Philip Island Getaway

Decided to get out of the city today with my besty and explore Philip Island. Neither of us had been there and it was a nice sunny public holiday to head out. Today is Melbourne Cup Day and so the whole state has the day off...silly I think to have a day off work for a horse race that only goes for one lap...but that's the Aussies for you. Philip Island is about 1.5 hours drive south of here, and has some well known surf beaches. We took off and went for it, stopping at Nobbies Rocks for some photos, then to Cowes for lunch b the sea, and then to the south of the island again to watch the surfers for awhile. The water was cold, so I only dipped my toes in, but the sun was warm, as was the sand, so we hung out for a bit before fat drops of rain began to fall..and packed up our shit and headed for home, stopping at the Chocolate Factory for some sweets. Made it back in time to catch the race on the radio - my friend had placed some bets, and early enough that I didn't catch the traffic from the cup as it's in the next suburb to me so gets super busy when the race wraps up.

The Goodness of Karma

So I heard from my soul sister this week that she and my soul brother want to give me back the Karma van when I return to Canada next spring. I cannot tell you how excited I was hearing this news! They have another camper now, bigger one and do not need the Karma van any longer, and need the room with two kids now, and in keeping with good karma, they want me to have it back. I gave it to them when I left Canada in 2011, just signed over the papers to my soul brother and wished them many happy adventures, with no real idea of how long I would be in Australia. My mind hasn't stopped racing ever since.

journey to see Bob Dylan

My original return to country plan was to buy a cheapo car in Halifax and drive it across the country, visiting family and friends along the way, stopping in with my daughter in Alberta, and then spending a couple of months in Victoria with my soul brother and soul sister. Now I'm tweaking the plan and have decided I will probably still buy a car to get around on the east coast, but just a cheapo weather beater for under $500 - there are tons. I'll then either sell or give it away when I'm heading west and take a flight instead to Alberta to spend a few weeks with my girl before heading to Victoria to spend the rest of the summer with friends there. We are planning to check out some festivals and concerts in America again, so looking forward to road trips in the Karma van again! We had such good times during the year I took off from work. Mmmmm...memories...

in southern BC

I will then drive the Karma van back to Alberta and work for a year or two, living close to my girl. I think I might pick up some part time work in Victoria too to help pay for the adventures. I'll have some savings when I leave Australia, but they won't last forever and I'll need to save up for an apt before winter sets in once back in Alberta.

So that's the latest...stay tuned for updates.

In the Yukon with a friend

Stormy out for a walk on his leash

Stormy loved the van!

the journey to see Tom Petty and CSN

camping in Washington State

my soul sister and co-pilot

in Enderby, BC visiting a friend

Bittersweet Last Day in China

Sometimes it feels like we just arrived in China and other times it feels like we have been here forever. Whichever the case, we both begin our journies home tomorrow. My daughter's flight is at 7:30am so she must be at the airport by about 4:30am, while mine doesn't leave until 6:30pm, so I don't need to be there until 3:30pm, but I have decided to head to the airport with her and just hang out at the terminal for the day. I have plenty to read, and there are lots of places to eat and shop. I'll have a luggage trolley so won't have to drag my backpack all over on my back. I will be so very sad to say goodbye to my daughter as I won't see her again for nearly a year when I move back to Canada next year, but I am glad to be heading back to my own space - bed, couch, no one pushing and shoving me, or shouting in Chinese. We have enjoyed much of China, and have seen some breathtaking scenery while here. Our two standouts are the Summer Palace grounds and of course, the Great Wall at Mutianyu. The passport issue was probably the worst, along with trying to find our current hotel - nightmares we would sooner forget. We can laugh about it now, and they make good travel stories, but at the time, we were very stressed out and wishing we were home again. 

Lessons learned - never get in a rickshaw of any sort, or an unlicenced taxi - they will both try to cheat you and charge you 5 times what the licenced taxis charge. 

- always haggle the price - they often quote you a price 10 times what you can bargain down to. If you don't like haggling - don't bother going to the silk market - they are very aggressive and downright annoying.

- always get the address of where you want to go written in Chinese script as most taxi drivers do not speak or read English. 

- if you don't like the squat toilets, look for the handicap toilets and always bring your own toilet paper as there is rarely any there.

- if you need to get through a crowd, don't wait for someone else to move out of your way - push and shove like the rest or you will be trampled.

