China

Ahh, China! Well its been about two months since I landed in the land of spitting, hawking, shouting, rudeness and utter filth and only now am I getting round to writing about it! As such I am certain I will miss out on some of the delights and (more of) the non delights but let’s see how well my memory serves me.

What I remember with clarity is that I was not happy about going to China. I didn’t fall in love with it last time and I was pretty certain I wouldn’t do so this time. Yes, there are some incredible landmarks and yes, there is stunning scenery and yes, there are even some nice people but in all honesty I have to say only some. The majority of the people are rude, disrespectful both to foreigners and each other and are so darned loud I can’t even explain it. Now I know that my voice carries but seriously they shout to just about everyone, including the person standing right next to them! They must have been born hawking and spitting and burping and shouting, there;s no other explanation for why else they would be doing it. Perhaps it all seemed doubly worse as we had just come from Japan, land of everything perfect.

After our disaster of a boat journey we finally arrived to the less than civilised city of Quingdao, a city full of possibilities - possibly a lovely beach (but it’s dirty), possibly a funky underground shopping district (but that is dirty too and depressing to boot), possibly some cool night clubs and bars (but they are shut and falling to tatters) and possibly some nice restaurants (if only you could find any). Arriving at the port was a noisy, crowded and dirty affair - the area is bleakly poverty stricken and desperately despairing. Every rumbling building looks as if it is on it’s last tethers and the fierce wind must whip through the makeshift doors and cracked windows, with zenith. Apparently it is the place to retire to but Lord only knows why as I can see little hope of aging happy here!

After trying practically every bank in the city for an ATM that worked we finally bought our train tickets to Beijing. Despite not looking forward to reaching the capital at all, I was delighted to be leaving Quingdao! The train journey proved to be the first of many hideous, filthy and loud train journeys throughout China and upon arrival we hunted for the hotel we had preliminary booked and after a long old search in the cold early morning we gave up and checked into a characterless but perfectly pleasant hotel, just outside of some Hutong. Beijing was far worse than I remembered it. Bitterly cold it sadly was also in the middle of a major drought and so layers of dust blew through the wind, settling on all the ice. The Summer Palace was entirely depressing. Note to myself - there is a reason that it is called the SUMMER palace! Coated in dust, desolate and relatively quiet it lacked any of the spirit and beauty that it has in the summer, though still an impressive sight. We actually almost ended up staying the night as we couldn’t find our way out! The Forbidden City was heaving with people due to the Chinese New Year celebrations, which took away some of it’s magic but it was still an impressive sight to behold, though I am certain that when I was last there, there was a whispering wall, which no-one seemed to know about this time round! Maybe someone moved it! I was devastated to see that they had knocked down a whole area of the city, where I stayed last time I was there, and went to the opera. Now there is, to be fair, a beautiful shopping street but it is entirely empty and deserted, as if it was made purely for show for the Olmypics. Speaking of which, we went to the Olympic site which was just utterly depressing - it is practically falling apart and it only had any life in it as it was abuzz with the energy of thousands of Chinese holiday makers for the New Year celebrations, it was so sad to see. There was however a saving grace for Beijing, which was the fireworks for Chinese New Year. On our second night in the city we had a delicious dinner (all Chinese food is gorgeous!) in a really friendly restaurant where the staff were all having a meal together and brought us over sweets of all sorts of hideous flavours and oranges! Outside bangers were going off left, right and centre, we had never seen anything like it before! When we went to bed we were disappointed not to have seen any further celebrations as we had tried really hard to find out what was going on but all was redeemed when at midnight the skies quite literally lit up with the most fireworks i have ever seen. i twas as if every family in the neighbourhood, no make that the city, was holding their own display and from where we were we could just watch the rockets dancing in the skies for well over an hour. It was incredible. Aside form that there were other things I managed to like about the city, including meandering through the Hutong (old districts) with their more traditional way of life and the hustle and bustle of energetic markets that were hard to find, hidden behind the shiny new shopping districts but were great fun once you were there. We never quite got the never up to eat fried cockroaches, mini sea horses or scorpions, mind you! There was a definite air of celebration over the few days we were there, with country folk coming into the city for the holidays and the locals all in festive spirit, however I was still happy to be leaving the city and heading down to Shanghai, though I had little expectations that it would be any better.

