long time no write i am afraid, i swear i have a good excuse this time, i was on the verge of writing an email when we made the decision to pop up to Chengdu (capital of Sichuan) for a week or so for a holiday and to try and organise a trip to Tibet (Chengdu is the "gateway" to Tibet). But on the morning we were to leave we found out (through a long story to do with changing chrissie's visa) that we could head off for a month solid instead of making multiple trips. A few hours of frantic packing and an afternoon of me administering and marking an exam (with help from the missus) we rocked up at the train station to head off on our grand adventure.
It was an overnight train trip to Chengdu so the sights were limited but what you could see was pretty amazing as we had to pass through a mountain range to get there. We arrived in the mid afternoon to what was the shittiest weather i have been in for a while. Me being used to Kunming where it is usually between 20-28 and no humidity, it was deadset over 35 degrees and humid as buggery. We proceeded to then find the bus station and i had my first encounter with the old sichuan accent (thank god he pointed aswell), i dont claim to be the worlds best speaker of the chinese but blimey i was in a world of hurt trying to understand what people were saying. We thought we had struck a buit of luck when the bus we had to catch to the hotel was airconditioned (double the price at 2 RMB (bout 30 cents) but well worth it) only to see the bus struggle to do a kilometer then break down and kick everyone off.
enter struggle street chinese part 2. Ever tried to hire a pedicab from a dude speaking sichuan hua to a street you dont know the name of in blistering heat with not much sleep backing you up? Lucky the place we were going to had a massive statue of Mao Zedong near it so after a while i just kept saying "Mao Zedong, hen da" (hen da = very big) and gesturing like a lunatic (much props to the C for not losing faith that i could get us there and that i hadnt cracked it, yet). we jumped in feeling sorry for the poor bugger that he had to carry about 180 kegs worth of foreigner and bag a fair way down the city. Bout 20 mins later he dropped us near a construction site we hoped had Mao inside getting a facelift and then whipped out the little lonely planet map to trudge our way to our new base of operations for a week and a half. Unfortunately when we got there half an hour later a little frazzled and tired our "base of operations" was full. Sigh. But not to dispair, his si
ster also had a youth hostel down the road, hello another pedicab. At this stage we would have settled for anyhting but were lucky enough to get an awesome room, AND clean public amenities, praise the lord!!!
hearing that there was a rooftop cafe with "cold beer" resulted in us dropping the bags, grabbing some cards and the lonely planet and heading upstairs. I have said it before, and ill say it again, when you are dehydrated nothing beats a cold beer, the woman who ran the cafe "Shi" even knew enough about foreigners to chuck them in the freezer for an hour or so before they were drunk, god i love that woman (no fear to the missus tho as Shi already had a husband and a few kids, dont ask me how that works with the "one child" policy, coulda been the relos kids)
The Great Train Tickets Saga
From the wonderful and ever resourceful Holly of Hollies Hostel (no i am not being sarcastic, aside from the tickets she was great) we learned that if you want to catch the train to Lhasa you give her a deposit photocopies yadda yadda and ten days later you have the tickets. we thought that was a good plan as it allowed us to explore around chengdu for over a week as we awaited tickets. To save giving chronological updates as we came back form each prospective trip, what eventually conspired was that because the railway was so recently opened there was a massive demand and all the agents had to go into a lottery to see who got the tickets, we were offered two tickets in two different cabins, in two different carriages (how romantic) but had to turn them down. But at least we know for next time and will hopefully be heading up there with Mum and Vanessa (fingers crossed) for xmas/new years.