- the subway is super easy to maneuver. The lines are all marked in English and Chinese, and all of the trains have speaking voice that announces all stations in Chinese and in English. The transfer lines are also very clearly marked. It is also super cheap - only 2Yuan, which is about 30 cents. The bus is also super cheap, and you can get a card to use subway and bus so you just tap the card as you go through. 

- any directions given by Chinese people who claim to understand where you want to go are very subjective and often incorrect - double and triple check and you might find your way there.

- many of the people who helped us were very nice and some really did know what they were talking about. Some went out of their way to help which was really lovely. 

- most hotel/hostel beds are as hard as rocks. Prepare to drug up or put up. 

- you can buy cold bottled water just about anywhere and it was usually quite cheap, often 2Yuan for a small bottle, which is about 30 cents. I paid 4Yuan for a large 1.5 litre bottle at the hostel. 

- most staff at tourist attractions have no English so you have to figure out what you want to do before you get to the ticket counter. Stopping young people with mobile phones in their hand is often a good bet as many of them will have basic English and seem to enjoy having someone to speak English with. 

- iPhones take awesome photos if you don't feel like lugging your camera with you or your battery dies. Or like me = left my battery charger at home and battery died after one day. 

- nearly all restaurants and cafes have free wifi - if you use a VPN like we did, you can suf the net easily and use banned Facebook and Google. The VPN we used was free. The speed is slow at any place we have been so tough to watch any videos or upload any videos. You can get booted off quite frequently. 

- don't accept invitations to Tea Houses as they are almost always scams to get you to buy them things such as meals or clothes. 

- don't expect the locals to know where things are, even if they are just down the street. 

- if you are going to use a translator app - make sure it does not rely on live internet connection to use it as you might not always have access when you need something translated

- people love to stare at foreigners, particularly caucasian ones. We had to accept that it was just how it was. Some even want to take photos of you with them. 

- maps are almost never to scale - something that looks just down the block can be 3kms away...

That's about it for now. I'm just waiting for my daughter to come back from the shop and then we head to the airport to check in at our airport hotel. They had really soft beds so we are looking forward to being comfy again. I may post again from the airport tomorrow as it will be a long day and I now know how to access the free wifi there. 

Night Market Food

We set off tonight for the night market around the corner from our hotel. This is the market where they sell all of the really exotic and strange foods. There was snake, scorpion, centipede, dolphin, dog (yes, dog), starfish, baby pigeon, octopus, bats, silkworm crysalis, and who knows what else! My daughter tried the sea snake, but that was all she was up for. I took photos...that was all I was up for! She said it tasted overwhelmingly like the spices they lathered on, and was a bit rubbery. 

While at the night market, we met this man outside a shop who was an artist and had a long chat with him about things - our countries and their differences, what we did for a living, and so on. He then offered to make a painting for me for free - just some characters on rice paper, but it turned out pretty cool. The first line means protector of children and elderly. The second line is my name, which means radical innovative emperor, and the last line is the date, location and signature of the artist. Pretty cool! Then we decided to buy paintings from him as well and I bought one of the Great Wall, which is just beautiful. Amber bought one of pink plum blossoms, which represents beautiful women. 

Longqing Gorge

Early morning start again today, with hopes of making it to Longqing Gorge, about 90kms out of the city. Finding reliable info on it was challenging as each website had a different way to get there and the hotel staff said it would take a few days to get there...I knew that wasn't true unless we were walking! So we headed off to the subway and then to the big bus terminus at Dongsheng where we caught the bus to the Ming Tombs last week, found our 919 bus and were on our way. The net had said the 919 bus terminates at the bus station in Yangqing, and to grab the 875 bus to Wangcheng, a small village nearby and then a shuttlebus to the Longqing site. Another website said to take the 920 direct to Longqing Gorge. Problem was when we got to the end of the line on the 919, there was no bus station, and several different 920 buses, and no 875...so now what? I managed to find a gentelman who spoke enough English and could read the script I had screenshot from the net to tell me we could catch the 15 bus right to Longqing site. I confirmed that with the bus traffic ladies (they flag buses in and out, and get people loaded) and so we waited for the 15 to arrive, and off we went again, with no real idea where the bus might take us. It got pretty rural and then the mountains were looming in the distance, so it began to look like the right bus. I met another gentleman on that bus who spoke little English but had a translator on his phone, so told us it was another 10kms. When we got to 1 kms out, he had to get off the bus, but told the bus attendant that we wanted to get off at Longqing, which she happily did. Once off the bus, we looked around, and saw no sign of any site, and just a sign with 875 bus on it, and a small minibus parked next to the sign. They ushered us over, and I confirmed that they would take us to Longqing Gorge for 5Yuan (about 90 cents), so we piled in with the other passengers (all Chinese) and set out...then he turned down some dirt road through the bush, and we began to worry - where in the hell are we being taken? Surely somewhere to rape, rob and kill us. Then the bus stopped and he told us all to get out, that the site was just down the road through the trees. Really? We were still very unsure as no one spoke any English, but we decided to push on down through the trees and onto the main road again, and lo and behold - we had made it to the site. Crazy. 

