Trains, Trains and Trains

We've finally made it to Beijing. After 16 days on the road we've survived the noddles, rice and strange delicacies, weird but nice tea and a few beers along the way. We still don't know if our blog is updating OK so I'll leave the travel details to later and generalise on China. It's a nice place overall. The chinese have two very bad habits, Smoking and spitting. Seeing a granny hack up half a cigarette from her lungs and happily gob it in the middle of the street is not pleasant.

 

They also have a weird method of potty training. Little children, those that can just about walk wear tousers slit around the crotch. Bum and bits to the wind if they have the need they can just squat and go, literally. Some parents are conservative and have taught their kids to aim for gutter, others don't seem to mind as much. Sometime these kids aren't older than a few months, so I pity the parents when they're carrying the child!!!

 

Speaking of children, an easy way here to avoid the bed head/craddle cap most babies get is to keep the heads shaved. OK for a baby they don't sleep on the top of their head so a little mohican can be nice.

 

We've been on a few trains. Undeground, over ground and super fast 431KPH fast (about 260MPH). The idea of letting people get off the train before boarding doesn't qite exist. It makes for a bit of fun when you have 15 people with bags blocking your way out. You really have to learn to use your elbows !

 

Lastly the language. I've said it before (56 Nationalities in China, multiple languages per nationality - we where reminded today.) the language is the biggest barrier cause you just don't know what anything is. Even today walking down a street, you can't even guess what the doorway leads to unless they have some sort of English phrase somewhere. It is nice that so many Chinese have learnt English, not all of them are great certainly not up to red lorry, yellow lorry standard, but it's far better than our Chinese and they like showing us they can say hello etc. We've tried to learn some of the basics and I think I know the trick. Keep you teeth clenched, your tongue in the roof of you mouth and be careful with the inflections! We made a guy laugh last night with our failed attempt of pronuncing one of the place names. He was evesdropping, but couldn't help but laugh! If worst comes to worst, we point and do inpressions!!! That always works.

 

We head to Japan on Saturday for 4 days before North America. It's going to be nice being back on our own again after another group experience. We'll try and get the blog updated from there with pictures of everything.

Frog's and Snails and Puppydog Tails

China is probably the biggest language barrier we have faced on our trip. We joined our tour going from Hong kong to Beijing. Another interesting group of people, most of them are just finishing a stint of travelling and the comparisons with everyone's adventures around SE Asia have been funny. We headed for China by train (they're still treated as two seperate countries, big border crossing, etc.) which was much nicer than Indian travel although not quite as good as Thai. Our first port of call, Yangshuo.

 

This little town was our first imersion in Chinese culture. Lucky for us it was a big tourist draw and a lot of the locals speak a bit of English, even if they can't understand it that well. Chinese is one of those languages which apart from the fact they have litteraly thousands of dialects, they have over 50 languages. You can't guess what the signs say, except for the usual western brands such as coke or McDonalds it's a case of look at the pictures on a menu, make animal noises and hope they have signs outside the bathrooms for male and female.

 

Another cookery course started in the market. Lots of vegetables, fruit and animals. Not just pork, beef and chicken, we also saw dog, duck, frogs, snails and a rather interesting if not grotesque performance by a female fishmonger preparing the live fish for our shopping bag. (Only fish and beef in our recipies!)

 

Our next trip had us up the Yangtze River. 3 Gorges Dam is the largest Hydro Electric Power station producing over 100TWH of electricity ever year. That's 100, 000, 000, 000, 000 Watt/Hours - Lots of light bulbs ! The Tour was a bit poor being all in Chinese, we did get some help from our tour leader but his translations where a bt slow. Much better than our Chinese at any rate.

 

A cruise on the Yangtze river was an expereince. Not quite 5 star with the Damp mouldy carpet in the bedrooms, we survived and saw some beautiful views of the varous gorges and learnt to play Mahjong which is extremely popular in China. One aspect we probably could have managed without was the Karaoke. Chinese people can't sing. The high pitch squeeling noise they make does not really work on modern day speakers, their solution of turning the volume up as loud as possible didn't help either. The captain of the ship gave a reasonable rendition to the delight of the chinese audience (our group, the only foreigners clapped when the locals clapped). We were even treated to some dance moves from the crew in traditional costume, Saturday night fever it wasn't. The experience was enlightening and with Karaoke being extremely popular we at least will be ready for the next time.... with Ear Plugs !

 

We're now in Yichang, a nice hotel in another large city. Catching up on emails, paying bills and stable sleep we have the delightful thought of a 16 hour train journey tomorrow towards Xi'an to see the Terracota Warriors. Stock up on the noodles, crisp sandwhiches and fruit and we should be OK.

 

As we're in China we aren't able to access the actual blog site, so images will have to wait until hopefully Japan - if not sooner, well keep checking?

  

Away and Back Again

At the Avenue of the Stars, Hong Kong

Back in Hong Kong we headed to Hong Kong Disneyland. The MRT which took us to disney was a fantastic start - Mickey mouse windows, mickey handrails and small statues filled the train. This Disney isn't large by any means and Cinderella's castle is really small, but the quality of the shows certainly makes up for the lack of 'thrills'.


