uniforms

i mentioned in one of my missives that the chinese out of uniform are a friendly and cheerful people. in uniform they seem to be something else! it slowly dawned on me that there were an awful lot of uniforms on the chinese streets, more even than moscow, and particularly in beijing, where we noticed an inordinate number of 'uniforms' sporting 'beijing security' badges. the uniforms always carried a lot of badges, buttons, braid, belts and boots! strange in a land where mao is always pictured in his simple peasant dress.

it wasn't long before i began to categorise them into comic, job's worth and, scarily, sinister.

comic
at most traffic junctions despite an extremely efficient set of lights; those for cars, those for bikes, those for pedestrians and a count down system so you know if you should scuttle across rather than stroll, there were often policemen as well.
at one particular crossing in xi'an we observed with glee four policemen 'changing guard'. the two on duty were in rain capes; one on a plinth making arm signals and half turns like an automaton and the other standing around at his feet. the two taking over arrived at the plinth and there was snapping to attention and sharp salutes all round. then the action went all sloppy as they debated who was going to have the rain capes! there was a bit of a stand off and then the capes were handed over. all this time the traffic continued to flow quite easily without any help from the 'uniforms'. up on the plinth the new officer on duty went into stiff armed action, now equipped for the weather! :)

job's worth
also at the junctions as if you didn't already have enough information to guide you across the road safely there were 'traffic assistants'; fetchingly dressed in mustard shellsuits in shanghai and blue pyjamas in beijing, topped off with soft baseball caps. whistles, batons or flags, in combination or all three at once completed the look. they used the batons to keep back the pedestrians and the whistle to warn wouldbe offenders not to move prematurely!
i stumbled off the kerb in shanghai and was treated to the full works. fixed irate stare, whistle blown in a continuous shriek and the baton pointed, straight armed, into my face. i was sorely tempted to knock it away but didn't. it stops being comic and/or annoying and becomes intimidating.

like the policemen in tian'anmen square. macy, our guide, said many more were on duty 'for safety' during the holiday week, i felt it was more for hassling.
as you enter the square proper from the pedestrian crossings one side of the gap in the metal crush barriers is 'guarded' by a soldier in green on his dais under a green parasol and the other by a policeman in blue on his dais under a blue parasol. i'm making an assumption about the soldier's identity, the policeman not requiring one as his parasol was labelled 'police'!
as we crossed into the gap i had to sidestep as a second policeman stopped a woman in front of me. she went to open her bag. for id i suppose? but why? she carried no large bag or bundle so couldn't have been a hawker. a grey haired elderly lady, probably a tourist like me, but chinese.
a while later we used the subway to leave the square. sensibly it had been roped off to keep the flow of pedestrians separate. very wise when the space was as crowded as it had been on the holiday monday but this was four in the afternoon and the place was virtually deserted. even so an elderly couple walking the 'wrong way' were pounced on by an unsmiling youth in uniform. you want to say 'oh, per..lease!' but you don't, you just put your head down and keep walking...in the right direction. shades of '1984' went through my head!

sinister
my sensitivity has been heightened to all this by an unpleasant incident as we left xi'an. we had been collected by grace and our driver, mr wang, to be taken to the station. mr wang pulled into the parking area and as we all got out four uniformed guys all converged on the car. they barked at him and took his keys. we tried to get our luggage from the locked boot and grace remonstrated...ineffectually. she was only a young girl. after polite requests from lou and some shoving and pushing of mr wang by the four uniforms, the boot was opened by the biggest one. we grabbed our stuff, not easy as it was cumbersome, and headed across the staion forecourt with grace. scarily two of the guys followed us, one questioning grace, the other lou. lou said it seemed to be about whether mr wang was a taxi. lou said 'no, our car driver' and kept walking! grace delivered us to the waiting room and hurried back. she seemed to think they were not police. taxi rank 'assistants'? station guards? horrible, whatever they were!
i felt thoroughly shaken by it. sorry for mr wang and grace but helpless to assist in any way and just wanted to get on the train and leave xi'an behind...which is what we did an hour later to my great relief!
but what of mr wang? he came from the town by the hot springs and was married with a two year old son. he didn't seem a criminal, just bored by his driving job at times. a mystery, the outcome of which we shall never know.
i think it was this incident that began my sense of homesickness for the peace and relative security of gagnac...that and its wide open green spaces!

a happier footnote to xi'an
as we waited for the train in xi'an that horrible eveing we were all deafened by the female announcer who spoke only in chinese.(although there was an announcement board in english that we could see). a young couple with a child sitting alongside were soon giggling with us as we all jumped at each new onslaught from the tannoy above our heads. eventually the wife asked me where we were going and on finding out we were getting the same train she said she would make sure we didn't get left behind!
see? out of uniform, cheerful and friendly! :)

g'day possum

everything we had read or heard about the trans siberian trains referred to the alcoholic haze that most of the journey is spent in, due to boredom, interacting with the other passengers and copious amounts of vodka. this was not the case with us! :) we weren't bored, we drank mostly tea and coffee and there weren't many passengers!

at first i thought the lack of socialising may be because we were travelling first class and therefore in a two berth compartment. the opportunity for making lifetime friends is more likely in a crammed four berth (or enemies i suspect!) but all the compartments seemed to be full of mongolian traders on the eastwards journey and chinese migrant workers on the westwards. on the trans mongolian we did get to chat with two norwegian chaps next door who were travelling the same route as us to beijing before flying home and andreas from switzerland and layla from the uk who were doing likewise to beijing but then were heading up into a chinese valley near tibet where they were going to help a friend finish his guesthouse. we ate choc ices together on our anniversary on a station platform somewhere in siberia!

