The Roger effect continued to click in , Patrick’s Uber wouldn’t work and mine was not connected to my credit card , so we did some frantic in putting of data before getting a taxi. On checking my passport details and ticket names didn’t correspond and I had an anxious one hour whilst I was shuttled back and forth from one airline to the next before receiving my boarding pass. We’ve found it important to check in 3 hours before a flight in case of hiccups.
When we arrived in Cancun there was no arranged driver to meet us so we caught a taxi to our homestay. This was in pitch darkness and nobody around seemed to know anything about the owners. The taxi driver took us to a hotel in town and we enjoyed grabbing something to eat at a local café next door.
The next morning it was pouring down with rain and we caught a bus to Tulum , a holiday town down the coast with very little charm. At the apartment where we stayed we were met by an Argentinian girl called Macarena , would you believe , from Argentina , another economic refugee from that country. We walked around the town with its tourist shops and cafes and broken pavements . We talked in the evening to an American retiree who came to Tulum twice a year to escape the harsh American winters. Its cheaper than USA and much warmer. Tulum has a bit of a reputation for being a hippy community and I liked the fact that everyone was walking about and using bicycles.
The following day we did the same and hired bikes and discovered why people come here. The Caribbean is gloriously turquoise and the sand white and fine. But the weather wasn’t really for the beach, so we rode on to the Maya ruins nearby, but beat a hasty retreat as it was horribly crowded. We decided to go back the next morning when it opened and we had the place more or less to ourselves. The Mayan ruins are beautiful , set on a cliff above the ocean and surrounded by bush and nice birds. As we were leaving the crowds started to pour in.
The next day we rode to a cenote , and swam in a natural pool formed by limestone , collapsing and forming natural underground clear tranquil water. The bicycle hire guy showed us a drawer full of unclaimed driving licences and passports of people who had lost bicycles. over the December and January period he collected 70 of them. The mind boggles.
So we took the bus back to Cancun , stayed in a nice homestay almost next door to the original one we wanted to stay at and went to the airport the next morning early. What fate would greet us this time?

We caught the Amtrak overnight train from Portland to Salinas which was a good experience. Like everything in USA it’s big , it’s a double decker with an observation car, dining car , sleepers but we chose coach and it was perfectly adequate with reclining seats and we slept quite well. But the railways appear out dated to us, manual systems , old stations , late trains which travel at a leisurely pace, which is great for sight seeing and have long stops at stations. We nearly didn’t get out at Salinas because we thought that the train had stopped at a signal and had a mad scramble out of the train before it restarted. But it was nice to feel the warm sunshine after the cold of Portland.
Our journey was not without drama as somehow Patrick managed to drop Carol’s passport on the floor and only discovered this when we were checking in to the hotel. After a number of phone calls and some tense hours we learned that the passport was found and returned to Salinas station the next day where they picked it up.
Monterey is a small fishing village with a lot of charm and one of the nicest places we have visited .We spent time strolling around the beach front and harbour and enjoying the ambience. A perfect place to retire except for the high cost of living. There are numerous medical facilities to cater for the retirees but Carol had a difficult time trying to renew her script for her medication and suffice to say expensive. USA has the highest medical costs in the world, another reason to think carefully about living there.

We took a bus to Carmel , a very exclusive town with a beautiful beach next to Pebble Beach golf course. Cannery Row , where John Steinbeck wrote the book is another attraction but not much remains of those days and now it’s full of tourist shops, restaurants and up market hotels.
We had two days of rain which cramped our style somewhat but we were able to sort ourselves out and generally observe life. Its noticeable that everywhere in USA that white , well kept men and women take what we would consider to be mundane jobs , supermarket check out clerks , cleaners, bus drivers etc.. and do it cheerfully and give good service. Drivers are careful, courteous particularly in relation to pedestrians. Around the bus station are all types of eccentric people , unfortunately mainly the dropouts of society . There is a noticeable gap between the haves and the not haves.
I also took a trip whale watching and saw grey whales , sea lions, sea otters , pelicans and lots of sea birds. The harbour area is infested with jelly fish.

We travelled by bus to Santa Barbara and then were delayed for over an hour there waiting for the train which was delayed due to the previous week’s mud slide which had killed twenty people in the area.. The train eventually took us to Union Station Los Angeles and then we caught a bus to the airport through ten lane highways at walking pace due to the worst traffic I’ve ever seen. I cant help wondering why USA has such a love affair with the motor car and has allowed its public transport system to deteriorate to such an extent.

