After a long convoluted booking process, us and the bikes managed to get onto a Chinese cruise ship up the Yangtze River. This was a 4 day exercise in not understanding what was going on. We started out with an extremely gray bus ride (our own private van so we could take the bikes) to an unknown destination to catch the boat. Turned out this destination was past the Three Gorges Dam, so we missed seeing that, which was one of the main points of the trip...
The next day we were herded onto a smaller boat, off to see something but we were of course unsure exactly what. It was a trip to experience the local "boat trackers" who used to pull ships up the river by hand against the current. This involved yet a smaller boat, and a lot of explaining of what was going on in Chinese. Mercifully our guide's megaphone ran out of batteries. At one point there was a group sing along.
After returning to the cruise ship we headed into the gorges proper. Massive cliffs towered over the river with rocks jutting about at odd angles, reaching up to 900m peaks above us. One rock was said to look like Chairman Mao. These gorges appear on the 10 Yuan note so there was much photo taking holding up a note. There was also a Chinese celeb of some sort on board (we named him "Square Jaw") so there was all sorts of swooning and grappling for group photos with him as well. We too were the subject of many photos - as soon as one of them plucks up the courage to ask, the dam bursts and we are mobbed.
There was a museum along the way, showcasing one of the towns that was covered by the rising waters behind the dam. We got a private tour from the curator, who quit his job three years beforehand to chronicle the event and save as many of the local artifacts as possible. It was obviously a pretty heart-wrenching experience for the townsfolk to be forcibly moved on and their town demolished before being innundated. Something like 1.5 million people have been forced out of their homes' to make way for the dam. No idea what help they got to find somewhere to go.
After this the trip was pretty boring, through gray concrete towns and factories, before an unceremonious wake-up knock at 6.30 am to evict us from the ship in Chongqing. This place has the worlds largest public toilet but in all the excitement (excrement?) we forgot and missed it. It was a massive town, something like 30 million in the area, with not much to attract us so we headed to the bus station to make our way to Chengdu. The ride between promised 4 days of pollution and muddy wet roads, and as my health was still far from 100% a bus was an attractive option. Despite the attraction there was much spitting on the floor, smoking, and someone stopping to take a dump on the side of the road in full view of the bus so we were very glad to disembark.
We're staying in a great guest house which fully caters to tourists - this means English speaking staff, a great restaurant, no smoking in the rooms, DVD's for hire, a book exchange, other travellers etc. It's very nice to be here and very relaxing. We spent a day wandering through town, stocked up on some English books, saw a large Chairman Mao statue, visited a park, and had some tea at a tea house.
Yesterday we spent half a day visiting the Panda Reserach Centre and ooohing and aaahing over the baby pandas. Really the best way to describe pandas is cute, incredibly cute. However evolution has it in for them in a big way and I'm not surprised they are so endangered. When they're born the first-time mother is usually pretty shocked with this ugly screeching underdeveloped thing that's shot out of her (literally shot, we saw a movie) and will often kill it. If she has twins, the chances of her looking after both are slim to none, so only one survives. This is if she gets pregnant at all - pandas are only receptive to sex 1-2days of the year and finding a mate is hard as they are fussy rooters and live far apart from each other so often can't even find each other. In addition the males penis is short and the females vagina long. Not to mention working up the energy to copulate. Pandas need to eat up to 16 hours of the day, because bamboo is the food of choice. Bamboo doesn't provide much energy and the panda can only extract 2% of the energy available. Bamboo has a nasty habit of flowering before completely dying out every 25 years or so, leaving the pandas no living habitat, so they starve to death. Luckily for them they are adorable and a valuable political commodity so a lot of effort is going into saving them from themselves.
It's hard to tear ourselves away from this guesthouse where we can speak in English and people understand us, but we're going to spend the next 5 days making our way to a town called Songpan up towards the Tibetian plateau to do some horse trekking. Then back on the bikes (after 3weeks off, eek!) and onward to Beijing!
We've got some more photos for you:
http://picasaweb.google.com/steelbaker/CentralChina
Until next time, C&D
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
"This town is not for foren-jers"
Hello
Its been an eventful couple of weeks since the last update. Just when China was seeming O so easy, it proved to have a few tricks awaiting us.
