Adlibing Asia

BULLETIN: MOVING BLOGS

2008-02-22T10:20:00.003+08:00

After being on the road for almost 9 months now and posting loads of photos to keep everyone interested we have now reached our photo limit and have set up a new blog to keep the adlibing adventures recorded. Click here to see the new (but strangley similar) Adlibing Asia! The Link is also on the right toolbar under Blogs We Love.

Adlibing it to a new blog site.

Day 247 - Stepping back in time in the DMZ and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

2008-02-21T18:22:00.007+08:00

Although it may seem odd, a lot of Vietnam's tourism is based around the war, and today we set off on an organised tour to explore the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), which split the country in half from 1954-75. The Benhai river was the mid-point between the Republic of Vietnam (South) and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North), and 5km either side was the official DMZ, but ironially as the war progressed this area became one of the most militarised zones in the country.

After stopping for breakfast at Dong Ha Town, the closest to the DMZ and now almost completely rebuilt, we passed by the Doc Mieu Fire Base on our way to the Guerilla Monument, which stands in remembrance of local guerilla fighters. We were supposed to stop at the fire base, which was once an eerie reminder of the battles that went on here, but it has now faded away and been covered with overgrowth. We then made our way across the Benhai River and saw the huge speakers on both sides of the river that were used to spread propaganda from both sides to the other! Before being hit by a bomb during the war the north side of the bridge was painted read and the south yellow, but now a huge Vietnamese flag flies from the bridge as a sign of unity.

Next we headed to what was the highlight of the day - the Vinh Moc tunnels. These tunnels were built by locals of the village (in North Vietnam) who by 1966 were living in one of the most bombed places in the world. The Viet Cong supported the locals to stay there because it was an important base during the war. This 2.8km network of tunnels took 18 months of work with 12 entrances and 3 levels, ranging from 12-24m below the surface. Amazingly this tunnel was home for the locals for 3 years, and 17 babies were born in the tunnels. One of the many bombs that cratered the surrounding lands, scored a direct hit on the tunnels, but failed to blow up, and the hole from the hit was later converted into a ventilation hole. Walking through the tunnels was exhilarating and spooky at the same time - it was hard to separate the enjoyment and curiousity, from the reality of the environment that existed during the Vitnam war. It was a surreal feeling, trying to imagine the lives of the families who lived here and seeing the scarred rocks that bore the words of their terrors. After exiting the tunnels we walked along Cua Tung Beach, where navy ships fired on the tunnel entrances across the South China Sea.

In the afternoon we stopped to glance at the Rockpile, which was a 230m high rockface where American longrange artillery was positioned and soldiers utilised the height as a vantage point to lookout over the forests that hid the Viet Cong as they made their way along the famous Ho Chi Minh trail. From here we went to the Dakrong Bridge that was once a branch of the Ho Chi Minh trail, this section of the trail is now known as the Ho Chi Minh highway.

On our way to Khe Sanh Combat base, we passed through ethnic minority villages that once homed forests full of tigers and bears. Unfortuneately much of the forest was destroyed during the war, leaving hilltops balded by the blades of agent orange and other chemical weapons. This led to villages replanting rice and coffee fields to replace the lifestyle of hunting and gathering they had previously known.

The Combat Base was where one of the most controversial and bloody battles of the war took place in 1968. On the grounds of the base scarred by bombs, white phosperous shells, and naplam lie downed helicopters (some still complete, others merely piles of ruins), tanks, and reconstructed bunkers that failed to give an idea of what it would have been like to be there during the war when the ground was literally a pile of bodies. A long bus trip home led us to dinner and bed - basically the only choices we made ourselves today!!

MAG (Mines Advisory Group) is a neutral and impartial humanitarian organisation clearing the remnants of conflict for the benefit of local communities worldwide. Check out more about this organisation and the ongoing work it undertakes in Vietnam and other countries that have been affected by landmines left after war. After a day seeing and learning about the effects of war, we're glad to see organisations like MAG working to help countries recover.

Adlibing it someone else's way.

Day 246 - An afternoon in Hue

2008-02-21T14:20:00.004+08:00

We woke to one of the frustations that comes with catching Open Tour buses in Vietnam - the bus stopping outside of town at one of the bus driver's 'brother's' hotels! The driver and hotel owner got a little annoyed when everyone refused to get off the bus asking to be taken into town! It wasn't really an issue for us because we were just going to get back on another bus to go to Hue! On the way to Hue, we stopped for a snack and another photo-op:
The drawcard for Hue is that is was once the capital of the country under the rule of the Nguyen Emperors, and after the successive wars Hue and its architecture was badly damaged. We arrived in Hue about 5 hours later and after checking into a hotel we set off for lunch and to explore the Citadel. The walls that surround the citadel are 2m thick and 10km long and were constructed in 1804. At the front of the citadel is a 37m high flag tower, the largest in Vietnam and during the Viet Cong occupation in 1968 the National Liberation Flag flew in defiance. Inside we wandered around the gates, temples and pagodas, which varied from newly restored to partly crumbled, to almost non-existent.
Almost at the end of our afternoon we came across s a martial arts team doing a performance outside a temple. We got to see a lion dance and a little dude who's bound to be able to break some bones when he grows up! Our night was filled with eating, drinking, and sleeping.

Adlibing it inside the Citadel.

Day 245 - Surf, sun, and sand

2008-02-21T14:19:00.004+08:00

Our day today takes little explaining - after sleeping in most of the morning we hit Nha Trang beach where we lazed in the sun and had fun in the surf until 5pm only straying for lunch at Olivia Restaurant.

Seriously that's all we did until we boarded our bus to Hoi An - we were treated to a free upgrade to a open tour sleeper bus, which was a relief as we had done this very trip in reverse a few weeks ago and were not looking forward to it!!

Adlibing nothing but the beach.

Day 244 - Travelling our way into a new year, again.

2008-02-21T14:10:00.004+08:00

This morning we had a relaxing stroll around Dalat. Enjoying the sun and the views over Xuan Huong Lake we found ourselves a spot to read a few hours away before heading in the direction of the old Cremaillere train station. This station was closed because of attacks during the war, and the destroyed tracks have never been fully replaced so we didn't go for a train ride, only to check out the building and old trains hanging around.

After lunch at the vegetarian restaurant again, we hopped on our bus to take us back to the beach paradise of Nha Trang. Along the way we were blown away by the phenomenal scenery especially the old quaint villages set in the stunning mountainside that was a combination of farms, lush green forests and sections that were being felled: the result being like a green checkers board.

It was nice to arrive back in Nha Trang where we pretty much knew where to go - we hit some luck when we went to book our onward tickets for the next day as they could tell us where a clean cheap room was! This may not sound like much, but as it is New Year's Eve/TET Eve, everything has tripled in price, and all the others closed down for the week.
We set out for dinner at an Indian restaurant before taking a walk along the beach and watching a lunar new years show - but the exhaustion of the last week of travelling set in and we ended up piking out before midnight and enjoying hearing the fireworks from our hotel room!

Adlibing in the New Year

Day 243 - Braving the bikes to tour around Dalat

2008-02-21T13:47:00.004+08:00

This morning we woke to the sound of buses honking - but it's a nice change from our alarm! After brekky we set off with Quinn, another traveller staying at our hotel, on the motorbikes. Our first destination was Lat Village - 12km out of town on beautiful sweeping roads that made their way through the mountainside to the base of Lang Bian Mountain. Driving through the village only took us a couple of minutes on the rocky/muddy "road" but we continued on through to climb a bit higher and get a good view of the village.
From above we had views of valleys and over farms that looked so organised and manicured that the crops could have been planted using a ruler and they still wouldn't be straighter. Another striking feature of the fields was the amazing irrigation system, that utilises hollow bamboo stalks as pipes.
Back in the village we wandered around and checked out the wooden church, complete with stained glass windows. Afterwards we were invited into a party in celebration of a slaughtering the previous day of a buffalo. Inside the shop where we parked our bikes, a young girl was weaving on a traditional loom, to make the beautiful material and goods for sale.Back on our cruising machines we made a stop for ice coffee / tea and watch the world go by, before heading back to town for lunch. After charging our camera and filling up we hit the road again. Well, for a few hundred metres anyway - as it was then that we realised that our back tyre was flat.

We stopped to have it repaired and headed off in the direction of the Datanla Waterfall. Not long into the ride our tyre failed us again on the dodgy downhill slope so Adam set off for a sketchy ride, while Quinn gave Liv a ride back to a new fix-it man, where we decided to get an entire new tube! We were soon on our way to the waterfall again!

When we got there we descended a rather steep path down through a pine forest, listening to birds chirp as we went, all the time thinking about how we had to walk all the way back up again!!
The waterfall itself was pretty, and we got a great view from above when we climbed the muddy path, where we also managed to find a couple of fishermen as they fished from a secluded fishing hole nestled in the bush.

Back in Dalat the three of us had dinner on a table on the street, after which Adam and Quinn enjoyed several beers from Quinn's balcony and watched local families prepare for the Tet festival by cleaning every inch of their house!

Adlibing the highland roads of Dalat.

Day 242 - An eye-opening bus trip to Dalat

2008-02-21T13:31:00.004+08:00

While Liv dined on breakfast, Adam had to pass, and before long we arrived for our bus as instructed at 7.45am. Almost an hour later a small mini-bus arrived and we started circling around town picking up passengers, until we had more passengers than seats. We thought this mini-van was only taking us to the bigger bus so we didn't mind squeezing in, but after a couple of hours on the road it became clear that there was no bigger bus!

A journey was made a little more stressful than normal (anyone who has been to Asia will understand the mahem of the roads and drivers) because we had a newbie driver probably because the normal driver had gone on holiday for the week of Tet. Our driver was apparently unaware of the use of gears, refusing to change down from 3rd gear until we had almost stopped - this was even more frustrating as we were making ourway to the Highlands and therefore the majority of our trip was going up and around mountain passes.

As we were making our final uphill drive into Dalat we came across 2 accidents. The first involved a tour bus and a truck and the mountain, and the second 2 motorbike drivers who are now part of the stastistics that arise when there are millions of motorbikers in Vietnam. Hmmm, shall we still hire a motorbike tomorrow to explore the region?

We finally arrived in Dalat (a little somber, needless to say) which is set in a mountainous region neraly 1500m above sealevel - this means that the temperature here is a pleasant 5-10 degrees lower than in Saigon and a hell of a lot less polluted. The Highlands around Dalat was once a hunters paradise, but unfortunately there were too many hunters that the hunted are no longer around. The highlands area also fell victim to Agent Orange during the war but Dalat itself seemed to be spared the effects, and we found ourselves surrounded by pine forests (not unlike those back in NZ) and valleys filled with farms and fields.
In the evening we wandered the fruit and vege markets and bought ourselves some bananas and mangoes before going to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner - Liv was spoilt for choice and we dined on Sweet 'n Sour "beef" ribs and braised "chicken"!

Adlibing it to the Highlands.

Day 241 - A slow trip back to Saigon

2008-02-21T13:09:00.003+08:00

We got up with the intention of going to the bus station and finding a bus back to Saigon, but after a French couple eating breakfast at the same place as us found out a tourist bus was leaving at lunch time right outside the hotel to the place they wanted to go to, so we decided to try our luck and see if it was going back to Saigon. After some bargaining by Adam we had 2 seats on the bus that would drop us almost directly outside our hotel in Saigon where our packs were waiting for us for only a couple of dollars more than it would have cost us on a local bus. Even though we usually prefer taking local buses, the Saigon bus station is so far away from where we're staying at would have taken us 2 bus changes to get close - so we took the easy way out!!

The bus trip was everything you'd expect from a bus trip in Asia. We spent an hour waiting for our bus to break through all the traffic and make the ferry journey across the Mekong, and after hours in the Tet holiday traffic we stopped to pick up more passengers to make the bus packed to capacity, and then after a number of hours on the road only 30km from Saigon our bus lost its gear box so we stood on the side of the road while our driver / mechanic fixed the bus enough to get us back on the road - minus a few gears! This meant we had to take a round-a-bout route into town so he could avoid having to change gears, and running more than a few red lights on the way so we didn't stop!

Back in Saigon we went for Indian with some other travellers we met on the bus who provided us with great company. After dinner Adam joined a group of travelling drinkers sitting outside the hotel. The hotel owner had generously given them a very stong bottle of rice-vodka, which once empty prompted the group to journey down the road to find more wine and beer to drink the night away. One of the cyclo drivers that had taken Aussie Adam and Abbey round town that day stopped to say hello and let us try his banana whisky and in the wee small hours Adam finally retired to bed to get at least some sleep before our 8am bus in the morning to Dalat.

Eventually adlibing it back to Saigon.

Day 240 - Cruising on the Mekong Delta

2008-02-21T12:44:00.005+08:00

Oh my goodness, it's 5am - though waking even hour stressed that our alarm wouldn't wake us, had prepared us well for it! We hurried downstairs to be greeted by our boatman for the day, who wasted no time in thrusting a bag of bread and bananas in our hands and whisking us off to the wharf. The bananas were so tiny and cute, we almost felt bad eating them! But we needed breakfast and gobbled them up as we waited for the sun to cast its light over the river. We were treated to a fusion of colours that appeared with the sun as it pierced its way through the clouds. After an hour floating along the river we arrived at Cai Rang - the biggest floating market in the Mekong Delta. The reason we had to leave so early is that the markets are at their best between 6-9am and we didn't want to miss all the action. Daily life here centres around the rivers where everybody sells, buys, and exchanges their fruit, veges and flowers all while drifting atop the river. There is no apparent organisation to this commotion, but it all seems to work out as larger boats seem to anchor themselves in one place while an army of smaller boats putt or row their way to where they need to go - banging into each other along the way.
After being right in the middle of the chaotic and exciting atmosphere of people enjoying their daily work, we zipped down a small canal to a ricepaper / noodle-making factory. Here we wandered around almost unnoticed by the workers who were focused on their individuals tasks involved in making the noodles.
We continued up the mighty Mekong, our small boat (only 6m long and 1.5 wide) rocking each time a bigger boat passed by - but our master driver managed to steer us in the right way each time to avoid capsizing into the murky brown waters. We passed houses along the way, built in the traditional manner of using any available material and built up on stilts to keep the rising waters away - flooding is growing problem in the area, partly due to deforestation. If this was anywhere else in the world, and the river was cleaner, people would pay big bucks to have the chance to build their houses along the riverfront!

We made our way to Phong Dien floating market, more than 20km from our starting destination, in time to catch the commerce going on there as well. The Phong Dien market is not as big as the Cai Rang market, but was impressive and interesting in its own right, and was more pleasant to cruise around in because of the lack of big boats.
From here we headed back down stream and turned off into a shady, winding canal lined with mangrove forests. Here we stopped at a fruit orchid for a drink and some longan fruit before getting back on the boat for our return trip. We continued down the canal until we hit the point where it was too shallow for us to continue, so headed back the way we came through Cai Rang - the water was so calm along the canal, that when we made it back onto the made river again we noticed more and more river spray reaching us as the wind and waves picked up.

Along the way Adam settled in for a beer he had brought along, which he finished by the time we made it to Cai Rang, so we set about finding a floating bar to restock and bargained for a pineapple from one of the many fruit boats still hanging around. Sitting back with pineapple and beer in hand, we continued our cruise towards the finish line. Our trip back was slowed down when Adam needed to jump into the bush for natures calling - and in the process lost his hat overboard again!! Luckily on this slow boat (our engine was a small lawnmower engine with a pole and a prop connected to it) we could make a pick-up!

Back on dry land we went back to our Mekong regular eating spot before picking up some icecreams and beers to people watch the night away on the waterfront - including an 85 year old woman making flax swans and though we are unlikely to give money to beggars the smile on this woman's face was enough to convince us to buy one.

Adlibing the mighty Mekong waterways.

Day 239 - Transporting ourselves into the Mekong Delta

2008-02-21T12:31:00.004+08:00

Having decided to pass on an all inclusive tour of the Mekong Delta region, we made our way to Can Tho by ourselves in order to be able to explore the region at our own pace rather than at the pace of the tour guide and 30 other people!!

The Mekong Delta is the area South of Saigon that surrounds the famous Mekong river (the Vietnamese name for the river is Song Cuu Long meaning "River of Nine Dragons")- which flows 4,500km from Tibet through to Vietnam, via China, Burma, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. The region produces the majority of the country's rice and is famous for its variety of tropical fruit grown here, which we're looking forward to sampling. The people here are regarded as the friendliest of the country!

A long day on the bus was made worse by an hour of almost standstill traffic leaving the city, but we made it to Can Tho the largest city in the Mekong Delta without too much trouble! We were even dropped off outside the hotel we were going to look at by the free taxi service offered by the bus company we went with - which saved an otherwise inevitable of aimless wandering in the southern heat.

After checking out a few hotels, we settled on a nice cheap one (made even cheaper by choosing to forego aircon: a decision we hope we don't regret later), and went out to explore the bustling backstreets and waterfront of the town. We took some time wandering the markets and people watching while sitting by the river. It was interesting seeing women row passengers in their boats across the life sustaining river.
After dinner we retired for an early night as we have to meet our boat driver at 5.30am tomorrow morning for our adventure on the river.

Adlibing it to Can Tho.

Day 238 - Exploring Ho Chi Minh City

2008-02-21T12:06:00.007+08:00

We had a huge day today exploring the major sites within Saigon city - all by foot power!!!

Our day started off in Pham Ngu Lao district where our hotel is located in the bustling backpacker area, where we had breakfast and set off to the Ben Thanh Market. By the time we arrived here, we realised we were in for a long, hot day, as the temperature outside continued to rise! Inside the market, the temperature followed the same pattern as outside, and was jammed-packed full of tourists trying to buy stuff from the locals trying to sell it. We walked away empty handed for 3 main reasons: we have to carry what we buy on our backs all day; our budget is very tight; and the markets at home in China sell similar products and are seemily cheaper than what was for sale here. Nevertheless we enjoyed wandering and having a look around.

Across the street (which is not an easy thing to achieve) we stopped for a few minutes at the Tran Nguyen Hai statue - one of many statues we would come across during the day. The statues here usually depict a war scene or heroes, and are important to the locals, but after a while they kind of start to look the same: like it is when you go to temple after temple and hit saturation point.
Our third stop of the day was at the Fine Arts Museum, housed in a stunning French Colonial era building that served to amplify the atmosphere of the gallery itself. Inside we wandered around the halls filled with ceramics, carvings, and most interesting to us the numerous paintings born out of the war.

From here we wandered across to the street market where meat, veges, clothes, and souveniers were on sale, which led us on a zig-zagging route towards the restored Municipal Theatre - which we're sure would have been totally gorgeous were it not for the huge stage and banners that covered the front of the theatre in preparation for Tet celebrations (Lunar New Year).

On the way to the Musuem of Ho Chi Minh City we passed by the old Hotel de Ville (now the People's Committee Building and closed to the public), similar in style to the theatre. At the museum we had the opportunity to watch part of a music video clip be filmed in the beautiful surroundings of the museum - though they seemed to stay away from the army tanks and planes outside! The interesting exhibits at the museum included photos showing old and new Saigon; a traditional wedding scene; and a entire floor devoted to the American War including pictures of worldwide protests including one in Auckland.
Our feet and bodies in desperate need for a break, we stopped in at a cafe for lunch. It was here that we had one of our best meals in Vietnam - what made it so great however were the delicious desserts: Liv had a Mango, icecream and baileys smoothie and Adam indulged in a coffee icecream sundae!

After lunch we made our way to the extremely somber reminder of what brings at the War Remnants Museum. The museum that opened in 1975 has many different rooms all dedicated to different aspects of the war. One of the most interesting rooms was one that showcases photos from 134 war reporters killed during the war. The War Crimes rooms blasted our eyes open to the realities of war and included some extremely graphic photos that won't be forgotten any time soon. In the Tiger Cages we got a glance at the imprisonment systems during the war, before ending with the room that celebrates international support for ending the war - a nice ending to the tour to recognise that millions of people worldwide were against it.

Needless to say we left here in a not so cherry mood, and walked slowly to our next destination. After struggling to find the entrance to the Reunification Palace we finally asked, only to be told that it was closed for the day - most likely in connection with the up and coming new year. Our last stops at the day were the Notre Dame Cathedral (we timed our visit here perfectly for a wander inside the church) and the Post Office - both beautiful French-style buildings with high ceilings and openly displayed structural beams. Exhausted we made our way home, rested, ate, drank, and slept.

Adlibing around and around the streets of Saigon

Day 237 - Crusing down the shoreline to Saigon

2008-02-21T11:45:00.005+08:00

We woke to the blue, cloudless sky and calm water and an echo saying "stay, relax, don't go" and we wished we hadn't already purchased our onward tickets to Saigon - but before we could be tempted to stay our bus arrived and whisked us down the coast to the largest metropolis in Vietnam.

After 6 hours or so we arrived in Saigon - now officially named Ho Chi Minh City, but still called Saigon by most people. The Lonely Planet had prepared us to enter a chaotic mess of traffic and people, but we almost instantly felt relaxed and started enjoying being here - not even the 3 million motorbikes got in our way: we guess we have our 8 months in China to thank for that!

We found a room relatively quickly, thank goodness because it is blimmin hot here, and after finding some nourishment we went out for an adlibed exploration of our surroundings, turning this way and that without any reason for the directionn and accidentally stumbling across a bus stop we would need in a couple of days: bonus!

We finally sampled an ice cold sugar cane drink from a street vendor, and while it lived up to its refreshing reputation it didn't totally suit our tastes - but we enjoyed watching her crush the water soaked canes through the squashing machine.
We headed up a tight alleyway that led from one traffic-laden street to another, walking past the houses of the locals who work in the area and smelling the smells drifting from the kitchens.
In the evening the smells from our walk were still fresh in our minds so we wandered off to find some food to match the smells and returned satisfied, before crashing out!!

Adlibing it up in the city.

Day 236 - Milling around Mui Ne

2008-02-11T19:41:00.001+08:00

Our morning today was very similar to the days we spent at Sanya a couple of weeks ago - after exchanging a book so Liv had something to read, we found a spot on the beach which is actually more difficult than it sounds as the section of beach where we're staying is a victim of the tides meaning we have no 'beach' as such for the majority of the day. The part of beach we decided to relax on only consisted of a couple of metres of sand, but if you venture an extra 3km into town you'll find more sand to play on - and much more expensive accommodation to go with it!

After swimming and reading the morning away we walked along the beach with the sea lapping at our feet, and made our way back to the hotel for lunch and drinks before we departed for our afternoon adventure.

Our adventure would take us on a 4 hour jeep-journey around the sights of Mui Ne. Our first stop of the day was Fairy Spring, which is a stream that zig-zags its way through sand dunes and varies in depth from just at your toes to halfway up your calves. It was absolutely stunning walking through the stream looking at all the different colours of sand: white, yellow, and bright red. Not so thrilling, well for Liv at least, was the hundreds of what looked like spiders that float on water! While Liv could handle a few floating here and there, when at one stage they were covering an entire patch on water, Liv freaked and we took the mud path from there on!!

Our next stop was at the Fishing Village where hundreds of boats are occupied with the daily struggle of finding fish in the ever depleting fishing zones. The large variety of boats ranged from the small circular weaved boats, to larger rowing boats, gradually getting larger and larger depending on how far out into the ocean the boats will venture - actually when Adam was swimming today he was nearly taken out by one!

We then stopped at the not so impressive "Red Canyon", which was good for a 5 minute wander while we let all the other jeeps doing the same route as us zip past - not to worry though because we seemed to have one of the fastest drivers! The highlight of this stop was watching a bright blue swallow playing in the air currents created by the wind floating through the canyon.

The majoirty of our afternoon was spent at the White Sand Dunes that stretch for miles to nowhere in particular, but made for some fun - especially Adam enjoyed seeing how far he could jump off the peak of the steep sand dunes. Perched next to the White Sand Dunes is the Desert Lake, which is also a primo sight.We departed this sandy playground covered in sand - not only from the jumping but also the fierce wind that seemed determined to make sure sand reached every part of our bodies.

Leaving the white dunes our jeep got stuck in the only part of the trip that actually required the use of a jeep - but we managed to continue our journey a few minutes later and made it to the red dunes in time for the sunset and some more sand spray! Unfortunately the cloud cover meant we didn't get much of a sunset, it was pretty nonetheless.

Our night was spent eating drinking and once again preparing all too soon for our trip tomorrow to Saigon.

Adlibing the dunes.

Day 235 - Leaving one beach paradise for another

2008-02-11T19:14:00.002+08:00

After a quick breakfast at our bakery next door, we said our goodbyes to Nha Trang and hopped on our bus headed for Mui Ne. We arrived and set about the task of finding a bed, which we found a couple of hundred metres down the road that stretched out onto the beach (like the majority of places in Mui Ne) so we had lunch at set about lazing in the deck chairs and hammocks in the sunshine, overlooking the beach, with Adam indulging in some much deserved beers! While Liv rested Adam enjoyed many more beers, before eventually waking Liv to come and enjoy the sun setting on the horizon, casting a rainbow of colours onto the ocean and the fishing boats that grace its surface. In the evening we went for a stroll along the shoreline in the search of food, peering through the palm trees to catch gilmpses of the beach. In the end we returned for dinner at our hotel and then collapsed into bed, in preparation for our busy day at the beach tomorrow.

Adlibing it to another one of Vietnam's beautiful beaches.

Day 234 - Into the depths

2008-02-11T18:34:00.002+08:00

The alarm went off at 6am this morning on cue for Liv to look at the weather and make her decision about joining Adam's diving trip and go snorkelling. Perhaps it was the light layer of cloud that made her decision not to, but more likely it was the thought of a sleep in and the day on the beach that sealed the deal that Adam would be going alone.

After a well deserved sleep in (having none since arriving in Vietnam) Liv took the advantage and didn't go out for breakfast until 9.30ish. Breakfast of omlette and fruit smoothie provided the perfect energy needed for lying on the beach in the sun and reading the morning away until Adam's return at 1pm.

Now for Adam's narrative of his Vietnam scuba diving adventure:

I arrived at CocoDive at 7.20am after previously being convinced by a fellow kiwi that it was the best choice of the many dive companies in Nha Trang, and was soon stocked with my choice and a quick trip to the harbour revealed that we would soon be departing on the biggest and best boat of the area. After not diving for at least 6 years, I was a little nervous about this upcoming adventure, but my nerves were soon put to rest by my dive master taking me through the rigging and what would happen once we hit the blue beneath the boat.