Fortunately In Shanghai we were staying in a the most beautiful hotel which definitely made our stay more enjoyable, but aside from that, whilst I again didn’t love it, I much preferred it to Beijing. It’s a pretty intense city and was throwing down the rain the whole time we were there, which created a thick layer of fog obscuring much of the Bund, or was that cloud actually smog? The pollution in Shanghai is outrageous and apparantly clouds of smog hang over the city most days. The Bund itself was perhaps less impressive than I imagined it to be. I am not sure what I was expecting but perhaps it is like walking over Waterloo Bridge in London, where on a grey, wet and miserable day it is a totally unpleasant experience but when the sun is shining there is no better place to be. The river side strip was full of Hawkers and photographers with their mobile shops but to be honest lacked any real feel or character. It was fun to see the neon lights flashing along he opposite bank and to see boats go by with impressive lit up advertising, whilst on our side of the river the old colonial buildings stood with grandeur and pride. As usual we did far too much walking but as usual that meant that we stumbled across all sorts of quirky places, from pretty little French quarters filled with advertising graffiti; backstreets that looked like they haven’t changed in 50 years; newly developed traditional style shopping areas; narrow lanes of small hutong and a gorgeous little shopping area, which we still don’t know the name of. It was simply adorable. Basically the ground floor buildings had all been converted into quaint little boutiques, hippy style coffee shops and funky art and photography galleries while the upper buildings were clearly still flats and homes, belonging to the same people who had lived their for 50 years, hanging out their washing and throwing out their rubbish.

After Shanghai it was off to our third major city, Hong Kong and at least I knew that I would love it! Not only did we have three top hotels lined up (including the awe inspiring Peninsular, with the most incredible $2,500 per night suite, complete with fabulous Rolls Royce upon check out) but we were also going to see my friends Em and Rich who lived there, Rachel who was over for work, my other friends Gloves and Amanda and as it turned out a friend of mine called Lorraine who I hadn’t spoken to, let alone seen, in over ten years since school! To top it off we were finally going to get warm! Bliss!

Naturally we had a blast in HK, though I have to say that even I was worn out and done over by all the shopping opportunities - it can, at times, seem as if there is no escape! We had a day hanging out in one of the most glorious of shopping malls ever, waiting for Rachel to turn up from her day out with her journalists. After hours of waiting we finally saw her for just a few minutes before she had to head off again but we managed to have the whole of the next day with her. Poor Stuart was so good following us around the secret knock off shops Rachel had been told about! I managed to restrain myself (knock offs can run into the hundreds themselves) but it was great fun! We had a a delicious lunch on Stanley Beach, which could very well have been back home for all the ‘whiteys’ that were there! This was expat central, especially on a glorious Sunday! The taxi ride back to the mainland was glorious, with striking views over the water and countryside.

Stu and I made sure that during our stay we got to see some of the countryside and so visited a couple of islands, which were superb. To me this is the ideal living situation. You can be on a gorgeous island with sandy beaches, lush countryside, other expats and many locals, all enjoying the quieter side of life, whilst just half an hour away by boat to one of the liveliest places in the world. Of course we didn’t get to see all the islands but we spent a lovely day at Lamar Island, where we enjoyed some time on the small sandy beach and a glorious coastal walk though lush jungle terrain over-looking the glistening waters. We had another afternoon on the island of Chung Chow, where we tucked into a cheap feast of incredible dimsum and not so great chicken feet! Well you gotta try them but I can’t say I would revisit the taste (or texture!) Fuelled up we set off on a long walk around the west side of the island and were rewarded with amazing views and strwaberries on the beach at the end of it, complete with a new friend who just wanted to sit by me, not sharing our strawberries but just enjoying being slightly stalkerish! We also visited Lantau Island but that turned into a shopping trip (surprise, surprise) as we left the metro via an outlet mall - all shopping for Stuart mind you!

We had a couple of evenings with my friends Em and Rich which was great fun. We went to some delicious restaurants and totally enjoyed catching up! Rich joined us on a night out with my long lost friend Lorraine who is HK born and bred and it was lovely to see her after about ten years. We then all met up with more friends of mine, Gloves and Amanda for a night at the Happy Valley Races which was a blast. It totally felt like we were back at home socialising with all our friends, especially as Rachel was here, so it really felt like home! Hong Kong is so easy to get used to very quickly. It’s totally westernised and aside from getting lost on the hugest of metro stations it is pretty easy to navigate. As usual we did plenty of walking, taking in the tat of the night markets (and the delicious food there!), huge shopping boulevards, giant malls, walking routes in developing areas, beaches, countryside and semi peaceful gardens and aviaries just off the mainstrips.