at irkutsk we had an influx of tourist groups moving from lake baikal to ulun bator for a ger camp experience. we met up with most of them again on the ulun bator to beijing train as it only runs once a week. in this group we chatted to peter and natalie, an australian couple taking the long way home from munich. natalie was full of useful advice for exploring berlin and convinced me i really needed a washing line! :) on all the internal chinese trains we were the only europeans which caused lots of stares but smiles too.

in the hotels we were often the only couple not part of a tour group which meant we got adept at trying to time our breakfast for after the rush. on our return to beijing we shared the breakfast scrum at the rainbow, (good hotel, naff breakfast) with a crowd of aussies waiting for their connection to shanghai and then home. trevor and sandra, (sandy), chatted to us one morning. trevor was from leicester but had emigrated in 1962 at the age of five and sounded pure oz to our ears. he threatened to get in touch in 2009 when they hope to holiday next in france and i threatened to mention him on this blog.

so i have! over to you,trev! :)

glorious gagnac

we're home!
sncf tried to stop it happening right up until the last minute.
the berlin train to paris did run and we were on it. and very posh it was too...breakfast included in the first class ticket, beautifully appointed compartment with hot running water and mouthwash provided and, piece de resistance, a shower at the end of the carriage with gushing hot water and shower gel. so i arrived in paris fresh as the proverbial daisy!
we had a second petit dejeuner at austelitz (sp?) station cafe and revelled in real butter croissants and real orange juice. 'look, it's got bits in', declared lou. our first proper juice since leaving france!
the weather was lovely all the way to brive and then sncf struck again...no train! so we finished our epic train journey across europe and asia and back again in the ter 'car', (coach to non french speakers).
at biars, our loyal friends were waiting, after two days delay and one false start, with a welcome home banner, flowers and kisses and an invitation to dinner, the only proviso being that the rugby was not to be missed! so we rode home surrounded by warmth and love...the best way possible to travel...thank you to sian, chris, megan, bethany, aiden, caitlin, summer, oscar, justin, cherry, amalie and quince

snow... snow... drip, drip, snow... 15/10 (catch up)

the rain of friday and saturday turned into snow on sunday!
after hanging around the hotel all morning we felt the need for exercise and diversion. so, after lunch and armed with the brollies, we set off to find the moscow museum of modern art. we got lost, comme d'hab. but not too badly and were able to retrace our steps back up the pretty 'boulevard'of pastel houses and railed central garden.
the museum was wonderful, spread over three floors and containing four exhibitions as well as the permanent displays. 'modern' seemed to be anything after 1900.
we loved one of the installations in 'constructivo' that used sound and was interactive. lou said into the mic 'gavin would like this' and we heard it repeated interspersed with the previous speaker's russian comments. the piece was called 'i love you' so that is what i said being the romantic one. we could have played for hours! (i've since googled the piece and it was created in 2005 and the artist is well known in the uk, andrey bartenev.)
each room was guarded by genteel ladies, one of whom harangued me in russian. lord knows why, i had just pointed out a chagall to lou. did she not like the english? or chagall?
after we had had a really good look round it was back out into the snow and into a cafe for a pot of tea and chocolate cake. the muscovites love to spend time in cafes of which there are many, always busy and full of yummy goodies to tempt you! :)
still snowing today but it has to be the kremlin as we haven't done it yet! :)

not holding our breath! friday, 19th october

we have hoofed over to ostbanhof this morning to ask the information desk if the train is running tonight...first they said no and then they said yes...so we're checking out and leaving the luggage at the big banhof and hoping the yes was the right answer! (photo is of a squat we passed on the way...not our hostel!) :)

btw sorry for all the typos in the last two blog bits...i was tired and ran out of time before i could do the spell check and read through...well, that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it! :)

ps went into the ibis to pick up a price list on our way back earlier and the reception chap said there is another strike on monday! is this a german one or french? i just want to go home now, running out of clean clothes!

train and strain...last bit!

not much posher but it did have air freshener and when 'legs' was on night shift there was perfumed soap in a dinky purple soapdish!
and so we chugged towards journey's end, through sunny and gold autumn scenery.
the stations provided a bit of excitement. dashing to the kiosks before the chinese to find something to create supper from and once walking to the front of the train to take a photo of the engine and getting back on at a different door as the whistle blew. 'curse it' lou said when i appeared at the compartment door, 'i thought we'd left you behind'!
cheeky sod! :)