We left Yangshou for Guilin, which was a massive city of neon and packed to the gills with Chinese tourists. From there we were quickly into the countryside enroute to the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces (I'm just going to go ahead and call these the most famous rice terraces in the world). After a big day ending up a steep 6km hill we came to Ping'An, a 600 year old Miao village perched on the mountain tops. This place is all about rice. The hills are huge and every inch is carved out into flat terraces so they can be flooded to grow the rice. The terraces flow on as far as you can see and must have taken the majority of those 600 years to build it seems. The village is really cool too, with wooden houses and their tiled rooves interconnected by a labyrinth of stone paths.
After tearing ourselves away from this place we headed north onto the worst road yet encountered. 50km of 'roadworks' but sort of an 8-year-old kid style road works where everything has been ripped apart very successfully and nothing put back together. We ran the full gammut of dust, mud, rock, 45degree dirt slopes... The town at the end of it all was a very welcome sight. Welcome for about 45 minutes until the police turned up.
This was our first raid, and consisted of two cops and an interpreter. Apparently the town was 'special' and not open to foreigners. We would have to leave. Where would we go on our bikes at 5pm? OK, you can stay the night but are not to leave the hotel room. What about dinner? OK, you can go to a restaurant. This went on for a while, our passports were taken away for further scrutiny, we were thumb printed, and finally given the ok to wander around town. Apparently we could bike to the next town "no problem" and the police there would be rung so as to be forewarned of our imminent arrival.
No problem eh? After a very unmemorable ride the next day we rode into town only to start one of the more memorable parts of the journey. Raid number 2 was three police and an interpreter - who was majoring in Japanese not English. Luckily we knew the score from the day before. However negotiations here were not quite as fruitful and it soon became apparent that our claims of poor us, biking in the dark, etc etc were not going to work. These ones had heard of buses, so decided we could get one of those. This resulted in a police escort through town on our bikes, and further police assistance in purchasing bus tickets (no queueing required), saving us a seat amid the scrum while I tied bikes on the roof, and a cheery wave as we were successfully run out of town. Our bus ride took 4 hours for 130km and we arrived to a freezing cold night, only to be turned away from a hotel, I think for being too dirty.
On to greener pastures. Back in the land of openness, we hit a small town called Fenghuang. This town is Chinese to the core, just as you may imagine China should be. Tiny cobbled alleys, red lanterns, a guesthouse overlooking a pretty river, old city walls, pagodas etc. It was packed with Chinese tourists (so that means KTV karaoke) and certainly dolled up for visitors but a fantastic place all the same. Spent an atmospheric evening wandering the streets and along the ramparts.
Next day was Dehang, a tiny village in yet another karst peak area. This place was well off the beaten track, at least at this time of year. No English in the entire town (we probably talked to all of them) and it took about an hour and a half to find somewhere to stay as there was no one around. Cows wandered the alleys (Claud found a cowpat in the dark that we had watched being made earlier), and we saw both our first stars and snow in Asia. Was extremely quiet, no KTV, no honking and very peaceful.
We were charging along at this stage, having easily clocked up our first 1000km in China, and passed 5250km overall. But then it came unstuck, the dream died. I (D) got sick yet again. This was the 3rd time in a week and about the millionth time it feels like on the trip. Was a nasty chest infection that had me bed ridden for 2 days of sweating myself to a state of near drowning, and unable to walk to the supermarket let alone bike 100km a day.
So public transport has been employed to varying degrees of success. To go north, we first had to go south. Then a train north that took a whole afternoon of bargaining at a train station that seemed to have no useful destinations at all. So we had to overshoot our intended town, stay another night and get a bus south again. All of this with no English, and me struggling to walk the length of the platform with a coughing seizure. But finally we have made it to Yichang on the Yangtze and holed up in a nice hotel (have not been pushing the limits of slumminess in China) to plot our next move.
Despite the odd issue we have been repeatedly surprised at the helpfulness of the Chinese who often go well above the call to sort us out. Generally if we turn up looking lost, someone will come over and take us under their wing. This took a bit of getting used to after Vietnam where such good natured help was non-existent and we found it hard to believe people actually wanted to be nice to us, but they do!