Once there, we bought our tickets and began the journey through the site. The first bit was to find the dragon escalator in the photos, which we did - it stood out like a sore thumb next to the dam. Up a series of escalators contained within the dragon and then we were herded into a boat. From there we took the boat ride through the gorge, surrounded by beautiful scenery - sheer cliffs all around, green with foilage. I'm sure I snapped a hundred photos. We passed by the sites for bungee jumping and ziplining but couldn't work out how to get to them as the boat didn't stop there and there were no roads, so ended up passing on it. My daughter had been determined to do the zipline, but I was still fence sitting when we arrived. From the boat we were left at another dock where the Flower Caves were. Talk about bizarre...a series of joined caves filled with artificial landscape - flowers, grasses, bushes, trees, etc, with the most random and sometimes ridiculous things...tigers, leopards, peacocks, cabins, waterfalls, gardens - all fake. Very weird indeed!

Climbing the Great Wall of China

Early rise today and had breakfast, such as it was. It was included in our tour package we bought last night. It was toast, cut up french fries (for hash browns I guess), a fried egg (regardless of how you like your eggs), 1 strip of bacon like substance, jam, and rancid butter. Yes, rancid. I don't think they understood that you must keep butter packets in the fridge...so dry toast it was. The day did get better, thankfully. We were met at our hotel by our tour guide who led us out of the hutong and into the Main Street where the minibus was waiting with other tourists. The minibus had the illusion of air con, but it wasn't very efficient. We picked up the rest of the tourists who had booked and before long were on our way out of Bejiing, bound for Mutianyu section of the Wall. It was a gorgeous day for it, blue skies, and trying to burn off the haze/smog. 

Once we arrived at the site, we had to climb up a fair distance to get to the cable cars which would then take us to Tower 14. We were given just over three hours to make it to Tower 23 and back, after which we would have lunch together before heading back to Beijing. The hike to the cable cars was hard enough, but nowhere near as hard as the wall proved to be. My daughter and I started out together, but before long she could see how slow I was going to be, considering I am overweight, not in great shape, and have asthma. I cut her loose and told her to go on ahead as she was determined to make it to Tower 23. I was quite certain I could/would not, so after a few photos of us together, she was off. I took my time then and moseyed, taking a ton of photos with my camera and my iPhone. There were endless breathtaking scenes to capture. I slogged on from Tower to Tower, all the way to Tower 20, which was quite an accomplishment. I had thought I would give up at 19, but then another gal on our tour, about my age, also with asthma inspired me to continue at least to Tower 20. The climb to Tower 20 was nearly vertical with large steps in places and small ones in others. It took a number of stops to get my heart back into my chest as it was pounding so heavily, it must have been outside of my body. I stopped for photos, drinks of water, and to catch my breath a number of times, but before I knew it, I was at the top of Tower 20 and I entered the Tower with a hooray, I finally made it. One of the local vendors came running over and gave me a high 5, and put a medal around my neck with the Great Wall on it, then ushered me into a chair in the shade. I bought a can of Coke and the medal for 100Yuan, which severely overpriced generally, but given they had to lug up the drinks, the ice, and souvenirs, I didn't mind paying for that. I waited about 15 minutes or so and then my daughter was in sight again, making her way back down. We had to meet our tour guide at 1:20pm for lunch as a group, so we headed straight down after meeting up again. We made good time, and landed at the restaurant at 1pm. 

The Great Wall and surrounding mountains are just breathtakingly gorgeous. I snapped so many photos on my camera and a number of iPhone photos, which I've added to the post here. My daughter ended up going much farther than the markers at Tower 23, and actually went onward to closed and wild sections of the Wall. She thinks she went as far as Tower 27 or 28. Good on her! I knew I couldn't make it that far. 

