From tropical Goa in India where Leah & I are sunning ourselves for a few days whilst we wind down to our return home.
I last left off in Spain at the point we were heading to France. Our reasons for traveling in France were threefold:
1) Watch as many of the AB's pool games as I could get tickets for
2) Finish off a pilgrims walk we started two years ago
3) Have a holiday with Hilary & Dave, our good friends from Winchester
I will deal with the walk first. The French camino (or GR65) is one of four that runs through France. They were ways used by Pilgrims from all over Europe from the early Middle Ages to get to the tomb of St Jacques (James the Elder) in Santiago Northern Spain. One route sort of originates in Tours & acted as a focal point for pilgrims from the Low Countries. The second started from Veselay in central France & attracted pilgrims from Germany, Poland & the like. The third started at Le Puy and served as a point of reference for pilgrims from Sthrn Germany, Switzerland & points east eg Austria. The final route went through Arles in Southern France & picked up pilgrims from Italy, Provence etc. The Le Puy route is by far the most popular & it was the one that we had begun 2 years ago. This time we picked up the route from a small town called Figeac. Small but beautiful. We walked three days to a town called Cahors, a very historical place & then took three days off in a small village near a town called Limoges.
Our diversion to Lautrette resulted from meeting a French couple (Vincent & Claude) in ULaan Bataar. They very kindly invited us to their parents house in Lautrette when we were in France. We happily did so & had a really marvellous time. It was country life with french families at its best in an old farmhouse . Vincent's parents were there as were his sister, brother in law & three children. We were made to feel part of the family & did a heap of interesting things. Like visiting the local market, going for long bike rides (they were very patient with us slow coaches), having family dinners & checking out the local Pate suppliers etc etc. We particularly enjoyed the night when the local mayor came for dinner. The wine & conversation flowed very freely that night. We loved having lunch etc in the garden at the back of the house - a very civilised process I can tell you. Hard to say "we have to go now" . It was also interesting that their house is right on the pilgrims route which comes down from Vezelay.
Anyway (sadly) back on the march from Moissac to Condom. Highlights of our walk included:
1) Night in a big convent in Moissac run by half a dozen nuns. I was the only guy there!!
2) Walking alongside a large canal. Very flat so really easy day.
3) Brand new gite in Auvillar which was as good as a 4 star hotel. And only EU 11.00 ea!!8)
4) Singing the Yellow Polka Dot Bikini song with Dannielle in Auvillar. How we got onto that I will never know but it was a lot of fun.
5) Therese our hostess in Miradoux. What a lady - she had us singing all these pilgrims songs, she took us up to the local church where we sang a few more songs, she plied us with food & wine and got me to walk her dog. Actually it wasn't a dog - it was a small horse!! The B .... thing was so big it dragged me everywhere. Especially whenever it saw a cat, which seemed to be quite frequently. So my pilgrims days almost ended in Miradoux.
6) Monestary in Lectoure where we met the local priest cum poet. He wrote his own hymns & graces & took great delight in getting all we innocent pilgrims to sing along at dinner. As dinner was free I guess we couldn't complain too much. And we had to clean up afterwards.
7) Walking thru fields of sunflowers (fantastic), picking all the wild plums, grapes, figs, apples & the like. And I still managed to lose weight!!
8) Defending the AB's chances when talking to all the french followers. Maybe I put the hex on them.
We arrived at Condom (still find it hard to write that name without wondering how it ever came about). I did notice a lot of children in the town so obviously the import of the name has passed the locals by. Or are they trying to make a point?
Anyway we met our very old friends Hilary & Dave from Winchester UK there. They wisked us off to a week in the country back near Figeac. A small stone cottage in a small village called Ambeyrac. It was right on the banks of the Lot river - a really picturesque location. We had a fantastic time. Travelled around the area a lot, did some walks (are we tigers for punishment or what?), visited local markets (the one at Villefranche was great), toured the local castle & enjoyed the guide ("now I repeat the number of people who walked thru this gate was 30,000,000; do you understand, I repeat again the number of people who ....") all in a classic deadpan french english accent, and visited St Cirque de Popie, a cathedral town built on the side of a cliff overlooking the river. A spectacular place steeped in history. Also got our bit of culture in with an evening of music in a local cathedral. And the food & wine flowed c/o of our master epicurean Dave. So an amazing week & thanks so much guys.
But all good things come to an end & it was back to Condom & continuing on our pilgrimage. We were heading into Basque country now - rolling countryside with the house painted a white & red colour. Very pretty in its own way but I think that I prefered the earlier stages (more to eat along the way!!) However we struck it lucky one day when we passed a producer of pates. He gave us three tins of Pork pate gratis which was very much appreciated I can tell you. So much so that Leah actually ate some. Not too many other highlights & some lowlights. I some how contracted shingles which I thought at first were some sort of bed bug bites. I didn't get them diagnosed until we did our final week of spanish - english teaching at Avila. They ended up being a real pain & spread over a big chunk of my chest.
As I said not too many highlights but we did see some Basque dancing in a square beside our Gite one night. Very loud but very enjoyable. Also stayed in an ancient church (built & invested by Charlemagne in 777). It had been flattened a few times since then but still retained that feeling of history. A lot of the smaller towns in this part of France were known as bastides. They were fortified villages ie a castle (or fortified church) with a big wall all around. Usually built on the top of a hill. The english held this area for many hundreds of years & there are still many reminders of that occupation around eg watchtowers, castles, chateaux etc. So historical interest wherever you looked.
We finally arrived at St Jean Pied de Porte the town we left from 5 years ago on our Spanish walk. People everywhere - the pilgrimage is now big big business & numbers have increased incredibly. In 2003 (our year) 16,000 passed thru St JPdP. Last year (2006) 23,500 started the pilgrimage there. And this years numbers will break all records.
We left St Jean next day to travel to Avignon. We used that as a base for the first AB game in Marseilles. Afterwards it was off to the French Riviera. We spent time between St Raphael & La Lavandou - the area including St Tropez. The Riviera is sort of part of Provence & was truly great. Weather fantastic, beaches great (so Leah says - I am not an expert) & the sky such a wonderful blue colour. I can see why it is such an inspiration for painters & the like. We spent a day in St Tropez & no I was not approached by BB or a film director. I guess that a long haired aging hippy dressed in scruffy tramping gear dosen't quite cut it any more. St T was very nice with heaps of million euro boats & cars. The town was in some ways just a little too good to be true. So very neat & clean, buildings all in perfect condition, paint immaculate - everything was in its place etc etc.
We had a great night at our camping ground at La Lavandou though. The owners put on an end of season party for all the campers. Food, wine, a one man band (who sang continuously for 5 hours +) & dance. We let our hair down & had a great night. We enjoyed shopping there also at the big Supermarkets. Our regard for price efficiency was well & truly satisfied. 16 Pottles of yoghurt EU2.20, tin mackeral EU0.94, 1 litre Wine EU .90, bread EU0.50. So no prizes for guessing what we ate. Also had a day at a town called Bormes La Mimosa. It is inland from LL. An historic town which has been really well preserved. Built on the side of a hill it has all the narrow streets, quaint houses, old churches, the compulsory chateau, vines, flowers & herbs growing everywhere, wonderful smells and a special sort of ambience. The place felt a little more natural than St Tropez. Highly recommended!!
Now for the hard part. The All Blacks. Need I say more . I watched the Toulouse (Roumanian) & Marseilles (Italy) games. Both a walk in the park for the AB's. Very enjoyable for we spectators, but the Italians & Roumanians were not remotely competitive. The stadiums were terrific & I had good seats in both. But once I learned that we were up against France in the 1/4 final I had a sinking feeling. The French had a lot to prove, not the least to ensure that they played a semi final in Paris. Also they had hard games against Ireland & Argentine so they were probably more mentally tuned to Cardiff than the AB's. I also have always had reservations about Henry's rotational policy. There never seemed to be a top 15 on view & I think that can be demotivating for the players. Lots for the "wise men" to think about over the next 4 years.
