The Cave

So… We are in China… It would be downright rude to leave without seeing what all this “Great Wall” stuff is about. Just how impressive can a pile of stones be?

“Blimey” was our unanimous verdict!

Rather than head to the touristy Badalang section, we opted for a hike between Jinshanling and Simatai, where sections of the original wall can be seen. We set off in a little minibus at 7am, battled through the Beijing ringroads and an interesting traffic jam (caused by one bloke with a flag letting only one side of the traffic through a contraflow on a bridge - now I see why the Japanese use so many baton weilding monkeys) and reached a tiny shack by the side of some fields. There was a sunflower. There was a toilet that I’m assured by Adele was interesting even by Chinese standards. There was no sign of a wall. Hmmm.

We set off along a pathway that threaded through some beautiful scenery, decked out in our funky hats and our hiking boots we lugged all the way from Fukui, breathing the wonderful fresh air!

An hour or so later we arrived at the wall itself, and the walk was worth it! From our vantage point on a hill next to the wall we could see at least 15 watch-towers in varying states of repair. Parts of the wall were repaired around 25 years ago, but much of the initial section we walked along was the 400 year old Ming dynasty original. The scale of the wall is staggering to behold - it balances on the crest of the hills and disappears into the haze in the distance. Between 2m and 6m in height and around 4m wide, it is a staggering acheivement, and we both agreed it ranked high on the wow-o-meter!

We started to puff our way up and down the steps and slopes of the wall - soon finding that we weren’t quite as recovered from last week as we thought! At a rest stop in one of the more crumbly towers, one of our adopted guides who had followed us from the start suggested we could take a shortcut to save us the tallest peaks and get us to the bus in time for the 3pm departure. Having seen plenty of the wall, we decided to follow her and her small band of be-hatted ladies - taking an unforgettable and peaceful detour away from the wall.

As we struck off into the hills around the wall, we realised how lucky we were to see what we were seeing. the path was not very worn, suggesting not many people came this route, and our guides obviously knew the terrain well. Hoping that it wasn’t a scam, we followed on through some picturesque farms - partially derelict, but gracefully crumbling through use rather than neglect. We emerged from the final valley to another vista of the wall rising ahead of us - allowing another glimpse at how vast the damn thing is!

Our last potter along the wall was much more relaxed as we had the time to stop and take it in, rather than power our way to the next tower in the hope of reaching our goal on time. At Simatai the wall dives down and climbs back up the walls of a valley - separated by a reservoir spanned by an interesting suspension bridge. It wasn’t Ming dynasty (I may have felt safer if it was) and I think even Indiana Jones would think twice before running across. We made it safely to the end, and having experienced enough dodgy structures, decided not to take the “safety passed” zip-line down the hill.

It was an unforgettable experience, and I would recommend it to anyone in the vicinity of the wall! The detour allowed us to see it all from a different perspective. I just hope the farms (or more specifically the farmers) don’t succumb to the tourism bandwagon like other areas. The people we met were kind, friendly and happy. Okay - many were selling cold drinks and “I climbed the Great Wall” T-shirts, but the fields were still worked and we felt like guests on their land.

You can see more pictures here.

Ok, so if you haven’t already guessed by Tom’s post below, we were none too impressed with the Forbidden City. China, amidst the spitting, the rubbish-lined streets, the stench from the public (in)conveniences, it’s neon flashing touristy gawdiness…well, it was beginning to get us down.

With the screams of “Hello, you, I give you good price if you like” ringing in our ears, we started to wonder exactly WHY we were here at all… But, in truth it isn’t all bad. Far from it, in fact.

As Tom briefly mentioned in his earlier post, we’ve both been a little off-colour (I hasten to add that it ISN’T food poisoning - believe me, I’m as surprised as you!), and perhaps because of this, we’ve not been able to take everything in our stride as we usually would.

We headed to the Lama temple bright and early (ok, ok, so we went to get our Mongolian visas sorted first, but it WAS still quite early!), fully expecting a repeat of the day before’s pretty dreadful experience of the Forbidden City. We were wrong.

What we found was a beautiful, tranquil oasis. Green trees, birds, clean surroundings. No touts, no cons, no filth or stench, even the public toilets were half-way decent! The tourists quietly enjoying the still-active Tibetan-Buddhist temple. Locals going about thier business unconcerned. Incense burning all around us, prayer wheels spinning - sending messages to god.