A 40 minute cruise led us alongside one of the many islands that Nha Trang offers as a playground for divers. My first dive of the day was a refresher dive but after 5 minutes under the water it was clear that scuba diving was just like riding a bike and so the testing was over and the exploration began.

Having it one-on-one with a dive master around the coral reefs was like having an author of a book tell you about it and soon we were lost in a maze of multi-coloured coral that looked so unreal even an abstract painter would struggle to reproduce them. The brain hardly had a chance to stop, and I couldn't decide which way to turn my head in this crazy new world that I have never become close to experiencing in NZ - I felt like a child in a toy store! The thing that intrigued me was how close I could get to the coral and sealife - it was like I was merging into the scene itself. The fish and other sea life that surrounded me came in seemingly millions of varieties, shapes, sizes and colours that words couldn't do justice to if I tried.

We surfaced and dined on baguettes and coffee while lazing on the deck in the sun, and our boat headed for dive site number 2. Arriving at dive site number 2 I was informed that I had just been diving in the training area and that I was about to experience coral diving at its greatest. With visability around 10m and the temperature in the water at about 24 degrees it was set to be a great dive and as we descended into a new playground I was astonished at how dense the coral forest that we had entered was: the varieties of coral grew exponentially and the same goes for the fish. Moments that stood out include when we unexpectedly came across a giant clam sporting a rainbow coloured body and coming across a squid that changed colours in front of me like a chameleon - one moment mimicking the sea anenome and next the coral beside it. The final moment was when I found Nemo sitting right in the palm of my hand.

After the second lot of 45 minutes under water it was time to join the surface dweller. While we were anchored in this unreal bay of the picturesque island, I needed no coaxing into jumping off the roof of our boat into the mixture of blue and green the boat was resting on below. Me & my dive instructer kicking it up on the top deck:For the trip back to the mainland I sunned myself on the roof and chatted with the rest of the crew.

Back together as the adlibers again, we got lunch, found another book for Liv to read, and lay the afternoon away in the sun on the beach. The only decision left to make is whether to leave this beach paradise for another tomorrow morning or stay here another day instead ... ah the life ...

Adlibing the beach and the Vietnamese underwaterworld.

Day 233 - An uncomfortable arrival in Nha Trang

2008-02-11T18:16:00.001+08:00

After an extremely restless night on our seats, we arrived in beautiful Nha Trang at 6.30am to the sun trying to break through the clouds. Nha Trang is a medium sized Vietnamese city on a pretty beach that arcs around the coastline that is dotted with tiny, rocky islands. One thing that is catching our attention is that Vietnam seems to be made up of many small towns, that could almost be classified as villages in China, and yet depsite the small population (by small we mean a town the size of Wellington) we seem to be constantly surrounded by the echoes of "hellos" and hunted by motorbikes at every step.

We spent our usual hour or so finding a room we were happy with at a price we were happy with, and while Adam rested Liv went out in search of pastries she had spotted on our walk around town! She returned only minutes later, after finding a delicious pastry shop next door with chocolate croissant and apple pie in hand! Adam's trying to pretend like our location is not a good thing, but really he's as chuffed about it as Liv is - well almost!

After a quick breakfast (the pastries were an entree), we headed by foot to Long Son Pagoda a couple of kilometres away. It was on this walk that the reality that we were actually still in Asia sunk in. Long gone were the nicely paved footpaths of Hoi An, today we were competing for room with the thousands of trucks, motorbikes and cyclists on the dirty, broken roads.

The Long Son Pagoda was nice enough, but it was the newly constructed White Stone Buddha perched at the top of the hill behind the pagoda that we found the most interesting. At the base of the Buddha are the bronze busts of Thich Quang Duc and 6 other monks who died of self immolations in protest of the politics of the South Vietnam leader that caught the attention of the world in 1963. This majestic looking Buddha looks out over the city, and we would later use it as a navigation tool to find our way home.

Our next stop was Po Nagar Cham Towers that were built between the 7th-12th centuries on the site that has been used for worship since the 2nd century. These towers have been semi-reconstructed, so although the temples were similar to those we saw at My Son, here we got some idea of what they looked like hundreds of years ago. These towers are the first of their kind, their predecessors were made of wood, but after being burnt down by Javanese invaders, were rebuilt in brick. There are only 4 of 8 of these towers still remaining, so it didn't take long to look around, and soon we were back on our feet walking along the beach to find lunch.

In the late afternoon we relaxed on the beach with our books and Adam booked his scuba-diving trip for tomorrow morning. Liv's still deciding if she'll go along and snorkel / sunbathe on the boat!

Adlibing a real Asian Nha Trang.

Day 232 - Hanging in Hoi An's Old Town

2008-02-09T18:35:00.002+08:00

It was still drizzling when we woke up, and we thought "here we go again" so we put on our wet clothes from yesterday, and set off to explore anyway - one thing's for sure: you can't control the weather, so you might as well adlib it anyway.

Hoi An is a World Heritage Site and is most famous for its old town that managed to escape destruction during the war, and has therefore managed to retain its old town character. When you glance at black and white photos from decades ago, it looks much the same as today - perhaps minus a couple of coats of paint - and this is surely the reason why it's so popular. The Hoi An Old Town is off-limits to cars (but this prohibition clearly doesn't apply to motorbikes), which makes wandering it a little less stressfree than other places in Vietnam. Though in Vietnam, all you have to do is make eye contact with the drivers and walk really slow as they tend to just weave around you.
The old town is full of museums, old family homes, assembly halls, bridges and temples. If you buy a ticket you get entrance into one of each, and we followed the Lonely Planet's reccommendations and spent the better part of the day wandering amongst the history - we checked out the delightful Japanese Covered Bridge, Quan Cong's Temple, the Tran Family Chaple, the Museum of Trade Ceramics (it was more the building that interested us, not the ceramics: most of them were from places we'd been to in China anyway!), and a musical performance at the Handicraft Workshop. The sun even began to shine! One interesting thing about this town is that there are influences from several different cultures in existence - the majority of the temples and old houses are Chinese in origin and style, but they also have some distinct Vietnamese architecture, and even some Japanese style thrown in there for good measure.
We enjoyed walking along the river and through the street fruit markets, as well as making some purchases of a hat and sunglasses to replace the ones he lost over the side of the boat on our frist day in Vietnam!

For lunch we both dined on some local delicacies - Adam had White Rose (shrimp wrapped in thin rice paper), shrimp wrapped over sugar can, and Cau Lau (pork, noodles, herbs, and crispsy rice paper) and Liv had the vege version.

At the end of the day we spent a couple of hours waiting for the night to come at a riverside restaurant where Adam finally got to partake in Bia Hoi - a Vietnamese tradition of drinking cheap beer by the pint-load. Adam also ordered grilled fish wrapped in banana leaf - another specialty of this region - for dinner. All too soon, it was time for us to leave Hoi An and head further south. 12 hours on a sitting bus, here we come!!

Adlibing a real old town.

Day 231 - Walking back into the era of the Champas

2008-02-05T18:48:00.001+08:00

Last night we had decided to book ourselves on a tour to the famous ruins of the ancient kingdom of Champa at My Son, with a boat ride back to town, and hoped that we would wake up to clear skies! Unfortunately, the rain was even heavier this morning, so we put on our rain jackets, and set off for another day in the rain. My Son is set amongst amazingly lush green mountains in Duy Phu village, and unfortunately over their hundreds of years of existence (some dating back as far as the 4th Century), the beautiful brick structures, just bricks piled upon bricks without the use of mortar, have seen better days. Just as nature bends an old man forward and greys his hair, nature has crumbled the temples and covered them in green. Add to that the devastation of the American bombing that left gaping craters in the ground when they missed the temples themselves, and you have the ruins at My Son - a stunning sight, as much as a sad reminder of the war.
We spent almost a couple of hours wandering the ruins, going in and out of the temple structures, wondering what the beautiful writing on the stone slabs meant, and imagining the beauty of the of what used to have been mighty towers but now remains partly carpeted by the jungle.

One reoccurring theme throughout the temples, is the presence of linga and yoni structures - the linga represents the male sexual organs and the yoni the female. These structures represented the Hindu god Shiva and had important spiritual value to the Cham people.

As the rain became heavier we arrived for our boat ride back to Hoi An - we considered staying on the bus instead, but figuring we were already wet, and that as we had paid extra, we might as well hop on and see the villages that were part of the deal (and the only reason we'd paid the extra cash in the first place). About half way through the ride our guide suggested that since it was raining that we might skip the visit to the villages. Adam gave a loud "NO!" that fell upon deaf ears as most of the 30 members on our boat wanted to go straight back, and we soon motored home.
We literally wandered down the river front, down a bustling market, and made our way home through a deserted town centre absolutely soaked all the way through! Where's the sun we came to Vietnam for?!

So another evening of sheltering from the rain began. We did run across the street for some local specialties and beer, as well as organising our onward trip for tomorrow night to Nha Trang beach - let's hope it's sunny down south!

Adlibing the ancient ruins in the rain.

Day 230 - Journeying with the locals to Hoi An

2008-02-05T18:34:00.001+08:00

Beep beep beep beep, beep beep beep beep ... Surely it's not 4am already?!

Sluggishly, we got ourselves up and out of the hotel by 4.15am, and were waiting as directed on the corner in the dark at 5.45am, and whaddya know along comes a bus for Danang. After bargaining the price down we hopped on the empty bus and went on our way, and hoped that we wouldn't be dropped off in the middle of nowhere as experienced by other travellers in Vietnam we have met so far!

We soon realised that this wasn't going to be a speedy trip as we coasted down the roads searching for passengers, and before long we were packed to the brim with all the produce and their growers that were making their way to the markets in nearby towns. This was wonderful, as there was excited chatter even at this ungodly hour, and the bus soon filled with fresh aromas of freshly cut corriander and other herbs and veges. It was cool to see friends get together for their daily adventure, and we even witnessed some on-bus trading between a couple of passengers. One of the many older ladies even gave us a taste of her specialty: honey and ginger popcorn balls! Mmmm mmm!!

Around 8am we stopped for some breakfast of the Vietnamese staple of pho and baguettes (soup and bread!) and after 6 hours we were desposited at the bus station in the Danang. Here we had an even harder time bargaining down our fare to the nearby town of Hoi An to the correct price. We had been to the ticket office and asked the price (7,000 dong) and it even had 7,000 dong written on the side of the bus - so of course we hopped on the bus and gave them the right amount for the both of us, when they suddenly decided that the price had gone up and was now 16,000 dong per person! We pointed out the writing on the side of the bus but the conductor and driver wasn't interested.

Acting like we had tonnes of other options up our sleeves (which incidentally we didn't), we started to hop off the bus, but were met with a quick "ok, ok" from the driver. We once again began to worry where we would be dropped off. However, the traumatic bus ride ended at the Hoi An bus station, and we happily disembarked from the most ear shattering bus ride ever! Once at our hostel we learnt that other tourists had been asked 30,000 dong per person for the same bus ride, and had paid it - this left us with no doubt why everyone seems intent on getting every penny possible out of the 'foriegn ATMs': because if they try, chances are they'll succeed.

We headed off to lunch in the beautiful, but touristy, Old Town of Hoi An, but afterwards headed back to our room to escape the rain. We did venture out briefly for dinner too, but the even heavier rain soon sent us running home for cover. Adlibing it, the local way, for the local price!

Day 229 - Ambling the sites of Dong Hoi

2008-01-23T20:59:00.001+08:00

After a rather restless night trying to sleep on uncomfortable seats, we were woken for the last time at 5.45am to be dumped, sleepy-eyed, on the side of the road, in the dark! It took us a while to wake up properly, which resulted in us walking around for a couple of hours in search of a cheap, but clean, bed. This lead us on several return trips up and down the same roads and over the same bridge before we settled on one nice family-run hotel on the sandy spit across from the main town - our energy was tried even more when the temperature began to rise along with the sun, and the hot weather we had been expecting in Vietnam finally arrived!

At the hotel we spent a few hours cringing at the karaoke music blaring from somewhere outside, and trying to snooze to give us energy required to go on an ablibing exploration of the town. Here is the view out our window:Dong Hoi is a town in central Vietnam, and the closest big city to the former Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), where Vietnam was semi-formally split in half at some stage during the war. As a result there are some stark reminders of the war with an old fighter plane and ruins of an old church that suffered from a bombing campaign that potmarked much of the country. Two interesting city gates have been restored after the war, and a statue has been built that depicts an old lady rowing North Vietnamese troops off to battle. In Vietnam so far we have only been to very touristy places, meaning that eating out had not been a problem as most of the menus have been in English, with prices. Dong Hoi is not that popular with tourists and we decided to dine with the locals, where managing to get some vegetarian dishes proved a bit difficult - however persistence paid off and we got a yummy lunch at a good price and we were farewelled with smiles, even though we had been extremely difficult customers. In fact at the first restaurant we tried, they refused to serve us, apparently because they were scared of the effort involved in serving the foreigners - though we can't really blame them as our Vietnamese skills are terrible!

We spent the rest of the day figuring out how on earth we were going to leave Dong Hoi. A trip to the bus station was only semi-successful as we think we got some information, but there was no one at the ticket office and we were getting information from a man who seemed more interested in finding out how old we were and how much our camera cost us!! After a few unsuccessful stops at cafes for help with tickets we ended up at the end of the street where we were dumped this morning, and managed to find out from some men drinking beer on the corner that we should be on that same corner at 5am tomorrow morning to wave down a bus! This is the closest to confirmed information we could find, so we'll just have to see what happens when we turn up tomorrow morning. In this part of Vietnam there is limited English spoken with the main phrases that can be spoken being "you want motorbike", "you want tour", and "come look at my hotel, very cheap" - so we were very grateful to the man who could help us!

In the evening we went to the beach for a wander, and felt like we had been transported back to Otaki beach back in NZ because of the long and seemingly never-ending beach, the sand dunes and the murky waves. We didn't stay long as we noticed so many needles around (drugs are a big problem here), and headed off to walk some red clay alleyways behind our hotel. Along the paths we were greeted by the residents, who probably don't see many foreign tourists, with cheerful "hellos". The walk was wonderful as we strolled through the neighbourhood past lovely houses and looped around to the river front where the fishing fleets are docked and small, round, weaved boats are kept for the night.

We went to the only open restaurant for dinner, where the waiter kept inviting Liv into the kitchen to look at vegetables! We ended up with a lot of different, but delicious dishes, including a plate of raw green chillies and spring onion - interesting!!

Back at the hotel we packed and had an early night - dreading the sound of the alarm that will go off at 4am!

Adlibing circles around Dong Hoi.

Day 228 - Riding in the rain

2008-01-23T20:26:00.000+08:00

After our usual start to the day we hopped on another motorbike and set off with Anja and Lars with the intention of seeing some of the specific sites that Ninh Binh is famous for. What we got to see, however, was more of the surrounding countryside in the rain! We were told by our hotel owner that the morning rain should ease by afternoon, so we set off for Kenga floating village first, leaving the best till last. The 5km off road journey along the riverside was really enjoyable, despite the consistent drizzle, and by cruising along at 30km / h we really got to see river life and we often stopped to watch as the pointy hatted farmers did their work. Here are some of the everyday scenes we passed on the way: After missing the turn off to the village, we finally arrived at the bridge at the entrance of the village, only to be met by a group of locals waiting to scam us for some money to enter. We usually don't mind paying entrance fees, when it is official and we know who the money is benefiting, but when a few individuals decide to rip off tourists just because they can, we get a little annoyed. They even tried to make it look like the locals also paid an entrance fee, but we saw the "gate keeper" immediately return the money behind his back!!! So we jumped back on our bikes and headed for the back roads to destination number 2: Hoa Lu, one of the many ancient capitals of Vietnam. This second part of our journey left as cold and saturated as the rain became heavier - even worse for the guys driving as the girls on the back could shelter from the rain and wind!

Driving down one particular stretch of road we noticed that Lars and Anja were no longer following, and we backtracked to find them walking their bike with a local to a repair man down the road - flat tyres suck, especially in the rain! After a quick repair job, we all set off down the road in the direction of Hoa Lu (which also happened to be the direction of home that was looking more and more attractive by the minute)!

We made it back to the hotel and basically spent the rest of the day trying to get warm, drying our clothes, and getting ready for our overnight bus trip. Luckily we had great company in our travel buddies who we have been hanging with for the last week, so we managed to spend the afternoon and evening chatting and eating before saying our goodbyes and clambering on our overnight bus to Dong Hoi.

Adlibing it to nowhere!

Day 227 - Motorbiking the back roads to the jungle

2008-01-21T18:16:00.001+08:00

Our day started a little later than planned after Liv conveniently turned off the alarm and went back to sleep - Lars' decision to buy a bottle of vodka last night might have had something to do with it! After breakfast we got our motorbikes for the day and set off in the direction of the Cuc Phuoc National Park.

In complete contrast to Cat Ba island, we spent the first half and hour on a crazy Vietnamese road, zig-zagging between cars, trucks, buses, and other motorbikes. We were relieved to make the turn off the main road to begin a much more leisurely cruise through small towns watching Vietnamese life pass us by.

The closer we got to the forest the more impressive the scenery became: the majority of the view was taken up by entire families decked out in pointy hats working the rice fields together, bent at the waist and nearly knee-deep in mud!

We stopped a couple of times on the way to the National Park to take photos of the amazing views, and arrived at the park gate after a couple of hours of relaxed cruising. We thought we had been spoilt for views already, but we soon found ourselves travelling through the National Park road amongst beautiful Vietnamese jungle.

At the end of the road we set off for a hike into the dense green forest but we're met by concrete steps and pathways half of the time! Our travel buddies decided to turn back and we decided to push on for a while longer, and when the hike was along dirt tracks it was really stunning and we were sheltered underneath the forest canopy. Adam even detoured into the forest and was soon hidden in the jungle. We didn't get to see much of the jungle life that is meant to live here, but we did hear some birds and insects - it seems that the leopards and bears know which part of the jungle to avoid!

When we returned to the beginning we remounted the bikes and headed for a quick lunch before making our way to the Primate Rescue Centre stationed at the entrance of the park. Although we normally avoid zoos, this is a legitimate operation that rescues many types of primates all over Vietnam. The primates are most often captured by hunters who hope to onsell them for medicinal purposes or food and our guide informed us that the most valuable can fetch around US$1,000 on the black market - which is more than most Vietnamese make in one year. The best part about centre was seeing a species that had only been discovered 10 or so years ago - a benefit of having a country with so much unexplored forest, although this is slowly changing as development occurs. Another highlight of the centre was seeing the 'semi-wild' enclosure where 15 monkeys currently live, some of which were even born there, with the hope that they will all eventually be returned to the wild.

On our journey home we ended up in rural back roads for the 2 hour meander back to our hotel, where we were greeted by children and adults alike waving and cheering at us along the way. We were surrounded by sugar cane fields, working buffalo, herds of cows ambling along the roads (like back in NZ!) and of course the rice paddies and huge mountains. As we went through small villages a third of the road was taken up by herbs and veges being dried for later consumption. It was hilarious to pass by (and then later be passed by) 4 teenage boys all piled on one motorbike! It was not so hilarious when we passed two poor pigs (alive) tied upside down on the back of a motorbike - presumably being transported home for dinner? The driving became terrifyingly harder as we turned onto Highway 1, where we had to battle for space in order to survive! Adam decided that the best way to get through it was to drive fast - Lars and Anja (the other 2 members of our motorbiking gang!) even witnessed a bus conductor leaning out the door and pushing away people on motorbikes!!

We made it back to Ninh Binh in the dark, and got a little lost making our way back to the hotel - but we made it in the end and settled in for a huge dinner and spent the night talking through the events of a brilliant day.

Adlibing Vietnam's Jungles

Day 226 - Leaving the paradise of Cat Ba

2008-01-20T22:27:00.004+08:00

Today was primarily a day of travelling and eating! We began with a final farewell breakfast at our local before we heading along the familiar Cat Ba roads to the ferry to take us to Haiphong. At Haiphong we were transported to the local bus station where the four of us (and a couple of Australians) waited for our local bus trip to Ninh Binh.

The bus trip was our first real long distance bus trip in Vietnam and gave China's worst journeys a run for their money and left Liv petrified, especially when our bus decided to overtake a truck on a bridge with another truck fast approaching from the other direction - a maneuver like many more on this journey! However, we eventually made it to Ninh Binh and followed a fellow passenger to 'his uncles' Xuan Hoa Hotel down the road, where we bargained our room down to what we were willing to pay. The hotel is home to the legendary guide Xuan who provided us with a hand drawn map to help us with tomorrows adventures.

The afternoon was spent walking through the city, and planning our next few days of motorbiking around Ninh Binh.

Adlibing our way down Vietnam to Ninh Binh.

Day 225 - Cruising Cat Ba by motorbike

2008-01-20T22:18:00.001+08:00

After joining Lars and Anya for breakfast at our 'local' we all set for our day on the motorbikes exploring the island. The day started with us immediately making a wrong turn, but after chatting to the locals we were soon on the right track and managed to stay on it all day - which isn't too hard considering the island only has 2 main roads!!! Our first stop of the day was Hospital Cave - this cave was used as a secret and bomb proof hospital during the American War (as the Vietnam War is known as here) by the Viet Cong. The cave was a surreal experience - as we wandered through the concrete bunker rooms where staff and patients lived between 1962-1965 our minds turned to what it would have been like to live here during the war. Although it is basic by all standards the Vietnamese managed to build a 'cinema' and 'swimming pool' within the mineral encrusted rocky cave. We were treated to a wonderful song "Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh" by our young guide, which echoed off the walls of the cave.

Reluctantly leaving the cave, we motored away to the coast, stopping to climb a hill to get a view out to the ocean. After only 45 minutes of driving over a winding, cliff side road that dived in and out of villages nestled amongst the wetlands, we made it to the end of the road - literally!! We backtracked our way to one of the small villages in a search of cheap, good food, and while it was cheap, the serving size and flavour left much to be desired - one good thing about the stop was that Adam got to be totally defeated in a rule-less game of "pool" with some local kids.
After lunch we took a different road back around another section of the coast which eventually led us back into the mountains. We crawled through a local village where the local kids called out hellos and extended their hands to give us 'high-fives' as we went by.

We continued our motorised cruise and soon found ourselves back in Cat Ba town, where we had a break from riding and walked through the local fish markets and ended up at our local for the girls to warm up with hot drinks. Our final stop for the day was to visit Cat Ba's 3 beaches, which were beautiful, but in a very untropical climate we decided against a swim and took an off roading adventure between the beaches instead. This allowed us to conquer all the roads the run through the island and also gave Adam and relatively traffic and stress-free introduction to motorbiking around Vietnam.

Back in town we ate and packed for our trip from Cat Ba to Ninh Binh tomorrow.

Adlibing the Cat Ba roads.

Day 224 - Trekking through the jungle

2008-01-20T21:30:00.002+08:00

After a hearty breakfast of pho and banana pancakes, we all set off to explore the National Park of Cat Ba island, which takes up half of the island and consists of an additional 90sq km of waterways around the island. The park has subtropical forests, freshwater swamps, coastal mangrove forests, freshwater lakes and coral reefs. Over the day we explored most of these things, starting with a bus trip across the island to the jungle section of the park. Along with our wonderful guide we spent our day covering 18kms, climbing the 5 peaks of the park, checking out Ao Ech (frog lake), which was really more of a swamp than a lake, and scrambling over extremely sharp rocks until we made it to the remote minority village of Viet Hai. Here we settled in for lunch and allowed the past 15km of scenery of the real Vietnamese jungle to sink in. It was great having our guide with us to explain things along the way - and as a bonus he acted as a Vietnamese tutor teaching us lots of phrases we know we will need over the next month here!

After walking the final 3km from Viet Hai village to the coast we boarded a brand new junk, which transported us back to Cat Ba town. This journey turned out to be the highlight of the day and even more impressive than our 'tour' to the island yesterday. If it wasn't so chilly we may have been tempted to take a dive into the waters that lap at the karst islands - however we settled just to gaze in awe at the remarkable scenic wonder with its golden sandy beaches from the deck of our boat.

As we got closer to town, we cruised through the huge floating fishing village, where fishing nets constantly surround each individual floating home and dogs race along the decks protecting their family's section. All the while adults prepare nets and deal with the catch of the day, while children play around in old bath-tub like boats.
Arriving back in town we set about organising motorbikes for tomorrow's adventures around the island. We returned to the same restaurant for dinner before going back to Lars' and Anya's room for beer and chatting the night away.

Adlibing Cat Ba National Park.

Day 223 - Cruising (kinda) our way through the karst peaks

2008-01-20T21:29:00.005+08:00

We got up nice and early and made our way to the harbour in order to find a boat to take us to Cat Ba Island. Upon arrival at 9am we were told that the boats don't leave until 11.30am (so they told us), so after buying our tickets and eating some pho (noodle soup) for breakfast we set about waiting until 11.30am!

Around this time they came and took us to our boat, and we hoped that we would leave sometime in the near future, but this wasn't to be. In fact it wasn't until 1pm that our boat even turned on its engine, and after an hour of bashing its way out of a gridlocked harbour (all the boats decide to leave at exactly the same time!) we finally broke free and set off on what was meant to be a 4 hour cruise. We soon found ourselves anchored for half an hour in the middle of the bay before being ushered off to look at Dong Thien Cung (one of the biggest caves in the area). While the cave was beautiful and impressive, the artificial lights and tourist-isation meant our experience was slightly disappointing. Before long we were back on the boat and our "cruise" finally commenced. The scenery we drifted through was stunning to say the least and words can't describe it - the mirror smooth sea was interrupted by a maze of sharp craggy rocks jutting out - immediately our minds were reminded of our time we spent in beautiful Guilin and Yangshuo in Chinese. After an hour or so cruising the phenomenal bay we arrived at Cat Ba Island which is the largest island in Halong Bay, where most inhabitants live off the sea as the land is too rocky to be good for agriculture. Despite our "4 hour cruise" amounting to 3 hours stationary and only 1 hour cruising we have taken the mindset that "this is Asia" and you just have to take what you get and enjoy it!

On the boat we met Lars and Anya, a German couple who were the only other independent travellers on our boat (the others being part of a tour), and when we arrived in Cat Ba town after a cross island tour by bus we all ended up at the same hotel. We set our for a little tour of the town and stopped in at a travel information centre for some advice about onward travel from the island.

