Sailing

Sailing: the fine art of getting wet and becoming ill while slowly going nowhere at great expense.

Monday 24 June 2013

Lijiang and Shangri-la

While in Yangshou we heard about a town in China called Shangri-la.  How could the members of the Shamballa Cruising Yacht Club not seek out Shangri-la?  So yet another change of plans and long train travel to northwest Yunnan province. 

On the way we stopped a few days in Lijiang.  A beautiful old town packed with thousands of Chinese tourists.  While walking around we kept getting the feeling that we were in a Disney theme park and were never sure if the locals in their ethnic dress were real locals going about their everyday business or on the payroll to entertain the tourists.  We found out that our suspicions were correct.  About 20 years ago this ancient town was severely damaged by an earthquake and the Chinese government had it totally rebuilt as an example of an ancient town of the region.  Apparently a large proportion of the local Naxi people moved out afterwards.  Still we were able to find some Naxi culture like this fantastic Naxi orchestra. Ancient musicians (most were in their 80's and 90's) playing 1000 year old music on traditional instruments.



And the Naxi museum which had old manuscripts of the dongba language, a pictorial script similar to hieroglyphics.

Dongba writing
But Shangri-la awaited us aging hippies.  We searched high in the mountains...
View from the top of Shika Mountain (~14,500 ft)

And all over the town....

Shangri-la Town

Throughout the valleys.....


Consulted the monks high and low

Monk on Shika Mountain


Songzanlin Monastery




And finally we found it - the elixir of youth!



After several bottles of this Bob has been transformed.


Guilin and Yangshou



Relaxing in Luang Praphang, Laos catching up on the blog after 3 weeks in China.  What a great decision to come to Guilin and China!  China is booming.  It just exudes vibrancy.  
The scenery around Guilin is breathtaking.  On our first day we took a walk around Elephant Hill Park.
Elephant Hill Park
 
Cormorant Fishing

 
Dressing up for holiday snaps


In the evening we took the Two Rivers, Four Lakes boat cruise.  The entire waterfront has been made into wonderful walking parks and lit up in the evening making for a spectacular cruise.  The Chinese do parks very well.
Guilin at night

 
Pagodas in Guilin
    The next day we went to the country side to the Longji rice terraces.

Longi Rice Terrace

Cultivating the steep terraces
The next day was a raft trip on a 'bamboo' (read poly pipe) raft down the Li River to Yangshou.  Stunning sights and the iconic beautiful scenery is on the 20 yuan note.



While in Yangshou we rented a bicycle and rode around country side.  Fantastic to be able to have our own transport and stop wherever we wanted, but a bit crazy in 35 degree heat.  By the end of the 4 hour ride Eileen was looking decidedly like a beet root.


Eileen by the Li River 

Bob on the bike

The lovely thing about China is that there are Chinese tourists, unlike Indochina where the majority of tourists are Westerners with a few Malaysians and Chinese.  Here in China, the majority of tourists are Chinese and Westerners are very few.  So we are seeing the sights the Chinese go to and can afford to go to.

Friday 21 June 2013

Slow Boat (train) to China



After a few days in Hanoi and planning our next move, Bob and I were feeling a bit like tourist sheep on the prescribed tourist trail – do Hanoi, then Halong Bay, then the hill tribes in Sapa.  So impulsively based on a recommendation from a chance encounter with an Indonesian tourist (plastic surgeon from Jakarta) we decided to skip Halong Bay and go to Guilin in China.  

After a bit of background internet research we went off to the train station to buy tickets.  Given the price of the tickets and our internet research we were expecting a fairly nice train (perhaps an up-market soft sleeper).  According the ‘Man in seat 61’ website the M1 train to China is an express that runs only Monday and Fridays and quite comfortable with special carriages.  We booked the Friday express but when we were hustled into our train which consisted of only one carriage(no different than the other very basic Vietnamese carriage we had from HCMC to Danang) and the engine, 5 crew members and only two other passengers (Vietnamese/Chinese) we were wondering if perhaps we had been set up for kidnapping by a white slave trading triad.  

The 5 crew members provided absolutely no services and played Ma Jong all night or slept in the empty compartments.  There wasn’t even any hot water in the machine for our reserve supply of pot noodles.  So dinner that night consisted of some cashew nuts and crackers we had in our bags.

At around 11 pm we arrived at the border crossing town of Dong Dang and realised that the reason the tickets were so expensive was that we were really getting the Red Carpet treatment.  As we were getting off the train, the filthy tattered red rubber matting on the floor was being rolled up no longer needed for the local run back to Hanoi!  The other two passengers on the train were locals and exited the station while we were ushered into a massive and totally empty station with two border guards to check our passports.  Suddenly we were in a Le Carre novel and this was Checkpoint Charlie.  

We made it through, no guns or manacles and were ushered into the Chinese train.  This had three carriages but also was totally empty.  The carriages were the same make as the Vietnamese carriages but these were clean, well maintained and fitted out with pretty curtains (all sparkling clean) and real carpet (but not red).  There was an initial check of passports and visas then we were told our passports would be stamped about an hour into China.  So around 12.30 am we entered, again a totally empty station, a very official looking uniformed officer closely inspected our passports, rubbing the pages between his fingers to test the paper (my passport was all wrinkled from water damage suffered during Songkran in Chang Mai three years ago) and took them away for about 45 minutes.  Was he calling the Australian Embassy to check our bone fides?  Finally our stamped passports were returned and we were on our way – a whole train essentially to ourselves. 

