It turned out that Frans did not just suffer from cold feet-induced sickness, but that the problem stemmed from the across-the-bridge-noodles, a local specialty, that we ate on New Year's day. Poor Frans spent the worst birthday ever in our hotel room (and its bathroom).
Two days later, he was sufficiently recovered, and Anke was sufficiently bored, to be willing to undertake a 7 hour bus ride just to look at some rice terraces. We arrived in Yuanyang at 5, immediately got into a rattling tin can on wheels, and were driven to a good vantage point to look at the sunset. The rice terraces are pretty spectacular (photos will be published here later...) and apparently about a thousand years old, but the fact that there were hundreds of Chinese tourists and photographers watching the sunset with us did reduce the appeal somewhat.
We stayed the night in a grubby hotel room where our bed closely resembled a plank, and we had the usual "hole in the ground with shower head overhead" as a bathroom. This all made it somewhat easier to get up at 6 to go look at the sunrise. We had not organized a driver, but fortunately, another couple walked out of the hotel at the same time as we did, and agreed to take us with them in their minibus. We feel a bit guilty, because we ended up hijacking their bus for the whole day, because they got off at a different location than we did, and neither we nor the driver could find them anymore after that... Again, the scenery was beautiful, as were the local people -- pretty much all the women wore traditional dress which had lots of bright colours and shiny things like coins hanging everywhere.
At 1 pm we were back in town, and ready for the trip back to Kunming. Since the express bus did not leave until 4, we thought we'd take local buses instead. STUPID! We should really know better... The first leg (one hour) was not too bad. Then we waited for about an hour, in which time the bus got reasonably full, with people sitting on little stools in the center aisle of the bus. However, a local police officer put an end to this, confiscated the stools and kicked out the people without seats.
As was to be expected, the bus picked up the exact same people just outside of town, but they now had to stand the whole 3.5 bumpy hours. When we reached the city that was the bus's destination and the first people got out, every man in the bus thought this was an opportune moment to light a disgusting, cheap cigarette. The bus driver was not in a hurry to get to the bus station, and made frequent stops to shop for new stools and sun glasses. Since the bus hardly moved anymore, no fresh air entered the bus, and we were hardly able to breathe with all the smoke. To save the last bit of pink in our lungs, we got out and took a taxi for the last 5 minutes.
Our journey was not yet over: we spent another 4 hours in the next bus, which was non-smoking (thankfully) but unfortunately had an amazing baby that was able to cry full force pretty much all the way. At 10:15 pm, only half an hour or so before the express bus would have made it, we finally reached Kunming.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Happy Year of the Ox
The year of the Ox did not start off too well for us. We're still in Kunming where it is cold and cloudy. Also, everything is closed because of the holiday, so there is nowhere to go and get warm except for our hotel room.Yesterday, we walked around the city a bit, looking for something to do. Frans has a freakish toe nail, which always turns black and then falls off if he does too much hiking. Since we have done a lot of hiking these past two weeks, the toe looks pretty horrible right now. Understandably, the toe does not like to be covered by socks and shoes. So Frans braved the cold in flip flops yesterday. Not a good idea. Now, he is sick. This is especially sad because it is his birthday today. Poor Frans!
Fortunately, we had a mini-birthday party yesterday (since there was really nothing else to do) in our hotel room with wine, beer, snacks, decorations, presents and really boring TV.
Now, Frans is in bed, and I am wandering around in the city, where everything is still closed except for this internet cafe.
On a more positive note, it was fun to see the new year's celebrations. Kunming is certainly not the place to be for this however. With some difficulty, we located a bar that was open (I think it was Japanese), where we met two English guys with whom we had some beers until midnight. At midnight, we went outside, ready for huge displays of fireworks.
Apparently, the timing of the fireworks is not that important here. The intensity increased only slightly from that of 8 pm. A bit disappointed, we walked around looking for where the action was. Since there seemed to be no action whatsoever, Frans and I decided to just go back to the hotel...