I learned of the AB French result in Khatmandu. Quite put me off my Dahl Bhat meal I can tell you. And India & Nepal is another story.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Russia, Spain & France
I don't think that I covered the cities of Moscow & St Petersberg too well in my previous epistles. So maybe I should do so now b4 heading into Finland & France & Spain.
Moscow was a big modern city. As I said we were in a hostel miles down to the southeast in a fairly nondescipt suburb. The good thing was that it was close to a market, a supermarket & the Metro. THe Moscow metro is amazing. Really efficient, the stations were works of art & the cost was miniscle. The down side was that the crowds were huge &they all moved at 100kphr. So you could not stop or slow down to admire the architecture. If you did you were swamped in a tidal wave of people.
We went to the Pushken museum (art work good but the museum was being renovated so everything was a bit disjointed), Red Square (really great as it was easy to visualise it in the days of Stalin, Kruschev, Brezshnev etc), Lenins Tomb with the great man himself emblamed for all time & the Kremlim which really is a sort of walled area. Once inside we did not have access to the soviet parliament but rather six or seven old Russian churches which have been converted to museums. They were great - in one we got some clasical russian church singing by a small group. Superb music -better than the Catholic lot who I feel tend to chant more than sing. Also the russion religious art is very different from the west. MOst of the art is based on ikons ie paintings & gilt on wood. And it is all to do with Mary holding Jesus as a young child. There is very little depicting the Passion and Mary is given a really high profile. It is her face that your eye is drawn to first. Painting is usually in red (sometimes green) & a lot of elements eg robes, halos etc are covered in gold gilt. If somewhat styilised it is still superb & I never got tired of looking at it.
But somehow I think that I have described all of this in a previous e mail. If I haven't please let me know & I will carry on. Because I am now going to skip straight to Helsinki & the story from there.
We both love Helsinki. Got there by bus from St P (8 hour trip) with no problems at the border. We stayed in a suburb of H. called Espoo about 15min by bus west along the coast. A nice hotel/hostel which had small dorm rooms. Buyt best of all it had this fantastic FREE buffet breakfast & free internet. YOu can see which we valued the most highly. So in true frugal backpacker tradition we were first in to breakfast & last to leave. We ate so much it lasted us for lunch & we only needed a small dinner. But our excuse was that the food was good & Europe is expensive (both true). I would recommend the Hotel Matinlahti to anyone but after we had finished with it I am sure they have probably declared bankruptcy. Loved the area - all the streets are tree lined, there are nice walking paths & the beaches were very atmospheric.
But all good things must come to an end & it was off to Madrid. Where we spent 3 days, arranged our Indian visas & then headed off for some voluntary english "teaching" at Vaughntown a place about 2.5 hours west of Madrid. A greast concept whereby 17/19 first language english speakers join with a similar number of spaniards for intensive english conversation (sort of total immersion on the spaniards part). So there were one on ones English/Spaniard, telephone conversations, conference calls, play acting, some mini theatre work, games, siestas etc etc. The spaniards were all top level people & really interesting to talk to. Surgeons, Nuclear regulatory people, civil servants, people from private industry - a really eclectic bunch and very nice. The deal for we anglos was free board , all meals & wine at a four star hotel. The food was great, wine even better & the rooms all high quality. We both enjoyed the experience greatly - we would not get to meet such a diverse range of people any other way. I learned more about bull fighting in one hour from Havier than I ever would have by reading books!! THe programme runs on a 6 day 5 night basis & we did two in a row, followed by a third in late September. I will definitely go again if I ever return to that part of Europe. If anyone is going to Spain & has a spare week I would strongly recommend. It is a nice part of Spain near a walled city called Avila. You get to spend an afternoon in the local village (Barco De Avila) & they put on tapas nights (or BBQ's) to wind each programme up.
So that was the major part of our spanish experiences. We spent a couple of weekends in Avila at the YHA & enjoyed exploring the old city. We caught the tail end of Avilas festival programme & managed to catch an evening of tango music.
Next stop was France & our pilgrims walk so that will be the subject of Installment 9. Unless I have missed big chunks of our time in St P & Moscow.
Moscow was a big modern city. As I said we were in a hostel miles down to the southeast in a fairly nondescipt suburb. The good thing was that it was close to a market, a supermarket & the Metro. THe Moscow metro is amazing. Really efficient, the stations were works of art & the cost was miniscle. The down side was that the crowds were huge &they all moved at 100kphr. So you could not stop or slow down to admire the architecture. If you did you were swamped in a tidal wave of people.
We went to the Pushken museum (art work good but the museum was being renovated so everything was a bit disjointed), Red Square (really great as it was easy to visualise it in the days of Stalin, Kruschev, Brezshnev etc), Lenins Tomb with the great man himself emblamed for all time & the Kremlim which really is a sort of walled area. Once inside we did not have access to the soviet parliament but rather six or seven old Russian churches which have been converted to museums. They were great - in one we got some clasical russian church singing by a small group. Superb music -better than the Catholic lot who I feel tend to chant more than sing. Also the russion religious art is very different from the west. MOst of the art is based on ikons ie paintings & gilt on wood. And it is all to do with Mary holding Jesus as a young child. There is very little depicting the Passion and Mary is given a really high profile. It is her face that your eye is drawn to first. Painting is usually in red (sometimes green) & a lot of elements eg robes, halos etc are covered in gold gilt. If somewhat styilised it is still superb & I never got tired of looking at it.
But somehow I think that I have described all of this in a previous e mail. If I haven't please let me know & I will carry on. Because I am now going to skip straight to Helsinki & the story from there.
We both love Helsinki. Got there by bus from St P (8 hour trip) with no problems at the border. We stayed in a suburb of H. called Espoo about 15min by bus west along the coast. A nice hotel/hostel which had small dorm rooms. Buyt best of all it had this fantastic FREE buffet breakfast & free internet. YOu can see which we valued the most highly. So in true frugal backpacker tradition we were first in to breakfast & last to leave. We ate so much it lasted us for lunch & we only needed a small dinner. But our excuse was that the food was good & Europe is expensive (both true). I would recommend the Hotel Matinlahti to anyone but after we had finished with it I am sure they have probably declared bankruptcy. Loved the area - all the streets are tree lined, there are nice walking paths & the beaches were very atmospheric.
But all good things must come to an end & it was off to Madrid. Where we spent 3 days, arranged our Indian visas & then headed off for some voluntary english "teaching" at Vaughntown a place about 2.5 hours west of Madrid. A greast concept whereby 17/19 first language english speakers join with a similar number of spaniards for intensive english conversation (sort of total immersion on the spaniards part). So there were one on ones English/Spaniard, telephone conversations, conference calls, play acting, some mini theatre work, games, siestas etc etc. The spaniards were all top level people & really interesting to talk to. Surgeons, Nuclear regulatory people, civil servants, people from private industry - a really eclectic bunch and very nice. The deal for we anglos was free board , all meals & wine at a four star hotel. The food was great, wine even better & the rooms all high quality. We both enjoyed the experience greatly - we would not get to meet such a diverse range of people any other way. I learned more about bull fighting in one hour from Havier than I ever would have by reading books!! THe programme runs on a 6 day 5 night basis & we did two in a row, followed by a third in late September. I will definitely go again if I ever return to that part of Europe. If anyone is going to Spain & has a spare week I would strongly recommend. It is a nice part of Spain near a walled city called Avila. You get to spend an afternoon in the local village (Barco De Avila) & they put on tapas nights (or BBQ's) to wind each programme up.
So that was the major part of our spanish experiences. We spent a couple of weekends in Avila at the YHA & enjoyed exploring the old city. We caught the tail end of Avilas festival programme & managed to catch an evening of tango music.
Next stop was France & our pilgrims walk so that will be the subject of Installment 9. Unless I have missed big chunks of our time in St P & Moscow.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
The perils of the russian train system
Just a couple more things re Russian railways that I will bore you with & then we will move to more interesting things.
