Saturday, 27 September 2008
Suzhou and Tongli
I would also recommend going to Tongli, a beautiful town set among extensive waterways and winding streets. Although of course there was a lot of tourist crap there, and the food was overpriced, it was nice to see the sweets you find in these parts being made, and most of the town was fairly quiet and hassle free. The Sex Museum might not appeal to all those who visit Tongli...but I rather enjoyed it. The dirth of large penises aside, the buildings housed some interesting exhibits (some exhibitionists, or rather, pieces about them), and had some interesting texts about sex in China – although these were sometimes somewhat short, this might be a blessing given the sometimes dubious translations.
In short, the town is beautiful in itself. Although famous for its gardens, I really can't afford to pay 80 yuan to get into each of them, nor do I have time - and I suspect it isn't necessary given I've had a very nice time wandering around the streets, and going to the few things I have seen.
Last night bought the first food problem of the holiday (not bad going for 6 weeks in). Ordering from an English card in a semi-chain restaurant place I think I pointed at the chinese above what we wanted rather than below. We got a VERY spicy beef noodle soup, some 'corn bread and mashed potato' things which were pretty vile and goey (but I think I actually meant to order them), and some white sliced vegetable like a very mild radish, which was warm and also horrible. Fortunately we'd paid after ordering...so we made a runner, barely touching the food. Instead we went to this great place called 7 + 7, a cafeteria type place where you just select the dishes you want from the counter and pay when you sit down. Although a lot of the food was cold (always a problem with this kind of place) it was mostly delicious, and by that time quality wasn't so much wanted as just something edible.
Anyway, I bought some tea today. I don't remember what kind which is a touch unfortunate as I may not be able to buy more, but I'm going to go drink some of that now, and then hopefully find some fried dumplings. Moving to Nanjing tomorrow, so the next post should be on that!
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Hangzhou and Suzhou
After a full day sightseeing in Hangzhou it was time to move on to Suzhou - that or die of boredom probably, beautiful place though it was. Jumping on the bus to the bustation to find it going in the wrong direction was a bit disheartening. It taking 1.5 hours (only 20 mins being in the wrong way) to get there was even more so. Getting off the bus to have not a clue where the damn station was was even more so. Finding it was good. It was amusing to see that even Chinese people were looking around wondering where the hell they needed to go to get to the bus station. It seems the city wants to set itself up to encourage people to go with the mini-bus touts who stand around the public bus stop.
For 70 yuan (outrageous price) a 2 hour coach journey got me to Suzhou. A brief taxi ride to the hostel and I was settled in in really quite beautiful surroundings, not only the roads outside (with a canal and restored buildings) but also the hostel itself (also a restored building). Thus far walking around Suzhou has been very nice, and relaxed if a bit odd as a result of appearing quite European with its coffee shops, tea houses, cake stores, river side restaurants and umbrella covered dining tables. Although the 'Garden of the Humble Administrator' [Suzhou is famous for its gardens] was very nice, it was a touch small for the price (70 yuan) and a bit busy, including a large number of tour groups led by microphone wearing guides...I'd happily have thrown them into the artificial ponds. Tonight I'll head to the night market in Suzhou for some cheap (and no doubt delicious) eats. Tomorrow I think I'm going to Tongil to visit the canals and Chinese sex museum - I'm told a much better experience than the one in Shanghai. After one more day in Suzhou I'll hopefully leave for Nanjing, and then on toward Jinan from there - although I've recently discovered that a public holiday canceling all the trains may cause issues with this...damn. Off to sort that out now.
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Shanghai
Thus far the food here has been very nice (and much cheaper than HK), although I was forced to eat my first ever Big Whopper yesterday as I couldn't find any food where I was, I was starving and needed to take my doxycycline with food. I'm not proud, but I did enjoy it. This meal was of course trumped by my evening meal the night before of noodles with garlic, ginger, and chilli with lamb. Delicious and only for 12 Yuan (just less than a pound) for a big plate.
