "Can I come inside?" He wasn't the most entertaining though, we had most fun when Vladimir joined us. Vladimir was a former KGB officer apparently and he kept saying to Denise "Dyenis, I lov you" over and over and over. At one point he even strapped Denise's pink heart shaped soft toy to his chest and began thumping it with his hand.

Still later that night I had drunk all the beer that I brought on board and the extra 3 cans that I bought at the first stop. We stopped again and Denise and I went for a hilarious half-drunk run to an off license, we could easily have been mistaken for Russians. On the way we had to cross another track and I noticed a train coming in on it. We both thought it would be so funny to get on the wrong train after getting beer. In the shop it was an entertaining game of pointing to get to the cheapest beer and two Russians standing next to us were laughing all the time. On our way back to the train one of them followed me for 100m, he repeatedly introduced himself and asked for English money.

The next day as we came off the Siberian plateau I watched the snowy scenery give way to fawny coloured fields, forest and the occasional field being burnt. Chengis introduced us to another Russian called Olga. Olga was so excited about speaking English that each time I asked her a question she answered in a fit of giggles. Denise got off with Olga that night.

Snow on the siberian plateau

On the last day I went to the buffet car to drink Vodka with Sandy (a Russian speaking German girl I met in Irkutsk). Within 5 minutes we had two shots each and a drunk Russian was trying to get us to share the bottle with him - he didn't need any more alcohol for sure. To avoid his snatches at our bottle we went back to our bunks for peace and quiet. The rest of the time I chatted, read and looked out of the window. I wanted to eat my bar of chocolate but it was so hot on the upper bunk that it actually melted into a thick paste.

The Russian buffet car

The journey went very very quickly.

Arrival at Moscow station flaming early in the morning.

Gallery: Lithuania

nomadnorrie — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:58:00 GMT

Gallery: Estonia

nomadnorrie — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:52:00 GMT

Gallery: Russia

nomadnorrie — Sun, 11 May 2008 03:54:00 GMT

Fun on the Trans-Siberian

nomadnorrie — Sun, 11 May 2008 03:33:00 GMT

I boarded the train to find an empty 4 berth carriage just for me. Then half an hour later an English girl, Denise, travelling home on the trans-siberian railway came in. She was nice to talk to although it was very easy to see how much younger than me she. Not long after we got underway a Russian guy that lives in China started chatting to me in Chinese. It turned out that he wanted us to carry some beer over the border for him. Not wanting to risk being accused of drug running or smuggling, we declined of course.

The train ride was slow but relaxing and after one and a half days of looking out of the window we finally made it to the Russian border. At 3am we were woken by the carriage attendant (provodnista). By 5am the Chinese border guards were checking our belongings. They checked inside my small bag and as soon as they found my computer they wanted me to start it up. I did and then the guard, in a pretend curious manner asked to see my photos. "Have you been to Tibet?"
"No."
"What about Xinjiang?"
"No."
"Do you have any photos of Tibet."
"No."

He then proceeded to check all of my photos on my laptop and the two cameras that he found in my small bag. They were obviously looking for riot photos but sadly I didn't have any. Even after I had shown the border guard where my photos were he took my computer and searched for images himself, the Chinese obviously feel very insecure about revolting peasants. Anyone that does have some should think about hiding them on a hidden partition/memory card or cd.

The first morning on the train

By mid morning the Russian border guards stood outside our compartment. A Russian woman that perfectly fitted the Russian stereotype appeared. With a stern look on her face she barked at us asking for passports. Holding mine up she motioned me to take off my glasses, still not happy she told me to face her. 1 Minute into meeting her it felt like I'd be marched off and interrogated! She stood there for a while and prodded my passport - almost all border officials do now because the back cover is peeling and the front cover has faded. She then started talking to me in Russian and I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, obviously. The Chinese speaking wannabe beer-smuggler was called into the carriage by the provodnista and he translated into Chinese for me: "Where did you get your visa?" A few moments later she was gone and I was able to breathe again. I was desperate to take her photo but she had a very definite "I bite" look about her, the same as most Russian women as I found out later.

Guards at the border checking the wheels sound right with a hammer

At Irkutsk Denise and I got off the train, we left the station to find a couple of Chinese guys being asked for id by a policeman. Apparently policemen check visa registration papers to make sure they are in order - clearly a very important task - so that they can extract fines from unwitting travelers. Those poor Chinese guys, according to the youth hostel police mainly look for Asians and it is much more common in Moscow or St Petersburg.

I made my way to the Liverpool pub for a beer and met up with Denise and another guy called Paul. Sadly I missed the best bit because I had to make my way back to the Downtown hostel which is apparently in a bad area. After I left others were joined by the Liverpool's resdient singer and then later by a couple of Russian guys. The singer played them any song they asked for and one of the young Russian guys said "I am not a bandit" to reassure them of his friendliness.

