SIchuan Province

My latest, and perhaps last trip for now in China, was to Sichuan Province, with my friend Emma from Canberra.

Sichuan is in south western China (which is really south central china), right next to Tibet. It is where the big earthquake was earlier this year, home to panda's, and also has embraced a lot of Tibetan type culture due to its close proximity.

Sichuan province has a tonne of really interesting things, and really should be higher on the list of things to do in China I think.

The reasons I went were for panda's, the giant budda in Leshan, and the Jiu Zhai Gou national park.

We flew into Chengdu on a Saturday. Chengdu, while listed as the third most liveable city in China, was a bit of a hole I thought. It had the worst smog of anywhere I have been in China! Worse than Beijing. Like all Chinese cities it just seems a bit sprawling, smoggy and run down, with the odd bursts of new (which quickly look old as the smog settles onto it and makes it all dirty looking).

The best thing about the city of Chengdu, apart from pandas which I will get to soon, was the hostel we stayed at. Sims Cozy Guesthouse. While I am not a big fan of hostels in general, this one was amazing. We had our own room which had its own bathroom - all very clean and nicely presented. We also had our own dvd player in the room, and got fruit baskets twice in three days! We used the dvd player to watch 30 Rock season 2 and Mamma Mia (twice)!

They had a great travel desk downstairs which helped us organise our tours, and a bar with cheap food and fresh juice. They also have a cute little puppy, which always helps the ambience.

The day after we arrived, we took a bus to see the panda's at the panda research centre. Despite the horrible smog, the center was actually really well done. All quiet and green, bamboo forests, etc. There are around 50 panda's there, and 8 babies, which were each around 3 months old. So cute! Although, from pictures I can see that they are horribly ugly when they are just born. They are like a bald pink mouse, with a long skinny tail and everything, and it is no surprise that when they give birth for the first time, panda's often get such a fright that they try and kill the ugly little parasite. But then after only two months they are much bigger and covered in fur and super cute.

I got lots of photo's and some videos - videos are actually better I think,as it really shows how cute they are!But you can see how they are endangered, as they seem quite stupid, they don't naturally know how to procreate, and they have evolved so that they eat bamboo, which it is difficult for them to digest, it requires them to eat around 40kg of the stuff a day, and doesn't give them much energy. I think they are really thick.

The park also has red panda's - which aren't really panda's at all are they? they are like raccoons or something. Poor red panda's, no one cares about them.

While at the panda centre, we met a lovely woman called Janice. Janice is a Canadian-Chinese, who has left her canadian job as a project manager and came to volunteer in the reconstruction process post-earthquake in Sichuan. She also speaks and reads mandarin, so Emma and I (and a few others) tagged along after her as she took us to a local jiaozi or dumpling restaurant for lunch. For less than $2 each we ate our fill of dumplings filled with a variety of celery, chives or meat. It reawakened my fat cat expat guilt on how much I spend on western food in Shanghai....

In the afternoon we explored a nearby monastery, drinking tea in their tea garden, seeing the millions of turtles in their turtle pond (will have nightmares), and enjoying the tranquil gardens in the middle of the horrible smoggy city (Cannot stress enough how smoggy Chengdu was).

After this Emma, Janice and I went to a nearby snack street where I was not brave enough to partake in the sweet-purple-soup-tofu something or other Emma and Janice ate, however I did eat some of the wierd sticky ricey ball thing (only because Ihad had it before). Then spat it out and was laughed at by locals. It could have been worse though - we saw roasted rabbit heads, and millions of tiny little roast birds that I think were song birds (mean! I thought they were pets!!!).

There was also the stinky tofu of course (fermented tofu, like normal tofu wasn't bad enough) and lots of spicy meat on a stick - Sichuan is known for being the home of super spicy food, so spicy in fact that it numbs your mouth and is sometimes used in rural areas as an anaesthetic. (seriously)

The next day, we went in a mini bus for a three hour drive out to Leshan to see the thousand buddha caves, and then the giant budda. The thousand budda caves are a lot of carvings in a cliff lining a river. I am not sure if there really were 1,000 buddha's, but there were lots and lots. All carved into different configurations, different sizes, etc. Afterwards we ate in a local restaurant full of bai jiu drinking locals who were totally off their face. As the only one of our small group that had any chinese at all, I was responsible for organising the lunch - looking into the kitchen and using a mixture of pointing and not-real words, I ordered us a lavish 6-course vegetarian meal for around $4 each.

After this we headed to see the giant buddha (Dafo). Since the destruction of the big giant sculptures in Afghanistan by the Taliban, this buddha is now the biggest in the world. It is over 70m high, and carved into a cliff over a river, facing another horrible smoggy city. (poor china, it has such beautiful historic and natural wonders, and such horrible cities/suburbs/etc).

I mean, I am quite getting over China having lived in Shanghai for a year now, but travelling to Sichuan reminded me of the lovely things that China has to offer. Many say that Shanghai is not the real China anyway - I think that is such bull. China has over 100 cities with more than 1 million people. Big new cities are China now - they are just not the China you might have expected.

Anyway, after three nights in Chengdu, we then took a regional flight to Jiu Zhai Gou, around 50 minutes away (or a treacherous 10 hour bus ride - no thank you!), and 3,000m higher in altitude than Chengdu. It is the most amazing airport I have been too, in that it is way up in the mountains.

Jiu Zhai Gou is home to another UNESCO site - the Jiu Zhai Gou national park, which is what we went to see. Not many westerners go there for some reason. It is a bit out of the way for the wealthier time-poor tourists, and too expensive for the time-rich money-poor backpackers. Entry to the park is 310RMB per day, or around $50. However, we went for two days, which shows how worth it it was - considering how tight I am.

Jiu Zhai Gou is a 620 square km reserve of mountains, valleys, lakes, snow capped peaks and tibetan villages. It is famous for its amazing coloured waterways, which vary in colour from bright acqua's (sp?) to blues and greens. Seriously, the photos of the place look photo-shopped, but I have been, and can say it is all 100% natural!

We were lucky, we went at the best time of the year, when the leaves are changing colours, which adds to the surreal brightly coloured nature of the place. For two days we walked and bussed (they have a great bus service in the park, as it is too big to just walk all the way) around the park. Taking a million photo's and sometimes being the subject of photo's - lots of chinese tourists there, not many westerners, meant that we were often photographed paparrazzi-style. At one point we had a crowd of people in front of us taking photo's while we ate some biscuits. One had a tripod set up! (emma refused to remove her sunnies at his request, but I am a sucker...). I wonder what they do with these photos?

In testament to how beautiful this area is - on the 1.5 hour taxi drive from the airport to our hotel, our taxi driver pulled over 3 times to take photo's even though he is from there! The first time he pulled over in the middle of nowhere, I thought we were going to be murdered! but he just wanted to take photo's of his cab with the beautiful scenery in the background.

The Jiu Zhai Gou hotel was not very good at all. I wish Sims was up there. The rooms were nice enough, but freezing cold, and the tv had no english channels - which we missed since there is nothing else to do in a national park area at night. For respite we kept going to the Sheraton down the road, for meals, use the internet, get warm...

Ah, now the piece de resistance of the trip. The trip home. I couldn't get a direct flight to SHanghai from Jiu Zhai Gou, so I had to go back to Chengdu. This was all fine, fine, although inconvenient, and meaning a long wait in between flights. So, when I finally got on the connecting flight home, I was, to be honest, a bit cranky and ready to sleep on the plane. However, I was unfortunately seated next to a "Little Emperor". A tiny, loud, bossy little boy, who would scream at me in Chinese, calling me Ayi (aunty) and refusing to stop talking to me even though I couldn't understand a word of his slurred mandarin. I kept telling his mum I didn't understand, but she didn't care, glad to have his attention off herself, and she often disappeared leaving me with him, as he jumped over my lap, kicked everything in sight and pulled the armrests up and down for hours.

And then comes my number 1 China story - the mother reached for the airsickness bag, and I thought - Oh CHRIST! he is going to spew, which could make me spew. But he didn't seem ill, so then I thought, - She is just going to spit in it, which, while disgusting, is very common in China, and perhaps bearable.

No, on both counts. As she opened the bag, the boy stood up on the chair right next to me, and began pissing in the bag. Seriously. He pissed in the paper bag, she folded it up (and I freaked out about what she might be going to do with it), then she wiped him down with some tissues and handed the whole sorry mess to the poor air hostess!!!

They then repeated the process again later in the flight!!!! Seriously. Ah China...

Things to do in Shanghai

This is just a list, so I remember where to take visitors, and so any of my friends can know the good things to do/see in Shanghai (and not stupid recommended tourist things only)

the Bund - obviously. You can walk here from East Nanjing Metro station. Go at night, so you can see the lights, but not after 10 when they might have shut them off. Boat rides are quite nice, and not too expensive. Ignore the millions of people selling crap. You could have dinner at one of the restaurants here, but I think it is a big fat rip off, and really not worth the money. The restaurants I have been to (Whampoa Club, Sens and Bund, New Heights), indeed have good views, but are so expensive - such a rip off.

Lujiazui - the other side of the river to the Bund. You can have a nice walk along, and look back on the Bund, see the Pearl Tower (do not bother going up), and then visit the Super Brands Mall near the station.

Jinmao Tower or World Financial Centre - the two tall buildings, WFC is the taller, and you get much better views than from the Pearl. Jinmao has good restaurants on the 54th floor, with cool views, and also a great hotel lobby bar on the 54th floor that has views up to the top (another 50 floors).

