meanderstravels

Tuesday we visited China Town in Brisbane to buy ingredients for our evening meal, which was going to be two recipes from our Thai Cookery Course. We cooked Panang Pork Curry and Chicken with cashew nut stir fry. Both successful. Least successful was parking in China Town costing 30 dollars, £20 for 1hour and 10 mins! Extortionate.
Wednesday Paul was under the weather, maybe it was our cooking! Actually think a bit of a bug from Elizabeth. I went out with Ann in the morning, whilst Dennis and Paul pruned the garden! The evening was Maddies grade 12 graduation. Very interesting with food served afterwards in their hall. We left there about 9.30 pm.
Thursday, we’ve been to Toowoonba, a town on the Great Dividing Range. Took us about 2 1/2 hours to get there. We went to a small complex with a few shops and cafes, very pretty. We were with Ann, Dennis and Emma. We had lunch at Picnic Point which had great views over the coastal plain. We walked around the area before the trip back.

Borrowed Dennis’s car and drove south down the coast to Byron Bay which took a couple of hours along the Pacific Highway. Chris and Martin, friends from Sydney/Nice, are staying there for a week so went down to see them. It’s a very popular place for the young backpacker and surfing types.

Great to unpack, catch up with the laundry etc. Irene in her element catching up with sister and all the family news. Chilling out after all the travelling. Thai restaurant meal Saturday night, BYO, very tasty.
All the Relies over on Sunday lunch for BBQ. Storms brewing !!

Off to vIsit Chris and Martin tomorrow at Byron Bay

Last day in HK. Flight at 7.15 pm so had an extended check out at 2.0 pm. Walked along the water promenade near hotel and through a very nice well maintained park. Sat around the pool for an hour before checking out. Had a sushi lunch before catching MTR to airport. 6 pm and waiting to board at 6.30.

Went to the specialised markets area of Mong Kok which is a short MTR ride from hotel.
Plants, flowers, birds, goldfish, fish and meat and of course the tacky street markets. Spent a couple of hours walking around and then caught MTR to Hong Kong Island to catch the cable tram to the Peak, a hill behind this part of the city. Great views over the city and harbour. Shattered walking for two days.

Caught the Metro direct to Hong Kong Island as we planned to do one of the designated street walks. The walk took along streets where traders were selling and wholesaling all sorts of dried products, mainly the expensive delicacies. Dried fish processed in a particular way that makes it very expensive. Birds nests, sea cucumbers, ginseng, reptiles, sea horses, chicken, fruit and nuts. Goodness knows who eats this stuff.
Other streets specialising in Chinese medicines, antiques and jade.
One thing there is not a lot of is old buildings, the whole place is “new”. We did come across a little Taoist Temple which is protected, incense being burned the whole time, great smell and atmosphere.
Decided to take the ferry across the bay to Kowloon for photo shoot of the Hong Kong Island skyline. Worn out and got the MTR back to hotel.
Hong Kong has Malls everywhere, there quality of construction, interior design and materials are fantastic. Shops within the malls are the same as anywhere though.
We love all the sky walkways where pedestrians have elevated walkways above the main streets, they all link with the malls, MTR stations, office blocks, banks and go on forever .

Up just after 4 am for 5 am pick up at hotel for transfer to Guilin Airport about and hour and ten minutes away. We arrived at the airport at about 6.15 to find a lot of people standing around outside, and soon realised that the airport was closed. Bizarre. Doors opened at 6.30 and the check in soon after. Guilin is a big airport with flights all over China. First flight out was 7.45 and ours was 8.00. We were upgraded to Business Class which meant more legroom and a curtained off compartment. Flight left a bit early and only took 50 mins to Shenzhen which is a huge airport.
Fifty minutes on a plane and 8 hours minimum on a bus, glad we decided to fly. Three metro rides, border control and coffee in Starbucks ( sorry Tom) and we checked into hotel about 4 hours after arrival at Shenzhen.
Great hotel, our room is on the 70th floor with a nice harbour view. A spot of sushi for lunch, a quick nap and we set off for Kowloon water front which is about a fifteen minute metro ride. Hung around for the laser light symphony looking across to Hong Kong Island. Not that great, the light show that is. It’s raining.

Apparently the Nina Tower where we are staying is the 7th tallest building in the world.

We’d decided on our last day in China to hire a car and driver and see some of the places it was too far to cycle to. We met Mark (English name) and set off at 11am. First stop was a tea farm about 30 mins away. We were first taken around the farm by Mark, showing us the tea terraces and walking through the farm.