(catch up) letting the train take the strain 12/10

it was a joy to be back on the train. for me, taking the trans siberian train, albiet the trans mongolian and trans manchurian in our case, was the realisation of a dream. i've always been excited by the sense of being on the move, from a small girl going on outings in my dad's car to more recent expeditions in our elderly camper. so settling into our compartment and taking up my customary spot by the window (how did i always end up with my back to the engine?) propped up on the provided pillow and glued to the passing landscape.. grubby windows mean all the photos will have a spattered effect, sadly.
in the waiting room at beijing we spotted a few european faces, most of them russian apart from a skinny chap. he got on way back down the train and we only glimpsed him at the russian border drearily waiting for the train to come back from the bogie changing shed as we all were (twelve hours to cross the border!)
the rest of the passengers appeared to be chinese from their language and the way they sprinted to the kiosks to buy pot noodles at each station. we never encountered anyone else in the dining car, usually the social hub of the train. it had been on the way east, filling up with sober types like us at lunchtime and beer swilling aussies in the evening!
our carriage was equally deserted. there was a chinese chap at the far end and a russian couple next door. lou nicknamed the wife 'hattie' as she was rather large and we could hear the crunching of crisps most of the day! :)
a diversion was caused by the arrival of nikolai at irkusk where we had expected an influx of tourists from the area around lake baikal. nikolai waylaid lou in the corridor that evening and when i went to find lou (rescue?), the two of them were sitting in front of nikolai's computer, looking at photos of shanghai! an hour later we had seen photos of nikolai at home on sakolin (an island off the east coast of siberia), nikolai and his 'boys', with his workers at his construction business (prefabricated buildings), at a motor show, on a jolly on the river at moscow with scantily clad belly dancers, with his 'woman'... not the mother of his boys i deduced from her youthful appearance.....
tall, broadshouldere and moustached, nikolai came across as a bit of a charmer and, sure enough, when he left the train at krasnovarsk with the chinese chap and hattie and husband, he wished us 'good travel' and told lou he had 'marvellous wife', flashing me a wonderful smile! :)
on what slender evidence he based this we can only wonder at! i was stripped of makeup and in my very sensible pyjys when i went looking for lou and our conversation was limited in the extreme relying on my russian phrase book! he works a long way from home and must be a lonely charmer...but never for very long i wager! :)
after that we were in splendid isolation apart from random railway personnel who got on, held meetings in the compartment next to ours and got off again, often at tiny halts. we soon got used to the sight of the train 'boss' as we called him, shouldering his way along the corridor. 'broad shoulders' i said to lou, 'padding' he said to me! :)
48 hours out of moscow, the dayshift 'prov' cleaned everything within an inch of its life, even wiping over the windows, (it didn't help!) and then locked the loo. 'legs', lou's favourite 'prov'. a girl of amazonian height with a blonde cockscomb on top of her dyed red hair and a very short skirt, explained that from now on our loo was 'clow-zed' and we were to use their's.
and i'm about to run out of time! i'll finish later! :)

making the best of it!

if you can't go home go see something!
we walked to checkpoint charlie yesterday afternoon. very touristy with a guy dressed as an american soldier on the checkpoint and lots of souvenir shops. i found it hard as i remembered all the painful newsreels of that time. all the kids happily buying stuff weren't even born! i keep forgetting how old i am!
then we walked down to the last bit of wall and the open air exhibition about the land behind that part of the wall and the horrible things that went on in the various buildings that have been on the site. more sadness.
then it was the trek back to the station and the long wait for our train to come up on the board...at 8.30pm...and that was the first indication we had that all was not well!
a fraught half hour while we tried to get another ticket back via cologne (couldn't) and finally swapped ours for one for tomorrow night, fingers crossed the strike is over or, at least, the train from here is running! then to the travel centre to book a hotel which is what we did and where we are...a hotel/hostel full of backpackers and a sprinkle of elderlies like us. a bar, good breakfast and cheap internet and a short walk from the centre of berlin so ok...for a couple of days...it could pall if for longer! :)
today we spoke to gav on the phone and went off to queue for the tv tower as he insisted! he was right. a long wait but worth it as the view is great, better than the shanghai tower that is so high it squashed everything into the mist and pollution. berlin looks lovely from up there and the food was good too. we revolved as we ate! :)
then a walk (poor lou, i have walked him everywhere) to a graffiti'd gallery/art space called tacheles. a fun exhibition about the end of relationships and what you have left. my favourite was the pair of garters with the label 'he gave me these, i never wore them, if i had maybe we'd be together now'! :)
back here to check out the strike on the internet (no news) and toasted baguettes in the bar.
and tomorrow?

strike!

stuck in berlin till friday cos of a strike by the french train drivers etc.......
so what do we go and look at now? :)

recap on beijing...round two..7/10

at the end of the tour we visited a 'family', a very gracious lady who turned out to have been an infant teacher in the huting (we get everywhere). she shares her courtyard home with her brother in law's family and her son's.
fascinating fact 2
if you want to know how many families share a courtyard, count the eletric meters!
we discussed pumpkins, she grows them in the sheltered courtyard where they climb up
onto the roof, and her pet turtles, kept in a bucket, poor things. we loved the lakes in the centre of the area and went back on our very last day in beijing.

4 after lunch the silk factory stop.
smelly and poor cacoons being boiled. the thought of using face cream made with boiled pupa revolted me. the girl was so insistent that 'we use all of the cacoon' as if that was a good thing...yuk!

5 the temple of heaven is a beautiful, totally wooden structure that uses 'no nails or cement' (we refrained from citing french roof construction in past times). it is highly decorative but, again, you can only peer through the doorway at its marvellous interior.
the surrounding park is a vast green lung for beijing (we went back there too) and has several relics. sadly, the 'longest covered passage in the world' was closed for renovation. there came a point when i began to ask our guides if we were looking at the real thing or a reconstruction!
day two

6 the great wall at badeling was heaving as lonely planet said it would be. lou and i 'heroically' (all walkers of the great wall are referred to as heroes and heroines) turned to the left. it is steeper and, therefore, meant to be less busy- joke! too much mist, too many tourists, too many souvenir sellers but i drank to simone's memory, albiet in water not coffee, and waved to the satellite, as instructed by lou, that can see it all from space!

