We have arrived in the UK and are spending the first few days at my parents in Sidcup. They met us at the airport with a huge hand-drawn Welcome sign and pork pies! It's really hot here, so Ava is loving their beautiful garden while JD is loving "helping" by digging up spuds and watering the vegetables. As for me, I'm relishing the prospect of all my favourite "unobtainable" dishes such as casserole, fish-n-chips, toad-in-the-hole and rhubarb crumble ...oh and a large Wetherspoons breakfast which is planned for tomorrow morning. So happy to see my old folks after 1.5 years away and 24 hours of travelling. Let the holidays begin!
We're back in Bangkok. Jiajia has been keen to visit the Erawan Shrine; not the largest temple in Bangkok but the most famous. She said she wanted to pray to the Buddha there (despite me pointing out that it was actually a statue of Brahma, a Hindu god!). Beside the shrine are groups of musicians and dancers who will perform for a fee as you pray. It was fun to watch them, but they must get so bored! I'd read that the Erawan shrine was the target of a bombing last year, killing 27 people so, when I saw an unattended backpack on a bench, I thought it wise to alert one of the guards. He rather sheepishly explained it was his bag and quickly moved it out of sight. Better safe than sorry! JD is loving the sea, the beach and the swimming pool, usually in that order. If pushed, his favourite would be digging. The sea and pool are warm enough to swim in (just), though the beating sun limits how long you can stay out. But with our hotel room a few minutes away we can pop out and indulge whenever we like [Ava and JD below].
We've arrived in Bangkok, Thailand and settled into our nice hotel. The swimming pool is chillier than we hoped, but we've been given a free upgrade to larger rooms which is a bonus - JD and I in one, with Jiajia and Ma-in-law next door. We spent today at a rather touristy centre outside of Bangkok. It was all a lot more expensive than we had been promised but, once there, we felt we had to do some of the activities on offer. So we hired a river boat to see the floating market (most of the shops were on land!) and then JD and I had a short elephant ride. Today we visited a Tropical Forest Park. We had imagined it as fairly pristine and untouched but, this being China, it was actually a bit touristy with concrete paths guiding you past various tropical, signposted plants and trees. Animatronic elephants and monkeys screamed as you approached them - a bit sad considering this area used to boast large numbers of the real thing. We did enjoy the treetop walk though - rope bridges strung up at canopy level (50m high) to give you a new appreciation of how tall rainforest trees actually are. JD clearly has no fear of heights as he scampered between the bouncing and swaying bridges! We have only praise for the generosity of our friends here, but our daily routine of breakfast, 2hr drive to a village, a banquet, play mahjong or wander around, another banquet and another 2hr drive back to the hotel ...it can get a little tiring after a while. We try to keep JD amused as best we can [the photo on the left was taken on the back of a pick-up jeep over bumpy roads] and look for things of interest along the way. His big love at the moment is construction machines of all types and thankfully (or not?) XiShuangBanna is developing very fast and we play a version of "Excavator I-spy" on our travels. XiShuangBanna still has some untouched forest areas, but they're disappearing fast and more commonly seen now are banana plantations and rows upon rows of rubber trees, which we enjoyed seeing up close. The food we have been treated to has largely been local dishes, fresh from the fields. Apparently, our hosts have tried to "dial down the chilli" for my sake, which is kind, though I hadn't noticed! The occasional dish has raised eyebrows, however, such as these bamboo grubs. Crunchy and with a smoky flavour, they are a bit like a packet of Monster Munch ...with legs. We find ourselves in sub-tropical XiShuangBanna, in the far south of Yunnan near the border with Laos. We were picked up last night by "Dancing" Man and Lady and he bravely drove the 12 hours overnight to MengLa town where we have checked into a rather swish hotel. The "Dancing" family have good friends down here who are looking after us with banquets, free accommodation and various activities planned. The first of these today was fishing, which JD thoroughly enjoyed, showing no fear of the flapping, sharp-finned little fish! After a few hours emptying the pond, we wandered around in the countryside a bit, finding a chilly little stream. With temperatures here in the mid-30s, JD couldn't resist, so he took a dip. After ten minutes, and with no warning at all, the heavens suddenly opened and a torrential downpour threatened to drench us before we got to the car - crossing the stream and climbing the bank wasn't as easy as it looked, with sharp stones and thorny bushes! Once we'd dried off, we headed back to our hotel where JD and I enjoyed a more conventional swim in their outdoor complementary swimming pool, full of kids who had seemingly never seen a foreigner before, let alone a western child! It turns out that one of Ava's newer cutomers has a time-share in a rather snazzy hotel by FuXian Lake, about 2 hours drive from Kunming and when she very kindly offered us a couple of nights there for free, we jumped at the chance. The room was huge (supposedly 5 star) and the view through the wall-sized window was just stunning [see above]. In the centre you can see a man-made beach. On arrival, we made straight for that and JD, having only been used to a sandpit before, loved every moment [see left]. It was fairly overcast and very windy, however, so we didn't stay too long. Here's hoping for some better weather tomorrow. A few hours drive from Dali is the small town of Shaxi (pronounced "SharrShee", despite what my brother insisted ..."Shaksee", indeed!) We checked into a charming, traditional house cum hotel [see above] and enjoyed a sunny day in Shaxi walking around the well-preserved old town, which includes their famous ancient theatre [see top picture] overlooking the cobbled town square. Other interesting sights needed some pointing out, however, such as the old slogan still visible on this house, proclaiming something along the lines of "True progress can only come through Governmental control of the people" - a real throwback to the days of Mao Zedong etc. Behind the main town, building work is taking place to pave and beautify the river front, including this picturesque bridge [see below]. So far, the town seems fairly authentic and untouristy, but that could all change very quickly unless care is taken. We really enjoyed our short stay, though. Tomorrow is Chinese New Year. It's the time in China when families traditionally spend all the money they have saved up, in order to give their child a fantastic gift which will be cherished forever. We bought JD a balloon. He wasn't totally impressed, as you can see. Next year he'll probably be agitating for a computer games console or something. But for now, it's looking like a cheap holiday! A Bangladeshi hotel. A year ago today. Jiajia's been sick all week and we've been blaming the local food. I mention casually that it could, of course, be due to pregnancy. An hour later I'm in a nearby chemist trying to mime "pregnancy test" to the amusement of a Bengali shopkeeper. I finally return to the hotel room and Ava does the test. A red line shows up. We can't read the Bengali, but red means "no", right? We're not sure if we should feel disappointed or relieved and we continue to blame the local food. A week later, we've returned to China and Jiajia wants to check again, thinking that Chinese tests might be more accurate. We try once again but it's no more accurate. Still red. However, this time Ava can read the instructions and we soon discover a red line is actually a "positive". Gulp. Jiajia's got a baby boy in her. The rest, as they say, is his story. Another in my occasional series of "Flashbacks" looking back at blog entries made before this Weebly version started. Sometimes, experiences which happened before digital cameras became commonplace feel a little dreamlike. You can remember the bare bones of what happened, and there may be paper reminders of events, but who digs out photo albums these days? But this photo, from a trip into the Taklamakan desert in China's Xinjiang Province back in 1995 is a rather special one for me, so I recently took the trouble to digitise it and clean it up. Why special? Well that's me on the dune, top middle, after an exhausting "noonday sun" climb up!
This weekend marks the end of the "Golden Week" in China. The Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday are close enough this year for most people to take a whole week off work - something of a rarity here. Road toll gates are free and people head for the sights or to visit distant family members. Students also have a week off school, but must work the previous and following weekend to "make up" lessons. So not really a holiday for them, or their teachers. In fact, barely a holiday for anyone [see photo above].
The hotel where we are staying is great except for one bizarre aspect. As you can see from the photo, the bathroom has a glass wall! There is a curtain, but it is on the bedroom side! So people can look in on you as you use the facilities. Why oh why?? We took in another free movie today. Whilst the others watched an American action flick, Ava and I took AiRan (CAL's daughter) to a Chinese cartoon movie. It was dire, and Ava and I struggled to stay awake. As you can see from the photo, we were the only people in the cinema. At one point I got up and ran a lap up and down the aisles just to wake myself up. AiRan seemed to enjoy it though. TongHai is proving something of a Mecca for Chinglish. Check out this shop sign and see if you can work out the intended meaning... Ava and I are having a few days holiday in a town called TongHai with our good friends Catherine and her family (CAL) and a mutual friend Yang Ping who has business interests in TongHai. It's a pretty town, with many old areas surviving and a distinctly "countryside" feel. We had a bit of a fright on the way down, however, when an oncoming truck lost control on a slippery road and slid backwards, at speed, onto our side of the road, coming within 2-3 inches of the car Ava was travelling in. I was in the car behind, watching it all happen as if in slow motion. Thankfully nobody was hurt, although it was a bit of a shock. Yang Ping showed us the centre of town, with old and new buildings on cobbled streets. And she was, of course, keen to show us the newly opened shopping mall which she owns! Seven stories high and including a multiplex cinema. Did we want to watch a couple of movies for free? Sure! With free popcorn and coke? Why not? Good friend to have! The movies were great, but I had to bite my tongue on seeing the large advertising hoarding along the road. Yang Ping asked me if the English was correct - she'd translated it by computer. Rather embarrassed, I did at least offer to check any future slogans for her! Our plans to return to Dhaka by "gentle river paddle boat" have again been quashed when we went to buy tickets yesterday and were told the boat no longer reaches Khulna due to the rainy season. We opted instead for an overnight train back. We paid for a first class carriage and at first were pleasantly surprised to find we were the only two in a sleeper with 6 beds. But, at the first station, we were joined by a Muslim guy and his two women (wives?). He proceeded to sing his prayers on the floor throughout the night as one "wife" was being sick in the toilet and the other fell out of bed (and amazingly didn't even wake up). We arrived in Dhaka at 6am to find the city flooded... [see below]