Goodbye Shanghai and Hello Suzhou

Well, I had a long post written and then lost it so this will be the abbreviated version. We went up in the Oriental Pearl Tower yesterday which is like the CN Tower in some ways. Talked Amber out onto the glass observation deck. Afterwards we went to the indoor market stalls near Yuyuan Garden, which we did not find (the garden) but scored some great buys, so happy about that. Slogged back to the hotel, hot, sweaty and tired, rested for a bit and then went out for supper and to take in the bright lights of Shanghai's Bund district from the other side of the river. Spectacular! This morning we got up early and  made our painful way to the train station, burdened by our large packs that seem to gain weight overnight. My daughter's seems to be the worst! She can hardly lift it now. We took the fast train again, and managed to find our hotel with the help of a taxi and the address in script. 

Spent a frustrating day trying to work out how to get to the Zhouzhuang water town - language barrier at it's worst. We ended up pissing the day away, being chased by aggressive taxi, rickshaw and motorbike drivers wanting us to take their overpriced service. We paid 16 RMB to get from our hotel to the bus station but they wanted 50-100RMB to get back - get stuffed we said. We took a bus, got lost, so got another taxi, fairly priced via meter back to our hotel and said to hell with today. We went out later for some food, and decided we will go to the water town in the morning before heading back to Beijing for the rest of the week. Great Wall on Wednesday!

Finding the Feel Inn

We decided to forgo the water town as it was turning into a bloody shitshow of misinformation. We packed up our things and headed to the railway station to catch the next fast train to Beijing. Managed to get a taxi straight away and off we went. We arrived at the rail station, got in line to get tickets, and the next ones with 2nd class seats didn't leave for another 6 hours - shit. Well, not much else to be done, so we hunkered down and read most of the day, and my daughter took a nap. When it got closer to our departure time, we started looking for our train on the departures screens, only to discover it was not listed. I went in search of information then, and was promptly informed that our train did not leave from that station, but from another one about 17kms north of where we were - WTF???? Why in hell did they sell me a ticket from a different station? I pitched a bloody fit right there in the station, and before I knew it, we worked out that a taxi would take too long, but the metro subway went right there and would be fast. We had an hour and 15 minutes to get there, find the right platform and board the train. The station security fella was nice enough to take us right to the metro stop as it was in a whole other part of the station, and lugged one of our bags for us. Mad dash to the metro, then to buy tickets and get on the train bound for the right station. We made it with just 20 minutes to spare before loading - THANKFULLY!!! Another Amazing Race Moment as we ran pell mell through the station. We finally boarded the train and whistled across the country towards Beijing again. Good bye Suzhou - you were an asshole.

Finally arrived at Beijing about 8pm, took the metro to where we could then take a taxi to the hotel we had booked for the next four days. Metro was a breeze - finding our hotel was another bloody nightmare and added to our mounting frustration with taxis and directions. We flagged several down only to discover they had no idea where we needed to go. Then a nice young man who spoke some English offered to help us. He phoned the hotel and got directions then attempted to inform a taxi driver - nope - still had no idea. Then we made the desperate decision to jump in another motorized rickshaw box of some sort...and agreed on the price of 20Yuan (which is about $3.50 to take us to the Hutong where our hotel was. After stuffing us and our large bags in tightly (couldn't see anything or barely breathe) he putt putted around for the longest time, asking directions as he went, seeming to drag us into the middle of nowhere at which point my daughter lost her shit and told him to let us out and get lost, after paying him the 20yuan. We stopped a few people to ask them where we were or if they knew where our hotel was - we got answers such as just down the street and turn right, or 7 kms from there...dammit. Then my daughter had enough and just sat down on the curb, utterly frustrated. The hotel had given us walking directions of just 6 minute walk from the metro station but yet no one had any idea where we needed to go. So she turned on her mobile service, knowing it would cost a fortune, but we could at least see where the hell we had been dumped out. Turned out we were not far from the hotel but unsure just how safe it was to wander through the various hutongs it would take to get there or if we had it in us to drag our packs any further. We took a leap of faith and struck out, not wanting to sleep in the street tonight, managed to bump into a nice lady along one of the hutongs who recalled a hotel like we described just around the corner with many lights and many foreigners - THAT'S IT! So off we ran and sure enough, we located our hotel, more than 2 hours later...I could have kissed her. We were breathless and steaming hot by the time we fell in the doors of the hotel/hostel so they gave us water immediately - nice cold water too. Then we checked in, and booked our Great Wall tickets for tomorrow. Pick up right at the bloody door, thank GAWD! 