Taikang Lu (get in taxi, say "Taikang Lu, Sinan Lu"). this is an arty cafe type area, in the french concession, where you can chat away the day, search for gifts, look at art, and all in these converted old lane houses.

Dolar Shop - this is a chain hot pot restaurant, and one of my big faves. So delicious, so cheap, english menus if you ask for them, and individual pots. very Chinese.

Wu Jiang Lu - combines street food at one end, with new yuppy shops at the other (Cold Stone!yum!). Just get out at West Nanjing Road Tube station. (Also, the new M&S is here!).

Moganshan Lu - this is another arty street. I'm not that into art.

Red Town - Shanghai Sculpture Space - lots of galleries - also where I work! Eat at Beca, get the Napoleon crepe. you can walk from Hongqiao Lu tube.

Element fresh - western style restaurant chain, but HEALTHY, and nice restaurant atmosphere. I recommend the breakfasts, the juices and the quesadillas! Good for those westerners who can't handle chinese food 24x7 (me and Aidan).

Ruijin Guest house - only because it is pretty, not because it is particularly good food. Old style Shanghai house on Ruijin Lu, with a bar at the bottom and restaurants up top.

1001 nights - this is a fab restaurant on Hengshan lu, middle eastern food. my fave, they burst your eardrums every half hour when they bring out the dancing girls though.

Julu Lu and Changde lu - the best shopping streets (still not that fab).

Yu Gardens (sa Yu Yuan to the taxi driver. It is not near a metro station). for around 50RMB you can stroll through the beautiful gardens. Ignore all the shops/touristy stuff surrounding it, once you get in there, it is v. tranquil.

Obviously the museums...but I haven't ben to them yet!!! I am so bad.

DVD Stores - one of the highlights for all my guests is going to buy dvds for around 8RMB each, which makes box sets, v.v.v. cheap. The best ones I find are on Dagu Lu near Ruijin Er Lu.

The fabric markets - a big pull for tourism, but still, I think they are a nightmare. don't recommend at all.

Yangshuo

Aidan has a friend called Scotty who lives in Yangshuo (south China, near Guilin), and works for a company called China Climb. So, while their other friend Dogger was visiting us in Shanghai, we all went down for four days in Yangshuo.

It was simply the most beautiful place I have ever been in china, and due to my being ill for 70% of the time I was there, I need to return, ASAP, and enjoy it properly.

Even driving from the Airport in Guilin to Yangshuo was a beautiful 90 minute drive past thick green fields and wierd looking karst hills (these things that pop straight up out of the ground).

Yangshuo is a relatively small city of I reckon about 30,000 people, and in the centre of that is the main street, nearby a river. From any direction, getting out of town to the country side was very quick.

We went to meet Scotty first at his cool offices in China Climb. This was a three or so stagger-storied building with a bar and lounge at the bottom, and random climbing (frisbee-looking) people loitering about.

Surrounding the offices were many other bars, restaurants, little shops and juice stands. A five minute walk away, at the quieter end of teh street was our hotel (hardest beds in the universe)

After a quick drink (fresh apple juice with ice, only 6RMB for a super large one!), we hopped on some bikes (5RMB for the afternoon!!) and rode out to the river for a swim.

Yes, I know, river swimming in China doesn't sound realistic...dirty water, diseases, etc. But the water seeeeeemed ok, and I swam in it. In fact, we jumped off bridges into it, swam around, and then they sat under the bridge and drank beer like derros)

Yes, I was sick the next day, but no one else was, so I will not blame the water.

Surrounding the river are green fields and lots and lots of karst mountains - just beautiful. The most beautiful spot I have seen in China - see, you really need locals to help you.

I didn't even need a towel, as the river water was so warm, and the air dried me quickly, and we rode back into town in our swimmers.

That night we had dinner out in the town, and I was pleased that food in Yangshuo, unlike Shanghai, is VERY similar to the Chinese food westerners have seen before...hooray!

The next day I got very ill, with high fevers, etc, and so that was the end of fun for me in Yangshuo, on only my second day :(

However, it was so beautiful, I cannot harbour bad memories of it. #1 place in China I say! (even if it is very touristy...).

Up to my knees in Shanghai

So today I thought I would write about this Chinese wedding i went to on the weekend, but now I am wet, cold and worried I have contracted typhoid, so instead I will write about the flood I had to walk through to get to work today (who knew I was so dedicated ---really I am not, my chinese colleagues wouldn't give up, not me!).

We woke up to what was seriously, continuous thunder, at around 6:30, and steady rain.

At 10, I headed off to work. Since it is impossible to get taxis in the rain, I walked to Nanjing West Road Tube station and got the train. It was raining on the way, but not too hard.

While on the train, I got a call from my colleague Amy, asking where I am, if I am alright, and that she would wait for me at Hongqiao station(where we get off to go to work), because there is some water around the station.

I didn't really understand, and thought I would be fine, as i wore my cons today, not sandals.

Well, some water is an understatement. There were cars stopped and stranded in the street it was so flooded - right outside the station.

At this point, i should have just gone back home. But no. We walked through the one small alley which wasn't flooded (crowded therefore with bikes, people and many many cars), to Honqiao Lu trying to find a non-flooded way to get through.

Amy, before we left the station, suggested we hire a rickshaw guy to take us to work, but I thought we could find a safe way to walk. I thought it would be a rip off. I thought it would be dangerous, like we would get in an accident.

Eventually, we made our way to Huai Hai Lu, which is the road our work is on, only to discover it was also flooded. Finally, we had to suck it up and just walk through this dirty brown water up to our calves in some spots.

When it came to crossing the road/river, I just gave in, and we hired a bike to take us across. Not only did he take us across the road though, as the entire of Red Town (our work complex) was flooded, so he had to take us up the river to our building.

I am ashamed to say, that for three people, we only paid 10 Kuai. Why am I so tight?!?!?!

Admittedly, if I had been with Aidan, he would have charged us 200 I am sure.

So anyway, that was todays adventure...

Empire of the Sun

I have not written in this blog for ages. You know how life happens, and you think nothing interesting is happening, but really, I am sure there are interesting things going on that I will want to remember, so I will start writing more regular, shorter, blogs, in an effort to record my lifes happenings and not skip over my actual life. Isn't it ridiculous that I am only recording my travelling...I am living in Shanghai! there is so much I will want to remember just from here!

Similarly, I should really get round to putting up some posts about my time in London as well...

Where have I been the last 3 months? Well, I have still been in Shanghai - working, making new friends, and I even got to go back to Australia for three weeks to fix up my visa. My sister had a baby last week, so now I am an aunty...umm...I think that is the major news.

This little update will just be quickly about a discovery I made today. While walking during my lunch hour in the area surrounding my office (Huai Hai XI Lu, Hongqiao Lu), I passed by a heritage building sign which told me I was on what used to be Amherst Avenue (now Xinhua Lu). For those who don't know, Amherst avenue is where JG Ballard grew up during WW2, and where much of the book Empire of the Sun is set. I was very excited, as I love the book, and after doing a quick google, I found out that his actual house was a restaurant that I pass by every day!!

Now I will have to go and eat there!

It was just as you would imagine it, and I will try and remember to bring my camera to work so I can take pictures...an old french style house, in wide gardens, set on a tree lined road. The only difference is that now the entrance is on Panyu Lu, not Xinhua Lu (Amherst Avenue).

Also, both my offices in Shanghai have been on Huai Hai Lu, which I have just found out was previously Avenue Joffre, which also features in the book.

Since coming to Shanghai I have reread the book, but will need to reread AGAIN, now that I know the exact area they are talking about - right next to my office! how funny.

I can't believe that little boy pedalled all the way from Amherst Avenue to the Bund on his bike every day to see if the war had begun - it is no short distance! about half an hour in a car.

I bought the sequal the other day - The Kindness of Women - and I didn't like it as much. It is a lot darker, depressing, which you would expect considering his childhood, but it doesn't have the overall 'uplifting' feeling that Empire of the Sun does, which made me love it. (this is why I am not a book critic, and why I have refused to join my friends book club here in Shanghai).

Xian - Beijing - Hangzhou

This first picture is of the sunset in Hangzhou - v.v. beautiful. The second one is obviously of the Terracotta Warriors (or some of them anyway). and then the computer has had a fit, and not let me put up any other photo's.

Notes about this entry - as per usual, I spend a long time on the first bits, and get sick of it by the end and just rush it all...

For two weeks in March, Sue Ellen visited me in Shanghai, and for six days of this visit, we left Shanghai to do a bit of travel around China. This is a super monster post, but seeing as this is just my travel diary, I will write it how I like, thank you very much!

On a grey Holy Thursday, we flew out of Shanghai to Xian. Unbeknownst to me, the airline regulations had recently changed so that you can no longer take liquids on board, ruining my idea of taking my small suitcase on board and saving a lot of trouble. In fact, it caused extra trouble, as I was stopped at security and sent back to the check in to put my bag through….soooo annoying.

We flew on Shanghai airways which was really quite ok, I have flown them before. This time we actually got fed (not fantastic, but it did have something I could eat amongst it), and also the man next to me had a laptop and was watching some English movies, so I got inflight entertainment and everything (a romantic comedy and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).