We could have “done” the whole complex in about half an hour.

We sat mesmirised all afternoon, watching the world go by. We stood, impressed, at the vast Buddha, carved out of a single sandalwood tree trunk. We smiled as the Japanese tourists came up exclaimng, “eeeeeEEEEEHHHHH? SUGOI NE! TOTEMO OOKIIIIII DESU YO!!!” (”Eee, that’s right grand, innit! Very big, yeah?!” - How wonderful to understand what’s going on around you!)

It was a fabulous way to spend the afternoon. We decided it more than made up for the Forbidden City.

But the story doesn’t end there.

We left the Lama temple at closing time, and wandered down a nearby street, soon coming across a sign advertising Chinese tea ceremony. Intrigued we went in. We tried both the Red Tea and the Flower Tea - both served in a different way. It appears that Chinese tea ceremony involves splashing a lot of water around the place….in a very controlled manner. It was all VERY different to Japanese tea ceremony, and extremely interesting. Our waitress/tea ceremony lady was very friendly, and the tea was never ending (which would be a good thing…but…well, I’m getting back on to the subject of public loos again…).

The story continues.

It seems that, like bad things, good things also come in threes. We thought we were pushing our luck to have a third unforgettable experience in one day. Then we went to a Chinese acrobatics performance.

Wow.

As the house lights went up at the end of the show, Tom and I were still sat there with our mouths hanging open.

I didn’t know it was possible for a man to climb a pole just with his hands. Tom didn’t know it was possible for a woman to contort her body like that. We both want to be able to balance and juggle Ming vases and tables with our feet. And summersault through hoops around 2m off the ground. Hell, I’d be happy to be able to summersault any way!

I can’t describe the show - words, photos, even video wouldn’t do it justice. To see it live, four rows from the front was a truly incredible experience!

After the show we had dinner and drinks at the most expensive hotel we could find. Yeah, I know, we’re “travelling on a budget”, right? Well, we hadn’t been out in a while, and…two tickets for the acrobatics, dinner and drinks came to a total of 30 quid. Not bad for an unforgettable night out!

Sorry for the lack of postings recently - we have both been entrenched in a pitched battle against our innards for a few days…

Anyway - the last few days have been a little busier than we anticipated as we try to squeeze in as much as possible to make up for lost time. We have had a great few days, but our experience of Beijing was a very negative one to start with. As we are not affiliated to CCTV (the rather scary national news agency that only gives one side of the story) I’ll start by telling you about the somewhat disappointing Forbidden City.

I think Emperor Yongle (the bod who originally had the huge place built) had the right idea not letting the riff-raff in. One of the only ways to get inside in the Ming and Qing dynasties was to be a candidate for the national imperial examinations - a practice I think they should revive!

It’s not just that there are WAY too many people allowed in, that the ticket price is probably the weekly salary of more than half the population, or even that the place is under so much renovation you can’t see anything other than the main drag of ceremonial buildings. No, the problem is the reason the place is still standing. Tourism. I know we are guilty of being camera weilding foreign tourists too, but the feeling I’ve had since being in China is that the soul of the place has been ripped out, replaced with a scary bottomless pit with neon dollar signs flashing at the entrance.

I was fully prepared for the touts at the entrance, the T-shirts, the guide books and the usual offers of “this way Guide please!”. I was a little surprised to see inside the first gate (that was originally used by the emperors to hold court) no fewer than four gift shops built into the structure amid the flaking red paint of the old pillars holding up the roof. This feeling of surprise changed to disbelief as we discovered the next few gates all had the same treatment. The Starbucks on the edge of the innermost sanctuary must have been handy if the Emperor ever fancied a quick coffee - if he could dodge the “students” trying to drag people to their “galleries” half way across town.

The crowning moment of the day, epitomising the attitude of many of the Chinese we have met and seen so far, took place in the northern garden - where the Emperor and his closest relatives would go to relax. A mother with her young child (aged perhaps four or five) were following the crowd ahead, drinking Coca-cola. The child drained the last drop from the bottle, threw the top of the bottle into an already dirty ornamental stream before dropping the bottle at the side of the well trodden marble stones. The mother didn’t bat an eyelid, they didn’t stop, they didn’t care. The fact that there was a rubbish bin three of four paces ahead of them was of no concern. If this is how the most important historical building in the country is treated, it’s little wonder that acres of old courtyards in the city are being bulldozed to make way for high rise flats.