After the mayhem of Hong Kong, which we loved but which Stuart found a little over-whelming, we headed for the more peaceful setting of Guilin, with its incredible karst lime rock formations, jutting out all over the place. We stayed in Dabu Town, in HOMA, a unique art hotel, set in the surrounds of an outside sculpture park, with the backdrop of beautiful rocks rising to the sky. The hotel is a Relais and Chateaux property so rather lush but it was a little like groundhog day for the few days we were there as we were the only ones for breakfast and they put us in the same place each day and the same music was playing, with the same staff - all quite amusing but most importantly delicious! We spent one day on bikes riding through the sculpture park and then through the surrounding villages, tucked amongst the giant looming rocks. The locals were none too excited about seeing us, except for a few smilers and wavers, but it was none the less a beautiful ride. The villages were so basic and simple with the most beautiful environment and it truly looked like something out of a fairy tale movie - you half expected to see Shrek and his princess running down the dirt paths! It was so refreshing being out in the cold on our bikes and so rewarding to be up close and personal to both the local communities and the extraordinary scenery.

After the day in Guilin the town, in Guilin the province, we then spent a day in Yanshhou, just a short bus journey away. This pretty little town, more like a village, is based around the Yulong River, where the karst formations jut out of the water making it appear other worldly. The town is full of cafes and little shops that wouldn’t go amiss in a Parisian backstreet and it has a lovely central market area which crawls its way down to the river’s edge, where every other person is touting to get you to take a river ride. We decided to opt for a bum breaking tandem bike ride instead and had a glorious afternoon riding through rice paddies, open fields, along the river and through the most stunning karst mountains imaginable. I rode with flowers in my hair having bouht a gorgeous little crown of colourful and sweetly scented flowers from a local vendor! The day was so relaxing as we rode through little paths, all the while with stunning scenery at every turn. These karst formations are simply dotted around with no rhyme or reason and little communities have worked their way around them to build villages and towns. We trekked up stairs upon stairs to reach the heady heights of Moon Cave, so called as it is a tremendous perfect circle carved by the wind through a mountain top. The views were giddying and quite gorgeous but nothing compared to what they would be in the summer when the fields would be glowing yellow and the mountains and rice paddies all lush green. None the less it was well worth the steep climb and the leg shaking climb back down.

Our train out was not until late in the night on our third day and so we heaved our luggage over to the station to put them in hold for the day and got ourselves up to Reed Flute Cave, just outside of the main city of Guilin. Even 2000 years ago the whole area of the countryside that we had enjoyed was famed for its beauty and was an inspiration to the most highly-renowned artists of the era. Han Yu (768-824), the great poet of the Tang dynasty, likened it to a green ribbon unfurling alongside jasper hairpins. The karst formations are home to an abundance of grottos and underground passages and Reed Flute Cave (so called as the verdant reeds growing outside of the cave’s mouth were once used to make flutes) is one of the most famous of all the caves. Apparantly it is not the most beautiful (me thinks this is a line to get tourists to book much more expensive trips to other caves) but whether it is or is not it was certainly not a disappointment. Stunning beautiful and exceptionally big the cave was truly incredible. The water-eroded cave is a spectacular world of stalactites, stone pillars, bizarre rock formations and pools of water, now iIlluminated by colored lighting. A full 240 meters long, walking through it is a surreal and unearthly experience. It is Chinese custom to give some of the more spectacular formations (or more obviously characteristic) a legendary or poetic name such as Crystal Palace, Dragon Pagoda, Virgin Forest, Flower and Fruit Mountain. Some were quite easy to see why whilst others required a little more imagination!

From Guilin we headed down on a long old 48 hour journey of train, taxi and ferry to the island of Hainan, where we were in for a real treat! We had three days at the Ritz Carlton Sanya Resort lined up and it was utter bliss. Our first night we spent in a local hotel on the main strip and tucked into some delicious home made pasta before getting up the next morning for the beautiful bus ride to Sanya, itself. Sanya is in an area of the island designated as a reserve but this stretch of sand has been built along with all luxurious resorts, of world class quality. The Ritz Carlton was utter bliss with beautiful rooms, several gorgeous pools, stunning gardens and all right on the golden sands! Of course, as soon as we arrived we set off on a walk and half an hour later came back beet red and destroyed! We literally could not go out in the sun for the rest of the time we were there and were sore all over! We still managed to have a wonderful time relaxing on loungers in the shade, tucking into the most delicious of lunches and dinners, popping down to the local shopping and entertainment mall for pizza and sun screen and enjoying the likes of divine massages! This writing malarky has sure got me some lovely spa treatments, fine meals and amazing rooms! On the day we left, we went in usual Harkerclarker style, later than anticipated and ended up missing the train by minutes so had to get a bus to Haiko instead, where we missed the ferry and so ended up spending the night (which incidently was Valentine’s Day) in a totally unromantic scummy little place and having a totally unromantic dinner of goodness only knows what as we coldn’t find out quite what animal any of the pictures of food were! Oh well these things happen and Valentine’s as a married couple can only get better! The next day we got on the ferry along with a congregation of Hawaii shirt and Hawaii shorts clad Chinese tourists for the overnight trip back to the mainland. Then it was an early morning train to the border of Vietnam and a quick cross over before a bus to our fist Vietnamese pit stop. We had all good intentions of returning to China to see some more of the stunning Western scenery but turns out they weren’t going to let us in to Tibet (not just us mind you, any foreigners!) and so we would actually end up having longer in Vietnam and heading south through South East Asia.