We had a homestay in a family home in Playa del Rey , near to the beach and unfortunately a bit too near to the airport. By now the weather was warm and sunny and we took a  ride on rickety bikes to Venice Beach which  appears to cater to two types, the well heeled with beautiful condominiums and the less fortunate with tacky shops. Hundreds of people were exercising in the sunny weather, running, walking and cycling and everything in between. USA is energetic, exuberant, easy to engage and fun loving. The next day we took a ride in the opposite direction, South , and had a coffee at  the big .surfing area Manhattan Beach .

So our USA visit was at an end. Thank you to Carol and Patrick’s relatives and friends for a wonderful stay. A trip across USA would be a great adventure one day.

We flew Air Alaska to Portland and were impressed with the automated check in; simple , quick ,efficient and the result was that two girls checked in the whole flight with no fuss whilst American Airlines had long queues . Compare SAA, masses of people doing nothing. It was cold with snow on the ground and icy roads. The weather here reminds me so much of UK, cold ,grey, rainy and people hunkering down in their houses. We stayed with Davey, Patrick’s son and his wife Robin and they tell you nothing ever happens here. There was a lock down in the area whilst heavily armed police searched for an armed fugitive. You weren’t allowed to leave your houses. He was found two blocks away in a house after a gun was fired. Anyway we had ten guns in the house for protection. Then when we drove out of the house there was a body in the road and crashed cars from an accident and police , fire brigade and ambulances were chasing about with sirens blaring. Nearby is Mount St Helens which blew up spectacularly about ten years . Its OK we are told , it only erupts every 100 years but there was some activity whilst we were there. We took a drive in Dawie’s huge truck along the Colombia River in cold , icy conditions and had lunch at a complex converted from a poor house with bars, a spa, vineyard, theatre , all set in a pretty garden.
We took the train into Portland, a nice city with few high rises and many older preserved buildings. Lots of pubs and restaurants and we ate cheaply at a series of stalls in a square. We also visited a huge thriving book store. There were  a lot of down and outs and some punk kids on the train. The racial profile is very diverse , Chinese, Mexican and whites proliferate and not many black people. Many cute wooden houses , conspicuously without fences and mixed areas but distressingly a lot of homeless people are evident., some very down and out.

A visit to Walmart is a good way to pass the time. as we were checking out an announcement was made, ” Would the jewel thief please return the jewels ” . Some of the      characters you see there are off the wall. The lady in front of us was buying next Christmas’s presents at a knock down rate. One evening we went to the local pub and gaming house, won $40 and paid for our dinner. Americans are friendly and gregarious and a lot of fun..

With all the restrictions, checking in at airports nowadays is a nerve wracking affair. Our flight to San Francisco from Kuala Lumpur was via Shanghai with another airline which was not affiliated and to change planes we had to collect our bags and pass through immigration to change terminals. In order to do that we had to have a transit visa for China. We had 5 hours to do this, ample time you would think. On arrival we were shepherded to a queue for transit visas with one officer going through the laborious procedure of finger prints , photos etc. and invariably there were problem travellers. An hour and a half later we got our visas. From there we picked up our bags and checked in for the San Francisco flight. The clerk took ages correlating our passport and visas and waivers and announced one digit was wrong on Patrick’s visa waiver . Patrick went to the Business Centre and after having to pay with cash and sorting out the Chinese computer reapplied for his waiver. normally its a 72 hour wait and we decided that Carol and I would travel and Patrick would join us later. With heavy hearts we just made the check in, were the last in the queue and the flight was closing when Patrick appeared with a big smile on his face as his waiver miraculously came through. We made the plane by the skin of our teeth.
What to say about USA. Well driving around San Francisco is like being part of a movie set , it all looks so familiar. It’s cold but we wrapped up well. The family we stayed with are warm, friendly, loud and generous. Chrissie’s parents moved out of their home to accommodate us ; how many people would do that for a bunch of strangers? The extended family also entertained us for a wonderful Italian meal, Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day lunch. How’s that for hospitality!
They are also pretty well off, live in well appointed houses and drive nice cars. But it’s not all like that , nearby there’s trailer homes and quite a lot of homeless people living in tents or doorways. We went to Napa Valley for wine tasting and bought some wine at $45 a bottle, toured San Francisco ; walked to Union Square, went down Lombard Street , the steepest hill in the city, Saw the Museum of Fine Arts, and had a drink in Sausalito by the sea. We ran around a lake on one beautiful clear sunny day. USA is the ultimate consumer society , the choice of goods is enormous. Its amazing how one passes from one area to another , we walked through Chinatown and passed into the Italian quarter from one street to the next.