Russian rail tickets are really complex. You need a degree in Ticknology to understand them. They show literally everything regarding your trip & take quite a while to set up & print out at the office. Name, passport no, train no, all the price components, carriage, bed no, Towns from & to etc etc - its all there somewhere printed in Cryllic. THe other interesting thing is that all times printed on the tickets are for Moscow. And the station clocks are the same ie set to Moscow time. So you front up at 8.00am in Irkutsk & the clock shows 3.00am. You have to be very careful about time differences. Irkutsk was 4 hours ahead of Moscow but the next station (Krasnoyarsk) was only 3 hours ahead. A bit of a nightmare as we nearly made the mistake of applying the ticket time as if it was the local time.
We found the russian people to be very friendly once you sort of broke past their initial reserve. But we had a bad experience in Irkutsk which unfortunately made it hard for the first short while. Leah had her Sony video cam stolen out of her back pack whilst on a tram from the station to our hostel. We think that she was targeted by a gang almost from the moment we got off the train. There is no other way that it could have happened. The police were not interested at all ¨don´t waste our time!¨ so that did not help as well. A great start to our russiam segment.
I did not like Irkutsk too much. It seemed a bit like Uhlan Bataar - ie lots of old decrepit
buildings, empty factories & a general air of seediness. Galina our hostess in Irkutsk taught us both a little russian. She was a lot of fun. As I have already said Olkhon Island was great.
Krasnoyarsk our next stop was much the same as Irkutsk. A bigger city but again ugly apartment blocks all over & lots of empty run down factories. We walked around the town & it was all fairly ordianry. Not a lot was open & a lot of people that we passed seemed to have a bottle in their hands. Abakan, south of Kr, was a much smaller city & quite nice. We went there to try to move on to the Tuva Republic where all the throat singers lived. However we could not find any english speakers to point us in the right direction so had to give it away. It is really hard - the locals tried to help but we just couldn´t make ourselves understood.
We met our air traffic controller on the train to Abakan. She was really nice & it was amazing to meet a Russian who had been to NZ. She gave us a couple of nice Tupperware cups (yes Tupperware has penetrated the Russian heartland) as a gift for speaking to her. Well really it should have been us giving something to her. Others on the train used her to ask us questions, mainly about NZ. So it was hard to find out too much about them & they way they lived.
We travelled on to Tomsk after our abortive trip to Abakan. Pretty straightforward but I had a bed in the corridor section of the carriage. They are so narrow it is unbelievable. As I said roll over & you almost fall out. Still & all I got a good nights sleep after my standard bowl of noodles & fruit. Leah does much better food wise - tins of fish, bread, some veges & the like. You can´t take anything on the train that might perish. No fridges & the carriages do get very warm.
Tomsk was very nice. As soon as we got there we tried to book onward tickets to Nishvy Novgorod. The queues in the station were horrific & when we finally got to the front it was ¨no pluskart beds left. Kupe only for Rb 7800 each¨. And that we had to work out as no one spoke english. Disaster - we were not going to pay that sort of money. There did not seem to be any other options so we gave it away & booked into the Sputnik Hotel. Double room with share shower & toilet. Plus free breakfast. It was here that we met Andrei. A photographer who spoke good english & who helped Leah order her breakfast one morning. He photographed young army recruits who had just signed up & were taking their oath iof allegiance to Russia. Pround mums would then buy the photo from him,. He told us quite a bit of his life. Like he was training to be a dentist? in St Petersberg & was thrown into jail for 5 years by the KGB for daring to want to marry a sicilian woman. He comes out, sets up a privately run school canteen system in ther schools around Novosibirisk. It did so well that the authorities took it over & he got nothing. So he ends up doing this photography & the only way he can maintain access to all the army bases is to pay bribes to the commanding o
fficers.
We agreed to meet him on the night that he was leaving to go back to Novosibirisk. 7.00pm we said, in our room. Well come 9.30pm & no sign of Andrei so we gave it away & Leah had a shower. Guess who then rocks up 3/4 drunk with a bottle of vodka. Yes our mate Andrei. We had to help him finish up the vodka whilst he told us about all the generals whose palms he had greased. He gave me a russian military cap which was rather nice & a great momento & also invited us down to his dacha in the Altai mountains. Dates did not suit us so we had to decline. He then borrowed 200Rb from us (I think that was the purpose of his visit) so he could get a taxi to the train station. An interesting guy - he has a daughter & son. The latter is a really good mechanic & Andrei would love to get him to the West, to a company like Volvo or Mercedes etc to give him a chance in life.
So Andrei was an interesting addition to our Russian people experiences. As was Ksenia a lovely lass we met in St Petersberg. You may remember that we met an Andrei in Mongloia. Well he offered us accomodation in his flat in St Petersberg. We took him up on that & when there found our way to his place. Which wásn´t a full flat. Rather he owned a room in a three bedroom 5th floor place. Close to the CBD?? so it was great. That is the way things work there. Many places are owned by the room. His co owners were Marsha, a worker in a hair salon & Sasha an old guy who was around most of the time. And who seemed to have lots of very strange mates who came to drink vodka with him. And a huge great Rottweiler named Misha. They all share a very small kitchen & an even smaller bathroom area. There is an interesting story about Misha. One morning the old guy went out & left Misha in the corridor guarding the front door. I came out ready to take off for the day only to be confronted by this huge growling dog. It was also slavering which was the most off putting thing. It then started lumbering up the corridor towards me. Well I broke the worlds 10m record getting back intio our room. It was really frightening, i mean that it was HUGE & I thought that we were locked in for the day. Leah began an attempt to lure it into the kitchen, with me offering full support (moral of course) but the owner came home just at that moment. He had to spend some time quietening the dog down so I think that discretion was the better part of valour. I mean he WAS big.
Ksenia was Andrei´s girlfriend & really nice. She was able to point us in the right direction sofar as sights were concerned. And Sasha wasn´t too bad once we got to know him. Leah will end up as a contributor to a Hair Salon users magazine. She was interviewed on the differences beteween Russian v NZ/Ozzie women sofar as fashions are concerned. Plus a photo of both of us dressed in our backpacker finest - we certainly will not qualify for the best dressed award & hopefully they do not think that all Kiwis dress like the two of us.
So that is the people side of things. Next instalment will be someting of Moscow & St Ptersberg & our experiences (gastronomic) in Finland.
Russian rail tickets are really complex. You need a degree in Ticknology to understand them. They show literally everything regarding your trip & take quite a while to set up & print out at the office. Name, passport no, train no, all the price components, carriage, bed no, Towns from & to etc etc - its all there somewhere printed in Cryllic. THe other interesting thing is that all times printed on the tickets are for Moscow. And the station clocks are the same ie set to Moscow time. So you front up at 8.00am in Irkutsk & the clock shows 3.00am. You have to be very careful about time differences. Irkutsk was 4 hours ahead of Moscow but the next station (Krasnoyarsk) was only 3 hours ahead. A bit of a nightmare as we nearly made the mistake of applying the ticket time as if it was the local time.
We found the russian people to be very friendly once you sort of broke past their initial reserve. But we had a bad experience in Irkutsk which unfortunately made it hard for the first short while. Leah had her Sony video cam stolen out of her back pack whilst on a tram from the station to our hostel. We think that she was targeted by a gang almost from the moment we got off the train. There is no other way that it could have happened. The police were not interested at all ¨don´t waste our time!¨ so that did not help as well. A great start to our russiam segment.
I did not like Irkutsk too much. It seemed a bit like Uhlan Bataar - ie lots of old decrepit
buildings, empty factories & a general air of seediness. Galina our hostess in Irkutsk taught us both a little russian. She was a lot of fun. As I have already said Olkhon Island was great.
Krasnoyarsk our next stop was much the same as Irkutsk. A bigger city but again ugly apartment blocks all over & lots of empty run down factories. We walked around the town & it was all fairly ordianry. Not a lot was open & a lot of people that we passed seemed to have a bottle in their hands. Abakan, south of Kr, was a much smaller city & quite nice. We went there to try to move on to the Tuva Republic where all the throat singers lived. However we could not find any english speakers to point us in the right direction so had to give it away. It is really hard - the locals tried to help but we just couldn´t make ourselves understood.