But, it was still worth the wait to check out around chengdu, the first stop was the pandas, which i must say were rather cute, but smaller than i expected. Chrissie managed to take a video of one poor bugger of a panda that had distinct trouble getting out of his sleeping tree (only 18M long, let me know if you want me to email it :)). The other trips we did were out of Chengdu and all involved a mountain of some description. The first was the Taoist Qingcheng Shan (my fav) where we spent the night at a Taoist temple with this amazing 1800 year old ginko tree outside our window. it was supposedly planted by one big hoohaa priest back in the day, so i think it is pretty cool that you can trace the exact person (allegedly) who planted such an old tree. The monastary was about half way up the mountain so we dumped out bags there on the first day and spent the rest of the day climbing to the top, stairs most of the way and the view was pretty good with lots of rainforest an
d animals n stuff. Spent the night on the rather hard beds then made the shaky kneeed climb back down to the bus and chengdu once again. Also took in the sights of Dujiangyan on the way (big irrigation system on the Minhe river started two thousand years ago).
next little excursion was to the south west and Le Shan and Emei Shan. Le Shan being home of both the giant sitting buddha and lying one. Turned out to be a scorcher of a day and the buddha park of a thousand steps. Definately struggled a bit but it was very beautiful, with a helluva lot of buddhas carved out of the red stone of the mountain. When we got to the top of the mount found there was quite a queue to go down the staircase beside the sitting buddha and disvovered the delights of descending a narrow staircase in stinky heat being pushed from behind by very eager Chinese tourists. It makes you a bit cranky but the view was pretty cool. We were going to stay the night in the town but ended up catching a bus to Emei instead so we could have a little rest before hititng the slopes of the 3000 metre mountain.
Stayed the night in the Teddy Bear hostel, deadset, the owners head looked like a koala's, ears nose and everything. Chrissie was feeling under the weather so we spoiled ourselves with a nice room with a private bathroom and much to chrissies delight a massive stuffed teddy bear. with Emei shan you have the choice of a three/two/one day hike or bus and two hour hike, we took the last option becuse i think we were tired of seeing stairs going up, not to mention it was pissing down rain. It was pretty good once we got to the top, though you couldnt see much as the top was shrouded in cloud and mist, but it added to the atmosphere. But compared to Qingcheng it was kind of a downer as alot of the buildings were new and had not beeen finished with all that much care with heaps of overspray, but still nice nonetheless, we stayed in a hotel that had a beautiful vista of the mountain rainforest though and met a pair of nice french girls who we had dinner with. The way back down
we caught the cable car hoping for a nice view but we just ended up descending through fog and mist for half an hour with the occasional spooky forest, but it was cool in its own way.
this email is starting to get a wee bit long so i will stop it here and continue with our adventure into far western Sichuan.
oh btw, for the month before all the travelling was just doing uni and exams (passed all) and the arrival of Chrissie from Oz. its been great having her here and she will be staying until Jan next year and doing a bit of chinese study herself (will probably eclipse my own as she is a pretty studious little rabbit)
love to all
mark (and chrissie)
p.s. had my first pang of missing friends and fam the other day, but i am almost 6 months down, six to go
p.p.s. as i was attatching the photos i found it is really hard to squeeze 2 weeks into ten photos or less so i will porb post a few online sometime soon, sorry for the number but it was hard enough to get to that few a number anyways
p.p.p.s. if you dont know already i got given a turtle for my bday, named him des, short for desperate as he was determined to escape his small tank, he now has new one ans is very happy, even does weird turtle yoga (maybe taichi) every day, go figure
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gday everyone
This is the first email from China and i am not quite sure what iam going to write. I was going to put all this sort of stuff on a website but that might take a while and family may be thirsting for blood if i take any longer to send news.