We got to meet Mickey and Minney and Chris even was singled out in the 'Stitch encounter' show where he was identified as an escaped prisoner and his photo was shown to all the audience. This was a great show as the cartoon character appeared on a large screen and interacted with the audience. It was very, very funny. I don't think Chris knew what to do!

Cinderella Carousel

Water parade - you got wet - or cooled down!

A fireworks show rounded our trip off and we headed back to our room. Tomorrow we join our new GAP group for our overland trip to Beijing, lets hope our luck lasts with the nice people we meet on our trips.

Hong Kong, Singapore and back again!

After a quick 2 night stop over in Hong Kong, Chris and I flew to Singapore for a 5 day break and what a place!

It's a shoppers paradise and if this had been on our first half of our trip, we would be on the streets by now with all credit cards maxed! Electronics, beautiful shops, and a vast number of malls, even I didn't want to see any more shops by the time we were leaving. Any trip to Singapore is also not complete without stopping off at Raffles Hotel and a couple of Singapore Slings were to be had in the long bar with the peanut husks on the floor.

Chris and I with our Singapore Slings

On our second day Chris spotted an advert for free tickets with the Marriot Vacation club... for those of you who know what happens when you can sympathise! For attending a 90 minute group presentation with a holiday company, you have a choice of 'free' gifts... we chose tickets for the Singapore Flyer, The Singapore Zoo and night safari.
In total these would have come to S$123 but we got them for free - but the catch was that we didn't attend a 'group' meeting, it was a one on one session which lasted 2.5 hrs! And despite the idea of a vacation club was tempting, the money it would have cost,when you aren't earning was not.

We wearily left the meeting with our tickets clutched firmly in our hands but glad we saved money at least!

Us on the flyer

So the Singapore flyer was great - we got to see so much of Singapore from the air - 165m high to be precise and Chris also got to walk on the grand prix track which surrounds the attraction.
The next day we headed to Singapore Zoo and were entertained by the animals and their trainers. The layout of the zoo is very family friendly and instead of glass, there are moats separating us from the animals.

And I thought my hair was frizzy!

Chris and I getting the fish foot treatment!

The night safari soon beckoned and it was an interesting experience. We were walking along paths which were just about visible and seeing the animals in a nightly light was really nice. Also hearing the lions brought us back to our nights in Karongwe and seeing the leopards was great too. A cloud leopard was a new animal for us and its coat was beautiful, it was just really difficult to photograph.

Completely exhausted, we headed back to our hostel and got ready for our flight back to Hong Kong. Cont..

More photos from the Temples of Angkor

Chris at Ta Prohm

The entrance to Angkor Thom

One of the heads carved in the Bayon

Chris and I at Ta Prohm - the site of Tomb Raider.

Wat a site!

The famous spires of Angkor Wat - symbol on the Cambodian flag

The main reason for visiting Cambodia for a lot of people is to go to Siem Reap and visit The Temples of Angkor. Cambodia is full of temples of various size and status. Siem Reap (the town) is only a few Km's away from the main temples, the biggest and most impressive being Angkor Wat. this is the largest religious structure in the world and very impressive - from the Angkorian period.

Chris and I arrived at about 10:30 and the sun was already beating down. We took a long walk across the moat and into the santcum of Angkor Wat. The size of this site is amazing. The way the buildings are being preserves and the artistic creativity of the carvings are breathtaking. Not only in the site of Angkor Wat but in all the temples and buildings throughout.

Researchers concluded that Angkor had been the largest preindustrial city in the world with an urban sprawl of 3000 square kilometres and could accommodation upto one million people.

There are over 37 Temples and a visit of over a week is recommended! We managed to visit 5 before the rain made the ground muddy and the going a lot harder. The photos don't do the place justice as the size of the Temples and the steps leading throughout the site are so big and steep. It is also a perfect place for kids to play hide and seek!

Anyway, here are the photos...Our first view of Angor Wat

View across the moat to Angkor WatThe library- one of the first buildings you come to

Camvbodia and the Kymer Rouge

Cambodia is another war torn country in South east asia. Again I had to read a bit of the history to understand what had went on.
History lesson time. As part of Indochina (under the french) everything was going well until WW2 when Japan moved in. When the french moved back they allowed opposition parties to form and they fought for and gained independance in 1953. In the 70's there is a big coup which forces the king into excile, the Cambodians start helping the Americans fight the Vietnamese within Cambodia. Early 70's the Kymer Rouge appear and start fighting the army, 1975 everyone is evacuated out of the cities and towns and put to work rebuilding Cambodia (Democratic Kampuchea as it was then called), starting with agriculture. Everyone works in the field for the government and if you don't work, you don't eat, don't follow the rules you die; complain, you die; Speak out of turn, you die. Hard maual labour for EVERYONE. Thousands flee, thousands die and eventually the Vietnamese overthrow the Kymer Rouge, Guerilla warfar continues until '89 when Cambodia is given it's name. There are still tensions with Thailand today, still political struggles and trials for Kymer Rouge leaders but if you read the accounts of the Kymer Rouge it is again hard to imagine the attrocities that took place in 'modern' society. It's not something we hear about in the local news. The history of the area is interesting but it seems most people are trying to put it behind them and move on.