Some

So our four months in South East Asia are up. At the end here is a very brief summary of the countries that I’ve visited.
Japan is by far the most impressive country because of its diligence, organization, technology, discipline, tradition and helpfulness towards visitors. Everything works. Malaysia has a higher standard of living than expected but Kuala Lumpur is rather a soulless metropolis and has adopted wholesale the western way of life. Outside KL it’s a different story and there are plenty of cultural activities to see as well as good beaches. The giant China has ugly cities except for Shanghai , high air pollution , clearly an experiment moving people from the country to cities leaving empty tower blocks and farming communities. How long will they be able to sustain their GDP growth with such high borrowing? Hong Kong is exciting , expensive and unique. Macau was interesting to visit with some nice architecture. Myanmar was the least developed country and had much decay of buildings, roads and pavements. Yangon was exciting, Began was a tourist hub with wonderful temples and Mandalay was depressing. Vietnam was a great country to visit but we were surprised at the mass tourism. Home stay was a good experience in Hou An.
The food everywhere was great and cheap with the exception of Japan and Hong Kong. Street food was wonderful and gave us an opportunity to meet people, both locals and travellers. With the exception of Hong Kong we had good clean accommodation normally in the centre of town where everything happened. We never felt threatened safety wise except for Beijing.
The following costs are for two people per day sharing a room with food and internal transport etc; It excludes air fares.
Langkawi Malaysia $70
China $115
Japan $140
Myanmar $56
Vietnam (excludes Halon Bay cruise ) $65

So its next stop San Francisco.

On our first day in Hanoi I had to sort out some banking problems. The place is frantic, with thousands of motor bikes keeping up an incessant roar. Myanmar was bad but this currency drove me crazy. 1 Rand =1600 dong, 1 US $ = 23000 dong. One draws 10 million dongs from an ATM which is equivalent to $43. We went to the Hanoi Hilton , a prison museum where political prisoners were kept by the French and the Vietnamese kept American air force pilots prisoner including Senator John McCain. Ho Chi Minh mausoleum was closed when we visited as was the War Museum for lunch but we managed to sneak around and look at the shot down aeroplanes and bombs. In the evening the area around the lake was turned into a traffic free zone and the people came out in droves to make the most of it. There was dancing , singing, children’s games, skipping and a nice festival atmosphere.
We went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum but it was closed,and then on to the war museum which was also closed for lunch but we managed to get round to see the US shot down planes. In the evening the area around the lake was turned into a traffic free zone and the people came out in their thousands. There was dancing , singing, children’s’ games, skipping and a nice festive atmosphere.
We transferred by bus to Halong Bay for a two night cruise. This is a luxury cruise ship with cabins and good food. But the number of boats and the mass of people is quite off putting. We stopped at a beach and climbed up to a view point but the whole thing was a farce with hundreds of Chinese jostling, shouting and taking selfies.
Woke up next morning to a wild scene ,rain and mist but this seemed somehow to enhance the beauty. Halong Bay is a range of karst limestone mountains rising sheer out of the sea in spectacular fashion. We sailed to a floating fishing village, people living on floating platforms and boats in not much more than subsistence level. We then moved on to a cave. I wonder if there are any unspoiled places in the world to visit which haven’t been ruined by tourism. The number of cruise boats and the frantic building of hotels is frightening.. How will this area cope environmentally in the future.
We transferred to Cat Ba Island by speed boat and did some hiking in the area. We met travellers a bunch of travellers of all ages and nationalities. Cac Bar is a nice place, cheap with good food. There is a rash of developments of hotels, most of them seem to be tall, narrow buildings, like China and others they have no sense of aesthetics unlike the Japanese. But where will all the tourists come from, what experiences are they after?
Our hike across the island was tough, up and down rock faces and Carol took strain and a couple of falls and ended up on the back of a scooter.
Time was up for Cac Bar and we made our way back to Hanoi by bus , ferry and another bus. By now the weather was cold and we hadn’t packed warm clothing so keeping warm became a priority.
I enjoy the Vietnamese people much more than the Burmese. They are open , friendly and happy. How resourceful they are after all their woes. Again we heard the refrain of Government control and corruption. It doesn’t matter what system there is it’s the same story.
Travellers never cease to amaze me, to the Polish couple hitch hiking around South East Asia, to the Americans who grabbed a week off to come to Vietnam when they found a really good flight offer.
I would nt like to drive in Vietnam. On the highway they overtake on the inside or outside nd cruise on the outside. In the city it’s chaos, the motor bikes just do what they want, take to the pavements, run red lights , go down the wrong way down the street.
Hou An is a small town midway down the country with quant and historic houses, but its become a tourist haven with the usual mixture of hotels, restaurants , travel agents , coffee houses and anything connected with taking a dollar off the tourist. Nevertheless we enjoyed the experience cycling into town and later taking a tripdown the coconut plantation in a coracle and mixing with the locxals.In pouring rain we went to the market and bought ingredients and cooked spring rolls and fish. We stayed at a home stay, a very pleasant experience with friendly accommodating hosts, it gave us the opportunity to talk to them and find out some of the challenges of living in Vietnam and its history. Ho Chi Minh City ( Saigon ) is a busy city with horrendous traffic and lots to see and do. Its famously full of scooters and motor bikes and they think nothing of taking to the pavements en masse. Crossing the road is a challenge and needs a cool head and nerves of steel. We bumped into the first South Africans we had seen after 3 months We visited the Reunification Palace, the old Presidential Palace, complete with sumptuous furnishings , banqueting halls, bedrooms, and underground bunkers.
We’ve spent time in prisons ,museums ,Vietcong tunnels and seen horrific images of the war. War is senseless, barbaric and affects the innocent and the politicians who instigate it all get away Scott free.