Stunning scenery all day and it is very hard to capture with photographs

We were rubbish pickers as we had about three leaves in our basket, but some people from Hong Kong who are staying at our hotel had picked quite a pile. They are apparently going to share them with us later, when they put them in Soup or eggs! We’ll see what that’s like!
After picking we had a tea ceremony when they explained about teas as we tasted them. We ended up buying some of their own green tea!
From here we went to a view point overlooking the Li River. Bit of a hike up hill, but the view was worth it.

We kept meeting people from our hotel all day, spending the second half of it with a young German couple who’s own driver sadly did not speak English. From the viewing of the river we went to an old stone village. Mark took us around and explained quite a lot about the village. Bit like going through Coleford in the 15thcentury, but that’s how they were living now. Only the old folks are left, and some of them were as old as 70. Bit depressing on one level!

There is a huge area in these mountains that the villagers grow kumquat.They have only been growing these trees for the last ten years, the revenue apparently is vastly more than growing rice and they have therefore become comparatively very affluent. The groves don’t look very attractive because they cover all the trees in plastic for protection.

From here it was onto wait for the sunset over the Karsts. All together a really enjoyable day.

Supper at the hotel, going to taste what the Hong Kong folk have got for us. Off to Hong Kong tomorrow.
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We are a couple of whimps because we decided we could not face the 7 to 8 hour bus journey to Guangzhou and then probably another 3 hours to get into Hong Kong from there and then finding our hotel arriving very late in the evening. So, we are flying instead as there is an airport in Guilin which is an hour and half away from Yangshuo. The flight time is one hour ten minutes, the only down side is that it is an 8.00 am flight out of Guilin which means a 5 am leave from the hotel.

Another day cycling. We’re really enjoying being out in the countryside away from most tourists. Each day we talk to the staff at the hotel and they help us sort out the route that we’ve chosen. Today we started at a village we’d missed yesterday, a couple of km’s up the road. It was a Ming Dynasty Village, probably a lot less Ming than Coleford! It was interesting to watch a man spreading out rice to dry in his front yard with a wooden rake. Also saw a couple of blokes up to their thighs in mud catching fish from ponds. They had scales, weighed them and sold them. Very fresh!

From here we returned towards our hotel, but crossed the river and cycled through farm land and villages. We reckon we’ve cycled 20km today, a lot of it on unmade roads. Bit of a massage, and the bottom was glad to get back!

We lunched at Moon Hill Cafe on steamed mushroom and Pak choy with rice, then cycled back.

Taking the shuttle bus into Yangshou at 5pm to have a beer, wander and probably stay for dinner

Another day spent on the bikes and on the river Yu Long. Hotel mapped an off the beaten track route for us to end up at the “quay” on the river to pick up a bamboo raft to be punted down the river.
We cycled through small villages, paddy fields, orange groves and small farmsteads. All the villages had lots of building works going on creating new and more modern housing and possibly knocking down the delightful old and characterful, but not functional, houses. But, nothing seems to get properly finished, lots of them in varying stages of construction and not being lived in. Yet, they seem to be building more and more. This seems to be the case in the existing cities and the “new cities” that just spring up out of nowhere, blocks and blocks of multi storey buildings and new wide roads which appear to be empty.

Having spent two and a half hours on our cycling tour, which we took quite casually because the scenery, although a bit misty, was stunning, we managed to find the spot to pick up our raft for the trip down river.
It’s quite organised because our bikes are transported to the place we end up.
The trip lasted about two hours, just floating down this very peaceful river surrounded by magical scenery.

We are are the top,5th, floor and have a lovely view from the balcony.
A very simple rural life going on around us. It’s delightful for us but not so sure it’s great for some of “them”

Gosh it’s Halloween back home.

The way to see Yangshuo and the surrounding villages is by bike and rafting on the Li River and the Yu Long river, which is the nearest to our hotel.
Today we took bikes from the hotel and cycled into Yangshuo town which is about 3 km. The town has its tourist district so we headed for that. Lots of restaurants and shops and cobbled streets and little lakes. The main road “West Street” leads down to the Li River.
Yangshuo is a tourist destination, mainly for the Chinese, although there are quite a few Europeans around. As we have found for ourselves it is not the easiest place to get to, so is not really on the map for most European tour operators, which is ok by us.

The attraction to this part of China are the limestone “Karsts” which were formed in the same way as Halong Bay in Vietnam but these are on land not out at sea.

Headed out of town to find the scenic route back to the hotel along the Yu Long river. Bums really sore now but made it back ok.