When we got to Xian, the nightmare of us getting ripped of by taxi drivers was about to begin…after Harbin it is what I expected…however, for some reason, my newly acquired confidence and Chinese skills actually got me taxi’s cheaper than what the trip advisors recommended! Hooray! So I recommend for all of you going to China, learn how to say your hotel name in Chinese, find out how much it should cost, and be irate and pretend to take photos of their licence if they are costing too much.

Then, after that good luck, we arrived at our hotel The Grand Mecure on Peoples Square (yes, Xian has a peoples square just like Shanghai.), we got upgraded to a suite!!!! It was so huge and lovely and had cable tv, and the weather outside was so extremely crap, that we just wanted to stay inside for the whole time.

I have never stayed in a hotel room before that is more than one room,a nd this one was like two bathrooms, a bedroom and a loungeroom. Only one bed, but who cares. It was huge.

The only down side of the hotel was the attempt at the in-room scam by the tour director. Sue and I wanted to go visit the terracotta warriors the next day. So, we asked the concierge, and he said he would send up the tour lady. Sure enough he did, and she sold us the tour, we paid the money, and she left. Now, I counted the money, Sue counted the money and the woman counted it.

Nevertheless, she was back in ten minutes saying we were 100RMB short. Now, usually I would be a sucker for this, and just fold completely, and hand it over. But I am a white (kind of) person in China, and I am so SICK of people trying to scam me, so I refused to pay, and she was nearly in tears, and I still refused, and then I said, well fine, give me all my money back and I just won’t go with you at all, and then the concierge intervened and apologised.

They think I am so dumb!!!!! But I am not! I am on to them all.

So then after that, Sue Ellen I went out for the rest of the day. We had some Chinese food (Sue Ellen had vinegar pork, masquerading as sweet and sour pork), and I had hard dry noodles. Gross. So I needed a double che after that as you understand. So we went to McDonalds, and I got my che, and we sat in this “fine dining”section of the McDonalds, on the tables that had tablecloths and vases. Very weird, I have not seen that in any other Mcdonalds anywhere. And I have been in quite a few!

Then we went to see the Drum and Bell Tower which is in the middle of the Old City. See, Xian is a huge city, but a big section of it is walled, and this is the Old style city (even though it is all just old stuff, that is where most of the hotels, etc are too). And so we found the bell Tower, and it was in the middle of this big roundabout! It was so weird, you couldn’t even get near it, because of the cars. The Drum Tower is a one minute walk from it, and to be truthful, I wasn’t overly impressed by either.

The Drum tower stands right next to the Muslim quarter, so we had a meander through there, and it was cool, even though it was raining. And then we went into the mosque, which was interesting, as it was not like a usual mosque, it was still all Chinese architecture.

The most hilarious bit though was when we were leaving the Muslim quarter, and I was bargaining for a tuk tuk to take us back to the hotel, and Sue Ellen got grabbed on the ass, THREE TIMES by the same man, in the two minutes I was talking to the Tuk Tuk driver, it wasn’t till we were in the tuk tuk and driving away that she was able to tell me.

So then we had the hilariously dangerous drive home in the tuk tuk through the mad streets of Xian, with crazy u turns in front of buses and everything.

Then that night, we stayed in the room ordered room service, appreciated the suite, and watched SVU.

The following day we set off in our own private van to the Terracotta warriors. First we saw the Neolithic village, which is just ridiculously old, and to my delight, was a village/society which was totally matriarchal. It even still had skeletons. And it showed how children were buried in big pots, and the pots were out the front of the house, and how men lived in separate villages, and people were buried in different ways depending on how they died. (Although I never really understood how archaeologists find all this out).

Then we went to the terracotta soldiers, which were amazing also. They were discovered by a farmer in 1979, and it covers a huge area of land, and they show you this Hitchcock-esque film beforehand, which is scary, and then ther are three different excavation pits they are working on. The guy who discovered it almost 30 years ago, sits there everyday signing autographs – you would have to be hating on it.

Then we went for a Chinese meal, and tour of silk factory, where some man spent a lot of time trying to sell us a silk doona. Sue didn’t understand what he was saying, and so was smiling at him, and so I had to put my foot down and say, NO of course we don’t want to buy a doona! Why would travellers want to buy a doona?!?! Use your thinking skills people!!!!

Then we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda, which is where Tripitaka kept all his scriptures. As you would know from Monkey Magic, he brought the Buddhist scriptures all the way from India to Xian (which used to be the old capital you see), and then spent a bazillion years translating them from Sanskrit to Chinese.

And then we went back to the hotel, without stopping at the city wall, as scamming tour drivers told us there was no parking…such a massive lie.

Then we went to the airport, and got on best flight ever with Hainan Air. Video screens in back of seats for a domestic flight!!! Only two seats across. It was heaven.

Then, happily, when we got to Beijing, I got a taxi for only 80 RMB, to the hotel, when the hotel said it should be about 130RMB. See, you can’t trust anyone

Next morning, taxi tried to scam us by driving this long convoluted way to the Forbidden City, but I had the map in my bloody hand, so I started saying in Chinese “too long! Too long! Too expensive! “(limited Chinese skills here), and then get out my camera and pretend to take photo of his id, so then he gave it to me for half that price, so ahahahaha. So that is my tip for taxi drivers in China – try and get an idea of how far you are going, and what route it should be, or alternatively, get the hotel to tell you so when you get in the car you can tell them how much you expect it to be,! And then if they are troublesome, pretend to take a photo of them or write down their ID number. Aha!!! No more scamming me!

The Forbidden City is huge, and impressive in its size, but it was so full of people, that it was a horrible experience. Also, the day was truly horrible pollution wise, and it was all under construction in preparation for the Olympics, so it wasn’t the best experience. After this we went to Tiananmen square (and just stood around, didn’t know what to do there), and then walked up to this park with a hill, and a pagoda on top of the hill, to try and get scenic photo of Forbidden City, but the pollution was just so bad there was no view at all

Then we got a taxi (no scam), to the other side of the city in search of a Hard Rock Café. Sue and I like to eat in Hard Rock Café’s around the world, whenever we travel together, and have been to those in Barcelona, London, Oslo, and although there was none in Shanghai, there is one in Beijing. However, after we got all the way there we discovered it was closed and had to go all the way back to the City.

Then we went to this bar/restaurant area around this lake, and it was polluted and ugly, but we had a nice lunch (sue ellen drank hot coke with ginger in it) and the people next to us had grubs. Seriously.

Then we walked around the lake, and I bought one of those sticks with the candied little fruits on it…like a lot of little toffee apples on one stick.

Then we went into the city for some shopping (we had like 5 cabs this day, with only the first being troublesome – so there are some good taxi drivers), but the shopping street was crap, and horrible, and the weather was like a nuclear winter. But there was this fantastic night food market street thing, where sue got candied strawberries on a stick, and we walked around, and it was getting all over here and this nice man gave her some of those wet towellette things, and we saw all interesting things to eat, though we didn’t eat them. Our tour guide the next day recommended that we don’t go there, but tit was great I thought. The sad things we saw were a stickful of roasted little tiny seahorses (so sad, but cute, but sad, even though I love meat on a stick I couldn’t eat this) and also starfishes…

Then we caught a cab home and watched the movie Wallace and gromit and the Were rabbit, and it was surprisingly good!

So my impressions of that day of Beijing were – dirty ugly polluted, boring, nuclear winter. Luckily for us, the next day was a lot better, the skies were blue, and the air was relatively clean. This day we went to the Great Wall, at Mutianyu. This is a bit of wall that isn’t too popular, and therefore, not very crowded. We got a chairlift up to the wall and walked around on it for a couple of hours. To the horror of authentic travellers and backpackers everywhere, we actually went on a tour this day. Just because it was easiest, and we didn’t have much time to try and figure anything else out – the tour just dropped us off at the wall though, and we got to meander around on our own.

The whole tour was full of oldies, which Sue (who works with oldies), commented on like David Attenborough. Here is what I learned - Oldies will repeat over and over the same question, for the whole day –they will repeat it immediately after others have just asked, after they themselves have asked, later in the day, just all the time. Oldies will also have conversations among themselves, where they do not listen to each other, but continue talking as if they were talking to each other. Waiting till the other pauses, filling in the silences, etc. etc. American oldies are super inappropriate and kind of racist, in an ignorant and not intentionally mean way.

In any case, the wall was absolutely amazing. It is built along the mountains, at the highest point of the mountains, which must have been an absolute biatch to build. But it is so amazing, curving away into the distance in both directions, and it was pretty well preserved (or rebuilt I suppose). On either side of the wall was just wilderness.

That evening, Sue Ellen and I wanted to have some Peking Duck somewhere, and although we were not trying to be fancy, we ended up going to the Beijing Ritz. It wasn’t super expensive, about 20 GBP each, which is pricey for China, but not for Peking duck at the Ritz in general, so we think that was ok.

We ordered half a duck, and the poor waitress stood next to our table wrapping all the pancakes up for us – which took her a while. We also had some traditional Beijing dumplings. Let me just note that I am a terrible expat – I do NOT like Chinese food. I love Australian Chinese food, but I hate real authentic Chinese food (except Cantonese). In fact, sometimes I forget I hate it, and crave the Australian style so much, that I go and get some and it is horrrrrrible.

The following day we caught the plane from Beijing to Hangzhou, on what is the worst flight of my life, and I believe it gave me my first instance of sickness in China, possibly a mild case of Bird Flu. We flew Hainan air, which only days before had been so pleasant. In this case I was stuck between Sue and some strange man. This man was part of a tour group which (I know I am being offensive here), seemed to be from some sticksville village. The main problem I had here was the constant spitting into the airsickness bag. And for anyone that has been to China knows, the spitting is not subtle, and comes right from their bloody feet up or something. Also, the smell was not good, not good at all, although lucky Sue had her migra stick.