7 at the ming tombs i expected to go underground but we just walked around the graceful complex. less busy and a pleasant pause in the day. macy used the time to test us on the information concerning iconography and the emperors that she had given us the day before! :)

8 a planned visit to a cloisonne factory. probably a tourist set up but the workers looked genuine and the techniques were fascinating to watch...and no cacoons suffering!

9 a stop on the hard shoulder so lou could photograph the 'birds nest' stadium being built for the opening and closing ceremonies of the olympics.

10 a teahouse stop, our first and best. a charming girl told us all about the teas in a courtyard teahouse while an ancient instrument was played...briefly. lou fell for the lichi tea with rosebuds...and the girl's smile?

so a packed two 'guided' days that left my head buzzing and feet aching but gave us plenty to think about and ideas for second visits...or not...those poor cacoons!

ich thingy berlinner!

we arrived this lovely, sunny, golden autumn morning in berlin. we went to the train station as stated on the ticket and then had to get a taxi back to the station we'd watched everyone else get out at as that is where we go from this evening! very modern and very clean as everything is in this city. we've dumped the bags and have walked to the brandenburg gate and down to the tv tower that gav told us to have lunch at....but a very long queue so we've come online before we decide where to go next...checkpoint charlie is on the cards!
i shall have to write up all my blog bits later as they are beginning to get out of hand...i write like i talk..lots!
so love to all, looking forward to seeing gagnac, friends and the cats...will they still talk to us?

grrrrrrr

i have spent the last half hour trying to get rid of some russian screens...lou comes over and gets straight on!
no time left to say anything so love to all and i may try later when i've calmed down! :)
i love computers...when they work!

from russia from love

after the internet-oh the joy of getting on the blog ! :) - we went back to gum on red square to a cafe we'd seen. gum is a shopper's paradise. jo, you would love it but bring dad's plastic...and mum's ...and greg's... :) i found a monsoon and accessorize-bliss. lou gave me ten minutes to cruise the colour co-ordinated displays and revel! i spotted a skirt called isobel, priced in uk and euros...i was tempted! :)

we spent the afternoon in the english courtyard museum. an odd little building between red square and the huge building site that was the hotel rossiya. the place was the english embassy in the time of elizabeth 1 and the first foreign embassy in russia.
trade came via the northern seas and we traded broadcloth, hemp and gunpowder for honey and wax (there were other things but that was what has stuck in the memory!). great play was made of how bread was sent in each direction in times of famine.
oliver cromwell spoiled things by chopping off charles' head and relations were suspended but restored when power was back in the hands of royalty. odd how history twists and turns, i bet the soviets would have applauded royal heads rolling! :)
the building is a rabbit warren of low doorways and steep, narrow staircases. there are a lot of historical documents and pictures, all well labelled in russian and english. the curators are very proud of it all.
quaint in the extreme and a great way to escape the rain! :)

recap on beijing - round one, 7th october

with time on my hands (six days) i reread my blog notes which i'd been typing at breakneck speed on a range of naff keyboards in a variety of internet lounges, often amongst excited young male game players who yelled and/or smoked.

btw let's hear it for gavin! thank you, gav, for loading up all mother's waffle! :)

the impact of beijing on me first time around seems to have obliterated any thoughts or mention of the 'sights' we 'did'. so sorry to all the chinese culture fans out there and here goes!

day one
1 tian. square (still can't spell it from memory) is big, so big the buildings around it seemed dwarfed by it including the gate of heavenly peace. as we approached the gate macy was in full flow with facts and figures. you become immune to all mention of 'the tallest, the biggest, the furthest, the oldest...in the world' after a while! :) we posed for the obligatory photo under that of mao!

2 the forbidden city is so vast, reportedly containing 3,000 rooms, that you can only hope to scratch the surface of it especially if you are 'on the tour'. you end up pressing your nose against windows and peering in at doorways as most of the halls are closed to the public. as i said somewhere else, it was very crowded, and always is, with chinese tourists. i found myself looking upwards and taking photos of the roofs so as to get people free shots! the chinese love to photograph one another against things; incense burners, steps, walls, nice tubs of flowers...and always with two fingers in the air...no, not that!...v for...victory?
fascinating fact one- macy told us that the wooden fretwork windows used to be covered with paper. if you wanted to peer inside you only had to lick your finger and press it against the paper to create a perfect spyhole!
the emperor's garden at the north end of the city is a charming space with very old fir trees that have grown into some incredible shapes. if they had an 'a' on them they were over four hundred years old and if they had a 'b on them they were relative youngsters of only three hundred years old.
as we emerged from the city, macy suggested a hutong rickshaw tour. as we had been told that the hutongs are fast disappearing we readily agreed.

3 hutong rickshaw tour
bumping along in the rickshaw we felt very embarrassed for the poor driver/cyclist pedalling all our weight (and lou's camera bag!) around the narrow alleys. our male guide, who reminded us of bertrand parroux, was full of information. at one point we became involved in a rickshaw jam caused by a lorry trying to negotiate a corner. every man in the vicinity was telling him what to do. i half expected lou to jump out and join in with the all the advice!