Back at the Downtown hostel I had a brief conversation with the blond Russian girl that was working there. I initially asked her about whether Russians eat lots of vegetables because the nearby large supermarket only had a small selection of mangey veggies. She reckons people eat lots of meat because of the cold. She went on to say that she liked the weather and that 25 degrees is rather nice and warm. I checked and yes she meant -25 saying "yes, -37 is cold but -25 is comfortable."

The next day I went to get my train ticket from the service centre above the train station booking office. The woman spoke sufficient English for me to not have to speak a word of Russian so I was pleased. I had the bunk next to Denise on the 18th, only I was heading to Moscow and Denise only as far as Yekaterinberg.

I went for a day trip to Lystvyanka and looked at the frozen lake. People had been telling me that it would be freezing cold but an hour after I arrived the wind dropped and the sun came out. It was gorgeous.

Lstvayanka side street

Lake Baikal, partially frozen

Lake Baikal, partially frozen

I wandered about, found the market and strolled around the main back street. Finally I gave in and bought some smoked Omul fish from the market. Using my fingers I haggled the price down to 30 from 40 and couldn't wait to taste it because it smelt great. I went over by the lake shore to eat it. It was delicious. I stood next to the groups of Russians doing the same thing (except they all had bottles of beer to wash it down). I went straight back and bought another 2. Wandering around the lake shore I bumped into Denise. She was struggling to find her home stay for that evening and so we spent the rest of the afternoon walking about, talking and looking for the home stay. Finally I had my second joy-rider style bus trip back to Irkutsk and even the driver spoke a bit of English. Isn't Russian supposed to be hard I thought.

Smoked Omul, 30 Rubles a fish

Moving east

nomadnorrie — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:08:00 GMT

Building a birds nest

I bought my train ticket to Russia as soon as I arrived in Beijing and managed to get a bed in 2nd class on the 3 day train trip to Irkutsk. I had to wait 4 days before I could leave China so spent a bit of time wandering around the bird's nest building site.

China is fantastic in that it is one of the few places in the world where a tourist can wander around a building site unhindered. I climbed through a hole in fence and spent a couple of hours with an American guy checking out how well the Olympics building madness was mapping out. With only three months to go, amazingly things were still a long way from being complete. I decided to lend a hand, I asked this group of very friendly gardeners if I could help out and they gladly took me on.

Leaving China for Russia

Apart from a brief trip to South Korea, I have been in China now since September last year. I spent the first 14 weeks learning the basics of Mandarin in Beijing with the Taipei Language Institute. They were recommended to me by a friend and they are absolutely fantastic.

One on one lessons for as many hours a day as you like. By the end I was able to talk to people about buses, trains, hotels, weather, studying, get directions and enquire about what food is on the menu. If you do decide to take some lessons or even just listen to some podcasts Chinese people will complement your Mandarin skills. TLI makes you put an enormous amount of effort into getting your sounds right (if they are not right you will be talking gibberish or at best not saying what you mean). Being able to speak to locals made it much easier when in out-of-the-way places.

China is actually easy enough for non-Mandarin speakers. It just means that you have to be a little more patient, I met plenty of people who managed with a badly pronounced hello and goodbye. There is almost always someone ready and willing to help. In more remote areas you may have to use body language but essentially you can get by most of the time.

Food and accomodation

China is cheap if you know where to go. I met a guy from the USA on my return to Beijing who complained to me that restaurants are so expensive, but he wasn't looking in the right places. Check the side streets and search out the places where locals dine - not tourists or business people but locals. Food for 10 Yuan per meal is not that hard to find almost anywhere, cheaper looking restaurants' food is just as good and sometimes better than the posh places. The main problem with cheaper restaurants is that people smoke with a pashion. The best time to go is when they are not so busy.

Utels affiliated youth hostels are a smokers paradise - smoking is allowed everywere, including in dormitories. In both Utel places that I stayed in there was nowhere to go where the air was clear and fresh, eating, sleeping and drinking were all in smokey pub like rooms. YHA China is a much better option for non-smokers. Goto www.yhachina.com and click on the English link. They also have higher standards for cleanliness and there are normally lots of English speaking Chinese people there. Ignore the guidebook and use www.yhachina.com to avoid the crowd.

Haggling

Haggling is like a game, the trader plays their card and you have to come back with something. They say something like "this is the best quality". Then you say "I think the shop in Guizhou has better quality". Then they say "but Shanghai is more expensive than Guizhou" and you reply with "I go to Guizhou next week, I will buy there". Always walk away because that is often when you get the best price - shouted at you once you get out of reach. Guizhou is a well known cheap province, use it in your haggling.