Then we arrived in Hangzhou, and driving from the Airport, it was like we were in a fairytale crossed with Dr Seuss book. The houses were hilarious – all colourful and shiny, triple storied, with purple roofs, and goldie/yellowy awnings, pagoda’s in the yard,…but of course, the surroundings weren’t all nice, it was the usual China grey sky and freeways. But they have made a real effort with the houses.

Finally we arrived near the lake. You see, Hangzhou is famed as being the most beautiful place in China, it is one of the most popular destinations for Chinese people, and Marco Polo described it as heaven on earth.

Now the actual city is the same grey, dirty polluted city like other cities in China, but the lake is different. It is beautiful, because they maintain it as a tourist destination. The surroundings are clean, there are those cute Chinese arch bridges, blossoming trees, weeping willows, etc. etc. and we saw a beautiful, beautiful sunset over the shimmering lake. There is also a Xintiandi style area where we had our dinner and some icecream.

The next day was not as nice. The weather had turned nuclear-winter-esque, as it is wont to do in China…and so the second day we just spent the whole day wanting to leave. But our train wasn’t till the evening, so we had lunch in a fancy hotel and went to do some shopping, because just wandering around was depressing, and intimidating, as we were constantly being stared at by men! I don’t know what we were doing differently that day, but at no time in China have I ever been stared at so much!

And then we got the super fast train back to Shanghai, and there was a big debacle over where we could sit, as our seats weren’t together, and even though the train wasn’t full, we weren’t allowed to sit in other peoples seats. Finally, the steward came and kicked some poor woman out of the carriage so we could sit together…which is unfortunate for her, but good for us, and what a stupid system.

And so that was my trip with Sue. My next trip, I went to Xiamen, for a search Engine conference…and I could blog on that, but as we were working much of the time, I don’t think I will bother. Suffice it to say, that it is just another city, albeit on an island, and the closest part of ‘mainland’ China to Taiwan. (not sure why this is noteworthy).

Harbin

Last year, during the most un-summery summer of my life (in London of course), I vowed that I would go home to Australia, and that by December/January I would be sitting on the beach and moseying around in no more than thongs and a flimsy dress.

As you know, life unfolds in different ways than we planned, and I have found myself in Shanghai. Quite cold, almost colder than in London actually, as it has snowed a few times in the last week.

however, unsatisfied with temperatures of the low single digit variety, I thought I would try and go negative, negative double figures, down to minus 29 in the city of Harbin.

In January and February of each year, Harbin holds a snow and ice festival. During this festival huge, artistic, beautiful sculptures are made out of snow and ice. The pictures on the internet were awe inspiring, and I booked a trip for Aidan and I to go up there.

Since moving to China, I have been scammed in many different ways. The most frequent is to be charged a higher 'westerners' price for things. Another way is for people to pretend to be freindly with you, and then scam you in some uniquely horrible way. I thought I had become quite jaded by now, but you will be surprised then to find out how I booked my airfares to Harbin.

While looking on travel sites for advice on Harbin (using Tripadvisor, Virtualtourist, and Lonely Planet Thorn Tree), I came frequently across a poster called Ellyse. She is a young woman who makes multiple posts on all different destinations in China, with lots of useful advice. After private messaging her on VT, we then began emailing each other.

Ellyse is a Singaporean student studying in Shanghai and who spends a lot of her free time giving free advice to travellers. She also buys tickets for them, books hotels, and even acts as tour guide. At first I was very suspect but after a myriad of emails, she booked some airfares to Harbin for me, we met up for dinner and I handed over the cash to pay for them, with nothing to be given in return, except the hope that on the 18th of January, Spring Airlines would let me on their flight to Harbin.

You might wonder why I didn't use an online travel agent like I did for Huangshan. Well, these tickets through Ellyse were a lot cheaper, because they are on a cheapo carrier, Ryan Air equivalent, which you can't just book on the internet unless you read mandarin. It is called Spring Airlines - we obviously didn't crash and die. However, we did have to sit through hours of a flight attendant yabbering on in mandarin trying to sell all these bits of crap, e.g. plastic plane and god knows what else. Obviously they try to make up for their low ticket prices in this way.

The point is not that I had a great flight, or that Ellyse's service was overly useful. The point is, I handed cash over to a stranger I met on the internet, with nothing guaranteeing I would get anything in return for it. But it was true. This girl is helping people out of the kindness of her heart. And if there is a scam attached, I am as yet unaware of it. (prices on the internet were the same as the prices she was charging I later found out, so she isn't even skimming off the top). In the future I will use Ctrip or Elong (like expedia), however, this girl has pulled me back from my distrust of all helpful chinese people. (ok, she is not strictly chinese, but anyway).

So, after the 2.5 hour advertisement filled flight from Shanghai to Harbin, we arrive in Harbin airport, and walk into the freezer outside. Seriously, I coughed so much at first, as it was very hard to breathe.

I was wearing: two pairs of thermal pants, one pair of normal socks, one pair of wool socks that go right to the top of your leg, one pair of hiking socks, boots, singlet, two t-shirts, thermal shirt, two jumpers, coat, scarf, two beanies, and super crap ineffective gloves. Admittedly my body wasn't too cold, but my face, hands and feet were freezing. Even with all those socks and boots! My face got warmer when I wrapped my scarf around it, but the disgusting thing is that you breath hot air out your mouth, it hits the cold air, condenses, and the scarf around your mouth gets so wet and disgustingly gross. But if you don't have it there, your face hurts a lot.

Our first night, we walked up and down Zhong Yang Dajie, which is the main street. Since Harbin is so far north, it has a massive russian influence, and the main street is all cute and cobble stoned, and the architecture is all russian and dome-like (in the main street anyway). In the middle of the road are ice statues.

We were starving when we got there, so quickly had some KFC chips to tide us over while we walked arund and decided what we woudl really eat (and no, the KFC chips were not the good ones you get in Oz). After half an hour of walking in the freezing cold and being not able to find any restaurant menus, I am sad to say that our KFC entree was followed by a Mei Don Lou (McDonalds) main course....I know that is so terrible!!! but we were freeeeezing!!!

That night, against all childhood advice from my mother, I ripped off my million layers and put my freezing hands and feet directly onto the oil heater in my hotel room. Luckily I have no chill blains. (sp?).

The next morning we wanted to head off to the ice and snow festival. So, rather than risk being scammed by a taxi driver (as we already had been in Harbin, but I refuse to talk of this), I thought it looked easy enough on the map to walk to the place. It was on the other side of the river, but I could see there was a bridge over it according to the map.

so we left our hotel and went down to the riverside - Stalin Park - and walked up towards the bridge. However, this was a rail bridge, and we couldn't walk across it. But, we looked down, and there were many people crossing the river. It was frozen over. when I say many people, I mean like, a dozen, but they weren't drowning, so I thought that was ok. And obviously it was, by the fact that I am here to write about it. But there were some big cracks which scared me, and sheer bits where it wasn't white, but clear, and you could see down into the water. hmmmmm scary. But we walked across it, and then got lost in the slum like area on the other side for a little while (I cannot believe that people don't just die in this weather when they live in poor conditions like this), and finally made it to snow and Ice world.

However, by this time we were obviously frozen to the core (remember it was a maximum of minus15, and a minimum of minus 29). The statues were amazingly impressive. However, my hadns were too cold to take pictures, and the batteries died if you left the camera out of your pocket too long. So we didn't spend more than an hour there I think. we then got a ride back to our hotel for a couple of pounds, from a man with a van. A dodgy van, with tape holding the door on, but still. It was better than walking across that frozen river.

I feel like I should describe the statues more. So much work goes into them, and they are the most amazing things, but I cannot describe them well enough, as I am no poet, and you can tell even from this sentence that my English isn't up to much. One of them was this massive scaled sculpture of some kind of goddess lying down, and then mountains and buildigns and temples around her, and she was just the size of some huge Jumbo Jet!! (admittedly my judgement of size and distance is no good though. I often see photos of myself and others, and am shocked that I am so short). Anyway, this thing was huge. I can't post any more photos on this blog for some stupid reason, so if you want to see photo's, email me. and I will send them to you.

So anyway, those statues during the day were all white, and made out of snow. During the evening, there is another thing to look at, the ice lantern festival. these are statues made of clear ice and which are lit up with neon lights inside them (the chinese love that neon). This luckily was just across the road from our hotel in Zhaolin Park. It cost 60RMB each for us to enter, and then you get to walk around these cool temples made of ice, over bridges made of ice, there is a sculpture competition with competitors from all over the world (USA won first place), and even some ice slides (No thank you crack my head open).

For my trip in Harbin, I bought lots of thermal type clothes to keep me warm, which I worried was a waste of money, but I have found out it isn't, as it is snowing at least a bit every day in Shanghai now, and I am freezing! much colder than London, I think because of the humidity, which makes you damp and cold to your bones. Unfortunately this humidity is also what makes the heat crap in summer.

(on a side note, in Shanghai, people are constantly spitting on the ground, it makes me want to vomit. In Harbin, it is about a zillion times worse, it is constantly going on, and there are frozen little globules of spit all over the ground. Oh, I feel so ill even thinking about it).

