HOOOOMMMMMEEE

Well, despite the gale raging outside, it is GOOD to be home.

Last night in Taunton Swimming Pool we were counting backwards to the last time we swam - in Kowloon Pool in Hong Kong.  Travel is a funny thing.  One 13 hour flight and I feel like we've gone through time and space to another world.  Like finishing one book and starting another.  A whole new outlook, new characters, new story.  At least with a train journey the scenery of life changes slowly.

Our story is certainly picking up pace.  Technically this blog should stop here as the 'Bridgwater to Beijing' adventure is at an end. But perhaps I should keep going..... so many thoughts..... hmmm

Hong Kong Phooey

Mirador Mansions, Kowloon 2nd Nov

You could be forgiven for thinking we'd decided to end our trip with a couple of nights luxury in 'Mirador Mansions'..... this however is not the case. I mistakenly booked this particular slum because it claimed to have an outdoor pool on its website - how wrong can you be? It is bringing images of Jackie Pullinger's Walled City to mind - dingy corridors, tiny windowless rooms, broken pipework, jammed lifts, grey washing lines, dodgy characters hanging around..... actually it's not THAT bad. This and its neighbour Chungking Mansions are rising like a pair of phoenixes from the proverbial ashes of downtown Kowloon and the bamboo scaffolding is our landmark for finding our way home. Anyway it's only a base from which to explore this famous city.

I had no idea Hong Kong was made up of so many little islands, or that it was so mountainous. Our first nights exploring revealed an amazing skyline of highrise blocks across the water, backed by The Peak on Hong Kong Island. The differences from China are quickly apparent in the contents of the shops - we feel like we are back in Europe already (apart from the humidity). Down the road from us is the YMCA with its Christian bookshop - we certainly didn't see any of them in China. It's quite refreshing to be able to buy breakfast cereal again....and use facebook! Hong Kong may be part of China but it's still very much its own person.

Having got the idea of going for a swim to cool down we found our way to Kowloon Park Public Swimming Pool. Unfortunately we were two days late for the open air one which closed at the end of October. The indoor pool was just like Taunton pool - but about twice the size and four times the people. Interestingly we only saw Chinese people there - do all the expats belong to health clubs? (perhaps the Ladies Fitness Club we walked past this morning). It was very serious swimming - lots of goggles and swimming caps, so my head-up breast stroke was a little out of place. Still good exercise before the 13 hour flight tomorrow though.

Zhuang and Yeow

Ping'an village, Guangxi province 31st Oct
Our last day in China! Whilst we are excited about seeing everyone
again, the prospect of the long winter months is not enticing at the
moment. We are eating pancakes on the terrace of the Liquing Hotel in
the mountain village of Ping'an. A pig is squealing down below as it
becomes someones dinner for tonight, and we are basking in some rare
rays as today we have a blue sky. I want to soak them into my skin and
bring them home to England.
This is the home of the Zhuang and Yeow minority groups. The hills are
covered in rice terraces created 700 years ago and still today provide
the daily food for the 170 homes in the village. They grow mainly rice
but also ginger, sweet potatoes, chillies, pumpkin, and other veg and
also keep a few pigs and chickens. They plough with buffalo though the
hills are so steep some of the terraces are only one or two rice rows
wide.
We have arrived just after the rice harvest so the terraces are
mainly brown and stubbly and the water has been drained. It is
nonetheless stunningly beautiful. Our trek yesterday - about 15k -
took us through villages and terraced mountains on narrow stony tracks
that people must have walked for hundreds of years. The sense of peace
and stability is tangible.
We realise the tourists are a very important source of income to the
people - probably the only income in terms of money as they have
sufficient land to grow their own food but not enough to sell. They
work as hotel operators, guides, cooks etc and once a week these tiny
women take turns at carrying our heavy bags in big baskets on their
backs up the steep mountain tracks to the village. There is no
vehicular access anywhere near. They even offer a ride in a sedan
chair for those unable to make the walk. This is a bamboo chair
CARRIED on the shoulders of two or four men. Rather undignified and
certainly damaging to the pride of any self respecting backpacker!
Our lovely guide from yesterday, Dian, gave some insight into family
life here. While most of China has the one child policy, in rural
areas a woman having a girl first can have a second child in the hopes
of having a boy. They can marry after 22 yrs and have their chid/ren
after 24. There is a taboo against becoming an 'old' mother after 30.
She told us she has a little girl, looked after by her grandmother -
most young children we see are being cared for by grand or great
grandparents as their parents are working. She was happy to become a
guide 4 months ago as it means she can earn money and also improve her
English - a big goal for many Chinese.