We transferred to Myanmar by Air Asia via Bangkok . People watching in the airport was entertaining. There was a group of 50 women who must be on the ugly, noisy women’s day out. Also I was fascinated by how locals can sit cross legged for hours . The joys of budget airlines, jammed into a seat designed for a Japanese dwarf, paying more for a bag than the actual ticket itself , surly flight attendants and paying for a blanket .I’m sure that Charles and Camilla don’t have to put up with these indignities. But there’s no doubt budget airlines have changed the face of flying forever, now middle class Asians including the Chinese are able to fly at will.
Our first impressions of Yangon were that it is more sophisticated than we expected, the cars are all right hand drive but they drive on the right, men and women wear sarongs, women wear ochre on their faces, there are lots of run down beautiful colonial buildings, barefoot monks walking the streets, people eating at street cafes, poor living quarters but a vibrant community where anything is available.
In the evening we visited the Shwedagon Pagoda which is an enormous complex with a central gold leafed dome. As the evening drew on the pagoda glowed from the lights and we squatted with the crowd and took it all in. It was quite a moving experience, people buy flowers and offer them and pray . It seems to me that this is a common theme for all religions to remain humble.
We had dinner on 19th street , a noisy active crowded area but well organised and delicious food.. Yangon is a kaleidoscope of people , smells ,colour ,people selling everything, men using old typewriters, crowded internet cafes . But everything is run down, the pavements are a nightmare to traverse with holes , open drains , polluted rivers ,litter and everything is run down including the railway station and the trains.
We took a 10hour leisurely bus ride to Bagan through lush countryside. This town has become a tourist haven and is the usual mixture of souvenir shops, hotels, restaurants, scooter and bike hire, travel agents , convenience stores with no prices and with a taste of rip off and greed., but its brought much needed income to the country.
We took a tour with a horse and cart at a slow clip clop pace and visited 5 temples but by lunch time we were wilting in the heat. This is on the lines of Ankor Wat with hundreds of temples scattered around the countryside. The next day we hired bicycles and rode around following a map and visited the more remote temples a bit off the beaten track. This was really nice as often we were the only guys on the road.. Many of the temples have frescoes and an inner four sided corridor with a Buddha on each side. Most date from the 12th century. We climbed up the steep steps of a temple and perched precariously on a ledge with a good view around. Climbing down was quite scary, I went down backwards, like descending a ladder.
We took the ferry from Began to Mandalay, a 10 hour trip along the Irrawaddy River. We saw dawn break , hot air balloons flying over Began and had breakfast and lunch on deck and passed through a lovely approach to Mandalay with temples on the hills.
Mandalay has little to commend it, roaring traffic and pollution, thoroughly dangerous pavements and people who see you as a money target, . We walked a long way to Mandalay Palace, paid a lot of money for a run down ,unkempt shabby palace in the middle of an army camp. The city redeemed itself a little after we visited three more temples .The following day we hired a taxi for half a dayand visited more temples, went up Mandalay hill and a gold leaf plant before tottering along the pavements home. This is the least attractive city we have visited.