We met our air traffic controller on the train to Abakan. She was really nice & it was amazing to meet a Russian who had been to NZ. She gave us a couple of nice Tupperware cups (yes Tupperware has penetrated the Russian heartland) as a gift for speaking to her. Well really it should have been us giving something to her. Others on the train used her to ask us questions, mainly about NZ. So it was hard to find out too much about them & they way they lived.
We travelled on to Tomsk after our abortive trip to Abakan. Pretty straightforward but I had a bed in the corridor section of the carriage. They are so narrow it is unbelievable. As I said roll over & you almost fall out. Still & all I got a good nights sleep after my standard bowl of noodles & fruit. Leah does much better food wise - tins of fish, bread, some veges & the like. You can´t take anything on the train that might perish. No fridges & the carriages do get very warm.
Tomsk was very nice. As soon as we got there we tried to book onward tickets to Nishvy Novgorod. The queues in the station were horrific & when we finally got to the front it was ¨no pluskart beds left. Kupe only for Rb 7800 each¨. And that we had to work out as no one spoke english. Disaster - we were not going to pay that sort of money. There did not seem to be any other options so we gave it away & booked into the Sputnik Hotel. Double room with share shower & toilet. Plus free breakfast. It was here that we met Andrei. A photographer who spoke good english & who helped Leah order her breakfast one morning. He photographed young army recruits who had just signed up & were taking their oath iof allegiance to Russia. Pround mums would then buy the photo from him,. He told us quite a bit of his life. Like he was training to be a dentist? in St Petersberg & was thrown into jail for 5 years by the KGB for daring to want to marry a sicilian woman. He comes out, sets up a privately run school canteen system in ther schools around Novosibirisk. It did so well that the authorities took it over & he got nothing. So he ends up doing this photography & the only way he can maintain access to all the army bases is to pay bribes to the commanding o
fficers.
We agreed to meet him on the night that he was leaving to go back to Novosibirisk. 7.00pm we said, in our room. Well come 9.30pm & no sign of Andrei so we gave it away & Leah had a shower. Guess who then rocks up 3/4 drunk with a bottle of vodka. Yes our mate Andrei. We had to help him finish up the vodka whilst he told us about all the generals whose palms he had greased. He gave me a russian military cap which was rather nice & a great momento & also invited us down to his dacha in the Altai mountains. Dates did not suit us so we had to decline. He then borrowed 200Rb from us (I think that was the purpose of his visit) so he could get a taxi to the train station. An interesting guy - he has a daughter & son. The latter is a really good mechanic & Andrei would love to get him to the West, to a company like Volvo or Mercedes etc to give him a chance in life.
So Andrei was an interesting addition to our Russian people experiences. As was Ksenia a lovely lass we met in St Petersberg. You may remember that we met an Andrei in Mongloia. Well he offered us accomodation in his flat in St Petersberg. We took him up on that & when there found our way to his place. Which wásn´t a full flat. Rather he owned a room in a three bedroom 5th floor place. Close to the CBD?? so it was great. That is the way things work there. Many places are owned by the room. His co owners were Marsha, a worker in a hair salon & Sasha an old guy who was around most of the time. And who seemed to have lots of very strange mates who came to drink vodka with him. And a huge great Rottweiler named Misha. They all share a very small kitchen & an even smaller bathroom area. There is an interesting story about Misha. One morning the old guy went out & left Misha in the corridor guarding the front door. I came out ready to take off for the day only to be confronted by this huge growling dog. It was also slavering which was the most off putting thing. It then started lumbering up the corridor towards me. Well I broke the worlds 10m record getting back intio our room. It was really frightening, i mean that it was HUGE & I thought that we were locked in for the day. Leah began an attempt to lure it into the kitchen, with me offering full support (moral of course) but the owner came home just at that moment. He had to spend some time quietening the dog down so I think that discretion was the better part of valour. I mean he WAS big.
Ksenia was Andrei´s girlfriend & really nice. She was able to point us in the right direction sofar as sights were concerned. And Sasha wasn´t too bad once we got to know him. Leah will end up as a contributor to a Hair Salon users magazine. She was interviewed on the differences beteween Russian v NZ/Ozzie women sofar as fashions are concerned. Plus a photo of both of us dressed in our backpacker finest - we certainly will not qualify for the best dressed award & hopefully they do not think that all Kiwis dress like the two of us.
So that is the people side of things. Next instalment will be someting of Moscow & St Ptersberg & our experiences (gastronomic) in Finland.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
In the footsteps of Ghengis Khan
I have a bit of time so am able to get into our experiences in Mongolia which is where we left off.
Ulan Batar first. A pretty ugly soviet built sort of town. There are 1.5 million people living here. It is a dusty dirty sort of place with lots of horrible concrete soviet style apartment buildings. These are rectangular blocks with no redeeming features whatsoever. Our Guest house is in one - we basically are housed in what would have been a family's apartment. Two small bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, separate toilet & a small hallway which may have doubled as a lounge. I would have said that it would be good for a family of four (at a stretch) but apparently they used to squeeze a lot more in. Like two families of four for example. NO balconies in this block but I would have to note that some did have balconies. Very small but they were balconies. No lifts & the hot water gets turned off at fairly frequent intervals. We are suffering that problem at present.
All the roads are in a bad state of repair & many in the city are dirt. Buses are old soviet models & are always full, full. Shops are pretty basic & the place most frequented by shoppers is the black market to the east. So if that is what soviet cities are going to be like, Russia will be a pretty bleak experience. There are signs that things are improving though. There are new buildings going up slowly but these are generally commercial places eg banks - I cannot see the housing getting too much better in the foreseeable future. The suburbs on the outskirts are either gers or very basic wooden houses, probably with communal facilities. We have tended to stay in the CBD area as most of the interesting things (museums, temples, pagodas etc) are here. Some of the museums eg Natural History with its dinosaurs & stuffed animals were very good. The Buddhist pagoda was also great as we watched a monks chanting session (genuine this time) followed by a service involving all the worshippers. Actually very similar to our christian communion ceremony. I liked the National Museum of Mongolian History. It gave quite a different set of insights to Ghengis Khan. He is a Mongolian national hero & conquered everything in sight. He started of a dynasty (Manchu I think) in China & opened up all sorts of new trade routes. Quite a guy & many of his philosophies were very far reaching - that is if he put them in practice. I guess the wests viewpoint would be that he was a bloodthirsty barbarian who did nothing for those he conquered. Sore losers perhaps!!
But with all that I have to say that the Mongolian people seem to be quite positive. There is a sort of a buzz in the air & people seem more relaxed than they do in China (say). Leah has spent some time in Cashmere shops and there has been no pressure to buy which is a real plus after Beijing. I have enjoyed the many contrasts - well dressed businessmen alongside people from the country in their traditional felt cloaks with colourful belts & large leather boots. Also country women in their long woven dresses & cone shaped hats, in tandem with girls in their mini skirts.
However the highlight was our trip into the Mongolian mid west & the Gobi desert. We organised that thru Nassan a guest house operator - originally 13 days 12 nights expedition with the brief to stay with as many ger families as possible. Our driver was a guy called Ulzii & he drove a 4 wheel drive Russian van. A bit like a robust version of a Mitsubishi L300. The van was basic - no air con, no power steering, bench seats but it was built like a tank. Actually it had to be - the roads?? were generally terrible. We would take 8 hours to do 200 km. And it chewed gas like you would not believe - about 8 km per litre. So Ulzii had to be careful about his directions - like he could not stray too far away from villages & petrol pumps. He carried two jerrycans full of spare petrol (& needed them both on occasions) & also two spare tyres which he also needed.