There are a few rules to remember:
1 Never believe what the traders say. They lie constantly and you should learn to do the same. Make anything up. I have often heard "cannot sell for less" or "I paid more for it" and then the price halves.

2 Never admit to being British, Chinese people believe British people are among the wealthiest of foreigners. Say you are Estonian or something more obscure - it means traders are less certain about how wealthy you might be. It affects the starting price.

3 Always check at several places, prices vary wildly.

4 Check items over thoroughly. Ask about prices before trying something on and never show any interest in the item.

5 You do not have to haggle. I hardly ever did and generally got what I wanted. I would say 25 is all I will pay. They say 100. I say 25, the trader follows with 65. Then I say "even 30 I will not pay, 25 or I don't want it anymore".

6 Often Chinese made items look great but are made with substitute materials, the rubber in shoes might not be thick enough, the cotton used to sew bags is not strong enough or glue is not very sticky. In my experience goods bought from a market do not last. For instance my second pair of shoes in 6 months has just fallen apart! Don't expect market goods to be good quality, haggle as though they are cheap rubbish. Paying 2 or 3 dollars for a pair of shoes and have them fall apart is not so bad. Paying $100 is embarrasing - yes I have heard people paying that much while wandering around the markets in Beijing. Haggle appropriately. Something else worth noting is that if you browse the posh department stores you will notice that the stores have lots of clothes made overseas sold there - Turkey, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia etc.

7 Postcards are often sold at tourists spots, they come in packs of 10. Prices range from 60 Yuan (almost AUS$10) per pack to 10 Yuan for 3 packs. Tell the seller that you bought 3 packs in Beijing for 10 Yuan. Alternatively, tell the seller that you only want 1 or 2 postcards, say you do not like the rest, it helps to bring the price down. It works.

8 Taxi drivers tell you all sorts of lies as well. I found Harbin to be the worst place but if you are armed with a map then their cries of "your hotel is too far/closed/not a good location/already full" can be easily rebuffed. Insist on using the meter (there are only a few rural areas where they really will not use it, everywhere else the drivers are bluffing you).

Get a Russian visa in Shanghai, simple

nomadnorrie — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:37:00 GMT

Really it was, you just have to know the rules and follow them.

Getting my Russian Visa

My second time in Shanghai. This time I wanted to get a visa from the Russian consulate just north of the Bund. And what a tremendous effort it was.

I got to the consulate on Monday morning and there were a few people already queuing at 8.15am. Doors open for lodging applications at 9.15am.
Before I went to the consulate I got my invitation at realrussia.co.uk for £15. I had that printed onto the best paper the local photocopying shop had and it really did look authentic.

Here are some handy details (as at April 2008):
* Lodging visa application times: Mon, Wed, Fri 9.15am - 12.15pm.
* Collecting visa times: Mon, Wed, Fri 2pm-2.30pm.
* Pay immediately after lodging your visa at a separate window in the same office, the clerk tells you how much. You will get a receipt that you need in order to obtain your passport after processing.
* Prices for UK passport holder:
398 Yuan 1 week processing.
1000 Yuan 3 day processing.
1600 Yuan 1 day processing.

* Take with you:
Copy of your passport main page.
Copy of your current Chinese visa.
1 passport photo, no glasses, hats etc.
Copy of insurance policy.
Visa support documents.
Copy of visa support documents.
* The office has brief visa lodgment forms in English which I filled in. Almost everyone else had already filled in their forms elsewhere.
All of the instructions are printed outside the consulate in English.

I had everything I needed it turned out but it was one of the most nerve racking things I have done in ages. It's just a flamin visa I know but still. Two guys in front of me were both in a mess; neither had invitations. The Spanish guy was particularly buggered because although his travel plans were more legitimate than mine (he had travel tickets), he had no idea how things worked. Then I was served by a clerk who said nothing except do you have a photo. For me that was it, I relaxed.

The Spaniard was told to go away and find a company to sort him out with an invitation.

The Dutch guy lodged a 3 day transit visa application (no invitation needed I think) The Dutch guy didn't make it clear at first that he wanted a transit visa and he was nearly turned away.

When I returned to the consulate to collect my visa everything was fine and I was issued with the full 1 month visa that I had asked for. Again there were two people with issues - 1 German guy didn't pay for his visa when he lodged his application so it wasn't processed. He was told to come back when the applications desk was next open to pay. Another guy was trying to lodge his application which obviously didn't work.

On each occasion there were only a dozen or so people lodging or collecting so the short opening times didn't matter.