It started with a plane flight leaving from sydney a couple of weeks ago on the tuesday, with the promise of a Gin & Tonic-a-thon to help pass the time we excitedly boarded the plane. After we had settled in and were fed dinner (along with beverages) and i had knocked two G&T's into my crutch (through clumsiness alone) and smelt like a lemony alchoholic. About 12am after an hour or so of in-flight trivia i think we all realised we were actually quite buggered and found a comfy 3 or 4 (sorry andrea) chairs to sleep on. No sooner had we got settled in than at 1:30 in the morning they woke us up for an "early" breakfast of goodness-knows-what and fruit, contrary to the Girlfriend's advice i ate the fruit and politely ignored the rest and still felt bloated. Bugger all sleep and a dead arm (and another breakfast) later we flew into Kuching (malaysia) and spent an hour in the airport there wondering what the hell we were doing, then onto Kuala Lumpur for another few hours of
stopover. The last flight finally came (with brunch) some hardy souls having had a few G&T's to celebrate the end of the flight, we touched down into Kunming and 4 degrees (equals bloody cold when you are wearing crocs, shorts and two t-shirts). On the bus from the aircraft to the terminal spotted the poor bugger who had to stand out in the cold "gaurding" the airport next to his little striped cubby [*Photo1*]
Sleepy-eyed and knackered we were met by Kevin from the Chinese Club at YNU and were taken to the student dorms and given an hour or two to rest. For the rest of the day being a tired blur Kevin helped us with the neccessities like bank stuff and uni paperwork, including the language test conveniently scheduled a few hours after we flew in, to say the least, mine was not that startling and my chinese teachers back home would be sighing very deeply.
over the following few days had the chance to have a look and taste around kunming, were taken to the best dumpling place ever and all came out rather full considering we had only payed about 3 Yuan each (50cents).
cool places to see in kunming
* any market be it wet (stuff that was once walking/swimming/flying) or not. Such a caccophony of noise and smells and sights has to be seen to be belived. Saw an old lady pick up an eel out of a tub spike it and strip its skin off (sorry if it is a little gross) in the one quick movement. I am just glad i am half a foot taller than the average chinese so i can get some fresh air and look around (not so good when you consider the umbrellas come out in both the rain and sun)
* green lake, very beautiful lake in the middle of kunming that is very green, pongs a bit but has the most amazing vibe. [this is the time of year the cherry blossoms are awesome *Photo2*]We started at the end where people were feeding the oodles of seagulls whirling about in a wheel at the edge, catching the bread on the full. For some fun you could play chicken by leaning over the edge and sticking your head in the whirling mass with your eyes open, you wouldn't get hit but bloody hell they were close. Also at green lake were groups of people doing random stuff, there was the expected Tai Chi, but in addition were groups of (mainly women) dancing along to music screeched out of little casstte players. Rach and Matilda gave it a bash much to the delight of the locals. The sight of Nick performing a massage on Andrea also drew a crowd to see the little master strut his stuff. One of the best things was to see this rather dishevelled guy play the most beautiful and haun
ting music on the instument which i cant remember the name of (little barrel at the bottom and a stick going up with just the one string, there is a guy who plays one at one of the entrance's of town hall) it was such a haunting beautiful music. I hope to see him again one day and have time to sit down for a half hour or so, decipher his sign and relax and enjoy it a bit more. note: the dude in the photo with the contraption on his chest was flying a kite, it was deadset just a speck in the sky [*Photo3*]
* western hills is an absolutely amazing place but sometimes gettig there is half the fun as was discovered by Andrea, Matilda and myself. The whole group walked about an hour and a half {along the way was this cool bridge *Photo 8*] to one end of Dianshi Lake (massive lake) but alas we were on the wrong side. Bree, Stefan, Rachel and James jumped in a cab. Those who could not fit in and who were brave of heart and wanted to use more down to earth means caught a bus that had stopped just beside them, getting off just after "South Park". After getting off and paying to go into the park we discovered we had enterd the wrong one but thought we would make the best of the situation. We ended up havign a bit of a chinwag with some old dudes who told us we could catch a boat (chuan) accross the lake to the base of the cable car which would then take us to the top of the mountains.
It is worth pausing in this story now to say that at this park i had my first introduction ot a Chinese toilet (a wide slot at ground level for those not in the know) and thought i had aquitted myself quite well at this public pit toilet thinking it was not too bad an experience. Only to find out i had the easy ride being on the windward side, the girls side, alas, was not, my heart went out to you Andrea.
