'Hello, Rickshaw!' - Agra & Khajuraho

From Haridwar it was a very long and slow train ride down to Agra, which seemed to be stopped more than it was moving... this being compounded by the fact that our somewhat cushy 3AC seats had been double booked resulting in our beds being overloaded with people and luggage (one person's requiring two porters to carry it all on). Seems these were yet more 'welcome to India' experiences after having arrived from China where the trains run with perfect Communist efficiency, all to within a minute of their schedule.

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The Taj

The Taj Mahal is one of those places you have seen images of a million times, so it is somewhat surprising that when you see it in the flesh for the first time it is still awe inspiring. This is perhaps also due to the fact that you are not really sure what it is about the building that makes it so impressive, but it just makes such a grand impression on you.

Something else which makes a grand impression on you is the smell of hundreds of feet was you walk inside the Taj in your socks. Such a grand impression in fact, that we made a very quick exit and agreed to admire it from the outside.

Indian woman at the Taj Mahal

Of course the beauty of the building is a photographers dream and those that way inclined amongst us went a little crazy taking the same shot some 20 or so times as the light may have become marginally better. Although the white marble certainly makes the best back drop for all the colourful saris (sorry women) wandering around.

It is interesting to see the grand and stately Taj Mahal juxtaposed against the jumbled chaos of Taj Ganj, the residential area immediately to the south. Originally the residences of the labouers and artisans working on the Taj, it is now a lively area of ultra-cheap guesthouses, markets, houses and the ever-present livestock. There is definitely something to be said for a Taj view while knocking back your $2 meal! The top game in the area is obviously chasing the goat around the block as kids will run round and round all day, chasing the same poor bastard of a goat the whole time.

Rickshaw driver in Taj Ganj

Taj Ganj is actually a quite lively, vibrant and surprising place to wander around, with camels plodding along pulling carts, a cacophony of sounds and people selling everything from marble to medicine. If only there weren't people to hassle you every step with shouts of "Hello, now you look in my shop", "Hello, my friend, very cheap", "Hello, only 100 rupees, now you buy" and of course "Hello, Rickshaw". Always said as a statement, never a question.

It seems that, much to Aimes' dismay, the cold has followed us from China. Our last day in Agra coincided with the coldest day in 70 years in Delhi and the cold snap resulted in many deaths throughout the north. For us it was simply an absolutely freezing early morning rickshaw ride to the train station so we shouldn't really complain.

Sunset over Agra

An interesting sight at the Agra Train Station was an eagle swooping down and snatching a rat off the tracks, not something that you see at Central every day! Though of course Indian stations are not places you want to hang around for too long, mainly because they decline to lock the toilet doors while they are idle at stations and it seems few people heed the requests to refrain from using them at such times. Though since the many dogs are actively adding to the mess on the platform itself, there's no really any avoiding it!

Crowds entering the Taj Mahal

From Agra it was a quick 4 hour train down to Jhansi, from where we were to get a bus out to the temples of Khajuraho. Alighting from the train and initialising our new found tout ignoring mode, we strode out past the many rickshaw drivers to where the bus was supposed to leave. Only trouble was rather than leaving, it had already left, which one of the rickshaw drivers quickly informed us he had been trying to tell us the whole way. He told us we could still catch it so we jumped in and he proceeded to chase it down at full speed, Super Mario-style, through the narrow streets, somehow avoiding the various hazards (cows, bikes, people) that presented themselves along the way. Sure enough he was right, we caught the bus at the edge of town where he ran up and made sure we could get on. It was at this point that we realised just how nice Indians are and that it is the small percentage of touts and general pains in the arse that ruin it and make you close up.

The Taj Mahal contrasted with Taj Ganj

So after much thanking and tipping, we squeezed our way on the bus, 'squeezing' being the operative word, as we had entered our first true Indian public bus experience. Hobbes was crammed with 5 others in the area where the passengers seat would normally be, sitting with half a bum cheek on the edge of a plank of wood balanced over the wheel hub. Aimes was slightly more fortunate, jammed between two others on a 2 seater. Yet again, public transport is where you meet the nicest people as everyone on the bus further challenged the notion that EVERYONE is trying to sell you something (as it feels most of the time). Aimes had people feeding her, and although crammed on top of each other (the people standing were even more squashed) they are all extremely friendly and will do anything to help you out.