We spent a week in Kuala Lumpur , mainly chilling out and in my case getting a new pair of spectacles, eating and watching the torrential rain storms flooding the river on the golf course. We visited Batu Caves , a Hindu shrine achieved by climbing up a long flight of stairs to the cave. The shrine itself is more like a building site but the cave was very impressive.

Then we took an interminable train ride in a vibrating freezing cold train ride to Langkawi past thousands of palm trees. We took a taxi and ferry ride to our hotel which was right on the beach. The situation is rather idyllic , a long sandy beach, palm trees , hot humid weather ; a dreamy location. We spent the day lounging about bemoaning the fact that we don’t have Japanese service anymore.

KL is a mixed area , Malaysian, Indian and Chinese but Langkawi is predominantly Moslem and it’s sad to see the women dressed as unattractively as possible and their shy , off hand and rather abrupt manner of serving in the shops.

The attitude towards alcohol is quite puzzling. In KL one can buy anywhere , in Langkawi alcohol is available in some shops and restaurants but very expensive. In some restaurants they will allow you to take in alcohol. Then we discovered a duty free shop where foreigners , by showing passports ,can buy alcohol at greatly reduced prices. Locals can also buy but must show their I D cards but are rationed to for example 72 beers a month. Duty free shops are only available in Langkawi and things like coffee and biscuits are much cheaper.

I took a boat trip to three islands, one attractive inland lake and the feeding of eagles. Cenang comes alive at night, lots of restaurants, shops and everything busy, busy. We’ve enjoyed eating at the local places, good food and much cheaper. But Malaysia is a big contrast to Japan, the people are easy going, sometimes the service is done without a smile and nothing is finished off properly.

We took another freezing cold ferry ride to Penang in a rather dilapidated ferry. It got a bit rough out to sea and one of the passengers put his life jacket on because he thought his last day had come.

During the afternoon and night it threw it down and the next morning we awoke to a flooded hotel lobby and a city awash. This was the first time that the city had flooded in 15 years. Penang city is a fascinating place, a mixture of Buddhist , Chinese and Indian culture with old rundown chop houses ,restaurants ,temples, all looking poorly maintained but with a unique attraction. Some properties have been done up and are quite up market .Street eating is the order of the day with great food and a chance to meet other travellers.

By absolute luck Prince Charles and Camilla were visiting a puppet theatre next door to our hotel. They arrived in splendour and Carol shook Camilla’s hand and welcomed her to Penang.

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Hong Kong week 5

Arriving in Hong Kong island at our AirBnB we had to lug our cases up 3 flights of stairs to a miniscule non too clean apartment which was so small that there wasn’t enough room to store a suit case. Spartan living but Hong Kong apartment prices are horrendous and we were well located. Our neighbours were a church and a massage parlour.
The next day we took the ferry to Portuguese Macau and found this to have a very European feel with squares and churches except for the masses of people and the heat.
Hong Kong is a great place to walk except for the heat and humidity , there is an escalator going right up the mountain with off shoots for shopping centres. We walked up to the Botanical Gardens, an oasis in the middle of the high rise office buildings. Hong Kong is not ashamed of its colonial past, street names are familiar English ones , statues remain of Royalty and English is widely spoken. Hong Kong definitely sees itself as being different from China.
It’s also very cosmopolitan, restaurants everywhere, and the developments inside and outside the city take the breathe away . The vistas of sea, islands, high rise buildings , bridges and old tenements like we lived in are unique. And everywhere there are people , masses of them, what vibrancy. But live there? I doubt it, real estate prices are astronomical and there’s a lack of breathing space.