After having a squiz around the park (worth going to in its own right) we set off and found (a few blank looks and puzzled expressions on both sides) that we had to catch a small boat to where the speedboats were stationed, who could then take us to the base of the cable car. Having caught plenty of boats and seen alot more close up seagull action (who knows, i might be able to set a movie section of the website if it gets running) we reached the base of the cable car, forked out some mroe hard currency and made our way sedately and beautifully to half way up the mountain. Yet another cool chairlift up the moutain and we made it to the entrance of the park. It is at this point we met our travelling companions who, having paid about 6yuan each for the taxi to the base of the cable car ahd been waiting about an hour or so for us to appear, sorry guys. We then spent the next two hours descending the mountain via a network of paths and tunnels and caves that had been tunnell
ed for 400 years by hand from the 1500's, some of it was simply breathtaking [*photo4* is the path along the side of the cliff (sheer drop) *Photo5* shows the cool carvings that were one all the staircases (all the panels were different) *photo6* is above Pheonix Gate *photo7* is a bridge that was built by hand in a very precariuos position a few hundred years ago, they give you the mirror so you can check it out without leaning over the ledge *markjames.jpg* is just a couple of handsome devils at the top of the mountain who have nothing else to do except look good :P]. After leaving the bottom of the park (same height as the top of the cable car) we walked through the ubiquitous market and on to the top of the cable car wher we were offered a bus to the centre of Kunming for 5 Yuan, we had return tickets but bugger it we were tired and sunburnt. We found out that the centre of Kunming equals about a 3/4 hour walk back to uni (why didnt u catch a taxi u fool) we got back ho
me and had dinner and a well earned rest, so ends the saga of western hills.
since all that we have started schooling which is really intense and hard work, if i only did more hwk, moved out of the foreign students dorm into a flat with a chinese lady, her bf and a german, got a stomach bug which everyone except Rachel has had yet and am slowly settling in.
i have just read through the behemoth of an email i just sent and cant really believe it, apologies to those who prefer a more Chatwinesque or Gao Xingjian style travelouge but facting, listing, too much detail i think is the only way my brain will work.
mingled amongst all these adventures were days of bludging (the rest i had to have, or so i kept telling myself) and watching some very cheap chinese knock off DVD's (i luurve you David Attenborough, especially when u cost $1 a dvd) on a massive Panetohic (not a typo) TV, god i love being in one of the countries that invented Chinglish, there are wonderful suprises around every corner.
have a good one
love
mark
p.s. i have never seen so many toothpaste commercials in my life
p.p.s. special love to chrissye who is putting up very well with having her chap in another country
p.p.s. extra love to all the friends and family who maybe felt they needed a mention cos they weren't gettign enough of the love :)
HSS International
Hey everyone
It has definitely been too long since I have written one of these massive group emails, be prepared for excuses though, as I am a bit late having to come to terms with a two week idyllic holiday in Thailand and the past week of exams (finished yesterday thank god). Now that is out of the way lets continue with the story where I left off last time….
Actually I cant bloody remember so stuff trying to do it in something resembling a timeline so may aswell go with topics starting with the biggy, the Chinese language itself. I have made a marked improvement in the language though I must admit my speaking and listening is pretty rubbish, reading isn’t that bad. I can now proudly say I probably I wouldn’t die of left to my own devices, luckily I can navigate life mostly by using zhige or nage meaning ‘this’ and ‘that’ respectively. I did meet my match when attempting to buy bandaids at the local chemist. I came upon much puzzlement as I tried to explain what one if the elusive little bits of padding and tape did, along with some sound effects you would surprised that I would be making in polite company. After amusing those in the store and some random passer-bys for about 5 mins something clicked and I am now the proud owner of 100 “Yunnan (local state) baiyao ‘white medicine [I think]’ Woundplast”. A bit bodgy but they d
o the job required. I must say though that as my proficiency in Chinese creeps upward it is mirrored in the downfall of the mastery of my mother tongue. Before I came to china I would often spout spoonerisms or forget the word, now I forget sentences or structure them completely the wrong way round, I take this as a good sign tho.
