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!
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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.
With the May Day weekend holiday upon us, Jiajia and I left for a few days in TengChong yesterday, a town near the border with Myanmar (Burma). It's an 11-hour journey there by bus, though we broke up the trip with a night in BaoShan on the way. TengChong is famous for its volcanoes, its picturesque "old town" and as the site of one of the bloodiest WWII battles between the Chinese and the Japanese. It has a lovely set of five ornate gates [see top photo] in the town centre, each in a different style. And there are still many traditional old buildings in the town - though some of which are on their last legs [see photo above]. Our friends CAL (Catherine, husband Liu Zhen, daughter Ai Ran) arrive by car tomorrow. We last spent time with them in the Philippines. Ava used the free afternoon to shop, including this hand-made bamboo farmer's hat. As we walked down the street with our hats on, one passing Chinese man mumbled, "These crazy foreigners have no idea!" to which Jiajia replied, in the local dialect, "Careful who you call a foreigner" at which the man went bright red and scuttled off!
Jiajia and I went to Shenzhen's IKEA store today. I still have nightmares about my only previous trip to a (UK) IKEA, but Jiajia sweetened this deal by starting me off at their canteen with a lunch of Swedish meatballs and cream cakes. Then we started the tour round, Jiajia looking for household items, me looking for Chinglish. This display toilet made me laugh. The sign tells customers it's for sale and to please stop using it! Only in China. Now, regular readers may recall that I knocked a tap off the bathroom wall back in our Kunming flat last month. Well yesterday I managed the same feat in the Shenzhen flat where we are staying, turning off a balcony tap only to have it crumble in my hand. We had to call a worker in stop the gushing water and replace it. And then this evening I went one better, closing the front door to have the handle shear off in my hand. We sheepishly had to call the worker back to fix a new handle. And yesterday I also pulled a towel rack off the wall and exploded a light fitting. Am I particularly heavy-handed, or just jinxed? Ava thinks it's all an early April Fool's prank. We'd booked a cheap hotel in Hong Kong in advance. It advertised itself as well-located, clean and cheap. As such, it was. What it failed to mention was the double rooms being 2m x 3m in size, including an "en suite bathroom". Cosy! Having done Disney, our plans for the remainder of our short stay in Hong Kong were to take the Star Ferry, see some trams (things Jiajia had never done before) and do some shopping (something Jiajia had done plenty of before). By the end we'd found some cheap cornflakes, gasped at the prices in Marks and Sparks, indulged in a Burger King and rummaged through a Salvation Army charity shop. Tired, but content, we bussed it back to mainland China. Until today, Hong Kong was the only Disneyland I hadn't visited. But Jiajia and I are having a week's working holiday in Shenzhen (she's working, I'm holidaying) and a couple of days over the border in nearby Hong Kong enabled me to tick off my 5th and final Disneyland. It was Jiajia's first visit, however, and she loved it. She does enjoy catching up on some of the fun she missed during a difficult childhood. Her favourite ride was "Small World" - indoor boats float past animated dolls from different countries singing and dancing. We had to ride it twice! Hong Kong is a fairly small Disneyland (about the size of the one on Paris) and hard to get lost in [see photo, right]. A new resort in being built in Shanghai by late 2015 will be three times the size (and yet another one for me to get to!). We managed to pick a day when the crowds were light and the queues were short, so we got to see pretty much everything we hoped to. The afternoon featured a lively parade [see photo, below] but we left before the fireworks show. As Jiajia pointed out, "We live in China - we see fireworks every week!" Thankfully Ava and I have a week off work to "recover" from our holiday away. We're both still sniffling, itching, limping, peeling and trying to unblock ears and noses! With my school and her shop closed for Spring Festival, we have had no option but to take things easy; lie-ins, DVDs, internet, meals with friends and, today, some crafts. Ava decided she needed a sock storage system and so commandeered an orange box and decorated it [see photo]. She's now making another one for her doll's clothes!! Well, it keeps her occupied. We arrived back home to cold Kunming today. Despite aches and pains, we had a good holiday overall, and managed to do everything we'd hoped to. Hopefully it won't be our last visit to the Philippines. [L to R: View from boat, floating restaurant, starfish collection]