On our way back however, we passed a street with many many people on it. So we got out, saw there was a temple which was the focus of the attention, and bought a ridiculously overpriced ticket (20 instead of the normal 4 yuan). Then we had to line up in front of a row of policemen and ticket collectors. After a few minutes, we, together with some 80 others, were allowed into the temple. We walked a few meters, and met the next chain of policemen. Again, we waited a few minutes, and our batch was allowed to pass to the next line of policemen.
This repeated itself 4 or 5 times, and then we made it to the center of the temple. It was a really special sight. There were hundreds of people, all lighting their incense sticks and waving them around in the customary way. When they were done, they threw the incense on a huge fire. The monks were nowhere to be seen (there was no room for them anyway), but you could hear their chanting.
Unfortunately, we did not bring our camera. I went back today, and took a few pictures, but they're no good -- only a small amount of people and it's just not as impressive in gray daylight.
On our way out, we had to fight our way through throngs of beggars with missing limbs and disfigured faces, which was less fun. I hope the temple uses some of the insane amount of money they must have collected that night to do something good for these people as well...
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Lijiang & Tiger Leaping Gorge
The start of our Yunnan vacation took us to Lijiang, a small and extremely cute town in the northern part of Yunnan. We were prepared, but not enough, for how touristy the place was -- it was a bit much for us. Especially the (really cute) street along a little canal, which was lined with (really cute) bars blaring out (not so cute) Chinese pop songs was not among our favorite sights in the town. Too bad, because it may have been quite nice not so long ago.
We went to a performance of traditional Naxi (the local people) music. Apparently, the older you are, the better a musician (by definition). The old geezers with their long beards and lined faces were really beautiful to look at, and sometimes also somewhat beautiful to listen to. Unfortunately though, the concert was held in an unheated hall, with open doors, and it was freezing cold.
We were fed up with Lijiang's cold in just a day, and decided to head on to hike to a lodge in the mountains called Wenhai Ecolodge. Unfortunately, it was even colder up in the mountains (who would have thought...). Also, we felt a bit lonely up there, as the only guests, with not even the caretakers staying at the lodge itself. On our first morning, we waited until after 10 until the doors were opened (we were locked inside for the night). The village was beautiful though.
The caretaker, Mr. He, took us for a hike through local villages. It was pretty amazing to see the completely different tribes, with different traditional clothes (worn not for the tourists -- no tourist in sight) living just an hour's walk from each other. After 5 hours of down hill walking, we got to the road and took a minibus to Tiger Leaping Gorge, where more hiking opportunities were waiting for us.
We stayed at a great guesthouse ran by Jane, a really cool (can't find another word for it) Tibetan girl. Here we had a lot of beer and met a nice Austr(al)ian couple called Debra and Franz. The next morning we headed out together for the walk through the gorge.
They say Ithaca is Gorges, but it is definitely not Tiger Leaping Gorgeous. We had a great 2-day trek, having a lot of fun with the Austr(al)ians, staying at local guesthouses with plenty of food, hot showers and - of course- way too much beer.
One minus point is that it was much too cold. So we headed on to the south next. Having done our whirlwind tour of Xishuangbanna (see two posts below) we are now on our way to catch a flight to Kunming.
Happy Chinese New Year, and let's hope none of the fireworks hit our plane.
We went to a performance of traditional Naxi (the local people) music. Apparently, the older you are, the better a musician (by definition). The old geezers with their long beards and lined faces were really beautiful to look at, and sometimes also somewhat beautiful to listen to. Unfortunately though, the concert was held in an unheated hall, with open doors, and it was freezing cold.
We were fed up with Lijiang's cold in just a day, and decided to head on to hike to a lodge in the mountains called Wenhai Ecolodge. Unfortunately, it was even colder up in the mountains (who would have thought...). Also, we felt a bit lonely up there, as the only guests, with not even the caretakers staying at the lodge itself. On our first morning, we waited until after 10 until the doors were opened (we were locked inside for the night). The village was beautiful though.
