Andong and beyond

After a very pleasant few days in Busan, visiting a few sights, enjoying the much improved weather, drinking pretty good coffee and reading my new book (Karamazov Brothers - because my bag just wasn't heavy enough already) I headed off to meet Chi-He in Andong, a town in central S. Korea. Andong is famous for its Soju museum, and folk museum, at which location a popular Korean show is filmed.

When I say famous...I may overstate the case. The Soju museum is a room with exhibits on the culture and brewing of Soju - the classic Korean alcoholic drink at about 20% alcohol. The biggest draw to this museum was the Lonely Planet advertised shot of Soju at the end of the tour - this did not materialise. Never mind, at least the walk back to town along the main road was pleasant enough...there was a rather nice bridge along the way.

The following day we redeemed our voucher for a free donut at dunkin' donuts and headed out to the folk village via a 7 storey brick pagoda. It being very much autumn in Korea, and this bringing out a range of colours on the trees the countryside is really quite pleasant at the moment, and the walk near the dam - which displaced the houses relocated into the folk village - and along the river was quite pleasant as a result. The village itself was not particularly interesting as there were very few displays or anything of that nature, only the buildings themselves - however it was a fairly pleasant stroll around in the warm autumn sun.

Although the food was very pleasant, and the 4 hour train journey back to Seoul wasn't too bad, the motel was pretty mediocre (it was no ritz that's for sure), the place too was of no particular interest to most people I should imagine.

I have now moved on to Geongju from Seoul, a place with tombs and a fairly impressive fort overlooking the new town - which was very nice to walk around, and then from there to Buyeo (pronounced boo-ya...no kiding), a place with similar attractions. I had planned to spend tonight in the Buyeo hostel...having walked up there to find the 'less institutional feel' hostel (LP) looking very much like a school, with a coach outside, and with a load of kids running around I decided 'fuck this', took a quick walk around the sculpture park and up to the nearby river and then headed to the Arirang Motel, a motel comparable to the Ritz with a PC in the room, 'mood lighting' free tea/'coffee', a water cooler/heater in the room and so on. Tomorrow I'll see the Buyeo sights then head back to Seoul for my last few days and bits of sightseeing there.

Busan

Typing this up on a very old pc, from my laptop as there's no wireless here, which may be set to Korean (and is therefore saying most of what I type is wrong...so forgive spelling mistakes)...

I haven't had a 'human kindness' story for a whle, my avowal to discontinue such acts disregarded, but today provides a good opportunity to give an example. Today I came to Busan. This was against my plan to the extent that just 30 minutes before I decided, I told Chi-He I'd be in Gyeongju for another night. However, the rain started, and a detailed weather forecast suggested it would only get worse. My only plan for the day was to go hiking, however hiking in the rain without a coat and with only one set of clean clothes in my bag did not appeal, not to mention the fact that the clouds were so low it would be dangerous and largely pointless. Thus, I got breakfast in the same place as yesterday - which made them smile - toast, jam, 'strained through my one day old underwear' coffee/water, and some free local bread which is a bit like 2 Scotch pancakes stuck together with red bean paste in the middle. Then I headed for the 1 hour, 1 every 10 minutes bus to Busan.

Leaving straight from the bus station to the hostel on the Busan subway I found my place easily enough, and was met outside the appartment building by the owner who took me to another building (she owns a few appartments) in a twin room for the first night and then a dorm for 2 more. My room mate is a Korean girl who teaches Korean in Seoul, but is here for one night visiting people and seeing Busan (for the first time). She invited me, and n American girl who was in the living room too, to join her and her friend for a day of sightseeing. It was thus that I had a taxi round Busan, to a very nice Korean restaurant, to a temple not in the guide (Haedongyonggungsa, on the coast - quite beautiful), to a nice coffee place overlooking a beach, up a mountain overlooking Busan by night, and then back to the hostel. Despite the fact me and the American girl kept insisting we pay for something (parking, petrol, cofee), the guy (he called himself John) refused each time and indeed paid for the coffee.

On the way up to the mountain we made a stop at a small fish market by the coast. At this place we had (I watched) fresh octopus - freshly cut in front of you and still wriggling as you eat it with seasame sauce...mmmmm.

A day which was going to be one of me sitting in a cafe drinking good coffee and reading my book instead turned into a full day of sightseeing with local knowledge, with the ease of a car, and with friendly companions along the way - excellent :). Now I'll explore the rest of Busan, and then on to wherever Chi-He and I end up this weekend :).

Gyeongju

Today it is raining. Not just 'a fine soft day' but actually torrential downpour river in the street kind of rain. Every time I think it's easing off, after a short period it instantly reverts back to insane downpour levels. After an early wake up (7am), and the slaughter of 5 mosquitos with my pillow this morning (I'm moving beds so it's ok) I sat alone watching the rain and reading my book waiting to move room and hoping the rain would die down. I also did my usual internet rounds, and was reminded by Chi-Hé that I had completely neglected to mention anything about Gyoengju. Now that I am holed up in a Starbucks for the foreseable future, plans to go to Beomosa temple put on hole, this seems a ripe opportunity to write about it. I'll even backdate the post so it fits in where it should.

