Thailand - Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong

I spent the morning doing very little, as I needed to wait for a minibus to pick me up at noon for the trip to the Lao border. I went to be bookstore to trade a book in, and had lunch at the guest house. The green chicken curry was superb. My bus was forty-five minutes late, but since I was the last to be picked up, I got to sit up front, which was nice. The drive was quite nice, as we went through verdant countryside filled with pleasant villages. Thai sttlements aren't hideous like those in China, and feature nice wood homes. We stopped twice. First at a rest stop where I bought some overpriced nuts, and second at a market where I bought some pineapple slices. Finally at about six we arrived at the guest house that is a part of the package. The room is a bit mediocre, and has no bathroom or air-con, but it should suffice for the night. At least the place has a nice view over the Mekong. The dinner provided was a surprisingly good buffet, with particularly good chicken curry.

Thailand - Trekking

After a small but nice breakfast of fruit at the guesthouse, I took a little walk to look at a couple of wats. The first one I arrived at was interesting, and had a large stupa. You have to take off your shoes to enter. One of the buildings was over 500 years old and had some lovely murals on the walls. I got picked up at 9:30. There were three other people from my guesthouse going on the trek, and we stopped to pick up more people in the city, including four Dutch, three Israelis and two Brits. We were in a rather uncomfortable vehicle consisting of two flat benches on the back of a truck with a roof. We drove for a while through the Thai countryside, and stopped at a market to get snacks. By this time I was hungry, and so I got a snack of some deep-fried things in a banana leaf. They were quite good. I used the bathroom at the market and was amazed at how clean it was - a great contrast to China's disgusting toilets. Tons of tourists passed through the market at around the same time as us.

Eventually we arrived at our destination, a small village in a valley. Our first activity was taking an oxcart around for a short trip. I was unfortunately put in the front and had to watch the bovines defecate and piss inches away from my body. It was a rather unpleasant experience. Next, we had lunch after walking through some rice fields to a hut. We were served Pad Thai and fruit, a very pleasant meal. After our meal we were taken on an elephant ride which was very interesting. The elephant took us through a stream and ate tons of foliage along the way. The 'driver' of the elephant used a cane-like stick to prod the elephant into moving. After dismounting the elephant, it was time to hike! We walked through the village and turned onto a path that started out paved and but gradually became more trail like. The heat was oppressive and in no time , my shirt was wet with sweat. The jungle was very interesting, with nice foliage, but I was disappointed not to see any wildlife. At one point a lizard landed on my neck, but that was it. The hike was grueling, as it was uphill and the air was sweltering. Finally we arrived at a bat cave and went inside. The air was nice there as it was cooler and there no mosquitoes. I saw one bat hanging from the top of the cave. The bat cave was at the top of the mountain, and the hiking afterwards began going through cultivated land, until we arrived at the village at around five in the afternoon. This village was inhabited by the Hmong people, who are originally from China, and look Chinese. Our accommodation was a large hut in which everyone in our trekking group would sleep together. Surprisingly, the toilets were clean and there were even showers (albeit cold ones). The guide informed us that there was nearby waterfall with a swimming hole . Since dinner would not be served for at least a couple of hours, we decided to go down for a swim. We went down a muddy path, and were disappointed to see that the 'swimming' hole was not adequate for swimming. The pool had been artificially created by a small dam and did not have adequate drainage. The pool was filled with dirt and sediment and was disgusting. We returned to the camp and saw that the second group of trekkers had arrived. Since I couldn't clean myself in at the waterfall, I had a cold shower back at the hut. Among them were two Slovenians. I had never met a Slovenian before, and they seemed pleasant enough. After sitting for a while, dinner was finally served, a green curry and stir-fried vegetables. For desert was fresh fruit. After dinner, sleep came quickly, as I was exhausted from the hike.