The four of us then set out in search of some food, and were delighted with the meal we had at a restaurant just a couple of buildings away from our hotel. Before dinner we had organised for the 4 of us to go on a trip to the Cat Ba National Park tomorrow, and in anticipation of the strenuous hike ahead of us we settled in for the night.

Adlibing Halong Bay.

Day 221 - Good Morning Vietnam!!

2008-01-20T20:42:00.004+08:00

This morning we woke to the sound of our boat blaring it's horn as we arrived at Beihai harbour at around 6.30am. We spent the next few hours eating breakfast in a local noodle house and waiting for our bus to Dongxing - a border town of Vietnam. On the bus we were twice approached by some locals telling us that Adam was in their seat (number 5) - the rest of the bus thought it was hilarious when Liv (in Chinese) informed our fellow passengers that their seat number was not actually 5 but rather that was the gate number that we boarded our bus through, and then pointed them in the right direction to their proper seat!!

In Dongxing we battled through the crowds of people offering us rides to the border, in our usual stubborn way we decided to walk instead! On the way to Vietnam (!) we dropped into the post office to send some more gear back to Jinan - every little kilogram counts! At the border, while all the other tourists were buying some sort of ticket, we questioned this and got let through the back entrance (without a ticket!) and straight to customs. Before long the Adlibers had arrived in Mong Cai, Vietnam!!

And what an arrival it was! Even though Vietnam is just 1m away from China, the difference was obvious - it immediately seemed poorer and more crowded (how this possible coming from China, we don't know), and the fact that we can't speak any Vietnamese made it even harder as we have become accustomed to being able to ask for help and communicate in Chinese.

Finding money was impossible!! After walking around for over an hour looking for the bank, and finding 3 broken ATMs on the way, Adam finally made it to the bank only to be told that the bank was out of money!! So we did our first black-market transaction on the street in order to get some Dong to pay for our onward ferry ride to Halong City!

Public transport in Vietnam is nowhere near as efficient as in China, but nonetheless we were eventually put on a local bus that took us to a port, and then we were loaded onto a junk boat and ferried to our hydrofoil which was waiting for us in the middle of the harbour! Our boat ride to Halong city was great - we sailed through Bai Tu Long Bay and got our first glimpse of the island karst formations that Halong Bay is famous for. In Halong City we found a room and went our for our first dinner in Vietnam, which was delicious and a nice change from Chinese food. Our hotel wanted to keep our passports for police purposes, but when we refused, Adam scored a free motorbike ride to meet the police in order to fulfil the tourist conditions of this city. Before long we had crashed out, exhausted after a long day of travelling.

Adlibing it to Vietnam.

Day 221 - Goodbye sunshine

2008-01-17T22:08:00.000+08:00

This morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny day and contemplated staying in Sanya for the next 6 weeks, but alas, Vietnam was calling! After filling up on breakfast we slipped into the routine of mounting our packs and finding some locals buses to get us back to Haikou and the ferry terminal.

This time we made it to the ferry terminal with ease (thank goodness!), however we hadn't anticipated such ease and suddenly found ourselves with an extra 5 hours on our hands. We managed to fill a few hours of these by sitting in a restaurant (and eating, of course) and the last few hours reading and people watching. It was quite funny to see the ferry employees stress about how to deal with these 2 foreigners - it soon became obvious that not many laowai catch the Haikou-Beihai ferry. Even though it was just a matter of waiting for the Beihai boat to be called and then following the masses, we were under strict instructions to "wait right here, we come get you"!!

Sure enough we were almost chaperoned onto the boat where we spent the night in our four-bunk bedroom, though no-one else joined us and we had the room to ourselves. The departure time of 6pm came and went in a flurry of inactivity as a swarm of yellow hard-hatted workers went about doing not much for a very long time. We ended up leaving the port at about 7.30pm, and headed out into the pitch black ocean, for a pretty good overnight journey to Beihai! Our only concerns were if the boat happened to come into trouble and the hundreds of passengers had to survive in 2 small lifeboats that looked like their lives began around the 1940s. Luckily we had stunning life jackets in our room, just in case!! Adlibing the ocean.

Day 220 - A hard day at the beach

2008-01-13T19:15:00.001+08:00

Our day today followed a very similar pattern to yesterday: we woke, ate, went to the beach, and remained there all day, save an hour at lunch. Our highlights of the day may seem childish but we immensely enjoyed our freshly made mango icecream - we watched it turn from mango fruit, to smoothie, to an icecream heaven! We also got great pleasure from sitting on the beach sipping coconut juice from a fresh coconut and feasting on fresh strawberries to keep our sugar levels up and sustain us for a hard day at the beach! Our only decisions left for the day are: where are we going to go for dinner and whether or not we'll brave another massage! Oh, and the slightly annoying task of packing for the next step on the adlibing tour that starts tomorrow - do we really have to leave here?!

Adlibing it resort style (really just the same as yesterday!)

Day 219 - The beginnings of a few days of lazy holiday

2008-01-13T18:47:00.001+08:00

This morning we woke up and out of habit we went to look out the window - but in contrast to our usual misty winter back home in Jinan we were greeted by sunny blue skies and the sound of waves crashing not far away! We needed little convincing to get our butts out of the hostel and to the beach! With free hostel beach mats and towels in hand we set about finding an securing a sandy spot on the beach to spend the day reading, swimming, chatting and dozing in the sun! After seeing several other beaches in China we didn't hold much hope that Sanya would be any different - but it is! Memories of the rubbish washed ashore at Macau's beaches haunted us on our 3 day journey south - but we were greeted with China's Hawaii: literally! Here men, women, and children seem to escape from the serious lives they lead and embrace the beach culture they rarely get to experience - and of course many end up looking very similar in full floral hawaiian shirts and shorts!!It is great to see people of all nationalities (the Chinese population is for once perhaps in the minority given all the Russian and Western tourists here) kicking back and having a ball.

We escaped from the extremely draining (!) life of lying on the beach by occasionally going for a refreshing swim in the stunning water. We even had to pull ourselves away for an hour or so in the search of lunch, but after filling up on seafood and tofu we quickly returned and remained until the sun set behind the mountains that surround this small piece of paradise. In the evening we went into town for a look around the markets but without wanting to increase the weight of our packs any more, we soon left in search of a meal. We ended up dining on spicy hotpot - a Chinese favourite but one we have yet to actually try in China - that we filled with numerous veges. The hotpot experience is one everyone who comes to China must experience at least once: imagine a cooker on your table and a pot fill of super spicy soup (as red as fire!) that you add the veges or meat that you have ordered into to cook just to your liking! For once Liv was having something that she didn't have everyday, so we went a little overboard on the ordering, but managed to finish of most of it! Our hostel advertises massages for 15 yuan an hour at a place in town, which was our next stop! Here Adam indulged in an hour long foot massage, while Liv's whole body got the going over!!! Adam's experience was painful to say the least, but hopefully will reduce the tension that builds up in his feet after days of walking through the adlibing tour. Liv's experience was, well, an experience: having never actually had a professional massage in her life she didn't quite know what to expect, and all the bone clicking was almost too much to bear. She had to chuckle though when the very slight Chinese girl was clambering all over her and twisting her body in not so comfortable ways. We're still considering a return trip tomorrow night - for under NZ$3 each, who can argue?!

After the effort of the day (we're kidding) we retired and slept peacefully awaiting the hard day ahead of us!

Adlibing the Sanya sunshine.

Day 218 - Heading to the sunny south!!

2008-01-13T18:15:00.000+08:00

Our train pulled in at Haikou station around 10.45am and within 15 minutes we were on a public bus bound for Xin Gang - the ferry port where we were aiming to buy ferry tickets either to Haiphong in Vietnam or Beihai (still in China) if the ferry to Vietnam wasn't running (we had heard rumors of this but had been unable to verify!). After an hour on the bus Liv finally said out loud what both of us were thinking: "I think we've missed our stop". We spent a few minutes trying to pinpoint our current location on our tincy map and then the bus suddenly stopped and turned around. After asking the driver if the bus would be returning to the port (and getting an answer in the negative) we stood on the bus not entirely knowing what to do! Luckily a very friendly local approached and offered his help, and after a very long time conversing in Liv's limited Chinese and his limited English we finally managed to convey that we wanted to go to the travel agent to check about tickets! Being the typical friendly local he walked us to the door and bid us farewell! Here we managed to get the information that the ferry to Vietnam was no longer running and they sent us on our way to the port where we needed to buy tickets to Beihai for in a few days.

The usually easy task of buying tickets was extremely difficult here, for no particular real reason, but after about an hour we walked out with tickets in our hand. It wasn't an hour spent in lines either - rather an hour trying to figure out why we couldn't buy Monday tickets from here!! Turns out that on Monday the 14th of January the boat leaves from a different dock, but they could still sell us the tickets. This seriously took us one whole hour to sort out!

By 1.40pm we were on our way to sunny Sanya - a beach resort town on the southern tip of the island (and of course, China in general). On the bus we met a couple of other travellers, and they joined us in the typical mission to locate the hostel we were after (quite a mission considering the small alleyway it is down) - which was worth the effort: it is about a 5 minute walk to the miles of sandy beach and turquoise water from here!!

At this point, we had realised that we had been wearing the same clothes and hadn't showered in 3 days - oh the traveller's life! So after cleaning ourselves up in order to fit in with the western crowd that has immerged out of nowhere, we hit the beach for an evening stroll before dinner nearby, where Adam began his seafood extravaganza and Liv dined on her usuals. Adlibing it to the beach.

Day 217 - Third time's a charm in Guangzhou!

2008-01-10T16:57:00.000+08:00

Our train pulled in at the station at 10.45am in a much warmer Guangzhou than the Beijing we had just left - Beijing was hovering between a chilly -5-5 degrees, while we have just arrived in the 20-25 degree range in south China. As we stood in the wonderfully chaotic lines in the train station for the next hour or so, we almost wished ourselves back to the cold. Almost. With onward tickets for tonight bound for Hainan Island, we set off in search of food - what we found was a culture shock worse than what we found when we first arrived in Asia 7 months ago. The problem is that we have become so comfortable in our life in Jinan - we know where to go to eat, sleep, shop, drink, relax and we feel like we belong because we live there. Arriving here where we have no bearings, a huge pack on our backs, and no real plans is hard - throw in millions of people who all seem to be walking in the opposite direction as you, and you've got how we felt at 12pm today. Was it this hard the first time around - we both ask ourselves?

Not to worry, we checked our bags in at the train station, hopped on the metro (that we know so well, having been to Guangzhou twice before now), found some yummy food and an internet cafe to absorb some of our free time. With Liv's limited Chinese skills she's usually the one that has to buy all the tickets, order the food and ask for directions on our frequent trips into the land of the lost - but today Liv was even more reluctant than usual to pounce on an unsuspecting local for directions to an internet cafe! After informing Liv, rather forcefully, that she "had to do it because I can't" Adam waltzed up to a Chinese guy, asked him for directions to an internet cafe (in Chinese) and walked back to Liv proclaiming "it's that way"! After we catch up on blogging and emails we'll head out to find some more food before jumping back on the metro and heading to the train station for our train to the beaches of China in Hainan province at 9.30 tonight!

Adlibing it in our home away from home away from home - well at least it seems that way!

Day 216 - The adlibing train tour continues!

2008-01-10T16:42:00.001+08:00

Waking and getting ready quick smart we zipped off to the visa office and walked out 10 minutes later semi-stunned at the speed of the process and that nothing had gone wrong!

We grabbed our packs from the hostel and our attempt at trying to get on the next bus heading to the other train station resulted in us standing on the side of the road for the next 45 minutes - before luckily squeezing ourselves onto the next bus. If we hadn't made it on we would have had to catch a taxi, which is a total last resort on our adlibing rule list!

We made it to the train station just in time, Adam almost taking out the other passengers on the train with his huge pack! With the bags safely stowed away went set in for our 23 hour journey and waited for night when we could sleep half of the trip away (well, almost)!

Adlibing the train - again.

Day 215 - Eating and shopping our way through our last day in Beijing.

2008-01-10T16:15:00.000+08:00

Being our last full day in Beijing and already having accomplished everything we had set out to adlib (plus feeling the residual pain and exhaustion after our mammoth effort to the Great Wall and back yesterday) we took today very easily. We slept in like any good holidayer does, until we could no longer stand the suffocating heat in our room or the incessant blaring of the same Kenny G cd we have been hearing for the past week!!

Liv attacked the computer in an attempt to uplift our photos onto the blog for the last week, but it was a good reminder to us that internet cafes often throw paddies and refuse to do what you want them to!

We eventually went out and decided to find lunch. The Lonely Planet recommended Wanfang Snack Street, which sounded great to us as we had been struggling to find the Chinese street snacks that we had become accustomed to everywhere else in China. Unfortunately what we found was not what we wanted - yes there were snacks but they were 5 times the price we pay in Jinan and elsewhere in China, and overall disappointing. We mentioned more than once that living in China has made us more picky - which was even more evident when we saw other tourists looking satisfied with their snacks. So, we set off for a cheap Chinese restaurant, and were immediately given a nice looking English menu - they were a bit shocked when we asked for a Chinese menu straight away where we could compare the difference in prices!!! One dish was 8 yuan on the Chinese menu and 24 yuan on the English!! After ordering from the Chinese menu (even trying a new vege dish!), we ate our food and went in search of the Silk Street - which is actually just one huge shopping mall that sells everything including silk!

We wandered around for a good couple of hours, but as we are setting off on a 6 week backpacking trip we don't really want the extra weight (in fact we had just sent 2kgs worth of stuff back to our home in Jinan) and most of the stuff we can get in Jinan we didn't do much shopping - our only purchase for the day was one pretty pink Burberry watch for Liv (genuine fake of course)!

We rested at home for a while before heading out in search of another cheap meal - and the bargain we got wasn't what we had planned! Adam decided that he wanted a meat dish so instead of the usual 2 vege dishes we get to share, I ordered fried noodles and Adam took a random shot at the menu! Unfortunately for him his meal was cabbage! So Liv found a dish with the word 'beef' in it and asked the waitress if it was yummy (which of course she said it was)! About 2 minutes later Adam's dish come out and he started attacking it with his chopsticks. About 10 minutes later another meat dish was placed before us - uh, hang on a minute! We knew we had only ordered 3 dishes in total! In the end they realised that the first meat meal they brought to Adam was not meant for us, but Adam had already eaten half of it!!! So they rushed that back to the kitchen (we suspect straight back into the wok) and Adam got to sample his third dish of the night - though at this stage he was pretty full and already struggling to get through his beer!!

We went to bed with our fingers and toes crossed that our Vietnam visas would be ready in the morning. We packed at night, because it will be a rush to get back from the visa office to the train station across town for our noon train!

Adlibing the last sights of Beijing.

Day 214 - A mission to the Simatai section of the Great Wall.

2008-01-07T21:06:00.000+08:00

Our adventures today took us all the way to the Great Wall of China - the wall itself stretches from Liaoning province to Jiayuguan - literally from ocean to desert - and was started over 2000 years ago with an original purpose of keeping out nomads and invading armies. The part of the wall that we decided to travel to is at a place called Simatai, which is a mere 19km section of the wall and has 16 watch towers (unfortunately we could only trek to 12 of them because the government has deemed the next sections too perilous for public access). An interesting feature of the wall at Simatai is that there are "obstacle walls", which are small walls within the main wall itself - this is for extra protection for those crafty ones who make it over the initial wall. We were thankful for the amazing views on arrival - especially given the huge effort we went through to get there! The hostel was offering transport at a price of 180 yuan per person, but we managed to do it for just over 200 for the both of us - though it required a 6am wake up, 3 subway trips, several kilometres of walking to the bus station (including lots of back-tracking), a 1 1/2 bus, and then an hour long mini-van ride through the snowy mountains to get to the wall itself - what a mission!!

When we finally arrived the excitement that had been brewing during the hours of travelling overflowed, and we took off at a rapid pace to get some of the wall under our feet! We spent the next 3 hours scaling the unbelievably steep, slippery and icy wall - one of the bonuses of coming to the wall in winter is that you trade hordes of tourists for a cold, snow-lined wall - it was nice to have a tourist attraction almost all to ourselves for a change!! On our way up we only saw 2 people and on the way down, a handful more! Walking to the east of Simatai we were faced with gruelling steps, crumbling watch-towers to explore and the barren but beautiful view to keep the camera clicking. To one side we had views of mist covered mountains, and to the other side we could see the winding wall that snakes up the Jinshanling section of the wall - whatever way we looked got the same reaction: wow!
At the top Adam conveniently 'overlooked' the sign prohibiting further exploration and the fine that goes with it if caught, and set off to claim a 13th watch-tower and climb along a part of the wall that was only 1 brick wide at parts and sheer drop-offs on either side. Due to time demands Adam's foray into the forbidden was limited and he had to turn back after 10 minutes of running!
The journey back down brought back memories of Tai Shan (Trinket and Wally will understand), though our descent only took an hour instead of half a day! We also cut some time off the walk back to our car by taking a flying fox over the river that separates two parts of the wall - though Liv took some serious convincing and had Adam do double checks on all the equipment (you never can be too sure!).

On the last leg of the walk we past a couple of men fishing through a hole in the ice that had taken over the bottom section of the river.

After a reverse trip back to Beijing - much easier when you know what you're doing and where you're going - we literally collapsed after a 10 hour adlibing mission.

Dinner tonight was at the nearest possible cheap restaurant where we ate under the watchful eye of Chairman Mao himslef!

Adlibing the Great Wall.

Day 213 - A winter's day in the Summer Palace

2008-01-06T21:01:00.000+08:00

We rose nice and early, which was just as well because it took us 2 hours to transport ourselves just to the other side of Beijing to make it to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is where Emperors and Empresses took refuge from the summer heat that roasted them in the Forbidden City. On arrival we were much more impressed with this Palace than we were at the Forbidden City a few days ago and we spent the next four hours thoroughly enjoying ourselves as we strolled through temples, corridors, gardens, pavillions and a gigantic lake that became our playground for the day. Adam could hardly contain his excitement when we saw from high above amongst the Buddhist Fragrance Pavillion and Hall of Benevolence and Longevity the tiny dots of people slipping and sliding their way over a frozen Kunming Lake. Much to his disappointment we still had almost half an hours walk through more Palace grounds before Adam could partake in his share of icing around!! On the other hand, Liv decided to obey the sign telling us not to step on the ice (mainly out of fear of spending the rest of the day in freezing cold clothes if she happened to fall in!). Adam skated his way right out into the middle of the lake where he was rewarded with wicked views of the palace grounds above, pagodas off in the distant hills, and he slowly became weary of the growing cracks in the ice, the ever warming sun shining on the ice and the frozen fish only centimetres below!

When Adam eventually joined Liv on more solid ground, he convinced her to ventured just a few metres onto the lake, but soon we were both wandering around the lake. We walked across the 17 arch bridge to the temple on South Lake Island where the Empress traditionally prayed for rain during the summer. We had to pause for a few moments during our walk to stare at the crazy man in his speedos going for a dip amongst the ice! We strolled along a causeway and over numerous stunning bridges to eventually make it around the entire circumference of the Lake.

One of the great things about this palace was that it wasn't under reconstruction and it actually looked liked the real royal China of a past age that people imagine when they think of China.

After making our way around the lake we found ourselves amongst the Qing boat houses and staring at an immobile marble boat that rests on the northern shore of the lake.

After the better part of the afternoon we once again found ourselves on the 2 hour journey back to the hostel where we rested for an hour before making what was meant to be a simple journey to a Beijing Duck Restaurant. After getting completely lost (already a recurring theme) we settled for the first restaurant where Liv could read the characters for the famous Beijing/Peking Roast Duck - a meal that had been on the top of Adam's list of things to do (and nowhere on Liv's) since the beginning of this adlibing tour.

We returned home to plan and pack for our big day tomorrow when we venture out to the Great Wall!

Adlibing the wintry ice of the Summer Palace.

Day 212 - A journey to Tianjin

2008-01-06T20:59:00.000+08:00

Today we decided to venture out of Beijing and head to Tianjin a special municipality just like Shanghai and Chongqing (destinations already covered during the adlibing tour).With Tianjin only an hour train ride away, we were soon lost as we tried to make our way to the Ancient Culture Street. The first thing we noticed about Tianjin was that it was still China - unlike the very un-Chinese Beijing we had spent the last few days in - with hectic roads (and people crossing anywhere they like), and numerous street vendors selling everything from Olympic trinkets, maps, food, and tuk-tuk rides!

We disembarked from the gong gong qi che (public bus!) and ambled up the first interesting looking street we found.This amble turned into a long wander through a maze of market stalls selling everything you could possible desire and soon Adam had a new bag to show for the wandering. In the maze we indulged in some street food (savoury pancakes stuffed with fried batter, eggs, spring onion and chilli) and some egg (for Liv) / meat (for Adam) "McMuffins".

We eventually stumbled into the Ancient Culture Street, which was a brand new old street filled with expensive souvenirs (including many of the treats from the markets we had just left but at 10 times the price). In contrast to the markets, the streets here were clean and sign posted in English so we managed to find the Jade Emperor's Pavilion and the Tianhou Temple with ease. After strolling around the temple and enjoying the incense-filled aromas and tranquil halls we walked out half an hour later to see other walking in with tickets clutched in their hands. Around the corner we saw the ticket booth ... whoops!

After leaving the brand new old street, we soon found ourselves in the Old Town, which much to our dismay was actually just a brand new old town based around the restored drum tower! The highlights of the old town for us was Adam sneaking onto police property and purchasing some Peking Opera masks to remember our previous night's experience and decorate some of our barren walls waiting for us back home in Jinan.

Finding ourselves utterly lost again when trying to make it to Jiefang Street, which is famous for its 20th Century European architecture. After attempting to ask one lady for help (she literally screamed and ran in the opposite direction when she saw us), another offered to help us. Soon enough we were surrounded by a crowd of helpers who eventually sent us on our way - however all their help was in vain as we soon became lost again, so we had to resort to a tuk-tuk ride in the end.

When we finally arrived on Jiefang Street we wandered past dozens of beautiful old banks, warehouses, post shops and churches (and even peeked inside some of them) - all survivours from when European forces dominated the area around the turn of the 20th Century. Inside the now Bank of China we got to gaze upwards at the stunning stained glass ceiling, and later at an old Anglican Church. Some buildings were restored to almost new, other basically left in their original state, but in the case of the Church it was basically in ruins.

When the time came to catch the train home, Liv decided to use her navigation skills so we could walk back and enjoy some scenery on the way. Well, we certainly got more scenery than we had counted on - first walking over a frozen river reflecting a pollution shadowed sun, then along a street where we could hardly see or breathe for the amount of dust, dirt, and rubbish that floated in the air and on the street. Liv's constant questions of "we should be able to get there from that road, so why is it blocked off?" were soon answered after we decided to go down one such road anyway: we soon found ourselves in a jungle of hard-hat wearing construction workers and a half demolished train station ... obviously this wasn't the train station we had arrived in and nor was it the one where we would be leaving. Continuing our tour of the construction site we made it to the other end and navigated our way to a main street from where we managed to catch a bus to the current train station just in the nick of time!

Back in Beijing we purchased our train tickets for Guangzhou on Wednesday and feasted on 2-minute noodles for dinner!

Adlibing it back into the real China.

Day 211 - Into the forbidden

2008-01-06T20:58:00.000+08:00

Waking naturally for the first time in days (at Liv's insistence) and after a breakfast of porridge, we were soon off to the Forbidden City for half a day's exploration. The Forbidden City was the ancient residence for the Emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties - who basically didn't leave the massive expanse of this Palace that was off limits for 500 years for us commoners!! Handling some initial confusion about buying tickets, warding off tour guides, we finally made it through the crowds into the grounds - not before, of course, having our obligatory photo in front of the huge Mao photo hanging over the entrance gate. Inside we were blown away by the enormity of the Palace - made up of dozens of halls (such as the Hall of Preserving Harmony), gates (such as the Meridian Gate), pavilions and the Imperial Garden. There were so many things that we spent the next three hours drifting in and out of exhibitions displaying ancient treasure, but since we had seen lots of things like this before we spent our time engrossed in the finer details of the grounds and buildings. With the 2008 Olympic games on its way Beijing is in a state of constant renovation, and sadly (for us) some of the beautiful buildings were covered with scaffolding and sheets that prevented us from enjoying them. We noticed from high up on one of the walls we noticed the clear difference between an aged weather worn temple and a repainted rejuvenated one. In our minds, both are gorgeous and it depends on what view of China you're after.

On the recommendation of the Lonely Planet we paid a little extra to go into the Clock Exhibition (housed in the Hall of Ancestral Worship) and while the exhibition itself wasn't particularly exhilarating the clocks were interesting illustrations of the time-telling process of a past age - not to insult the exhibition but more interesting was the hall itself with its beautiful wooden pillars and carved roofing.

Eventually we recrossed the frozen Golden Stream that is spanned 5 marble bridges and made our way across the road to Tianamen Square, which post 1989 is occupied by hundreds of police officers and security guards. A gigantic Chinese flag flaps in the wind of what the Chinese consider the symbolic centre of China and the place that Mao thought of as a representation of the enormity of the Chinese Communist Party.

Leaving the largest public square in the world behind us we then ventured towards food, which by 3pm we were in desperate need of. We filled our tummies with potatoes and eggplant and beer and wandered the last few kilometres back home.
We spent our evening indulging in some Chinese culture at a Beijing (Peking) Opera performance, where we got to witness 2 separate performances. The first was dominated by the famous shrieking of the Peking Opera, which was so much more enjoyable than we had both anticipated. A humourous aspect of the show was that after nearly a minute of singing, English subtitles would come up on the screen only to inform us that the actor had just said "Yes" or something similarly short winded. The second show had a much more dynamic martial arts and acrobatic edge with the actors flying across the stage during the constant battle scene, telling the famous Monkey King story. Our short walk home to bed was filled with excited chattering after a magnificent performance and our dive into China's historical past..

Adlibing dynamic Chinese history.

Day 210 - Training our way into another adlibing Asia tour.

2008-01-06T20:57:00.000+08:00

Rising nice and early, in fact so early that our buses weren't even running, we left our apartment for the last time for 2 months at 6am and made our journey to the train station - a place we are going to be spending a lot of time at over the next 2 months. Boarding the fast train, we rocketed away to Beijing, and with a Hostelling International hostel right across from the train station, we had soon offloaded our pack after only having to carry them for a total of 10 minutes on our first day - woohoo!!