We didn't go to the killing fields, A tourist destination which explains alot about the regime of the Kymer Rouge. We just didn't have time. I hadn't really thought about Cambodian history until our guide book mentioned to be careful if caught short while in the countyside. Don't stary too far from the road as Cambodia has more unexploded ordinance than anywere else on earth. (ie lots of landmines)

Vietnam, past and Present

Saigon is the capital of Vietnam also called Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon is the 'city' where as Ho Chi Minh is the 'area'.... apparently) It is a very big place filled wih lots of people and lots of motorbikes. We flew down from Hue to avoid another long bus or train journey and were quite surprised at the size of the place. Big wide roads, KFC, Pizza hut and coffee shops.

It's hard to visit Vietnam and not think about the war. In Saigon we spent a day going round the reunification palace and the War remnants museum.
The Grand Palace - only for public functions but still very grand
I had to read up on the war in Vietnam to understand a bit about it. Basically the french ruled this part of the world - Indochina. It all changed with WW2, the Americans got involved in the 50's and the country split in two. The North and South fought, the Americans moved in to help the south (the vietnam war as we know it) and then they got kicked out by the United Nations around 1973-75ish. The South surrendered to the north a year or two later. The Reunification Palace was the ruling palace of the south Vietnamese 'regime' and when it was taken over the Civil war ended and peace was declared in the communist country.A rather large bomb used by the Americans
The war was brutal and the Museum shows in graphic detail the attrocities carried out by the Americans. It is very informative but the expression on everyone is the same as they walk around. The Napalm, Agent Orange and other chemical warfare tactics, the brutal killings and mindless destruction. It still effects the people today. To be fair the museum was across biased but then, I've only ever seen the American films and their portrayal. The best images of the war were in a section which showed photos from Photographers who died during the war from all over the world. Again the images were graphic but they captured a lot of suffering on both sides.

We left the museum in a strange mood but we were glad that we had been. In all the countries we visit there is some history which in unpleasant. In Aisia it seems the history isn't that long ago and therefore better documented.

Ode to Dad - Motorbikes in Asia

A lot of photos you see in Asia have motorbikes in them. Since we arrived in Nepal in April the standard of vehicles, riders and driving has amazed us. The Motorbike is the work-horse of Asia. Moving from A to B, carrying equipment, ferrying people, in all weathers the motorbikes and scooters are transformed to meet the needs of the people.Rush hour in Saigon, every road was the same.

Getting to work is easier on a bike. Nipping in and out of traffic, through the narrow streets or along the footpaths is quicker with only two wheels. What if you could take your work to you bike. You could walk to work, take you work home or even take your work on holiday. In the photo below, this food vendor has attached a kitchen. Not only can he take his work anywhere but if he gets hungry, hey presto !
Many bikes are 'adapted' for carrying equipment and people either on the side or behind

Passengers, what's the point of a bike if you can't share it. A trip to the shops or to visit friends can be enjoyed more when you are accompanied. Ensure your pillion is secure and properly protected. India bikers have adapted their bikes with protective bars. Wouldn't want the wife's Saree caught in the spokes or chain. Also note the crash bars on the front. This sample is the small set, expanding the bars can assist with saving limbs from oncoming bikes, cars, carts and trucks, carrying shopping or simply taking out the opposition.
Crash bars and wheel guards are essential, the grab rail at the back is for tying things down.

Picking up the wife from the hairdressers, don't even offer her a helmet to ruin the new ponytail. Anyway, if you don't own the bike, you can't get hurt if you fall off.
How many people in this picture? Look closely.

And don't forget the kids. It's not just adults who should enjoy a ride on the back or front of a bike. Children can have as much fun. Better still, why not take the family. Nursing a child, no problem, the pets can come also. Again with the helmets, it's not really necessary as long as the owner has one. Although the bike below is bigger so it's safer if everyone wears a helmet, baby junior on the front doesn't count cause he's not big enough to fall off.

This is normal, maximum we saw on a scooter was 5.

Parking your bike is never a problem. Simply stop, put the stand down and dismount. It can be useful to other people if you move to the side of the road/pavement. Other bikes may park beside you in congested areas, or behind you, or both. In moving their bike to get to yours, do not drop it, the results could be funny only to on lookers.
Two rows of bikes, very tightly parked in Kathmandu,
I was so tempted to knock the first one......

I thought I better mention about safety. Protecting the head is important on a motorbike. Even if going slowly. The people of Saigon above use scarves to protect themselves from the dust and dirt. In Laos the sun is very strong so a different kind of protection is needed.
This is a small umbrella, when it rains the Big table unmbrellas can be seen.

If you find yourself on a bike in any Asian country do take care. Use your horn, the pavements and your small size to your advantage. Take precautions from the dust and sun and if it all gets too much, just take a break. Some people can sleep anywhere.