Being Domesticated

Thursday 30th November 2006 Even when travelling you need to be domesticated some days. As the sun is shining washing is drying within half a day so a load goes in, this is a relief after Chengdu washing. I won’t need my hairdryer this time around. Even when travelling you need day to day food so a trip to the supermarket was experienced. I went early after a free breakfast at the hostel consisting of toast and apple – seems to be the “in” thing here in China. The fruit was a godsend that for sure. My trip to the supermarket passed on a couple of hours, on one floor was a maze of everything – from electronic goods, to clothes to household goods to toys. I bought a couple of christmas presents along the way, spending all of about 20p. Oh so generous! Will probably cost me 100 x that to post them knowing China Post. The supermarket even had christmas cards and decorations which I found amusing. Watch out you may get a chineese christmas card off me. On the second floor was food, lots of it, not just lots but lots and lots. I bought some juice, fruit (bananas are about 3p each, apples a bit more expensive at about 12p each), often delights that I wouldn’t even think of touching beckoned me, but being sensible I stuck to the things that looked edible (strawberry bread – hmmmm – not so keen to be honest). Most importantly I picked up some more tea (english breakfast) and some proper milk, along with my 6p yoghurts. Armed with shopping bags I ploughed back to the hostel dodging the many bikes which I am now getting accoustomed to. The free internet is a little dodgy, but its free so no complaining please. Its a nice atmosphere here, with rooftop terrace to catch the sun. Ample supplies of tea are keeping me at bay. Chatted to a chineese guy for the afternoon whilst soaking in the sun and drinking tea. He wanted to practice english with me – trying to explain how to pronounce the sound “th” as in “thing” or “thank” and talking about the “bath” pronunciation (north v’s south – it is NOT “barrrth” there is no “r” in bath, it’s B-A-T-H. Ok? Not that I am going to get one of those for a while. Showers are hot though so thats ok.

Coming to Kunming

Wednesday 29th November 2006

I’ve been on my travels for two weeks now, as I leave the very friendy Mix Hostel. The staff were lovely, spoke very good english and would go out of their way to help and advise you, and the cats were very friendly too. The food was cheap and good quality too, though I think I have now had enough rice to fill wembley stadium 100 times over. Arrived in Kunming after playing dodgems with the bikes, taxi’s, cars and planes in Chengdu. Typically the day I leave the sun shines in Chengdu. The sun only shines 100 days of the year in Chengdu. The flight was just over an hour, an interesting “snack” came round – it may have been the chineese version of an authentic “hot dog” – but with real dog and cold. This consisted of a bread roll with a cold sausage wedged in the middle of it. I wouldn’t put it past them that it was real “cold dog”. Lovely. Taxi drivers at the airport were going to rip me off – I was going to get the bus but decided betweent 18p or 70p I would opt for a taxi at 70p this time. I am sure I can afford it. Managed to get to my next home “the hump hostel” for about 70p after they realised I was not going to pay £4. The hostel flyers are very good and often state a rough price of a taxi from the airport or train station so you know if someone is ripping you off, even though its not really been ripped off compared to UK standards. Hostel has wireless though I think its a bit slow as my flickr pictures of my last hostel – Mix Hostel are taking ages to upload. Due to excess rice I have just opted for a tuna sandwich at the hostel this afternoon, I think my body needs a bit of western food today, (but not chips or dog)

Sichuan, s’cis Cold Chengdu, Achcoooo

Tuesday 28th November 2006

Today’s geography lesson is on Sichuan in China: Located in Southwest China, Chengdu is the regional capital of Sichuan province. Today’s technology lesson is how to build websites, which is how I spent some of my day today, showing a lovely Brazilian girl how to build a website. Its cold still, I have got the hairdryer out to dry the last of my clothes (that I washed on Friday), and changed my flight from Saturday to tomorrow, so I depart Chengdu tomorrow morning to go a bit more south in search for warmth. Later…

You don’t get chips with it do you

Monday 27th November 2006

The joys of travelling doesn’t always come with chips, or obnoxious english travellers who want chips with everything in the middle of China. Perhaps they need to try rice chips, noodle chips or dog’s brains chips, something that I have crossed off my shopping list.