After dumping our bags we began our first navigation task in the capital - finding the Vietnamese Embassy, only to find everybody at lunch! Taking their cue we went out in search of lunch ourselves - a task which was much harder than we thought! It seems like Beijing has lost all of its 'China': roads are clean and orderly (cars even stop at red lights), pedestrians cross when the green man flashes, buildings are extremely Western, and there were no street food vendors in sight!

After lunch we spent half an hour relaxing in a park before our up and coming visa adventure! On arrival at the embassy we were delightfully surprised with the quick and speedy process - we were in and out within 20 minutes! Nothing like the hours we endured in Hong Kong!

Back at the hostel we lazed around before heading to a vegetarian restaurant right across the road from us where we dined on chicken and fish for dinner!

Adlibing it to China's capital.

Days 205-209 - Our adlibing travels continue in Henan Province with friends

2008-01-02T10:28:00.001+08:00

The beginning of our first day of holidays on Saturday was pretty simple - mainly because we spent 8 hours of it on the train from Jinan to Zhengzhou (the capital of Henan province)!! On arrival in Zhengzhou we were met by our friend David at the train station - who then enjoyed the next hour with us as we battle our way through the overly jam-packed train station to buy our return ticket to Jinan for a few days later. Leaving the line an hour later with a ticket to Jinan we checked at the door, only to realise that Liv had very inconveniently purchased night tickets for Wednesday night instead of Tuesday. If we were running to our normal adlibing plans this wouldn't have been a problem, but we have a train leaving Jinan for Beijing on Thursday morning, leaving before the train we had tickets for would be arriving!! We pushed to the front of the line (having learnt to do so from the locals) and were informed to come back the next day to change our tickets.

With nothing left to do we jumped in the taxi and headed towards Shengda - the college where David and Gael teach English. After arriving much later than anticipated we were met by Gael and a couple of other teachers who had been waiting to meet us and take us out to a local restaurant for dinner. Before heading out into the night again, we added a few more layers as Zhengzhou is friggin' freezing! Over dinner we swapped China travel and teaching stories, and Adam got to enjoy a new variety of beer (Aoke). We are so grateful and stoked that Gael and David arranged a studio apartment at their beautiful college for us - it fitted in perfectly with our budget very well (considering it was free!). It was interesting seeing how other teachers live in comparison to us. On the whole there are pros and cons to each of our teaching gigs.

On Sunday morning we woke super early to visit the Shaolin Temple, which is one of Henan's major draw cards. This required over an hour to get to the bus station from where we could catch a bus to Dengfeng. First we attempted to change our train tickets, but hit resistance and were told once again to return tomorrow - after almost 7 months in China some of their systems still fail to make any sense to us. After another 2 hours on the bus we arrived in Dengfeng from where we tried to follow the Lonely Planet's directions for public buses to the temple, which turned out to be utterly wrong, in the end (after battling with the public buses for over an hour) time frames required us to succumb to the anti-adlibbing step of taking a taxi!
All the hassle to get there was worth it as the temple, though predominantly renovated after surviving through several wars and the cultural revolution, was beautiful. We spent several hours wandering the grounds where we encountered a few halls with stunning old frescoes - one of which housed the shadow stone of Bodhidharma - a monk who was rejected from the temple and spent 9 years sitting upright and praying to the stone wall in order to rest his brain - the result is that his shadow is left on the stone.

Another highlight was the pagoda forest full of (surprisingly) hundreds of old pagodas, some showing their age and crumbling to pieces. The day ended with a demonstration of Shaolin gongfu by present-day monks, where they showed off their amazing and almost inhuman talents of fighting styles based on animals' movements such as snakes and tigers. They also showed their weapon skills with very unique weapons that would be scary enough without a fighting monk-machine on the other end! After the show Adam got to play around with some of the training equipment outside, along with the hundreds of others who flocked to view this world renowned temple. After a number of hours on the bus we eventually made it back to Zhengzhou. Following our friends' strict instructions we hopped on the bus to take us straight back to the college. We hit a hitch however when after an hour on the bus a friendly student sitting next to Liv informed us that this bus was going to a completely different university! We jumped off with her and soon she had us piled into a tuk-tuk and accompanied us on the short journey back to our campus - just another demonstration of the incredible hospitality that Chinese people constantly provide. She even paid for the trip and wouldn't take any money back from us - claiming it was her 'honour and pleasure' to do so!

Back at the college we had a new group of teachers ready to take us out to another local restaurant, where Adam got introduced to a meal we are yet to encounter in Jinan. The meal was basically a big baking train filled with a chicken, potato, and chilli stew - the catch was the whole chicken was just chopped up in big chunks, with feet sticking out and eyes staring you in the face. The custom was for the guest to receive the chicken head - Adam was the first of many guests to actually accept the challenge and soon feasting on gooey chicken brains! Liv was more civilized and dined on usual yummy Chinese veges. At the end the dish is filled with an endless supply of hot noodles to fill you up, though everyone was already pretty full after enjoying another lot of beer that Adam can add to his list.

Both evenings when we were taken out for dinner, we were asked by our hosts whether or not the places we were going to were up to our standards!!! If only they knew the places we dined at back home in Jinan ...

Waking even earlier on Monday we again ventured to the train station and this time were successful in getting sleeper tickets home for the next night! Thank goodness for that! By 8.30am were on a bus headed to Luoyang, which happens to be the original starting point of the silk road and home to the Longmen Grottoes - our destination for the day. These caves were begun in AD494 and were completed over the next 200 years - and were phenomenal to say the least. There are more than 100,000 images of Buddha and his disciples carved into the rock, 2,800 inscriptions and 2,345 caves stretching more than a kilometre along the Yi He (Yi River). It was sad to see so many with heads missing or having been totally destroyed during the cultural revolution or removed by collectors over the years - the positive of this though is that the government is now undertaking restoration work and making protection the main priority. The sheer size of some of the carvings blew our minds away, and even though we had planned to spend a short period of time here so we could make it back for new year's eve dinner celebrations, we inadvertently lingered around, being awestruck by the complexity of these carvings created by chisels and a lot of devotion.

Unfortunately we didn't come close to making it back to Zhengzhou in time for dinner with David and Gael and friends, instead we had to dine on a very average Chinese fast-food meal. We managed to check in to the wonderful hotel (the Starlight Holiday Hotel) that they had booked for us and left a note at reception to grab us when they arrived and give us our bag they were bringing in for us, with slightly more respectable attire. We were oblivious to the fact that David had already made a visit to the hotel during the day after being unable to find the number to call and book a room for us as they had given us the only hotel card they had with the number on it! After waiting around the hotel, we got a phone call from one of their friends with details of the bar they were celebrating at, and soon Liv was utilising her Chinese skills in convincing the hotel reception staff to let us into David and Gael's room to fetch our bag! Soon, we were on our way to join the party!

When we arrived at the 'bar' we were a little taken aback, as the bar was in the most luxurious hotel we have ever seen!!! We were told to make our way to "Scott's Bar" and were not expecting the 5-star hotel bar that we ended up in. Here we spent the next few hours knocking back tequila shots and sipping Champagne with a good crowd from David and Gael's school. For some reason at 11.45pm the group decided to head to a more hip nightclub (Enjoy Disco Club) for the countdown and we were literally walking in the door when the new year's countdown began, in Chinese of course - which was more difficult to join in with than one might think!
Before long we were invited to join a Chinese group at their table where we were shared a few free beers and spirits with them! The men were constantly pouring class after class of cognac for us - in true Chinese style! Eventually the last few days of early mornings caught up with us and we returned to the hotel with David and a very tired Gael - who had very impressively run a half marathon on the treadmill earlier on in the day. Back at the hotel we literally fell into bed!

We spent the first day of 2008 being shown around Zhengzhou city - we visited their huge supermakets, shopped in the local street markets and indulged in some of Zhengzhou's finest street food. We eventually had to farewell David and Gael as they headed back to their college for their last week of teaching before going back to New Zealand - very jealous (in some ways)!

We found ourselves with 5 hours of free-time before our train and decided to spend some time in the internet cafe before heading out to dinner and boarding our sleep train home!

We were woken up by a tap on the feet by the train conductor alerting us to the fact that we were half an hour off Jinan. Back in familiar territory it was a quick and painless process to catch the buses back to our apartment. Today we are spending the day preparing and packing for our 7 week holiday. First stop: Beijing.

Adlibing it into 2008.

Days 200-204 - Christmas in Jinan!!!

2007-12-28T23:37:00.000+08:00

On Monday night, to get ourselves in the festive mood we headed off to Dave's place in town for a Christmas Eve Party, where we chilled the night away in great company before heading home for some sleep. Even though it seems like the hours we sleep are never enough, it was particularly so when we woke on Christmas day at 4.30am in order to catch the Porter and Denton Christmas morning celebrations!

Talking with our families made the day actually feel like Christmas, and as Christmas is always such a family affair it meant the world to us to be able to spend a small part of the day chatting with and seeing the people we love the most.

Let's such say trying to listen and grade hours of speeches was more than a struggle for the old eyelids (yes, we had to work on Christmas day!), but we made it through the day and soon we were walking through the front door of Leads Italian Restaurant for our Christmas splurge dinner with Matt and Dovid. Dining on our first western meal since arriving in Jinan we savoured every mouthful - we even got a touch of home with anchor butter and Adam dining on a (supposedly) NZ T-Bone steak for dinner, which while yummy was nothing like the steak at home! The lively restaurant boss kept on popping in to make sure the staff were treating his 'friends' well, which was good for us as we got free Christmas gifts in the form of a key chain and free dessert! We say he was 'popping in' because we were seated in a private room for the night - very flash if you ask us!!

Back home Liv conquered the difficult level of spider solitaire for the first time, while Adam joined the boys downstairs for a few quiet gins.

The rest of the week was spent finishing and marking exams, finding out that we finish a week earlier than we thought, and subsequently making rushed plans on how to spend our New Year's weekend. In the end we have decided to visit our friends David and Gael who we meet at one of our favourite travel destinations (Dehang) about 5 months ago! We'll fill you in on the details later!

Adlibing it to the end of the semester, a week early!

Days 193-199 - Party time in Jinan!!

2007-12-28T23:13:00.000+08:00

Wednesday this week followed a similar pattern to previous weeks with Liv staying home to catch up on girly movies and Adam going into town for Foreigners' night - the difference this week was that it was Gazza's 26th birthday and everyone planned to drink the night away good ol' English style! Wei Wei was on great form to the point we he gave up carting single beers over to the table and just lumped full crates instead! The party continuously extended and more and more tables were acquired - Wei Wei even moved a table of Chinese patrons to another corner to give his best customers more room - though before the night was over the whole restaurant was Gen Bei-ing with us!

A mass taxi convoy brought us to the 7th Street Bar where beer goggled Laowai were surprised to find girls dancing on poles and in cages! Needless to say some of the girl foreigners departed early while the rest of us continued the partying with a full bottle of Jack Daniels on the table, a couple of bottles of coke and a great dj busting out tunes that led us to the dancefloor between shots! Adam didn't really move much the next day ...

Although his hibernation made for excellent Prison Break watching, which we spent the entire day on Thursday doing!

On Friday we were invited to the annual General Study Programme "Party" - and while it is called a party it was actually a lively Christmas performance made up of lots of different skits, dances, songs and games - one of which involved Adam getting up on stage and joining in the fun! This particular game involved having balloons tied to your legs and trying to stomp other teams' balloons! All in all the night was pretty fun as we got to see our students in a different light: one of laughter and fun, instead of groans at working out of the required textbook!

After Chinese lessons and training on Saturday, on Sunday we ventured into town for some shopping and Adam picked up the 2nd part of his 80s tracksuit Christmas present to himself! As a break from shopping Liv led the way into the Aili Bakery and we indulged in some decadent cakes - what a great way to finish the week!

Adlibing the Jinan nightlife.

Days 186 - 192 - Getting into the Christmas spirit

2007-12-17T12:25:00.000+08:00

The first day of another one of our typical teaching week, brought a bit of cheer with it, as we found a discarded christmas tree in the teachers' office - left behind by another foreign teacher from last year. With this set up we had new found enthusiasm for decorating, so after stocking up on our fruit and veges in town, we set about trying to find some decorations! Although nothing like the trees we're used to back home (huge and 'very' decorated) it does us just fine!!

On Thursday our first Christmas present (from us to us) arrived - our Vietnam Guide!!! We have now well and truly started planning our trip - ony 3 more weeks to go! Our plans are continuously changing especially as we read more about the enticing adlibing opportunities that await us in Vietnam. We had originally planned to spend 3 weeks in Vietnam and 3 weeks in Laos, but it's currently looking like we'll spend a week in Hainan (China's most Southern province), before ferrying across and spending around a month in Vietnam.

On Saturday Adam once again made his trek to Do Fo Tou Shan to train with the boys, one of which invited the rest of the training crew back to his apartment to dine on his home-cooked Chinese cuisine. Adam also got the first half of his addidas tracksuit (Adam's christmas present to himself), but he's holding off on pictures until his 80s outfit is complete!

On Sunday Liv had her Chinese lesson and we both hung around sorting out school and travel stuff for the rest of the day. We also started our new tv series - finally catching onto the Prison Break craze: we're (almost) hooked already!

Adlibing life as usual.

Days 179-185 – Just adlibing along to a fiery finish

2007-12-16T14:19:00.000+08:00

It’s becoming more and more obvious that we are settling somewhat into a routine as we have less and less to report on each week! Mainly due to Adam feeling sick for the first half of the week, nothing much happened in the adlibing camp until Thursday when we went shopping – we both came home smiling: Liv with a new handbag and top and Adam because he finally got us both set up with some new trekking shoes.

On Saturday it was time for Liv’s personal Chinese lesson and Adam’s training session up the mountain with 2 other foreigners Dave and Brad. Together they practice a type of Chinese yoga and martial arts, the name of which Adam still struggles to remember.

Sunday was a huge day for the Adlibers who split off in different directions for the day. Adam went paintballing with Matt and 4 of his students. They were split into two teams, Adam’s team was the Army crew and Matt’s team the NYPD crew. All uniforms were original surplus USA uniforms and soon we were all kitted up and in the fighting zone with our M-16s! After two hours of warfare, paintball shells flying left, right and centre, and enough bruises to last the rest of the week, we headed off for lunch. Our students wanted us to experience Chinese kebabs and ended up taking us to a restaurant directly next to our Wednesday Local Joint “Wei Weis” – but with Wei Wei’s wife outside waving at us, we convinced our students to take us there instead. Soon we were dining on such delicacies as bone marrow and heart arteries, as well as classics like beef and shrimp. We even convinced our very anti-drinking students to gan bei (empty cup) some pijiu (beer) with us!
Adam’s final mission for the day was to conquer the software market and with his Chinese speaking students it went much smoother than the last time we attempted it solo. In fact it went so successfully that Adam came home bearing a special gift for Liv (a totally cool mp3 player) and some electronic goodies for both of us!

While Adam was out for the day, Liv spent the morning snuggled up in bed reading magazines before heading out for an exploratory wander along the streets outside our campus. When an almost empty bus came along, it was too tempting to ignore, so Liv hopped on with the intention of getting off at a street that caught her eye. Unfortunately Liv was so engrossed with reading her book that before she knew it the bus was at the final stop. After a meander around the shops, she hopped right back on the bus and headed home. To top off a great day (what more could a girl ask for than girly mags and shopping) she had a chat on skype with big sis Dee Dee!

Adlibing Jinan on different paths.

Days 172-178 – The teachers become the students

2007-12-11T21:41:00.000+08:00

After the travels at the weekend we enjoyed spending this week relaxing. It was nice to actually come home after a trip rather than mounting the heavy packs and preparing for the next destination – it definitely makes life easier having a home base here in Jinan. Adding to the desire to relax was the fact that Liv wasn’t feeling to crash hot, and so we just blobbed. Apart from shopping during the week for the necessities of life (food) we did nothing until the weekend.

On Saturday while Liv increased her Chinese skills, Adam ventured out for his first training session up Da Fo Tou, which was literally a painful reminder of Adam’s poor physical condition which he blames solely on cheap Chinese beer!

After Liv’s lesson and Adam’s training we met up in town with some of our students, which turned into an effort, to say the least. They told us they wanted to join us in order to practice their English, but because there were four of them they just ended up talking Chinese to each other. The positive aspect of the outing with our students was that Liv was shown where the Foreign Languages Bookstore is and managed to get herself of couple of classics to read, after the Denton book stash wears down. After a mad dash into the Christmas-crazed RT Mart for dumpling supplies, we darted off home to relax the rest of the weekend away. Oh, but not before Adam shaved his beard in preparation for the Movember mo’ show! Adlibing ourselves into a routine?!.

Days 165-171- Off to the beach to drink beer

2007-12-08T15:51:00.000+08:00

Days 165-169 were spent in pure anticipation of returning to the adlibing tour, which we undertook on days 170-171! On Friday night after rushing through our afternoon classes, we grabbed our day bags (oh what a blessing to be free of our packs) and made haste for the fast train to Qingdao.

With the train reaching speeds of 231km/h it wasn't long before we reached our destination: Qingdao. Once occupied by Germany, Qingdao is famous throughout China for it's beaches and the first brewery in China - the beer that comes out of the Tsingtao Brewery is sent all around China and even around the world.

After staying in a dodgy hostel on Friday night (dodgy is more of a sugar coated description for the standard of this place! - especially due to its communal shower and toilets and bedding that clearly hadn't been washed since a few guests ago), we set off on foot to walk along Qingdao's coast. Destination no.1: 2008 Olympics Sailing Village, well, we tried to see it but the guards were unaccommodating, so we had to settle for a view from the perimetre instead.

Next we used our noses to follow the salty air towards the coast, and we soon found ourselves at the May 4th Square, perched above the first of a series of beaches we would walk along. We managed to keep track of where we were because the beaches are conveniently named swimming beach 1 - swimming beach 6 (though you wouldn't catch us swimming in any of these beaches - especially in Winter)!

While Liv ate chocolate sitting on a bench overlooking the beach, Adam released his inner child (this doesn't usually take much effort) and went exploring. Down on the beach he collected pretty shells for Liv and watched the locals gathering seaweed that had been washed up during the high tide and would soon be gracing diners plates in nearby restaurants.

After a couple of hours of wandering we ventured inland, hopped on a bus and headed nowhere in particular. As luck would have it the bus drove right past the Hostelling International and stopped 100 metres down the road - and considering we had nowhere to sleep for the night, we decided to disembark and check it out. Inside we were greeted in the usual hostel manner by overly friendly, semi-English speaking staff, who were only more than happy to show us around.

With a new room and two bags less, we headed off to explore the old town and some of the German architecture that is on offer! On our way to find food, we wandered down a market street that was overflowing with an abundance of fresh fruit and veges, flopping fish fresh from the sea, butchered meat (including smiling sheep heads), and snacks galore! At lunch Adam was so specific with what he wanted to eat that the cook's wife sent him up the road to the market to buy supplies even though Adam's desired dish was not on the menu! What service! After filling up on food and Tsingtao beer (when in Rome ...), we headed down some back alleys to get a view of the city that used to be, wandering past workers 7 stories up on their bamboo scaffolding unharnessed, dilapidated buildings, the port, and eventually onto the main shopping street.

After a couple of hours of walking around we finally made it to the old St Michael's Catholic Church, which has been serving Qingdao's Catholics since 1934 (though it has been heavily renovated after its semi-destruction during the cultural revolution).

Another adlibing adventure eventually deposited us at Bathing Beach No. 6 where we hung out with hundreds of other tourists taking in the stunning ocean views as we all headed along the pier to the Hulian Pavilion. From here we could see "Little Qingdao", the Peninsula that houses a German-built lighthouse. Along the pier coral, seashells, and starfish were for sale everywhere, after being torn away from their natural habitat over the day.

After layering up with more clothes at the hostel we headed to Beer Street for the night! Here we got to see the famous 1903 Tsingtao Brewery. Beer Street was full of giant beer cans, beer bottle structures, manhole covers decorated with various beer drinking animals and of course a multitude of restaurants. There were no details left untouched, with rubbish bins in the shape of beer barrels and bottle-shaped street benches.

In the mood to quench our thirst we battled our way through the keg fortresses that line the streets outside each restaurant, and with little fuss soon had a massive jug of Tsingtao beer and an order of food on the way! A rare situation appeared when Adam had to fight with Liv over the beer - if he'd known his girlfriend was drinking he'd have ordered two jugs!

To walk the beer off we browsed through the night markets scattered around town, to the point where we needed to snack on more food, before heading home to escape the cold - the chilly sea breeze hit us close to home, reminding us a little too much of the Wellington wind!!

In the morning we spent our last few hours in Qingdao wandering through the old town where the dirt of a long existence had built up to the point that it painted the alleyways and streets with its own personal colour and fragrance. We wandered around admiring the slowly dying German architecture, we had to wonder to ourselves if we returned in 5 years how much of this natural and historical beauty would be gone. We also visited Guanhaishan Park where China's first Observatory is located, where we enjoyed a rooftop drink and took in the magnificent views over the city, with our new husky friend!

We had to accomplish one major task before we left Qingdao, outside the many restaurants and street kitchens are stacks of Tsingtao beer kegs where you can purchase beer fresh from the brewery by the bag full. Yes, you read right, they fill plastic bags full of yellow gold and weigh it - you get 500mls of beer for 1.50RMB or 25NZ cents!

After lunch it was time to head to the train station for our return trip home - it's nice to have a place to go 'home' to! The great thing about returning to your hometown is you know which bus to catch where - and since it was dinner time when we got back, we headed straight to our local haunt 'the food street'!

Although we had a brilliant weekend, the reality of teaching an 8 hour day the next day, soon put somewhat of a dampener on our good moods!

Adlibing Qingdao's beer.

Days 158-164 - Into the hidden areas of Jinan.

2007-11-18T19:09:00.000+08:00

The beginning of the week was a typical beginning – and consisted of nothing but teaching. On Wednesday Adam and some of the other foreign teachers made their way to Wei Wei’s via an alternative route that led them on a 20 minute meander through a dark and damp area of Jinan. The area had a ‘real’ feeling to it – as we wandered along we could see the locals tending to their daily chores. It felt like we had been taken back in time because they were doing things the way that we imagined they would have been done 100 years ago. In a flash we turned a corner and were thrust back into the reality of the city that is under constant renovation – it seemed like the area we walked through was completely untouched (well, for now anyway).

After some beers at Wei Wei’s we had an impromptu Chinese lesson from Wei Wei’s wife and as they closed up Matt and Adam headed to a nearby bbq kebab stand to indulge in some local meaty treats. Attempting to take a taxi home (normal an easy task with Dovid or Liv directing the taxi driver home), we were soon lost as the driver couldn’t understand our directions. However, in the end our minimal Chinese skills did deliver us home and only cost us an extra 5 kuai.

On Thursday we headed out into what appeared to be a relatively sunny day – oh how a warm apartment can be deceiving! By the time we made it to town we were freezing, so we hurried into a local restaurant for a warming lunch. Not wanting to stay out without our jackets for long, we zipped into the fruit and vege markets for supplies. The markets had fresh and cheap produce that was better in quality than at the supermarket – so we will come here from now on to get our fresh food. We also managed to get some of our things fixed for a couple of dollars by the lady sitting on the corner - very convenient if you ask us! On Saturday Adam and Matt went to Da Fo Tou Shan (Big Buddha Head Mountain) in town while Liv had her first Chinese lesson at home. As part of the reason for coming to China was so Liv could polish her Chinese skills, she figured that she should invest in some lessons – and even after one lesson she can see that one-on-one tutoring will help a lot!

The weekend bus traffic was phenomenal – four sardine tin full buses went by before Matt and Adam decided to catch another bus that went halfway to the mountain, and then walk the rest of the way. Wandering up the mountain we came across Bruce, who happens to be a PE teacher at Shandong University. Bruce then took us to a temple on the mountain that is older than Jinan itself, which had huge golden Buddhas carved into the rock face, with springs at its feet. Following Guide Bruce’s lead we climbed our way through the temple caves while listening to his narrative about the mountain, the buildings that have been destroyed and the places where ancient kung fu was practised.

At a junction we parted ways with Bruce and headed on our own path that led us in a loop over four peaks that make up this particular mountain. The aim of this was to find some friends who were practising kung fu on the mountain somewhere, but they were nowhere to be found so we made fun for ourselves. The highlight came as we were wandering through a forest that suddenly opened up into a flat clearing where in the trees surrounding the clearing there were a number of pieces of exercise equipment. The equipment was made from the trees themselves, and showed their age as they were rubbed smooth over the many years of use – so we’re sure whoever made them won’t mind that we had a wee training play ourselves! After a slow start to the day on Sunday, we eventually headed out into the cold for a walk into the hidden hills and suburbs around our home. After a brief walk down the highway we turned into a small township where the dirt roads seem more like alleyways made up of small concrete houses. As we walked almost person we came across greeted us with a smile and returned each “ni hao” we offered. Even though it only took us 20 minutes to walk to, this area of Jinan is like the China we had expected to see and in is complete to the sprawling, sky-scraper filled city in downtown Jinan. As we continued our exploration we found ourselves walking past dry, barren fields that have been for the year harvested and are now awaiting next season. The simple way of getting rid of old dried up weeds is to burn them – although this tactic is employed worldwide, the fact that the fire is burning is in the middle of a vast and parched area with no one watching over it, would be enough to scare the daylights out of any rural fire fighter!

We ended up wandering up past a lone woman picking cotton in a field, and she appeared as intrigued by us like we were of the cotton – as neither of us had ever seen cotton plants before. Soon, as we walked up a nearby hill, we were accompanied by an old man who chatted away to us often saying “you don’t understand me, and I don’t understand you”, along with a chuckle each time!

Once we made it to the top of the hill we were rewarded with 360 degree views of the city and its skyscrapers, the small towns like we had just visited, the larger suburbs and their pollution making factories, and the hills that were slowly being dug away to make room for the soon to be towns. The only negative aspect of the day occurred on our journey home when a dog attacked us! As we are both very used to dogs, we just stood quietly together while it ran up to us barking, but even though we didn’t think we were being threatening, as a warning it still decided to bite Liv on her ankle. Following Doctor Adam’s advice, when we got home Liv washed her ankle continuously for 5 minutes (seriously, she was being timed) and applied alcohol and antibiotic cream! Adam has warned Liv to look out for symptoms such as erratic, violent behaviour, and foaming at the mouth.