The caretaker, Mr. He, took us for a hike through local villages. It was pretty amazing to see the completely different tribes, with different traditional clothes (worn not for the tourists -- no tourist in sight) living just an hour's walk from each other. After 5 hours of down hill walking, we got to the road and took a minibus to Tiger Leaping Gorge, where more hiking opportunities were waiting for us.
We stayed at a great guesthouse ran by Jane, a really cool (can't find another word for it) Tibetan girl. Here we had a lot of beer and met a nice Austr(al)ian couple called Debra and Franz. The next morning we headed out together for the walk through the gorge.
They say Ithaca is Gorges, but it is definitely not Tiger Leaping Gorgeous. We had a great 2-day trek, having a lot of fun with the Austr(al)ians, staying at local guesthouses with plenty of food, hot showers and - of course- way too much beer.
One minus point is that it was much too cold. So we headed on to the south next. Having done our whirlwind tour of Xishuangbanna (see two posts below) we are now on our way to catch a flight to Kunming.
Happy Chinese New Year, and let's hope none of the fireworks hit our plane.
Trekking in Xishuangbanna
We spent the past couple of days trekking in Xishuangbanna. Adventurous and brave as we are, we did not have a guide, and did it all on our own.
On Thursday, we first took a bus from Jinghong to Menghai, which was not too bad -- just an hour's drive and we had seats, but which had us, spoiled Westerners, complaining nonetheless because of the endless smoking done by our fellow travellers.
In Menghai, we had just enough time to buy a ticket, have lunch and get on the one-bus-a-day to Balungshan. Unfortunately, someone thought it necessary to bring a shitload of large boxes and other crap on the bus, which were all conveniently stored in the back, where we were sitting, and not in the front, where he himself was sitting. This pissed Frans off greatly, and he was grumpy the full 3.5 hours of the drive (don't tell him I said this).
In Balungshan, we found the local hotel, where we had a t.v., mosquito net, and incredibly disgusting (no water to flush) hole-in-the-ground shared bathroom. We're really not used to anything anymore, and felt very sad. However, we had a nice dinner in the local restaurant, and slept very well, which made us feel alright again.
The next morning, we had a bowl of noodles for breakfast from a lovely lady, and started making our way to Lama-O, a little town of Balung people (so not Han Chinese). The road was rather boring -- a dirt road wide enough for trucks -- so we got off the road onto a little track and walked through the dense jungle.
It was absolutely beautiful, but I was perhaps a bit to scared off getting lost and insisted on getting back to the where the overhead power lines where, so we would know where to go. On the way, we ran into a humonguous buffalo (pregnant with twins, I reckon) and its calf. It was clearly heading toward us, and changed direction to meet us head on.
A little scared, we looked for a stick... no luck.
The buffalo raised its head to get a better look at us, stepped closer, and started running.. fortunately in the other direction. Yay, we can scare away buffalo!
After a 4 to 5 hour walk, we reach Lama-O, a village of about 30 houses, most of them traditional houses similar to those of the minorities in Northern Thailand, which are build on poles, and have pigs and chickens living underneath.
According to our information, the locals would spontaneously offer us food and accommodation... We wandered around the town a bit, hoping someone would notice how hungry and tired we looked... Many smiles, but no cigar... On our second try, the best house in town (according to Frans) made the international coming & sleeping signal. Yay, we would not have to sleep outside!!!
We stayed with a wonderful family, who were able to cook fabulous meals on their little fire, with just one type of vegetable, some eggs, rice, and some seasonings.
The son even went and bought some local alcohol for us to enjoy. It seemed like they were the local pharmacy, since they had posters about the Immunization Schedule in Yunnan, and what seemed to be a big supply of medicine. At some point, a guy came in with a shaved-off nail (probably an accident at the construction site of a nearby house), whose wound was cleaned and bandaged, while we looked on and felt like really crappy doctors. Even though we're doctors in O.R. (which most people would agree stands for Operating Room), we have trouble just LOOKING at a shaved-off nail, let alone know what to do about it.