It will be interesting to see in 2008 when the city plays host to the Olympic Games if the new lick of paint and the removal (I hope) of some of the bright blue scaffolding will be enough to distract people from the sad feeling of the place. As it stands at the moment, without doubt the sheer scale of the complex is impressive, and there are well chosen photo opportunities that cut out the less desirable aspects of the place - but it is sad that it will never be preserved as it once was - the grandest palace in the world.

If anyone is thinking of going there - try to get your hands on the older version of the audio tour. We had the new automated one with a silly chinese bint who struggled to speak English. The old one is narrated by Roger Moore and we have been assured by people who have enjoyed the surreal experience that it is definitely worth the extra few minutes hunting around for it by the entrance to the city.

OK. Rant over.

In the above posts you can see what happens when tourists visit an active and revered place - proving that they can get it right from time to time! Beijing has a lot more to offer than the forbidden city.

Xi’an…pronounced “She-ann” for anyone who’s wondering…famous for terra-cotta warriors. An infinitely nicer city than Shanghai, and happily it had so much more to offer than just the terra cotta dudes.

There was the Hell of the Eight Wonders of the World, for a start.

Perhaps rather foolishly we trusted the Lonely Planet Guide to China, and booked ourselves on a tour in order to enjoy the splendor of the terra cotta warriors. We have since thrown the guide away. Burned it in a fit of fury, since EVERYTHING we have read in that damn book has either been misleading or just plain wrong. Ok, slight (only slight) exaggeration, but you’d think they’d get the main bits right. (After our success with the Japan version, we were quite surprised.)

I digress. The Tour. Well, although there’s lots to do within the city walls, it appears that the only attraction outside of the city walls to the east is the terra cotta party. And the tomb of the dude who had them built. The Eastern Tour took in no less than 7 “sights”. We were fully expecting some tourist traps. We weren’t expecting…

The Hell of the Eight Wonders of the World.

Which, unfortunately, will probably stick in my memory for far longer than the terra cotta dudes we paid so much to go and see…

So what was this “hell” all about, then? I mean, apart from the very apt spelling mistake at the gate to the complex.

Well…. it was a pyramid. Quite a large pyramid. In we went. And, Lo! A neon flashing burial chamber, a neon flashing Pharos, a neon flashing Statue of Zeus, a lovely little minature (neon flashing) Hanging Gardens of Babylon. You get the idea.

The astute of you will be wondering what the eighth wonder was. Actually, the more astute of you will already have sussed it.

A room full of fake terra cotta warriors.

Spangly, sparkly, dusty, fading gawdynes. I was about ready to put my foot through the wall by the end of it. And the best part of all, we were not allowed to take photos inside the complex. I don’t know if it was to stop the fake artwork from fading, or if it was to stop people copying the idea…

Anyway, because we went here, we only got 20 minutes at the burial mound of the emperor who had the terra cotta army made.

The moral of the story: take public transport.

Within the city walls of Xi’an there was a lot to explore, from the “Forest of Steles” (with beautiful grounds) to the Bell Tower and Drum Tower (with fabulous live performances of traditional Chinese music). We really enjoyed our time plodding the streets, exploring and bartering (very badly) with street traders.

Bartering. Something which both Tom and I are absolutely hopeless at.

Tom’s Method: Street trader suggests a price, Tom replies “yes, ok then” and pays up.
Adele’s Method: Assumes all street traders (and everyone else) are trying to rip us off, and flatly refuses to buy anything.

Actually, we make quite a good team. Especially if I’m holding most of the money!!!

The Muslim Quarter and Great Mosque were very interesting, and the Mosque looked especially striking and atmospheric in the rain. It actually rained for most of the time we were in Xi’an (not that that stopped us!), and it was COLD! (I’m talking 26′C cold! and after upwards of 35′C for a l o n g time, that’s cold!) We’ve been in hiking boots, trousers and jumpers. Shivering!

The interesting thing about most of the street food in Xi’an is the Muslim influence. We sampled a lot of the local food, and I have to admit, it was very good. It’s nice to be back in a country that does bread! (Japan has a lot of things to offer. Decent bread is not one of them.)

I’m leaving Xi’an with a great impression of the area, and some good memories. And a lasting image of the Hell of the Eight Wonders of the Wall emblazoned in my mind.