The meal was made more amusing by the fact that it was eaten with a pimp. I'll just repeat that, it was eaten with a pimp. Walking along one of the main streets here foreigners often experience people saying 'hello' 'where you from' 'you go for coffee with me?' and so on. Finding this somewhat confusing (particularly at first) I wasn't sure whether these people were:
1) setting me up to rob me
2) flirting
3) genuinly trying to practice their english
4) trying to sell me things [watches, belts, shoes - they offer them all in one sentece]
5) Trying to sell me sex
Generally I walk faster than them and don't respond to them, so I have no problem. Unfortunately this bloke was tall and could walk as fast as my flip flopped feet could carry me, and I made the mistake of engaging him. So he guided me (subtly) to a 'cafe' to eat. I wasn't keen on eating in a cafe, particularly having seen two large Western blokes also being guided in by another Asian guy. It was at this point that I decided he wasn't flirting, he wasn't going to rob me, and he didn't care much about his english (which was good), but he did want me in his brothel. So, not wanting to let me go, he suggested a place further down which looked (and was) very nice. So in we went, him sitting with me while I ate, chatting, and occasionally suggesting I could get a massage - 'nice student girls, they want to practice their english'. Yuhuh. Anywho, he wasn't too happy when I left saying I needed to go meet my friends. Playing innocent I pointed out that he'd told me he just wanted to practice his english...he did not understand my laughter. Teach him to walk so fast. I was told later that this is a standard trick to do all 5 of the above (less the 3rd, and the 4th is obvious of course), and that plenty of people find themselves engaged only to then be robbed either obviously, or through various 'tea house scams' where they're pushed into paying exorbitant amounts for tea in a tea house under the guise of going out to tea with their new Chinese friend...classic scam and yet, as with the Tailors and Stone sellers of Bangkok with the tuk-tuk drivers, people still fall for it all the time.
Having seen a reasonable amount of Shanghai, I've decided tomorrow will be my last day. and I'll go to Hangzhou the day after for 2 days there, before heading back North to Suzhou, then Nanjing before a big jump up to Ji'nan. More on those soon I should think. I'm hoping I can see some more 'natural beauty' - lakes and hills and such while there. The temples here are nice, but not a patch on Thai/Cambodian ones partly because those included so much nature, even if it was just nice gardens, whereas the ones here do not. We'll see what happens further North.
Thursday, 18 September 2008
HK to Shanghai
Having spent my last 3 days in HK largely doing non-city things, I have enjoyed HK rather more. Yesterday I went up the 'gravity defying' (Lonely Planet phrase, I entirely agree with) tram to Victoria Peak, overlooking HK. Well worth the trip for the journey itself – it feels like you're going to go vertical at some points – the views (hazy though they were), and for the newly purchased mah jong set; what any nearing mid-twenties man wants. Also for the full range of punctuation a sentence about it offered.
I've largely subsisted on western food in HK, a hotpot with Vicky (a Leeds friend) and some of her friends, some japanese food (quite Western really), and that's about it for exceptions. The hotpot was a nice experience in that the beer was cheap (21 HK dollars for 3 bottles – that's about 50p each), and it's a social occasion. The food consists of as much meat, veg, fish, fish balls, etc. as you want, and two pots of soup with heaters underneath in which to cook this food – the ultimate food poisoning get out clause for a restaurant. The meal was notably lacking in veg., and not being a fan of fish (or tripe) was a problem, but as I say, socially it was very nice. The reasons for this Westernism are:
1)I'll eat Chinese in China with little other choice
2)nausea at the end of Thailand time led me away from rice, and especially lemon grass (which I love, but the smell of which was making me nauseas)
3)there was no price difference between Western and Asian food (lunch time deals are especially good)
4)There are a lot of cafes with Western food, good coffee and free internet – sold me.
So far this train is more 'luxurious' than the Thai equivalent, although in some ways I preferred that one. This has a dinning cart (bonus), and very nice toilets, and a separate sink area. The beds are divided into sets of 4 (soft sleeper) or 6 (hard sleeper) in cabins. I am on a top bunk in soft sleeper – about 40 pound for the journey. The Thai ones were an ingenious use of space, but these are more Western, and have less noise transmission and so on.