Gyoengju is a largely unattractive town in itself to be perfectly honest. The hostel was also a fairly unattractive place. I took the opportunity of a night in Seoul to have my first private room since Hong Kong – quite a time. I needn't have bothered as the next night I moved to a dorm (in fact 3 mattresses on the floor in a room rather than the usual bunk bed dorm arrangement) and had the room to myself. The 'tv room' was by the stairs to go downstairs to the main reception and the owners living quarters, a small corner of a room which could comfortably seat 5. However, they were very friendly aside from the son of the owner trying to persuade me to stay in a single room (despite the fact no one else was in the dorm). They've also been open since at least 1985 judging from the 'Thank you' letters framed on the wall – fairly impressive.

The area is full of Shilla era architecture and history (I'm afraid you'll need to wiki that because I can't be arsed). Within Gyoengju there are a number of Tumuli, that is, tombs. Indeed there is a park (Tumuli park) full of them. Although these are quite beautiful, and obviously have quite a history behind them, they are not particularly interesting for more than half a day's walking around. They are at the end of the day just big grassy mounds.

The Bulguksa temple outside of Gyeongju (on UNESCO world heritage list) was a very pleasant (Shilla) temple surrounded by gardens, forests and hills. I walked the 3.2 km up one of these to Seokguram Grotto (also on UNESCO list), which was a very pleasant if somewhat tiring walk up hill through woods inhabited by chipmunks – and everyone loves those. The crowning piece in this Grotto is a stone carving of Buddha surrounded by a range of other dieties and guardians. This is unfortunately behind glass – which is reflective, and you can't take photographs, it was however a fairly impressive set of carvings. The view from up here was particularly attractive, and I was very glad to have been to both places despite the swarming crowds of school children – including the approximately 80 children who I had to wait to go in and come out of the Grotto prior to my entering it. After that I walked back down and towards the local 'folk village'. Some of these villages are actually decent reconstructions of old style villages with nice arts and crafts stuff and some history – including one we hope to go this weekend, and another in Seoul. This one was a set of craft type shops, which was grossly overpriced and in a fairly unattractive setting – never mind, the walk there was pleasant enough. That evening I went out to eat with a couple of people from the hostel. We had ssambap (to quote lonely planet - “Lots of tasty sidedishes which you wrap up in lettuce and other leaves”), although some of the things were quite delicious, as I suppose should be expected, others were not – I just don't like seaweed and very fishy tasting fish dishes, nae mind. And that brings me up to the next blog from Busan.

On another note, I just went to change $300 of traveller's cheques (a lot, but hell it's Korea), and the woman gave me the money and a receipt only after looking at my passport – i.e. She didn't bother asking me to sign the cheques until I suggested I should (I don't want her to get in trouble!)...trusting, or hugely incompetent? You decide. Also, this story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/23/george-osborne-nat-rothschild-oleg-deripaska
is hilarious, and I greatly enjoyed this cartoon: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/10/22/bellbell512.jpg

Chuncheon

Chuncheon

Throwing some things into our bags (so nice not to be lugging my cheap art laden backpack around) we headed down the subway line to the train station for Chuncheon. We grabbed some burgers and snacks and jumped on the conveniently timed train. After a very pleasant train journey – especially novel for me having not booked it, something much harder in China – we arrived and nabbed a taxi to our motel. The Ritz Motel – or Ritz Hotel depending on which sign/motel paraphernalia you looked at – looked very nice from outside, to the extent that had we not read about it in the guide, and checked the prices ahead of time we probably wouldn't have gone in. Inside it was a quiet and clean motel, with a vending machine in the lobby for all your needs. If those needs happened to be love motel needs that is – vending machine underwear anyone?

My understanding is that, in S. Korea people live at home until they are relatively older than their Western counterparts. Thus, for some privacy couples head to 'love motels'. The one we were in was not seedy – although it was fairly anonymous and there was always that vending machine in the lobby...and was in fact one of the nicest places I've stayed in the last 10 weeks with a very clean bedroom with water dispenser (hot and cold), VCR (extensive library downstairs...we did not check out the titles), TV and fridge and well stocked bathroom. Pretty good for $15 each. The guy behind the desk was called into service action when we asked him for a bus route, and spent a good 5-10 minutes finding us maps (2), and telling us where to go for the bus and so on. I suspect he doesn't often get to give out tourist information, although perhaps more so given they're in the Lonely Planet.