It was interesting to see that the Vietnamese approach to rubbsh disposal also aplies in India, as when Aimes finished some food, those sitting next to her insisted quite adimantly that the rubbish go straight out the window. It took a lot of convincing for them to let her hold on to it, "the whole of India is a rubbish bin" they said. Although when they finally gave in they said "good girl" suggesting they too know better!

The Kandariya Mahadev Temple

So after 4 hours jammed on the bus we made it to dusty, sleepy Khajuraho, population 20,000 (most of them tourists). It definitely made a nice change from hectic busy Agra, little traffic and the cows, pigs and goats wandering the streets definitely seemed more at home. It even had an excellent Italian restaurant, and despite our being dubious of it's claim of a 'European trained chef', the quality of the food suggested this may have been true - just what we needed after not having eaten all day!

The reason for visiting Khajuraho was to see the 1,000 year old Chandela Temples which are scattered throughout the village and surrounding countryside. The temples are covered in extremely intricate, and well preserved, erotic carvings, which had nothing to do with why Hobbes wanted to see them...

Pornography set in stone

Unfortunately, while the carvings on the temple walls are undisputably amazing, the temples suffer somewhat from the post-Angkor syndrome. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that most of them are located with a well maintained grassed garden right across the road from the main shops in town, thus not having the intrepid, lost world feel that one has in Angkor. Or perhaps it is simple because they are not quite as massive? But for what ever reason they do not have quite the same impact. Never the less they are extremely impressive and we spent a very enjoyable day wandering amongst them.

Hot Chai to beat the cold!

Being one of the sightseeing highlights in India, the locals are well prepared for making the most of the tourists who flock here. We still managed to restrain ourselves from any violence, even when pests on a bike followed us for a good 20 minutes spouting various lies about not trying to sell us anything, "I am not a business man", "I not try to sell you anything", without one single word passing either of our lips. Though the hassles also had a humorous side, as when the 'bus-in bus-out tourists' make the quick dash from their bus to the sanctity of the main temple complex they are accompanied by a huge mass of touts, at least 3 per tourist, plus a few lookers-on there 'just for fun'. The first time we saw this we thought it was some kind of festival or parade, but soon realised that in amongst the crowd were some very frazzled oldies!

Aimes studying up

The bus ride out of Khajuraho was on a slightly nicer bus than we had taken in, however as soon as we hit the highway it took on the more typical feel of an Indian bus. While we fortunately had a seat (i.e. one seat for the two of us), as soon as the crowds started piling on, our heads were variously used as bag and arm rests, as elbows, bums and knees were thrown in all directions and the bus took on the feel of an over-packed can of sardines. There were a good 3 people hanging out each of the doors, while children were safely stowed under the seats. Hobbes even had the pleasure of being spewed on by one of the kids which wasn't shoved under a seat, which was all the more fun as there wasn't room to get anything to wipe it off!

More over embellished women, the designer obviously being male!

Getting off the bus at Satna, we decided we hadn't been crushed enough, so crammed 4 people, plus four big bags in a two person auto-rickshaw for the trip to the train station. Perhaps we are really starting to get into the Indian mindset?

Having to spend the night in Satna before our train and having absolutely no information about the town, we thought the station was as good as anywhere to try and find a hotel. Thinking we had done pretty well when we found what seemed like a simple clean room, we were just about to pat ourselves on the back. It was at this point that the electricity cut off and the massive generator was started next to our room. The power then went on and off on a 5 minute cycle for the rest of the night. Though it was better with the power off as it hid the 'Lord of the Mosquitoes' scene which was the ceiling, absolutely covered in mozzies, requiring a liberal covering of Rid on our faces. However, in complete contrast to the sleeping arrangements, the hotel did have the best Indian food we have yet eaten, guess that was the Ying to go with the Yang!

Village amongst the temples

After a restless night it was on to a train headed for Varanasi, although unfortunately we were yet again yearning for Chinese trains as ours turned up late, requiring us to wait on the platform for an hour and a half, which as anyone who has caught an Indian train will know is about 90 minutes too long! There is something about people doing their morning ablutions off the edge of the platform which doesn't sit well when you've just woken up??