Huangshan

On the weekend before Christmas, Aidan and I travelled to Huangshan for a holiday, only for three nights, and when I say before christmas, I mean RIGHT before christmas, we got back at 12:05 on christmas morning.

This is because I booked the whole thing only a week before and so got really stupid flight times. We flew out on the Friday at 10:pm, and our return flight was at 11:0pm on the Monday Christmas Eve. This could have all been a nightmare, if it was in say, Europe, using Easy Jet, or, worse, Ryan Air. However, Shanghai Air is now my favourite short haul carrier. not only were tickets super cheap to buy only a week before (on Ctrip, Chinas equivalent to Lastminute.com, and so much better), but the flights were awesome too. No delays at all. People get on, the plane goes. No waiting for idiots in duty free or baggage handlers on strike like London.

Now I will just harp on a bit more about them - you swipe your passport, you get a ticket. You get on the plane. the plane goes. no lines. No nothing. Despite the fact that China has a billion people and so this should be a bit more hectic. It was fantastic. but the best bit was, that on the way back, the plane left at 11:05, 35 minutes early!!! and we got into Shanghai 35 minutes early! This is something I have never experienced on any other airline in my life.

Alright, now onto the actual trip.

Huangshan is located in Anhui province, and is only 1 hour flight from Shanghai. According to the CSR woman I met through work, it is the poorest province in China. however, it also has Huangshan, which is better known in the west as Yellow Mountin. This area is a crowd of peaks, 72 of which are named. they have really good names like "Monkey looking out at the Sea", "Beginning to Believe Peak" and "Lotus Brightness Apex". I wanted to go there because they are those mountains that you always think of when you think of China scenery. Green pine trees, craggy rock faces, ravines, all covered in mist. They are one of the most popular tourist destinations for chinese people, and during summer it would be crazy busy, so we went in winter when we could better appreciate the quietness and also because I really did want to see them when they were all misty.

We flew into Huangshan city, which is about 70km from the Huangshan mountains. The city is also called Tunxi, and we stayed there on the Friday night, and were up early the next morning to get to the mountains. Now, seeing as this place is a major tourist destination, and we were staying at a Holiday Inn Express, I had thought that there would be some English spoken. There wasn't. In fact, the whole weekend we didn't come across english speakers, except two other tourists. Now, seeing as I can't speak anything other than English, i am not expecting people to be able to speak English just for me, but it did make it a bit harder. Especially after all these people on the Lonely planet thorn tree, trip advisor, virtual tourist, etc. said it was easy to get around. Maybe they speak chinese. Or maybe it is easier in peak season.

Due to the language barrier, we ended up getting on a mini bus (which was actually a Tarago owned by locals, to drive locals to work at Huangshan). And it was old and dirty, and they were all smoking in it, and it was so grotty we couldn't see out the window. Eventually, we got to Tankou, which is at the foot of the mountains, and the minibus just kept circling the town, and then stopped for 15 minutes while the driver had something to eat, and eventually it was too much for aidan and he went off his brain, and no one cared, but eventually,...much later...we were dropped off just down the street from there, and got a taxi up to the cable car. I don't know what that whole trip was about, but at 2 GBP each for 70km I suppose it was ok.

Then we went up the cable car to the top of the mountain. It was sooo misty, that we couldn't see anything. So we weren't scared at all. It was a bit like that Crash Bandicoot level where you can only see two feet in front of him or something. On our return journey the next day we woudl see how truly incredible the scenery is from that Cable car, and how bloody far high up we were!!! very.

Up the top of the mountains, there are extremely well maintained trails (and lots and lots of steps) connecting all the peaks, the look outs, and the couple of hotels. aidan and I only had day packs, so it was super easy for us to walk around for a while until we found our hotel. it was beautiful and eerie, because there was so much mist. But at the same time, we cuoldn't really see all that much because of the mist. That evening however, the mist cleared, and we got to see out in the moonlight, which was absolutely beautiful, but impossible to capture on camera.

The next morning we rose at crack o dawn to go and see the sunrise, as recommended by all travel books. However, despite our efforts, and getting at the front of the lookout, the mist was so thick we could't see anything. By now I had seen enough mist and was getting quite disgruntled, so we went back to the room and had a nap. Then the Gods smiled, and as we woke up, the mist was clearing, adn so our second day was spent taking a million photo's of the awe inspiring views. amazing. like something from national geographic.

It was a lot of walking. Lots of stairs. By the morning, my legs were so sore. But you can't look tired or exhausted on the mountain because there are cosntantly men walking up all the stairs (no chairlift for them), carrying so much crap! like all the building materials, and hotel supplies, water and food and beer, and everything! they carry it all hanging across their back, and so it would just be so horrible to walk past them whinging or puffing when all I am carryign is a muesli bar and my camera!

After the stupid mini bus on the way to Huangshan, we decided to get a cab on the way back. So after going down the awesome chairlift, we caught a cab back to Huangshan, which cost less than 10GBP anyway. Then that night we walked around Tunxi old street, which is over a km long, and would have been beautiful if it wasn't full of stupid tourist crap shops. I don't know who is buying all this crap, but there was over one km of shops selling tea and statues and chinese calligraphy pictures. talk about market saturation.

The next day (after a night of being kept awake by chinese party in our hotel corridor), we hired a car for the day to take us around theancient villages of the area. Two of these we visited are UNESCO world heritage listed, they are called Xidi (sheedee) and Hongcun(Hoongtswun). They are about 40km from Tunxi, and we hired a car for the whole day to take us around, which cost less than 20GBP. Both of the villages you have to pay a couple of pounds to get in.
Hongcun was the more amazing of the two. The main feature of this village is water. It is centred around two ponds, both of which have the most reflective water ever, which means that the buildings and landscape are all reflected perfectly in them. Which looks amazing. Also, this village has a water system whereby water runs past every single house in the village, for use of everyoen. while this is clever it also hgrossed meout because, it meant that while some people are cleaning a dead chicken in there, some are cleaning their clothes, or vegetables, or fish, and it all just flows on. The water was really fast flowing though, so maybe it was ok. I am not sure.

The stupid thing is, these two towns are UNESCO heritage listed, so I am not sure how, but someone must be paying to have these towns looked after and kept clean. So, especially in Hongcun, you can really see where the edge of the town is, because beyond this point, there is rubbish EVERYWHERE. It is quite disgusting. Although Shanghai is quite clean, it is only because there are people employed to pick up rubbish. In China it seems that people are quite happy to throw rubbish on the ground anywhere. right outside their shop, out car windows, wherever. even though there are bins everywhere!

At least this keeps people employed I suppose.

So in conclusion, I would say that it is definitely worth going to Huangshan area at this time of year, with the only caveat being the lack of language skills by the locals. Also, three days is a really good amount of time to see the area.

Quick - Post now on China!!!

Ok, so this is the first time since I have been here that Blogger has been available. So I have to post quickly on everything that has happened, so please excuse the bullet points...well actually, I can start with one I wrote originally that didn't get to post, and then continue on....so, from 10 days ago....

We flew into Shanghai at 9am Sunday morning. Customs and the airport were no problem at all, and we quickly found our way to the Maglev train to travel into the city. The Maglev train is (I think at this point) the fastest train on earth. It gets up to speeds of 430km/h and goes from the airport to just outside the city of Shanghai . It only takes about 8 minutes or so, but really cuts out a lot of driving in the taxi, plus is fun. Then, we just got a taxi into the city from the Maglev stop. Not sure why super fast train is on such a short track.... While we were on the Maglev, out the window I saw farmer men out in the fields and in boats on the streams, in little pointy hats! like from a movie or something! (you know the pointy hats I mean). Then we got into Shanghai city, which is crazy. There are all these overpass roads, and this one crazy twirling one, which comes down to ground level after you cross the river by going in massive spirals. We were in a taxi, and though the driving wasn’t too excessively crazy, I was concerned as there were no seatbelts for us, even though the driver was wearing one! For our first month in Shanghai we are staying in a serviced apartment in the Hong Kong Plaza. They are pretty fancy by my standards, and are in a double sky scraper which has lots of shops down the bottom, including an electrical goods super shop which is Aidans dream. There are lots of big windows along one side of the apartment, and they face out onto the city, and from our bedroom we have a view of the Pearl tower. We also look out over a really nice park too. Once we settled in, we took a quick walk around to get some food. At the bottom of the plaza, is this thing called Mega bite. Which was so cool. It is like this food hall, where you get a debit card and put money on it, and then go around and get whatever you like. And most things have little plastic models made for them so they are easy to pick out. I had this meal which had a huge plate of rice with bbq pork and duck, a side of greens, a bowl of won ton soup, and this weird dessert, which I didn’t try, but aidan said it tasted like watered down scrambled eggs…bleugh. This whole meal cost only like £2, or less than $5 Australian!!! (This is up there with my other favourite cheapest purchase – paracetemol in London – only costs 16p for a whole packet of 16 tablets!!!) Three minutes walk up the road is the Shanghai Times Square building, which is where our office is located for this initial period (until we find a ‘trendier’ location to have a more permanent office). At the bottom of this building is a very fancy shopping centre, where I don’t think I can afford anything. However, there is a western supermarket in the bottom and a western bookshop. But the western supermarket has mostly American, English, German and Japanese food, and the English bookshop is way expensive. On my walk I found a Chinese bookshop which sold English language books as well, and it was less than 10 Aussie dollars per book,s o I know where I will be going now! We have also been for a walk along Nanjing Lu, which is this super busy shopping street, very touristy I think, with all the fluoro lights that you associate with Shanghai/Hong Kong. Despite it being the touristy area though, we only saw maybe two other western looking people. I assumed that Shanghai would be full of western expats, but there are either not many or they are hiding. We have walked in the French Concession too, and didn't see many there either, same as on the Bund I have started working for Aidan's company, and it is pretty interesting, setting up a new company in China, in an industry that as yet hasn't taken off over here.