Adlibing the real Jinan that’s hidden away.

Days 153-157 - The Wally and Trinket tour recovery

2007-11-18T17:05:00.000+08:00

The Wally and Trinket tour had obviously worn us out, as for the 5 days following their departure we literally did nothing but teach, sleep, feed our Grey’s addiction (our guests had restricted our viewing …), and eat. Only once did we venture out – and this was only for the necessity of buying food so that we could continue eating! In our defence, Adam was recovering from the terrible cold that Ross had brought with him, and Liv just felt like being lazy.

Adlibing it at home.

Days 147-152 - Wally and Trinket do Shandong

2007-11-08T17:48:00.001+08:00

Thursday was spent in anticipation - we spent the day like children the night before Christmas waiting for Father Christmas to arrive! All the excitement provided the energy required to madly clean and prepare the apartment and ourselves for the week ahead, as well as planning the upcoming adventures! When the time finally came, we headed off to the airport much too early, catching a wickedly colourful sunset on the way (the beginning of a recurring theme of the week), and spent the next hour and a half eagerly waiting at the arrivals gate.

When Dad and Murray finally walked out the gate we hopped into a taxi and headed to our luxurious apartment - though slightly less so than their usual 5-star accommodation they've been staying at. After a brief argument with the taxi driver who was trying to charge us almost double what it had cost us to get to the airport, we settled in for the first of many beers of the week, before shooting off down the road for dinner and stories!

Our wander home led us via the local store to pick up beer and breakfast supplies (as we had just been informed that the travellers have a habit of dining on Jack Daniels and Coke for brekky)! Relaxing over a few more beers, we looked at photos to bring the stories to life and discussed possible adventures for the week. Eventually we crashed out for the night, leaving the rest of the planning for the morning.... well, leaving all of the plans for the morning!

After waking to the smell of Jack Daniels for breakfast the responsible Adlibers decided to force some muesli into our guests - little did they know that this would provide vital energy in about 6 hours time...

The Adlibing mission for their stay was to take on Shandong's Holy Mountain, Tai Shan, so without too much further ado we headed towards the long distance bus station for our bus to the town of Tai'an. The bus station is conveniently located across from the train station, where the original Adlibers managed to break the chain of 5-star accommodation and travel and book Ross and Murray on an overnight hard sleeper train to Shanghai next week! With that task done we were soon driving along the way to Tai'an.

After a quick lunch and baked kumara stop (couldn't let Dad go home without trying a baked kumara from the street vendors), we jumped into a taxi and soon found ourselves staring up at the mountain we would spend the next few hours of our lives climbing. Tai Shan is 1,545m above sea-level and the trail from base to summit is 7.5km - walking this trail involves walking up the 6,660 steps, which we can tell you is just as much fun as it sounds ...

However we were in no rush to make it to the top as we had planned our trip to climb partly during the day for the scenery (starting at 3.30pm), and partly during the evening for the lights of the enchanting city below. Our walking pace lessened as Murray stopped to look at and buy trinkets (providing an understanding as to why he has been nicknamed 'Trinket' by dad). On one such trinket stop, we noticed the numerous birds in cages around us, and figured that the reason they were there was to provide lovely bird sounds around the eating and shopping areas - what this meant is that we heard little from birds up the mountain.

As we continued to scale Tai Shan's odd and annoying shaped steps (especially for those of us with giant feet) we passed temples, stores, numerous Tai Shan Pancake sellers, and of course the ever-present people wanting to take your photo and be paid for it.

On our way up it seemed like we were the only people stupid enough to be climbing the mountain at this hour, as hordes of people were making the much easier-looking descent. We would find out much later that most people catch a bus half way up the mountain and walk the rest (or catch the cable-car) - but us hardy kiwis were having none of that, we wanted to go from base to summit and back again all by the power of foot! Walking from the bottom meant we got to pass through the "First Gate of Heaven" (where Confucius began his climb), and we continued to mark our progress as we passed under the "Midway Gate to Heaven", and as we neared the summit the "South Gate to Heaven". We guess this heaven place is pretty cool, as there are so many gates to it.

At the half-way point, as night fell, the temperature dropped dramatically and we began our layering of the many clothes we brought. Nightfall actually brought with it a blessing, as we couldn't see the steepness of the numerous flights of stairs to come! On one of our many photo stops, it was brought to our attention just how high we had climbed when we could see the entire city light up like it was a reflection of the starry night above. As we stared at the northern hemisphere's night display Liv's eye caught a flash of light as a shooting star made its way across the sky - this left Liv over the moon with excitement.

Fast-forwarding about 2,000 steps, at 8pm we found ourselves at the restaurant / hotel zone about half an hour from the top. It was here in the absolutely freezing cold (-2 degrees) that we decided we'd spend the night in a hotel, instead of following our original plan of sleeping in our sleeping bags underneath the stars! After a hot meal, we retired to our room where we all set about dethawing in order to get some sleep before waking up at 4am to catch the sunrise. Our students claim that Tai Shan sees about 4-5 spectacular sunrises a month, with the rest being clouded over, so we had our fingers crossed that we would see one of them.

We arrived at the summit with plenty of time in the morning and we spent the next two hours freezing our little kiwi butts off, which was all worthwhile as we watch the phenomenal array of colours slowly paint the sky as the fireball that is the sun crept its way up from behind the distant mountains and burst through the thin layer of clouds.

The scene was almost out of the world: at the very base lakes dotted the countryside, mountains grew in every direction slowly shedding their mist blankets as the sun rose, and all around us hundreds of people waited and chatted in anticipation. We were really glad to have Murray and his fantastic camera sitting beside us clicking away - hey, and it meant we could keep our hands in our pockets a little longer, avoiding the blueness his fingers were suffering
After spending the last 12+ hours absorbed in the attempt to catch a famous Tai Shan sunrise, it was hard to tear ourselves away and begin the descent - back down all of those 6,660 steps! In order to break up the monotonous thumping down the mountain, we stopped to take photos (not only were we blessed with a beautiful sunrise but the warming sun also decided to follow us around as it made its way through the clear blue sky), eat food (had to have another famous Tai Shan Pancake), and drink beer (can't leave without having a Tai Shan beer to celebrate). Trinket also entertained the rest of the mountain-goers, especially the ladies, while Dad seemed to take on the role of a professional photographer by offering to take photos of couples.

As we struggled on the way down, and reminisced on the painful upward journey, we were stunned to watch old men carry incredibly heavy loads on their shoulders - some of the loads would have been close to 60kgs (according to Trinket). There's a saying that if you climb Tai Shan, you'll live to be 100 years old - we'll let you know how that goes!

The desire to finally arrive back at the bottom was strong, and soon enough we were back at the bus station waiting in the VIP room (yes, we are very important - or maybe they just saw they crippled old men accompanying us who needed comfy chairs ..) for our bus back to Jinan. In typical Ross fashion, Ross spread his legs at the back of the bus and slept through the 2 hour journey home, while the rest of us sweltered in the heat.

Bus-hopping our way back to the city centre we made visit number one to the food street where we dined on a mussel dish Adam's being waiting weeks to talk to someone about (Liv doesn't really help in this respect!), as well as other Chinese delicacies.

Though our bodies were well fueled after lunch, our mind was lagging, so we took a relaxing stroll to show off Jinan's river and the springs that feed it, before zigzagging our way through the backstreets to our bus home. Too tried to move, we had a home-cooked dinner - Liv's contribution to dinner was a simple broccoli and mushroom dish, while Adam fried everyone's taste buds with an explosion of chili, garlic and ginger flavoured lotus-root! And while we had the good intentions of planning the next day, the evening was spent gazing at our amazing photo collection and drinking Jack, and ultimately resulted in us zonking out, plan less, once again.

Giving our legs, bodies, and minds a rest we spent the majority of Sunday morning relaxing at home. Eventually we convinced our dying calves that some walking might actually do them good, so we headed for town on the good ol' 116 bus! Our first stop for the day was at the computer markets - and what was meant to be a brief zip-in and zap-out purchase of memory sticks to send photos home, turned into a marathon electronic binge. An hour and a half later Ross walked out with 2 webcams, Trinket with 2 MP3 players and a memory stick to add to his trinket collection, and us with the original purchase order of memory sticks!

The next task for the day was to fix Ross's camera - it was at this point that Ross's Where's Wally act (hence his nickname) began. Ross has the tendency to send people in one direction, disappear on his own agenda, and then reappear as if nothing has happened - something that the Dentons are used to, and Murray had to adapt to quickly! At one point, not only had Wally disappeared from sight, but Adam had disappeared in the opposite direction - like father like son!! After losing and finding Wally several times we finally made it to the camera shop, and with that errand out of the way we ventured to the food street to fill our tummies for the afternoon of shopping that lay ahead (and stopping had nothing to do with our screaming calves!).

The rest of the afternoon / evening was spent wandering the 'trendy market street' (yes, yes, we know we're very original with our labels), and at the end of a long shopping haul Trinket was overflowing with trinkets and even Wally had a bag full. When we finally made it home, the men headed down the road for dinner which consisted of a series of 'yi ge zhe ge' dishes and of course beer.

As the original Adlibers had to spend Monday at school, Sunday night was spent actually planning bus routes and possible destinations so that Wally and Trinket could be unleashed in Jinan, alone!

While Liv and Adam slaved away at school, they assumed that Wally and Trinket were making their way to Red Leaves Valley as planned. However, when we returned to our apartment at lunch time to find our directions left on the table, we weren’t so sure. Later that night when we finished work, we found open beers and a mountain of trinkets waiting for us at home – and it didn’t take long to figure out that Trinket had led Wally back to the markets!

Exhausted after a day of shopping and teaching, Monday night was fairly relaxed. We went into town to a favourite Indian restaurant of ours, where we all enjoyed a great meal and beers. Afterwards Adam had the pleasure of introducing Dad to Wei Wei himself – unfortunately we were all too exhausted to join Wei Wei in his drunken happiness, and instead opted for home and sleep!

We let the old men sleep in for their last day in Jinan, before taking them out to experience a few of the things that Jinan is famous for. First, we headed for a fill up along the food street where the meat-eaters enjoyed a wonderful spicy squid dish recommended to Adam by the chef – usually they try to tempt you with the most expensive dish on the menu, but our hosts were obviously just recommending the most delicious thing available. After informing the chef of how “hao chi” (delicious) the meal was we were all soon being asked to pose for group photos with the chef and our waitress!

Adam will be making repeat trips to visit for some more squid!

Feeling satisfied we headed to Baotuquan - the most famous spring in Jinan. Here we spent almost 3 hours ambling through the gardens the surround the springs. Even though there were no trinkets available for a certain member of our group to buy, Wally certainly did his thing – a number of times! As we took in the surrounds of the spring we came across things you expect in a Chinese garden such as big brass bells, pagodas, old people playing traditional Chinese instruments together, and as always normal Chinese families having a good time together (including the bare-bottomed baby)! Of interest (and some slight concern) here was one particular spring that was home to a couple of seals – who spend their day swimming around in circles after each other. They seem happy enough, but it was very weird seeing seals in the middle of a city like Jinan.
The water here was so clean that Adam and Wally even had a few gulps from the fountain, after which they realised they were a little bit thirsty – and where better to enjoy a Baotu Spring Beer than at the Baotu Spring itself! After leaving the Spring, we walked through the City Square on our way to our regular food spot to enjoy once last meal with family and friends, before we would be cast back into a sea of unfamiliar faces and language. Anxious not to miss the train to Shanghai we all headed to the train station for our final few hours together – which was spent in a familiar way for the adlibers: hanging out at the railway station. This was nice because we could share our train knowledge, and make sure Murray and Dad actually left! Just kidding …

Much too soon, the two adlibers were back on their own, and made a somber trip back to the empty apartment. It was so great to have a touch of home in a world that for the majority of the time is so unknown.

Even though Ross has moved on and left the adlibers alone on their adventure once again, it is a great feeling to know that we will always have the memories of our time together. Having dad as an honorary member of the adlibing crew has been an absolute joy that I will cherish forever.

Oh, and a special thanks goes out to all those involved in “Task Chocolate”!

Wally and Trinket do it adlib-style.

Days 144-146 - Our days of doing nothing in particular ...

2007-10-31T20:31:00.000+08:00

A couple of weeks ago Adam had a very unfortunate encounter with one of his students (we'll call him Wanker) - who, after being caught for cheating, stomped on Adam's jandal-footed feet. And we mean actually stomp. With full intensity. Without going into any of the boring details, the short end of it is that on Monday Wanker was forced by the university to take us out for lunch - which according to wanker is a 'sign of friendship and unity'. Well, you could have fooled us, because it seemed like all he was interested in was eating the food the university ended up shelling out for and laughing with our boss and our boss's boss. His forced apology was a muffled 'sorry', which he clearly didn't mean. Oh well, we got a free feed, Adam's foot is fine, and we just figure that his father must be someone special considering the way the director of our campus was treating him. In fact, we're wondering what will happen when Adam fails Wanker as he happens to also suck at English.

On the topic of free food, you'll never believe what they ordered for us - fermented duck eggs. Just like the ones we had mistakenly (and regrettably) ordered for ourselves last week. These turned out to be better than the ones we ordered - giving us the impression that those fermented eggs were also off - mmm mmmm imagine the combination.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent following our normal routines of complaining about 8am classes (and the forward-planning for next week's classes), eating our homemade delicacies, and doing the weekly shop. At this particular shop we may as well have been shopping for the next month as we stocked up on rations to accommodate our guests who arrive tomorrow! Don't worry, we managed to find some weird Chinese 'treats' to tantalise their taste buds.

And now all we have to look forward to is 4 days off work and a week with Dad and Murray.

Adlibing our way through fermented eggs, again. Seriously?!!

Days 137-143 - Chilling our way to the weekend

2007-10-31T12:53:00.000+08:00

The beginning of our week was spent just chilling out and teaching. We are conserving our energy for the missions we plan to undertake when Dr Death and Murray arrive next week! The first thing of note that we did this week was on Wednesday when as usual Adam went to foreigners' night at Wei Weis, while Liv stayed up all night catching herself up on (and scaring herself silly watching) LOST. The foreigners at Wei Weis this week were quite the spectacle with over 40 people attending during the night - so many laowai in one place!! Even the people who live across the road and see us every Wednesday, had to take a second look at such a mass of white!

On average there is usually only about 20 people there every week, depending on which of the 100+ foreigners show up. After a feed and some beers, a form of mass migration occurred as we all made our way to what Adam calls the "Long Way Home" bar, because that's how the Chinese words sounds. He also thinks this is very appropriate as Adam usually arrives home in the wee hours of the morning, much longer than if he had just gone to Wei Weis. Just how often the foreigners go to this bar was illustrated when some of the girls took along a mix-cd of their own for the dj to play!

By the time Adam came home, Liv had only just made it to bed herself, after being so scared she didn't want to move! Dee, I need you here to do these things ...]

Our day off on Thursday was spent in the usual manner. The morning was reserved for Adam's recovery and the afternoon was spent in town eating and shopping. While we were wandering along the main road in town, we had to pause and join the growing crowd watching an entire apartment building being demolished by the gaping jaws of heavy machinery! This is a demonstration of what is happening all over China, as the old makes way for the new.

On Friday we chilled and taught some more, which is kind of the whole reason that we are stationary and not adlibing our way to a new destination every 2-3 days.

After spending the day at home doing the whole 'chilling out' thing, by about 4pm on Saturday Adam decided to do something. Unfortunately Liv doesn't run, so he headed out by himself for an exploration by foot, while Liv continued sorting out the thousands of photos we have of our adlibing adventures so far. Once again Adam managed to get lost and in the process found a new walking adventure for both of us to enjoy another day. This walk will lead us from the highway of modern China down a dirt road to a small village round the corner, with the appearance that makes it look like it has been tucked out of sight. So even though we had a very relaxed day, we finally achieved the task of organising and putting our photos online - hope you're enjoying them!

On Saturday night, we went to dinner with one of Liv's students at a restaurant nearby school, and soon enough we were home in time to do some more chilling and movie watching. We made the mistake of not taking our trusty umbrellas with us, and got caught in the thunder and lightning storm on the way home - though this didn't prevent Adam from taking the long way home via the store to fill up him backpack with beer, of course!

Believe it or not, Sunday was spent in much the same fashion as the last 6 days of the week. We fed our Grey's Anatomy addiction, even though we have seen all the episodes - but seriously sometimes the body needs to do nothing but watch Grey's. Seriously.

The adlibers spend their week chilling.

Days 130-136 - Teaching our way to a wicked weekend

2007-10-26T19:55:00.000+08:00

With work becoming more and more uneventful Adam decided to add a new element to the English lessons - with the sun shining down he ventured outside and up the mountains behind the university to give his good classes a lesson in using volume (Chinese students generally speak so quietly it's next to impossible to hear them, let alone understand them). Soon Adam had 20 students spread out amongst the mountain. Broken into pairs the students were instructed to hold conversations with the little twist that their partner was between 5 and 20 metres away! The end result was a fun class with happy students. We are becoming very used to the students who are constantly 'sick' not coming to class, and although they may think they are fooling us, we are just glad to have one less student in the class, who doesn't want to be there in the first place. All this means is that we have more time to help those students who actually want to learn - oh no! we really are becoming teachers ...

On Tuesday while the devoted teacher spent time helping a student prepare for her test, the other teacher took his skateboard for a cruise, dodging cars and buses on his way to scout out a nearby mountain to find a path we could follow in the weekend.

Wednesday brought with it the routine of attending foreigners night (for Adam anyway) - this is a great chance to speak English and be understood, drink lots if you want to, and enjoy some great meat kebabs. After eating and drinking the night away at Wei Weis, Adam felt less than enthusiastic about doing anything on Thursday, so the first half of our day was spent doing absolutely nothing (except for Adam moaning), until Adam built up the strength to venture into town for some shopping.

With Adam's adlibed path finding adventure to draw upon, on Saturday we found ourselves ascending one of the many mountains that surround the university, and cut it off from the pollution and noise that exists on the other sides of the mountains. These are the mountains that we feel happy to wake up to every morning (when we can see them through the haze). On this particular mountain there are 3 pagodas scattered amongst the trees, but before we could lose ourselves in the forest of green we had to negotiate a path through the rubble left behind after the destruction of an entire block of houses. The reality of our path really hit home when we came across painted partly intact sections of houses poking through the piles of bricks and stone.

After picking our way through the rubble we found ourselves on a narrow dirt path that weaved its way around shrubs, rocks, and trees up to the first pagoda which seemed to appear out of nowhere. After clearing the spider webs off our faces we were able to enjoy sitting in the sun under the pagoda's colourfully decorated beams, but the height of pagoda number 2 beckoned and we were soon on our way. Pagoda number 2 was bathed in even more sun, which naturally prolonged our rest there. Our resting was interspersed with eating and drinking the new (and usually scrumptious) snacks we're slowly being brave enough to put into our shopping trolleys, and Adam monkeying around trying to scale the pagoda!

On arrival at pagoda number 3 (making it to the top via a flash stone path that we come to expect on all mountain climbs here) we were met with an astonishing panorama of the university, the city in the distance, and the rest of the mountains of Jinan(including a couple of the other mountains we have already climbed). Hanging out in the sunshine we used the advantage of height to search around for the next mountain to conquer.

Stumbling upon a new route down, we soon found ourselves walking through a new Chinese 'sub-division', complete with its own bank, doctors clinic and a restaurant. Relatively hungry from our exertion, we needed no persuasion to duck in for a feed. The short of it is that we left almost as quick as we arrived (and no less hungry) after Adam's attempt of point and choose led to some rather interesting 'food'. Dish number one left us looking forward to something yummy for dish number two. However when dish number two arrived, we couldn't have been more thankful that we had dish number one!! Number one was a cold vinegar-soaked diced cucumber and rice noodle dish with cold meat sprinkled on top. Number two was fermented eggs (of some variety) - the white of the eggs were anything but white, but instead were positively brown and some how crystallised, while the yolk was an appetising black. After a mouthful of the eggs just to try, we decided to leave the rest and make a dash for home.

Adam is making good use of the new addition to the adlibing crew (his skateboard), and is doing a very good job of skating very badly. But hey, he's having fun, getting hurt, and he's pretty sure that if he's getting hurt he's doing at least something right.

Saturday night saw an adventure into the nightlife of Jinan, when we headed to Banjo Bar for a live punk rock performance by Chinese band Sko - they call their style "Beijing Melodic Punk" and were pretty friggin' awesome! While Liv showed her sophisticated, mature side and enjoyed the music with the other sane concert-goers, Adam moshed his way to the front and lost himself amongst the Chinese rockers! We had to question whether Scotty had indeed beamed us right back to Wellington, as looking around the western-style bar we saw patrons drinking beers, knocking back shots, and generally dancing and chatting the night away - it was kind of a surreal experience to realise that partying and bar life is the same, world over. Though the night wasn't without the normal Chinese adaptions - such as the portable beer tap (basically a big cylinder with an ice compartment in the middle, to keep the beer cold), and the ability to buy an entire bottle of spirits to have on the table (and then return it once you have (or are) drunk enough). Oh yeah ... and of course, the fact that most of the music was in Chinese as were most of the patrons.

After the headliners were finished, we were treated to the house band, who absolutely rocked - the female lead singer warmed up with a powerful Tibetan melody with a rock backing. We were also spoilt with a few English favourites, including "Take me home, Country roads" and "Yellow Submarine". While the rest of the laowai sung away to the familiar beats of the Beatles' classic Yellow Submarine, Liv buried her head, as she had taught this song to her class a few weeks ago and really had had enough of hearing the very repetitive song!

After a late Saturday night, Sunday morning was spent sleeping. By the afternoon we were ready to brave the outside world and cut a track to catch the 115 - one of our local buses which delivered us back to the trendy Shan Shi Dong Lu for some lunch (made much more successful than Saturday's, due to Liv taking charge of the ordering) and shopping. Liv managed to come home with a pair of jeans, complete with the Chinese essential 'frills' (Adam kindly spent an hour removing them at home), and an English newspaper (they are really hard to find!). After checking out numerous trendy shops, Adam needed an energy top up and managed to fill his belly with a Chinese adaption of the doner kebab with shaved meat, spices, and herbs.

After a great weekend, we headed back home to the drudgery of planning for a new teaching week.

Adlibing the local mountains and bars.

Day 129 - Scaling Da Fo Tou Shan

2007-10-21T19:56:00.000+08:00

Out of the pollution and dust that consistently clouds our days, Sunday broke free into a crystal clear day that screamed "get out and enjoy". So after getting together the foreign teacher crew (including the new addition: Teacher Matt, or Mr K to his students!) we boarded the trusty 115 bus and headed in the direction of Da Fo Tou Shan (Big Buddha Head Mountain), trusting Dovid to take on the tour guide role!

We were soon dodging cars as we weaved our way through an alley way to the base of the mountain. The joy of climbing this mountain is that you don't have to pay to enjoy it, and even though it's not as famous as its neighbour "1,000 Buddha Mountain", it towers above its neighbour and is far less touristy. Without Dovid's prior experience on the mountain, we probably wouldn't have found it ourselves, but by following his lead we were soon clambering upwards with the locals out and about for their Sunday hike.

The mountain started in the typical Chinese way with stone steps, but we were pleasantly surprised when the stone paths gave way to a dirt track that branched its way up the mountain, giving plenty of routes to choose from - luckily we knew the direction we had to go in (up)!
At the beginning of our climb we were dwarfed by the surrounding peaks, and sheltered from the sun and wind by the forest that blanketed the mountain. All of a sudden we emerged from the blanket and began rapidly ascending the ridge line - the only way to brake Dovid's pace was to get the camera out to capture the scenery that never ceases to amaze us!
About 3/4 of the way to the top sits a Golden Buddha Head (hence the name ...) said to be .. well .. old. Here we rested and enjoyed the open view of the sprawling city of Jinan city below us, while Chinese worshippers made offerings of incense to Buddha providing the only smoke entering our lungs on this sunny Jinan day.
Not satisfied until making it to the top of the mountain, we left the worshippers behind us and continued our march upwards. It was at this point that the dirt track gave way to a rocky cliff side that we struggled up using any tree or root as leverage. If the view we had of the city was magnificent at the previous stop, the view from the top was almost too hot for our camera to handle! From the top we had panoramic views, not only of the city but also of the legendary mountains that encase Jinan and provide the inspiration for the province's name - East of the Mountains. At the top of the mountain, we were met with a sturdy rock wall keeping us out from something, it even had real barbed wire instead of the makeshift broken class spikes. This didn't stop Adam from scaling the wall to peek over, though the effort was hardly rewarded as there was nothing of note to see behind the wall, except for an aging and rusting TV tower.

From the top we picked a new route that allowed us to descend while making a 360 degree loop around the top of the mountain. On the way down, the sky was so clear we could see the famous Tai Shan in the distance and look down over villages cut into the cliff sides. It was a complete contrast to look down over the metropolis of Jinan while standing on one side of the mountain, and see nothing but barren and almost surreal mountains and small villages on the other.
After setting out for the climb a good 3-4 hours earlier, we managed to make our way down and set about the task of finding somewhere cheap to eat - an easy task in China! As seems to be a running theme, we once again ordered way too many dishes to fed a small number of mouths - we ended up with 3 plates of dumplings, 4 different vege dishes (including a dish of kumara pieces covered in caramelised sugar - more suited as a desert!), and a pork dish, and not to mention several bottles of beer and pots tea - all of this on a small table for the four of us!

Making our way towards home, we headed down Shan Shi Dong Lu - a street we will frequent a lot during our time here as it is full of trendy clothing and bag stores, shoe stores galore, cheap and tasty-looking restaurants, and streetside stalls selling everything from snacks to newspapers. But most importantly we found what we have been looking for since we arrived: a fresh market full of fruit, veges, noodles, rice, spices and more!

Returning home after night fall, we set about the tedious task of preparing for the day's classes ahead of us - 8 hours of teaching starting at 8am in the morning!

Adlibing it into the clear sky.

Days 123-128 - Relaxing the week away in preparation for an action packed weekend

2007-10-21T17:39:00.000+08:00

After 9 days off teaching, we have to admit that getting back into work again was a bit of a drag! However the week's classes went well, and our light schedule still gives us lots of time outside of class to do what we want. It just so happens that this week we didn't really want to do much, until our day off on Thursday.