Holy Cow! - Delhi & Rishikesh

So we thought India would be easy did we? After a year in Vietnam, a month in Mongolia and 3 months in China we thought we could cope? How naive we were!! India is unlike anywhere else and even with what seemed like a decent preparation we were out of our depth at first and really struggled to deal with everything. It is such a sensory overload, the noise, the traffic, the colour, the rubbish, the people and just the general chaos. From the moment you step out of the airport terminal it is on, no cushy lead in here, straight into the mayhem of trying to find a taxi that will actually take you where you want to go and it's not until you are locked up in your room that you get any respite.

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Holy Cow!

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Delhi is definitely tiring, rough and ready, you have to push and shove to get anywhere and at any point there is a multitude of people just waiting to push and shove you back. Aimes had one rickshaw driver decide that the easiest way around her was to go straight through her, fortunately only one foot was run over and only half her ribs tickled! Though we were in no different position to the locals, there's no one to look out for you here (the government doesn't seem to be doing much anyways) you have to look out for number 1.

So as you might guess we had a little bit of a problem adjusting at first, although perhaps part of our problem could be attributed to the fact that we opted to (or perhaps our budget necessitated that we must) stay in the backpacker ghetto of Pahar Ganj. While many backpacker ghettos (such as Pham Ngu Lao and Khao San Road) are merely full of too many westerners and too many pizza and DVD shops, Pahar Ganj is serious about being a seedy ghetto. The streets are covered with rubbish and dirt, jammed with rickshaws and overflowing with touts. We had to really ready ourselves for the full-on sensery assault each time we decided to leave our room, even getting past reception in our guesthouse without being sold something was difficult. The Indian touts are without doubt the most persistant and annoying we've ever encountered!!

The chaos of Pahar Ganj

Our acclimatisation wasn't helped by our deciding to take a cycle rickshaw from our guesthouse along the bazaar lined Chandi Chowk as our first Delhi outing, straight off the flight. We should have maintained our predujice against cycle rickshaws we developed in Saigon and gone with the powered variety, however as stated above we were naive. Anyways, our little rip-off merchant decided to pretend to mis-hear us and take us to the middle of no-where Lahori Gate Road, rather than the Lahore Gate of the Red Fort and then kick up a big stink attracting a massive crowd of on lookers when we refused to pay. Fortunately, we managed to jump on another rickshaw and made a quick enough get away after only paying half of what he wanted (as he had only gone half the distance he was supposed to).

Even without our friend's shenanigans, Chandi Chowk would have been a pretty intense introduction as the streets are absolutley jammed packed with people, produce and rickshaws. Our rickshaw became entangled in two others necessitating us getting off so they could be pulled apart. However, you really have to admire the skill of the drivers as he negotiated most of the way without any major collisions missing things by about 10mm for the whole way. At least it was going to be all down hill from here :)

They start them young!

Our first respite from the chaos of Delhi came in the form of Hanuman's Tomb, a Taj Mahal-esque building also built by the Mughals during their occupation. The tomb is located in quiet, spacious, grassy gardens and is a really nice place to wander around for a while and generally relax. The first sight of the Tomb building when you first enter the complex is pretty awe inspiring and to think that this building is only considered a precurser to the Taj Mahal when the Mughals really had their tomb building act in order!

Hanuman's Tomb

Connaught Place is supposedly the centre of town, but it looks very much like everywhere else, definitely much less developed than we had expected. The rubbish is still there, the traffic is unabated and the touts are as persistant as ever. Though there are some nice shops and much to our delight there are EXCELLENT bookshops, which doesn't sound that exciting, but after seeing very few English language books in the past 3 months it really was!

We had gone down to Connaught Place to try and find something to do for New Years Eve, however we failed to find anything much happening and resigned oursleves to a very quite one by oursleves. Heading up to the rooftop of our guesthouse (where the staff had the Punjabi MC blaring) and finding one other couple there we thought our expectations had been confirmed. However, it turns out the night was very interesting if not overly exciting...