The people I'm sharing a room with seem very nice, with limited English. They're from HK, visiting the man's (2 women, 1 man) brother. I'm unsure of their relation, but I've talked to him a bit, and one of the women gave me some food. The packet of chestnuts was a nice thing to give me, and much appreciated...the shrink wrapped (in foil) chicken liver, and chicken feet...well, how do you react to that? I think I may need to hide them by the morning.
[I did indeed hide them. And I am now in Shanghai in what appears to be quite a nice hostel...more on Shanghai later]
Monday, 15 September 2008
Hong Kong
So, despite having free internet in Pacific Coffee I haven't had a chance for long time internet in a while. However, I have now bought a mini laptop (10 inch screen or something, so 11 by 7 inch size, less than 1kg...roughly) for less than $400 (US). The Lonely Planet description says “If Hong Kong was a person, she'd be a difficult woman to understand.” Now, aside from that analogy making me want to punch the author in the face, I can actually see their meaning.
On one hand, Hong Kong is a bizzare shopping experience, with huge amounts of technology shops and clothes shops, malls all over the place and so on. These malls come in two forms – the kind like the malls we have at home – a shopping centre, with a grand entrance and anchor stores – although often with the addition of a Karaoke floor or perhaps a floor devoted to arcade games. The other kind seem to often have entrances at the ground floor, but no shops there, these instead being above. In fact, as is natural in a place where most building must be upward as opposed to onto surround land, many shops and services seem to require you to ascend into buildings seemingly filled with a combination of offices (not open to public), flats, and the places you're seeking.
In another sense, HK has historic areas, and temples in various places – although I have to say these are (in my experience) nowhere near as impressive as those in Bangkok. And again, HK has a huge amount of natural scenes – mountains, beaches, forest areas and so on. In short, I'm not sure whether I'm attracted to her or not.
After two days of shopping and being in the centre I was very ready to head out to one of the national parks today (Sunday). Although we didn't quite manage the boat tour around the coast I was hoping we'd be able to do, it was very pleasant to be out of the city, and incredibly easy to get there too. The beach itself was also beautiful although the heat was oppressive (and tiring) and the lack of swimming costume disappointing.
Today, I went to Lantau, an island next to Central and twice the size but much less built up (particularly if you ignore the international airport and Disney Land). My intention had been to do a proper walk – indeed I even bought a map for such purposes – however, although the ascent to the monastry and big Buddah could be completed by cable car (and indeed was), I wasn't sure how I could do the rest to minimise the walking while maximising the views, which I needed to do to avoid the heat. As it happened, what I did was miss the stop I'd thought of getting off at and stayed on the bus from the peak right the way to the ferry port and bumed around on the beach for a couple of hours – given the heat I have to say this was a much more sensible option, although it is a pity I didn't do any of the walk I'd planned as Lantau looks fantastic and it would have been nice to take a walk.
I'm staying in ChunKing Mansions...Mansions they ain't. This is a dilapidated set of blocks of flats/businesses. There is just enough room for a bed and bedside table, and for the door to the room to open, and give access to the ensuite. It's clean (and cleaned every day in fact), and has a TV and phone (free for HK calls including mobiles – useful for contacting vicky) but a bit depressing as there's no social area or anything like that. The annoyance at the 1 lift going to the odd floors (3,5,7,9,11,13,15) constantly being full to capacity is outweighed by my amusement at watching middle aged middle class couples walking in and out of the building obviously much more uncomfortable than me. Small pleasures. Anyway, it is partly for this accommodation that I'm looking forward to heading on to Shanghai (although less so the 25 hour journey there by myself).
Anyway, I should be able to get some more photos up now they're all on the laptop (as soon as I can find my superuser password to install picassa)
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Macau
Tomorrow I'll leave for HK via ferry for maybe 6 nights, possibly includingi a night or two on Lantau (one of the islands), and certainly some of my day plans are to see some beaches and mountains (as well as getting a visa and booking my train to Shanghai [25 hour journey]). While there I will also see Vicky which should be nice. Anyway, I have applying to be a teacher things to do. Will update more from HK.