:oops time's up!

hi from moscow

hello to our readers! :)
we have arrived safely in moscow.

i cried when we had to leave the train last night, bien sur! i had loved the whole experience and now it was over...dad often reminded me of the saying 'better to travel hopefully than to arrive'...not sure if that is all of it but realising a dream can be a bitter sweet experience.
so when can we do it again? :)

moscow was cold when we got here and is wet now but warmer. it is surprisingly empty on the streets but i seem to remember it was a holiday period for muscovites when we were here last.
we have just walked around red square which is free of scaffolding (it was a concert for the moscow special day) but still has the chap yelling down his loud speaker. i popped into the beautiful church on the corner of the square. there was a service going on in the inner space and i lit a candle to say thank you for our safe arrival. two souvenir shops inside run by two very dour ladies! no 'hello, lady, wanna buy an icon?' :)

i am very grateful for the thermal leggings i packed in case moscow was cold when we got back here...and am using the cashmere scarf from mongolia. lou has dug out his ski hat so we are a real fashion statement in our summer trousers and anoraks but warm and dry under our shanghai brollies. did i say they are decorated with multiple mickey mouse heads? there is no topping us in the taste stakes! :)
love to all

bye bye, beijing, bye bye

[6th october]

we arrived on 2nd october in a very busy beijing. monday had been national day and the whole week is a holiday for most chinese. 1 1/2 million had passed through t. square last monday if the china daily is to be believed! :)

beijing was sunny and blue and it was liberating to be able to walk in dappled shade along the streets under the trees. we'd been under hazy skies since mongolia! i hope the trees survive the renovations here. not just two rows of trees along the roads but four as the bicycle lanes are edged with treelined pavements too.

tuesday evening was roast beijing duck organised by the agency to compensate for losing us a day in hong kong (the shanghai hotel had been cheaper than hk). a good meal at a buffet restaurant, only one glass of wine provided so we bought a bottle of 'free' wine! :)

wednesday we went out to the summer palace, a must see sight according to lonely planet. us and that 1 1/2 million! after an hour or more of slow shuffling we abandonned the buildings along the lakeside, beautiful though they are, and took to the hill. lovely paths under ancient fir trees with room to stretch our legs. we passed the hall of serenity (sic), a quirky building housing some exquisite wooden furniture (the empress didn't stint herself). you entered a small courtyard and after passing through an l-shaped gallery you found yourself looking down into another courtyard two floors below. (see pic above) cunning garden designers these chinese!

thursday we returned to the temple of heaven, only two blocks from the hotel. we'd done some of it with macy but the place is huge, we sussed how to avoid the worst of the crowds and idled away the morning watching ladies doing a very sinuous dance class, pensioners doing tai chi and a man spinning a top to applause, not putting out the hat but just for the pleasure of exercising his skill :)

we braved the hordes to do the round altar and the echo wall and scuttled back under the cypresses where we tried to glimpse the parrots we could hear. sitting in an arbour in the rose garden a young girl indicated she would like her picture taken with us. so with lots of grins and gestures several were taken by her boyfriend on his mobile phone. no names were swapped as no common language but a further confirmation that the ordinary chinese, out of uniform, are a friendly and cheerful people!

friday morning was very wet so i googled an art exhibition mentioned in the china daily and off we went to a building called variously the bejing world art museum or the china millenium monument. rampant patriotism in the exterior design and some of the exhibits although i liked the frieze of chinese history downstairs. julian schnabel left us cold but the spanish design exhibition of poster, chairs and lights was exhilerating. once more cameras flashed despite signs to the contrary and ever present attendants...very odd.

back to the hotel and lunch at a place lou had spotted the day before. nice staff, good food and tea full of daisies. smelled of chrysanths. and tasted lovely. lots of giggles when i asked them to write down the chinese name. i found some in the merry mart later. cup of tea, petal? :)

today has been wet all morning so we loitered in the hotel room till check out time when it had dried up a bit and went off to the lake area lou likes. we wandered happily around and had a pizza in one of the myriad restaurants. then another wander through the hutong area and to the drum and bell towers. back to t. square (i can't spell it) and a long walk back to the hotel...train at 11 o'clock.....

talk to you in a week, god willing!

one more and then no more

our train didn't leave xi'an until the evening so another grey day to fill...so off to another pagoda! the small goose pagoda this time. poor lou!

it is set in a lovely park full of lakes, grass, trees, and paved walkways. the
buddhist temple that precedes it has its bell and drum tower intact (bell to get up to, drum to go to bed to) but the halls are souvenir shops, comme d'hab. the pagoda is not and you can climb to the top... we didn't! as i read about the damage the poor pagoda had sustained in its history due to at least three earthquakes, (the top two stories are no more), i realised that maybe i should take the safety warning in the hotel room about earthquakes a bit more seriously! :)

in the same park there is a spanking new museum. the whole place only opened in may of this year. the museum's exterior is inspired by the tang dynasty but the interior is a wonderful, airy, circular and modern space. the exhibits are beautifully set out and labelled in english. i wandered all three levels - jade, relics, buddhas, calligraphy, seals and a model of how xi'an had looked in the tang era while lou idled on the ground floor...so patient with me! :)

then we did the outdoor shops to cheer him up, he can always use another jacket!

lunch at a cantonese buffet which turned out to be a 'music hall' type of place full of flipping flag following tour groups! oops, lynne, bad choice...blame lonely planet!

hello? want a watch, lady?