We arrived at Nanning at 5.30 am, a clean and modern station with electronic automatic flushing squat toilets.  We were lead to and locked into a massive, but totally empty marble lined waiting room with about 100 overstuffed chairs, garden atrium with fish pond and Chinese morning tv news.  There we waited by ourselves with the occasional train official walking by ignoring us.
Locked waiting room at  Nanning Train Station

 
Marble lobby of Nanning Train Station

The empty waiting room Nanning Train Station

After about 1 ½ hours waiting we were lead back to our train which had gone from 3 empty carriages to 16 moderately full carriages.  We had tried to get some Chinese RMB in Hanoi but none of the banks we went to had any.  We had read that we could get Chinese Yuan at Nanning so figured we get some there at the train station ATM during our stop over.  But as we were locked into the waiting room we couldn’t check the station for ATMs and it was too early for the banks to open.  So even though this train had a food car and services we had no money to buy anything.  The train did have hot water machines so our standby supply of pot noodles could be used and our tummies didn’t rumble too much.

Five hours to go to Guilin and the scenery was spectacular - Limestone karsts jutting out of lush verdant fields of rice, corn and sugarcane.  We were getting good feelings about China.







Saturday 1 June 2013

Hanoi Hilton


On Monday the 27th May we caught the 5pm overnight train to Hanoi.  The only available tickets were the top bunks of a six bunk ‘hard sleeper’ compartment.  The top bunks were above my head and had so little head room that it was impossible to sit up and the width of the bunk was such that if I lay flat on my back and my arms at side, my fingers hung over the edge of the concrete like mattress.  So after 12 hours in these conditions I must admit I was feeling a bit stiff and sore the next day.  Bob said he slept fine which I can confirm by the loud snores I heard all night – not sure what the other 5 Vietnamese passengers thought of this!  (Yes one bunk had two people in it – an adult and a 4 year old.)

So bleary eyed at 5.30 am we stumbled out of Ga Ha Noi and to our surprise the hotel we had booked had someone to greet us.  He didn’t actually take us to the hotel but got us a taxi, then rode his motorbike ahead of the taxi to the hotel to then lead us down the back alleys to the hotel entrance.  The hotel, The Splendid Jupiter, turned out to be the nicest one we have stayed in so far and only $24 per night.    We found out that the owner of our hotel is a 28 year old man who came from the country to Hanoi 11 years ago and now owns 4 hotels.

As our room wasn’t ready for us at 6am, we left our bags at the hotel and walked around Hoam Kiem Lake, a big parkland in the middle of the city.  The place was teeming with people walking, exercising, doing Tai Chi or group aerobics to music, fan dancing, ball room dancing – every aspect of life on full view with no apparent self-consciousness or need for privacy.  All this happening before I am usually out of bed!

Early morning aerobics at  Hoam Kiem Lake, Hanoi

Needing a caffeine hit around 7am we stopped at a cafĂ© for a Vietnamese coffee – thick, strong with sweetened milk on the bottom.  Sitting across the street was this wonderful old ‘patriot’, a 90 year old man who fought in the Indochina wars.  He was sitting on one of the ubiquitous little plastic chairs watching the comings and goings of the neighbourhood with a far off look in his eyes (no doubt thinking of his days on the HCM trail fighting the Imperialist aggressors) 

The old patriot

until his daughter helped him slowly walk back to the house around 8 am.
  


We made a print of the first photo and gave it to his daughter the next day.

Later in the afternoon after freshening up we started the tourist rounds.  First we went off to the Hao Lo Prison, the infamous Hanoi Hilton that McCain was in.  Most of the exhibit talked about the French imprisoning the 'patriots and revolutionaries' but then there was a few rooms exhibiting artifacts when the prison was used to imprison the American pilots with pictures of McCain and others.  Lots of patriotic language / propaganda but I could see a similar exhibit extolling the virtues of the American founding fathers.  I suppose it is all a matter of perspective and which side one is on.

Hao Lo Prison under the French
 
The next day Bob came down with Ho’s revenge – probably as punishment for all his irreverent remarks against Uncle Ho, so a quiet day resting.  In the evening, for my birthday, we went to the Water Puppet performance. 
 

Fantastic!  A must see if in Vietnam.  I was especially struck by the orchestra playing traditional Vietnamese instruments.  The Dan Bau had the most exquisite and haunting sound.

The next day we did more Uncle Ho things – The Mausoleum and museums.  It was all very formal at the Mausoleum.  We had to march pass very solemn, no pausing, keep in line, guards everywhere ensuring everyone is respectful and keeps moving and not straying away from the designated There was a dress code as well - no knees or shoulders showing.  Must say Ho was looking quite pasty having been dead for over 40 years. They really deify him which ironically is exactly what Ho did not want.
 
Ho's Mausoleum