18/10 - Xi'an

We touched down in Xi'an (lit. West Peace) on Friday. First impressions were not good as we viewed the bland "could be any big city in china" city streets and the thick smog from the taxi. But I assured Si Phong that things would get much more characterful once we moved in to the old town within the ancient city walls. Our driver made a sudden turn in to a building site, "Ah a clever short cut!", we thought. Only it turned out that our hotel was in the building site, and that we were already within the city walls. Ho hum!

 

Thankfully the hotel itself proved to be clean and functional, just as the guidebook had promised. The purpose of visiting Xi'an was to see Bing Ma Young (or Terracotta Warriors), the thousands of life sized clay warriors which were discovered in 1974. However, as impressive as the warriors were, our most memorable moments in Xi'an were soaking in the sights and smells of the chaotic muslim quarter and a wonderful sunset bike ride around the city walls, which form a 15km circumference around the old town.

 

 

13/10 - More pictures from Huang Shan

We spent the night on the mountain top. The weather meant that there was no chance of catching a decent sunrise, but nevertheless I woke at 6am to hike the west sea canyon before we checked out at noon. This part of the mountain is not frequented by the tour groups as it involves some strenuous walking. That coupled with the bad weather meant that I pretty much had the place to myself. 

 

The canyon hike was spectacular, an out and back journey along a stairwell that winds its way steeply down the side of the canyon. In the mist, it felt like descending in to a murky abyss, while the rock formations cast brooding shapes all around us in the half light. Again, it was all very unphotogenic in the mist, so I resigned myself to just enjoying the experience and not bothering too much with the camera.

 

It may have rained without stop for the three days that we were at Huang Shan, but we knew we had been somewhere special when we lay down in our beds at the end of a long day of walking....as we closed our eyes and drifted in to sleep, we found that we still had images of the mountains playing back in our minds.

12/10 - Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain)

Huang Shan was the second of the great natural wonders on the itinerary, following Halong Bay in Vietnam.

 

At 1800m high, its no Everest, but the yellow mountain is famed for its stunning scenery rather than for the hardships required to scale its heights. In fact, at times it felt more like a mountain theme park than a walk on the wild side, with its well tended network of walkways, cable cars and hoards of tourists.

 

The missus, already stung by the jungle experience in Lao was hardly chomping at the bit over the prospect of a 6 hour coach journey from Shanghai and an overnight stay in a damp hotel at the base of the mountain. Things got even worse the next day as she woke with a bangin' cold and the sound of heavy rain on the tin roof behind our room. However, the call of the mountain was strong, too strong, and I used my powers of coercion and superior physical strength to strong arm her up the mountain - via cable car, of course, rather than the 10km vertical hike on the eastern steps.

 

At the top, it was a whiteout and the rain kept pouring as we trudged around the mazey paths until we found one of the better mountain top hotels and agreed to yet another jaw dropping price. Once checked in, Si Phong made a beeline for a warm bed and TV and the strong arm was employed once more to wrench her out and deposit her again in to the great and wet outdoors for another forced march.

 

With the attention span of an autistic chimpanzee and temper of a grizzly bear with a poker up its arse, forcing Si Phong in to any extended physical activity is always a high risk game. Fortunately, this one paid off. Big time. We reached the aptly named dispelling cloud pavillion and for a few exhilarating minutes, the fog lifted and we were able to witness the mystical views all around us. The mountains were bathed in early autumnal colors, a patchwork of yellows, reds and greens, and we could see nearby peaks shrouded in mist. We felt like we'd stepped in to a water painting by some old chinese master.

 

Unfortunately, the weather conditions and limitations of my point-and-shoot made Huang Shan quite difficult to photograph, but some moments are better savoured first hand rather than captured behind the lense of a camera. I can only imagine how stunning Huang Shan would be under better conditions and have the feeling that this will not be the last time that we walk its peaks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11/10 - Shanghai

In its infinite wisdom, the motherland has banned access to facebook and blogspot, but fortunately we can still blog via email.

 

We've had a relaxing 3 days in Shanghai, staying with Jimbo and Suzy and attending their registry wedding on the auspicious date of 10.10.10. Shanghai's a fantastic, cosmopolitan city but staying there for me is all about just kicking back and hangin' out with friends...and a bit of shopping, aided by Jim's encyclopaediac knowledge of the little boutique shops of the French Concession...and lots of eating, as just about every aspect of China's cuisine is represented in Shanghai. However, we are finding that many of Suzy's favourite restaurants have disappeared since their last visit, buildings knocked down to make way for new developments and shiny malls, such is the pace of change in Shanghai. 

 

We also managed a second rendez vous with Sheenie, who's been swashbuckling his way through cambodia and was also there for the wedding. We'll be seeing more of our sweaty friend when we hook up in Guilin later in the month. Jimbo and I managed to hook him up with a very nice replica of a vintage Panerai 249 (one of the few non-vulgar Panerai) from the fake watch man, which was just made for him. Wouldn't be suprised if the watch bug bites and we see the real thing on his wrist in a year or two.

 

Things have been great so far, but I don't ever feel like I've really gotten to know a country unless I've been on a decent bike ride or gone up a big mountain on its soil. Over the next few days, I get to satisfy that urge when we go to Huangshan (yellow mountain). I've been looking forward to this one for a long time.

05/10 - Hanoi and Halong Bay

After our 3 nights in Vientaine, we gratefully hopped across the border to Hanoi, Vietnam's capital city.

 

This is a great place. While Ho Chi Minh felt a little characterless for all of its hustle and bustle, Hanoi was just bursting with old world colonial charm. The fact that we'd landed right in the middle of their 1000 year anniversary celebrations didn't hurt either, and every day the streets of the old quarter were awash with flags and people enjoying the celebrations. We were a little sick sightseeing from the previous weeks, thankfully Hanoi had enough of a buzz that just walking the streets and soaking in the atmostphere provided a spectacle in its own right.