In Shanghai, while waiting for my visa

I had what was likely to be one of my last experiences of Chinese bureaucracy when I changed some money at the Bank of China. I remember doing the same thing in Hong Kong and at that time thought nothing of it. Indeed if it were not for the teller queue I would have been in and out in a flash. At the same bank in Shanghai however things were different. I filled out two forms, one in triplicate and watched the teller stamp all four sheets. Then the paper was passed about as different people looked at the sheets just completed. My passport was registered on their system as well as the phone number of the last hostel I was staying at (should have been my phone number). In China I have been signing my name as abc when checking into hotels. Up to now this had not caused me any problems. On this occasion I was mad enough to sign both slips differently and was caught out! Sort of caught out anyway. I signed abc and abcblogs, obviously different but not my real name. abcblogs was acceptable.

I could have bought one of these on the Bund.

Instead I sat and watched this policeman chase hawkers off the Bund strip. The policeman clearly didn't want to catch them, it was quite comical.

I had met up with Josianne again in Shanghai and we went shopping most of the weekend. We spent something like 3 hours looking for clothes on the first day but Josianne didn't buy anything. I bought a sweater from the first men's shop that we went into. After that we had a delicious vegetarian meal that evening at a place in the French district (Vegetarian Lifestyle, 77 Song Shan Rd) - horse chestnut, veggie eel (vegetables wrapped in seaweed) with Chinese dates. Pricier than my meals normally cost but it was still cheaper than a meal out in Sydney, we were stuffed. Average price for a dish there 25 Yuan.

Once Josianne had left for London I did some more shopping on my own along East Nanjing road. I'd been along this road before and I was tempted to go to the market that the hawkers talked about; as you walk along every 20 meters someone says "Watch, Bag, DVD, Shoes". I started talking to one of them and they showed me the way to their 'market'. Initially these 'markets' just look like small shops but there are secret hidden doors in the walls that lead to the real fake stuff. I say real fake stuff because along the high streets in China you'll find shops that are blantantly a copy of western brands but they have a slightly different name - in Chinese eyes they are not fakes, they just look similar to a western brand. There are others like the Lacoste-like brand on East Nanjing road in Shanghai but here is my favorite:

Adidas in Beijing
Adidas crossed with Nike

Behind the secret doors (which are normally locked behind you as you enter) are the real western brand copies. Nike, Converse, Puma, Reebok, they are all there and at a fraction of the price of normal western high streets (if you can haggle that is). Stupidly, the starting price seemed to be about the same as one would expect to pay in the west. I didn't buy anything but I am glad I had a look. The traders do a good job of looking shocked when haggling and the usual phrases come out - "I buy for less than that", "Not possible to sell at that price in Shanghai".

With a few days to go before I could collect my visa I went on a mission to buy my train ticket to Beijing. After buying a soft seat ticket on the overnight service I sat in the square and started chatting to a few guys hanging around. The conversation was quite normal until one of the guys asked me if I think China will "hit" Taiwan soon! Surprised I resorted to body language to make sure I had understood correctly, I said "China" then threw a feeble punch in the air followed by "Taiwan" and they all replied "dui" (correct)!!!

In the square the other side of the train station I saw a crowd moving around like a class of 10 year olds playing football. Like lots of other people there I stood and watched to see what was going on. In the middle of the crowd was a woman who's nose was bleeding. There was a guy there who was desperate to get her attention but when he got near her she shook. The mob kept saying things like "hit" and telling him to leave so it seemed to me he had smacked her. He didn't give in and kept getting close to her, putting his arm around her and walking with her. In between wiping her bloody nose on her sleeve the poor woman was crying. Then I heard the guy asking her what she wanted to eat and shortly after that he punched her right in the face. Having spent almost 6 months in China I have never seen anything like it. The woman was taken into a restaurant and sat down out of the way, a few moments later the skinny guy that punched her ran off.

This time in Shanghai I noticed that there are an awful lot of tramps/beggars about; a wrinkled old woman eating leftover food in an open air side street cafe; deaf people selling tissues; deformed/burnt people begging in the underpasses. An old woman in particular made me feel very sad. After watching her collect all of the leftover food, placing it into her bowl and going away to eat it I handed her all of my change.

During the week long wait for my visa I had found a couple of restaurants near to where I was staying that serve delicious noodles for 8 Yuan a bowl. On my last evening I sat down to enjoy some and had (hand made) noodle soup. Since I had picked a dish that normally has meat in I asked for extra broccoli instead of meat. OK said the waiter (or rather young kid). Confusingly I didn't get any Broccoli. After asking why my dish had no Broccoli in I was told "today we have no broccoli"!

I left Shanghai on a day when the sun was shining and the pollution was the worst I had seen it there.

