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

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!!!

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!!

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.