Blogspot is actually blocked in China but we have found a way around this. Unfortunately it means we cannot update our photos on this site as we could before but we can still put them up on the other site we were using. There are heaps of new photos up so here is a link (you might have to copy and paste it): http://picasaweb.google.com/steelbaker/SouthernChinaAndHongKong
Till next time
D & C
Its been an eventful couple of weeks since the last update. Just when China was seeming O so easy, it proved to have a few tricks awaiting us.
We left Yangshou for Guilin, which was a massive city of neon and packed to the gills with Chinese tourists. From there we were quickly into the countryside enroute to the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces (I'm just going to go ahead and call these the most famous rice terraces in the world). After a big day ending up a steep 6km hill we came to Ping'An, a 600 year old Miao village perched on the mountain tops. This place is all about rice. The hills are huge and every inch is carved out into flat terraces so they can be flooded to grow the rice. The terraces flow on as far as you can see and must have taken the majority of those 600 years to build it seems. The village is really cool too, with wooden houses and their tiled rooves interconnected by a labyrinth of stone paths.
After tearing ourselves away from this place we headed north onto the worst road yet encountered. 50km of 'roadworks' but sort of an 8-year-old kid style road works where everything has been ripped apart very successfully and nothing put back together. We ran the full gammut of dust, mud, rock, 45degree dirt slopes... The town at the end of it all was a very welcome sight. Welcome for about 45 minutes until the police turned up.
This was our first raid, and consisted of two cops and an interpreter. Apparently the town was 'special' and not open to foreigners. We would have to leave. Where would we go on our bikes at 5pm? OK, you can stay the night but are not to leave the hotel room. What about dinner? OK, you can go to a restaurant. This went on for a while, our passports were taken away for further scrutiny, we were thumb printed, and finally given the ok to wander around town. Apparently we could bike to the next town "no problem" and the police there would be rung so as to be forewarned of our imminent arrival.
No problem eh? After a very unmemorable ride the next day we rode into town only to start one of the more memorable parts of the journey. Raid number 2 was three police and an interpreter - who was majoring in Japanese not English. Luckily we knew the score from the day before. However negotiations here were not quite as fruitful and it soon became apparent that our claims of poor us, biking in the dark, etc etc were not going to work. These ones had heard of buses, so decided we could get one of those. This resulted in a police escort through town on our bikes, and further police assistance in purchasing bus tickets (no queueing required), saving us a seat amid the scrum while I tied bikes on the roof, and a cheery wave as we were successfully run out of town. Our bus ride took 4 hours for 130km and we arrived to a freezing cold night, only to be turned away from a hotel, I think for being too dirty.
On to greener pastures. Back in the land of openness, we hit a small town called Fenghuang. This town is Chinese to the core, just as you may imagine China should be. Tiny cobbled alleys, red lanterns, a guesthouse overlooking a pretty river, old city walls, pagodas etc. It was packed with Chinese tourists (so that means KTV karaoke) and certainly dolled up for visitors but a fantastic place all the same. Spent an atmospheric evening wandering the streets and along the ramparts.
Next day was Dehang, a tiny village in yet another karst peak area. This place was well off the beaten track, at least at this time of year. No English in the entire town (we probably talked to all of them) and it took about an hour and a half to find somewhere to stay as there was no one around. Cows wandered the alleys (Claud found a cowpat in the dark that we had watched being made earlier), and we saw both our first stars and snow in Asia. Was extremely quiet, no KTV, no honking and very peaceful.
We were charging along at this stage, having easily clocked up our first 1000km in China, and passed 5250km overall. But then it came unstuck, the dream died. I (D) got sick yet again. This was the 3rd time in a week and about the millionth time it feels like on the trip. Was a nasty chest infection that had me bed ridden for 2 days of sweating myself to a state of near drowning, and unable to walk to the supermarket let alone bike 100km a day.