Anyway we covered 2400km in 12 days. And a most interesting time was had. We stayed with ger families & ate their food. I call it food very loosely. The first night was a bowl of rice with tiny bits of gristly beef washed down with herder tea (goats milk, water, salt & some strange looking tea leaf combo). I have to say that the tea wasn't too bad. It was cooked over a stove n the ger which was fueled by horse or cow poop. Sleeping arrangement were - on the floor. Breakfast was small bits of a sort of pancake concoction along with the goat's milk tea. They got their water from the local creek. I saw where they collected it the next day - right where all the goats, sheep, horses & cattle collect so I was a bit worried about the old stomach for the next day or so. Gers are circular, very low at the side & about 8 foot high in the centre. The door faces south, the stove is in the middle & all guests enter to the left. Their drawers are at the north end of the ger & the bed was on the right. The walls & roof are made from sheep or goat felt - one layer in summer & more in winter. I would have to say however that the tourist gers were covered with canvas.
So an interesting start. Most of the gers after that were family run tourist gers ie the family would live in one ger & would provide two or three gers for visitors. These were set up in the traditional way but the food was a little better & more varied. Still within the Mongolian ethos though ie bugger all veges & NO fruit. They still maintained their nomadic way of life as they moved ger in winter & had big herds of goats & sheep. We did stay in a family ger down in the sand dunes area of the Gobi desert. This was with a young mother & her 5 children. The dad was away running a post on the Chinese border. A great group - really tight knit & they all worked really hard. The oldest girl was about 11 & the mother indicated to Leah that she was 25!! She looked young but still hard to believe that she had her first child at 14. They had goats, sheep & camels. So all our food was based on the old camel - camels milk, camel meat, camel milk based tea, I am sure it was camel rice as well. But the milk & meat were nice, very nice. Everyone had their jobs. The two little girls were charged with diving into the camel pen each day & picking up all the dung for fuel. Great job!! The older girls were mainly responsible for rounding up the herd each night & penning them. Also did some of the cooking (very well) & cleaning. Toilets were "in the country" - all very primitive esp as it was flat ground in all directions.
Washing - well that was a sort of waterhole about 1 km walk away. A waterhole incidentally shared with all the animals. I availed myself of it one day & swear I probably came out dirtier than when I went in. But oh the relief to get something that was less than 45C hot on my skin.
The heat & dust in the Gobi was horrendous. The old van leaked in all directions so we were just covered at the end of each day. So after two weeks of only one wash each we were not fit persons to know. In the mid west the days were hot but nights cold. Roads were no better than dirt tracks in most places. And they showed on Mongolian road maps as main roads. Very few trees anywhere and we did not see too many wild animals (mainly gophers, eagles, vultures, cranes, marmots, hawks, storks, ducks & some gazelles). All the really good stuff is way over to the west.
Lots of highlights though:
- Just seeing how they live out in the Gobi was an eye opener. The sand dunes family were a great example. They also moved ger twice a year. The older girls would go off to school at the local village & stay there for the whole term. Their ger is very basic - we slept on the floor & they slept outside when we were there. Diet is really limited - mainly rice or noodles with small amounts of meat, that pastry dish & very occasional veges (onion, potatoes mainly). Sometimes yogurt. Also loved the little girl who wrestled Mongolian style with her slightly older brother. She gave as good as she got - and there was never any sign of hard feelings if one or other got beaten. Actually the best was the 11 year old. She was lethal.
- The Gobi is not all sand. Big areas were in a tussocky sort of grass which supported the nomads, but barely. Big distances between gers & even bigger distances (at least 100km) between towns . The countryside was rolling sort of plains with low hills that you had to drive over.
- We spent a night at Kharakhorim Ghengis' s old capital. Nothing left now but a rather grim dusty town & a Monastery (Erdem Zuu) which was built from the ruins of the old city in 1585.
- We trekked to an ice canyon in the middle of the desert. Yes, a small river ran thru' this steep canyon. In fact it (the river) was covered in a thick layer of ice. Quite an amazing sight as the temperature out in the clear would have been well over 40. The ice sheet was about 3 - 5 km long.
- Also saw the red cliffs where they have unearthed untold numbers of dinosaur skeletons. Again right in the middle of the desert so excavation would have been really hard work.
- We had our own private folk singing session. An old guy came & entertained us one night in our ger. He had 4 instruments (2 x 2 string violin type things, a flute, a sort of small flat harp), used them all & did some throat singing as well. Quite good for 45 min & $ 6.00. But we heard better throat singing back in UB & hope to hear the acme in the Tuva republic in Siberia.
- Did some horse & camel riding - the latter in the sand dune area. The camels were all of the two humped variety so riding was reasonably easy. But they are big animals & you are a long way from the ground!!
- Our last day was special. We sat out on the side of a small mountain & watched the herders at work. Just an amazing sight how they herded the horses, sheep, goats, cattle, camels across these grassy plains. Everything was moving sort of continuously. They would be out with their special lassos trying to separate the wilder horses from the tamer. I really enjoyed the spectacle.
- Other things - climbed a small volcano in the mid west, helped with herding goats, pumped up Ulziiis tyres when they went flat (& got a blister for my troubles), wandered around small villages (what desolate places they are) & watched yak trains moving around White lake. These were yaks hitched to old carts with wooden wheels. Justa fantastic sight as it probably hasn't changed since the year dot.
- Meeting 4 Russians, 3 of whom spoke great English. Two offered us free accommodation in St Petersberg which needless to say we accepted very quickly.
So a great time if hard with all the dust, heat & the lack of showers & toilets. Not a trip for the fainthearted. It was great to get back to UB & a the thought of a hot shower & a laundry. Well guess what - the guesthouse had no hot water. Parts of UB's supply system were down for annual maintenance - we drew the short straw. So it was a really cold shower for me along
with cold water for our laundry. Woe woe.
We have our tickets on the train to Irkutsk (35 hour trip) which is on Lake Baikal. Leave later today but apparently the Mongolian Russian border takes 11 hours to cross! Can you believe that?
Friday, June 15, 2007
Tibet and Xian
This finds us in Ulaan Baatar capital of Mongolia hanging out for a few days while we wait for oyr Russian visa to "go active". In fact we leave on Sunday evening for Lake Baikal.
We have not long returned from 12 days in the mid west & Gobi desert. What a trip!! Toughest that we have been on but really rewarding at the same time.
However as usual I am getting ahead of myself. I think that I left off in Zhongdiane China which is in the South west close to the Thibetan border. We went there as it has thibetan style temples - the best in China & the closest to the real things (well so they say). Zh. is 3400m asl & the mountains surrounding it are really spectacular. But the landscape is barren & colsd looking. Lots of yaks in all directions & also horses & goats. We stayed at a local hostel & went out to the best of the temples. It did look a lot like those you see in photos from Thibet. But the chinese are giving it a make over so I don't think that it will be as true to life in a couple of years time. Already the monks were starting to cater for the tourists. They chanted when tourists were around & it was pretty ordinary. Not all the monks were involved & you could see that they were pretty bored with it all. There were donation boxes everywhere & the whole thing had a packaged feel about it. But some of the art treasures were great. Like the Wheel of Life. This is the buddhists way of depicting heaven & hell. Hell was pretty terrible. People getting pushed into flaming pots, being cut up but swords & axes, swallowed by gruesome looking beasts & it even showed some poor guy getting his family jewels cut off. I got a real cold feeling in my nether regions when I saw that. So we Christians do not have it alone for imaginative ways of showing hell & all the pleasures that await. Some great statues of Buddha in his various stances - sitting, lying, standing etc. The temples were all dark & gloomy with lots of insence but I think that is how it is in Thibet. They did not have any services going but lots of people prayed at the statues & made multiple donations of course. Wewalked back to town thru some fields where the local peasantry were working. They seemed quite cheerful even though the work they were doiung was real basic (hoeing, reaping, digging & the like) & it was wet everywhere.
Zh was a nice place though. They had a big village square & every night people gathered, the music would play & all would start to do these old folk dances. Great sight - young & old & even some tourists (guess who).