Still awfully stiff from sunburn and with nose-bleeds (Ava) and ringing eardrums (me) from the scuba diving yesterday, we decided to take it a little easier today and visited Cebu's very own "Crocolandia". This place apparently started as a sanctuary for abused crocs, then added some snakes, an iguana, a few parrots and... well, before they knew it they became a small zoo with a very odd selection of animals. We seemed to be the only visitors there and it made for a pleasant hour's wander. Snorkelling is great fun, but scuba diving is something else. You're not just looking down on the fish, you are moving amongst them or looking up at them. It's also more intense (you only have about 30 minutes of air) and more dangerous (you need a guide and you can't simply stand up if any equipment malfunctions!). It was actually 15 years ago here in Cebu that I qualified as an "Advanced Open Water Diver", so it was nice to return and dive here again. Ava had only done one shallow dive in China before, but after a quick briefing, she bravely sank down 15m (50ft) with me and our two dive guides. We saw lots of sealife - starfish, seahorses, puffer fish, clown fish, parrot fish, green beltfish, lionfish and a majestic shoal of metre-long silver dolphin-fish swimming slowly in circles above us. We'd both like to do more diving in future holidays. A mixed day today. Jiajia and I enjoyed another day of hopping between islands and snorkelling - if you hold a little bread under the water all manner of fish swim up quite boldly to have a bite to eat. One large fish took this too literally however, and bit the end of my finger. Blood everywhere! However, on our return to the hotel, Jiajia and I realised we had been under the strong sun a little bit too long. We both had bad sunburn and struggled to walk to our favourite restaurant! But worse was to come. No sooner had we tucked into a fried vegetable dish than we both started to feel very dizzy. I nearly passed out and Ava said the room felt like it was spinning. After five minutes we recovered enough to leave and stagger back to our hotel room. We were told later that the local dish contains a bean which, if not cooked properly, can be quite toxic. Hmmm...! An early start today for a 6.00am pick-up to Bohol Island. What we weren't told is that, at that time in the morning, the tide is out and we had to wade through deep mud to get to our boat! The boat trip took 2½ hours and we were met by a mini-bus to take us to the main sights of Bohol. Tarsiers [photo left] are the smallest primate in the world and indigenous to Bohol. I could easily hold 2-3 in one hand. Nocturnal creatures by habit, we were lucky enough to see a few with their big eyes wide open. Very cute. The other famous sight on Bohol Island is the "Chocolate Hills" [photo below] - over 1000 strange bumps stretching as far the eye can see. The odd name comes from the fact that they turn chocolate brown in the dry season.
Jiajia and I are sharing our holiday trip with "CAL" a Kunming family we know well [above]. "Catherine" speaks very good English and gave a speech at our Chinese wedding. Her husband, Liu Zhen, is a kindly man with more English than he lets on. This is his first visit to another country. And their daughter, Ai Ran, is full of fun. It's her first new country too. We spent today island-hopping together, which involves skimming between small islands on a hired outrigger boat and snorkelling whenever we see some fish or coral in the clear seas below. Great fun.
Our hotel is located on a small island called "Lapu-Lapu" (a double anagram of someone's name!) which is a part of the Cebu island group. We took a trip around the mainland today to see the sights. Cebu's 300-year old San Pedro Fort housed a bizarre collection of "baby Jesus" statues, including this one of him balancing on a rock, grabbing a plane (which seems like the ending to the "King Kong" movie to me). We drove on to the huge 16th century Santa Nino Church, busy with worshippers despite today being a Wednesday. We ended the trip up at the top of a mountain viewpoint. We could feel the temperature drop as we were driven up to the peak. And from the top we could just about make out our hotel in the far distance.
