Advertisement
Published: November 3rd 2009
The view from the Peak
Fortunately there was a tram all the way to the top!Well, we made a snap decision to leave Wuhan. It was pricey but a flight to Hong Kong got us out of the nuthouse that was the Chinese holiday.
Hong Kong is great, everything is in English! Slick, but budget busting, transport from the airport to the centre of HK Island and Jon was there to show us to our appartment. Once he had left us we started to find the fridge was full (including a packet of chocolate caramel digestives!), the bathrooms kitted out with all the toiletries you could ever want, however the hot water had been switched off. Cold showers for a week was a small price to pay for Jon and Kath's generosity.
Owing to our lack of foresight we had to queue up for another Chinese visa and another 50 quid each. Then a jaunt to the International supermarket relieved us of an eye watering 27 quid for milk, cereal and cheese basically. It was worth it though to have real cheddar and cow's milk for the first time in 8 weeks!
The Peak Tram is a spectacular ride up the mountain and the views over HK and Kowloon are amazing, if a
Symphony of Light
Every night at 8pm! Brilliant. little smog filled. In the evening Jon took us horse racing at Happy Valley where we didn't quite loose the shirts from our backs but certainly didn't have as much luck as Lairdy did a few months before.
With hangover in tow we headed out to Lantau Island to see the world's largest 'outside, seated, bronze budda', and then back to Kowloon to watch the Symphony of Light show over the harbour.
We went to the 64th floor of Jon's office to see the amazing view, went to Stanley and sat on our first beach in the sunshine, drinks on a roof terrace in the middle of the light show, and dinner in an amazing Japanese restaurant courtesy of Jon's expense account - Cheers mate!
Finally VIP seating in the bars of our choice with cheesy 80's music and jello shots... feeling a little homesick for the first time since leaving.
Realising we are staying for the sanitisation of the place we opt to move on after a week, although the hospitality could have kept us there for another fortnight.
On the train to the border at Shenzen we are surrounded by a mass of
Mmm Jello shots ...
You wouldn't believe the green mess after this photo was taken. activity of contraband goods which we later see are computer circuit boards which are then being sold on at the no-mans land between the two sets of customs. Then it's back into complete mayhem and confusion with people trying to take advantage of unsuspecting foreigners, lots of spitting on the floor and of course squat toilets ... ahhh don't you just love China.
We couldn't find the right bus station to get to Yangshou...signposts just seemed to peter out and our Chinese wasn't good enough to get directions so it was another train, via Guilin. But well, worth the difficulties to get here. For starters we would never have met Ken, if we had taken the bus. He patiently gives us Chinese lessons and the whole carriage is amused by 30 somethings learning to count 1-10. But it is more about pronounciation and Ken constantly corrects us in his broken English (without any hint of irony) saying he can understand us but it is all wrong.
Yangshuo, of HSBC advert fame, is the place the Chinese yearn to visit. When we get there it is raining and it rains all day. The karst mountains may be there but
Beautiful.
Karst mountains are pretty cool too! they are totally hidden by rain and mist. A boat trip on the river Li takes us through a magnificent setting but we just know the photos can't do it justice.
When the sun finally does start to show, we are inside. After a morning cycling in the countryside, which starts just 10 minutes from the West Lily Hotel, we reach the water caves just as the sun breaks through. It is a Chinese Wookey Hole with mud bath and hot springs thrown in. Attracted by the advertising posters of people in various stages of undress and covered in mud (the naked ones courteously blurred out for respectability - though only their faces, the rest is on show) we enquire as to entry price. 30 pounds per person! Seeing the shock on our faces this soon becomes 20 pounds and then 15. Still way over budget, we thank them, explain its too expensive and turn to leave. "How much you want to pay?" We say that we can just about run to 15 pounds for both of us. "OK. Just don't tell them at the entrance ... say you pay full price". Deal! Got to love the negotiable tourist
Mud Bath ..
The grit gets everywhere ... sights.
Inside is very like Wookey Hole but with the tour in Chinese. We get the gist of commentary with pointing torch, "this stalagmite looks like a panda floating on a lotus leaf" ... my arse it does. Nonetheless, the various stalagmite and stalactite fomations were amazing. The mud bath was cold and only a foot deep, but to be fair it did have a slide into it ... which exfoliated about 2mm of skin when you used it. Then it was on to the 'recently discovered' hot springs. Excuse the cynicism, but not a hint of sulphur in the air. Recently discovered 'how to get an electric boiler working underground' more like. Still a relaxing half an hour before resurfacing to a setting sun and a cycle back to town.
The Cormorant fishing is done at night and they do balloon rides between the karsts including dips into the Li river, plus there is plenty of rock climbing to be done. Having missed out on these we will definitely be back.
Next up though is three 24 hour train trips in 4 days. They have given us Tibetan permits and we are off to the roof
Potala Palace
No tram ride for this one, just 13 floors of steps. of the world.
After some dodgy dealings with black-market train tickets, we finally get to ride the highest train in the world. And if the Chinese have anything to say about it, the greatest engineering feat in the world. Ever. But despite getting bored of the piped information explaining how great the project was, you can forgive this and succumb to the immensity of it all and allow them some justifiable pride. Through marshes, snow-covered landscape and peaking at nearly 5200m, this clearly wasn't an easy task and the journey is spectacular. It does however induce some headaches, a little nausea and in the case of the Canadian in the next carriage some projectile vomitting...she was fine straight after, but altitude creeps up on you like this.
Lhasa was a mish-mash of old and new, Muslim and Buddhist, Tibetan and Chinese. The centre is geared to tourists and pilgrims alike. It's possible to look round the Barkhor circuit, including all the stalls in about 15 minutes if you walk clockwise. Try it anti-clockwise and you'll be there a day later still ploughing against the tide of pilgrims. Some of these guys have trekked a year, prostrating themselves every
Yamdrok
A lake 4200m high ... breathtaking quite literally. 10 yards, praying all the way to get to the Jokhang in Lhasa and the reverence is something to behold.
Out of Lhasa the temples keep coming thick and fast. Prayer flags abound at every high point available. Paul was particularly impressed to find the colourful flags actually have prayers on them...not a great shock really!
It's almost easy to become blase about the monasteries...until you get to sleep in one. Having arrived late at Everest Base Camp, taken our photos (while freezing the you-know-whats off) we found the guest house at the Rongbu monastery down the valley to be full. The hotel was beyond our means, but joining the monks was not. Wrapped in thick yak duvets and lit by candlelight, we whiled the hours away with cold toes until it was time to watch the sunrise over Everest and take on a trek up the valley to Base Camp.
Tibet, though still over administered by the Chinese, offers up mountain peak after mountain peak over 8000m. The sky is so clear you get sun and wind burn at 0 degrees. The water so pure rivers have no trouble freezing overnight, only to melt again in
Everest Base Camp
Just another 3648m to go from here. the morning sun. And lakes...the purest blue you'll ever see. If only there was a bit more oxygen in the air so we didn't have to stop every 50 yards of inclined walk.
3000m lower in Kunming, we reflected on our 6 weeks in China. We won't miss the continual hacking of phlegm and general use of the floor as a spitoon. Nose-picking will be sadly missed...not. Kids using the street as a toilet, with the blessing of their parents won't be high on the memories either. But we're not sure if we'll miss the superstar status we've been given. We can't imagine anywhere else in the world where they will stop dead in their track to stare at us, or overtake and turn round to get a better look, or best of all, the 40 photos we have graced in the last 40 days...and that's only the ones we noticed being taken.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.147s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0671s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