It’s nice to relax at the hostel, as it’s only costing just over £1 a night for a bed, a decent meal is about 50p and free hot water everywhere (this you find across China even in train stations and airports) means the tea I brought with me is free (still need my home comforts of a good old cup of Typhoo tea even though I am trying the local tea delights as well)

So a bit of time out to geek – make the most of free wireless internet. There is also a computer with free music exchange on it.

Trying to clear this sore throat I have at the moment. Some honey may do the trick its only about 30p from the supermarket down the road.

Geeked this evening as an English guy had lost all his music on the music exchange computer, so I lent him my music collection (we liked the same music, lots of 1980s and indie stuff). Also put some of my stuff on the hostel computer, glad to hear people had put some of it on later – see my music tastes aren’t that bad after all.

Still cold, debating whether to stay here or move on, I was going to go up the mountains for a night where there is a temple or ten million but I am templed out now, so I may see if I can change my flight tomorrow and leave on Wednesday.

Every living being has the same basic wish – to be happy

Sunday 26th November 2006

The Great Buddha – if you are in the UK did you see it on the BBC Holiday programme the other week? If so thats what I went to see. Carved into a cliff the great buddha meausres over 70m high – the largest buddha in the world and is surrounded by the oriental buddha park with more buddhas than you can count on 1 million hands and toes. The journey there was done by bus, coach and bus, first a bus to the local bus station, then a coach for over 2 hours then another little bus for 40 minutes (6p for this one). The coaches are very much like National Express Coaches in the UK, apart from little chineese ladies come round selling newspapers. There was a “Tea Lady” as well, but not serving tea – but to tell us where we were going, if I was to translate to English I am sure she said “Don’t try and have a crafty fag in the toilets because it is fitted with a smoke alarm but do sit back, relax and enjoy your journey up to the North of England”, or was that the North of the Great Buddha. The Great Buddha Park was a bit of a tourist trap, but all the same a magnicent site. A steep climb down to the bottom of the buddha put it all into perspective. What goes down then must go back up again, luckily I was one of the fit ones who got back up in one go, I didn’t envy some people though huffing and puffing after the first three steps. The journey back was interesting, the coach I caught (as instructed by the woman at the bus station) was only going as far as the south bus station in Chengdu and I was to find out that I would have to get a taxi back to the centre of Chengdu. However rather than leaving you stranded the Chineese give you some money back, so I was given 5yuan back in order to get a taxi. They did this with over half the people on the bus. Cute. Am taking to having showers late afternoon as the city is quite dusty and its nice to freshen up before having tea. Another plus side is that the showers are empty. They’re great showers really hot and powerful I could have stayed in them all night. The hostel is so clean, every five minutes someone is wiping the floor or cleaning something up, the only problem is washing will not dry. Time to get that hairdryer out, I knew I had brought it for a reason. Great tea – cost me 85p – very spicy noodle soup, I am becoming rather good with those chopsticks. Spent the evening chatting to a few english people who had done the world in reverse, from the Americas to New Zealand (we got on topic of how wonderful New Zealand was) to Australia to China to Thailand.

Chill’innnnnng Out

Saturday 25th November 2006

I am glad to be back in hostel land, although not quite the luxury of the past week it has an authenticity which I am thriving on. The temperature is equilivant of walking into a refriderator but the electric blankets really warmed up the place as there is no heating. I have been taking it easy today, wandered back “down town” to buy a jumper – all of £3.60 – a fleece. In china if you want to buy anything you get a ticket from someone then go to the cash desk to pay, they give you another ticket and a bag then you collect the item from the person who gave you the first ticket. Followed that? I also found some chineese thermal underwear, to keep me warm in the refriderator. These cost all of £1.80 so no big loss if I don’t wear them all that much. The numbers are painted on the back of the buses so its easy to hop on them – hopping off is a different matter so I suggest if you do end up in Chengdu that you give yourself half an hour to get off the god damm bus. Back at the hostel this afternoon to finally relax and gather together my thoughts as I have been chasing around for over a week and a half. Its nice to not have the pressure to have to cram so much into a day (or have a guide that won’t shut up). I think its finally hit me that I am out east far far away from home, I have finally wound down from work, london and the stresses that come with trying to live up to the expectations of the western world. I’m loving every minute of it even if my washing won’t dry, its freezing cold and I think I have a sore throat coming on. Time to phone home…