We'd decided to make use of our full day away by leaving Chuncheon by local bus for nearby Gangchon. The drive there was pleasant if rather crowded. As the weather was exceptionally nice, we decided to make a walk of it up to the waterfall – the chief attraction. Thus, eschewing the options of bikes, motor bikes or quad bikes – particularly popular with the visiting Korean students – we set off on our walk, which turned out to be shorter than expected, and along a fairly pleasant road with views of a valley, prime positions for watching the ridiculous poses people pull while driving quad bikes, and plenty of interesting looking bugs for Chi-He to photograph.

The waterfall itself – with entrance fee – was not particularly impressive. In fact, barely so at all. Having seen it, and climbed up a hill nearby – the name of which I only vaguely remember – we both agreed that the nicest part of the visit was that autumn had changed a reasonable amount of the leaves to various shades of orange and red, providing a beautiful backdrop. Thus, not a place I'd particularly recommend outside of autumn.

Heading back to Chuncheon on an even more crowded bus we attempted to walk back to the hotel, to find ourselves closer to the food district. Or more accurately the Dakgalbi Geori area, where that particular meal can be bought at a great number of restaurants. I'll look up what's actually in it some time, but to briefly describe – you get condiments, and a large amount of raw chicken, veg and rice cakes mixed together in a slightly spicy red marinade. Despite the fact the restaurant didn't serve beer – something I didn't think would ever happen in Korea – the food was delicious and I would happily eat it again.

The following day we did the usual dull errand things – checked out, bought tickets onwards and so on – and then took a walk along the lake in Chuncheon with the intention of catching a ferry to the island. Along the way we saw a very impressive colourful and large spider, and a number of somewhat interesting statues. As we got closer to the lake we could see the shore litered with Swan peddle boats (a few of which were beached on the slope up in disrepair – hardly an advertisement). However, with all of this excitement, a toll had been taken on us, and we decided to sit for a while...then go back towards the bus station to get some food and leave for Seoul, and my next stop (and one assumes, blog topic) – Gyeongju.

Seoul

In keeping with the theme of making rash judgments on other cultures with very experience of them (tautology?) I'll make some comments on S. Korea:
1)People wear crap suits. I'm no suit expert, but I can see when a suit doesn't fit, or when it's made out of VERY shiny material. In fact I've seen a silver suit on more than one occasion. I assume that not all of these people are pimps.
2)There are lots of coffee places – I approve of this greatly
3)Subway trains have 'old age person' seats. These seats are never sat in by young people – indeed I was told off for sitting on one. However, middle aged people will sit on these, people who you'd not want to offer the seat to in the UK for fear of offending them. Often these don't offer their seat to the older person.
4)At cafes when you order, you are given a buzzer which will flash and vibrate when your order is ready to be picked up at the collection counter. I am not convinced this is particularly efficient, but it is quite novel.

On the train back from Insadong today (nice area) I gave up my seat to an oldish woman – I really can't abide being stood over by a woman talking to someone sat next to me who is struggling to reach the hand holds which were clearly not designed for Asian women (although they do also bang me in the face so they're not that high up). She proceeded to talk to me, and sign either that I had a big heart or big breasts – it wasn't clear which. Before I knew it I had about 5 oldish women talking to me and trying to help me to where I was going, and one young Korean who spoke English and translated a bit which was very nice of her and saved me just shrugging and smiling embarassed afterwards. I was told I had to get off before my stop, so while vowing never to do another good deed again, at least not in a confined unescapbable space I checked the map to see if I was in the right line (pretty certain I was) and indeed I was but this train was terminating so I had to swap to the next one. I could probably have worked that out myself – although I did see one guy walking down the empty train after it left its terminus – but it was very nice of them to tell me anyway.

On the train from there up to Dobong (my stop) I was very happy to see the standard peddlers of 'crap you don't want'. This was – as I'm sure you may imagine – even more the case when an old and non-too clean woman approached me with a bag full of gum packs. She proceeded to stand over me, attempt to place the gum into my hand (in such a manner as to force me to create a fist), and then try to place the gum on my leg and ask for money. After a minute of this she sodded off. I hope I told that story properly – I'm told it was funny the first time :p.

On Friday we left Seoul for Chuncheon, a town/small city not far from Seoul (2 hours on a slow train as I remember). The main draws to this place were a pretty town near by with a waterfall, and the presence of an island in a lake at this town. More on that in the next post.

South Korea

Tomorrow, or Saturday I will leave Seoul for somewhere else. It will be near to Seoul, partly because for it to be otherwise would involve me leaving the country. There are a few conveniently located towns/cities around the country located near at least 3 places of interest. It feels very odd to call a city of 3 million (e.g. Busan, 3.7 million, 2nd city) a city given that in China the smallest place I went had 800,000 and after that the smallest was a few million. This size difference also goes some way to explain the proximity of multiple sites of interest near to each of the potential cities to visit – even from Seoul many places of interest could easily be reached.

The plan is to go away for a weekend with Chi-Hė, then I'll go on to Gongju and Busan during the week before meeting up with Chi-Hė again the following weekend (possibly in Mokpo?), again going somewhere else before heading back to Seoul for my final weekend away. So we'll see how that works out!