Huangshan and Hangzhou

nomadnorrie — Tue, 1 Apr 2008 13:03:00 GMT

I was finally returning to the east of China and preparing for my exit. There were just two last stops that I wanted to make before Shanghai - Huangshan (Yellow mountain) and Hangzhou.

Huangshan

I arrived in Huangshan and settled in to relax and plan the trip to the mountain. It had been raining for days and the weather report for the following two days was clear and sunny, perfect timing.

That evening my laptop hard drive, which I was using to store all of my photos, stopped working. I spent a couple of hours trying to start the computer and finally I got a result. The hard disk went from making the noise of a rotating buckled bicycle tyre to being totally quiet. I quickly burnt all of my photos to DVDs and cursed myself for being so stupid.

The following morning I had an early rise to start climbing Huangshan. I'd decided to climb the western steps and after about 1 hour I was totally knackered. There was another 2 hours of constantly going up steps and then several hours of going up and down steps. On my way up a woman suggested that we live together I think by pointing with the first finger on each hand and slamming her hands together. A passer by took our photo and she then gave me her address and phone number. I had to gave her mine because she insisted so much. I wasn't let off the hook that easily though, the guy that took the photo wanted a picture taken with me and each of his friends did too!

At the top the views were really quite something.

Couples climb the mountain and place padlocks on the fences as a sign of their love, I don't know what happens if they get divorced.

Some sections on the way up were a bit congested.

I carried on until lunchtime and started searching for a place to stay so that I could enjoy sunset and sunrise. That was when I bumped into a couple of guys from the hostel in town (one of them carries a soft toy lion around with a stool and cushion - http://www.montgomeryjlion.com). They were staying at the place the youth hostel in town had booked for them. That was where I started. The receptionist told me in a stern voice with her best I am not fibbing face on that it is not possible to get a dormitory bed for 120 Yuan. She wanted 240 Yuan, knowing she was lying I retreated and looked elsewhere. I bumped into a Chinese guy who told me there are dormitory beds for 80 Yuan at Xihai hotel. I also came across the Guan ming hotel (the one with the giant football on top). This place has a wonderful view of the surrounding peaks from the corridor, on the downside the corridor is lined with bunk beds and people were lying on them smoking. Not so pleasant then.

They had dormitory beds there for 70 but there were 20 people in one room. With that many people in one room you start to wonder how many people will be snoring instead of if there will be a snorer. I chose to take the Xihai hotel bed as it looked cleaner but it also had 20 people or so in one room. There were three snorers, one of them too close for me to sleep well.

I was woken in the morning at 5am by someone who started smoking. So I got up and headed towards the peaks in the direction of the sunrise. I just relaxed on the edge of a ledge and watched, with a hundred or so others, as the sun rose. It was delightful.

I had spent most of the previous day walking with the two guys that I met at the youth hostel in town. Late in the morning I bumped into them again and we walked together towards the marvelous Fairytale bridge. It was isolated with excellent views and total peace and quiet.

When we finally finished coming down we were all talking about sore thigh or calf muscles. It took me a couple of days to recover. I felt sorry for the Irish/American guy carrying the lion, the lion, the stool and the cushion were huge.

The morning I wanted to leave Huangshan I was chased by an old man telling me he is 80 and that I should give him money. This guy was really fast, each time I tried to get around him he cut me off. That was when I heard bus ticket hawkers selling tickets to Hangzhou at a cheaper price than the bus station. I grabbed my things and stood by the road with the hawkers. The 80 year old man returned and started pinching me in the belly. So funny.

Hangzhou

My first morning in Hangzhou I got up early and wandered around west lake early to beat the crowds. Sadly, after spending so much time in relatively smog-free areas I was back in the thick of it. However, the morning sun created a pleasant silhouette of the boats on the lake and the flowers and trees makes the viewer feel calm and supreme and specialness.

My first evening in Hangzhou I discovered a beer which has a label that advertises "FREE FROM FORMALDEHYDE". I gladly took that one from the fridge (there was another type in the fridge from the same brand but presumably it has formaldehyde in it since there was no free from label).

I moved to a better place than the guidebook suggested. The place I found has very well kept cats and dogs and the atmosphere is relaxed. Sitting in Wushanyi hostel's very own Hangzhou garden while sipping a beer and listening to the birds sing was just marvelous.

While wandering around the lake a further time I found a couple walking around in their wedding gear with a photographer taking photos. I chased them like a lunatic for ages but could only get so close because of their entourage.

Also while wandering around the west lake I caught this woman's friend taking a photo of me but she obviously didn't want me to know. As I turned to face them she quickly moved the camera around pointing at a dustbin. I took the opportunity to take a photo of her while she helpfully assumed the standard Chinese pose - hang on to the object and/or show the victory sign.