The next day I woke up early and read my book for an hour before breakfast. For breakfast we had eggs, toast and fruit. They also provided tea and coffee. We left at around nine, and took the same path to the waterfall before continuing through the jungle. A couple of hours later we arrived at another waterfall, which had a natural pool and was quite pleasant. After chilling for a while, we continued on until we reached a dirt road which we followed until arriving at another hut that was playing loud karaoke music. There, we had a lunch of fried rice, and waited until our transportation picked us up. We were then taken to do our whitewater rafting down a slow moving river. It was quite fun really, although we got very wet as other boats splashed water at us. The river was quite slow so we got stuck a few times as well. Upon arriving at the end of the rafting, we sat in a hut for a while and I purchased a mediocre ice cream. We were then taken to another hill tribe village, where I bought some cheap gifts from an old lady and took her picture. About an hour later I was dropped off at my guest house and wandered around trying to find a restaurant. I stumbled across a nearly empty but extremely delicious place where I ordered green papaya salad and pad seew. It was absolutely delicious and cost less than two dollars! Since Chiang Mai is renowned for its night market, I decided to check it out after eating. It was raining, but the rain was a pleasant respite from the oppressive heat. The market had a lot of fake stuff, like those in China. I bought a new wallet to replace my own, which was falling apart. I also bought some other small gifts. I returned to my guest house, read a bit, and then went to bed.

Thailand - Day 1 - Flights

I decided not to sleep on Friday night because I had to leave at five in the morning for my flight. I actually was less tired than expected, and didn't fall asleep in the taxi on the way to the airport. My flight left from the spectacular new Terminal 3 at Beijing Airport. It is the biggest terminal in the building and it really shows, with huge ceilings and open space everywhere. I was a bit afraid that my award ticket didn't assign to business class, but my fears were unfounded. I checked in smoothly at the Thia Airways counter. Shortly after checking in, I realized I left my contact lens solution in my carry-on! Realizing how stupid I was, I had to get it put into a box and check it in by itself. After that fiasco, I headed off to the departure area. Before even going through security I went on a train ride to the 'E' section of the airport. There, I went through security. I was extremely irritated at the Chinese immigration officer who stamped my passport on a blank page. This means I only have four pages left in which to get any future visas! I will have to go through the hassle of getting a passport before this one expires if I go to many more visa-issuing countries. Once past security, I went to the lounge, which was located on the upper level of the terminal. It was the biggest lounge I've ever seen. The breakfast was not open when I arrived at around 6:15, so I had to wait a few minutes for the food to come out. The breakfast was rather mediocre though, which is surprising considering how comfortable the rest of the lounge was. The only edible thing in the breakfast was the zhou, which left me hungry. I had a tea while I waited for my flight to begin boarding at 8:00. I was saddened to board the plane and discover that it was ancient. The business class seats were barely more comfortable than most economy seats. However, I did get an amenity kit, which delighted me as I need a new toilet bag , and it is quite nice. I was also served a glass of champagne, which to my chagrin, ended up spilling. For breakfast, I was served a fruit plate to begin, which was lovely, and then chose the noodles for a second course, which were so-so. Service was quite good though, with attentive stewards offering drinks every so often. Despite my lack of sleep, I only managed to nap for a little over an hour, and was sore when I woke up, due to the uncomfortable seats.

I arrived a bangkok and progressed quickly through immigration, although I was annoyed at being stuck in a slow lineup. I had to check in for my flight to Chiang Mai because I bought that ticket, and did not use points as I should have. I had a four hour layover in the airport in Bangkok. I discovered on arrival that I had left my book on the plane, so I decide to buy one from a book store to ensure I would not be bored to tears. I wanted Thia food for lunch, so I went to an overpriced restaurant at the airport and had a rather mediocre meal. Still it only cost the equivalent of five dollars. After my lunch I headed off to my gate. For some reason, every gate had its own security, which meant I could not bring any water with me on the plane! This was because there no shops selling anything past security. The plane was a much newer 777 which was more comfortable than the ancient A300 I flew on earlier in the day. My flight was delayed by around half an hour, and I got into Chinag Mai at around 6:45.

I arrived at my guest house, The Green Tulip, at 7:15 and checked in without problems. I asked the lady about trekking and she informed me that there was one spot in a two-day trek leaving the next day (Sunday), and that she would give me a discount if I signed up. I did, even though I had wanted an opportunity to look around the city first. I was also annoyed to discover that the internet was broken a the guesthouse. No checking any messages or informing people of my safe arrival. I went to bed quite early as a result of my tiredness and slept very well.