[30th September - part 1]

poor xi'an, there's been a lot about our meals (we do love our food!) and nothing about the 'sights'!

sooooo...we have found the guided tours a mixed blessing. the pleasure in visiting places is spoiled by the souvenir circus that surrounds everything plus the unscheduled stops. 'i need to sign something for my company' has to be the most blatant excuse as yet another jade workshop hoves into sight!

but...the xi'an city walls are incredible; forbidding, stark and very broad, dark and symmetrical. there is not the softness of the walls of canterbury or york. the big goose pagoda is...big! pity it was wet and we were trying to cope with grace's accent. the scriptures were introduced as 'sculptures' and i was glad i had swotted up from lonely planet. the muslim quarter was more fun- life as it is lived- and i effected a detour in the direction of the great mosque which yielded even better insights.

the hot springs are set beneath a mountain which was shrouded in mist but it was good to see some green after the constant urban landscape we have been living in for weeks. we were getting used to grace and again i dived off her proscribed route and asked questions!

the terracotta warriors are fantastic and despite the jostling for a viewpoint and the flashing of cameras and mobiles regardless of the signs forbidding it the silent ranks are awesome. i was pleased the experience was not sullied by souvenir sellers. as i took in the spectacle i had an overwhelming sense of the arrogance of the man who motivated their manufacture. he wanted eternal life after his death but with all the power he had attained in his mortal existance too.

the experience gets better as you proceed from pit to pit; from the masses to the individual, from the collective moulds to the craftman's detail. it is thought that each face is modelled on a member of the imperial guard. it is also believed that there are many more waiting silently in battle formation under the ground to be discovered one day.

it is advertised as the eighth wonder of the world and i'm truly grateful that i dragged lou across china to see it!

what now, pussycat?

[30th September - part 2]

having seen the terracotta 'warriors' and said goodbye to the last of our guides we haven't got much reason to be in xi'an beyond waiting for our train to beijing next monday evening! however, lynne, armed with her trusty lonely planet guide sallied forth this morning with a reluctant but compliant lou to find a taoist temple and antique market. a taxi was needed as distances are as long as in any of the other chinese cities we have visited thus far!

as described the market is for locals so we experienced no hassle, only parents urging their children to say hello to us, bless. lou is all 'templed out' as he puts it so i paid my three yuan and pottered quietly in the temple of the eight immortals leaving him to study and enjoy the faces outside.

then it was a walk to the east gate through quite poor backstreets (but we did find a jar of nescafe in a tiny supermarket) and on to the bell tower in the centre of xi'an. a lovely girl in starbucks pointed us in the direction of the internet place (cheaper than the hotel) where we got amused stares from the usual clientele of fashionably dressed youngsters. on the way out i appealed to our fellow lift travellers for the nearest macdonalds (yes, yes, i know i said we would stick to local food but we were looking for sandwiches) and, once more, we were charmingly sent off in the right direction.

after a speedy and familiar lunch (twenty years since i last ate a macdonalds burger in piccadilly!) we carried on trekking but finally gave in and got a taxi back. we could have eaten in the street and chosen from boiled corn on the cob or roasted sweet potato, followed by slices of three different types of melon on sticks.

last night's dinner had been back on the eastern track and was hilarious! we opted for the hotel seafood hotpot restaurant and caused a stir when we turned up (pardon the pun). they nearly refused to let us in. a lovely waitress, yang chai, guided us through the process which we would never have worked out for ourselves. a pot of soup bubbled in the centre of the table and yang dropped in the various foods we had ordered. she scooped the pieces out as they cooked and dumped them in our bowls of soy sauce into which had been put spoonfuls from the contents of six small bowls. we recognised garlic, chilli and coriander but hadn't a clue what the rest might have been! :)

a different and yummy meal with lots of laughs and yang and her colleagues were a delight! we shall be expecting justin to have a go at hotpot, xi'an style! :)

east is east and west is west

we were so grateful to be in a hotel that was not the hotel juilong, shanghai that we forgot for the moment we were still in china (in xi'an) and went down to enjoy a meal in the western restaurant. a smiling welcome and apology that all the tables were large (there had been a wedding in the afternoon), eight seater, circular with a turn table in the middle. the menu was limited but we were pleased to order smoked salmon followed by steak and frites (me) and pizza (lou). we created a lot of toing and froing by asking for white wine and ended up with half a bottle of great wall semillon 1996. an odd sherry taste to it. i blamed the cepage, lou said it was 'gone'. maybe we should blame jean louis? :) poured beautifully complete with napkin over the arm once she had organised a tray with cloth, two glasses.....

the smoked salmon arrived in a flower shape laid over ice cubes covered in cling film. the salmon was just this side of the deep freeze and any flavour had been frozen out of it many months before! even the soy sauce served alongside couldn't revive it! but the steak and chips and pizza were very good. and the girls keen to please and a bill of &17.80.

we took excellent coffee in the dreams bar and i nipped across the road to a tiny shop for a bar of chocolate to go with it!:)

the chinese lunch included with yesterday's tour had been excellent so we really should go with the flow and carry on wielding the chopsticks while we're here...it's what they do best! :)

meanwhile our latest guide, grace, has a rough grasp of english and is fine when she remembers the text. 'she needs a shilling in the meter' whispered lou after she lost her thread and had to repeat her introduction to get back on track! like an actor she needs a prompter...or an ipod!

today the terracotta 'warriors', the only reason we are in xi'an. and more rain?

'shay, shay' shanghai (part 2)

yesterday was "our" day so off to the maglev train, lou's choice. a fantastic ride, so smooth, so fast, 431 kilometers an hour at its top speed! the information in the little museum was beyond me (magnetism) but we reckoned dad and ian would have loved it. :)

then the shanghai urban planning exhibition (mabel again). an odd choice it might seem but the mezzanine floor had a display of old shanghai in black and white photographs. on the upper floors there was a huge model and elaborate plans for...you've guessed it...the remodelling of shanghai, not for the olympics this time but the world expo in 2010.