Next on the list is the recent trip to the tropical isle of Kho Tao. Not a bad little spot with good food, booze (beware the bucket) and beautiful women (if I thought they were a woman I classed them as such)[ note to the missus: I am only saying that on a whole Thai women are very pretty but I think you are streaks ahead of them in the looks department o foxy one]. It was definately a shock I must say when Stef (my Oz travelling companion) and I stepped out of the air conditioned safety of the Bangkok International Airport and into one of the most stiflingly hot and noisy cities I have ever been to (not that there are many). Our Thai friend told the driver that we needed to get to the central railway station quickly because we had to catch a train (in real life 7 hours away) in what we thought was quite a smart ploy to avoid going to any shops that sold suits or getting the run-around. Unfortunately the driver took this very seriously and decided that we needed to hare
down the upper level tollway averaging about 160 klicks an hour. This was not the most death defying journey in Thailand though as I also had the priviledge of being doubled on modes of transport driven by Stefan on Kho Tao eg Four Wheels of Death aka quad bike, or Two Wheels of Death (Scooter). I was very proud of the fact I could a) relax enough not to freak out going around corners, and b) hold onto a man so tight going up mountains via disgraceful dirt roads that I am sure I heard his ribs creak (only fell off once).
But, back to Bangkok we lockered the bags at the railway station, ate lunch (mine being the first of about 15 pad thai’s) then went off to walk around the streets to kill the 5 or so hours. After half an hour I greatly regretted my ensemble of jeans that could barely be held up and a rather thick shirt, stef and myself were struggling to say the least. We decided to make for a shopping centre where I could hopefully get my hands on some new joggers (though small side trip to buy a belt was a godsend). An hour and a half later having sworn we had seen the same beating hot piece of pavement at least 3 times our two heroic travellers struggled into central shopping plaza. One would not be surprised that we were given a few stares (clothing soaked with 60 litres of sweat and me with jeans rolled up my knees and belted at the belly button [yes they were that high cos it was so damn hot]). It did not take us long to decide that spending the midday hours in the confines of an
air conditioned bookshop would do us no harm, me with a book and stef to have little snooze. Post our refreshing break, with only time for me to laugh at stef being in great pain waking up with two dead legs (wish I had taken a video not just a photo) we decided to go to Kho San Rd (the foreigner st) to check things out, see what we could buy and grab a bite to eat. This involved a bit of walking and when we saw a line up of Tuk Tuks took the bull by the horns and decided to catch one. We rejected the first guy because he wanted to take us to a place that sold suits “just for a look” because they would give him a tank of petrol, proceeding on to the next driver, paying the premium of 30 baht on top of what the other guy offered so we did have to bother with the side trip. My god, never again, I must admit I have never overtaken a turning bus on a roundabout on what felt like two wheels before, I wish I had taken a video of the trip so I could have a copy of what would be
my personal equivalent to that dude who drove a Ferarri ridiculously fast through the streets of Paris. It wasn’t til after we crossed a river that I smelt a rat (the river being on the way to the suit shop, not our destination), a rather heavily polite conversation and looks from a driver oh so surprised that not we weren’t subliminally wanting to go the suit shop, that he turned around and took us back.
The road was pretty impressive, I have never seen so many neon signs in my life but it was the place of two great bargains, pair of “birkenstock” sandals and an over the shoulder bag. Unfortunately this was also the scene where Stef bought the bumbag, which even though there were plenty of old bastard jokes from me, he actually wore it consistently, it also unfortunately didn’t look as stupid on him as I had secretly hoped. This was also where we bought what was some of the best tasting Thai food and beer ever, it could have been the exhaustion or the dehydration but damn it tasted good. After that it was a somewhat more comfortable walk back to the train station at 5:30 in the arvo even though it was still humid and bloody hot (as compared to Kunming where we are living which is about 20-25 degrees with no moisture in the air). Rather uneventful overnight train from Bangkok to Chumphorn then more waiting, bus trip then onto a boat to take us to the island. Very impress
ed with that part of the trip as it first went through the mouth of a river that was obviously a major fishing port, managed to see heaps of brightly painted fish and squid boats.