So a good time was had by all. We left Zh for Panzihua (Border of Sichuan province) on a sleeper bus. Now this time we were smarter & got beds near the front. So I managed to get a bit of sleep & leah did much better. But the 'loos along the way were no better. Talk about the pits - well they were!! So for me a 12 hour ride & hanging on all the way. I just couldn't face them.
In Panz we got a train to Chengdhu. We opted for soft seat which was not too bad but hard sleeper would have been better. At least you can lie down. Soft seats are not adjustable & the carriages fill p with all sorts of people trying to grab some space.
Ch wasn't too bad. Home of the Panda Breeding centre which we visited. They are really cute animals esp the young which are remarkably playful. But if ever an animal is doomed to extinction in the wild it is the panda. Think about it. It has a very limited diet - like bamboo & nothing else. Bamboo is really low on nutritional value. They live solitary lives so don't get together that often. The female is in oestrus only 2 days in a year & most males are not sufficiently well equipped to ensure successful conception, even if he did get to her at the right time. So nearly all the babies at the centre are born as a result of AI.
Also took a trip out to see the tallest Buddha in China. Over 90m high - he was carved out of a sandstone cliff alongside a river. Lots & lots of Chinese tourists there but it was pretty spectacular. Ch is a big city. Development all over the place but as with nearly all cities we visited it has very high air pollution. In fact one day was particularly bad. You could feel it in your throat & most people wore masks. It's probably best not to know what you are breathing in. But Mao square & the central shopping centre were very modern. They did a great fountain display at nightfall in the square which went on for an hour or so.
So now on to Xian, this time in an overnight sleeper. Very enjoyable esp as we took a lot of food & drink on board & could pig out. Xian was all about the Terra Cotta warriors of course. But the town has a lot going on as well. The old city is surrounded by this high (restored) wall & has an interesting Muslim quarter, complete with mosque. Also a Bell Tower, a drum Tower & some very old pagodas. Xian used to be a town on the Silk Route so these things have been around for a long time. We spent some time walking the streets & seeing the sights. Outside the city walls though Xian is just another big Chinese City with all the attendant issues.
Now the Warriors. We got there by local bus (#306) from the train station. Best way to go - all the tours stop at various places along the way so you don't get full value at the site. Amazing place isn't it. I loved the special exhibit where they had two 1/2 life sized sets of chariots on display. The detail on the horses, drivers, chariots etc was astonishing. Just superb. Pit 1 where they buried all the soldiers was also great. It's hard to imagine that they have only uncovered about 1/3 of all that there is there. Pits 2 & 3 were also good but didn't have to same sort of impact as Pit 1 where you had row upon row of soldiers lined up with their horses. And they were all set up in battle formation.
To get to the site you drive past the emporers mausoleum. It is a big mound about 1.5km away from the pits. They have not started excavating that yet as they don't think they have the technology to handle it well enough. I would love to be around when they do. Ponds of mercury, crossbow traps, gold galore - all sorts of speculation about what is inside.
From Xian another sleeper train to Shanghai. Leah & I were in seperate compartments for this leg. We booked a little late so did not have any choice. We had to go to Sh to get our Russian visas. Which proved to be no problem. We had bodgied up Letters of Invitation & little else (no itinerary for example) but the visas was processed the same day & the guy wished us happy travels. So different from other peoples experiences in Beijing (or NZ or Oz for that matter where staff seem to go out of the way to be unhelpful & rude).
We liked Sh esp the Bund & the old Quarter area. We spent a day getting to/from Szushou & then only had about 90 min there. The crowds were horrendous - we had a hard seat train ride - never again. Managed to get into a small pagoda there & climb to the top but that was it. Finish that & it was straight back to the station to get our train back to Sh. We like Nanjing Street E - best shopping street we saw in China. All the big brand stores & the street in fact was a mall. People everywhere. Also spoent time at the Museum in Peoples Square - very good. Loved all the old paintings that they had on display. I could go back to Sh quicker than most other places we have visited in China. It wsn't as polluted & seemed to have a more laid back atmosphere.
Now off to Beijing - this time a soft seat as there were no sleeper berths left. We stayed west of Tianamen square close to one of the Metro lines. Beijing was all about getting our Mongolian visa & doing a bit of shopping. Visa successful & shopping also - at the silk markets. We also visited the Lama Temple north of T Sq which was very good. But I did not like Bj too much. The people are very aggresive esp ewhen they want you to buy something. Also the old spitting habit dies hard & air pollution is still a big problem. How things will improve for the Olympics I do not know. But they have to do something - westerners will not put up with bad service, rudeness (by our standards) & bad hygiene. A real challenge for the authorities!!
So it was on the train to Mongolia. A 30 hour trip in a four berth sleeper. We took on enough food to feed the train & were sharing with Ali from Glasgow & a Mongolian lady who must have been taking back half Chinas fruit & vege output. She filled up our compartment with apples, bananas, tomatoes, oranges & other things which I just can't off hand remember. When I saw that I couldn't help thinking - so maybe its true what they say about Mongolian food after all.
We have not long returned from 12 days in the mid west & Gobi desert. What a trip!! Toughest that we have been on but really rewarding at the same time.
However as usual I am getting ahead of myself. I think that I left off in Zhongdiane China which is in the South west close to the Thibetan border. We went there as it has thibetan style temples - the best in China & the closest to the real things (well so they say). Zh. is 3400m asl & the mountains surrounding it are really spectacular. But the landscape is barren & colsd looking. Lots of yaks in all directions & also horses & goats. We stayed at a local hostel & went out to the best of the temples. It did look a lot like those you see in photos from Thibet. But the chinese are giving it a make over so I don't think that it will be as true to life in a couple of years time. Already the monks were starting to cater for the tourists. They chanted when tourists were around & it was pretty ordinary. Not all the monks were involved & you could see that they were pretty bored with it all. There were donation boxes everywhere & the whole thing had a packaged feel about it. But some of the art treasures were great. Like the Wheel of Life. This is the buddhists way of depicting heaven & hell. Hell was pretty terrible. People getting pushed into flaming pots, being cut up but swords & axes, swallowed by gruesome looking beasts & it even showed some poor guy getting his family jewels cut off. I got a real cold feeling in my nether regions when I saw that. So we Christians do not have it alone for imaginative ways of showing hell & all the pleasures that await. Some great statues of Buddha in his various stances - sitting, lying, standing etc. The temples were all dark & gloomy with lots of insence but I think that is how it is in Thibet. They did not have any services going but lots of people prayed at the statues & made multiple donations of course. Wewalked back to town thru some fields where the local peasantry were working. They seemed quite cheerful even though the work they were doiung was real basic (hoeing, reaping, digging & the like) & it was wet everywhere.
Zh was a nice place though. They had a big village square & every night people gathered, the music would play & all would start to do these old folk dances. Great sight - young & old & even some tourists (guess who).
So a good time was had by all. We left Zh for Panzihua (Border of Sichuan province) on a sleeper bus. Now this time we were smarter & got beds near the front. So I managed to get a bit of sleep & leah did much better. But the 'loos along the way were no better. Talk about the pits - well they were!! So for me a 12 hour ride & hanging on all the way. I just couldn't face them.
In Panz we got a train to Chengdhu. We opted for soft seat which was not too bad but hard sleeper would have been better. At least you can lie down. Soft seats are not adjustable & the carriages fill p with all sorts of people trying to grab some space.
Ch wasn't too bad. Home of the Panda Breeding centre which we visited. They are really cute animals esp the young which are remarkably playful. But if ever an animal is doomed to extinction in the wild it is the panda. Think about it. It has a very limited diet - like bamboo & nothing else. Bamboo is really low on nutritional value. They live solitary lives so don't get together that often. The female is in oestrus only 2 days in a year & most males are not sufficiently well equipped to ensure successful conception, even if he did get to her at the right time. So nearly all the babies at the centre are born as a result of AI.
Also took a trip out to see the tallest Buddha in China. Over 90m high - he was carved out of a sandstone cliff alongside a river. Lots & lots of Chinese tourists there but it was pretty spectacular. Ch is a big city. Development all over the place but as with nearly all cities we visited it has very high air pollution. In fact one day was particularly bad. You could feel it in your throat & most people wore masks. It's probably best not to know what you are breathing in. But Mao square & the central shopping centre were very modern. They did a great fountain display at nightfall in the square which went on for an hour or so.