[china must have made a lot of successful bids recently. as we were leaving people were arriving for the special olympics, 'intellectually impaired' athletes the morning paper said. this morning as we took our leave of the bund (loved that place) - iced coffee, pineapple juice (and an ice cream for lou) at a waterfront cafe, groups of teenagers, black and asian, were posing for photos and some uniformed tots were chanting and cheering for a television crew. ]

we did eventually find the french concession which is a delightful place to walk in. two storey houses set in gardens behind railings, clearly subdivided into many homes but the gardens were well maintained. shady pavements lined with spreading plane trees and posh western named shops mixed with tiny local ones. back courtyards glimpsed through stone arches. we ate 'japanese curry and rice' when we were disappointed by a restaurant whose menu had neither english translation or pictures we could stab!

a taxi back to the pedestrian bit (distances in shanghai are long) of the nanjing road and the internet 'bar' (yeah, right, sprite or coke from the tiny grubby counter) where we whiled away a happy hour all for 4 yuan (25p).

back to our depressing hotel to change and then to the bund to try out lou's new tripod. :)

at night the bund is full of sellers and hawkers -'wanna buy skates?' -the teenagers speed up to you, heels flashing as they whizz along; 'wanna bag? a watch? a photo? a model of the pearl tower that lights up? (yes, i know you would, steve! :) ) the telescopes play the tune of 'we wish you a merry christmas' when you put the money in the slot (is it on the carol list, sian?). there are guys hurling lumps of squidgy coloured plastic at the ground whereupon it wobbles back up into something that looks as if it ought to be on the capital one card ad! others squat on their haunches and spin tops as you approach that sing and throw out circles of flourescent light. then the word goes up 'police'. they all melt away into the crowd as the police buggy cruises through.....

we ate on the floating restaurant near where the tour boats leave, a huge moon, the lights on the water, hot food, cold beer.......

thank you, shanghai, xie, xie

'shay, shay' shanghai (part 1)

[29th September]

just stopped in suzhou-suejoe-- which we visited on tuesday. a good day with mabel, a girl with three years guiding under her belt, unlike lilian, this year's graduate, who was monday's guide. mabel was informed and made sure we did tours backwards to avoid the flag following groups. we spent a long time in the humble administrators garden in suzhou unlike the forced march around the yuyuan the day before! skilfully mabel sussed the information lilian hadn't given us the day before so filled the gaps...and our tummies with choc ices when the afternoon proved very hot! :)
with lilian we did a rerun of sights we'd found for ourselves (bund, old city, not her fault tho') and suffered the obligatory teahouse stop, pearl shop stop, souvenir shop masquerading as art gallery....but she did the jade temple very well, organised lunch and supper and saved the boat trip for the early evening when the bund and the facing buildings are all lit up and have a kind of light show of their own.

but it was mabel who explained that fields of huge leafed plants in water are lotus and the chinese eat the root and the seeds. we were enchanted by the seed heads that we realised form part of my pot pourri back in crouzi! :)

the canal trip in suzhou was not as pretty as i'd been led to believe but was typical of chinese life as we had seen it elsewhere complete with smells! as in other places suzhou is half demolished amd being rebuilt 'for the olympics'.
there should be a sign at the border saying,
'sorry, china is closed for improvements due to the olympic games'!
we couldn't get into the peace hotel on the bund or into the little museum under the monument at the start of the bund as they are 'closed for refurbishment'. the museum is an art gallery at present where a very persistent and charming young 'art student' parted me from 100 yuan for one of 'his' artworks. what a silver tongue he had!

it was mabel who persuaded us to that the shanghai acrobats were not to be missed and she was absolutely right. after a nervous wait for a taxi (hotel cock up again) we arrived at an amazing complex and saw a very professional show. slender bendy girls and athletic young men, something to please everyone! :)

we ate strange new things at a pavement restaurant (mabel's suggestion again) under trees filled with fairy lights amid chinese in holiday mood for 'mid autumn day'. the inevitable photos to remember the moment and a taxi back to 'that' hotel!

salut!

i'm positive about shanghai but the hotel is casting a negative shadow. strange drilling noises woke me at two and four this morning and we ate breakfast to the sounds of more drilling outside the windows!

but the sun is out and today we begin the guided bit. yesterday we tried to find the market and the french concession. we weren't actually lost but thought we were, lonely planet and the hotel map proving inadequate. we'd bought brollies because of the rain and really needed them as it turned into a tropical downpour just as we got ourselves into a busy shopping mall 'built in pseudo ming and qing style' as the brochure puts it! we ducked into starbucks for hot drinks and to dry out a bit. after that we wandered down back streets in the old city, two storey houses with all manner of shops on the ground floors, loaded rickshaws passing and lots of demolition too. confused by the road names we walked back towards the tallest building i'd noted earlier (lou is hopeless at this sort of thing i've discovered!) and found lunch on nanjing street, centre of the universe for the people of shanghai it would seem! :)

and then through sheer bloody mindedness on my part, we found an internet place. along the way we'd found several fabulous bookshops full of young people reading and clearly being encouraged to so - do they buy the books eventually?

a lovely chat with gav via james' site and a meander back to the hotel . interesting art deco buildings, lots of shops selling recycled engineering parts, rickshaws with chaps ringing bells, (macy told me they are rag and bone men), a little park where we were approached by a middle aged guy who spoke random french words to us! mostly consisting of 'merci beaucoup' and 'parisien'. i responded in kind! :)

then the hotel! :(

never mind, there is a bar that does a decent g and t and we buy nuts from the business centre...confused? so 'aperos' time chaque soir!

salut, nos amis!