Things wot we did in Chiang Mai
However, it struck me that we spent a week in Chiang Mai - surely someone must be wondering what the hell we were doing [other than using the pool on our last day]? In short, other than the activity filled day, not a lot really. We did a walking tour of the city, going to all the 'must see' wats, and took a taxi out to doi suthep (a wat on a hill) and out to the one in the forest ( name escapes me), we also went to the night bazaar (market) twice, and the sunday walking street once (for obvious reasons). We ate well, and explored the city...we also had two Thai massages. These might be of some note as I can imagine people having had bad, or good experiences of these. My suspicion is that depends on the masseur (and the day, and how achey you are anyway, etc.) but I'm sure some people's views are tainted. In my opinion they're quite a nice experience. The first one was at a place round the corner from ou first guesthouse, in a very nice room with dimmed light, and raised beds. They get you to put on fisherman pants (loose fitting trousers) and give you free tea (iced thai tea in this case...imagine tea with icing sugarr and ice in and that gives you a fair idea of it) and there was meditation style music playing (although, at the second place this was interupted at one point bizzarely by Leann (is it pretentious to put [sic] next to what a parent has called their child?) Rimes. Although at certain points they press too hard - I do after all have a lot of tendons with little fat covering them on my forearm, and pushing will feel a touch unpleasant, and despite my thought at one point of 'hmm, if her elbow slips now I'm going home without my testicles' I can say it was a very nice experience.
Of the second one I can generally report the same. Carried out/done by a man who looked to be recently out of the monastry it was harder than the first one, and included some different stretches but was generally a very pleasant experience. Perhaps importantly - depending on which moral you wish to take from this story - no fear was induced for my testicles this time, althouhg there was one stretch where I was leaning in to his lap and somewhat feared for his. Oh the life of a masseuse.
Now I'll update the previous post about the journey :p.
Airport
HEALTH UPDATE - all fine, doxycycline still having no side effects, and no dengue fever (woot woot).
Our train was at 6pm so after an early dinner (4ish) we headed out to the station. The train was on time so we boarded straight away and found our set of 4 seats. At night these are folded together to create a (large but shortish) single bed at the bottom, and a narrow single bed is lowered from the wall above. Along these beds curtains are placed to give some privacy (because there are no berths as such) and to block light. This was more effective for the lower bunk (mine) than teh upper (kirsty's) so I had a fantastic 6 or 7 hours sleep...kirsty did not. Many Thai's seemed to put their bunks down (or have them expertly put down by a nice woman sitting at the end of the carriage) very early (from 7.30 on really). We waited till 9.30 before doing so. Arriving one hour late at 8am (not much shorter than the bus but MUCH more comfortable) we decided to head to Silom - our recent local street - for breakfast. This proved an expensive move but nevermind - the French pastries were delicious.
Heading back to the train station after lunch we caught a taxi to where we wanted to stay - or at least we tried to. There was some confusion over where we wanted to go. And I may have pissed off the tuktuk drivers when I laughed long and hard at a quote of 600 baht (10 pound) to get there - this would be enough to go about 40km or something...I think to Ayuthia anyway, cheeky fuck. We got a taxi with some assistance from the Railyway Police. Nice guy took us out on the road this place was off, and headed too far up it, so we had to loop back (expressway, so that meant taking a turn off) to get back to our soi - which it then turned out didn't exist. Drove to another place - no hotel. Woman there suggested some other place which she claimed was nicknamed 54 hotel (we wanted 54 hostel). We decided to give it a go and were a bit concerened to see a semi-posh looking hotel, and pondering sleeping at the airport instead (as the taxi was at 250 already and cash running v. low - so low that today we only just had enough to get to the airport). Fortunately I have a credit card and the hotel had rooms for 600baht (about 10 pound) which we thouht quite acceptable, especially as we'd get a nice room and nice shower. A day with a lot of faff in anyway...