So public transport has been employed to varying degrees of success. To go north, we first had to go south. Then a train north that took a whole afternoon of bargaining at a train station that seemed to have no useful destinations at all. So we had to overshoot our intended town, stay another night and get a bus south again. All of this with no English, and me struggling to walk the length of the platform with a coughing seizure. But finally we have made it to Yichang on the Yangtze and holed up in a nice hotel (have not been pushing the limits of slumminess in China) to plot our next move.
Despite the odd issue we have been repeatedly surprised at the helpfulness of the Chinese who often go well above the call to sort us out. Generally if we turn up looking lost, someone will come over and take us under their wing. This took a bit of getting used to after Vietnam where such good natured help was non-existent and we found it hard to believe people actually wanted to be nice to us, but they do!
Blogspot is actually blocked in China but we have found a way around this. Unfortunately it means we cannot update our photos on this site as we could before but we can still put them up on the other site we were using. There are heaps of new photos up so here is a link (you might have to copy and paste it): http://picasaweb.google.com/steelbaker/SouthernChinaAndHongKong
Till next time
D & C
Saturday, February 16, 2008
The mainland
Ni Hao
Here we are in China proper! We took a ferry up the Pearl River from Hong Kong, biked for 5 days, and here we are in Yangshuo, 65km south of Guilin. It's cold here but not snowy so far. China is pretty cool - not many people speak English but the ones that do are keen to practice. The people have been as friendly as anywhere we have been, with some going well beyond the call of duty in our aid. One girl in the street we asked for directions called the hotel we were trying to find to arrange for someone to come and take us there. The first few nights we were staying in towns that not a lot of foreigners go to so we get a lot of stares, and attract crowds of people in the supermarkets.
The first day of riding was miserable as it was freezing cold, rained on and off all day,and of course we got a puncture as well. This did not bode well. But since then it has been mercifully dry although still finger numbingly cold. The road we followed was busy but after Vietnam it seemed relatively peaceful. Did see 3 crashes in one day however...
The countryside has also been a nice change from the dreary bits of Vietnam and we are yet to see much of the hyperindustrial China that would make for very unpleasant riding. Rather it has been forested hills, rivers, and bamboo sprouting in every direction. Plenty of dilapidated little towns but they only take a few minutes to breeze through on the bike. Unlike the rest of the trip, at the end of the day we have usually found ourselves in a big city, with public transport, malls, fastfood and all the trimmings. A nice change to be able to get food easily. The towns down south were ghostly empty probably because of the New Year holiday but now we are into some more bustle.
The food here is good, on our first night we ordered noodles and they were hand-pulled in front of us. This invlves a lump of dough being rolled flat, twisted and pulled until miaculously noodles spring forth. None of this fancy-pants cutting the Italians rely on. We have also been getting into Chinese dumplings and much much tea.
Yangshuo's scenery is impressive with hundreds of karst cliffs surrounding the town. Our guest house owner is very friendly and has been teaching us some Chinese. Up until this point we have been struggling to make ourselves understood, no one even understands when we say the names of towns. Not sure the lessons will help much though as our pronounciation is shocking.
From here we are off north and into the province of Hunan that has been the recent victim of the worst snow in some decades. Great timing. Hopefully winter comes to an end at some stage in the near future.
Goodbye (in Chinese)
Here we are in China proper! We took a ferry up the Pearl River from Hong Kong, biked for 5 days, and here we are in Yangshuo, 65km south of Guilin. It's cold here but not snowy so far. China is pretty cool - not many people speak English but the ones that do are keen to practice. The people have been as friendly as anywhere we have been, with some going well beyond the call of duty in our aid. One girl in the street we asked for directions called the hotel we were trying to find to arrange for someone to come and take us there. The first few nights we were staying in towns that not a lot of foreigners go to so we get a lot of stares, and attract crowds of people in the supermarkets.
The first day of riding was miserable as it was freezing cold, rained on and off all day,and of course we got a puncture as well. This did not bode well. But since then it has been mercifully dry although still finger numbingly cold. The road we followed was busy but after Vietnam it seemed relatively peaceful. Did see 3 crashes in one day however...