Once we had arrived at our accommodation it took us all of 5 mins to put on the bathing trunks and give that sweet sweet water a go. It took one minute to realise that tropical islands are ringed by bloody sharp coral once you are in 2 feet of water or more, consider it a lesson learnt. The next day we gave scuba diving a bash at Mango Bay and I was glad that I quickly slipped back into the groove of diving (also glad that the wetsuits were long enough in the torso not to give me struggles in the man department like the ones at Coffs Harbour) this was followed by an hour or so of snorkelling where we discovered how cool and friendly some of the local fish were. This pattern was repeated over the next week as Stef did his Advanced Open Water and I did about 7 or so fun dives. We were unfortunate enough to be there during the ‘Golden Fortnight’ of a 1001 Japanese divers who through sheer weight of numbers dictated the diving itineraries and we just tagged along, damn coinc
iding Asiatic holidays. I must sat that for a ‘haven’ of scuba diving Kho Tao was nice, but not amazing, I think that this may be caused by a relative thing in that I started in PNG, Stef at the Great Barrier Reef, which were both amazing. I also get the feeling we arrived 5 years too late as the island and the sites were definitely showing signs of wear and tear. If you wanted to snorkel off the main beach pretty much all the coral was dead because of the long tail bots stirring up the sand, and according to the instructors a lot of the bigger fish had moved away because of the sheer weight of numbers of people arriving. I am not knocking the place though, as most of the people were great and the good tasty and cheap. Also managed to watch a Swans, Waratahs and Anzac RL test, surely my only ones for this year, the Tahs unfortunately letting down the trifecta.
The last few days we spent at a different place that was on the other side of the island (via horrifying later uncomfortable trip on the quad bike and 4WD). Definitely a great place to get away and unwind and I spent most of it reading books with a little time for snorkelling and eating. Journey back to China wasn’t particularly exciting except for the awesome chicken I ate in Chumphorn and the horrifying muck that china east airlines claims is food.
Came home just in time for exams, yay, be still my beating heart. True to form I had taken my books with the intention of study but as a result of cheap beer and good movies cranked out about 2 hours of study in two weeks. It is now post exams and I haven’t failed any so that’s good and now just looking forward to that elusive early night/sleep in combination, though tonight I do have the temptation of watching what Nick calls the worst movie of all time “starship troopers II” The great thing about chinese DVD’s is that they often cut and paste critic’s reviews that were not on the original movie case, into the space that would normally be reserved for shameless spruiking of a crap movie, I know it is painful but according to Gareth J. Von Kallenbach (what a name) the movie “while it is a letdown from of the limited budget” was too much of a hook for me not to let the opportunity to purchase this gem slip me by.
I am sure more has happened to me in the past month and a half but I promise I will write again soon and hopefully not the essay length that these things always tend to be.
By the way the attached photos are as follows
1: Bangkok market food
2: Bizarre teddy bear rice at Kho San Rd (Chang Beer is oh so good, 6.5% and some say is spiced up with something akin to what goes in the local Red Bull)
3: fishing boats
4: one of the places we could go scuba diving, coral mostly dead but came upon a massive pack of baitfish huddled between rocks and spent half an hour diving into them and watching them swarm around each of us)
5: my travelling companion and friend workin hard
6: cool view from a mountain next to one of the places we stayed at
7: our bungalow can be seen top right
8: ah the satorial splendor that is myself with sea hair, a beard, no moustache and scuba kit
Mark