I am in Shanghai now waiting for my Russian visa to be processed.

Gallery: Hangzhou

nomadnorrie — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:30:00 GMT

Gallery: Huangshan (Yellow mountian)

nomadnorrie — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:18:00 GMT

PIctures from my walking up and down the west steps

Gallery: Wuyuan in Jianxi Province

nomadnorrie — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:06:00 GMT

Taking in the Huizhou architechture in villages of Wuyuan county

Gallery: Guizhou villages

nomadnorrie — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:39:00 GMT

Gallery: Longsheng Rice Terraces

nomadnorrie — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:56:00 GMT

Gallery: Hong Kong

nomadnorrie — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:56:00 GMT

Huizhou architecture of Jiangxi

nomadnorrie — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:08:00 GMT

Jianxi - Wuyuan county

I hopped on a bus from Xijiang (1.5 hours), then another from Leishan (1 hour) then bought an overnight train ticket for that night from Kaili to Yingtan (3 hour wait, 17 hours on the train). At lunchtime I arrived in Yingtan and straight away bought a ticket to Jingdezhen (2.5 hours wait, 3 hours on the train). I missed the last bus to Wuyuan but got in a scammers bus to Qinghua instead (1.5 hours). On the bus I met a very pretty Chinese girl called Xiao Huan who was on holiday with her mother and friend from school. The four of us ended up staying in the same hotel that night. By the time I went to bed I fell straight asleep, that was 36 hours after I left Xijiang.

To my amazement, just before 6.30am in the morning the young Huan knocked on my door and told me they wanted to leave soon. On the bus we had talked about seeing the sights together but I had no idea it would start so early. I was dressed and ready in 10 minutes and we all went to see the nearby Caihong bridge.

A little later the four of us, with another 3 Chinese guys, chartered a mini-van for a day. Using the van to get to the nearby villages I reckon saved me a couple of days in time and a whole lot of cash.

The first stop was a village that I had never heard of (not in the Lonely Planet). It turned out to the best of the lot because of the architecture, location and lack of stalls selling tat to tourists. I think it was called Sixi. Had I not been touring with this young Chinese crowd I would certainly have missed out on the best village in the area.

While touring around in the bus I noticed that this area had an unusually large number of women labourers. Women working in the fields, on building sites and manning the food stalls. This crowd were very cheerful.

As the day went on I realised my Chinese was nowhere near good enough, if it were not for Xiao Huan I would have not been able to talk to the others in the group very easily. She payed me an enormous amount of respect and constantly asked me where we should go to make sure that I was happy.

We next went to Xiaolikeng but all found it to be too touristy. Funnily, I was the least to complain about the over exploitation of the villages. They had effectively become tourist centres with the architecture a mere sideline.

By the time we got to the last village, Xiaoqi, it had started to rain, that along with an overwhelming feeling of tiredness prevented me from really enjoying it. Actually the last two villages had far too many stalls aimed at tourists for my liking. That was almost the end of my tour of the villages of Wuyuan. It would have been had the hotels in Wuyuan not been booked out. I returned to Qinghua with the driver to find a room there. The others all found a place to stay in Wuyuan.

By an amazing coincidence, on my return to Wuyuan early the next morning, the lovely young Chinese girl Huan spotted me at the bus station. I was just buying my onward ticket and she bounded over all excited to say hello. They were also getting an onward bus so we quickly swapped email addresses and said goodbye.

Meeting the village people (of southern Guizhou)

nomadnorrie — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:47:00 GMT

Sanjiang

I arrived just before 2pm and found out that there were no more buses to Zhaoxing that day. I found a hotel in Sanjiang, dropped my bag off and headed straight for the nearby Chengyang wind and rain proof bridge. Since I only had an hour there I decided not to go in to the town (which cost 30 Yuan), instead I climbed the hill opposite the entrance gate and got a fabulous view of the village for free.

I also got to see some of the waterwheels that are used to flood the fields just above the river.

Zhaoxing

The bus to Zhaoxing was a bumpy 5 hour ride that started with sitting on the bus for 1 hour in the bus station for no apparent reason. The driver and conductor teased us with several mock departures but each time they started the engine, switched it off and then disappeared off into the station. The last time the station conductor came on board she wanted to check tickets. Rather than actually checking tickets she just asked "Who has not bought a ticket?" Amusingly there were 3 people who hadn't paid and they wouldn't own up. Five more minutes of asking (not ticket checking) and the ticket cheats were found. At last we were off, we didn't get far though. The petrol station 10 minutes down the road was clogged up with waiting trucks and motorcycles so we had to wait there for another half an hour. This is rural China.