Wutaishan - Day 1

I took advantage of a reading week before finals to take a trip to Wutaishan, China’s most sacred Buddhist mountain. Although it is geographically close to Beijing, the geography is not conducive to transportation, and so getting there required me to either go through Datong or Taiyuan. I decided to go through Taiyuan, as it had more frequent busses to Wutaishan, and I was able to take an overnight train. I bought a soft sleeper even though I don’t think they are much more comfortable than hard sleepers (they are actually the same hardness – hard). But, I like the privacy they offer as you can close and lock your door as well as turn of the lights, which you can do in hard sleeper. I was in a compartment with three Chinese businesspeople that were quite considerate of me. When I went to bed but they wanted to keep talking, they turned out the lights, which was nice. Overall, I slept quite well and arrived in Taiyuan feeling reasonable. When I arrived, I immediately went to the ticket office and purchased a ticket for the return journey. My line-up moved really slowly, and I had to switch. To my horror, they had run out of sleepers on the train leaving two days later, and so I ended up buying a hard seat for the night! This would not be a pleasant journey. After buying my ticket, I caught a cab to the bus station, where I just managed to get the 8:40 bus to Wutaishan.

According to my guide book, the bus ride was supposed to take 3-4 hours. Of course, I knew my guidebook was not reliable in terms of time when the 5 hour bus ride from Taiyuan to Beijing to eight hours. This bus ride was no different. In addition to sitting in the train station parking lot for an hour after it left the bus station, many of the roads were under construction, and we had to divert onto dirt roads which were horribly muddy due to the rain. On the bus, a man moved back to talk to me. He was rather difficult to understand due to his accent, and our conversation didn’t get very far. It took six hours to get there. Once we got out of the valley and started moving into the mountains, the scenery became quite beautiful and the pollution decreased. At the top of a particularly windy stretch of road that included many switchbacks we reached the entrance to the Wutaishan scenic area. The bus driver told everyone to get out, because we had to pay an entrance fee before going further. There was another foreigner on the bus who didn’t speak any Chinese, so I told him what to do. I managed to guess that he was from Austria due to his accent. He was quite impressed. The windy descent continued pas a few temples until we finally reached Taihuai village, which is at the foot of a valley, and contains mostly hotels.

At the bus station I spoke to the Austrian and suggested we stay together, which he agreed to. After getting off the bus we were accosted by some people wanting to have us stay in their hotel. Since the Austrian was quite cheap, I decided to go cheap myself after they said the room would cost approximately 100 kuai for the two of us. I’m actually glad we went with them, because they had a car that drove us into the center of the village. Their hotel was a few rooms next to a restaurant. While not great as a hotel, and having hot water only in the evening, it was cheap, and clean, and had a somewhat decent bathroom. Often in Chinese hotels, the room will look great until you open the door to the bathroom, and see the horrors that lurk within. We bargained them down a bit and took the room for two nights. It was already three in the afternoon, but many temples awaited us.

The hotel was located right next to a hill with a temple at the top. I like climbing hills so, ignoring the people who wanted us to ride their horses up the hill, walked up. At the top there was tacky sort of temple next to the cable-car station, the preferred route of most of the Chinese tourists to get to the top. Further up was a bigger temple, called the Dailuoding Temple. There were lots of people there, but the temple was nothing too exciting. From the top of the hill there was a lovely view of the town, in particular, the Great White Pagoda that towers over the town. Afterwards, we went down the hill and headed across the river towards the pagoda. Before getting to the temple with the pagoda, we first saw two other temples. A large temple, called the Xiantong temple was the more impressive one. It had a huge Ming Dynasty Hall called the Beamless Hall which was made of bricks. This is the first time I have seen a temple building built entirely of bricks, usually mostly wood is used. In addition, behind the Beamless hall was a large copper pagoda, which had a nice design, but looked a bit tacky due to the golden paint. Following this temple, we finally went in to the temple featuring the giant pagoda. There were lots of prayer wheels in the temple, and we even saw a service taking place, in which many yellow robed monks were chanting. Inside this temple there a special courtyard dedicated to Mao’s visit to Wutaishan in 1948. I find it quite ironic that they are celebrating Mao here when he was responsible for the destruction of many of the temples in the area! I quickly stopped by one final temple before going to dinner with the Austrian. We ate vegetarian, because the Austrian didn’t eat meat, but even so it was quite a satisfying especially since I hadn’t really eaten all day. As we were both tired we went to bed a little early at around 9:30.