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China week 4

We took a bullet train for 8 hours to Guilian , for long spells it went at over 300 kms per hour and at that speed it’s hard to focus on anything outside. But it’s mysterious for us to see deserted building sites and derelict half ruined houses. Is this all part of a mass relocation project or is it just the on-going Chinese scheme to keep the GDP growth at 7% by creating engineering schemes.
The train stations are built on a model and all look the same and many seem far too big for their purpose. It’s like putting Shanghai station in the middle of a country village.
We stayed a couple of nights in Guilian but I was suffering again from breathing problems so stayed put. We then moved by bus to Yangshuo to a pleasant family run hotel next to the river. This is the land of the karst limestone mountains , at times it looked eerily like the Chinese landscape paintings, misty mountains, peasants tending the rice fields and a slow pace of life. Patrick and I took a bike ride and proceeded to get lost, we were rescued by a local who poled us across the river on his bamboo raft. We called in at an English language school; it would be very idyllic to teach there in the middle of the country.
There’s an element of interference by the Government here, empty state run buses which charge an arm and a leg and police manning road blocks . The local people resent this. It would seem that some people believe because of the one party state the individual has little say in the running of the country. The Government encourages a movement away from the country villages and that genetically engineered crops mean higher food growth and efficient agricultural system. The Government bulldoze their projects through, there’s little or no negotiation on compensation for building, the Government own the land on a 70 year lease.
We met some climbers from Switzerland who had travelled to climb the steep karst limestone.
Because of the increase in costs there are less foreign visitors who can visit other Far Eastern countries at a lower cost. It seems to us that China charges high amounts for some mundane sights , it’s not a cheap destination any more.
There’s an English school here . It would be nice to teach for some time here.
Walking and riding around in the heat and humidity is energy sapping. I need to keep topped up with water and food.
On our last day in China we took the bullet train to Shenzhen, the metro to the border with Hong Kong, went through customs and immigration , which seems strange as it’s now one country and then the MRT to our AirBnB on Hong Kong Island

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China week 3

Xian is a complete contrast to Pingyao , row after row of high rises ,swarms of people and ugly. Patrick was not feeling well so Carol and I went in search of some medicine. The system is different here, pharmacies are inside a nearby hospital and this created a good impression. Clean , prompt helpful service despite the language problem , and we got our medicines. Patrick stayed in bed and Carol and I explored the Bell and Drum Towers and the Moslem market and old mosque. The market was frenetic with countless things to eat, men bashing bread, meat, making nuts , pasta and half the time we had no idea what they were doing or selling. We walked back in pouring rain.
The next day we did the sensible thing and hired a car and driver and visited first an archaeological site from 6000 years ago , living very similarly to remote African tribes today. On to the Terracotta Warriors, an astounding place. 3 digs of hundreds of clay soldiers , each individual in build and face together with horses , chariots . The question is why did the Emperor do this , have this whole army buried with him? Was it megalomania or as some think did he expect to carry on in death as in life , inspecting his army ?
The following hot day we went by public bus to the Large Goose Pagoda, another large temple complex in the centre of the city with splendid views from the top of wide avenues in 4 directions.. Here Carol took a tumble and has been hindered since by a badly bruised foot.
We flew to Shanghai , a painless experience except for having to open our checked baggage all for the sake of nail scissors. There’s a lot of mindless beauracracy in China , one becomes a little tired of bag and personal searches on trains, planes , and undergrounds but I suppose it’s better than terrorist bombs.
By now I had succumbed to the Asian bug and spent one day in our rather disappointing Air BnB . However it was well placed and for 2 days we took a hop on and hop off bus around the remarkable city. The Bund is a pedestrian area around the river with a collection of 1920’s well-preserved bank buildings and across the river in the financial district we went up to the 80th floor in a split second to have wondrous views around the city. Shanghai ranks up there as a major city alongside Hong Kong , Singapore and Bangkok and is far more modern and fresh compared to Beijing.
But you have to ask questions about the sustainability of the Chinese miracle.
A short train ride to Hangzhou and a special in a 4 star hotel which was welcome. A day spent by the lake with a boat ride alongside what seemed like a million other persons.
China never ceases to amaze , this town has an expanding metro , an airport and a population of 6 million, just another town in China.
A disappointing aspect of China is the lack of Facebook, Internet, Instagram due to China’s fear of social media. Their ATM’s are also a bit fear making and the vast railway stations with thousands of people milling about, the stations seem to be carbon copies of each other.
If asked the question “ Is it worthwhile to visit China ?” the answer is a definite yes. We’ve seen amazing sights, wonderful foods and witnessed first-hand a country that has transformed itself in 20 years.