We had a good night's sleep, and were woken by the pigs, cat and the chanting of the monks in the monastery next door.
At 9 we left, and headed for Menghun.
After a 2 hour walk, we reached the next village -- not nearly as pretty and friendly as "our village" of Lama-O. Although people were actually nice as well, and offered us food (declined) and a ride on their tractor (accepted).
Another 2 hours later, we were getting somewhat tired by the thought we were only half-way. Two guys offered us a ride on the back of their mopeds, which we declined because it was SOOOO expensive (3 euros). Immediately after this, we flagged down a truck (first one we saw that day) who took us all the way to Menghun. A comfortable ride it was not, since we were cramped into the cabin with our backpacks in our lap, but we were very happy that we did not have to walk all that far -- it was another hour by truck.
Menghun looks bit like a Wild-West town -- one dusty main street filled with garbage, but with friendly people and an interesting-in-a-disgusting-way market (see next/previous (the one underneath this one) post.)
On Thursday, we first took a bus from Jinghong to Menghai, which was not too bad -- just an hour's drive and we had seats, but which had us, spoiled Westerners, complaining nonetheless because of the endless smoking done by our fellow travellers.
In Menghai, we had just enough time to buy a ticket, have lunch and get on the one-bus-a-day to Balungshan. Unfortunately, someone thought it necessary to bring a shitload of large boxes and other crap on the bus, which were all conveniently stored in the back, where we were sitting, and not in the front, where he himself was sitting. This pissed Frans off greatly, and he was grumpy the full 3.5 hours of the drive (don't tell him I said this).
In Balungshan, we found the local hotel, where we had a t.v., mosquito net, and incredibly disgusting (no water to flush) hole-in-the-ground shared bathroom. We're really not used to anything anymore, and felt very sad. However, we had a nice dinner in the local restaurant, and slept very well, which made us feel alright again.
The next morning, we had a bowl of noodles for breakfast from a lovely lady, and started making our way to Lama-O, a little town of Balung people (so not Han Chinese). The road was rather boring -- a dirt road wide enough for trucks -- so we got off the road onto a little track and walked through the dense jungle.
It was absolutely beautiful, but I was perhaps a bit to scared off getting lost and insisted on getting back to the where the overhead power lines where, so we would know where to go. On the way, we ran into a humonguous buffalo (pregnant with twins, I reckon) and its calf. It was clearly heading toward us, and changed direction to meet us head on.A little scared, we looked for a stick... no luck.
The buffalo raised its head to get a better look at us, stepped closer, and started running.. fortunately in the other direction. Yay, we can scare away buffalo!
After a 4 to 5 hour walk, we reach Lama-O, a village of about 30 houses, most of them traditional houses similar to those of the minorities in Northern Thailand, which are build on poles, and have pigs and chickens living underneath.
According to our information, the locals would spontaneously offer us food and accommodation... We wandered around the town a bit, hoping someone would notice how hungry and tired we looked... Many smiles, but no cigar... On our second try, the best house in town (according to Frans) made the international coming & sleeping signal. Yay, we would not have to sleep outside!!!
We stayed with a wonderful family, who were able to cook fabulous meals on their little fire, with just one type of vegetable, some eggs, rice, and some seasonings.
The son even went and bought some local alcohol for us to enjoy. It seemed like they were the local pharmacy, since they had posters about the Immunization Schedule in Yunnan, and what seemed to be a big supply of medicine. At some point, a guy came in with a shaved-off nail (probably an accident at the construction site of a nearby house), whose wound was cleaned and bandaged, while we looked on and felt like really crappy doctors. Even though we're doctors in O.R. (which most people would agree stands for Operating Room), we have trouble just LOOKING at a shaved-off nail, let alone know what to do about it.