rain, rain, go away...

the train from hong kong was full of chinese but only us in our four berth. i was glad of the privacy but, perversely, regretted missing the experience of sharing the space! :)

it was wet and warm when we arrived and we splashed through the puddles with our guide to our people carrier. christina seemed to think we were leaving on monday which was a concern. she had no onward tickets apart from our tour ones and refused to give me her business card or contact number. why?

my heart sank at the sight of the hotel. very tall and shrouded in netting. we came in through a shuttered front to the sound of drilling. reception was big and glossy and the staff seemed to know what they were about!

our room is on the 22nd floor (gulp) and is a bit scruffy in places but all is here that we would want, boiling water and a washing line! :)

we went out to discover shanghai and liked what we saw despite the rain. lots of interesting european looking buildings and little wooden structures; alleyways that reveal trees and bushes in pots; washing hanging out of windows on bamboo poles; some boarded up buildings that architecturally wouldn't look out of place in london.

the waterfront is modern and looks across at an eclectic collection of new buildings, curiosities rather than cutting edge! :)

i spotted three policemen cruising the walkway in a kind of golf buggy with pop music blaring out. three more uniformed chaps went in the opposite direction in something similar. a barge motored by on the water with an enormous video screen playing advertisements. we're still approached by photographers and fake watch sellers but the streets seem calmer despite 18 million living in the shanghai area!

hong kong fooey (part 1)

[20th September]

three days in hong kong and i can't say i regret moving on. the place is one enormous shop that never closes with posh upper floors and bargain basements!

we spent our first evening walking down the nathan road, kowloon, (where our hotel is) to the harbour's edge. lou had heard about the light show and it was very atmospheric; water slapping; boats passing; crescent moon; neon on all the skyscrapers on hong kong island and then the light show!

lots of photos later (ours and virtually everyone around us) we walked back to the temple street market. a madhouse of smells, cheap tat, neon, food stalls...fantastic! lou insisted we eat in proper downtown style so we did in one of the many small cafes. i tried not to worry about unwrapped chopsticks...the food was ok and very cheap. we were the only europeans and business was brisk. the chinese version of hollyoaks was on the huge tv screen on the wall!

back at the hotel we'd discovered we could get on the blog so could read all the comments and feel the warmth of friends and family...

hong kong fooey (part 2)

a day less and no passports because of a visa mix up meant no trip to macau as we'd hoped (you need visas for macau). but we had dosh as i persuaded the bank to accept my carte de sejour as evidence i existed! so a day with lynne as guide (this was to happen a lot!). star ferry, the peak tram and a bus to aberdeen for a look and maybe a sampan tour. lou felt let down by the star ferry, very quick and the day was misty. i felt let down by the peak. the tram is a delight but the top is concrete and glass, souvenir shops, cafes, shops, more shops....

the bus to aberdeen was not the suggested one but took us through another side of hong kong life - school kids, shoppers and into the estates of flats. inside the bus the driver seemed to have his life stacked beside him!

aberdeen was loads of high rise around the harbour so a concrete sided harbour with a paved walk along one side. too misty to see what lay beyond the harbour entrance. too many boats anyway. the fish market had closed (morning only) but was still smelly, of course! :) shame we didn't see it but we spotted fish hanging up outside a shop in an alleyway. the sampan tour was duly taken when i had frogmarched lou to the only outfit i was prepared to put my trust in. the boat was organised by a woman on the shore and our lady pilot who nagged her male colleague in another boat by way of her mobile phone!

hong kong fooey (part 3)

...as she indicated the house boats i asked her where she lived. she waved at a pink block of flats we were chugging past! :)

we caught the recommended double decker bus for the return and were whipped back to the star ferry through a modern tunnel and along flashy roads past even flashier shops...the differing faces of hong kong island.

back to the temple street market in the evening to eat at a pavement cafe at lou's insistence. i looked at the dirty table, dirty plastic glasses, rice bowls, chopsticks, pavement....and asked my tummy's forgiveness! lou's salted fried prawns and my steamed garlic shrimps were superb and the chinese beer got my thumbs up too! :) and my tummy stayed put...so far so good!

today i sought out the nearest temple to the goddess of the sea and enjoyed a tranquil fifteen minutes away from the bedlam that is the nathan road. then we walked to the kowloon park and enjoyed the cool under the trees, the turtles and goldfish in their pools and the birds in the aviary. we needed that as en route lou had stopped to buy a lens and flash unit and we would be there still if the manager had had his way. he started at 3,500 hong kong dollars and ended up at 10 pounds!

as we couldn't make macau i found the macau restaurant (lonely planet again) and had an intersting lunch of garlic bread (yum), seafood portuguese style (lou) and vegetables portuguese style (me). the seafood was a sort of fish pie, yummy. my veg. was heavy on the broccoli and cabbage! :)

pit stop at the hotel then off to the jade market and the ladies market. i tell you, you can shop till you drop in this place and eat western. i have to admit we ate in mcdos in aberdeen - i yearned for a sarnie! and this afternoon we hit starbucks for iced coffee and juice. though it looks like local again tonight. the bags are packed and lou has bought a new bag for the new enlarged set of camera equipment! and we have our passports back with our chinese visas (who'd a thunk we needed double entry visas when hong kong is chinese?). they've stuck my recent photo in it. presumably decided i've changed a lot in the last nine years. aged!

tomorrow off to shanghai in a four berth- a new experience again. the agent tried to buy all four berths but no go. as lou says, we can't fart! let's hope the others don't either! :)