I have been clothes shopping way too much, and have put an embargo on further purchases until Christmas.

Even though our work is in this super fancy building with shops like Gucci, etc, just two blocks away are the flower/bird/insect markets, which are amazingly interesting/scary. They also sell turtles by the millions...and anyone that comes to visit me, I will have to take you there.

People hang their washing up everywhere and anywhere, including by tying their lines to traffic lights and road signs.

We have an apartment on Beijing Rd which we will be moving into on the 24th of November, itis in a really nice complex called Ladoll - I will be living beyond my means. It has a dish steriliser (?) but no oven. But then, none of the apartments we saw had ovens...

People so far are really nice, but I thought that english would be more widely spoken (don't know why I thought that)...but starting lessons in December, so very excited about that.

The Shanghai skyline at night is some of the most amazing I have ever seeen.

The weather is quite nice, not too cool and blue skies. The smog isn't as bad as I imagined, and have had no trouble with asthma so far.

The McDonalds tastes exactly the same, but, like London, I still can't get good Aussie KFC-style chips

We eat at Happy Chef type places every night, which are super cheap, but communication is very difficult, and sometimes we do not get what we expected...even if we point specifically...one dinner, at what i thought was quite a nice restaurant, all we got was a whole chicken: half hot, half cold and some nuts. too embarrassed to go back there.

There is this place called Xintiandi (Shin-tien-dee), walking distance from our apartment, which I swear is like a Chinese fox studios! so that is also on the Tracy tour for visitors.

There are these wierd things going on in Peoples Square Park on the weekends, with hundreds of people crowding around and making deals over pieces of paper with chinese writing all over it. I don't know what they are buying/selling...Aidan tells me it is people....but I will get to the bottom of it, because maybe I want some!

I love getting the taxi's which are so convenient, and only cost like 11RMB - or less than one pound or $1.50 aussie.

ummmm...so much to say, but I can't right now, as I am busy, but these are the main points and I will edit this and write it nicely later

(if Blogger is available later)....

Italy

In September 2007, Aidan and I spent ten nights on a highly anticipated trip to Italy. We had a good time, but the high expectations we had were not really met.

For some strange reason, of all the places i have gone that should have been full of tourists, Paris, New york, the Greek Islands,...Italy was by far the most touristy, and it definitely detracted from the appeal of the place. The least touristy part by far was Ischia, where the only tourists were German, who were markedly less obvious and and much quieter than the American tourists that we found in Rome and the Amalfi coast. Our trip was at the end of September, so I can only imagine what it was like in the height of summer.

So one of the major problems was the amount of tourists...a problem to which we were obviously contributing though.... The other thing about Italy we were a bit disappointed in was the food. After savouring many beautiful meals from our friend Andrea, the Italian chef, we imagined Italy to be Andrea's cooking all meals every day. Not so, it was greatly disappointing, and as horrible as it sounds, I am pretty sure the food in Wollongong and Canberra is just as good! We had some good meals in Italy, but nothing blew my mind...

Anyway, we spent the first two nights in Rome, then four nights in Sorrento, three nights in Ischia, and a final night in Rome again, before flying home.

Rome was lovely and hot when we arrived! my favourite kind of weather! We saw all the typical sites, including the Vatican Museum, where I surprised myself by staying in line for 40 minutes to be let in. I didn't think I had it in me. I wonder a bit how certain pieces of art become so famous compared to others. E.g. the Mona Lisa is a bit of a mystery, and in the Vatican I was surprised that the part of Genesis on the roof in the Sistine Chapel with the finger of God was so famous above everything else in there. Because while it was awesome, there was so much awesome stuff in that museum altogether.

I liked the square out the front of St Peters Basilica, which is surrounded by three lots of columns/pillars, and if you stand in two certain places in the square, all the columns become eclipsed...like, you can only see the front row, because they are perfectly in line. Anyway, I thought that was cool.

I also was looking forward a lot to the Trevi Fountain, and it was amazingly beautiful, but also packed. And what is with these gypsies selling those noise-makers everywhere in Italy? It is supposed to be romantic! Looking at the Trevi Fountain, I wonder why these days amazingly intricate landmarks like these are no longer created. Everything is chic, and smooth lines, and super giant or super small, but not just being made for beauty like that was.

After Rome we headed for Sorrento, which was disappointing and so I won't say too much about it! The highlight was hiring a scooter on the Amalfi coast, and riding that amazing coastline, although not the bit where Aidan ran the scooter into the side of teh cliff (better than off the other side I suppose). Obviously there were no major injuries! The towns along the coast were pretty from afar, to look at them spill down the mountain side, but inside they were crowded and a bit grotty. The beaches were almost non-existent, and while the water looked nice and clear, I didn't want to lie on thepebbles/dirt/broken bits of concrete that passed for sand, and I most certainly didn't want to have to pay for the privelege! the prettiest town there is Ravella, which is set high up in the hills, and is less busy, and overlooks the ocean and terraces of agriculture.

The next place we went was the most beautiful. Ischia, an island off Naples which is generally snubbed in favour of Capri (all those tourists? no thanks!), is quiet, and favoured by German tourists (I got to use my german, hooray!). It is famous for its numerous hot springs all around the island. We spent a whole day at these things called the Poseidan spa's. this was a sprawling resort kind of thing which was all pools, and landscaped gardens and beach front property! The pools were thermal and ranged from 15-40 degree's celcius. I don't think I went in one under 30! My dream.

The other good thing about Ischia is that it was probably the best accommodation I have ever had anywhere. It was beautifully decorated and centrally located in a cute little village called Forio (I think that was it...). It was a B&B, and the lady was so lovely, and her house was so beautiful. She served us our breakfast outdoors in a beautiful setting and spoke to me in a broken combination of german and English.

While I anticipated trouble from pick pockets while in Italy, or the amputation of my ring finger, we had no trouble at all. Like my experience in Paris and the watched pot that never boils, it seems the more you look out for gypsies, the less you will see. It seems that my Tiffany ring has the effect of looking so misplaced on me that it looks like Accessorize costume jewellery that I might have picked up for £7.99 on Oxford Street.

Anyway, this is the end of my European travels for a little while, next stop Asia...I move to Shanghai next Saturday, 27th October 2007!

T

Portugal

It was recently the bank holiday weekend, and, like last year, I forgot that I should stay in London for the Notting Hill Carnival! I am so upset that I missed it for my second year running, and when am I going to be in London for it ever again? So stupid. Instead, I did something else very British…I went to the Algarve. This is an area on the south coast of Portugal, where lots of British tourists, and tourists from all over Europe, go for their holidays.

It was just a three day beach break for us, we didn't want anything too strenuous, just relaxing.
However, after three months of Crappo weather in London, which they call a summer, we left London on the nicest morning I have seen here, warm and blue skied. We arrived in Portugal to freezing rain. Fury. Luckily, the weather cleared up that afternoon, but it was a very bad couple of hours for me psychologically

I was a tiny bit worried about the area we were going to, the Algarve, as I had heard from some that it was very very cringe-worthy. The area we stayed was just like a British gold coast, or like if they picked up any English seaside town and put it on a decent beach with nice weather. Which is fine, but, without sounding mean, I don't like British food (or modern culture) at the best of times, and I was quite looking forward to some Vascos/Oporto/Nando's style Portuguese food…however, while there were Chinese restaurants, Indian, a Haagen Dazs restaurant and even an O'Neills, the Portuguese food was nowhere to be found. We finally settled on a restaurant that served mostly western things (Steak Dianne? Hamburger?), but pointed at this other table that looked like they were Portuguese people, and they were having this thing that looked like soupy Paella, with prawns and clams and fish all through it. Turns out that on the menu it was just called 'monk fish', which made me think there was a translation problem, and I didn't want anything called monkfish (which made me think of the Simpson's three eyed fish), but after pointing at the other table a couple more times, we thought they must know what we meant…and yes, it was the yummy soupy Paella.

That first day, the British tourist overload day, was in the Marina. Now, apart from being a lot more expensive obviously, I am beginning to suspect that 'Marina', is just the aquatic version of 'caravan park'…because apart from the bling on these people, they really looked like they were from the trailer park…oooh, is that horribly classist and mean?! I have done my time in caravan parks on holidays, I am not being a snob! I am just saying…Oh yeah, the other thing that the marina seemed to be full of was pubs with large red Englishmen watching soccer games…had to get away from the Marina...

Anyway, we should have known that the Marina would have been the refuge of the tourists, so the next day, we thought we would try something else, and walked down the beach for a while, past the shanty town/caravans, and ended up in the Quarteira, which had fish markets, no sun beds on the beach, and lots of Portuguese restaurants to choose from. We ate a couple of times at this one restaurant that was right over the sand, and which served the most amazing garlic and lemon prawns I have ever had. They were all in their shells still, so I made quite the mess, so much so that the waiter came to me with more napkins three times. I had them for entrée, and loved them so much I was going to have them for dessert too, but for some surprising reason could not fit in prawns+huge steak+potatoes and then more prawns for dessert. Very disappointed in myself.