Several people on the bus were sick on the way and the conductor went through a pile of plastic bags, including 4 for the woman sitting next to me. Each time she looked a bit better she leant over me and deposited the bright red plastic bag out of the window, as did the others. That would help to explain why the countryside is littered with red, green, orange, black and yellow plastic bags (on that one route alone there are 2 services each day each way, I reckon that makes up to 100 plastic bags chucked out of bus windows every day). This picture might show why.

On the way we passed through Diping where there was a busy market in the main street. The bus moved slowly through the market tooting the horn along the way. People all along the street were looking at me and quietly saying laowai, I must have heard it about 50 times in 5 minutes!

After arriving in Zhaoxing I walked through the quaint old town and took some photos. The children were mostly very sweet and the adults were also very cheerful indeed.

The next day it rained so I spent a lot of time indoors. The staff at the hotel I was staying at were so helpful and kind it was unbelievable, especially considering my room only cost 35 Yuan per night. Their smiles and kindness easily made up for the dreary weather. In the afternoon I got a further taste of the local warmth when I visited the nearby town called Jilun. I first trekked up through the rice fields following the path but soon ended up too high and far from where I wanted to go.

Unlike Longji rice terraces the paths here are not all paved with stone. The rain overnight and in the morning left the paths quite muddy so they were a touch slippery for such a clumsy oaf like me. In any case I kept on going, when I decided to go back down the terraces I found my way down this rather steep incline while being watched eagerly by the farmer below. Had I fallen I would have landed softly in his muddy rice field below.

Once I reached Jilun people were greeting me huge smiles. Several people were lugging manure up to the fields above the town and with some of them I had a delightful chat.

When I went back to Zhaoxing I passed several kids that were waiving my off, the shy ones hiding behind doors or windows. Very funny.

It seems despite this town being a bit difficult to get to the tourist shops have still sprung up here and there. It is nothing like as bad as Lijiang though. Instead of hassling me the shop owners quietly mouthed words to the effect of come in while waving me over. Their hard sell was a bit fluffy really. I was tempted to buy some bracelets that are apparently made of silver, I checked with the tourist office and the woman confirmed that there are many that are not real silver. "The slightly expensive ones are" she said, but the thought of being sold a cheap silver like bracelet for a real silver price put me off.

My only regret, the trees and flowers were just starting to bloom, in a few weeks the fields would be full of colour. I should have gone a couple of weeks later.

On the way to Congjiang

I waited all morning for a bus in Zhaoxing and finally gave up at lunchtime. I decided to walk since the fee for the 5km trip to the nearest biggish town was excessive. After walking 1km I managed to get a lift in a farmers 3 wheeled truck (5 Yuan, but I got 2 free oranges) and then waited in Luoxiang for the next bus to Congjiang. I started chatting to the girl next to me and before I knew it she ended up giving me a tour of the main street. Then we sat and talked with some of her friends until the bus was ready to go. When it was time for me to go we walked along the main street in front of the bus to collect my rucksack (stored at the girl's house). I hopped on the bus and thanked her and she came back with a large bag of oranges with her name and phone number scribbled on a piece of paper lying on top.

Luoxiang is the sort of place where the whole family stand at the side of the street to wave off their brother or sister getting on the bus. As we moved out of the town crowds of people were grouped together where only one or two were getting on the bus. I actually got a very good deal and felt sorry for some of the villagers getting on the bus. They all argued about the price and astonishingly some paid more than I did! I wasn't carrying any chickens, portable cookers or 20kg bags of oranges, perhaps that was why.

After a couple of hours on a very bumpy dirt/mud road we arrived in a dusty town called Congjiang.

Basha

Despite the loud claps of thunder and regular flashes of lightning on the evening of my arrival in Congjiang the weather the next day was OK. Basha lies on a hill above Congjiang about 10km away. I got there by hopping on the back of a motorcycle for 5 Yuan from where the road leads up the hill. The village has houses both side of the main road on the ridge and I went to the right - in the opposite direction of the main tourist highlights. The paved pathway to the lower end of the village was easy going but as soon as it ended I began to slip and slide all over the place. When I finally did slip over my fresh clean trousers got caked in a thick terracotta coloured mud. Getting up I could just about see the young girl laughing at me, so I smiled at her. For the rest of the day I had people pointing and laughing at the mud caked onto my trousers. Nonetheless I decided I still wanted to go further to get a closer look at the terraces at the bottom of the village.

Buildings in Basha are almost exclusively made of wood. The village has a medieval feel about it with it's broken fences, tree bark covered roofs, dirt paths and huge luomi (long grain rice, I think) drying racks.

Although not all of the local Miao people wear traditional style clothing, lots of them do.