Tom’s leaving Xi’an having learned the difference between “message” and “massage”. It’s the prostitute I feel sorry for…

We have been battered with full blown sensory overload here in Shanghai over the past four days. Starting out with a mild navigational error , we walked for 4km or so in one of the slums of the city looking for our hotel, only to find it right next to the ferry terminal (which was unfortunately not marked on my map). oops! The experience was humbling, more than a little scary and above all pungent. Probably something to do with the mounds of rubbish rotting on street corners - bleugh!

Once we had found our room (dealing with some VERY rude staff at the hotel) we set out on our exploration of the city.

That was four days ago, and we have since witnessed first hand the amazing and terrible contradictions that make Shanghai what it is. One moment you can be strolling along the historic riverside promenade known as the Bund, home to banks, trading companies and fine hotels - the next you are picking your way through semi-demolished buildings reminiscent of a nuclear holocaust, home to some of the poorest citizens of the city.

It isn’t all bad, but it does make you think.

While experiencing all this, we pottered around the Yuyuan gardens, sipped jasmine teain a traditional tea house, pounded the streets of the Bund and the French Concession, watched the skyscrapers of Pudong light up as night fell and munched more delicious and wonderfully cheap chinese food than you could shake a sizeable twig at!

We are heading inland tomorrow - our train is bound for Xi’an, home to the terracotta warriors, numerous emperors of China and (for a few days) two rather smelly and grimey graduate-engineer-ex-teacher-travellers.

The only way to leave Japan after living there for so long: by boat! Well, it was definitely the right choice for us, anyway.

Two days at sea gave us the chance to sit back and reflect on our lives in Japan, and contemplate the adventures to come whilst watching the Land of the Rising Sun slipping out of view…

…one slight problem was that we sailed straight into the tail-end of a typhoon. The exact typhoon, in fact, we had so sucessfully run away from in Okinawa. Despite our parents’ worrying though, we were ok. The boat was lovely, and we were sharing a cabin with two very nice Swedish people!

Although the high seas seemed to affect most of the other people on the boat, Tom and I were fine. Ok, ok, so we felt a little woozy the first morning, but we took some “berry goodo” Japanese pills, and felt great…to the extent that we were the only two people sitting in the bar and drinking that evening. Our main problem was stopping the beer bottles sliding of the table…

When we woke up on the second morning the sea had calmed right down, and very soon we could smell Shanghai. The stench certainly gave us advanced warning, before the high rise tower blocks materialised out of the thick smog.

The hotel took some finding (thank god we packed light), and then we had money issues (having not been able to change money in Japan…on the boat…at the terminal)…but long story short, that has now been resolved, thanks to the Bank of China on the Bund! (A very impressive building).

Today has seen us trundling around Shanghai, trying to work out what we’re doing and where we’re going…seasoned travellers as yet we are not. It’s not like going on holiday…it’s not like living in a foreign country…still we’re here to learn…

yi, er, san, si, wu

see…I’m fluent already (!). Actually, Tom and I keep bursting out in Japanese, which isn’t helping matters…

Highlight of today: popping into the British Council, and reading some British magazines!!! (Well, it’s been a l o n g time!). The second best thing was a very tasty, and very spicey lunch. It’s great to finally be in a country where food doesn’t rely on “textures” rather than flavours. (mind you, give it a week and I’ll be craving Japanese food…)

So then… on with the warblings. (photos can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/cavegirl/)

The last few days have been filled with experiences we both will remember for some time to come, all of which can be divided into three clichéd (but quite apt) groups - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

THE GOOD
We are currently back on Ishigaki island after a fantastic few days island hopping.

We started with a gentle circuit around the narrow streets of Ishigaki town on rickety bikes from the campsite, sampling some of the local beer, some gorgeous asian food, some traditional Okinawan food and finally some Awamori (the local firewater that is more than a little potent!)

The next day, the turquoise blue ocean beckoned us over to the little island of Taketomi. This little lump of rock and coral has picturesque traditional buildings and coral walled roads criss-crossing the middle of the island, and is surrounded by some stunning beaches. We strolled through the village to one of these beauties, hired a parasol and set about enjoying the perfect weather and the clear clean sea.

Ah bliss!

Our third day down here saw the scenery pass by at a greater speed, on account of the funky car we hired for the day. Honestly, the thing had so many gadgets that Q would have been proud to put his name to it. My favourite was the GPS mounted in the dashboard, and the fact that at the flick of a switch the map screen could act as a TV was particularly cool! Cool gadgetery aside, the highlights of the trip were a glass bottomed boat tour of a lovely reef (in a picture-perfect bay), seeing the lighthouse at the most northern point of the island and watching the sun set on our own private beach - just the two of us and the sea.