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China Week 2

To continue our journey we flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing via Air Asia. All went well until we drew cash from an ATM. We either were given counterfeit money from the ATM or had good money swapped by a taxi driver later. Our hotel was close to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City both of which cover a huge area. Carol kept saying that it’s a public holiday but that wasn’t the case, the number of people visiting these sites is enormous , estimates 80,000 per day. We filed past Mao’s body in the mausoleum being urged on all the time by the overabundance of police and minders. People laid flowers, some wept and there was an overall feeling of reverence. From there we walked through the Forbidden City , the scale of which is enormous. The next day we took a trip to the Great Wall and walked and climbed marvelling at the fantastic achievement that made this possible. We stopped at the Ming tombs and braved the hectic traffic back to the city . Our driver took a shortcut to avoid the snarled traffic and got the bus stuck in an alleyway. A shouting woman ran out and blocked us with a bicycle and stones but we gingerly reversed and turned around. It was nice to meet some intrepid travellers, Barbara a 70 + American who just travelled wherever she felt like it following the sun or her whim, two free spirited Belgian girls and 3 Filipino girls who live in Singapore. On our last day in Beijing we took the metro to the Summer Palace which is beautifully situated next to a lake but rather spoilt by hordes of people. But what does one expect , China has 1.4 billion people and over 20 million living in Beijing. In the evenings we walked the hutongs ( alleyways ) around the hotel into the poorer residential areas .
Our impressions of Beijing are that it is a huge city with wide clogged roads and highways, magnificent architecture and history, miles and miles of high rise buildings . In general the Chinese are not friendly to foreigners and overcharge and not particularly honest , there’s a huge security presence. Very few smiles are handed out and the people appear gruff and confrontational.
Beijing West is a frantic station with masses of people but we found our way to the huge waiting room for our train which was somewhat like being in an airport. The train itself was impressive, 16 coaches long, comfortable and new and reaches speeds of 300 kilometers/hour. A good way to travel.
Pingyao is an old walled town, the first morning Patrick and I ran the circumference 6.2 kms and saw one guy doing martial exercises with a sword, groups of women doing aerobics and people singing . Inside the walls the town consists of small traditional houses converted into shops , restaurants, hotels , no cars and old museums and temples to view. So we spent the days and evenings strolling around and eating and people watching. In fact both in China and Malaysia we have covered a lot of ground. The food is divine noodles soaked in vinegar, pot roast beef, green tasty vegetables and other pork or chicken dishes. We have found that an evening meal with drinks costs the same as 3 cappuccinos. So I think that in future we will be giving our coffee breaks a miss.
Our hotel is in traditional style with a huge bed that could sleep 6 but a hard mattress and a pillow filled with rice. So Patrick and I wake up wrecked with pains and sores and walk around like old men until we loosen up.
I would recommend Pingyao to anyone to visit when in China. The people are far more friendly and helpful than Beijing.
Some difficulties, no Google and Facebook , no one wants to sell us a SIM card, no pharmacies , worrisome ATMs and very little English spoken. Actually the latter leads to some fun situations with all sorts of people being hauled in to translate and explain the dishes.

Tamsin

I have a very unusual grand-daughter Tamsin. She doesn’t think she’s unusual because her life has always been the same since she was born but other people shake their heads in wonder at the things she has experienced in her 12 years of life.

She has lived all her life at Phinda Game Reserve in Zululand South Africa where her parents live and work. Initially she went to a pre-primary school for children of employees but now she goes to Hluluwe Primary School. To get there each day the children drive 40 minutes through the game reserve and Tamsin told me that on one day she saw the big 5, that’s lion, leopard, elephant , rhino and buffalo; a bit different from most people’s drive to school.

The staff live in an area next to the airfield and particularly at night it’s best to keep your eyes open and tread warily. Lions march down the road past the houses and elephants come regularly into the garden to drink from the bird bath.

From an early stage Tamsin has accompanied her Dad in carrying out his tasks as Conservation Manager. This means she’s been there when they’ve darted elephants, leopards and lions to fit collars, rhinos to remove horns and helped out when the vet has cleaned up wounds on injured animals. She has no problem to swab out maggots from an infected leg or stomach. These operations don’t always go strictly to plan, on one occasion a partly anaesthetised elephant got angry and turned over the truck in front of where she and her mother were watching , injuring and trapping the driver.

Flying in helicopters and planes to spot animals from the air is no big deal for Tamsin .

She recently went with Simon to Malawi to relocate antelope from one reserve to another and in the near future she’s going to a private island off the coast of Zanzibar to do something similar.

She is also responsible for rearing and feeding orphaned antelopes which are kept in her Dad’s garden. This includes bottle feeding them every 4 hours when they are young.

Of course we all believe that she’ll follow in Dad’s footsteps and pursue a career in conservation. But that’s not a given, who knows Tamsin is just as likely to become a fashion designer or an accountant. It’s going to be interesting to see.