An intersection of Main Bazar, Pahar Ganj

It started with the all-male staff of our guesthouse (who obviously don't drink much) getting extremely rowdy a bit too early, playing some very loud music and dancing rather intimately together. This was all happiness until something happened and it turned to fighting, which in turn turned to a rolling mass of pushing and shoving men tumbing down the stairs as the instigator was ejected. Then some Aussies turned up with a big box of fireworks they had picked up at some market around town and which were to be set off from the rooftop at midnight. Turns out there were some pretty nice people there and a few beers were had, some fireworks set off (without loss of hands or fingers) and 2006 was brought in with a bit of a bang.

Unfortunately, it turns out that Indian beer isn't the best and Hobbes had a massive headache off not too many beers the following day. Apparently it is full of glycerine which is used as a preservative, and is the only thing that softens the blow of beers hardly being available anywhere and that when it is it costs as much as TWO peoples meals for a longie. No beer make Hobbes go crazy!!

All your Bollywood favourites

Even though you expect to encounter cows in India, seeing them absolutely everywhere is still a surprise. And they really are absolutely everywhere, as soon as you step out of the airport you see them, and standing on the street anywhere you have to be ready for the gentle nudge as yet another pushes past. They do add a sense of calm though, wandering amid the traffic chaos without a care in the world, turning their head at just the last minute as yet another auto-rickshaw flies past. Although you do have to wonder about the heathiness of their chosen lifestyle, rubbish for breakfast lunch and dinner, a pile of filth for a bed and always with the chance of being run over.

Prayer rugs at Jama Masjid

Other sight seeing in Delhi included Jama Masjid which is the largest mosque in India and is set amongst a livestock market which really had the bird-flu feel about it (Hobbes is hoping his flu is of the spinach variety...). Also, inspired by the excursion of Hanuman's Tomb we decided to check out Safradjang's Tomb, another of the Mughal variety which while impressive isn't quite as nice as the former. Although, it was notable for the fact that the lawns were packed with Indian couples getting rather intimate, especially considering that there is generally little to no public displays of affection here.

Another surprising thing in India, having come from China anyways (where there are absolutely no animals in cities), was the amount of wildlife. In addition to the afore mentioned cows, there are chipmunks everywhere, eagles soaring overhead and the sickest looking dogs on the planet lurking on every corner.

A window at Safradjang's Tomb

In order to try and acclimatise to India and to escape the madness of Delhi we decided to head north to Rishikesh for some yoga and chilling out. After our train trip up to Haridwar we needed to take a bus further on to Rishikesh. It was at about this time that we felt for the first time that Chinese characters are easy to read, as the buses were all signposted in Hindi and had it not been for some helpful locals we would have had no chance working out where to go!

Rishikesh itse;f is just as hectic as Delhi, however when you head further up the river to the smaller settlements it is much more peaceful amid a very beautiful setting on the banks of the Ganges River. We stayed high on the upper bank overlooking the Ashrams of Laksman Jhula which we didn't quite feel up to taking on at this stage. Our hotel was just what we needed, such a refreshing change from Pahar Ganj, with a peaceful outdoor dining area and a balcony with superb views of the river and surrounding forests.

Bridge over the River Ganges (Rishikesh)

Even though we weren't going to take on the 10 days solo meditation demanded at some of the Ashrams, we had intended to get into a bit of yoga while in Rishikesh. However, soon after arriving Aimes succumbed to the cursed Delhi Belly and Hobbes became afflicted with the dreaded Spinach Flu, curtailing our efforts at one lesson with a dubious Yoga 'Master' (creaking bones and all). As a result most of our time was spent in the (fortunately peaceful) room with a couple of short excursions for the essentials of food and internet!

Overall we didn't like Rishikesh much, perhaps it was the fact that we were both sick, but more likely it was a lot to do with the fact that most of the people there are so focussed on achieving their spiritual enlightenment that they wont give you the time of day. In fact there were some of the rudest people we've ever encountered there (westerners that is), ask them a question and they'll look at you like you've got two heads (and these weren't the ones in the midst of a week long meditation). Fortunately this breed of travellers seem to be almost exclusively confined to Rishikesh, as we haven't met any others like them anywhere else...

Some of Haridwar's locals

In contrast to Rishikesh and despite being much more hectic, we both found Haridwar (the train station town an hour down the road) to be a much more appealing place to spend some time. Haridwar is a more significant pilgrimage town for Hindus and has the hectic busy streets more common to India. However the hecticness does not turn into the aggressive sales pitches of Rishikesh, so as long as you are ready to jump out of the way of any auto-rickshaws, cows or buses about to run you down you should be right!