Up early as we are not too sure to where we should catch a bus. Two options, Guilin, a big town about an hour from where our hotel for next few nights is situated or Yangshuo where we are actually staying. Info and travel forums on the internet varies a lot. Buses to Guilin are every half hour ( amazing considering it is a 430 km journey) and start at Langdong bus station we think, which is five minute from our hotel, which is why we chose it. Some info states that these buses start at another station. We also think it might be possible to get a direct bus from Nanning to Yangshuo which would be great but these are less frequent. Some forums and info dispute that there is a direct bus. Before breakfast we head for the concierge who has good English and is really helpful. After a few phone calls she confirms that there are four buses direct to Yangshuo, 10.00 and 11.00 plus two in the afternoon.
Downed a quick breakfast and headed for the bus station to find the normal manic situation. Millions of people going somewhere. Queued for ticket( had most info we needed written in Chinese, no hope in English at the bus station) but could only get on the 11.00, so had to hang around for hour and half. For the last two days on our travels we have not come across a single Western person. We are not on the normal “backpacking” trail, even they don’t come this way. Are we mad?
Five and a half hour journey and arrived in Yangshuo. A few taxi touts around so phoned hotel and they spoke to a taxi driver on our behalf.
Had a nice dinner at our rustic “Tea Cosy Hotel”and as usual ordered too much.
The last two days of bus journeys have been great fun but have caused quite a few moments of anxiety and we are both pleased that we only have one more bus and train trip left which will be to Hong Kong.

We left Hanoi on the 9.30am bus to Nanning in China. We understood from the travel agent who sold us the tickets that this would be the same bus all the way to Nanning. The scenery started a bit dull, but by the time we reached the border we decided we’d seen some of the prettiest scenery in Vietnam. Tiers of rice paddies through the hills, really lovely.

We arrived at the border 3 hours later, took our luggage off and took an electric car to Vietnamese passport control. Passed through there without mishap and then dragged our luggage up and down hills and slip ways to the Chinese passport control. Again no problems, THEN we look for our bus. A little Vietnamese man, who was on our bus, kept beckoning us to follow him. We hovered around for several minutes before we decided to follow other travellers down hill and dale. There was absolutely nothing in English, very few people had any English and we were the only non Asians we’d seen so far today. Eventually, Paul was wandering around a car/ bus park looking for our bus, I was guarding the luggage, when someone said ‘Nanning’to us and pointed at a building. We looked inside and found a waiting room. Two people here were able to help us with a little English, apparently we didn’t take the same bus, now we would be on a Chinese bus, pink, not green they said laughing at us! Now I had lost my reading glasses and neck rest, both left on the old bus, which I was going to collect when I got back on it! Also left the food that we’d bought for the trip! Live and learn! Now we had another 3 hours on a new bus to Nanning.

We arrived in Nanning at 6pm, tried to get a taxi to our hotel! That was a bit hectic. In the end I asked some girls who were doing a promotion outside a shop if any of them spoke English. One girl was very helpful and after about 20 mins we found a taxi. We didn’t have a clue where we were going. Nanning is a huge city, and still we were the only non Asians. After 15 mins in the taxi and a fare of £3, we arrived at our hotel. The Grand Soluxe Nanning. Our room was enormous and the bed must have been 8” wide.

We ate in the hotel, as we were too tired to venture out

Our last day in Hanoi, and therefore Vietnam. We were at a bit of a loss what to do as we understood that the National Museums/galleries were closed today. Anyway we opt for a walk around the lake. I saw that there was a Catholic Cathedral nearby and Hoa Lo Prison. We wander off in search of these. We find the Cathedral first which is open everyday between 9-12am and 2-5pm, good news, BUT at 11.00am it’s closed! A few photos of the outside, looks a bit worse for wear, but that’s common in Vietnam, where buildings grow black mould in the humid atmosphere.

From here we went to Hoa Lo prison, built by ‘The French Colonialists’ in 1886, to house communist sympathisers of Ho Chi Minh. The Vietnamese propanda machine is in full flow, and the anti French rhetoric goes on and on. It does flow into anti Japanese and then of course the US. Actually it was very interesting and quite well laid out, if a bit heavy on the antis. The North Vietnamese did, according to the info, treat the American Pilots they shot down very well!!

After this we managed a little lunch near the Cathedral. We then set off to find Coffee Street. It seems to us that each street in The Old Quarter, specialises in a product. We’ve seen silk street, cotton street, stainless steel street, Bamboo street, sun glasses street and coffee street. The trouble is we couldn’t find coffee street again! Don’t know where they’ve put it! We’ll have another look tonight when we go out to eat. Quite fancy The Orchid, which is also a cookery school. They can usually be relied on to provide tasty food and use hygiene!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Vietnam especially this manic City of Hanoi, one has to see it to believe it.