 

We also had one of the best moments of the trip so far at Halong Bay, were we stayed the night on a junk boat and got to enjoy the sunset on the sundeck as the waves lapped around us.

 

Next stop, Shanghai and Jimbo's wedding plus reunion with Sheenie, who's currently making his way through cambodia before flying to meet us in Shanghai.

01/10 - Rough in the Jungle

With 3 nights in the ghost town that is Vientaine, we were determined to extract some fun out of our stay. I had the bright idea of a DIY jungle trek to the national park of Phou Khou Kuai, 50 kms away. Now Cong Soi and Si Phong are possibly not the most energetic people in the world, so I invoked my "five points of wisdom" for introducing weaklings to the joys of physical activity:

 

1. Preparation. A quick door to door the day before had revealed that there was only one operator doing hiking tours at the national park, and for a princely sum of $60 a head. Hell no. I KNEW I could put together a fantastic experience for a fraction of the price!!! Being a project manager, I ensured that we departed the next day with a plan. Unfortunately the extent of this plan was the name of a village scrawled on a piece of paper. Using various modes of transport (which we seemed to be exchanging considerably more notes for than the locals) we finally got to the tiny rural village of Ban Hatkai about 2 hours later than planned and just in time for the hottest part of the day. We had been told that Ban Hatkai represented Lao village life at its simplest and most unspoilt, but for simple farming folk these guys sure had a wicked commercial streak as they rapidly wrote out an eyebrow raising inventory of costs for guiding us to the Tad Leuk waterfall.

 

2. Start with a hearty meal. Once we'd befriended the villagers and agreed a price, they brought us some of their local fare to eat. Days old sticky rice, garnished liberally with dead ants, pickled cabbage with congealed pigs skin and half rotten duck eggs. All washed down with a tall jug of (the semi-lethal) tap water...yum yum!!! With a stomach hardened by years of eating from an uncleaned breakfast bowl at work, I scoffed away with impunity, but the girls skipped lunch and hardly ate a bite...perfect prep for a nice long hike!

 

3. Keep it short and enjoyable. On paper, a 7km round trip to a waterfall and back didn't seem so bad. Unfortunately, the gentle stroll quickly degenerated in to a death march. First off, we had a 1 hour boat trip under the burning sun on a tiny, shaky skiff that left us nicely dehydrated before the walking had even started. The walk itself turned out to be an steep uphill through primary jungle that was infested with hornets, mosquitos, fire ants and folliage that clawed at skin from every angle. Si Phong was in her flip flops and slipped several times on the slithery surfaces. By the time we had got to the waterfall, the girls were covered in bruises, cuts and numerous ugly looking insect bites, while I was largely untouched...looks like their blood is far sweeter than mine. Worse still, Cong Soi had developed a banging headache and was looking pretty ill.

 

4. After the activity is over, arrange a swift journey back to a hot shower and food. Except that in this case, the villagers only drove as far as the end of

 a dirt track before depositing us on a road in the middle of nowhere with dusk approaching, ripping us off to the tune of $12 in the process. At this point, Cong Soi had developed severe nausea and was vomitting on the side of the road. After about 45 minutes wait, we hitched a lift of a passing truck where we got to realise our dreams of being in one of those photos from India, where fifty people hang off the roof of a pickup truck tucked in between the chickens and goats. By the end of the 2 hour drive, even my hardened roadie's butt was in spasms after being perched out on a hard ledge for too long. By this point, Cong Soi and Si Phong had made it in to the covered trailer where the local men stared at them and made lewd jokes to each other. The journey seemed to take forever, and every bump on the rough, rough roads reverberated through every bone of my contorted body. Fortunately I had my GPS to hand, and was able to provide regular reports to the girls about just how slowly we were travelling. Having been ripped off at every possible opportunity that day, I suddenly became conscious of showing off this whizzy satelite technology to my fellow cattle on the truck, and took to holding it to my ear and pretending it was a rather large mobile phone while sneaking a peak at our position.

 

5. And finally, if you get all of these elements correct, lap up the praise from your delighted companions. "It was the worse day I've ever had on Holiday" said Cong Soi, "Never again, you prick" enthused Si Phong.

 

So possibly not the best day trip we've ever experienced, but at least we didn't end up in Widnes. 

29/09 - Vientaine, City of Wonder

Vientaine is the capital of Laos, one of the smaller countries in SE asia, nestled between China, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.

We knew we were in for something special as soon as we touched down, as nubile dancing women in straw skirts greeted our arrival from the runway. We were then whisked away by carriage drawn by four snow white horses along beautiful treelined streets to our fairy tale castle of a B&B. After dinner, we walked up to the waterfall and enjoyed the most spectacular, technicolour sunset we had ever seen, while dolphins and pandas frolicked gaily around us. The water tasted of sweet honey and the air had the perfume of wild jungle flowers. Rather than return to our hotel, we opted to fall asleep under the stars on a bed of palm leaves as humming birds gently fanned us to sleep with the fragrant air. Not even in Malaysia have I ever experienced so much beauty all around us. It as if we had wondered in to a living dream, from which we did not wish to ever wake.

Okay, not really, vientaine was deader than Morden on boxing day, and our misfire was made worse by the tales of wonder from our homeboy Sheenie, who'd rendez vous'd with us there with tales of having a marvellous time in Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng elsewhere in Laos. The most oft repeated conversation, heard in every backpacker cafe was "Has anyone found anything to do here yet?"...a question which is yet to be answered.