Cccrrrrgggakkrhhhpppptttt – Chengdu by foot

Friday 24th November 2006

Our last day together we had dumped the guide (maybe she got run ver by a pedicab) and experienced the real Chengdu by foot which I found really fascinating. So let me tell you a little about Chengdu. I am currently reading “Running a hotel on the roof of the world” by Alec Le Sueur – 50p from Wandsworth library over a month or so ago. As quoted from the book (page 13) Chengdu is the smellist city of the region of Sichuan where the sun never shines and it lived up to these expectations as it was like a miserable day in Manchester. Chengdu is also the capital of “cccrrrrgggakkrhhhpppptttt” – involoving snorthing from the back of your throat and throwing it all up in public. Lovely. There are ample supplies of cyclists in the city just like Beijing, cyclists have right of way over Pedestrians as well so beware when on a crossing and a cyclist just passes by and runs you over – a bit like London really. The only difference is the pedicab or two million that also do not give way to pedestrians. We left each other at midday to go our seperate ways, I was going 10 minutes up the road to a hostel and my friend back to Australia. Mix Hostel is where I have hit base for a few days, it seems quite nice, small, friendly and very clean but very very cold. A lot of people seem to have caught the flu here so they provided us with electric blankets only today so I was very lucky to have arrived today. I had a domestic day today posting parcels back to the UK (they would not allow me to post the DVD’s I had bought), washing (apparently it takes days to dry here – dammit I have run out of clothes) and catching up on afew emails and things. I had food at the hostel, which was all of about 70p for a big plate of rice and a local mug of tea. Most people are waiting for their permits to go to Tibet for a couple of days, I reckon I will give that a miss and just relax and gather my thoughts together. Later…

Things are not always as Black and White as they may seem

Thursday 23rd November 2006

Today was National “going to see Panda” day, this means that everyone who is in room 1822 and of the Australian or English nationalitiy must go and see a panda. So following local tradition off we went to see the Pandas at Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center, supporting the world’s only giant panda breeding and research base. Pandas are big black and white things, and they eat bamboo and to see them in the real was just awesome. What else can I say about this amazing creature? Not only did we get to see the big black and white ones but we also got to see some little baby pandas. Now imagine your big teady bear in black and white about about 2 foot high (or imagine that fluffy toy in Hamleys that you just loved the minute you saw it) now imagine them moving about a little trying to walk, you are now going into a deep sleep… (do I sound like paul mckenna?), how do you feel? Great? Yes, thats how I felt when I saw these amazing creatures. My friend wanted her photo with a panda (I wasn’t keen to be honest), paid up her money and made her dream come true, that was my friend set up not only for the day but the week, the month and the year, it was her year of the Panda that’s for sure. She then went on to have her picture taken with a little red panda. Little red pandas are not Red and White pandas as you may think (ever seen a red and white panda?) but actually look like foxes, not like evil city foxes but like little cute chineese foxes, they even have chopsticks in their paws and drink tea – how cute! After Pandaland we moved on to visit Wenshu Monastery, here we were to eat at the vegetarian restaurant which was really yummy. The chineese eat so much food, so much to even satify the fattest man on the planet, do not ever attempt to eat it all. I have now become an expert at eating with chopsticks. A visit to something called “Shu Brocade” – silk weaving which is a traditional craftwork of ancient china was very fascinating, it takes a day to weave about 7″ of material. The only problem with visits to these things is that they show you around for free then expect you to buy something at some extortionate price “we take credit cards” they tell us over and over again. Good for them. In the evening we went to the Theatre to see a Sichuan Opera, which involves all sorts of wierd and wonderful things including face changing, shadow puppets, dancing and spitting fire. An amazing end to a fantastic day.