So far Korea has been very pleasant. After a lot of historic site seeing (the sites were historic, not my seeing of them) I decided a trip to a modern art gallery might be a pleasant experience. I'm happy to say that in contrast to the Shanghai art gallery, it was indeed a pleasant experience – no doubt influenced by my avoidance of the school group in there too. The gallery houses a permanent collection by a Korean artist which was a set of quite nice fairly traditional paintings. The rest of the building was full of modern art related to the senses – many of which were interactive. You could throw butterflies like dried leaves, you could move a Snow White statue and evoke a set of 7 dwarf shadows to follow her around (clever set of lights and sensors I guess), and you could move a bright red ball behind a massive semi-transparent screen imitating the sun/a light and prompting the moths on screen to follow you around. Amongst other things that is. After that I went for a fairly long walk along a city stream which has been restored to create a very pleasant pathway with various bits of art along it, stepping stones over the river (and occasionally fake rocks/false river beds in the water which look interesting and create an interesting flow) and fountains.

Today (my second day) I went to Bonguensa Buddhist temple. A fairly large temple complex, a cultural centre which aims to teach people about Buddhism, and a teaching centre training Buddhist monks. The area itself is over the road from one of the biggest malls in the world (irony) and is actually a bit of a building site at the moment. The buildings are rather nice traditional wooden buildings with the same colourful painting style seen in China. The complex also houses the tallest Buddha statue in Korea. It's quite tall.

Unfortunately when I was there were rather a lot of people who looked like they were actually Buddhists and were listening to the chanting being piped out and praying...so I didn't want to go into the buildings full of these people and take photos. Interesting to see an active Buddhist community though as I hadn't seen one since Thailand. On my way out of the site I was approached by a middle aged woman “Do you speak any English?” she asked; “I certainly hope so” I responded. She then handed me a booklet “The Way To Meet God”. Nothing like people trying to convert you to Christianity in a Buddhist temple. This makes me a lot less angry than in Cambodia and similar places where the allure of Christianity's foreign money partly in the shape of school and health care (no hidden agendas there!) and of course a church draws people from their traditional religions.

Food news (because I wrote this first and then decided to write other stuff and I don't know where to put it now):
On my first night Chi-Hė and I went out for a Korean grill meal (you griddle your own meat) eaten with rice and various vegetables and so on which was very nice, and a pleasant change from Chinese. Last night we met before Chi-Hė's Korean class...and had very nice Western food – which was a pleasant change from pretty piss poor Western food.

By way of a final China piece:
A few experiences all Westerners commented on in China were:
1)Bare faced price inflation
2)Children pissing in the street
3)Spitting
4)Everyone I asked had the experience that prior to coming out, various internet forums and people had warned them to expect to be treated rudely, to expect officials to be brusque, unhelpful and often rude. In contrast, I and all those I spoke to felt that people were generally very friendly and helpful – including the officials who are happy enough to smile at you and be friendly, and have also been helpful to fellow travelers along the way. I'm sure things change over time, and things may well have improved but I'm also sure that many of the stories are a combination of racism, and annoyance at being a novelty. But I'm sorry, when you point at pictures on the wall of a restaurant you do look ridiculous, either get over it (as I did) or learn the language – don't complain that people might smile at you as you do it. All in all, it is certainly a country I'd happily go back to, aside from anything else I've seen so little of it and I'd love to see more of the inland areas.

Beijing

Having arrived late on Tuesday/early Wednesday I wasn't keen on making that a busy day. As it happens it was fairly constructive, but largely due to the fact that I went out to the ticket office for my flight to Korea and bought it (I leave Tuesday morning). Following this I went to Tiananmen Square which, as advertised, is a very large square. In the middle of this square is Chariman Mao's mausoleum - which is exceptionally large given its purpose is limited to storing the man himself, and a wax replica (in case storing him didn't work as hoped).

The square is of course impressive, and the views of the buildings around, and the outer edge of the forbidden city area (complete with Chairman Mao giant picture) is impressive, but the presence of quite a lot of police, and some not very subtle plain clothes police provides for an...interesting atmosphere.

That night I met a guys with similar plans itinerary wise to me (including someone who, if I do the PGCE at IoE, I might well meet at a school in London, or if he (as intended) starts working in Coventry I might see at work). The following day, they and I went to the Forbidden City - a sizeable complex of buildings build (I believe) to keep the rulers well confined and safe from the Proletariat. You can't help wondering what they'd say now with the prole's wondering around in their tour groups with their group's hat on with its individual colours, but there we go. Although the garden in the city was very pleasant (if busy) the rest was something of a disappointment - very nice for sure, and free from the insane price inflation of attractions outside of Beijing, but not as awe inspiring as I'd hoped it might be. After lunch I went down to the Heavenly Temple, a couple of miles of walking. As I bought my ticket, the sky darkened. As I walked into the park I was passed by people running out towards the street. By the time I got to the front of the temple it was eerily quiet and dark with a gusting wind. By the time I got to the back with the bridge running between a building at one end and the temple at another, I Was reminded of sunrise at Angkor Wat - pre sunrise in fact. By the time I actually got to the Temple it was pissing it down. So regrettably I decided I'd leave asap as soon as the rain subsided. If I feel like it tomorrow I might go again. On the bright side, on my walk back from there a Chinese guy came up to me and asked 'You need direction?'. Say it in the most racist Bulldog Bristow (Frasier reference) accent you can and you'll see why it was funny. ['You want erection?']