On Thursday it rained. Not the normal kind of rain from above, but the kind that arises when Liv has a bad day in China. Despite China being a phenomenal experience that we wouldn't give up for the world, the reality of being pushed out of our comfort zone so far away from home and on such a regular basis has the effect of stretching our emotions to the extremes some days. On such days, Adam usually takes the role of the sensitive comforting boyfriend, but on this particular Thursday Adam's own strained emotions meant Liv's tears were met with an indifferent "what the heck is your problem, you're the one who wanted to come to China in the first place?" attitude.

Luckily, after a silent bus trip downtown we found a restaurant with vege dumplings and all Liv's worries were forgotten - except maybe some resentment at Adam's previous attitude! Never fear, as Adam knows how to solve these problems and soon we were off shopping - the bargains of the day being more dvds and some new glasses for Liv, which she paid a ridiculously low price for! On the way back to the bus we detoured along 'our' river, and past Black Tiger Spring, where we did our fair share of people-watching and hanging out on the local bridges.
Giving our emotions a chance to recover, our Friday was literally spent sleeping in, eating, teaching 2 classes, eating, and then sleeping again. On second thoughts, this teaching life may not be too bad after all ...

Come the weekend it was lucky that we had had such a lazy week, because our weekend was jammed pack. On Saturday we explored Jinan's sights, and on Sunday we undertook some high altitude adventuring.

On Saturday we went to the food street for a feed, where we ordered enough for an army, and then on top of that we were brought out another dish that Liv swore she didn't order! The thing is that we started eating before we realised that we hadn't ordered it, but that's what happens when you undertake the "yi ge zhe ge" ("one of that") style of ordering - you're never quite sure what's going to come out to the table! The short (and fat) of the situation, is that we spent the next hour and a half chopsticking away, and at the end we had almost cleared the entire table. Adam was still licking his lips after his own personal meal of garlic shellfish, and Liv was scared that Adam was considering a re-order!

Hardly capable of walking, we wobbled out of the restaurant towards one of Jinan's many Springs: Five Dragon Pool. As mentioned before, Jinan is world famous in China for its 70+ underground springs that bubble up to the surface all over the city, creating a sparkling, clear oasis in a normally dusty and polluted city. The locals even fill up their water bottles from these springs, an act that elsewhere in China would result in a visit to the doctor. We spent a good few hours ambling along the pathways that twist along the river, in and out of bamboo forests, and zig-zagging our way between the many springs that over time have been made into small ponds - complete with rock sculptures and Chinese pagodas. Adam managed to make a spectacle out of himself by climbing on ornamental frogs perched in the middle of springs and undertaking the Chinese tradition of throwing coins into a spring for good luck.
Our peaceful wanderings were interrupted on several occasions by teenagers wanting to capture a photo with the laowai, as well as being stopped by parents and grandparents wanting their kids to say hello to us!

On our way home we ambled our way through Quan Cheng Guangchang (Spring City Square), which is the focal point of Jinan city. Here we gazed upon dancing kites (which, compared with the kites back home, are more like 10 kites all stretched along the same line) being flown in the cloud blanketed sky by people of all ages while relaxing in the warm autumn evening.

At the end of our stroll we got up close and personal with some Chinese heroes from the past. Unfortunately they weren't in a talkative mood, so we didn't hang around for long!We have a lot to say about our adventures on Sunday, so check out our next post where we'll take you to one of the highest points in Jinan for views of the city!

Lazily adlibing the bubbling Springs.

Days 114-122 - Staying put in Jinan to avoid the Golden Week rush

2007-10-13T17:46:00.000+08:00

The first week of October is National Week in China, which results in 1.3 billion people travelling around the country and celebrating with their friends and families. As we like to adlib our way around China, we don't tend to plan in advance, but during Golden Week planning is essential - hence our plans to stay put (due to lack of any other options!).

However staying put turned out to be rather perfect. Even though we have been in Jinan for a month, we have only really had brief expeditions out and about our new city. So, this week was spent exploring and finding the best places to eat, shop and enjoy ourselves for the next 8 months.

One of our first accomplishments was finding the cheap dvd store where we stocked up with way too many dvds, which eventually resulted in a few too many hours at home in front of the tv instead of being immersed in the golden week crowds. However, at NZ$1 per dvd, can you really blame us for catching up on English movies after three months of being subjected to Chinese movies on our many bus trips across the country?!

We also made it back to the huge markets, without a student entourage, where we literally shopped till we dropped. Luckily there were street vendors selling egg and vege pancakes to sustain us while we purchased our way to a new wardrobe full of clothes and shoes. Even though we were there for almost the whole day (minus the 2 hours it took us to get there) we only really managed to wander the shoe market and a small section of the huge clothes market - at some point you have to admit you can't walk or shop anymore! Plus we still had 2 hours worth of bus rides home!

After being at school for almost a month we finally managed to walk up the hill behind us, where we got some cool views of uni, the surrounding hills, and the little suburb below us - the only catch was having to steer our way through a thin layer of smog ... During the week we made many stops along what we have nicknamed "the food street" (not very original, we know), breaking up our day of shopping and exploring with a delicious and cheap meal for lunch / dinner.

Despite numerous trips to this small bustling street, we are not even close to sampling every restaurant or food stall, so we foresee many future trips to indulge our taste buds there. In fact, Adam has even made a friend along this street, who happens to be there every time we go, he's even invited Adam to meet his warrior friends next time we're in Xi'an. This week there were more markets and ad hoc stalls downtown that we had to battle our way through on each excursion. Add to this the droves of people who cluster together - at some points it feels like the whole group is moving you, instead of yourself leading your own way. On one occasion, Adam knew where he wanted to go and what he wanted to buy (running shoes) but found himself frustrated when the sales lady paid him no attention because she could made multiple sales to the Chinese people around her, instead of dealing with the single laowai who would just take up time! Even more frustrating was the fact that her store was only full of people coming to see what the foreigners were buying (well, that's what it felt like to us)! After filling ourselves up along the food street, we returned to her shop and seeing it empty we scurried in, made the purchase and made a break for home! With running shoes now in hand, it wasn't long before Adam had them strapped to his feet and he was on his way bounding along the mountain tracks behind campus.

Sticking to the food and beverage theme of our holiday, on Wednesday we treated ourselves to a scrumptious Indian dinner with Dovid at the Jasmine Restaurant, a place we also foresee ourselves visiting a fair few times during our time in Jinan. After our dinner we made our way along to the Muslim Quarter where the foreign teachers meet at Wei Weis to begin the weekly ritual of drinking the place dry!

One of our favourite days during our week off was spent just wandering through downtown and adlibing our way along the riverside. The great thing about the rivers in Jinan is that they are fed by the numerous springs (about 70 in total), which means they are almost crystal clear - this is practically unknown in China outside of rural villages! As dusk fell we ventured up a war monument called Liberty Building (the only remaining piece of the old city wall) that graces the riverside, which provided spectacular views of the river and city below - it also provided Adam with something to climb. As the week wore on it became colder and colder, and many days were fogged out with pollution and drizzle, which acted as further impetus to stay at home in front of the tv! However, on the odd occasion when it was clear we made a mad dash in the name of exploration. On one such occasion we found ourselves surrounded by the trees small lakes at Jinan's botanical gardens. Here we sat reading our English newspapers (the first time we had managed to located some here) and eating the baked kumara we had purchased from the street vendor along the way.
It's a nice feeling finally getting to know our city - where the buses start and stop, and where the major attractions in Jinan are. So when we decided to go to Da Ming Hu (Daming Lake), it was a stress free trip there. The lake itself was pretty and we spent a good few hours exploring the pleasant surroundings - we even saw people relaxing on the grass, with no signs forbidding it in sight, this is a very unusual occurrence!! Put a big bell in front of Adam and you know what will happen ...We enjoyed a fried egg delicacy, where mini eggs from unknown hosts are fried on a skewer and covered in spices. Mmmm, mmmm. At the lake we also had our first experience of random Chinese people asking to have a photo taken with us, instead of trying to look subtle and taking them of us from a distance!

During the week we explored the mountains around our campus, where we get great views of campus and the surrounding suburbs - well, when the pollution doesn't block the view! Our first walk led us to the top of cliff behind campus, where we ambled amongst the multicoloured foliage, and stumbled or way along unsteady, rocky paths. On our next trip we began by walking along relatively clear paths that soon disappeared and we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a cemetery - if this wasn't freaky enough, even more strange were the massive piles of dirt, which made us question whether graves were actually dug?! Despite the questionable site of our hike, we were rewarded with an informative view of the city - on one side of the mountains are factories who are barely visible below the pollution that bellow out from them, on the other are complete neighbourhoods that have been demolished down to nothing but piles of bricks to make room for new subdivisions. Around the corner, we watched the quarry below us in action, as diggers and bulldozers bashed down the mountains in order to provide land for the masses. Adlibing Jinan to see what we can find.

Days 102-113 - Making it to the end of teaching week three!

2007-10-02T11:30:00.001+08:00

Although we admit that the teaching profession is a noble one, we are finding that repeating the same 2-hour lesson six times does not exactly make for a thrilling teaching week. However, as we have previously said, some students make our experience very rewarding - over the past couple of weeks we have both received gifts (moon cakes) from several students to mark Moon Day celebrations. These gifts were accompanined with stories to inform the foreigners about one of the many unique celebrations in China. Liv also got a beautiful paper cutting from a student as a thanks for help outside of class - which is awesome as Liv has had her eye on buying a paper cutting since arriving in China.
Since we can't always rely on gifts to break the monotony of teaching it is lucky that we live in China where the world around us is all very new and exciting, meaning that outside of class there are many things to keep us entertained - and trust us there are a lot of entertaining things about the place! Such things tend to pop up out of nowhere, which makes for more fun and laughter on our part!

Waking at 6am on Monday morning to the sounds of new army trainees practising their drills outside our window, we laughed off our early wakeup call as a once off. When we were woken in the exact same manner for the next two weeks (even during the weekends) the humour quickly faded.

The most memorable event of the past few weeks happened on campus as we were heading home after a day of teaching. Out of nowhere a security van zoomed past us and came to a tyre-screeching halt, before a pile of heavily armed personel exited the van as if they were on a military exercise, only to burst the illusion by calling out to the two foreigners (us!) "helloooo". A little surprised and not wanting to take a bullet for the country we returned the pleasantries and continued on our way. Everywhere we go people are constantly calling out "helllooooo", but shy away giggling if we dare to reply or attempt to take the conversation further.

Almost daily we jam ourselves onto the already sardine-tin packed bus for our trips to town, but normally the bus driver will refuse more passengers at a point. However on some occassions the physics of maximal capacity doesn't apply as more and more passengers pile on the already overflowing bus. On one occasion when we were already packed on so tight we didn't even have to hold onto anything, even more people climbed aboard, leaving the bus so full the door couldn't close and the poor people were hanging on for their lives, so as to not fall out! However, the real adventure is when we have to try and scramble our way out of the bus before the bus driver loses patience - this task is even more difficult when carrying mulitple bags of shopping.

During one trip into town we stumbled across the night markets in the middle of downtown, where we spent almost 2 hours wandering the stalls of what will now be our local market. The markets were filled with the wonderful aromas drifting from the foodstalls, which we will enjoy on our next mission there. However, our first experience here was all about shopping and we walked away with clothes, glasses, belts and new jandals for Adam! The only problem is that we were ever conscious of the fact that the last bus back was at 9pm - if we miss the bus the cost of getting home goes from 2 yuan by bus to about 30 yuan by taxi.

The day after the markets we were finally taken to the visa office to get our working visas, and we were ecstatic to find out that they last through to the middle of September giving us a couple of months to adlib more of China after work. The trip to the visa office couldn't have come sooner as our travel visas were due to expire that very weekend, and we were getting a little worried about the hefty fines and deportation issues that come with being overstayers! After our previous experience with getting Chinese visas we were prepared for the inevitable wait at the visa office, however our boss who had accompanied us was clearly not prepared for the over 3 hour wait! The very slow 3 hours was rewarded with a delicious lunch at an old, traditional Chinese restaurant, where it was wonderful having a local do the ordering. In true Chinese fashion much more food than needed was ordered meaning Adam got a doggybag full of goodies to take home!

Our third Saturday in Jinan was spent with students who took us around more of the shopping sites of Jinan. Our first port of call was the skate shop were Adam spent hours deciding on a wicked new skateboard setup. Then our student guides took us out to lunch ordering again a feast that we couldn't finish. Before long we were headed on a doubledecker bus towards the huge markets that sell almost everything! Although we set out with the aim of returning with a new wardrobe, the enthusiasm our students displayed at the skateboard store quickly diminished amongst the skirts and jeans! Sparing the students some misery we headed back home, vowing to return on our own with a wallet packed full of Maos (cash!).

Liv's committment to her students was very evident last Wednesday, as she spent the evening helping out one of her most dedicated students, while Adam headed into town with Dovid. Every Wednesday night foreign teachers from different universities and schools throughout Jinan get together at Wei Weis for a feed and beer. Wei Weis is located on the Muslim street that is dotted with 2-metre long bbqs where seafood, meat, and vege kebabs are cooked on the spot! While Liv got an early night to bed, Adam finally made it to a Chinese bar (a nice change from buying beer on the street, although it cost him 5 times as much) and partied the night away with his new friends returning in the wee hours of the morning ...

One of our hightlights over the past two weeks has been putting our webcam and headset into action as we finally got skype set up! We have since spent the majority of our time skyping the hours away - seeing our family for the first time in months is wonderful, hopefully they don't get sick of seeing us! Just got to get mum and dad techniphobics online with skype now ...

The first of October is National Day in China, and this is commemorated with a week long holiday, which we welcome with open arms as a break from teaching and a chance to really explore our new home.

The adlibers survive to the holidays.

Days 95-101 – Our first working week …

2007-09-23T15:32:00.001+08:00

After three months of continuous travelling, we have to ditch our adlibing ways and begin our life of planning and preparation as we enter into the working world once more. Though we are officially titled “Foreign Experts”, we still struggle to think of ourselves as university teachers and feel our role is more similar to that of a tutor. Being on the teaching end of class has taught us a few lessons – the main ones being that we now understand why teachers have teacher’s pets and that teaching is as much a motivational challenge as it is about passing on knowledge. While teaching isn’t difficult itself, it is extremely draining – and of course there is the preparation that goes on outside out paid hours.

The advantages in relation to school include the fact that our schedules are identical, which means we have all our spare time off together, and that we teach the same level and can thus prepare for classes together.

Our students are second year students attempting to prepare themselves for attending Canadian Universities for the final two years of their study – it is our role to prepare them for the test they need to pass to get into international universities. So after saying goodbye to our university studies, we now have textbooks in our possession once more.

The first week of teaching was full of up and downs – the students who try in class reward our efforts, while those who couldn't care less leave us frustrated. Some students are clearly ready for their overseas experience, while others will get a harsh reality check once they arrive in Canada (if they make it).

Mondays and Wednesdays are both 8-hour days with an 8am start and a 6pm finish – the only saviour is the 2 hour lunch break between the four 2-hour classes. Basically we just try our hardest to survive these days but still provide the last class with at least an ounce of enthusiasm.

Tuesdays and Fridays are our 4-hour days, and we get to relax/plan classes on our day off on Thursdays! The weekends are true weekends, where we have time to ourselves to do our own thing in our way, except for late Sunday night when we enter cram mode in preparation for the week’s lessons. The excellent thing about our Friday classes, is that we have the ability to have the four hours jammed into Tuesdays, giving us a four day weekend to adlib our way around the China we haven’t seen yet.

After living in permanent weekend mode for months on end, where days were just numbers to us, our first ‘weekend’ (as in, a break from the working week) couldn’t come too soon! It seems we had adapted to the “do what you what when you want” way of living with ease, and now have to somehow struggle our way back into our new working life of schedules and class plans.

So when Saturday arrived we spent our time in similar fashion to the prologue week, by exploring the town and indulging in some shopping along the way. On Thursday we had attempted to go shopping, but ended up at a huge and expensive mall underneath the City Square (the Silver Plaza), which had just reopened after falling victim to the massive floods that wrecked havoc on the Chinese population. The same floods also wrecked havoc on our minds during our travels as we watched future destinations of ours feature in the news (underwater). As the prices in the Silver Plaza were comparable to prices at home, we had left empty handed with that feeling you get after setting out to spend money but not finding anything to buy!

For our second attempt at shopping, we armed ourselves with one of our students who was keen to practice his English. This resulted in an informative tour of shopping and eating spots around town, and seven hours later we returned home with bags full of goodies! Our main purchases for the day were computer-based accessories, and once the University fixes the internet (again) we’re geared and ready to skype our friends and family!

Sunday was pretty chilled – we started the day preparing for lessons and then made a brief foray to explore a market we’d passed on our regular bus trips, only a few purchases but we’ll be sure to return!

Adlibing it into the working world.

Days 89-94 - A prologue to teaching

2007-09-14T10:44:00.002+08:00

Jinan is the capital city of Shandong Province, a wealthy coastal province South of Beijing and North of Shanghai. The most famous draw card in Jinan are its Springs (Jinan is known as the City of Springs), but apart from that there are no real tourist attractions – this suits us fine though as we will adlib our way around the town and seek out our own sights and formulate our own opinions of the place! “Shandong” itself means “East of the Mountain”, which we think is very fitting considering the amount of mountains around us. The Yellow River (Huang He), which starts in Tibet, ends its journey in Shandong, reaching the sea in the North of the Province. As well as being famous as the hometown of Confucius, Shandong is also home to the most holy of the 5 sacred mountains in China – Tai Shan, which we will summit one of these days …

Our arrival in Jinan was brilliant - firstly because we were picked up directly off the train station platform by our boss-to-be and driven through town where we got a glimpse of our home for the next 9 months. Secondly our arrival at the campus where we will be living and teaching was a lovely surprise, as it is located in the suburbs out of the hustle and buslte of town and surrounded by hills - the sun was even shining and the blue sky looking down upon us - what a welcome! Finally the news we had been waiting for: our 9kgs of important and valuable gear that we sent months ago had arrived and was ready waiting for us!!

Without further ado we were taken to our dormitory (we like to call it our apartment, as that is what it is like). We have 2 bedrooms, one with a sunroom/drying room off it, a large living area with comfy couches, TV, DVD player, fridge and microwave (they don't fit in the kitchen!), and a welcome airconditioner (thank goodness). Off the living area is our kitchen (complete with washing machine!) and a bathroom. The only problem with the kitchen is that the 2-top gas stove doesn't work because the university refuses to allow foreign teachers to connect to the gas line! This problem was solved when we went to the supermarket the next day and purchased a rice cooker, jug, and an electric element.

We weren't totally sure what to expect as far as accommodation went, but we did have visions of a one room apartment with shared kitchen facilities - but the short of it is that we are pretty stoked with our new home so far.

The rest of our first day was spent receiving a campus tour from a soon to be student (Snoopy) - the campus itself is really pretty, it is the smallest of six campuses that make up Shandong University (we are based at the Software Campus). The buildings are beautiful brick constructions and house the offices, teaching rooms, sports rooms, a convenience store and a number of cafeterias (called 'restaurants', but we'll be the judge of that). Surrounding the campus are mountains, with one of them right on our back doorstep, lots of grassy areas (complete with signs telling students to keep off the grass), lots of outdoor areas with exercise equipment, and a construction sight a few hundred metres away!

After our tour and a rest we were taken to the supermarket by Snoopy and her friend Ian, where we purchased some food and cleaning products, and we enjoyed(!) washing our evening away before settling in for a rewarding Grey's Anatomy session.

Day number 2 at university we set off with Dovid (another foreign teacher here - there are only 4 of us at this campus) to another supermarket via a different bus route, increasing our knowlegde of our new hometown. Here we purchased appliances, more cleaning products, and a little more food before heading home for what would be our running theme for the rest of the week: cleaning, watching Grey's, cleaning, watching Grey's ... you get the picture. The apartment wasn't that dirty by Chinese standards, but after having not been lived in for a few months the dust and grime had built up and "if your mother won't live there, you shoudn't either", so we cleaned, and cleaned.

As well as the usual theme, on day 3 we got our contracts and had a 3-hour meeting with our bosses - this would have been a lot shorter had they not left us for large periods of time to talk amongst themselves. While we were told the contracts were the standard form contracts signed by all foreign teachers, we found some things we were unhappy with and managed to convince them to allow us to re-write a few clauses! During the meeting we found out that some teachers purely hadn't turned up for work, and we were now being asked (almost expected) to take on the extra hours. Realising we held a huge amount of negotiating power, we set about securing a computer for our apartment in return for the extra hours. When they refused, we decided that we weren't that keen for overtime, and within minutes a computer was being organised for our room!

Exhausted from the meeting we headed 10 minutes down the road to a Muslim restaurant to dine with our new teaching friend Dovid, and returned home with 2 yuan beers to fill the void in the fridge.

The number of cards in our wallets is increasing, as we now have a card we can swipe at the 'restaurants' on campus as well as the convenience store, and a card to swipe to pay for our frequent bus rides into town for shopping. These cards make life easy as we no longer have to carry around piles of one yuan notes for the bus (you must have exact change to catch buses in China). Although downtown is 40 minutes away by bus, our apartment is right on campus so it only takes us a few minutes to walk to class!

The next few days were spent getting our apartment in shape, signing the (re-written) contract, making repeat trips to the supermarket, and a LOT of Grey's watching. Finally on the night before class started we began some planning ...

This blue sculpture sits in the middle of the City Square, which is in the middle of Jinan City - a very handy orientation point!

And this is the beautiful crystal clear river that passes through the city:Adlibing our new home.

Day 88 - Last day of freedom

2007-09-14T09:35:00.000+08:00

In preparation for going to Jinan tonight, we spent the morning undertaking the normally despised task of packing, planning and preparing ourselves for our next destination. However, this packing mission was attacked with enthusiasm as it will be the last time, for a long time, that we have to go through these motions. Even better we know that once we arrive in Jinan someone will be at the train station to pick us up, meaning that we won't have to lose ourselves in the masses and figure out how to get to somewhere with a bed.

After the packing we headed out for one last adlibing adventure, which led us to the Suzhou Silk Museum. Our Lonely Planet had told us this was a must-see, and since Suzhou has a 4,000 year history of silk production, we thought we'd better stop by. However the museum consisted of mainly replicas of ancient silk, and apart from getting to watch silk worms eating mulberry leaves, we left disappointed.
So in search of something exciting to do on our last day we headed out into the rain - our destination being a pedestrian shopping street that houses a Taoist Temple - The Temple of Mystery. The bazaar area surrounding the temple was once home to travelling showmen and acrobats, but all we found was the normal hawkers selling knock-off handbags, sunglasses and belts. Nonetheless the markets were located in a beautiful setting with the temple smack-bang in the middle, and we enjoyed our hour and a half wander through them. As the rain intensified we hopped on a bus to take us back to the hostel. However, after spending half an hour barely moving, we opted to sacrifice our 2 yuan ticket and walk back - we ended up beating the bus and were relieved to escape the sardine tin bus, and the smell that comes with wet people in the summer.

With a few hours to spare we decided to break away from the adlibing budget and spend up large, before we start earning in Chinese yuan - so we treated ourselves to a delicious Italian meal for dinner and spent some time reflecting on our wonderful three months on the road through China. This dining experience was the first time we have dined in a restaurant where the patrons were 100% foreigners! Although the meal was a fantastic change, it cost us 10 times more than our usual meals, and left us just as satisfied.

Mounting our packs we boarded the ever familiar public bus for our journey to the train station, where we settled into our ever familiar role as the station-spectacle and after waving to or 'fans' we sat down and read our way through the hour until the train arrived.

As it was already almost 10pm when the train arrived, we off-loaded our weighty friends and set about reading ourselves to sleep in our luxurious soft-sleeper cabin for our last night of freedom. Our cabin even had a door to keep out the noise and the smell of urine drifting from the toilets, AND we could sit up in our beds as there were only 4 bunks in the room instead of 6!!
Adlibing our way to a new home.

Day 87 - Wandering the sights of Suzhou

2007-09-03T13:01:00.001+08:00

After the dramas we encountered with buses yesterday, we decided to tackle today by foot. Our first port of call for the day was The Master of Nets Garden (we figured we couldn't leave Suzhou without visiting one of the gardens it is famous for), which was beautiful, but to be honest, not that much different from the other gardens we have visited in China. The good thing about this particular garden is that it was small enough that we could see all of it and not feel like we missed something.
After this we got ourselves lost while searching for the Pingtan Museum, however in our lost state we journeyed along Pingjiang Road, which is a cobblestone path that follows one of the city's canals, and got to enjoy the local scenes (while dodging scooters and bicycles!). Perched along both sides of the canal are the slowly deteriorating houses of the locals who go happily about their lives, while tourists mill amongst them. We eventually came across an interesting building we thought we'd explore, only to find out that we had actually found the Museum we had been searching for - it's great that a completely adlibed path can succeed as if you were following a map. The Pingtan Museum is really just a theatre in a beautiful old building, where Pingtan shows of singing and storytelling are performed daily - and we had timed our visit perfectly as a show was due to begin half an hour after we arrived.

After being seated at the back (fine by us as this minimises the eyes on us and keeps them focused on the show) and given our cups of tea, we waited patiently for the show to begin. These shows are a very social occasion, although clearly for the older generation - we were out-aged by at least 50 years! We didn't mind the age gap though as our fellow theatre-goers showed extreme kindness to us and welcomed us warmly. The first man who approached us was slightly taken aback when his comment was understood and replied to in Chinese - though he was also clearly appreciative of our effort. Before long we had a steady stream of visitors, most proclaiming "they won't understand anything" - only for us to be defended by our friends saying "they do understand!". One man happily wandered over to us to explain that he had seen us (the bearded one and his girl) as he rode to his favourite theatre on his bike. The expression on his face illustrated that this conversation might be the highlight of his day. Eventually people told us what we already knew - that this show would be performed in the Suzhou dialect, different to Putonghua that we can semi-understand - and we all laughed together about the fact that we would understand very little, if anything at all!