Both still feeling a bit dodgy we decided to eat at Big Ben the poshest restaurant in town (costing a grand total of $2 per person). It was quite nice with full silver service, white table cloths, waiters opening doors for you, plus the added benefit of having the Venga Boys on high rotation and at maximum volume and distortion?

Selling bottles for collecting some of the Ganges' finest

The highlight of Haridwar was heading down to the bathing Ghats to watch the worshippers bathing in the evening. While not as many people come here as to Varanasi to bathe in the waters it provided a nice peaceful introduction. It is such a colourful time with women in bright saris, kids running around playing games people praying and collecting water for later. It will be interesting to see the same rituals in the same river some 800 km away (plus with an additional 1.5 million faecal coliforms per 100ml).

Next stop Agra and the Taj...

Goodbye China :( - Shanghai

So it was that we finally made it to our last destination in China - Shanghai. Unfortunately our first impression was that of disappointment, as it wasn't quite as 'space-age' as we had expected it to be. However, after overcoming the fact that we hadn't entered a 'Jetson-esque' world, we discovered a city which must be just about the most enjoyable in China.

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Pudong Skyline

Hobbes in the consumer frenzy of Nanjing Dong Lu

Shanghai certainly has the hustle and bustle of an international city, people elbowing and shoving their way onto the subway, pushing past you on the street and forming human traffic jams on the footpaths. This was particularly on Christmas Eve, when the main shopping street, Nanjing Dong Lu, became a virtual river of people, if you got caught on the wrong side you got carried along for a while before you could escape! It was reminicent of Le Loi Street a year ago in Saigon, again showing that you don't need a whole lot of Christmas spirit to celebrate at that time of year, just a lot of consumer spirit...

Shanghai's funky artist run spaces

As in all good big cities much time was spent in museums, galleries and exhibitions. The Urban Planning Exhibition has a very impressive (for the engineer anyways) scale model of the city, but was obviously put together with too much input from town planners (sorry Dad) as it was heavy on info and light on uderstanding :) Though the photos of the Pudong circa 1994 (as a marshland) and 2004 (as a high rise jungle) was quite astounding and really gave you an appreciation of what has been achieved here. Also notable was the plan to build a deep water port on an island out at sea to be connected to the mainland with a 32km bridge - they don't do things by halves in the 'new' China!

Shanghai's tallest building... for the moment

Shopping centre action

The Shanghai Museum is very big (perhaps too big?) and must compete with Xian's for the best in China. Unfortunately, after almost 3 months in China we had seen so many porcelin vases, seals and bronze drinking vessles that we probably didn't give it the time it deserved. Although it was good to see the exhibition on minority cultures, particularly as most of our time in China had been spent in the areas where these minorities live (Tibetan, Mongol, Kazak, Zhuang among others).

Old Shanghai still exists

The most surprising and enjoyable were the warehouse art galleries, which really hammered home the fact that Shanghai is like nowhere else in China. Lots of funky studios with artists working, cigarette half hanging out of their mouths, Lou Reed playing in the background and Warhol-esque representations of Mao.

Romance down on the riverbank

As Shanghai was our home for Christmas Day, it was our first cold, if not quite white, Christmas. It actually turned out to be a really fun day despite the cold and the fact that we were sharing a dorm room with 10 others (most of whom seemed to have come to Shanghai to sleep?). First we took the freaky Bund Sightseeing Tunnel (the exact purpose of which we couldn't quite work out - part Ghost Train ride, part psychedelic freak out, part monorail, part who knows what??) to the Pudong side of the city. In addition to getting us across the river, it gave us access to the Chinese Sex Culture exhibition which was surprisngly graphic - particularly for China (ask Hobbes for a private viewing of a photo of one of the bronze sculptures).

Pudong wasn't quite as jam packed with buildings as expected, but there certainly are some big ones and the big hole in the ground for the biggest of the lot is just that - BIG. As a treat for our first winter Christmas brunch consisted of ice cream with a Bund View, perhaps belying our southern hemisphere roots?