That night I got an early one as I'd booked to go to the Great Wall the next day - a 6.30am start. I opted for the Jinshanling to Simatai section of the wall, including, naturally, a hike between the two locations. Not only is this section less touristy (See the photos with no people on the wall), there are also parts which have not been renovated (in recent years), and the contrast is quite nice to see. The walk itself is 8km and supposed to take 4.5 hours. We did it in 4 and could do it in 2 at a push. However, this method of organising the timing was very acceptable as it meant they gave us some instructions (walk along the wall until point 'x' essentially), our tickets for the various check points, and then set us on our way leaving us to make our own way at our own pace - much better than doing it as a big group. The weather for this walk was perfect (see the photos) I don't think you could possibly have a better day - sun, warm but not hot, light breeze and not a cloud in the sky. The beer at the restaurant in Simtai was very much appreciated as we waited for the stragglers to come in.

Feeling that a 6.30 am start and a 'hike' wasn't quite enough activity for the day, I decided I'd give some guys I met in Nanjing, who are teaching in Beijing a call to see if they were going out. This was, after all, a Friday night, and Beijing is famous for having a good nightlife. Thus I headed out on the subway to some far far away place and waited for Patrick at our agreed spot. In fact Lincoln and Justin met me instead, jumping out of a taxi to say hi ["We saw a Western guy, and we thought 'oh! He'll know where the club is, we'll ask him - and then it was you!"]. Fortunately we were actually almost exactly where we wanted to be...and an hour late Patrick met us in the club too. After 6 hours in the club (taking us to 4.30am), which was largely full of Westerners and Koreans - no doubt drawn in by the 15 yuan draft beers at 25 yuan cocktails - we decided to leave and wait for the subway to open. I got to bed at 6.30am - something I've not done in a while and resulting in a 24 hour 'awake period'.

Surprisingly this did not prevent me from doing stuff the next day, including waking up at 10.30am. Gave Patrick a quick call and went to buy some clothes (I've run out of clean ones and I can't be arsed to wash them - this chillyness really has taken me and my wardrobe by surprise). Arriving 30 minutes late at our agreed spot, and then 30 minutes later after texts back and forth realising there was more than one damn 'Exit A' from that subway we met at the Lama Temple - a large Tibetan Buddhist monastery. In sharp contrast to the forbidden city this sight was fairly awe inspiring and although busy, still quite a pleasant place to walk around and view the beautiful architecture and very impressive statues. There was an exceptionally large Buddha in one building which I didn't except to see outside of Thailand, but the smaller Buddhas and various other statues were all pretty impressive.

From there we headed towards Qian Hai lake - a beautiful area surrounded by restaurants and coffee/tea shops. A very tasty meal there (sans beer) and a coffee (embarrassingly at Starbucks) finished a very nice day.

In the morning today I got talking to a guy my age and his parents who are Canadian (both York graduates in fact) who bizarrely was in the same room as me at the hostel in Qingdao when I was there - small world. After the usual 'small world' chat, I went down to a large weekend curio/'antique'/art market. I made the mistake of walking partly because I knew I'd have to walk a lot of the way anyway from my lonely planet map. Except of course that this is China, and things happen FAST - so in the 1 year since my book was published, Beijing built a new subway line which goes to within 300 meters of the market...never mind. The market itself was huge, and although there were a lot of jade Buddhas, it didn't suffer from the problem many markets I've been to have, namely that all the stalls sell pretty much the same items. The range here was pretty impressive - but I won't bother listing, just if you're ever here you should go there.

Other than that I don't really have much to say about Beijing. It's a quite attractive city to walk around, particularly in some areas of course, and it seems more relaxed and less commercial than Shanghai. I've enjoyed being able to shop in markets and whatever shops I want, and find a range of decent foods to eat. Although it's still annoying being overcharged in some places, more so when you've just watched someone get a different price, and been watched watching by the seller, avoiding these places is not so hard. I'd certainly happily come back to China and Beijing in particular, but I'm also looking forward to heading on to Korea and seeing the sights there!