Before I got there, I was also quite worried about my hotel. I had booked what I thought was a nice four star hotel, for our special weekend away, but then I read some online reviews and they were all terrible! However, it turns out that while it wasn't the Four Seasons, it had a pleasant 70's Dallas style feel about it, with massive rooms, two double beds, a balcony with table and chairs, huge breakfast buffet including chocolate cake, on the beach, beautiful gardens and pool…really I don't know what the complaints were about, they should really have been complaining about other things I think!

So anyway, would highly recommend Portugal, for weather, beach and food…however, would try and avoid the British tourist favourites. They don't like to leave England behind when they are on holiday, but if you, like me, desperately do, then find out where they like to go, and avoid avoid avoid (the bonus with this, is it will probably also be a lot cheaper).

Next trip....Italy....hooraaaaaayyy...

San Sebastian

On the first weekend of August, Sue-Ellen and I went on a four day break to San Sebastian in Spain. I highly recommend this place, and it goes straight to my top five destinations.
Sue and I meant to go last year, but didn't due to debacles with numerous nay-sayers, so it was good to see that after we made the effort, it was definitely worth it. For those of you who would like to go there, I will give you very easy instructions, because I really think you should all go…
Get a flight to Bilbao. Get a bus from Bilbao airport to Termibus (the main bus station), this will cost only 1.25 Euros. Then get one of the hourly buses to San Sebastian, for about 8 Euros. From my front door in Ridge Hill, to our hostel in San Sebastian, only 7.5 hours. Which includes sitting around in the airport, and all transfers. I think that is fantastic. Let me just say that sue-Ellen and I handled this so well, that we are well on our way to filling out our Amazing Race application forms. (Although I worry that we aren't competitive enough, and are quite lazy, we are convinced that it would be fine, as we have natural skills and luck, which could have us sitting in café's drinking hot chocolate, napping mid day, and still scamming our way to the front. It has been proven before, in Oslo, in San Sebastian. We really are amazing.)
The flights weren't even their usual nightmare, even though we thought they might be, as there was a team of English, rough looking sportsmen in front of us all wearing matching sports jerseys, with T.O.W. printed on the back. Now, before reading on, try and think what sport this might be…Tug-Of-War. Seriously. And they were on their way to some kind of international competition…?
Our hostel was fantastic. With views looking over the beach, big bright windows, tv, three seater couch, big double bed (accident, hostel owner thought we were lesbians), super clean bathrooms and kitchen, and not noisy or anything from the other occupants. In fact, we saw other people in there only twice. The location was also fantastic. Away from the touristy 'old town' and 'swimming' beaches, and instead downtown near the surf beaches. Also conveniently located near a delicious bakery from where we bought our breakfast. It is called Surf Zurriola, if anyone ever wants to stay there, and is around £20 per person per night.
As well as thinking we were lesbians, the hostel owner also thought we were lying when we said we were Australian. As he said, we were 'too dark'. He kept going on about it, so I told him I was Chinese, but Sue-Ellen clung stubbornly to her story, even when he questionned her persistently. (meanwhile, to continue racist theme, small boys yelled out Konichiwa to me on the street! ).
After getting changed into our swimmers, we were straight off to the beach…actually I think that is a lie. I was starving, so it was straight to Tapas down the road, then to the beach. It took us a little minute to understand the etiquette of the tapas, but we were well adjusted after only one meal. We just pick whatever we like, take, it, and somehow, the bartenders remember, and tot it all up at the end. Tortilla, smoked salmon thingy's, meatballs, clams, skewers, prawn things, croquettes…somehow, they manage to make every single thing delicious…except for on Sue's plate, this thing that she described as a 'fish tart'…which really doesn't sound nice…also, they are very good at ice cream making, I of course restrict myself to chocolate, while Sue-Ellen became addicted to pina colada icecream..

Then after tapas, straight to the beach, to lie down, and accumulate a tan which has had NO help all summer, thanks to stupid crap British 'summer'. Lots of topless women, so I thought I would go topless too…kidding! Also, one or two totally naked men. Brown and leathery all over.
Then after the beach, you go home and have a siesta, go out for tapas again in the evening…and then repeat every day! With shopping for a little minute in between. Also, as with all holidays, it is tradition to watch lots of CNN news whenever you are in your room, and we supplemented this with eating lots of cheese and crackers...then fell asleep in sauna like room, which made us wake up feeling quite ill...

On one of the nights, we went out for super expensive cocktails in this fancy hotel called the Maria Cristina, and I got to wear my Alannah Hill dress for the very first time. Unaccustomed to wearing feminina dresses, I felt like a bit of a freakshow for a little while, but it only took half a cocktail, and I was quite comfortable...

On the last day it poured down with rain, making it not too horrific to head off home…which is kind of nice. The return trip was even more of an amazing race effort. Sue-Ellen spotting typical English couple in the airport, deduced they were annoying airport staff to determine which desk would be the check in counter, before they even announced it. so we lined up behind them obviously. One highlight, was that as per usual on a 'grab your own seats flight', people children mill around the front of the queue, not even bothering to line up, because they assume they will get on first with their kids. AHAHAHA fantastic spanish airport personnel were not having a bar of it, and so all the people with kids who hadn't deigned to line up had to go RIGHT TO THE END ahahahaha. Is that evil of me? Well Sue and I got much happiness from that.
Highlight of return trip, was only the game we made up in which we tried to not let anyone sit next to us on the plane (Easy-Jet, get your own seats). I adorned several persona, including raucous 'Girls Aloud'; sickly, coughing puffer-user; sufferer of some disgusting foot disease (excellent in the wake of new foot- and-mouth scandal), and for those parents who might consider placing their child with us, affectionate lesbian.

You know what this is!!!

Ignore how wrinkly my hands look.... and imagine it all sparkly, for some reason, the sparkliness doesn't translate through photo's.

New York

Over the Easter Break, Aidan and I went on a five night trip to New York City . We were very excited, as neither of us had been before, and we anticipated great shopping, food, and lots of famous sights.

All present and accounted for, but what we didn’t expect was freezing cold weather, icy winds and snow on Easter Sunday. Never mind, it just has taught me that next time I go, I will go when it is warmer (I advise you to do the same, unless you want to be stuck inside in the shops all the time!).

On the first day, we arrived in from London at about midday, and then thought we would get a bite to eat, followed by some shopping. Now, I hate cosmetic departments at the best of times (they may as well be screaming out to you that you are all ugly and not good enough and no one will ever love you etc.), but I was outright offended at the amount of makeup some woman forced on me. (I did not volunteer, she forced me into the chair, and when I said I didn’t wear much makeup, she said she would just show me ‘this one thing’). Half an hour later she was writing out a list a mile long of all the stuff she had slapped on me…the only reason I stuck around so long was because she was like a caricature of an American woman…highly entertaining. (I tried to explain to her repeatedly that I had just come on a crack-of-dawn flight from London and that I wasn't normally so hideous looking, but apparently this is no excuse).

The other ‘American caricature’ type highlight of that day was our lunch. I just wanted a ham and cheese sandwich, and I seriously probably got a whole pigs leg. Such massive portions. I am not going to say that is why they are so fat. Because from my experience, Americans don’t seem too much fatter than Australians or English people, but you can’t tell from cities, you always have to go out to suburbia or further, before you get to see the real…ok, I am going to stop now before I get in trouble. But all throughout our trip, the portions were huge, and everything came with a choice of multiple ‘sides’. I quite like the ‘macaroni and cheese’, which comes as a side everywhere, but it seems like it could kill you without too much effort. Delicious though.

To continue on the theme of food, we also checked out the new food hall in Central train station. It showcases a couple of local restaurants by having ‘kiosk’ stalls there. So there is a great variety of food to choose from, not too dear, and not deathly busy. Highly recommended. I got something from some kind of 'Southern' resaurant, called Cousin Jimmy's or something. And I got a side of macaroni cheese. The meal was delicious, but so massive that I took the left overs back to the hotel room for breakfast.

The worst food I had was when I was trying to be cool and told Aidan we should go to this Peruvian restaurant. On the menu, I ordered “Prawns, calamari, Octopus and fish in lemon”…which sounds like a delicious mixed grill or something, right? No. So so wrong. First it was cold. Yuck. Cold wet seafood can make your brain believe you just might be eating cold raw seafood. and not in a nice sushi/sashimi colourful presentation way, but in a wet grey lumped together way. Nightmare of nightmares, it wasn’t a grill at all…it was a SALAD – my arch nemesis of all foods. Not only was it cold seafood in salad form, but it was excessively garnished with two of my most hated flavours – chilli and coriander. Really, it was the nightmare of my life. Bizarrely, Aidan, who is way fussier than me, loved it. I gave it to him, and on the way back to the hotel grabbed some BBQ chicken with macaroni and cheese ‘side’, and sat watching Idol eating it. Surely that is partaking in American culture.

But that was the only bad experience of food, the rest of the food was beautiful, and we went to some quite nice and funky restaurants. However, I must say, that everyone told me food was cheap there, but once you add tax and tips, well it is like a horrible little surprise at the end of every meal.

As it was so cold, we didn’t spend as much time outside as I would have liked, but we did explore Central Park on the one nice warm morning we had, and we walked a lot rather than take the subway (the Tube is so much better, and less scary). I did not get in any Taxi/cabs. We spent a lot of time in shops, but I didn’t buy any clothes or shoes, although Aidan bought quite a bit.