After a first night in a grotty hotel near the airport, we moved on today to our main hotel, which is lovely. The view from the rooftop swimming pool is amazing [see photo]. There isn't much of a beach, but it does have access to a flotilla of small boats which we intend to use during our week here for some island-hopping, snorkelling and scuba diving. We left for our holiday in the Philippines today. We had decided to save money by making the journey in three flights - each with a few hours layover - so it's taking the whole day to get there. Quite tiring, especially as I'm limping badly with a swollen gout knee [the first time it's been in the knee - not a good sign apparently] and Ava is coping with a sore throat and cough. We're hoping some sun will get us healthy again! I enjoyed this Chinglish sign at Kunming's airport...
A second day in London today, starting with a spin on the London Eye - fast changing from a "must-see" to a "not worth the silly price". After lunch with my friend Cathy, Jiajia and I wandered down the bank of Thames to the Tate Modern art gallery. As ever, there was the usual mix of thought-provoking items and absolute tat (should that be the Tat Modern?). I particularly enjoyed "piece of paper and a biro" (I kid you not). Actually, I tried to take a photo of "chair and fire extinguisher" but the gallery attendant told me it was just where he sat and not art. What does he know? Jiajia, at least, was taking it all seriously and got very excited on spotting a painting by her all-time favourite artist, "Modigliani". Later we crossed the Thames on the "formerly wobbly" Millennium Bridge and arrived at St. Paul's moments before it closed for tourists. I let Jiajia explore alone however, as the £15 entrance ticket seemed very steep for somewhere I used to go for free in my youth. Ironically, people claiming to "simply want to worship" were still let inside, and for free. Any liars could always ask for forgiveness once inside, I guess? Jiajia and I spent our first day up in London today. We just managed to get to Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guards, but Jiajia wasn't that impressed. Nor for the Palace itself or Hyde Park or Trafalgar Square. However, we hit gold dust with the National Gallery. As an art graduate in China, Ava had only seen world-class oil paintings in books. She loved seeing them up close, and it was a struggle to drag her away after a few hours. Covent Garden also hit the spot, with the "Lush Handmade Soap" shop parting her with a wad of money. Out with history and culture then and, next time round, we'll stick to oils (and lotions to remove oils). A three hour bus journey yesterday saw Ava and I travel from JiangCheng to Simao. After a night there, we met up with our friend Catherine and her family, to hitch a lift back with them to Kunming. The usual 5–6 hour drive turned out to a nine hour marathon, due various hitches including heavy Spring Festival traffic and half a dozen crashes to negotiate. Still, Kunming is warmer than when we left, and we feel refreshed and ready for a busy 2–3 weeks ahead. JiangCheng hasn't changed a lot since I left four years ago. There are a few swanky new Supermarkets in town, but you can still find traditional horn and paw medicine on the streets [see photo]. There are traffic lights at the main intersections now, but the tractors ignore them. The sports centre has been upgraded, though the men still prefer playing "tuolou" - throwing large spinning tops to hit others' tops out of a central circle. The river has a nice new walkway beside it now, lit by fairy lights. The biggest change perhaps is the huge development to the east of the town. A new expressway is being built through JiangCheng which will eventually reach Vietnam. Shops and houses are therefore being thrown up to accommodate the expected flood of Vietnamese tourists. All the shops now sport new signs in Chinese, English and Vietnamese. JiangCheng may not be the sleepy remote town I recall for much longer. Retaining any sort of character will be a difficult balancing act [see photo!]. Thankfully, JiangCheng's one remaining English teacher(!), Ruth, has been really hospitable and insisted that Ava and I join in all her family meals (being Spring Festival, nearly all the restaurants are closed and there's only so long you can survive on instant noodles and fruit!). Ruth's daughter was a toddler when I was living here, and now is a cute and confident young lady [see photo]. Our meals with Ruth's family have been "interesting" to say the least. Bee larvae [top left], wild cat [bottom left] and, as yet uncooked, turtle! |
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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