Nanjing

We met a scientologist in Shanghai. He was talking about the fact he'd come over to China to 'open gates' - we suspect this was a euphemism for 'convert people'. Even listening to his crap (allegedly ;) ) didn't prepare me for the awfulness of the new Indiana Jones movie, which someone put on in the hostel last night. No plot structure, awful acting, awful filming and a god awful (unstructured) plot. However, I assume no one reads this blog for film reviews. Probably sorely disappointed if you do, but frankly thats your own stupid fault.

Place reviews I can sort of offer. I've now spent 3 nights in Nanjing. An old city and regional capital I'd decided to cut down how long I spent here...and then was forced to change that plan - nae mind. Having arrived from Suzhou in 2 hours (70 yuan for fast train - it should take 3.5 hours) I set about immediately booking the next leg of my journey as I was concerned I'd not get transport otherwise as it's national holiday this week. Fortunately the people at this hostel (Sunflower YH Nanjing, I can't recommend it enough) were kind enough to take me to the ticket office and help me book. I got a hard sleeper top bunk leaving yesterday. It was to arrive at midnight in Tai'an (where there is a mountain - Taishan - to climb). Fine and dandy, but as you may have gathered from it leaving yesterday this was not to be. Accommodation prices can triple in holiday season, and indeed they did, while availability - particularly of the cheap kind - plummeted. I've no doubt that if I'd got there and looked I would have found somewhere for under $30 a night (already way over budget), but arriving at midnight this was not something I wanted to do, nor did I want to climb the mountain at that time (although people do, and it's lit all the way up by lanterns). So, next day I booked a ticket to Quingdao on a bus. For this journey I will have a bed (yes, on a bus) which should be interesting. Going to the train station to get a refund on the ticket was interesting, but after 30 minutes in the 'refund' queue someone looked at my ticket and bought it off me for face value (saving me the 20% the office would have charged) - not bad, 2 extra beers right there :).

Nanjing itself is a nice enough big city. The walls are very attractive, and quite impressive. The parts overlooking the lake and mountain on the east side are particularly pleasant to stroll down, and up on to. The area around the hostel is also quite nice to walk around, although now absolutely heaving with chinese tourists which makes it less pleasant. Certainly there is much more of a 'big city' feeling here than there was at Suzhou, and the place is less attractive, but for a city of its size it is still not a bad place to be. Yesterday saw a trip to the Purple Mountain here. Planning to catch the cable car up and down the mountain, I set off on the bus in my flipflops. Finding the bus depositing people near a mausoleum was slightly annoying. More so when I saw the price was 80 yuan (outrageous price, and I'd been told not worth it). Some time was spent looking for the path up the mountain, which was eventually found in the form of a large number of steps winding up one side. This was (as you can imagine) not a particularly pleasant walk up steps in flip flops, and lacking in views as the area is wooded. However, the summit did offer some expansive if hazy views over Nanjing and the lake. The chair lift down (30 minutes on a chair lift...not something for a windy day) offered some fantastic views of the same scenes and because you could see more even fairly near the base of the mountain you got some nice views of the old wall.

My plan for today is to go check out some street sellers near the hostel. Grab these nice pita like lamb sandwich things and some other food and sit in the hostel reading my 21 yuan Crime and Punishment (Peter Carey was 120 yuan...Dostoevsky 21. I love copyright law), and hope like hell the hostel stops playing this classical Christmas music (an experience I've had to endure in a fair few places here). No doubt some english teachers will come in at some point (they're all on national holiday too), and then I'm off to Quingdao later on the night bus, for beer (Tsing Tao is brewed there), beer festival, beaches, and BBQ - excellent.

Suzhou and Tongli

IF anyone were coming to Suzhou, I'd highly recommend going to Tiger Hill in the North West of town. A much more appealing and varied garden would await them there than at the Humble Administrator's Garden, for 10 Yuan less. Although the food had beforehand was not too hot and vastly overpriced, and despite the dozens of wedding shops surrounding the entrance, the garden and hill (artificial) itself was beautiful, and much quieter than the Humble Administrator's.

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!

Hangzhou and Suzhou

After the bustle of Shanghai, and difficulty with going out to bars there other than the hostel I headed to Hangzhou with some hope of a relaxing experience and some drinks outside of the hostel. This proved to be necessary as, although owned by the same group, this hostel was in contrast to the Shanghai Ming Town, dead in the evenings. However, I had some drinks with people on my birthday (some of whom were English guys working in Suzhou as teachers), and enjoyed walking around the city. Although some of the sights in Hangzhou were very nice, and very easy to get to by public transport, some were grossly overpriced - it is obvious that there are a lot of Chinese tourists here, and a lot of them have a lot of money. 40 Yuan ($6.60ish) is a lot to go up one pagoda. However, on the other side of the lake (over an artificial causeway - very nice to walk over), up a hill, there was located a very beautiful monastery with fantastic views over the city through the recently cleared sky all for only 5 yuan (less than $1).

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.