The storyline completely alluded us, but at one time we were sure the joke that had the audience in hysterics was to do with the size of the male character's family jewels. We basically spent the show enjoying the changing tone of the actors voices, and their ever varying facial expressions, as well as listening to the musical pieces of the show - quite unlike anything you'll hear on MTV! We were stoked that the shrillness of the famous Peking Operas were absent from this show!
After the two hour performance and many cups of tea (all for 80 cents each) we headed for lunch as it was already 3.30pm. We ended up at another Muslim restaurant which we love - the meals tend to have more flavour and variety than other street kitchens - thus our noodle dishes threw a curve ball at our stomachs that are used to the usual grease and soya sauce flavoured noodles.

Back on foot patrol we enjoyed getting to really see Suzhou town as we headed for the North Temple Pagoda - the tallest pagoda south of the Yangzi at nine stories high and adjacent to a 1700 year old temple, which turned out to be one of the most relaxing and enjoying complexes we have been to in a long time. It was especially enjoyable as most of the tourists were headed away just as we were arriving. After gazing up at the height of the pagoda, it was thrilling to know that we were going to get to climb the biggest pagoda we have seen so far! The lack of tourists while climbing the pagoda was very welcome as the staircases were very narrow and it meant we got a clear run to the top, rather than waiting in line like we're used to! If you look really close you can see Liv hanging out the third window. At the top we got sweeping view of the city, and despite it being a clear-ish day, the skyline in the distance was still battling to break through the smog. The battle between sky and smog is a continuous one in China, and with the huge coal towers burning 24/7 it's no surprise that the latter is winning. From all the way at the top, the pagoda seemed even higher than it did from below and had there been any tourists in the complex they would have looked like ants - and we looked forward to enjoying the temple and its surrounds in peace. With all the tourrist gone it was easy for Adam to slip under a fenced of area and get up close and personal with Buddha.
Back down on level ground we spent the next hour wandering through the temple grounds, and although we've seen many gardens and temple this one was a nice change, due to its simplicity - straying away from the maze of pavilions, alleyways and rock sculptures of many others. Making our way to the exit, we were sidetracked by a roaming white rabbit, which was incredibly friendly and easy around us - letting us pat it and feed it by hand. This is a perfect example of when you treat an animal with kindness it has no reason to fear you or anyone else - kind of like the dogs here that roam the streets with natural freedom and cause no one harm, in contrast to the environment in NZ where fences sometimes aren't enough to keep savage dogs out of sight (or out of trouble). Nipping between the closing gates of the complex we were so enjoying, we continued our foot march with dedicated steps towards the markets - determined we would find them tonight! After less than half and hour of wandering, it seemed like this determination had failed as we arrived in the exact same place we had searched in vain for the markets last night. However, with a stroke of fate Liv read a neon hotel sign with the character for the street we were looking for on it. Soon we had a semi direction to head towards, though it took us another half hour of searching through handbag stores and watching a watershow for us to finally locate the elusive markets.

At the markets we set about a frenzied shopping spree, with the knowledge that we only have to lug our packs around for one more day - as well as knowing that travel clothes probably won't do at work. At the end of our night Adam had purchased a pair of trousers that are a mix between 'good' work pants and kick ass grandpa pants (of course 5 sizes too big, according to Liv). Liv walked away with a pair of cool jeans and a handbag that made denying all the other handbags on offer over the last three months worth while (though she's still keeping the bag from mumbles that connects her to home, even though it's broken!).

After finding dumplings for dinner and a McD's ice cream for dessert, we congratulated ourselves when we found the bus we needed to catch by pure happenstance! Ice cold beer in hand we relaxed our last travelling evening away trying to wear off some of the excitement of a great day but the end of a wonderful adlibed tour, well for now, that is ...

Adlibing the night markets, eventually.

Day 86 - A day at Lake Tai on foot

2007-09-03T11:55:00.000+08:00

After all the thunder, lightning and rain last night, we woke to a clearer morning and prepared for our day out. Our destination for today was Lake Tai, and more specifically Dong Shan (East Mountain). Lake Tai is a fresh water lake which is home to more than 90 islands, including Dong Shan, and is famous for its eroded rocks, similar to which we have had the pleasure of viewing in traditional gardens all over China. Dong Shan, which is positioned on Lake Tai's southern shores, is famous for its gardens - however we are slightly over visiting gardens, no matter how beautiful, so instead we spent the day wandering to nowhere specific on the island.

Deciding to do something out of the ordinary, we accepted a taxi driver's offer to drive us part way around the lake to save us some walking time and give us more time to explore the lake and the villages on its edge. The taxi driver thought he was being very clever in charging us only a few quai to take us to a place beside the lake with no particular attraction - hoping to lure us into paying a lot more to take us back to the tourist spots in the opposite direction. Little did he know that this secluded place he dropped he had dropped us was exactly where we had wanted to end up, for this is the adlibing way. Soon we were wandering along the lake by foot power, which we are much more accustomed to, and we got to slip down and explore the local fruit orchids that make up a large proportion of the landscape. Here we got to watch ferrets (we think) playing together amongst the trees and walk along small, aging jetties that hover over the lake. Continuing our adlibing adventure, we found a cliffside spot, where we feasted on crackers and cookies, and took in the semi-disturbing view of enormous power pylons planted directly through the lake, creating a stepping stone route to other islands on the lake. To the other side, below the lush mountains, we had a great view of small villages settled on the edge of the lake, with local boats sheltered in small canals that led off the lake. After almost being attacked by local dogs on one of our ventures down a small alleyway, where grandparents rushed to get their grandkids to show off the foreigners to (it's not common for tourists to venture away from the usual attractions) we decided to board a local bus and see where it took us. Unfortunately, the bus ride wasn't a long one, and we were soon dropped off in the midst of locals pleading with us to hop aboard one of their motorboats for a lake cruise. Adam had earlier laughed at the boats' attempts for cornering at speeds, knowing too well what speed is - there's nothing like a real Hamilton turn!

Instead of accepting their offers, we walked in the opposite direction from all the other tourists and headed along the road we had just come along - but enjoying it at a slower pace. Before long the bus we had hopped off only 15 minutes earlier made its return trip past us, and given the increasing rain we used the Chinese tactic of waving down any bus going your way to give our feet a rest. Soon enough we were going on our way back to the bus station to catch our next bus - we like the fact that it only costs us $1.50 for the two adlibers to make an hour journey back to town.

On our bus trip back home we sputtered over one of the massive bridges that span the Grand Canal, this provided us with a great opportunity to gaze upon the gigantic tug boats hauling their loads, some sunk so low to the waters edge that it splashed over the decks. It was so easy to imagione the canal in its hay day for in reality it hads never stoped poroviding for the towns that surround it.

Back in Suzhou, it was already almost 5pm and since breakfast all we had eaten were snacks, so we decided to have an early tea. Walking our street, we came across a Korean restaurant and Liv finally relented to Adam's desire to try Korean food. Much to Liv's pleasure the food was great (though the kimchi still doesn't go down well with her) and Adam loved having real spicy food once again.

Our night was spent searching for the night markets, which consisted of a bus ride to we don't know where - although where we ended up provided us with a spectacular view of Chinese buildings in all their illuminated glory reflecting off the gorgeous canals that trapse their way through the city. We found ourselves in the Old Town of Suzhou and spent some time wandering the streets aimlessly until the time came to catch the last bus. Back in our side of town we munched on a typical meal of noodles and rice while we chatted the hours away until it was time to pick up a beer and head home.

Adlibing Lake Tai, our way.

Day 85 - Sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll ... well partly

2007-08-31T22:26:00.000+08:00

As one of the only cheap hostels in Suzhou and popular given its prime location amongst the shops and bars, we spent the morning waiting to see if we could have a room for tonight, and hopefully a few more! After eventually hearing the good news that our room was secured, we set out to the small canal town of Tongli. Tongli, situated only half an hour from Suzhou, has been around since the 9th Century and maintains a lot of its original character - when we arrived we marvelled at its stone buildings and bridges, and paved cobblestone pathways. After a stuffy bus ride, we were soon revived by the atmosphere of the town and were ready and rearing to explore the many gardens and other attractions in this small town. Before we got to such attractions, however, we were sidetracked once again by the markets, where Liv picked herself up some super cool Puma shoes for a mere NZ$9. We chuckled along the markets at the crazy prices quoted to us for the sellers' goods - for example Liv's shoes started at the quoted price of 360 yuan, but were eventually bargained down to 50 yuan. Though we don't begrudge their high starting prices as we know sometimes they get lucky and make a sale to tourists who are willing to pay such prices (after converting to their own currency).

Eventually we began to explore the real old town of Tongli, immersing ourselves in the amazing gardens (such as Tuisi Garden - the main attraction of Tongli) and old residences (including Gengle Tang, which is made up of 52 halls and 5 internal courtyards). We soon found ourselves at the attraction most recommended by the Lonely Planet - the Chinese Sex Culture Museum. Not as saucy as it may sound (although it was forced out of Shanghai to Tongli), we learnt about the role of sex in religion, sex in primitive society, sex in daily life, and unusual sexual behaviour! As we wandered around the 'museum' we found ourselves giggling at huge penis sculptures and all forms of dildos, as well as the more 'proper' porcelain plates and vases with karma sutra style depictions. We also shuddered as we learnt about the darker sides of Chinese sexual history such as foot binding and the punishments given to licentious women. We feasted in one of the local restaurants before taking more time to take in the beauty of the locals rocking and rolling their boats along the canals, who despite their town being turned into a tourist attraction retain happy faces - a contrast to what we have seen in many other such tourist towns in China.
Once we felt we got as much as we could out of Tongli, we set about finding another hot and stuffy bus to take us home to Suzhou. Our evening at home consisted of reading, dining, and once again hiding out from the thunder storms that saturated the streets - hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow night so we can explore more of the markets, but for now our wallets are enjoying the break.

Adlibing the sexually infused canal town of Tongli.

Day 84 - Making it to the last Province of the Adlibing tour

2007-08-31T22:25:00.000+08:00

Bidding farewell to Shanghai, today we boarded the ever familiar bus and headed to Suzhou in Jiangsu Province. Suzhou is a city situated along the Grand Canal (a major transport and trading route), and as such is quite a prosperous city. However, upon arrival we were met by a construction zone that resembled the aftermath of a bomb attack - the area where we arrived was full of half demolished buildings, to make way for expansion, rubble lining the canals, and several temporary bridges that spanned the canals. Avoiding the onslaught of the tuk-tuk drivers, we decided to walk to our next destination in order to save the pennies and walk off Adam's nightly beers ...

Given that we need to be in Jinan within the week, we decided it was about time we sorted out how we would get there! Thus against our general adlibing routine we booked our train tickets in advance - and a good thing too, as there were practically no tickets available - we had the choice of hard seat (lowest class - been there, done that) or soft sleeper (first class). As Liv didn't fancy a 12 hour overnight trip on a hard seat, Adam gave in and we bought the soft sleeper tickets - this will probably be the only chance we get as our traveller's budget dwindles, but lasting just long enough until we re-enter the working world once again.

After walking around fully loaded in the scorching heat for hours, we began showing the telltale signs of exhaustion, and it was a great relief to eventually arrive at our hostel where we were soon singing the praises of our airconditioned room! The hostel's walls are plastered with other traveller's pictures and words of wisdom / advice / complaints / praise - this 'wallpaper' adds to the atmosphere of this already very trendy hostel. Too hungry to rest, we ventured out in search of food, which we found in a small street kitchen around the corner, before making our way back to rest our heavy bellies.

As the evening wore on, we realised it was dinner time, and we had done little today but eat and travel, so it was nice to have our search for dinner prolonged while we slowly window shopped the trendy streets that surround our hostel - much better than the bombsite we arrived to! Our most prized purchase of our time in China was made today, when we acquired the entire three seasons of Grey's Anatomy - or so we think ... Our Japanese dinner was a nice change from the familiar food we have been dining on for the past few months, and set us up well for our perusal of the nearby, alleyway markets. Here we were tempted by handbags, t-shirts, jewellry and other market staples found throughout the markets of China, but once again left empty handed - and despite nearing the end of our travels this is probably a good thing considering the weight of our packs. Making it home just in time to fall into bed, we settled in for the night on the rock solid beds of the hostel - many fellow travellers have commented on this fact, but we just think they have yet to experience rural China and all it has to offer!

Adlibing the food and markets of Suzhou.

Day 83 - A slow start to a shopping binge

2007-08-29T21:14:00.000+08:00

After Adam's dreadful night / morning we decided to postpone our departure to allow for some resting and recuperating, and enjoyed watching the box and reading our books, while listening to the rain and thunder outside, which further encouraged our lazy day.

Finally deciding we should eat, we purchased some supplies from our (now) local supermarket so we could relax even more of the day away in our room. Come 4.30pm with the rain having eased, we decided perhaps we should at least do something on our last day in Shanghai (again). Remembering antique markets we have passed on our frequent bus journeys into town, we set out in search of a bargain and walked away with four!

The antique markets fill a few small side streets off Tibet Road, and we thoroughly enjoyed wandering past the tables littered with a jumble of porcelain (China), Mao memorabilia, Chinese locks, wooden boxes and many other old and not-so-old pieces of interest. The markets was a great place to exercise the brain, as purchasing our goods involved a lot of hard bargaining, with the trump card of walking away being utilised to full effect! Our four purchases consist of a Chinese Dragon Zippo lighter (fuelled up and ready to go), porcelain chopsticks with delicate flower patterns, an antique(?) Chinese bronze lock, and two pretty pink China tea cups / bowls, which might just be the beginnings of an obsession that has been brewing since we arrived. As darkness fell we reluctantly left the enjoyment of the markets, heading once again towards home and food, and hopefully a better nights sleep.

Adlibing the antique streets.

Day 82 - A little bit of luxury for an old man

2007-08-29T20:56:00.000+08:00

Waking up a little stiffer than usual, it wasn't until Adam remembered he had just turned a year older that he realised why, and so the morning crept on at a very relaxed pace, until we finally attacked the day. As the morning had already disappeared (like 23 years had also done) we headed out in search of Gongdelin Vegetarian Restaurant for a birthday lunch treat - this restaurant has had its place in Shanghai since 1922.

Lazy in his old age, Adam left the ordering up to Liv, only interrupting to ensure a beer would grace the table, and before long a feast of mushrooms, 'chicken' and 'beef' arrived. Taking our time to enjoy the environment - in which we stood out like two sore thumbs in our shorts and singlets, when others were dining in dresses and shirts! The restaurant is situated in one of the flash parts of Shanghai, though it seems like you can be on one street surrounded by Maseratis and Gucci stores, and turn the corner to find a street of rundown and dirty housing and clothes hanging over the street.

After our share of wining and dining with the elite of Shanghai we found ourselves walking through People's Park and stopping for Adam's birthday treat of a Starbucks caramel frappacino to ward off the heat. We then headed for East Nanjing Rd, which the Lonely Planet describes as "Shanghai's Golden Mile", which is full of department stores (including Shanghai's historically largest and most famous, the No. 1 Department Store). This environment didn't exactly appeal to us or our budget, but it was a nice wander nonetheless, we even peaked into a few stores and acted like we might just buy something ...

Back at the hostel we changed into our fanciest dregs, which were really just our cleanest clothes (and Adam wore a T-shit instead of a singlet), for tonight we were to indulge in a night at the Shanghai Centre Theatre, and witness the spectacular that is the Shanghai Acrobatics Troupe (Shanghai Zaji Tuan). Despite blowing the budget the show was amazing, and while Liv sat there hands poised for clapping and mouth hanging open with delight, Adam drifted between evaluating the physical aspects of the performance and debating a career move and joining the troupe. The show was expertly correographed to music and lighting that intensified the whole performance as the troupe flipped and spun through the air, utilising ribbons, chairs, swings, amongst many other things. We even got to see circus type performances between acts, such as juggling, plate spinning and most hilarious knife throwing at an audience member (he had a blindflod over his eyes and had no idea the stars of the show were merely jabbing the knife into the board instead of throwing).

Leaving the show feeling exhilarated, we headed towards home and dinner. On the way when Adam commented on his desire to seek the acrobatic adrenalin rush, Liv let him know that his aged body would only be able to serve as the token fat guy at the base of the tower. She didn't mean it, honest.

Dinner was back to the typically cheap meals we're used to, after a day of high-rolling (to us, anyway), and beer in hand we were soon zonked out for the night ... or so it seemed. While Liv lay peacefully asleep Adam cursed his meal that left him seeing in his 25th year making close acquainances with the toilet bowl. Still, three months dining in China's street kitchens is a pretty good scorecard, and wont put him off (though he may return to the vegetarian ways of sleeping beauty for a while).

An Adliber's birthday in luxury.

Day 81 - Spending it up at the Old Town Bazaar

2007-08-29T20:20:00.000+08:00

After a slow start to the day we eventually set out for the Old Town of Shanghai. As soon as we stepped off the bus we stumbled across a shoe fix-it man, one of the many Chinese entrepreneurs that stake out a piece of street space to make a living. So far we have had our clothes repaired by sewers and have turned down shoe shiners, but today Adam's shoes that are currently held together by the magical zinc tape got repaired by a professional in no time at all and only cost $1!

As we headed towards the Old Town we were confronted with views of hosues being demolished to make space for more skyscrapers, that already cast shadows upon the ruins. We then stepped into a brand new Old Town, as this area has been renovated to the point that everything is sparkling and new - however the renovations have been carried out so that the character and architecture of the past still remain. Subsequently flocks of tourists (domestic and foreign) come to Old Town to see the historical China like an image directly out of a painting.

We spent the afternoon wandering the Bazaar and even did our bit for the economy by purchasing an "original" diesel shoulder bag for Adam, and some cute green shoes for Liv. Before long, our bellies were screaming at us, and so the ever present search for food began. The area was so made up for tourists that our choices were limited to McDonalds or Pizza Hut, or ridiculously overpriced Chinese noodles - we opted for the latter, and although the meal was average, we got to enjoy it in a real restaurant!

After ambling through more of the Bazaar maze, we eventually found the Yuyuan Gardens, which we had been searching for all day. The beautiful garden is full of rock formations, fish ponds bubbling with the ever present red carp, and scattered with pavillions. Along the way we found plenty of things to gaze at such as an old stage and old pavilions that have been modernised into antique stores - selling 'antiques' at 1000% percent more than in the bazaar. Something that especially caught our eyes was the stone dragon head whose tail flowed along the garden wall its scales acting as a deterrent (we think this is much more pleasant than the broken glass usually employed!).

As we attmepted to head back, we ended up coming full circle to the vegetarian restaurant next to the Temple of the Town Gods we had spotted earlier too late for lunch unfortunately, but upon our return it was perfect timing for an afternoon tea of delightful dumplings!

In similar fashion to most days, we returned home before heading out for dinner. Tonight we overfed at a local restaurant, where we tried two new dishes: one was a cold noodle dish soaked in soya sauce and sesame oil, which took a bit of getting used to, and the other was a delicious tofu and mushroom hotpot. The second dish was a refreshing change as most of our tofu choices come out much less desirable than we had hoped!

After dinner all that was left was to find Adam his beer to complete the evening ritual and head home to finish Liv's ritual of reading till the early hours ...

Adlibing the (new) Old Town of Shanghai.

Day 80 - An outing to The Bund

2007-08-27T10:13:00.000+08:00

This morning we woke up ready to hit Shanghai - so we headed to The Bund, of course. The Bund (also known as Waitan - foreigner's street) is situated on the Huangpu River and is probably the most famous street in Shanghai. Along The Bund is a collection of old-European style buildings that stare across the river at modern skyscrapers, and is meant to be the most beautiful street in Shanghai. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to comment on this, until much later, as the rain threatened our plans of a walking tour along the river.

Whie sheltering from the rain we devised a new plan of heading for the Shanghai Museum - though this plan was also momentarily hindered as we watched a taxi vs scooter crash unfold before our eyes. Of course the taxi came off best, and as the scooter driver picked himself off the road, we were shocked at the lack of concern or anger from the drivers or the public - and even more shocked as the scooter driver went across the road to fetch his shoes that had come off in the crash and then mount his scooter and drive away.

Refocused on our plans, we set about finding the bus to take us to the Museum. On the advice of one of the many guards that seem to mill everywhere, we boarded a bus and soon found ourselves across the road from the Museum. This is where the ablibing plans fell apart once more. Standing in the middle of the square wondering how to enter, we were approached by two students wanting to practice their English on us - after about half an hour of chatting they told us they were off to view a traditional tea ceremony and invited us along. We have been wanting to see a tea ceremony in China, so we jumped at the chance tto go with some people who could explain it to us.

It wasn't until we arrived that we realised it was a private ceremony, in which we were taking part! From what we have observed in China so far, the Chinese people are very polite and it would have been beyond rude to pull out at this stage, so we both wrote off the cost as an experience we wanted to enjoy, and set about engaging and appreciating the ceremony. During the hour long ceremony we got to try six different teas, all very different but as delicious as each other, as well as four different 'tea snacks'. We were provided with a running commentary by the tea ceremony host and a translation by our new found friends. The family of our host were the makers (and supposedly the copyright owners) of the 'snacks' and of one of the teas we tasted (we tasted merely a fraction of the 200 on offer), which was the sweetest and Liv's favourite. Sitting there it was hard not to have flash backs to the wonderful times we had spent enjoying mum's endless supply of a variety of teas back home. A memorable part of the ceremony was when the host served tea out of the Lovers' Teacup, that changed colour as hot water was poured in.

We left the ceremony with new found knowledge about how to correctly hold and drink from the delicate and tincy teacups and and set about following through with plan B: Museum!

Farewelling our friends we entered the Museum and began wandering our way around the four expertly created floors full of Chinese history. Adam's two favourite exhibition halls were the rock carvings, which showed both beauty and destruction, and the currency exhibition that showed both simple and elaborate designs. We had to laugh at the coins in the shape of knife blades, imaging walking into a store and pulling out a weapon for currency! Liv's favourite was the ceramic exhibition, where we were dazed by an array of delicate and colourful pottery, some thousands of years old. Pottery is one of the three things China is famous for (according to our tea friends), tea is the second (which we had definitely had our fill of today), and the third is silk which we saw in the Minority Costume exhibition. Armed with our new-found history knowledge, we finally made our way to The Bund and set plan A into action. While our plans for a Bund-length walking tour were now altered after being on our feet for so many hours, we were still keen to see as much of the architectural history we could! Heading in a direction we weren' t quite sure of, we immersed ourselves in the action of the Bund for a good few hours as day turned to night. This allowed us to see two different sides of the Bund and witness the waterfront swell with human life as the locals came to socialise the night away. The Bund was packed with people selling all sorts of gadgets, and in traditional Chinese fashion those selling the same things sat side by side. Although there was so much space in the surrounding streets and pathways, we understood why The Bund drew such a crowd, and we figured that without these people The Bund just wouldn't have the same atmoshpere.

After partaking in our second English lesson for today while standing across from the Peace Hotel (one of the many old buildings that got the camera clicking), we made tracks towards our Shanghai home.

Finishing off the obligatory icecreams and having a short rest, we went in search of more food for Adam, who had been tantalised by the burning bbq grills that line the streets since we arrived. Munching down octopus kebabs in one hand and a cold beer in the other, Adam decided that he liked Shanghai very much.

By this stage it was getting late and we hope to explore the old town of Shanghai tomorrow so in preparation for the next day's plans we headed to bed - hopefully our plans for tomorrow will go smoothly.

Adlibing a Chinese education.

Day 79 - Chilling in Shanghai

2007-08-26T21:22:00.000+08:00

Waking to the incessant and loud chatter of our co-riders, we attempted to return to sleep to help the last 4 hours of the trip pass by, but eventually gave in and Liv settled into her ritual of sandwich making! Arriving in Shanghai we followed the signs that led us the way into the Country, even though Hong Kong is part of China's "One Country, two systems" - meaning we never really left the country in the first place!

Zooming through customs we made our way to the bus, with the hope of finding a bed at the first hostel we turned up to. We were lucky and got 2 beds in a dorm, just as more people swelled through the door - the receptionists stressed at arrival with no reservation (it is the adlibing way, after all)!

Despite doing relatively little for the last 24 hours, we were still pretty exhausted - as well as being one of the most enjoyable stops on our travels, Hong Kong sapped a lot of energy out of us, especially since much of the fun comes out at night. Thus we rested at the hostel cafe enjoying a normal priced sprite and beer - back in China at last!!

With a lot of blogging to catch up on, we went to the nearest internet cafe and blogged until Liv nearly fainted due to lack of food. Adam very cleverly found a restaurnant with a picture menu on the wall, which made ordering our first meal in Shanghai a breeze, and we ended up with (you guessed it) noodles and rice - BUT for the Chinese, and not Hong Kong, price of a few bucks.

We enjoyed the afternoon at the hostel, in a real state of relaxation (no walking, getting lost, or battling with language issues like usual) until dinner time when we headed straight back to the picture board restaurant - unfortunately though, this time even the pictures failed us and we ended up with 2 meat dishes! This had nothing to do with our Chinese or pointing abilities, but more to do with the waiter's error, which he sheepishly fixed before hiding in the corner.

Stopping for groceries and a cold beer, we headed for our home for the next 4 nights, and settled in to regenerate for the adlibing adventures tomorrow.

Adlibing picture food in Shanghai.

Day 78 - Packing in Hong Kong

2007-08-25T21:27:00.001+08:00

After going to bed earlier on this morning, we slept the rest of it away before making a quick outing for breakfast and train supplies from the local supermarket. Avoiding the hassle of trying to find a cheap, vegetarian breakfast, we dined on our regular peanut and banana sandwiches and packed up ready to leave Hong Kong.

At the train station we reluctantly gave up our Octopus cards and with it the ease of Hong Kong's public transport system, and set about spending our Hong Kong coins we couldn't change back to yuan. After lunch the extra money went into chocolate for the trip and before long we were in the waiting room, preparing for our longest train ride yet - 20 hours all the way to the metropolis of Shanghai.

Once on the train, Adam impressed the men on board when he climbed to the top bunk with his pack still on his back - he gets the thumbs up just walking along the street, so you can imagine the applause when he climbed the three bunks with it on! Liv just responded to the thumbs up signs with the universal swirl of the fingers around the ears (crazy, and strong).

With not much to do, we settled in to read and sleep - breaking once for our noodles in a paper bowl - and waited for Shanghai to arrive.

Adlibing the train out of Hong Kong.

Day 77 - A quiet getaway apon Lamma Island

2007-08-25T21:19:00.001+08:00

Last night we made a pact that we would get up as soon as we woke up, to avoid sleeping half of the day away (again) - we almost followed through with it too! Still rising earlier than usual we headed to the visa office for the moment of truth: were we going back to China on Friday? With smiles on our faces, we walked out of the visa office - the answer is yes, we're going back to the Mainland.