Japan to China sea crossing

“Move your bags we have a leak” said Stu. Move my bags? I’m still asleep, how can I move my bags? “Seriously, wake up and move your bags, we have a leak I say,” he says. “We have a leak, you say?” I say, “A leak? A leak!” I jump up and hunt for my shoes, “where are my shoes?” I fret, as if getting my feet wet, or worse, dirty from the grimy floor, is all I need to worry about. How about getting the rest of my body wet as the evidently rising water creeps up, trapping us in, gushing up to our mouths and nostrils? We are after all on a somewhat semi ancient boat, half way between Japan and China, and all Stu is worried about is our bags. What about our lives? I’m more precious over them!

It turns out the gushing water is in fact a burst hot water pipe but none the less it instills little faith in me on the health and safety status of our ferry. Come morning time, the water is cleared inside but outside it is more than choppy and my poor churned up tummy, still reeling from the effects of my virus, just doesn’t seem to be acting as string as it should and after an hour or so of nausea, it totally gives up and I give in to sea sickness. Brilliant, right at the start of my day as well. Fortunately I manage to sleep practically the whole rest of the day so times passes pretty quickly, until we feel ourselves motionless. Sadly, we have stopped sailing for all the wrong reasons. Thinking, along with the rest of the passengers, that we are about to embark, we sit and wait patiently for the doors to open. After all, they haven’t been open anywhere on the ship at all and some fresh air would do us a treat. No such luck, after two hours pass by we finally work out that we are actually still a few hours form our destination but bad winds are preventing us to get into port there so no disembarkation today. Brilliant, another night of the over heated, stuffy, rocky, leaking, ancient boat! And apparently there is o guarantee that we will dock tomorrow morning either its a sit and wait game and with little entertainment to keep us occupied and no fresh air to be had and my poor tum still feeling a little weary - it isn’t going to be much fun! Fortunately dinner of rice and emergency curry (vacuum packed emergency curry sauce poured over rice) isn’t as bad as you might imagine it to be and we have a few pennies left to spend on drinks , cookies and icecream. Isn’t as bad as you might imagine it to be? That was just the first few hours of delay. With another night under our belt, more rice than one stomache can take, hours of kids with endless energy running around, manga cartoons on repeat and only half an hour of Mr Bean for company, things were not looking so good. Especially by the time we realise that we will be spending our second non scheduled night on board - the thoughts of what could be offered for a second emergency dinner were enough to keep us entertained for all of about two seconds, Somehow it seems as if our travel to China had been doomed form the start....

Kagoshima (17th to 20th January)

We headed south to Kagoshima, a few days earlier than originally planned, with the intention of heading down to the islands in our minds. It was time for a bit of warmth and some outdoors adventure and the islands looked set to promise that - not extreme heat, just jeans a t shirt kind of weather - just what we are after. Kagoshima, itself, delivered lovely weather upon arrival. Gorgeous sunshine shone down on us as we checked into a cheap little hostel and trekked down to the port to find out about our tickets. I have picked up some kind of virus and have been quivering and shaking for a few days, so the sun on my face felt lovely. We managed to find out all about the ferries and were fuelled with excitement at the prospect of heading south and more so that for the first time in 60 years China and Taiwan have opened up their flight and ferry routes so we would be able to sail all the way down to Taiwan and on to China, perfect. Sadly, the next day we find out that yes China and Taiwan have opened up but Japan and Taiwan have closed their ferry route, so our travel plans are thrown up in the air completely.