Shanghai

`So, having got rid of the chicken's feet and duck's neck portions onto a chef/catering manager (who I'm told works with Anthony Worral Thompson) today I went out to take a look round the 'old town' and yet again attempt to buy a second hand book. Arriving back at the hostel soaking and with a new book (Peter Carey's Theft which I'm quite happy with) clearly my plan did not entirely work out, and I did spend a reasonable amount of time, yet again, walking in circles. But never mind. The old town was very nice - although a bit fake, reminding me somewhat of the 'shopping villages' built for outlet stores in the uk...only with more hawkers selling watches more antiques and more 'antiques'.

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.

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)

Macau

So having arrived at the airport safely - 4.5 hours early in fact - and drunk our last baht away in the cafe, Kirsty left to go back to England, a job and being cold for a few weeks while she gets used to the weather again, and I left for Macau - where I now am. Despite what I'd been told I quite like it here. Although it was a bit concerning when the plane was taxiing (spelling?) up to the airport and all I could see was water out of one side, it really does seem like an attractive - if polluted - place. Furthermore, it's not all that full of casinos other than on the water front where there is something of a sense that there might be a slot machine element to the parking meters. My room is very nice - although more expensive than I'd hoped for; I suspect the olympics are to blame. In my afternoon here, other than just taking a bit of a stroll (after a much needed shower) I've walked up to the ruins of a church (much better that way, and lovely views too), and from there a short bit further up to a fort, with yet more good views. I tried to eat at a nice Italian place recommended in the guide - but alas it was being renovated..so I went to pizza hut instead; my stomach needs a break from rice.

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

I'm aware that some of my posts have been very much 'this is where we are and this is how we got here' in content. This is partly because those are some of the most memorable moments, and in some ways most interesting to read (who needs to know when I had a particularly nice/bad cup of coffee? Incidently, I've had both in Chiang Mai - fantastic local coffee, and nescafe).

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.

Cambodia and back into Thailand

Much to my annoyance, a long blog I wrote yesterday seems to have been deleted.  I'll try and replace that at some point.  First, something I'd forgotten from before:

We had a fish massage in Siem Reap.  This involves putting your feet in a pool of water with fish in.  These fish then make a meal of the dead skin on your feet.  This obviously creates a very odd sensation - but is quite nice (if tickly) and made my feet slightly less gross.

So, after a pleasant if somewhat hassled time in Siem Reap, we were happy to move on to a small place north of there called Kompong Chnang ($6 bus ride).  We were slightly concverned we'd not know where to get off as the bus goes to Battambang eventually, but the guide highlighted some landmarks so we managed to find the right stop.  Landmarks might be a bit of an overstatement there - there was an independence monument...andf it was the only place we'd stopped that was 'town like' thus far, so we figured it was our stop.  The main attractions of Kompoing Chnang are that it is not Siem Reap...and it has potteries and a river to the North East.  For us another attraction was staying in a nicer guesthouse than we had in Siem Reap for the same price.  This place had functional a/c (the other did not), a nice bed (the other was foam with stained, poorly fitting sheets) and no mosquitos in the room (you guessed it, the other did).  The disadvantages of the place were 1) the electricity cut out a fair few times - leaving us rather hot in our rooms (and without cold beer!) and in the dark 2)the only 'restaurants' in town were not very nice dull places, although cheap.  We walked out to the river on our full day there, which was a very pleasant walk despite giving us the only hassling (you want ferry ride?  We take you, nice ride you see floating village) of our time there and despite the incredible heat (walking in to a restaurant two S.African blokes said 'you hot then' - it was only then I noticed my rather wet t-shirt.

From Kompong Chnang we went to Battambang - closer to the Thai border.  We were staying at the Royal hotel, and were somewhat surprised to find a cheap tuktuk affiliated with the Royal to take us there - normally these are the reserve of crap hotels trying to pull in trade.  For $10 a night we got a nice a/c ensuite room in this hotel complete with roof bar in central Battambang.  On our second day there we took a tour with a tuk tuk ($20 between 3 of us).  We decided to get a guide ($12 for him and moto, $10 for just him - we made a mistake there, especially given later he took Morritz (German guy we went with) to a spice shop and almost certainly took commission for the trip).  Anyawy, we had a very nice day going up a mountain to a Wat, and some caves known as 'killing caves' - used by the Khmer Rouge to kill people in by various means.  There are stil some bones there, although many have been removed and cremated as Buddhism requires.  The only other thing of note in Battambang was The Smokin' Pot restaurant which gave us $4 Amok (curry) with drinks - so cheap (and good) we felt compelled to buy their cookbook - which I will use when i get home.