The locals mostly took very little notice of me and some looked the other way as I passed. It was very very peaceful. On my way back up I met some kids and they then followed me up the hill to the main road. The kids were extremely interested in what they looked like in the photos and laughed a lot when I showed them. When I asked if I could take a photo one of them asked if I would send them the photos. Then the eldest boy put an address on pen and paper and later when I got back to Congjiang I got these photos printed for them.

Thinking I had got away with it I was asked to pay the entrance fee as I was leaving. I walked down the hill back to Congjiang in less than an hour.

Xijiang

After a 6 hours bus ride I made it to my connection point called Leishan. From there I still had a 1 and a half hour bus ride to Xijiang. On the second bus we stopped and people got out to do some shopping while I watched them on the bus. When we arrived I found a place to stay and wandered around briefly to get a feel for the place. Finally I could sit in the sun and have a cold beer.

The next morning I got up early to roam around more rice fields and headed up the hill. Xijiang didn't really capture my imagination in the way that the other villages had so far and I felt a bit let down. However, it was still a marvelous end to an excellent trip through some out of the way places in southern Guizhou province.

Getting lucky in the Longsheng Rice Terraces

nomadnorrie — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:13:00 GMT

Longsheng

The late afternoon in Longsheng was wasted really but Josianne and I found good, cheap food (stir fried rice noodles with oodles of vegetables) in the evening. Longsheng is not a pretty town so enough said really. We only came here for the nearby rice terraces amongst a group of small villages called Longji.

We faffed in the morning and, due to misty weather, were initially aiming for the nearby hot spring. That was at least until we found out that it costs almost 100 Yuan to get in (depending on who I asked). At the last minute we decided that the weather was clearing so we really should go to the rice terraces.

Longji Rice Terraces

We arrived by noon and allowed a local to lead us to her hotel (or hottell as it was on the board) to stay the night. Then, immediately we headed out for the views - viewpoints 1 and 2. The weather was very good, consequently we were both delighted with what we could see. We had got lucky.

We walked all afternoon slowly taking in the scale of the terraces. They really are spread over a huge area with some of the terraces no more than a foot wide. Most were dry, some were flooded and one was in the process of being flooded. It was extremely satisfying. Fortunately the paths were all covered in rocks or stone so they were not even slightly muddy.

We were hassled by some local Dong minority women who wanted us, for a fee, to take photos of the their hair when let down. The local Dong women have tremendously long hair, most of the time it is rolled up in a bun on their forehead. They worked very hard on us and it didn't help things too much when I started to talk to them in Chinese. It went on and on until I decided to pay them off with 12 Yuan. We took the photos and left them behind. Basically I paid them to comb their own hair!

The following day we walked to a village in between Dazhai and Ping'an where we found people playing music and making banners. The locals were preparing for a festival it seemed but it wasn't until later that we realised the festival was a funeral. Some of the locals told us that there was a death, they went on to say we could see the body and take photos for 20 Yuan. We declined. Later that day we saw lots of things going on related to the funeral. On our way back we saw a pig being carried from Ping'an, it was hung upside down from 2 bamboo poles and wasn't happy.

There was also the funeral procession with gongs, pipes and banners.

Throughout the day way we were constantly bothered by the local women with "take photo" (of the ladies' long hair) or "mi fan" (cooked rice). It was often quite hard to get rid of them; saying no thank you never worked, saying we don't want to occasionally worked and explaining that we'd just eaten sometimes worked. As soon as we'd passed one barrage of mi fan/take photo another group of women appeared!

When we were having dinner that night we met a French speaking (but not French) woman and she showed us a baby carrier that she had bought. It was such a good buy because the detail was far more intricate and elaborate than the items sold to tourists. "It's great because it has been used" she said, I mentioned that it would be nice to have one that a baby has already pooed in. Then I asked her if she would be attempting to steal a baby. In a serious manner she denied it, then went quiet and didn't speak to me again.

While having breakfast on the last day we realised just how lucky we were with the weather, by the time more tourists were arriving visibility had dropped to only 10 metres or so.

On arrival in Longsheng there was a panic because my onward bus to Sanjiang was about to leave. Buses are not too frequent between such small towns so I quickly had to collect our stored luggage from the bus station and then hop on my next bus. To add to the rush the woman whom stored our luggage for us tried to cheat me by asking for an extra 5 Yuan. I argued but she wouldn't give in. I knew she was a dodgy dealer after I pointed out that we'd stored luggage for 3 days not 4, as she said at first. Instead of accepting that she was wrong a new charge appeared that amazingly came to 5 Yuan - an overnight charge she said! Josianne and I just walked off and got on our buses.

In the Longji rice terraces I took an awful lot of photos.