On day 3 we were woken up at 04.30 and by torch light climbed Poon Hill to see the sunrise over the Himalayas. It was worth it, our first real sight of the Annapurna range with the first rays of the sun catching the summit of the highest peak and then gradually moving down until all the snow covered peaks were brilliant and glowing. There were a lot of trekkers up there and the mood became almost euphoric; people dancing , pulling funny poses and running happily around and taking photos.
Ours was the first Gap trek after the monsoon and there was still a lot of rain about. There was a weather pattern, dawn would be clear and peaceful and was the best time to view the mountains. As the sun rose higher water would evaporate from the soaked earth and form clouds and mist which would gradually obscure the mountains. Morning walking would be hot and humid and we would sweat buckets and then by the afternoon it would start to rain lightly. Evenings it would often clear and then we would see the most amazing sights sometimes completely by accident . We would be gazing at white fluffy clouds and then with a delighted shock realise that peaking out above the clouds would be a snowy mountain top. Often it would rain all night.
We progressed to walking through forests; bamboo, rhododendrons and wild flowers interspersed amongst the trees. Here we had to watch out for leeches, they would lie in wait on leaves and jump on to you and then make their way on to your skin and suck your blood. We used to check each other out and remove them but some escaped our attention, I found a bloody sock one evening and a mark on my neck.
With so much water about the waterfalls were truly spectacular. They were everywhere, falling vertically for hundreds of metres, crashing into rocks at the bottom and forming fountains. The scale of the Himalayas is awesome, raging rivers, steep mountain sides where land slides and avalanches roar down and mist which would suddenly swirl and then part giving glimpses of the snow covered peaks high above.
It was high up on the mountain we had an earthquake , I felt it as a 30 second shake of the bedroom with the door frame moving backwards and forwards but the others said it was 2 mins. It was 6.5 on the Richter scale and killed people in Kathmandu. A dog had followed us up the trail and had adopted our room to sleep in until I threw him out . I thought it was him trying to get into the room.
Only on the last day before base camp did we break out of the forest and walked through grass land. Then our luck deserted us and it rained heavily with thick mist. We slogged on and up and at last in the late afternoon stumbled up to Annapurna base camp, 4100 meters high. By then we were tired, wet and a bit miserable but our luck hadn’t entirely deserted us because later again the mists cleared and we caught views of the mountain tops , boding well for the morning.

And in the morning our luck came back ,the weather was clear and we were on the edge of a glacier and surrounded 360 degrees by the Annapurna range, impossibly high peaks cloaked in snow and glaciers ; all of them between 7and 8,000 meters high. Again the mood of the trekkers was exuberant, people dancing, whooping and doing cartwheels. Amongst it all were sheep herders living in a smoky bivouac tending their flocks. I think Ben felt quite at home. I couldn’t help thinking about the mountaineers where the base camp is just the start of their climb to the top. I couldn’t imagine how they summon the effort and will power to climb those summits.
Our luck really was out on the way down, it chucked it down. From then on it was wet clothes, socks and boots and often wading through paths pouring with water. It’s here where good gear is invaluable, I was lucky in that I had a 1st class rain jacket and pants but Adam seemed to do the trek in a yellow T shirt, cut off jeans and an umbrella and he suffered. We descended on a circular route and crossed the longest suspension bridges on the way down These swayed alarmingly as we walked and often we could see planks which had fallen off lying on the banks of the churning , roaring rivers way down below. One tilted dangerously to one side and we held on like grim death to the highest guard rail. The Nepalese health and safety inspectors were conspicuous by their absence.
We reached Pokara by the third night after base camp, and bliss; long hot showers, steak and chips and a chance to dry our clothes. Then it was one more time on the bus ride from hell back to Kathmandu, a lovely last dinner and then the following day people made their way home.
When we were climbing Poon Hill we saw early morning planes flying down the valleys and then swooping over the cols to continue on sight seeing trips of the Himalayas. They were below us as we continued to climb the mountains. Ramesh , the tour leader, offered us an opportunity to fly on one on the last day in Kathmandu. We all turned it down . On that day an Everest sightseeing plane crashed on the approach to Kathmandu and everyone was killed. On my return I read that Sir Edmund Hillary’s wife was killed in the same way many years ago.
I stopped off overnight in Dubai and the contrast with Kathmandu was amazing. I moved from 3rd world to not just 1st but a future world. What an influence our politicians and leaders have over us to create such contrasting states.
Trekking in the Himalayas is demanding physically but very rewarding. I take back with me memories of soaring peaks , misty valleys , beautiful indigenous forests, tranquil farmland in almost impossibly steep hillsides and everywhere the sounds of water rushing along in rivers and waterfalls . Last but not least I won’t forget the friendly helpful people, always courteous and always smiling