Jiajia and I have been tied to the bathroom for the last day or so! Today we were determined to get out and see "a sight" before leaving Khulna tomorrow. My guidebook described a pleasant rickshaw/ferry/bus trip to an ancient mosque. We took a rough hour-long rick ride to where the ferry should have been, only to find a huge bridge there now [see top left]. Undeterred, we found a way to get up onto the bridge and started to walk across. Half way, the heavens opened and we were getting drenched, when a motorised "baby-taxi" stopped and offered to take us to the old mosque. The roads quickly turned to mud [see top right] and it took us over an hour to complete the "30 minute trip". The mosque was quite old, quite attractive [see above] and quite interesting. Nothing very impressive! Despite buying tickets to enter, and being very sensitive about those praying and not eating, we were quickly approached by the Imam (Head Muslim) who told us to please leave as soon as we had seen what we had to. Not the welcome we had expected - if you don't want visitors, don't advertise or sell tickets! A nearby (dull) mosque held an unexpected surprise. Behind the building was a large man-made lake (built for water storage). As Jiajia and I sat there cooling off in the breeze, a man approached carrying a live chicken. "I wonder if chickens can swim?" I joked, and then to our surprise we watched as the man lobbed the chicken into the lake! And what do you know - chickens CAN swim! As the soaked and exhausted chicken reached the bank, the man picked it up and headed back to the mosque [see photo above left]. I suspect it was a ritual cleansing before a sacrifice ...or perhaps just a prelude to dinner? The journey back was by two big buses in torrential rain [see photo above right]. Ava raised plenty of glances as ever - it has been quite rare to see women in public here, and foreigners even more so.
Our planned "gentle river trip" down to Khulna in the south of Bangladesh changed into a bumpy 7 hour bus ride due to a ticket office having a long holiday. The bus trip included a ferry crossing over a wide river which broke up the monotony. Khulna is Bangladesh's third biggest city, and less frantic than Dhaka. Our hotel is better too, which at least enables us to relax and enjoy some air-conditioning after our excursions into the 35°C, 95% humidity weather. One of the big bonuses of our time here is access to satellite TV and coverage of the Olympics with English commentary. There is still a 5 hour time difference with the UK, so watching events "live" is limited, but it sure beats the Chinese coverage which barely featured any sports outside, badminton, table-tennis or diving! Bangladesh is a country half the size of the UK but with twice the population. Ava and I arrived here yesterday after having our first flight cancelled and the second - a day later - delayed by two further hours. We arrived at 4am and, after few sly backhanders, I managed to get my visa. Since then we've been somewhat overwhelmed by the heat, the noise, the humidity, the begging, the traffic and the pollution of Dhaka - the country's 10 million strong capital city. We've arrived in the rainy season and amidst Ramadan - the Islamic month of fasting. With 85% of the country being Muslims, few restaurants are open and we have to be careful where to sip our bottles of water so as not to give offence. Our pre-booked hotel is filthy and broken, so we hope to move to a better one tomorrow. We had planned to take a 36 hour river boat to the south of the country, but we found the ticket office shut today and not due to open for 3 more days. So we'll try a bus. There was an odd selection of food on offer in TengChong. At the top left of the photo are little fish (so fresh they wriggle for a while as they are skewered and placed on the barbecue). Bottom left and middle are flattened chicks(!?) and bottom right are stickfuls of grasshoppers. Which would you opt for? No choosing the apples, now!
We drove back to Kunming today in CAL's car. Most of the 11-hour trip was on expressways but, at the beginning, we had to tackle some mountain roads. We crawled over the swaying 50 year-old bridge [above] and, further up the road, under the huge new expressway alternative being built [below]. China doesn't do things in halves!
We spent this afternoon at the Ancient town of Heshun. Jiajia was somewhat disappointed, as she had been there 6 years ago and it was a genuine, picturesque, working village. Now there is an entrance fee, electric cars carrying tourists around and every other house is a restaurant or hotel. It's fast "turning Disney" which is a shame, but fairly inevitable. I enjoyed it though. The weather was lovely and there were plenty of scenic little photo opportunities. And it was a lot less crowded than I expected considering today is a national holiday.
I've visited volcanoes in four countries before, so I found TengChong's a bit disappointing in comparison - small, very dormant, a hefty entrance fee and a day of heavy rain. Love the sign though [see above]. I imagine the "M" in GEOTHERMAL had fallen off sometime in the past and been casually replaced ....upside-down.
We did see a fish that can walk on land though. That was pretty cool! We're staying in a lovely hotel here in TengChong. It's a small "villa" with six bedrooms, though we are the only ones staying there. So we get use of the large living room [top right, with Liu Zhen], kitchen facilities and balconies [bottom right, with Jiajia and Catherine]. What's more, they have running water! A real bargain at £10 a night.
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AuthorPaul Hider lives and works in Kunming (SW China) and regularly updates this blog about his life there. Past blog entries
May 2024
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