Bund tunnel wierdness

For dinner we went to 'M on the Bund' (Aussie chef!) for a belated birthday dinner for Aimes. While not competing with the meat consumption we had on her actual birthday, it was without doubt the nicest meal we have had in the past 4 months and are likely to have in the next couple. Fortunately we were able to pull together sufficiently fancy outfits from our backpacks that we weren't turned away at the door :)

The view from 'M on the Bund'

We spent our final day walking around the old French Concession, in an attempt to find the building where the Shanghai branch of Aimes' grandmother's childrens' boutique, 'Little Shirley', once existed. After managing to find the street we thought we might be in luck, however when we arrived at the right number we found several semi-demolished buildings making way for yet another Shanghainese skyscraper. Guess we were just too late...

Why say no to progress? Perhaps what was left of Aimes' grandmother's shop?

The walking didn't last for too long however as the temperature was rapidly dropping, requiring some urgent coffees and a retreat to the subway. At least it gave us a taste of what to expect in Beijing... What we saw of the French Concession was really nice, the tree lined steets and low-rise buildings being a complete contrast from the Pudong Business area, although how it long this will survive would seem to be questionable.

Nanjing Dong Lu at night

As alluded too above there was one final train trip and one more night in freezing Beijing before we flew out for Singapore en route to India. After our luxurious soft sleeper train trip (the rooms had doors and the toilet actually flushed!) we made a quick dash for the nearest hostel where we spent most of the day due to the fact that temperature was about zero at best. A quick excursion was made to the post office, the food court where we ate our first meal in China and on Hobbes' insistence to Tianamen Square to "see what it looks like in the cold". The answer being bleak, the moat around the Forbidden City was frozen and just about the only other people out were soldiers.

A cold Tianamen Square

So that was it for China, after almost 3 months and after travelling over 14,000km on trains and buses we finally completed our near circumnavigation of the most populous country in the world. There were so many amazing experiences and the sheer vastness of the varied cultures and landscapes far exceeded even our most extravagant expectations.

Some final street food action

While there will be many things we will not be sorry to see the back of (primarily the spitting and coughing and toilets) there will be so many more that we will. Fresh bao and dumplings for breakfast, men in suits no matter what their job (especially the painters), the massive sights, the range of landscapes, and the fact that people will make the effort to try and understand your confused looks and pointing. As always, as soon as we left we started thinking of all the places we didn't make it too, Lhasa, Golmud, Inner Mongolia, Haerbin, Hainan, Hangzhou etc etc, but 3 months is enough for now.

Our dodgy map of our trip so far

Two Squares in a Roundhouse - Fujian

Our final bit of rural adventure for China was attempting to seek out the Hakka Roundhouses, which are located in southern Fujian province around the towns of Longyan and Yongding. Adventure, because despite featuring in photos in Lonely Planet there is a total of about 10 lines of text dedicated to both the houses and the surrounding town. So basically we didn't have much to go on (no maps, no recommendations), but considering other people obviously get there easily enough we figured it couldn't be that hard.

So anyways we arrived in Longyan at 4:15am (which made Hobbes a very grumpy boy) and (as we had promised Aimes' Chinese relos) stayed within the station until the sun came up. Unfortunately they don't seem to heat rural stations and we almost froze solid in the process.

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Roundhouses

What we hadn't counted on was how soft we had become in the comfortable, polite, modern environs of Hong Kong and Macau and with the hospitality of Aimes' family in Guangdong. It came as a little bit of a shock to have to try and explain ourselves in very poor Mandarin, order meals by pointing and to have people staring at us again. This was particularly evident when it came to buying our onward train tickets, as it became apparent that our preferred route wasn't available and had to sort out an alternative in our broken Chinese.

We decided that the bus station was the most likely place to find a hotel, so we managed to find the right bus and sure enough after some pointing at the phrase book we had a room - the most expensive one we have stayed in throughout China surprisingly.

From the outside looking in

The next challenge was changing money, the bank we found obviously doesn't handle too many foreign currency transactions as when we presented our Hong Kong dollars many nervous looks and giggles were returned by the staff. However, after more giggling, several phonecalls, photocopies of our passports, more phonecalls and looking up several books we finally received our RMB. The Hong Kong notes were even passed amongst all the staff who didn't seem to have seen them before. We felt like telling them that it was currency from land which is supposedly part of China, but of course our Chinese doesn't stretch quite that far. At least we had an official security escort throughout the process as the bank's guard was very interested in the proceedings and had his head stuck between ours the whole time watching what was happening (he seemed like a really nice guy, based on our smiles and gestures anyways).