The countryside has also been a nice change from the dreary bits of Vietnam and we are yet to see much of the hyperindustrial China that would make for very unpleasant riding. Rather it has been forested hills, rivers, and bamboo sprouting in every direction. Plenty of dilapidated little towns but they only take a few minutes to breeze through on the bike. Unlike the rest of the trip, at the end of the day we have usually found ourselves in a big city, with public transport, malls, fastfood and all the trimmings. A nice change to be able to get food easily. The towns down south were ghostly empty probably because of the New Year holiday but now we are into some more bustle.
The food here is good, on our first night we ordered noodles and they were hand-pulled in front of us. This invlves a lump of dough being rolled flat, twisted and pulled until miaculously noodles spring forth. None of this fancy-pants cutting the Italians rely on. We have also been getting into Chinese dumplings and much much tea.
Yangshuo's scenery is impressive with hundreds of karst cliffs surrounding the town. Our guest house owner is very friendly and has been teaching us some Chinese. Up until this point we have been struggling to make ourselves understood, no one even understands when we say the names of towns. Not sure the lessons will help much though as our pronounciation is shocking.
From here we are off north and into the province of Hunan that has been the recent victim of the worst snow in some decades. Great timing. Hopefully winter comes to an end at some stage in the near future.
Goodbye (in Chinese)
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Happy New Year, again
After spending our new years eve in Laos and in bed by 10pm we have come to Hong Kong for the lunar new year as celebrated by the Chinese.
Hong Kong RULES!! That was our initial assessment and we have pretty much stuck to it. It is such a friendly place. One of the touts even told me I was too angry before we readapted to the different way of doing things. It is so easy to be here, with signs at every corner telling you which way to the sights, an attendant at the Peak Tram told us that the more expensive option we asked for was not advised that day because the view would not be worth it, and even when we were told off by the Police for sitting on an illegal wall it was a pleasant experience (compare Vietnam where a whistle was blown and we were yelled at accompanied by vicious pointing).
We got our Chinese visa on day one, which was excessively easy. An agency did it for us, for cheaper than the Embassy charge, in a fifth of the time they take. They seem totally legit to boot. Then we did some major shopping, brake pads that were non-existant after the mud (we bought out the shops supply of 7 sets), new inner tubes as our cheapies are falling appart, new seat, polar fleece, neck gaiter, gloves, running shoes, dry bag to carry new purchases... The locals were also out for some serious shopping so the streets were absolutely packed in every direction you could look, which included up and down thanks to the subterranian malls, and concourses. Great fun just looking at what is around, from dirt cheap street markets to the top-o-the-top like windows full of watches all over $50,000.
Then there are the new years activities. A night parade last night covered children balancing in reverse pyramids - going from one on the ground to 5 across on the top row, lion and dragon dancers, USA cheerleaders, and of course the futuristic "Tourist Ostriches" from France. Tonight is the fireworks, with about $7,000,000 about to go up in smoke.
We have started the Chinese tour of world superlatives with the worlds longest escalator, and the worlds largest permanent light and sound display that sees the buildings lighting up in time to music. Many more to come, not least of course the most populous polulation - there is a city just north of here that is 10 million strong. Won't bother you with the name, you have not herard of it and neither had we. Nor had we heard of the 5 others that top 4 million within about 150km. We are off to one of them by boat on Sunday to avoid the bulk of the hugely populated area where HK meets the mainland, and then we are into China proper. A little nerve wracking after this blissful introduction.
Still, it is cool to be getting into the last country of our alliterative bike tour, with about 3 months to Beijing. Pray for good weather!
D&C
PS no photos as this place does not have the facilities
Hong Kong RULES!! That was our initial assessment and we have pretty much stuck to it. It is such a friendly place. One of the touts even told me I was too angry before we readapted to the different way of doing things. It is so easy to be here, with signs at every corner telling you which way to the sights, an attendant at the Peak Tram told us that the more expensive option we asked for was not advised that day because the view would not be worth it, and even when we were told off by the Police for sitting on an illegal wall it was a pleasant experience (compare Vietnam where a whistle was blown and we were yelled at accompanied by vicious pointing).