So now on to Xian, this time in an overnight sleeper. Very enjoyable esp as we took a lot of food & drink on board & could pig out. Xian was all about the Terra Cotta warriors of course. But the town has a lot going on as well. The old city is surrounded by this high (restored) wall & has an interesting Muslim quarter, complete with mosque. Also a Bell Tower, a drum Tower & some very old pagodas. Xian used to be a town on the Silk Route so these things have been around for a long time. We spent some time walking the streets & seeing the sights. Outside the city walls though Xian is just another big Chinese City with all the attendant issues.
Now the Warriors. We got there by local bus (#306) from the train station. Best way to go - all the tours stop at various places along the way so you don't get full value at the site. Amazing place isn't it. I loved the special exhibit where they had two 1/2 life sized sets of chariots on display. The detail on the horses, drivers, chariots etc was astonishing. Just superb. Pit 1 where they buried all the soldiers was also great. It's hard to imagine that they have only uncovered about 1/3 of all that there is there. Pits 2 & 3 were also good but didn't have to same sort of impact as Pit 1 where you had row upon row of soldiers lined up with their horses. And they were all set up in battle formation.
To get to the site you drive past the emporers mausoleum. It is a big mound about 1.5km away from the pits. They have not started excavating that yet as they don't think they have the technology to handle it well enough. I would love to be around when they do. Ponds of mercury, crossbow traps, gold galore - all sorts of speculation about what is inside.
From Xian another sleeper train to Shanghai. Leah & I were in seperate compartments for this leg. We booked a little late so did not have any choice. We had to go to Sh to get our Russian visas. Which proved to be no problem. We had bodgied up Letters of Invitation & little else (no itinerary for example) but the visas was processed the same day & the guy wished us happy travels. So different from other peoples experiences in Beijing (or NZ or Oz for that matter where staff seem to go out of the way to be unhelpful & rude).
We liked Sh esp the Bund & the old Quarter area. We spent a day getting to/from Szushou & then only had about 90 min there. The crowds were horrendous - we had a hard seat train ride - never again. Managed to get into a small pagoda there & climb to the top but that was it. Finish that & it was straight back to the station to get our train back to Sh. We like Nanjing Street E - best shopping street we saw in China. All the big brand stores & the street in fact was a mall. People everywhere. Also spoent time at the Museum in Peoples Square - very good. Loved all the old paintings that they had on display. I could go back to Sh quicker than most other places we have visited in China. It wsn't as polluted & seemed to have a more laid back atmosphere.
Now off to Beijing - this time a soft seat as there were no sleeper berths left. We stayed west of Tianamen square close to one of the Metro lines. Beijing was all about getting our Mongolian visa & doing a bit of shopping. Visa successful & shopping also - at the silk markets. We also visited the Lama Temple north of T Sq which was very good. But I did not like Bj too much. The people are very aggresive esp ewhen they want you to buy something. Also the old spitting habit dies hard & air pollution is still a big problem. How things will improve for the Olympics I do not know. But they have to do something - westerners will not put up with bad service, rudeness (by our standards) & bad hygiene. A real challenge for the authorities!!
So it was on the train to Mongolia. A 30 hour trip in a four berth sleeper. We took on enough food to feed the train & were sharing with Ali from Glasgow & a Mongolian lady who must have been taking back half Chinas fruit & vege output. She filled up our compartment with apples, bananas, tomatoes, oranges & other things which I just can't off hand remember. When I saw that I couldn't help thinking - so maybe its true what they say about Mongolian food after all.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Into the Middle Kingdom
We are now in Beijing facing a day indoors as it is raining outside. We went out first thing this morning to the Mongolian Embassy & picked up our visas. Also booked our train tickets to Ulaan Baator for Saturday so we are well on the way. Got thoroughly wet for our troubles but it was worth it. So our passports now have an exotic lot of visas in them.
But as usual I am getting a little ahead, I left off in Hanoi where we had just arrived. I much preferred HCMC - the people in hanoi were really aggressive & never let you alone. "buy this, buy that, ride in my taxi, take this tour, eat my food" - it was quite unrelenting & some got a bit stroppy if you did not submit. Anyway I guess that they have yet to fully adapt to a true service economy. We ended up in the Old Quarter wich was quite atmospheric. Got a fairly ordinary hostel room but it was CHEAP & the owners were very gooid & helpful. The down side was that our room was uip 5 flights of very narrow stairs!!.
What did we do in & around Hanoi? Well first & foremost was a cruise on Halong Bay. A junk cruise at that. Well a motorised junk cruise - but very good for all that. HB is a world heritage site & it is pristine. All these small beautiful islands (1600) set in a sheltered bay - the mist swirls around early in the morning & it is just a stunning sight as things slowly appear. Islands are covered in trees with rock foreshores. We had a night on the junk then a night on the only inhabited island (Cat Ba). We did all the good touristy things - swimming, kayaking, trekking, caving (on a small island with this huge long cave) but the environment made it all really good. The junk never went that quick so you had plenty of time to see & appreciate
the scenery. So it was US $120 well spent. There were little floating villages permanently stationed in the middle of the bay. They had a great way of rowing their boats - they would stand up & then sort of scull backwards. One unusual person actually was rowing with their feet!!
Nextwas the Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi. It featured all the minority tribes in Vietnam - their customs, costumes & gave some video examples of their traditional lifestyle. One of the best museums I have seen. It had a great outdoor display in which some of their old longhouses & high thatched places were exhibited. If you are ever in Hanoi then this Museum is well worth a visit. Yoiu get the No 14 local bus from the old Quarter (D4000). It also had an excellent exhibition on the Vietnam subsidy economy (Bao Cao) in the 1980's ie when everything was under state control. It showed how people lived. For instance many kept a pig in their flats. THe back room (very small) was the pig pen. EVen in multi story block. People told their own stories which made it seem really immediate & certainly brought it to life.
Visited the mUseum of LIterature a very old temple complex which used to house Buddhist literary treasures. VEry nice peaceful place even with a horde of tourists. No monlks in evidence which was a bit of a shame. BUt lots of statues of Buddha in all his poses to make up for it. Many of the locals prayed very fervently to these statues. So religion was not stamped out by the authorities in the HCM days. MUch the same in China.
Finall we got our chinese visa (with not too many days left on our Vietnam one) so we hopped on a sleeper train to the border town of Lao Caio. THE idea was to visit SApa (a mountain village & apparently very scenic with lots of minority tribes) from there then come back after a few days & cross the border. Sleeper train was good - not much sleep as we played cards with an Aussie couple but we staggered out at LC & got a mini bus to Sapa. SCenery WAS great on the way up (mountains, rivers, steep valleys etc) but it was raining & misty when we got there & the place was chocker full of local tourists. So we turned around & came back & crossed into China the same day. Leaving Vietnam - no problems. Arriving cHina - we had our precious TRavel guide
confiscated by an overbearing officious customs guy. It showed Taiwan as a seperate country which isn't allowed - at least at this crossing. We met plenty of others who crossed at other places with no problem. Anyway we protested to no avail. He magnanimously took out the YUnnan pages though & left them with us. A great start.
Anyway ....... we booked seats on the overnight sleeper bus to Kunming. Now sleeper - I thought the seats recline a bit. Say like Sth America. But no. THe bus had bunks. 3 across & 2 high with a full width bench at the back. With that I thought that all my birthdays had come at once. Heres me with lEah & two beautiful danish girls at the back. I could see that I was in for a long night. But curses - at the first stop a chinese guy came up & ruined my nice little set up. It was acse of 4's company but 5 is a crowd. And it was esp as the road was super rough & the toilets the worst ever!! So another night without too much sleep.
Kunming was a nice open sort of city. It was hot & we spent most of our time exploring around the main centre & following the May DAy parade. We stayed at the YHA but never again. it was very ordinary & the 'loos were terrible. Filthy, smelly, doors broken, no running water - you name it they didn't have it.