Inside a Roundhouse

So it was now just down to locating the houses. After not seeing much action on the driver front in Longyan, we decided to head down to Yongding where our friend Patrick (the pom) had drivers find him wanting to take him out to see the houses. The bus trip down was yet another extended trip with 1 hour being stretched out to 2, as yet another road was reduced to one lane for both directions with trucks and buses chronically jammed for several kilometres.

Arriving in Yongding we were greeted by several people eager to drive us out to the houses ('tulou, tulou') and they even had maps with some English so we could work out which ones we wanted to see. After some negotiation and promises that it would take half an hour to get there we were off. One and a half hours later we made it to the houses...

Roundhouse living

Arriving made the hassles getting to the roundhouses worthwhile, the incredibly perfect circular shape and scale really becomes evident when you enter the houses and feel the walls wrapping around you. While not the biggest of the roundhouses, those which we saw were still massive standing 4 stories and housing 600 people (the biggest ones house over 1000 people). The oldest of the group was 600 years old and still going strong!

The search is over...

The houses were built as protection against bandits and wild animals and are as a result quite plain from the outside, but inside there is a plethora of activity with people going about their daily activities and livestock being raised within each of the mini-communities. Two of the houses we saw were still lived in and it was amazing to see people living as they had done for hundreds of years, with ducks, chickens and H1N5 germs flitting about everywhere.

A cold morning train trip

After spending too short a time looking around the houses (as always seems to be the case), we managed to retrace our steps back to Longyan before too long and before it became too cold! Longyan somehow seemed to be transformed by night as a very plain, standard Chinese rural town came alive with street markets and people everywhere. We even found the most luxurious internet cafe ever, very large with every computer having a big soft lounge (pity the connection wasn't the best).

Unfortunately an all too common sight!

Next morning it was back on a train, nice and early at 6am, headed for Xiamen where we change trains and head straight to Shanghai. So you could consider Xiamen our second and final stop in Fujian province, if only for a grand total of 3 hours. The most notable thing about Xiamen was very clear blue skies, something which is a bit of a novelty after so long in China!

Next stop Shanghai, our last destination in China - where have 3 months gone?

Back to the Roots - Guangdong

Guangdong provided a very comfortable reintroduction to mainland China, as due to the hospitality of Aimes' relatives we didn't spend one night in a hotel (despite some initial mix ups) and spent very little time having to find our own way around. The level of hospitality was such that we had to create diversions and decoys to allow us to actually pay for things, although it was still difficult to actually pay our share.
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The Sun Yat Sen Memorial (and Aimes looking like a dork)

Guangzhou was our first stop where we were accommodated, guided and chauffered by Aimes' Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. The accomodation was first rate, particularly the fact that you only had to take the lift down to level 2 from Aimes' uncle's apartment for morning Yum Cha!

Yum Cha Brekkie - take your pick!

It seems the place has definitely changed for the better, as Aimes remembers only being able to stay for a short time on her previous visit on account of the pollution, yet we now found it to be one of the cleanest and modern cities in China. This was particularly evident on our drive along the Pearl River waterfront where there are wide tree lined footpaths, iconic buildings (the piano shaped concert hall to compete with the Sydney Opera House) and beautiful lights. We also had the numerous bridges, flyovers and tunnels designed or being designed by Aimes' Aunt pointed out to us, much to Hobbes' interest (being a fellow engineer when he decides to work).

The only animals which weren't on the menu...

Aimes' relos had devised a packed itinery for us and we managed to see in one day what would have taken us 2 or 3 to see on our own. We stopped at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall (actually much of Guangzhou seems to be a tribute to Sun Yat Sen), past Aimes' mum's old boarding school, to the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, a Tomb and Guangzhou Park (so Hobbes could take a photo of the goat statue - the city's mascot).

Looking inside Aimes' Mum's old house

We had a big lunch at a place that was hard to describe, it was a safari park/country club/resort all in one, complete with live white tigers in an enclosure in the middle of the building! The banquet was a full on affair with the safari theme continued onto the menu, with a whole menagerie of different animals appearing. The dishes consumed included, but were far from limited to, snake, crocodile, veal, lamb, fish, eel and prawns. A birthday cake had even been arranged for Aimes to recognise her successful completion of 27 wonderful years!