We got our Chinese visa on day one, which was excessively easy. An agency did it for us, for cheaper than the Embassy charge, in a fifth of the time they take. They seem totally legit to boot. Then we did some major shopping, brake pads that were non-existant after the mud (we bought out the shops supply of 7 sets), new inner tubes as our cheapies are falling appart, new seat, polar fleece, neck gaiter, gloves, running shoes, dry bag to carry new purchases... The locals were also out for some serious shopping so the streets were absolutely packed in every direction you could look, which included up and down thanks to the subterranian malls, and concourses. Great fun just looking at what is around, from dirt cheap street markets to the top-o-the-top like windows full of watches all over $50,000.
Then there are the new years activities. A night parade last night covered children balancing in reverse pyramids - going from one on the ground to 5 across on the top row, lion and dragon dancers, USA cheerleaders, and of course the futuristic "Tourist Ostriches" from France. Tonight is the fireworks, with about $7,000,000 about to go up in smoke.
We have started the Chinese tour of world superlatives with the worlds longest escalator, and the worlds largest permanent light and sound display that sees the buildings lighting up in time to music. Many more to come, not least of course the most populous polulation - there is a city just north of here that is 10 million strong. Won't bother you with the name, you have not herard of it and neither had we. Nor had we heard of the 5 others that top 4 million within about 150km. We are off to one of them by boat on Sunday to avoid the bulk of the hugely populated area where HK meets the mainland, and then we are into China proper. A little nerve wracking after this blissful introduction.
Still, it is cool to be getting into the last country of our alliterative bike tour, with about 3 months to Beijing. Pray for good weather!
D&C
PS no photos as this place does not have the facilities
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Mud, rain and cycling
Hi
Hanoi is in a Tet frenzy, cleaning the streets, selling gift baskets, and having more chaotic traffic than usual. We spent a few days cycling around the countryside to escape...
Day 1: The word "muddy" doesn't adequately describe the state of us at the end of day one. Our bikes, our bags, and our persons (ah, the indignity) were hosed down before being allowed into the hotel. Still, we got out of Hanoi without getting lost, maimed or killed, no small feat.
Day 2: After a climb over a mountain pass in dense fog (cold, wet, miserable, etc) we popped out the other side into a stunning valley. Inadvertently ate dog meat for lunch - it's orange and fatty and tastes like, well, dog. We felt a little guilty and uncomfortable, especially as there was a dog sitting by our table staring at us, so we left most of it in our bowls. We spent the night in a fantastic village of stilt houses in the middle of rice paddies surrounded by mountains - very peaceful.
Day 3: Brilliant riding today on a small highway which we often had to ourselves. We followed a river valley, meandered through rice paddies dotted with karst cliffs, and were generally impressed by the scenery. Hit 4000km today! Arrived in a tiny town in the pouring rain, and again out came a hose.
Day 4: Ah, the innocence of us on day one - we didn't know what true mud was! Well, today we were enlightened. At one point the bikes wouldn't even move, so clogged were they with mud. After wrecking our brake pads we arrived at Cuc Phuong National Park where we spent an enjoyable afternoon in the freezing cold looking around the Monkey Rescue Centre.
Day 5: Another sodden ride, another hosing down. We stayed the night in Ninh Binh and convinced ourselves to get the bus back up Highway 1 to Hanoi. Although this proved to be no quieter or any less dangerous, we were at least warm and dry and not hosed down on arrival.
We're leaving here tomorrow (Tues) to fly to Hong Kong. In the meantime we're cleaning bikes (all that hosing and they're still not clean), and cramming in as much of Hanoi as possible. Yesterday we had the very weird experience of going to see Ho Chi Minh's body. This definitely rates at one of our top Vietnamese experiences. First we were ordered to arrange ourselves into two lines of two abreast, thanks. Our bag was searched and X-rayed, then we went through metal detectors. We were ushered through a huge complex by whistle-wielding guards (and they aren't afraid to use them!) and finally found ourselves at the doorway to the mausoleum itself. I (Claud) was pulled out of line and my bag searched again (maybe I have a shifty face??) before finally being allowed in. The interior was dim, the lights were red, and Uncle Ho was flanked by four guards. The man himself was pale and waxy, and the only noise inside was the shuffling feet of hundreds of tourists. Very bizarre, we are already looking forward to Mao.
Love C&D
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