Unusual Food

I have been enjoying some strange food in China. I particularly enjoy trying strange types of meat. Dog is one such meat that many people know is eaten by the Chinese and Koreans. I had the pleasure of trying Dog a couple of months ago and it was quite good. I had dog ribs. The bones are actually extremely soft, so you can eat them. The dogs apparently weigh ten kilograms.

There is a famous Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing called 'Chuan Ju De'. While more famous for its duck, they also had Deer Penis soup on the menu. We ordered this because some others also wanted to try it. It was overall quite tasty. The penis was cut into very thin pieces.

On Sunday I tried frog at a Hunanese restaurant. It was extremely good, although a bit boney. It was sort of like a mix between fish and meat. You could tell by looking at the meat that it was different, as there were large veins visible. I'm also very keen to try cat, but I hear that is only available in the south.

Taiyuan

On our final day of travel, we got up very early and were out the door by seven in the morning. Because there were no train tickets available, and no bus to Beijing leaves from Pingyao, we had to go to regional transportation hub, Taiyuan, to get back to Beijing. We managed to get a bus quite easily from the bus station, but the trip to Taiyuan took longer than expected due to very bad traffic in the city. Upon arrival in Taiyuan, we tried to get bus tickets to Beijing were told that we had to switch to a different bus station. At the next bus station we bought our Beijing tickets for 1:30 so that we would have enough time to go to the museum, which martin was very keen to see. Overall, Taiyuan is a reasonably pleasant city (as far a Chinese cities go), but was very smoggy. On our way to the museum, we passed the coal mining museum of China. The Shanxi Provincial museum is brand new, and unlike the other two provincial museums we went to (Henan and Shaanxi) there was no massive lineup. We got our free ticket and went right in. The museum was very well presented and is the best museum I have seen in China. Unfortunately the best exhibit, about architecture, did not have any English captions. We had a quick lunch after the museum, and hopped on the bus. For a snack, I bought some delightful spicy baozi. For the entire eight-hour bus ride they showed dreadful movies full of murder and torture. We got into Beijing at nine in the evening.

Qiao Family Compound and Pingyao - Day 3

This was our extra day in Pingyao, so we went at a rather leisurely pace. I slept in until nearly eight (we had been getting up at seven most mornings), and everyone was up by nine. After everyone was ready we headed to the bus station to catch a bus to the Qiao family courtyard, about forty minutes away. The Qiao family courtyard is where the film 'Raise the Red Lantern' was filmed, and it apparently it has some quite stunning architecture. The bus we caught was full, and so we were given fold up seats and sat in the aisle. This is standard practice in China, despite the obvious safety violations. We had to take a bus bound for Taiyuan and get the driver to drop us off at the courtyard. It was pretty obvious when we had arrived, as there was a giant parking lot and lots of red lanterns. The walk to the courtyard itself was swarming with tourist vendors and tourist restaurants. The courtyard is apparently very popular with Chinese tourists. Despite it being nearly noon, we decided to have lunch on the way out and get a snack. We bought some more of those peanut butter things that they had been selling in Pingyao. They are flattened by strong men hammering them into shape. It was interesting to watch. The courtyard itself was actually very small, and was absolutely packed with tourists. At some points it was difficult to even move. It was quite a beautiful structure though, with a total of six courtyards and a large garden. We finished looking through it in just over an hour, and as we came out it started to rain. We sought refuge in a tourist restaurant. Unfortunately, the food was dreadful . We ordered some soup, and it was very sour. After bad experiences with bones and chicken it was normal practice for us to ask if a dish had bones in it prior to ordering. We decided to take a gamble here and order something called 红烧鸡块。 The name is ingrained in my mind due to the horror of the dish. When it came we were unpleasantly surprised to discover the chicken foot on top and a near total absence of meat. It was simply disgusting. We were so unsatisfied with lunch, that we had to get an ice cream afterwards to satiate our hunger. We then went to the roadside and hailed a bus bus back to Pingyao. It was almost completely empty, so we had a reasonably comfortable trip back.