We went on a boat ride around Manhattan (circle line cruises – highly recommended by me, super informative, and the man on the loudspeaker tells people to sit down if they get up and stand in your view), the top of the Rockefeller Centre (so we could have a view of the city AND the Empire state building), Ground Zero (not too much to see there, but what they are planning looks amazing), and all the department stores and shops you hear about (Macy’s, Saks, Bloomingdales). I tried to go and get those Sex and the City cupcakes, but there was a big fat line, and even I don’t need cake that much. (well, I probably do, but I don't need THAT specific cake that much).

As we went at Easter, we were around for the famous ‘Easter Parade’ on Fifth Avenue . Where they cordon off a couple of blocks along that street, and people wander around wearing Easter hats they have made. It was something I have heard of forever, thanks to George and his musicals, and so I was very excited. There weren’t that many people partaking, but those that did put a massive amount of effort into the things. There was also some singing and dancing type things going on, but not very Easter-y (break dancing and calypso music…I like it, but it isn’t Easter related).

Then, as you probably all know by now…as we walked past Tiffany’s Aidan told me that he wanted to buy me some jewellery, because he never has. I told him that he knows I don’t wear jewellery, but we went in and wandered around, and found ourselves on the second floor with all the rings, and so we got engaged and looked at Engagement rings. (not really that spur of the moment, we had talked about it before).

So there you go. That is some pretty big news I suppose. However, after trying on all different types of rings, picking one, counselling ourselves over two days on whether or not it was worth the price, we finally put our bank cards down on the counter to buy my ring…and found out that Tiffany’s doesn’t accept debit cards, only credit cards…boo! So no ring yet. The same ring in the UK Tiffany's is much more expensive, and no way would we get that one. More than a third of the price more! And we coudl get it made elsewhere, but then for the rest of my life I would be looking at it thinking 'This is such a nice copy of the ring I really wanted'. Now, I know everyone thinks I am very spoiled, but I'm not, despite the next sentence: Aidan has flown back to NYC this weekend to get me the Tiffany's ring. I am not spoilt! He had to convince me to let him go, and I am paying for half the ring. It is ridiculously expensive, but can you put a price on something like this? Think would regret forever if I scrimped on this one piece of jewellery I am ever going to wear. Ok, enough self-justification.

The return flight home was easily my best flight ever. We flew out of Newark Airport at around 9pm, and flew past Manhattan island, which was the most amazing panorama view, better than on the boat cruise, or from the top of the Rockefeller Centre. Amazing, dark sky and bright sparkling city. I had the window seat…hooray! Then, I promptly passed out, waking only when we began out descent over London at 9am the next morning, and out the window that time was early morning London, clear skies, and I had a great view of the Thames winding its way through the city (if you have ever seen a horrid show called Eastenders, you might know what the view was like). That flight was easily the best ever.

Next vacation may be a while away due to lack of funds, due to extravagant ring purchase...but thats ok. Don't want to escape London in the summer anyway...it is fantastic already. Everyone smiles more, you can stay out later because it is light and warm, and I have a big backyard and bbq!!! Last weekend was spent lying in the sun with drinks and snacks watching McLeods on my mini-dvd player (excellent purchase).

rambling now. so this is the end.

Photos

Here is a link to my photo's on the internet. If it doesn't work, maybe see if you can cut and paste into the address bar.

They are just a few photo's...

http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=TracyMusung&CID=1938120&E=Y&ILD=3223573

Australia

Although they say that when you are tired of London you are tired of life, I must admit that in January this year, I was tired of London . I was sick of the grey, and the cold, and the never wanting to do anything but stay inside and sleep. I couldn’t be bothered doing anything new or different, but at the same time hated the rut I was in. So it was timely that George bought me a return flight home for three weeks in February.

I flew home on Virgin Atlantic – excellent in-flight entertainment, horrifically uncomfortable chairs, and not too crash hot food. However, I was so excited, that I didn’t even care (unlike on the return home flight when I definitely did care, and thought I was near death from lack of good food and air). When I arrived, Kirsty, Betty, Amanda and Graham were all waiting with smiles, hugs and balloons (including a monkey balloon with big ears and stick arms which looked suspiciously like me…I later found out that that is exactly why they bought it).

and then I got driven down to Wollongong, and after being in London for so long...being driven anywhere was a luxury. Being driven all that way, and not having to pay a minimum of £25 was bliss. Even better was later on when I started driving myself, in the fantastic Echo. I thought it would be difficult to be driving again, but it was a piece of cake (due in no small part I am sure to the magnificent engineers of the Toyota Echo, best car in the universe, and superiorly named in Australia, compared to in the UK where it was always called a Yaris...bad, bad name).

While I was in Wollongong I spent a lot of time with all my friends and family, went shopping in Sydney (and bought an Alannah Hill dress for which I will have no use in the foreseeable future unless I star in a London show of A Midsummer Nights Dream), visited my grandma, spent a lot of time in George’s shop catching up with old work-mates and favourite customers, slept in, had afternoon siestas, ate lamingtons and KFC chips, went to the beach, watched McLeods daughters endlessly, bought shoes, ate FRESH fruit and LAMINGTONS!!! yum yum! (since I got back I have attempted to make lamingtons. They came out as delicious, but hard little rocks. Maybe this was because I covered them in melted chocolate, rather than chocolate icing. I will be trying again at some point....

I even had time to fit in a trip to Canberra. I got down there on a Friday afternoon, loaded down with cakes. Bredoir let me into the building and I wandered around the third floor giving away cake to mostly strangers. No one knew who I was, yet they all accepted food from me, which shows, that we don't really learn from childhood that we shouldn't accept sweets from strangers. I also met my replacements in the FaCS AAU...um, I don't think there is too much to say about that without getting into trouble from the politeness police. Thank you everyone that came out for tea with me on that Friday, re-enacting my farewell dinner of over two years ago (similar to that farewell, I also got to sight my 'nemesis' which is always good for a laugh). Thanks to Tina Lee and Phoebs (and Josh) for letting me stay at your flats, thanks Arun for driving all the way down, and thanks to Robin for the lovely Finance anniversary mug.

While I am on thanks...thanks to Kirsty for coming all the way down from Brisbane and Christina for driving me to the airport, and every other man and his dog (especially Betty George Amanda and Graham), for making my time at home so special.

I dreaded coming back to London , rain and work. But when I got here, the weather had brightened up, the days had started getting longer, and everyone was in a better mood. That immediately made me feel better. Then the weather snapped, and it started snowing, and now it is like I had never left at all...but I am trying to be positive!!!

The work situation is getting to be quite interesting (“will I stay or will I go”-type-drama’s) and my housemates are all back from winter trips, so it feels fun again. I think I can battle it out for a bit longer over here.

Since being back I have even been getting out at the weekend, exploring london, or like yesterday, I went to Cambridge for the first time.

Also, I have a five night mini-break in New York planned for the Easter Weekend! hooray!!! So I guess that will be my next post!!!

I can't be bothered proof-reading this, hope it is ok.

Ridge Hill

It has been pointed out to me from many sides that I have not posted for quite a while. This is only because I have not been on any trips in quite a while, and therefore, have not much to say.

However, in an attempt to please my mass of fans, I will now post on my new house. Which isn’t really new anymore, I moved in October, but have restrained myself in posting about it until I got absolutely desperate for news.

Ok, so, in October, I moved from south east London , (Bermondsey), to North West London, (Golders Green). I moved for a few reasons, one of which was an inability to get along with one of my housemates, but mainly I wanted to move in with Aidan, and I liked his housemates and the area his house is in. So I have gone from sharing a three bedroom flat with two irish boys, to living in a nine person house sharing with kiwi’s and aussies. There are three couples, a pair of brothers, and a threesome of friends, so it is all very friendly and family like. It is not at all a party house like some other houses I know, and, most importantly, I am not the only girl. There are five girls to four boys – hooray.

I can see your amazement now…nine people!?!? But the house is quite big, our bedroom is very big and we spend a lot of time in it, there are three bathrooms…basically, there is plenty room, and it is nice to have a house of friendly, but quiet, people. (That is the other good thing, in Bermondsey, my bedroom faced a very noisy road. In Golders Green it faces a very quiet backyard!).

One other reason I moved, was because I thought south east London was dodgy, and that north west looked safer. Bermondsey is a council estate type area, but it is getting nicer as people buy out the council flats, because it is very near the city. Golders Green is a wealthier, family-oriented, Jewish area. So I thought it would be nice and quieter and safer. Hmmm, well, I am not going to dwell too much on that…

I have also had a couple of visitors over the past few months. Emma stayed with me for a week, and now Sel is with me for two weeks. It is excellent, and feels like I never left Canberra . There is a lot of pudding eating and Gilmore Girl watching going on. I also went to see the Dirty Dancing stage show with Emma, and the Nutcracker Ballet. Sel and I went out to the countryside last weekend, but that is the last time I will do that until summer. We were glad to get home, and have reverted to lying on my bed all day watching Gilmore Girls. This is what winter is for.

Then, for Christmas, we spent it with Aidan’s sister and her lover, and it was wonderful company, food and presents (wonderful, WONDERFUL food). New Years was a non-event though, as I was in bed and asleep before midnight. If you think I was a home body in Australia , imagine what I am like in a freezing cold country where it gets dark at 4pm and I have no car. That’s right.

So now I am waiting for my next holiday, which is to go home for three weeks in February. I am looking forward to seeing everyone very much, eating proper fresh food, and maybe getting a little bit of a tan.

See you all soon.