We went from Kunming to DAli & Lijiang - both towns up to the north west. They were both completely overrun by chinese tourists - we picked a golden week, a weeks worth of national holidays for everyone. And it seemed as if everyone was travelling. A word of warning. Do not come to China at the beginning of May. You just can't move in the popular towns. Both towns had historic centres encircled by walls which were quite atmospheric. Lijiang had been rebult about 10 years ago after an earthquake. So it was a little new & somewhat "synthetic". But we only passed through there to get to the Tiger Leaping gorge. The TLG is on the Yangtze river. It is incredibly steep & deep (3,000m) & the walk along the high trail was a good challenge. We did it in two days which is about normal. Some take three & if you hurry & started early you could do it in 1. BUt you miss half the fun of staying in guest houses in little villages along the way. These villages are great - really picturesque, perched on the side of the hills in little valleys. Now they are reasonably authentic.
So that was a good experience & we went further north to Zhongdiane (Shangri La) up near the Tibet border. Nice place & I will tell you more about it in my next report.
We are off to Mongolia tomorrow on the train & from there we will head into Russia in about 3 weeks time. We have all our necessary visas so things should be smooth.
But as usual I am getting a little ahead, I left off in Hanoi where we had just arrived. I much preferred HCMC - the people in hanoi were really aggressive & never let you alone. "buy this, buy that, ride in my taxi, take this tour, eat my food" - it was quite unrelenting & some got a bit stroppy if you did not submit. Anyway I guess that they have yet to fully adapt to a true service economy. We ended up in the Old Quarter wich was quite atmospheric. Got a fairly ordinary hostel room but it was CHEAP & the owners were very gooid & helpful. The down side was that our room was uip 5 flights of very narrow stairs!!.
What did we do in & around Hanoi? Well first & foremost was a cruise on Halong Bay. A junk cruise at that. Well a motorised junk cruise - but very good for all that. HB is a world heritage site & it is pristine. All these small beautiful islands (1600) set in a sheltered bay - the mist swirls around early in the morning & it is just a stunning sight as things slowly appear. Islands are covered in trees with rock foreshores. We had a night on the junk then a night on the only inhabited island (Cat Ba). We did all the good touristy things - swimming, kayaking, trekking, caving (on a small island with this huge long cave) but the environment made it all really good. The junk never went that quick so you had plenty of time to see & appreciate
the scenery. So it was US $120 well spent. There were little floating villages permanently stationed in the middle of the bay. They had a great way of rowing their boats - they would stand up & then sort of scull backwards. One unusual person actually was rowing with their feet!!
Nextwas the Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi. It featured all the minority tribes in Vietnam - their customs, costumes & gave some video examples of their traditional lifestyle. One of the best museums I have seen. It had a great outdoor display in which some of their old longhouses & high thatched places were exhibited. If you are ever in Hanoi then this Museum is well worth a visit. Yoiu get the No 14 local bus from the old Quarter (D4000). It also had an excellent exhibition on the Vietnam subsidy economy (Bao Cao) in the 1980's ie when everything was under state control. It showed how people lived. For instance many kept a pig in their flats. THe back room (very small) was the pig pen. EVen in multi story block. People told their own stories which made it seem really immediate & certainly brought it to life.
Visited the mUseum of LIterature a very old temple complex which used to house Buddhist literary treasures. VEry nice peaceful place even with a horde of tourists. No monlks in evidence which was a bit of a shame. BUt lots of statues of Buddha in all his poses to make up for it. Many of the locals prayed very fervently to these statues. So religion was not stamped out by the authorities in the HCM days. MUch the same in China.
Finall we got our chinese visa (with not too many days left on our Vietnam one) so we hopped on a sleeper train to the border town of Lao Caio. THE idea was to visit SApa (a mountain village & apparently very scenic with lots of minority tribes) from there then come back after a few days & cross the border. Sleeper train was good - not much sleep as we played cards with an Aussie couple but we staggered out at LC & got a mini bus to Sapa. SCenery WAS great on the way up (mountains, rivers, steep valleys etc) but it was raining & misty when we got there & the place was chocker full of local tourists. So we turned around & came back & crossed into China the same day. Leaving Vietnam - no problems. Arriving cHina - we had our precious TRavel guide
confiscated by an overbearing officious customs guy. It showed Taiwan as a seperate country which isn't allowed - at least at this crossing. We met plenty of others who crossed at other places with no problem. Anyway we protested to no avail. He magnanimously took out the YUnnan pages though & left them with us. A great start.
Anyway ....... we booked seats on the overnight sleeper bus to Kunming. Now sleeper - I thought the seats recline a bit. Say like Sth America. But no. THe bus had bunks. 3 across & 2 high with a full width bench at the back. With that I thought that all my birthdays had come at once. Heres me with lEah & two beautiful danish girls at the back. I could see that I was in for a long night. But curses - at the first stop a chinese guy came up & ruined my nice little set up. It was acse of 4's company but 5 is a crowd. And it was esp as the road was super rough & the toilets the worst ever!! So another night without too much sleep.
Kunming was a nice open sort of city. It was hot & we spent most of our time exploring around the main centre & following the May DAy parade. We stayed at the YHA but never again. it was very ordinary & the 'loos were terrible. Filthy, smelly, doors broken, no running water - you name it they didn't have it.
We went from Kunming to DAli & Lijiang - both towns up to the north west. They were both completely overrun by chinese tourists - we picked a golden week, a weeks worth of national holidays for everyone. And it seemed as if everyone was travelling. A word of warning. Do not come to China at the beginning of May. You just can't move in the popular towns. Both towns had historic centres encircled by walls which were quite atmospheric. Lijiang had been rebult about 10 years ago after an earthquake. So it was a little new & somewhat "synthetic". But we only passed through there to get to the Tiger Leaping gorge. The TLG is on the Yangtze river. It is incredibly steep & deep (3,000m) & the walk along the high trail was a good challenge. We did it in two days which is about normal. Some take three & if you hurry & started early you could do it in 1. BUt you miss half the fun of staying in guest houses in little villages along the way. These villages are great - really picturesque, perched on the side of the hills in little valleys. Now they are reasonably authentic.
So that was a good experience & we went further north to Zhongdiane (Shangri La) up near the Tibet border. Nice place & I will tell you more about it in my next report.
We are off to Mongolia tomorrow on the train & from there we will head into Russia in about 3 weeks time. We have all our necessary visas so things should be smooth.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
The hardships of travel in China
Travelling in China is hard work and it didn't bode well when entering the border from Vietnam,when this baby faced officious official confinscated our guide book. Why? because there Taiwan was printed in a different colour to the rest of China. Also English is not widely spoken so alot of sign lanuage is re'qd. Briefly, enjoyed Kumming Dali and LIjiang and esp two days hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge. SW China has minority groups such as the Naxi cultures and their food is different and a nice change from Chinese food- one can get sick to death from rice and more rice!! Ablultions are on the whole disgusting. Not mind squatters but communal is beyond my comprehension and more often then not they haven't been cleaned since the Ming dysnasty, and whats more you have to pay! Its an ongoing complaint amongst us Westerners.
We are now in Xian and we have heard that getting a Russian visa in Baijing is frustrating and often fruitless but it is easier to get one from Shanghai. Crazy if we have to travel Shanghai. I was told in Sydney that we would have no trouble in Beijing? Somehow the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing!!
Well this leaves us taking off soon to visit the Teracotta Army and then deciding on our next destination which will mean another long overnight trip. The high and lows of travel!!
We are now in Xian and we have heard that getting a Russian visa in Baijing is frustrating and often fruitless but it is easier to get one from Shanghai. Crazy if we have to travel Shanghai. I was told in Sydney that we would have no trouble in Beijing? Somehow the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing!!
Well this leaves us taking off soon to visit the Teracotta Army and then deciding on our next destination which will mean another long overnight trip. The high and lows of travel!!
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