No worries, we’ll go to South Korea instead. Ok so it will be freezing, but it will be worth it and we can put up with cold for a few days. So straight on the phone we get to book our ferry from South Korea to China, in order that we have all our papers in place to book our ferry into the country. Luck is not on our side though, there is a national holiday and so no ferries for the whole week that we are looking to leave Korea, which means we would be there for about two weeks, when we were only after one. Ordinarily we wouldn’t mind but it will be bitterly cold and we know nothing about the country and can’t get much guide info online so with this in mind it seems that we are opting to head straight to China. We are disappointed as all our exciting plans seems to have sizzled away but then we will end up with more time to visit Vietnam, maybe pop into Laos and ultimately have more time in India and we are thinking now that it might be possible to get over to Dubai by boat before we head home. (Looks like we are flying as the Central Asia route is not possible due to weather, the Middle East route not possible due to politics and the Africa route a little dodgy due to Somalian pirates!)

Anyway, with all routes blocked and all plans changed we can at least enjoy a few days on relative warmth in Kagoshima right? Wrong! We wake up to the worst rain imaginable and my virus is well and truly trying to kill me! Well, maybe not quite that bad, but it sure is working against me! We decide to jump on the train to Ibushki, where there is apparently the world’s only natural hot sand bath. It takes over an hour and all the while I am burning up and coming over all shivery! I’m thinking burying my already more than slightly claustrophobic self in heavy sand, when feeling quite so dodge, is not the best idea! None the less, if this is the world’s only natural hot sand bath I’m clearly not going to give it a miss. And actually it turns out to be ok, well more than ok, it turns out to be wonderful! We start off in glorious hot baths (separate men’s and women’s of course) before donning our Yukatas (Stu has on my short one, and I his long men’s one by mistake, and everyone is laughing - at him though, not me!) We walk out into the cold sea air and quickly totter to the sand bath, where little old women are waiting to bury us deep in the gorgeously warm rough sand. I whimp out to start with and keep my arms out and get buried so super shallow that I get cold so I call sweet little old burial women over to cover me up more! It’s actually a great feeling and the heat does wonders for my burning back. We can hear the waves lapping the shore, though can’t quite see them as the sand has been sheltered with bamboo coverings for the winter, whereas in the summer, it’s open to the water front. After half an hour of steaming away, we head back indoors for more hot bathing before heading back to the station, where we have time enough to kill for Stu to boil an egg in the station’s hot fountain (!) before we jump on the train and head back. And straight to bed for some TLC it is for me. That is after we enjoy another Mexican wrap from the shop we found the night before. Stu said he wouldn’t worry about me until I went of my food and when I couldn’t force down the delicious wrap, he knew something was seriously up! Me not eating - this is major!

Next day, feeling a lot better, we head to Sakarujima, on the Satsuma Peninnisula, home of one active volcano, a very cool lave field, lots of satsumas (hence the name), a lovely public foot spa and a cracking onsen. The onsen was divine. As it is within holy grounds you have to go through a tora as you walk into it and also it i, unusually, mixed. As such you have to wear a dressing gown . Nestling under a holy tree with a shrine and right on the ocean’s edge it was so picture perfect, especially as the sun set gloriously over the sea, with reds and oranges splashing across the sky and sparkling in the water’s shimmery reflections. For dinner we headed into the backstreets of Kagoshima, trying to find a local little joint to enjoy local treats. After an age of looking for a cheap sushi joint we opted for a quaint little place that looked like it had never changed in all of it’s working years. With a few options presented to us in pictures we ended up with some obscure dishes including chicken sushi - otherwise known as raw chicken. So when in Rome and all that.... it actually wasn’t so bad, in fact rather tasty which goes to show just how pathetically cautious we are in England! The restaurant was a riot. A team of local business men ordered us local firewater and when they left and a drunken group of friends came in they tried to get us drunk along with them, buying us beer. The Grandmother who cooked (or served up, in the case of the raw chicken) seemed quite famous with newspaper cuttings about her up on the walls and everyone delighted in having some foreigners enjoy the atmosphere of this very local place! Finally, plenty of laughs, loads of photos and a few drinks later we headed back, feeling lucky in our local find!

After the beauty of Satsuma we headed for the not so beautiful port town of Shimoneski, home to the famous blow fish meal which done wrong can kill you pretty darn quickly. Done right or wrong, there was no chance of us trying out the local food on this occasion! Shimoneski has little of any interest, aside from a booming Pachinko and gambling scene and so we spent the afternoon in the less than exciting local shopping centre and post office, while our night was spent in an odd little guest house full of ferry workers and grumpy old women!