The sun was shining in Hong Kong, and we needed no more temptation to head to the beautiful Lamma Island, a car-free island only a half an hour ferry ride across the picturesque harbour - although the swells put Liv off a bit!

Upon arrival we searched for the vegetarian restaurant recommended by the Guide and another traveller, but finding it shut we yet again began the search for food. Eventually we settled into a seaside restaurant where Adam got his seafood desire quenched with a soft-shell crab, which is a delicacy of the area.
Having done more than enough walking over the last two and a half months, we decided that the afternoon would best be spent lazing on the beach - which is where we headed, and where we stayed until it was time to get back on the ferry. On the way to the beach we passed the Lamma Island Animal Protection shop, where we supported the local animals by buying two second-hand books, for reading on the beach. After a short walk through the lush bush of the island we came to Hung Shing Yeh beach, where we were greeted by a sign that exclaimed: No throwing discs, balls, or sand; as well as a sign that advised against swimming because of the waves (even though there was a lifeguard on duty)! In addition there was a shark net surrounding the swimming bay, which Adam was thankful for when he read a notice advising that a shark had been found nearby. Adam braved and immensely enjoyed the wave-infested but refreshing waters, while Liv got a headstart on her new book. The day past a bit too rapidly for our liking, and soon we were back on the ferry heading towards the city. However, we had a date with Liv's friend Juliette from profs back in New Zealand to look forward to!

With Juliette's expert Chinese (she is Chinese afterall), dining was much easier than usual, and we feasted on a variety of new veges we hadn't yet tried. Adam even tried a sweet redbean drink. Ignoring the restaurant staff, we talked the night away, with Liv catching up on the gossip that Juliette had and learning about Hong Kong and Juliette's life - in general it was a great night with a great friend. One good thing about catching up with an old friend is that we could skip the traveller's conversation: where are you from, where have you been, etc etc.... And it was fantastic to see the familiar face of a friend.

As the night switched to the next day, we headed home (via McDonalds for icecreams - way too much McDs here, but it's the cheapest place to eat!) for our last night in the Mansions.

Adlibing the beaches of Lamma Island

Day 76 - A misty meating with Buddha and into the noise and lights of the Hong Kong night

2007-08-25T20:55:00.001+08:00

Once we were finally ready to face the day, we might as well have been heading out for lunch - instead we jumped on the metro and headed to Lantau Island, which although it is twice the size of Hong Kong Island it has only 50,000 residents. Once on our bus towards Po Lin Monastery we started to realise just how green and beautiful Hong Kong really is - there is so much more to it than the skyscrape skyline that it is renowned for. Driving past the beaches and reservoirs, and through the greenery, we wished we had more time / money so we could fully explore this side of Hong Kong. Our list of locations to return to is growing by the day and at this rate we may never get out of China. Of course having our family or friends coming to Asia will be ample excuse to rewalk some of the adlibing path once more.

Our bus ride was a very stress-free experience, and although it took twice as long as the same trip would have taken in mainland China, at least we were getting value for the unbelievably bankbreaking price of public transport in Hong Kong.

We arrived, once again, surrounded by mist and unable to see the sight we had come for: the Tian Tan Buddha statue, which is the world's largest outside seated Bronze Buddha. As we climbed the 260 steps, the amazing sight of the Buddha statue emerged from the misty shadows to greet us. With our special 'snack tickets' we were allowed entry inside the Buddha into the small exhibition where we gazed upon the scriptures engraved on huge wooden beams before having the honour of standing before the bone relics of Buddha.

After reading more about the temple, the statue and the life of Buddha we were treated to our free icecream and water, and headed back down the steps into the Monastery. At the entry of the Monastery, where worshippers place burning incense into the big metal urn, we got to see how cool our new camera is. We love the shots! Incense burns at every temple and monastery, but here it smelled sweeter than usual and Adam enjoyed being engulfed in the enchanting smoke. As we explored the monastery we were treated to the chanting of monks during a daily prayer session, which added realism to the experience. The months in China have naturally led us to many temples and monasteries varying in age and beauty and every time we think we have had our fill one will as if on cue leave an unforgettable mark, for Adam this was one of those places.

We headed back to town using the world renowned public transport system that every city should strive to imitate (except a little cheaper please), passing through the famous Temple Street Night Markets - where we were tempted by all kinds of gadgets (Adam), clothes (Liv) and the full set of Grey's Anatomy (both of us!). Reluctantly leaving the markets empty-handed we zoomed across town to the waterfront to view the "Symphony of Lights" staged nightly on Victoria Harbour. Taking our spot on the Avenue of Stars, we enjoyed watching the buildings across the harbour light up during the world's largest permanent light show - this was a spectacular laser and neon light extravaganza, that went on for about 5 minutes, all in time to a musical piece. The optical performance was accompanied by an unplanned partner as the moon joined in to dance with the clouds as the lights moved over the night sky.
The ever present rumble of thunder, no hang on... Liv's stomach, sent us on another of our effortful missions to find something to eat. Our adlibing travels have brought us to a country that is so well known for its food and blessed with the greatest ranges of fruit and vegetables you could imagine, that you would think finding a vegetarian option would prove an easy task...But once again, as we have come very accustomed to, we searched in vain for far too long. After leaving yet another restaurant without food in our bellies the situation took on a dark cloud as Liv began to breakdown running on the fumes of an empty tank. Thankfully we found a nice Malaysian place that would make up a vegetarian option for us and luckily for Adam the food turned out to be divine.

Strolling in the pleasant warmth of the Hong Kong night we manuvoured through the crowds and passed on the numerous temptingly cheap electronic shops all the while dogging the insistent drip of the airconditioners clinging to the buildings above our heads. Making it back to our mansion (cupboard in a crumbling building) we settled in for the night.

Adlibing it in the presence of Buddha.

Day 75 - Shopping for a new adliber.

2007-08-25T14:52:00.000+08:00

Awaking to the sounds of Indian music breaking through the razor thin walls, we readied ourselves to head off into the world of Hong Kong shopping, new camera here we come! Our biggest worry was avoiding buying an expensive fake camera, so we followed the Lonely Planet's recommendations to some trusted camera shops. The prices at the authentic stores were much more expensive than the stores up and down Nathan Road (the backpacker's street where the peddlers yell out "you want copy-watches, copy bag" everytime you wander past), but we were willing to pay for the real deal - and the prices were much much cheaper than what we'd pay back home.

We found these reputable places had a price they were unwilling to budge from, which was much more than the Nathan Road sellers' starting price even before bargaining - we were even more reassured that where we were shopping was best.

After scurrying between two stores offering pretty much the same deal, we eventually settled upon a brand new Canon IXUS 900ti - half because that's what the trusted Harris family have, and half because the many reviews and "Top Camera Lists" we searched told us to! We also got a 2gb memory card and a 12 month warranty for a price that left us smiling. With a new camera in hand we headed for the top tourist attraction (and one of the oldest) in Hong Kong: Victoria Peak via the famous Peak Tram. The tram claws its way up the 552 metres to Victoria Peak tilting on crazy angles on its way. Adam, who was forced to stand, was hanging on for dear life. If the views on the way up were anything to go by, we were in for a sight... However, the further we climbed up the Peak Tower, the further we ascended into the blanket of cloud that was rapidly descending to engulf us.
We managed to get a few shots in before the skyline of Hong Kong was completely hidden from our view, leaving us waiting for the clouds to lift. We couldn't help feel sorry for the hundreds of people who were lined up around the block below waiting to get their piece of the view.

Buying time before the enticing lights of nightfall, began the 3.5km walking trail around the peak summit. This trail led us into a dark forest where we wished we had our brave Ethan James Harris there to protect us - it was a little bit spooky! - especially when bats started diving at us from the night sky. We took time along the way to gaze at the night lights below us, as the trademark neon lifeflow of Hong Kong slowly came to life.

Once we finally made it to the end of the track, Hong Kong was a blaze of colour and we joined the line at the top of the hill, for our descent back into the hustle and bustle of Central Hong Kong.

On our way to find food, we joined the ride on the Mid-Levels escalator - the longest in the world at 800m and taking 20 minutes from bottom to top. Too hungry for the whole trip, we made an exit, finding ourselves at another Indian restaurant for dinner, worth the Hong Kong dollars we paid for it (and no more).

Exhausted at this stage, we took the metro back home just in time for Grey's Anatomy. During the ads we (mainly Liv - Adam is banned from using this camera for now) read the camera manuals, and set about charging our new toy for its initiation into the adlibing adventures.

Adlibing the Hong Kong dollars up large.

Day 74 - Taking to the Air

2007-08-25T14:27:00.001+08:00

The road to the airport was a relatively stress free affair, for once the adlibers had planned ahead and knew exactly when and where to catch the airport express bus! Check-in went smoothly, except for a 10 minute loss after waiting in the wrong line, and after a couple of hours wait we were on our way to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's one of the stops on our journey that everyone would have heard of, and although it is now officially part of China (since 1997) as soon as we arrived, we realised how different it is from the China we have experienced so far. First of all Hong Kong is a system of systems - operating in a fast and extremely organised manner, completely in contradiction to the China we had just left! Secondly, even though we travelled less than 200km, the weather was significantly more pleasant - we're not even sure we hit 30 degrees today?!!

We have grown accustomed to sky-scrapers, but the skyline of Hong Kong is like the trump card, with fancy buildings, mammoth plazas, and designer stores in every direction we look - although on our budget we don't look too hard, in fact the only designer goods we'll leave Hong Kong with will be of the fake variety.

Our first mission of the day was to get on transport in the direction of our hopeful accommodation, boarding a bus that took us right outside the infamous Chungking Mansions where hawkers were ready and waiting to show us to their rooms. Despite travelling by air, we were running out of time to get to the visa office before closing time, so we took the first decent room we came across and took minimal time to haggle the price down to something we were willing to pay for a bed inside a cupboard. Dumping our packs we set off at lightning pace to the visa office, the English signs of the subway and streets added an element of speed to our travels that we were unaccustomed to in China. Venturing underground, we paused to purchase "Octopus Cards" that allow us to travel on most public transport by the swipe of a money-loaded card (you can even shop at the 7-eleven and McDonalds with the cards). The visa office was a perfect example of the efficiency of Hong Kong - go in, fill out a form, take a ticket and wait, and so we waited. Finally our number was called, just after closing time, and a wave of relief spread over us, as we were dreading having to return tomorrow morning. All we have to do now is wait until Thursday for our brand new Chinese visas.

Mission number two for the day was to acquire train tickets to Shanghai - trains only go every second day and it is a popular line that fills up fast. As we head North via the main tourist destinations, we have to be organised and plan more than a day ahead in order to get tickets - especially considering we have to be in Jinan in under three weeks!

Feeling extremely proud of ourselves after not only successfully making it to the train station, and getting the exact tickets we wanted, we headed back to our wee corner of the mansion for a well deserved rest. We were a little nervous coming to the Metropolis of Hong Kong, especially on our budget, but so far it has been a breeze and EVERYONE speaks English.

Hanging out in the Mansions we had a chance to take in our surroundings - in our prime position on Nathan Road, is our age-stained building that has been the budgeters' choice for accommodation for as long as Hong Kong can remember. The ground floor is a calamity of rip-off electronic, clothing and porn stores, while the third floor is taken up with numerous Curry Houses, and the rest of the 15 floors are full of small guesthouses, run inevitably by Indian immigrants. Having the time, we searched the mansions and realised every guesthouse was basically the same - the size of the rooms, the state of cleanliness, and the cost - so we decided to stay where we were for our entire stay in Hong Kong (though we would use our length of stay as a bargaining tool for a reduction in price).

For dinner, we decided to check out one of the Mansion's Indian restaurants - The Everest Club - where we dined on the most expensive meal we've had in a while, though we will have to get used to this in Hong Kong - this was actually cheap by Hong Kong standards! Before heading to bed, we worked off our full bellies by losing ourselves in the neon lights, and scouting the shops for cheap electronics and crazy expensive water!

Adlibing Hong Kong, by Octopus card.

Day 73 - A restful day of exhausting our feet

2007-08-19T19:12:00.000+08:00

We had decided in advance that we would rest our weary travellers' bodies today, so we slept in till mid-morning. A cell phone alarm that kept going off, threatened our sleep, but this is part of getting a cheap bed in the dorms.

After another home made meal for breakfast, we evenutally set out to ride the metro in search of Haizhu Square where we got back to our adlibing ways and wandered the streets before making it to the market where we spent hours browsing everything from childrens' toys, clothes, jewellry and everything else you could imagine. It's like one huge $2 shop maze. The thing that cracked us up was the lighter in the shape of a fire extinguisher - China is full of cliches!

Unbelievably we managed to leave the market empty-handed, but full of hopes that we could find something similar when we make it to Jinan (otherwise Adam has promised we can return to Guangzhou, for a shopping spree).

Hungry for lunch, we walked in and out of a few places before finally finding the restaurant that could give us what we wanted for a price we were willing to pay! The meal was great, and we were glad we spent the time searching. The friendly staff pointed us in the direction of a local market where we continued our penny saving and got to experience our first vege and noodle market purchase. There was lots of freshly cut meat and fish, but we bypassed this. For the meagre price of 3.70 yuan we got lots of noodles, bok-choy and a tomato for our dinner tonight. We look forward to doing our regular market shop when we're settled at work.

On the way back to catch the metro, we came across Beijing Lu - one of the biggest pedestrian shopping streets in Guangzhou, and amazingly crowded on the weekend. We wandered the streets, battling away the men approaching us offering 'genuine' rolex watches from their shady roadside stall, and occasionally venturing into a shop for a look around. Down the middle of the street were some remains of the old city, which we could look down at through glass windows.
Our restful day had turned into many hours on our feet, and we were beginning to fade. This was made worse by walking around the block in search of a metro station, and further exaggerated when we lost each other making our way to the platform. The 15 minute separation among the masses of metro travellers turned out fine, and before long we were relaxing back at the hostel.

Tonight we plan to dine in luxury on our market goodies, and pack for our trip to Hong Kong tomorrow!

Adlibing the market maze.

Day 72 - Headed for the ancient pottery towns

2007-08-18T21:02:00.000+08:00

Today was an extremely hot Guangzhou day that was unusually clear of pollution, which allowed the sun to pierce down on us without the usual smog barrier we are used to - this was a little bit of a shock, but it was nice to see the blue sky in such a big city. Today we boarded the metro and headed for the Fangcun bus station we discovered by mistake yesterday, which meant we arrived at the station and we're jumping on board our next bus to Foshan in no time.

Foshan is only a 45 minute bus ride (but only 19km) out of Guangzhou, and is famous for being one of the oldest pottery towns in China. Although we were both expecting a small town, we were actually greeted by something more like an extension of the bustling city of Guangzhou.

We first headed to the area of Shiwan where ceramic shops literally line all the streets in Shiwan, where you can purchase anything from entire dinner sets to small figurines. Here, we visited the Nanfeng Ancient Kiln and its sister the Gao Kiln (known as "The Dragon Kilns"), both built during the Ming Dynasty (1506-1521) - reportedly the kilns' fires have never gone out, during their 500 year lives!
As we explored the ancient kilns, we saw a workman feed the eternal flame (a job we would hate to have in this extreme heat) and also got to see an artist shaping a pot on his pottery wheel and another putting the finishing touches on a small clay figurine. From what we observed of the four day pottery-making process from clay to masterpiece, all the artists must have a great deal of patience and skillful hands.
We also learnt more about the process, in the numerous museums and galleries that display a huge range of pottery from the weird (thank goodness for the English captions) to the absolutely stunning.

After several hours, we were in desperate need for food, so we headed first to a fruit market for some cheap bananas, and then to Renshou Buddhist temple for a delicious vegetarian feast (our first sweet'n'sour "pork" in China!). After weeks of dining on fried noodles and rice and the same 'ol veges, the feast today was a nice change (well worth the extra cost). It was also a bonus for us to find out what one of our favourite veges is: lotus flower root. While we didn't go into the temple we did get to appreciate the beautiful seven-storey pagoda, built in 1656.

Well-nourished we decided to walk back to the bus station, rather than cram into another sardine-tin bus, for our trip back to Guangzhou. Back home we relaxed and Adam made running repairs to his pack, making good use of the zinc-tape from home, which he desperately needs his old man to bring when he visits.

Dinner was a repeat of last night's 2-minute noodles with veges - not quite the feast we had at lunch - but of course the icecream that followed (vienetta on a stick for 40cents) was a nice finish to the meal.

Adlibing it to the heat of the Dragon Kilns.

Day 71 - Finally hitting a highlight in Guangdong (10 weeks late)

2007-08-17T21:31:00.001+08:00

Despite having a rather large travelling day ahead of us, we still managed to laze away half of the morning, before finally setting off for the bus station. Our destination today was Kaiping, a town 140km out of Guaungzhou, famous for its Diaolou (watchtowers) that are only found in this area.
After months of experience with buses, the whole process of travelling the two hours to Kaiping went smoothly, and upon arrival we caught a local bus out to Zili Village, where the largest collection (15) of Diaolou are found. The Diaolou in this village were built in the 19th - 20th centuries by overseas Chinese returning home, who wanted to protect themselves and their familes from bandits and wildlife. The Diaolou are made out of concrete, have steel shutters, and are generally between three and seven stories high. The first tower we came across was Fang Clan Tower, important because it was based on the outskirts of town, meaning its inhabitants were the first to spot intruders. Picking our way along the village pathways we came to Yangyian Villa built in 1919, which we thought was existing true to its name ("live in tranquility") amongst the rice paddies and peaceful village.
Although we complained about the cost to enter the village, it was well worth the money, especially given we got to climb to the top and wander around a couple that still contained original furnishings, including family portraits. This gave us a great insight into life in the village over 100 years ago. The first tower we climbed was Yunhuan Lou, built in 1921. The second tower we climbed had its own stock of ammunition in a case with a sign "stones for retaliation" - we 're sure the small rocks would scare away any army! The village also contained beautiful villas, in the same semi-European style as the diaolou, overall producing a significantly different village environment than what we've seen in China so far. The last sight from the village was Zhulin Lou - meaning "The Tower in the Bamboo Grove" - which was literally nestled in amongst rice paddies and its own little bamboo forest! After nearly three hours of enjoying the village we returned to the small coountryside intersection where we waited on the side of the road for a bus to take us back to Kaiping. Along the way we witnessed suicidal spiky caterpillars zooming across the road like we've never seen caterpillars zoom before! Once the bus arrived, it took us to a completely different bus station, which in the end turned out for the better as the bus was cheaper from there, and it dropped us much closer to our hostel. Back at the hostel we dined on 2-minute noodles and veges (again), before treating ourselves to icecreams from "Your Friendly Local Store" just up the road.

Adlibing to the top of the Diaolou.

Day 70 - Our adlibing travels come full circle

2007-08-16T18:41:00.000+08:00

Today began with screaming children running up and down the train aisles, as light streamed in through the windows many hours before our arrival time. We spent the night on 'hard-sleepers" on the overnight train to Guangzhou, which isn't as bad as it sounds as we had relatively comfy beds in a supposedly airconditioned train. A nice change from our usual mode of transport, which requires us to be seated upright for hours on end!

Arriving back in Guangzhou, it was nice to be back in familiar territory - we actually knew where we were, where we were going, and how to get there! No aimless wandering for accommodation, as we just returned to the faithful youth hostel we were at almost 10 weeks ago to the day - holy moly, has time really gone this fast?!

The first part of the day was spent resting, before venturing out in search of a temporary replacement for our broken digital camera. During our search we paused for lunch down a narrow cobblestoned alleyway, drawing us away from the crowds of the nearby pedestrian shopping street! Lunch was the usual fried rice and noodles, which we are enjoying at the real Chinese price - i.e. cheap!

The search for the camera was far more difficult than we could have imagined, but after an hour or more we came across our first disposable, initially quoted at a ridiculous price. Finally we found a cheap film camera (complete with batteries and a couple of films), which will do us just fine until we find a new digital on our shopping spree in Hong Kong. We think we may hold onto the film camera and sell it back to an antique dealer once we're done!

On our way home we did some grocery shopping for dinner supplies (i.e. 2 minute noodles and veges!) to help save pennies for Hong Kong, where our budget will double to allow for just the basic necessities!

Tonight we plan to rest and start our rejuvenation process, in preparation for the hectic atmosphere we expect to encounter at our next two destinations - Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Adlibing it back to where we started.

Day 69 - Trapsing in and out of the famous Hakka Tulou

2007-08-15T17:15:00.002+08:00

Waking after a restless sleep, and early - the villagers obviously waking as daylight enters through multiple 'windows' throughout the Tulou. But what a view to wake up to: We went across to 'Backpaker Station' (a hotel across the road with a toilet!) for breakfast and a meeting with yet another Aussie - seems like we can't escape them - who slept in the same Tulou as us and (like us) had thought he was alone.

After filling up, we walked into the tourist Tulou village where we spent the next few hours exploring. In complete contrast to the Tulou outside the tourist village, many of the Tulou inside came complete with souvenier shops! Despite the tourism, we were spellbound by the sheer size and variety of Tulou.

As many of the Tulou are constructed with wooden beams jammed into the earth, stairways and flooring there is always a risk of fire. We therefore took notice of this stern warning (Mumbles have you been here educating the locals?):
Making the rounds we passed Zhencheng Lou (with inner and outer circles, as well as a large ancestral hall), Kuiju Lou (a square Tulou dating back to 1834), and Rusheng Lou (the smallest of the village with only 16 rooms). We also dined in Hong Tulou Hotel, by far the most commercialised Tulou we came across - but an experience nonetheless, especially when we we overcrowed once the tour buses arrived! We had been shocked as we wandered through the gorgeous village, that we were some of the very few tourists - until the tours arrived at lunch time, en masse.

The lowlight of the day was the final breaking of our camera, after a fall! Adam likes to keep positive - now at least our plans of purchasing a camera in Hong Kong are validated. However, this means no photos for at least the next five days, though we'll try and buy a disposable so at least we have a record of the next few days... Luckily the fall happened after we got lots of photos of the village, and tonight we head to familiar territory as we head back to Guangzhou - the starting point of our Chinese adlibing tour. The culprit of the 'camera incident' will remain nameless, though he is feeling rather stupid!

Back at our Tulou we packed up ready to return to Yongding, and ventured into yet another downpour of rain. After only waiting 10 minutes (remarkable by Chinese standards), our bus arrived and we farwelled our gracious and wonderful hosts.

In Yongding we headed straight for the computers - luckily after the camera incident we can still download the photos we have already taken. Now it's a case of food, and finding something to do until our train arrives at 10.55pm tonight, to begin our 12 hour journey back to the beginning!

Adlibing it amongst the Hakka people.

Day 68 - Headed for the Hakka Tulou villages

2007-08-15T17:15:00.001+08:00

Waking up much earlier than we needed to, out of fear of missing our bus, we made our way (much more easily than anticipated) to the bus station a good two and a half hours before our departure time. This proved beneficial as we managed to swap our tickets for a bus leaving in only half an hour!

On board our bus to Yongding, we prepared ourselves for the six hour journey ahead of us - and were slightly thrown off (though quite happy) when we arrived after only three hours. Attempting to buy onward bus tickets to Guangzhou for tomorrow, we were shocked to find there was no bus - throwing out our belief that you can bus anywhere from anywhere in China! However, we were informed there was a train station across the road with trains to Guangzhou, so we made our way there only to find 'across the road' meant 'across town' - meaning we got a nice walk in the rain!

When we arrived at the train station we found the ticket booth unmanned, a first in China. After we deciphered the timetable, Adam went to find somewhere to buy tickets, eventually walking into the control station where he conversed with the guard using a mixture of sign language and his basic Chinese. Returning to Liv, Adam was extremely proud of his achievement, only to be told by Liv that she had simply read the Chinese sign that set out the ticketing hours, moments after Adam had set off! With a few hours to kill before the next ticket time - we did what any self-respecting traveller with time up their sleeves would do - we indulged in local cuisine - well sort of, we ate some more fried noodles! At least this time they cost us what we have become used to paying - just over a $1 for the both of us!

Braving the rain again we made our way to the train station, where we purchased our overnight train tickets with a breeze - Liv has the ticket ordering down to perfection!

Having our train tickets purchased meant we could finally make our way (how else, but by dodgy local bus?) to Hukeng - the sole reason we had come to Yongding for in the first place. Yongding is famous for its 20,000 Tulou (earth buidings) scattered around the region. Tulou are huge communal homes (capable of housing entire clans), usually round, but also sqaure, semi-circle or even shaped like Chinese characters - the rooms are positioned around the edges with an open roof above the courtyard in the centre. Made of rammed earth, rice and reinforced bamboo chips, the Hakka people initially built the Tulou to protect themselves from bandits and wild animals.

We had been expecting about a 20 minute bus ride, and after an hour and a half, we were dreading the point when we were to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere and be told: this is your stop - as has happened in the past!

At our stop, we were dropped off (as usual) at the busdriver's friend's place, who was in charge of organising for tourists to stay in a traditional Tulou. The Tulou we were shown to was absolutely amazing, and despite the basic conditions we jumped at the chance to sleep there along with the locals. Our Tulou was 4 stories high, with over 400 hundred rooms and was more than 500 years old. The first floor of the Tulou is reserved for cooking, while the courtyard houses a well and animals. The second floor is for storage, and the third and fourth are the sleeping quarters. We were lucky to have penthouse accommodation on the top floor, though without a toilet in the Tulou, Adam got the experience of peeing into a big concrete pot during the night!

After being shown around our Tulou, we were lukcy enough to view other varieties of Tulou scattered around this area of the village (tomorrow we will enter the 'tourist' village), by a wonderful English speaking local. The Hakka people are renowned for their friendliness, which we certainly experienced as we wandered in and out of their incredible Tulou. Of note was getting to see the oldest, and now crumbling and uninhabited, Tulou in the village - that our guide had lived in only ten years earlier. After our 'tour' we had a delicious feast for dinner, getting to try one of the local green veges! Venturing back in the dark to our room, we got semi-lost and found ourselves trying to break into one of the local's rooms, only to get smiles, laughs and points in the right direction by our lovely housemates! Making it back to our room, we settled into bed - after completely dousing ourselves in insect repellant!

Adlibing the night in a Tulou.