After 3 nights in Battambang we had to catch a taxi to Poipet - Rough guides, again being rough, told us we could get a 3hr $3 bus in the morning.  This bus in fact left at 11.30 - meaning we'd have arrived in Bangkok about 8pm or there abouts.  So with Lucy (French girl we met there) we caught a taxi for $30 - a reasonable price judging from the signs up for shared taxis in Khmer, with prices set at about that for the whole taxi - lthough in those, there would be 7 people including the driver - tight fit!  We arrived at the border in 2 hours - the road was much improved in \the 23 weeks since we'd been there last, with the mud removed and much more tarmac than previously.  We sailed through both sets of immigration lines, jumped on a tuktuk, to the bus station, and then straight on to a 1st class bus to Bangkok.  On arrival there (5 hours later) we had a bit of a faff finding departures, but got there eventually and again jumped straight on to a bus to Ayuthia.

Phnom Penh

5 nights in Phnom Penh. Fantastic place, although I'm getting particularly tired of two things. Firstly fat ugly Western men with young Cambodia's (this is worse than in Thailand!), second (and this one is just sad more than annoying, and is an important indicator of where Cambodia is and can move to) the constant barrage of children coming up to you to sell things (books generally) - which you shouldn't buy because it doesn't hep them get off the streets, and their selling items puts them at direct risk - and the chorus of "you want tuktuk. Go killing fields, s-21 (torture/prison place under pol-pot now a museum), shoot gun". Athough I think seeing these things is important (not the gun shooting), and I'm very glad we went to them (maybe more on that another time, athough there's not much to say, they were of course very sad to go to, but absoloutely worth a trip), I find it sad that to make a living tuk tuk drivers market a dark part of their very recent history to often ignorant tourists. On that front, I was shocked at how little I knew about the recent history, and just recent it is (late 90s) compared to when I thought things had really come to a general end (late 70s) and so on. Moving on to Kompong Chnang tomorrow (where we dont expect to have internet...it's a small fishing town, also famous for making clay pots for water storage), and then Battambang before going back to Thailand. See http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2349135&l=a0765&id=197800857 for photos.

Siem Reap

So, after our epic bus journey we spent 4 nights in Siem Reap at a very good hotel/guest house called Earthwalkers. For $10 each we got an ensuite a/c room, breakfast included, and the place had a nice swimming pool. It was about 1km out of the centre - but hell who cares, we had a pool :D and the staff were very friendly and helpful. Having a fairly limited time (and the first night being spent relaxing and recovering from the taxi ride) we decided we'd spend our first day walking around Siem Reap, the second at Angkor, and third on a boat trip tour. Siem Reap was a very nice place to walk around, with two good markets, one very touristy but quite dead and a bit lacking in atmosphere, the other selling local and tourist items. The latter was much nicer if with a few more shouts of 'hello sirrrrr. You buy something. I give you good price'. We think that making english not tonal proves quite hard for some Cambodians, so the high tone in questions turns very whiney for most, which gets a touch grating after a while. There was also a very touristy but very nice night market which we went to once. The park in Siem Reap is lovely, and although the streets and in particular the restaurant streets are lovely to walk round, the amount of Western restaurants is somewhat annoying. Khemer food is fantastic, so to have offerings of (bad) pizza, and english breakfasts as the sole choice in quite a number of places was pretty galling. i particularly enjoyed that in the (Western, and only) mal in town, the sign outside the pizza place read 'you can almost taste it' - a sentiment I can well believe.

To get out to Angkor we hired a tuk tuk for the day ($15). He picked us up at 5am so that we were at Angkor temple itself for sunrise. This was something of an anticlimax due to the cloud coverage - however, once the crowds who had gathered for similar purposes had disapated to other Wats it was remarkably quiet. I won't say much about the day really, because I think the pictures will do it much better. It was well worth the $20 day ticket (steep though that is in Cambodia) and I hope that the temples are preserved, and the site is improved itself over the next few years.

The final day we went on a river boat. Now I know some advocates of the Rough Guides series. However, they're wrong. The way the maps are organised is annoying. They omit useful information (like prices). i like how lonely planet organise eating places by type (Western, Thai, etc.) Anyway, on this occasion the problem was that it implied we could go to the lake, and walk around, and perhaps see some floating village from there, and hire a boat for $10 per hour. Instead we were taken by our tuk tuk driver (same bloke, $10 this time) to a ticket office which charged $20 each to go on a long boat from the river - because you cannot get to the lake via road at this time of year (thanks rough guide). $20 is A LOT of money in Cambodia, particularly for a 1.5 hour boat ride. Fantastic though it, and the journey by tuk tuk to the river were in terms of views, and seeing how people live, I'm skeptical as to the value of the trip really. My other problem with this trip was that on our return to the docking place, the boat went past a floating school (it moves over a period to teach different kids). I thought we'd get away with not going in, but the guide was very insistent that the boat driver should circle back and take us in. Now interesting though it was to see this room, which can (apparently) take up to 60 pupils, (it had about 15 in there then and the teacher) i feel the same about this as I do about going in to an orphanage as a tourist - it isn't appropriate, I wouldn't give money directly through that means, and I don't have skills to offer, which essentially makes the trip voyeuristic at best. Incidentally, in phnom penh we've been offered trips to orphanages...oh dear :s.