Sleepy boys in a train station waiting hall

This gastronomic assault on the animal kingdom was continued at dinner where yet more meats were presented, including quails, chickens, (baby) geese, ducks, (baby) pigs, more fish, more prawns, more eel. Hobbes' meat count by the end of the day was somewhere around the twelve mark for different animals consumed - not a day for the vegetarians. This more than reaffirmed the culinary reputation of the Cantonese.

The highlight of the day was visiting the old house that Aimes' mother had grown up in. As we walked down the street all the neighbours spilled out into the lane to have a gawk at what was going on, when they realised it was Ping's daughter everyone was inviting us in for tea and wanting us to take photos. The house itself is now been left derelict and has been boarded up, one neighbour though, brought out his bamboo ladder to help us get up and take some photos through a window.

Aimes, relos ... and cannon

After Guangzhou we ventured down the road to Donguan to visit the other side of the family. After being escorted to the Guangzhou station by Aimes' uncle and with words of warning about pickpockets still ringing in our ears we arrived at Donguan and were met by more of Aimes' relatives who quickly separated our luggage from us (despite our protests) and headed off to load it into the car.

The old and the new

With a car-full of distant relos (4 of us on the back seat) we drove around the countryside seeing some of the local sights. After a day trip around to a gun deck where part of the Opium War was fought, and a visit to the Sea Battle Museum (with an interesting/disturbing 'Drug Education' exhibit) we spent the afternoon at Bao Mo Park which seems to have been heavily influenced by Beijing's Summer Palace. The park is more waterway than land and the waterways even continue under the footpaths allowing the thousands of carp to follow your every move. Feeding these over zealous fish was an amazing experience as the pools are turned into whitewater at the mearest hint of food with streams of fish coming from every direction.

Fish feeding frenzy

That evening our over eating (and meat consumption) continued with yet another feast with the extended family.

The next day we headed out to (what was once) the country and visited the village that Aimes' great, great grandfather hailed from before coming to Australia. However, what was once a small village (as recently as Aimes' visit 8 years ago) has now morphed into yet another part of the sprawling metropolis that is Guangdong, complete with buildings rising before your eyes and multi-lane expressways.

Chan

We walked through the lychee orchard that Aimes' great great grandfather had farmed and then visited his grave. Chinese industry is rapidly replacing farmland in most parts and that trend wasn't any different here. On a hill, all you could see on the horizon were factories encroaching on the town. The Chinese government is now reclaiming the land of the whole cemetery and all the folks are being 'evicted' and moved to a newly built family tomb in the new year. Feng shui masters had selected a new spot and a ceremony with monks and nuns will be conducted upon the move.

Boy in Sook Bin

The Chinese tradition of ancestral worship was practiced and we spoke to to Aimes' great great grandparents and asked them to bless us. One Aunty insisted that Hobbes speak to them, as they had lived in Australia and understood English. Hobbes was a little weirded-out by talking to dead people, but he did a great job all the same.

Mapping out the ol' 'Leanfore' House

Back in town we visited some very distant relos that hail from the same great great great grandfather (which was pretty amazing that we could even go back that far) and then went to the town temple and family gathering house (with Aimes' father's name engraved on a plaque). Originally all the inhabitants of the village were decended from the same ancestors (including Aimes' families) and despite the changes underway, it seems a lot of them still remain. Aimes' Aunt seemed to know quite a lot of them and would introduce us to what seemed random old people we passed on the street who seemed to understand who we were?

Family (five times removed)

The most exciting part was visiting the Leanfore house. Now, left uninhabited the house contains many dusty relics and antique furniture which is locked up and only opened when visitors come. The house appears to be pretty much unchanged from the time when Aimes' grandfather would have lived there.

Aimes' (nutty) Aunt...

It was good fun spending a couple of days touring around with Aimes' family, seeing so many meaningful things and having a lot of laughs along the way. In addition to the family sights Hobbes was taught how to kill someone with three and two finger kung fu moves by an old uncle and we witnessed Aimes' aunt take a butcher's apron in a market to pose for a photo brandishing a large knife...