Bonus of the hotel - onsite cafe that served Western food!!! We ordered some supper and dug in before settling into our hotel for the night. We leave at 7:30am tomorrow morning and cannot wait - this is our biggest reason for coming to Beijing. Hope it doesn't rain!

Crazy Pearl Market and Temple of Heaven Park

We woke early again today after passing out early last night. More drama in the night - my daughter woke from a terrible nightmare she couldn't shake for several minutes, and left her shaking and freaked out. Turned the lights on and talked her awake and it passed. She dreamt she was stuck in an underwater cave calling for me by name, not as ma. Weird!

We scarfed down our crappy free breakfast and headed to the Pearl Market for some serious shopping. OMFG they were as aggressive as I've ever had it - grabbing me by the arm, trying to pull me into their shops, shouting out to us at every turn - it got a bit ridiculous so we left after only an hour. The markups were crazy and I still think we overpaid despite her price coming down from 3500Yuan to 600Yuan...I managed to score a beautiful silk dressing robe, a jade bracelet, and some other souvenir type things. Neither my daughter and I were interested in pearls, so we didn't even bother after the craziness of the other floors. We had Pizza Hut for lunch at the Pearl Market, which I thought was quite good but my daughter didn't care for her chicken much. Our stomachs are saying NO to local cuisine after a few bad experiences, so we are sticking to western foods more. We had supper tonight at The Palms again, and it was delicious and exactly as ordered. 

From the Pearl Market we decided to head to Temple of Heaven Park which is right next door, and lae around for the afternoon, strolling here and there, stopping to take long breaks, do some reading and people watching. It was nice to have a bit of a slower afternoon after all the treks we have been on. The park was beauitful and huge, so we didn't get to see it all. The heat wasn't as bad today as yesterday, but my daughter didn't think so. I wore a long sun dress today so my sunburned legs wouldn't be exposed and it made heaps of difference. 

Tomorrow we head out on the fast train to Shanghai for the weekend, and back to Beijing on Monday. We're looking forward to an even slower day, just riding the train and dozing. It moves at approximately 300kms/hour, so that will be FAST! Tonight we must pack up and be ready to head out early in the morning. My daughter is napping at the moment, so I shall have to rouse here with some loud rustling of things as I pack. 

Summer Palace

I'm pretty tired but thought I would jot a few lines about our adventures today. We woke early and headed out to the Summer Palace in northwest Beijing. The skies were clear blue, not a cloud in sight, which was impressive as we had not yet seen the sun. The temps rose to about 27C which was a little warm at times, but there was plenty of shade and when that wasn't available, we did the Asian thing and popped open our umbrellas. It is a HUGE area! We must have walked about 15kms today, and my feet are crying for it. The Palace grounds were beautiful as were the many buildings. I started out with my small Canon camera only to have the battery die on me, despite bringing it to full charge before leaving last week. I had to rely on my iphone then as I hadn't brought my SLR with me as it too was also dead...dammit. I had also charged that before I left, and used it just at the Ming Dyasty Tombs. In any event, the iPhone takes pretty good photos and the panoramic feature is just amazing, so I have some awesome panoramic shots. 

We arrived at the Summer Palace and paid for the multi venue ticket so we could see it all. The buildings are so very ornate, and colorful, it was a delight to the senses. There was also significant greenspace around the complex which provided lovely shade, and peaceful surroundings. We climbed hundreds of stairs, if not thousands throughout the course of the day! Our thighs and calves are also crying. There were many museums of artifacts, some dating back to 1600BC, which is mind blowing. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite that old. I think one of my favorite parts was Suzhou Street, which is an old street that runs around a small lake, with narrow walkways and NO guardrails between you and the steep drop to the water! For this reason, they ask tourists to go in one direction only. We did a bit of shopping and then decided on some lunch at one of the little cafes there. We were not too adventurous, and ordered pork meatballs and rice. The dish came with seaweed as well, which was a bit rubbery and weird to eat so we left it on the plate. 

After lunch we decided on a boat tour of the small lake and the bigger lake which took about 45 minutes. It was a lovely tour, met a nice Chinese family who were quite entertaining. The boat tour ended at another part of the huge complex so we then had a fair bit of walking to do to get to the signature Buddhist temple, along with many stairs...pant pant pant. My puffer got a workout for sure. Thankfully I brought two brand new ones with me. Once we arrived at the top of where you could go, we were afforded the most stunning view of Beijing. It was breathtaking. Tomorrow we head to the Forbidden City!