Day four was “kick-back and relax” day. It began with a relaxed lunch (yes we had a bit of a lie-in) followed by another wander aound the streets of the town of Ishigaki. We helped the sun set with a few local brews at a roof-top “beer garden” and visited a few other establishments before packing our bags ready for an early start to the next island.

The next island goes by the name of Iriomote, and is almost entirely covered in vegetation - practically all of it is uninhabited. We stayed in a youth hostel on the north coast within striking distance of a lovely beach and numerous sites for adventure activities (eg. diving, kayaking, hiking and snorkelling). The first day we simply walked the length of the village (spaced out along a mile or so of coast) to the beach with it’s hermit-crab inhabitants.

Day two on Iriomote saw us hire a guide and kayaks for an hour of paddling up a mangrove lined river, before striking inland on foot for another hour. The landscape was amazing - exotic trees, funky insects and bright iridescent blue lizards, to name but a few. We reached our destination (a 50m waterfall with a pool of fresh, clear water large enough to swim in) around lunchtime and an hour before any other groups arrived. After a satisfying swim, a bite to eat and the obligatory photo, our guide led us back towards civilisation, whistling to the quiet mangroves.

As I type, our final day back on Ishigaki is drawing to a close, and we fly back to Osaka tomorrow with a bundle of memories, a few extra pounds (damn those beers) and a couple of big, smug, very relaxed grins!

THE BAD
The in the last post we were shocking you all with the news we were going to be under canvas for a grand total of four nights.

We managed to survive the grand total of one before heading to a cheap room over a bar. Yes, “pah - pathetic, pampered yellerbellies” I hear you scoff. Maybe I need to go into a few details.

1) The tent we rented was nicely set up under a solid black plastic cover, with very effective mosquito nets. The problem with black is that it tends to absorb heat rather than reflect it, while the problem with the mosquito net on this tents was that it seemed to also prevent air from getting into the tent - leaving us with the dilemma - insects or unbearable heat. hmmm.

2) The tent was, well, Japanese sized, meaning we couldn’t stretch our legs out - a problem when it’s baking hot!

3) We met some of the local wildlife in closer proximity than we would have liked. After having used the rather enclosed toilet facilities, Adele told me in a worried tone of voice to look inside the tiny room. Hmmm. Two rather large (10cm+), rather hairy spiders were staring at me with all their eyes.

4) In the shower the next morning, already a little jumpy after the arachnid experience the night before and no sleep due to the heat, we crept into a cubical. Thinking we were alone, Adele started to get ready to shower. I caught a glimpse of something and uttered some immortal words “Put your clothes back on” in as level a voice as I could. Yep. Another one of the giant hairy buggers had just started creeping down the wall, just next to a rather vunerable Adele!

5) No problem I thought - shower the bugger down the drain like any other spider. Ah. Even under the full power of this shower, the beast was able to walk through the deluge, up the wall to a safer cubical - got rid of it anyway! Unfortunately the water falling on the raised shower floor awoke some other residents - three huge crabs that chose that moment to stick eight legs up over the ledge next to my foot (legs that looked remarkably spideresque) - gah - too much wildlife when you’re naked!

The only other thing to fit into the “bad” section is typhoon number 9, on it’s way up to the island chain which means we have had to curtail our time here by a day in order to make it back to Osaka on time. That’s life I suppose - but we have certainly made the most of our time here!

THE UGLY
While on Taketomi, despite our best efforts to banish the evil henchmen of the sun, special agent UVA and his sidekick commander UVB managed to penetrate our defences and inflict some damage. Yes, we both have a bit of nice patchy sunburn. Not that we were ugly then (many people, especially in Japan like the colour pink), however now the colour has mellowed, the onset of peely skin has made our backs look a little worrying.

To add to my personal troubles, the evil agents left one last nasty surprise for me - they enlisted their undercover agent Mr H. who in turn caused the biggest outbreak of coldsores on my lower lip I have ever had the misfortune to see. They are healing nicely now, but for a while I was thinking of finding a swamp or a black lagoon to crawl into. Bah!

Well, this has turned into a mammoth post - if you made it this far, why not post a comment (by clicking on “comments” below in case you were wondering how!)

Until next time - let’s enjoy ferry crossing goodness!