Sent from my iPhone

Chinese Picasso

Yangshuo, Guangxi 28th Oct
We've been on cloud 9 today - loads of fun things and a great time
together. Ian had his cooking lesson this morning while I relaxed and
read a brilliant book, The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall (I must
recommend it to the bk grp). Then the bamboo boat ride back down the
Li River to the hotel, watching river life on the way - fishermen,
junks, buffalo. This afternoon we had a fantastic meandering bike ride
through little villages and farms over bumpy tracks and along the edge
of fishponds, getting lost but somehow finding our way back home.
Everywhere people shout 'hello' or 'nihao' and it's great being able
to see them living their lives farming, cooking, playing with
children. Again, the feeling of community is so strong, and the
'ordinariness' of people here. I think life must be simpler here,
looking after your 3.2mu (half an acre) allocated to you, and growing
most of the food you need. Why do we add so much stress to our lives
by owning so much?
Ian then went out on a boat to watch the cormorant fishing close up -
each fisherman has several cormorants he has trained to dive into the
river for fish and then regurgitate them intact (not sure I'd want to
eat fish that had been spat out of a birds gizzard but it saves the
fisherman a lot of bother). Ian enjoyed chatting to someone from
Devon and someone else from Canberra who knows his cousin. To round
off the day we were delighted to bump into Adam & Laura, our friends
from the long train ride, and we then had our portraits painted by a
street artist known as 'Forest', or the Chinese Picasso. He paints
directly onto rice paper with a Chinese calligraphy brush using first
black ink and then watercolour. Very good though Ian thinks he looks
old and I look too serious. Vanity!

Sent from my iPhone

Karst mountains

Yangshuo, Guangxi Province, SW China 27th Oct

A few snapshots of some of todays sights....
...5 people on one scooter.....cormorant fishing.....limestone 'karst' mountains......pomelo's - a huge pear shaped citrus fruit like a grapefruit.....dog-meat in the market :-( .....peanuts and cotton growing......rice being harvested......orange groves....bananas growing on trees......bamboo boats......Ian wearing a chef's hat and apron at his cookery class! ......amazing light show with the Li River and surrounding mountains as the backdrop. This was stunning. Created by Zhang Yi Mou the film maker and choreographer of the Olympic opening show, it involves 600 people in each show which runs twice each night. Apparently some 15% of the population of Yangshuo take part in it, a celebration of local culture and customs. Most of the show takes place on the river itself, with the use of lights and dry ice creating an atmosphere against which the local fishermen 'dance' in their bamboo raft boats to music backing. Very dramatic.
This morning Ian has learnt how to cook deep-fried stuffed egg-plant with pork, gong bao chicken and braised string beans with garlic and chilli sauce. So look out anyone who thinks they're coming round for cheese on toast!!
We rounded off the morning with a bamboo boat trip back to our hotel, nicely negotiated down to 70 yuan. Perhaps we'll summon up the energy later to brave the humidity and take a bike ride through the mountains, before going off to the rice terraces tomorrow morning.

MobileMe Gallery - B2B12 - Chengdu pandas

Not sure if this will work, but the link below should take you to our photos of China so far...... If it doesn't work I'm sure we'll bore you to tears when we come back!

The link should go to the pandas, but click on the gallery button top left and it should go back to a list of albums,

http://gallery.me.com/rgtremain#100136

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Lijiang, Yunnan Province, South West China 25th October

Sight of the day: Yangtze River
Food of the day: Naxi sandwich
Emotional moment: Lifting my eyes up from my latte coffee to see a mountaintop soaring above me

We have at last escaped from the city and been immersed in one of the most stunning sights of rural China - the huge Yangtze River ferocious and coffee-coloured in its path through one of the deepest canyons in the world, Tiger Leaping Gorge. We took the high path, 3900m above the river, and did we know it! The climb up was literally breath-taking, and even in late October the heat was almost stifling. I pitied the poor souls trudging up those paths in mid-August and stuck firmly to Dad's advice 'you can do anything if you do it slowly enough'. Our lovely guide, Ali of Ali-Baba's bike hire, had planned a punishing 14km uphill for the first day and about 2km downhill for the second day - we had no idea why the 'Halfway House' accommodation was definitely not half way and with his miniscule English and our non-existent mandarin it was impossible to find out. We just knew it would be 'two hours, then two hours, then three hours' before we would be allowed the luxury of stopping for the night. This was scary as I was still suffering from what I had decided from wikipedia was giardia and had a moments panic wondering if I would make it. Thankfully there were a few drink and lunch stops along the way which turned out to be overnight inns for trekkers and we managed to convince Ali to let us stop after 5hrs instead of 7. The inns were delightful - old Chinese wooden carved buildings surrounding a central courtyard, maize cobs drying in the sun and lovely people waiting to pour our green tea and serve rice and vegetables to keep our energy up. They also had verandas and roof terraces, and the occasional 'loo with a view', so you could soak up the views of snow-capped Jade Mountain at every opportunity.

The views, the countryside, the villages, and not to mention the roar of the huge river down below was definitely worth the pain of getting there and as always we wished we had longer to enjoy it. The bus trip back was an experience not to be missed too! The low road through the gorge is only partly surfaced and at one point passes through a giant tumbling scree slope. We and our fellow backpackers were ordered off the bus to pick our way quickly between the stones constantly jumping down the mountainside while the bus driver waited for a clear moment. He had just started to drive through when he was shouted to stop as a small boulder had been spotted on its way down - enough to certainly damage the bus if not destabilise it on the slope. He eventually made it through to everyones jubilation (we didn't fancy the prospect of the driver and all our worldly goods plunging into the Yangtze).

This area of Yunnan is the home of a minority group, the Naxi, lovely friendly people always smiling and closer in looks and allegiance to Tibetans than Han Chinese (the majority of Chinese people are Han). We followed (unintentionally) in Michael Palins footsteps and visited several Naxi villages - very industrious farming communties, where each family can make a living from about half an acre of land. We loved the Naxi sandwich - a sort of warm soft pitta bread/pancake sandwich of beef, tomatoes and herbs - absolutely delicious after a trek in the mountains. Not to mention the yak yogurt.