Caves and Duvets

Wednesday 22nd November

 Today we went to see cave, and cave was actually really really good – I was plesently surprised. We were also taken around some Zen garden and shown some Chineese artwork – very interesting if you are into art. If I told you we went to see how duvets were made would you laugh? I give you permission to laugh. But these were silk duvets – my friend bought one but I was not prepared to backpack around the world with a silk duvet in my back pocket – so happily gave it a miss. Onwards and upwards as we journeyed to our next destination – panda land. DELAYED DELAYED DELAYED – Our plane to Pandaland was delayed – they said due to adverse weather conditions but I think it was due to big Olympic Panda escaping from the Panda centre and found trying to board the plane to Alice Springs in need of some hot sunshine but he had taken a nail file with him in his hand luggage and they were worried he was going to do some dammage to fellow passengers. We did finally arrive in Pandaland an hour or so later, to meet our guide also called “Helen”. Thank goodness she did have an off switch, she wasn’t in a Panda suit either. Hotel is standard Hotel – very much like the other one really but with harder beds but the broadband (which is not wireless but at least its broadband) is better than the last hotel. Time for some sleep…

Fairytail Boats, cats tails and stuck records.

Tuesday 21st November

A 6.30 wake up call is quite a frighening thing when in mid sleep, that was all in the name of acruise down the Li River with our guide. We are currently in a posh hotel with breakfast, stocked up on fruit and cereal and pinched a couple of bananas and bready things for mid morning snacks – well you pay for these things so why not. Our “guide” didn’t seem to have an off button else it was broken for she would not shut up and told us 1001 times we were going on a boat. After about 5 minutes I learned to switch off myself and enjoy the scenary. Our boat trip was lovely though reminicient of New Zealands’ Milford Sound for the vast amounts of tourists and boats setting off downstream, a little too touristy but well worth it as there is no other way of seeing this area. Green tea welcomed us on board – I bet you didn’t know that green tea could talk and welcome english people did you? Well it can, just as records (anhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/purplespace/308231424/d tour guides) can become stuck and repeat themselves over and over and over again. The scenary was stunning – the mountains rising above like a bed of needles I’ve never seen anything so different. Magically the low cloud hung onto the mountains making it look like we were sailing through a fairytail. Lunch on board did consist of dead things like turtle, snake probably dog and cat (we saw a cat the previous night being dragged by its owner so that must have been today’s lunch) – so sticking to rice and vegetables is always a safer option. The tofu was quite nice though. Off the cruise trip….Umberella, you want to buy umbrella, despite having a decent waterproof over me ok it was raining but no i did not want a bloody umbrellla neither did I want a plastic flower despite how “beautiful” it was, and the guide was still doing her impression of a stuck record, a very very good one it was too. You buy scarf, you buy t shirt, you buy postcard, no no no…me buy mechanism to shut up guide thats what me buys. But even here in China they don’t seem to sell that, (though they sell everything else dammit) Stuck record guide then drove us around to a perl place – i don’t do perls but of course was polite and nodded in a “yes I look interested” sort of bored way, “you sell tea” i should have said, “I need tea” a good cuppa at that, just nice tea, tea tea, I am now thinking of tea. But alas no we were off again to some elephant place – now the chineese seem to think that an archway in the cliffs looks like an elephant dipping its nose into water, whereas everyone else calls it a cove or something similar, so they had made this area to view this elephant which was actually a cove, confused, yeah so was I especially as it was bucketing it down with rain, “You want to eat dead snake’s eyes, tortose brains on a stick, or snakes feet on a stick – just a minute snakes feet?? Now I am confused and wet and want that cup of tea. Guide had a friend who sold DVD’s so we did the DVD experience which I found interesting, they have all the proper DVD’s in the shop itself then cardboard boxes all the illegal ones, for the equilivant of less than 50p. So officially a bargain or what? That’s naughty very naughty, bad evil naughty, bad. Finally at around 4pm I get my cup of tea, back at the hotel room and try the luxury strawberry tim tams that my friend had bought me from oz now a girl sometimes needs her comforts and for me a cup of standard english breakfast tea with milk is one of them. Now I am happy. Keeping on the same theme we went into the more western cafe for some tea, before heading off to the theatre to see a performance of dance – performing local traditions. It was really interesting given that I am not really into Theatre. Really colourful, educational and very very clever in parts. A good ending to a day of failing to switch off the tour guide. I have been informed that tomorrow we are going to see a cave, I have been informed that tomorrow we are going to see a cave…. guess what? We are goin to see a cave tomorrow…. Over and out…