We had a good night's sleep, and were woken by the pigs, cat and the chanting of the monks in the monastery next door.
At 9 we left, and headed for Menghun.After a 2 hour walk, we reached the next village -- not nearly as pretty and friendly as "our village" of Lama-O. Although people were actually nice as well, and offered us food (declined) and a ride on their tractor (accepted).
Another 2 hours later, we were getting somewhat tired by the thought we were only half-way. Two guys offered us a ride on the back of their mopeds, which we declined because it was SOOOO expensive (3 euros). Immediately after this, we flagged down a truck (first one we saw that day) who took us all the way to Menghun. A comfortable ride it was not, since we were cramped into the cabin with our backpacks in our lap, but we were very happy that we did not have to walk all that far -- it was another hour by truck.Menghun looks bit like a Wild-West town -- one dusty main street filled with garbage, but with friendly people and an interesting-in-a-disgusting-way market (see next/previous (the one underneath this one) post.)
Local market experience
Sorry for the light posting lately: we're enjoying our time in Yunnan without much internet access. We took many pictures, which y'all will just have to wait for -- no memory card slot in this computer.
As a little preview, I will try to give a graphic description of the market we went to today. Read on at your own risk: this is not for the faint at heart!
Our alarm clock went off at 6:30 this morning because we didn't want to miss a thing of the famed Sunday Menghun market. But, then again, 6:30 is really really early, especially considering the fact that the local time should really be 2 hours behind Beijing time, but isn't because Beijing is the center of the Chinese universe. So we stayed in bed for another 45 minutes.
Fireworks started going off at 7. Not because people are so excited about the market, but because they are having a hard time waiting for tomorrow -- Chinese New Year!!! Nonetheless, we thought things must be getting interesting outside, so we got up.
Once outside, things looked pretty dead. We walked to the market place, and noticed the entrance was covered with lots of fresh blood. Yum-o -- not yet 8 am and we get our first sight of blood!
The market was only just starting, and the meat guys were still preparing their wares. We saw them hacking away at meat that was still warm enough to cause a lot of steam to come up in the fresh morning air. The floor was not covered in, but did have quite a bit of, blood, which was also available for sale to the connoisseur in little bottles.
We wandered around a bit, and saw more and more people arriving with their wares. We were impressed with the cow legs (I am sure there is a better French word for this) which still had the hooves on them, but not so impressed with the cow embryo lying in the gutter. Poor baby. It probably didn't suffer though, like some other animals surely did.
The Chinese don't seem to have much empathy for animals. We noticed before that goldfish, turtles and flowers belong to the same category (decorative), and hence are treated the same. Today, we saw some pretty nasty things -- I will tell all, since I promised a graphic post, but feel free not to read on.
The fish were scaled alive, and would still wiggle in their plastic bag afterwards. Some geese were not fortunate enough to die quickly and lay bleeding in a bloody basket full of more fortunate geese.
More fun to watch was the cleaning of the pig's heads (they were clearly not suffering anymore), and chickens. For the chickens they had fascinating high tech equipment such as burners and washing machines to get all the feathers off.
But really, we had come to this market to buy some handicrap, not for a short course in Chinese butchery. Since the handicrafts on offer were somewhat disappointing, we left town without buying anything.
We are now in Jinghong and will fly to Kunming, in the midst of fireworks I presume, at 8 pm this evening. Until then, I have nothing better to do then drink beers and write another post...
As a little preview, I will try to give a graphic description of the market we went to today. Read on at your own risk: this is not for the faint at heart!
Our alarm clock went off at 6:30 this morning because we didn't want to miss a thing of the famed Sunday Menghun market. But, then again, 6:30 is really really early, especially considering the fact that the local time should really be 2 hours behind Beijing time, but isn't because Beijing is the center of the Chinese universe. So we stayed in bed for another 45 minutes.
Fireworks started going off at 7. Not because people are so excited about the market, but because they are having a hard time waiting for tomorrow -- Chinese New Year!!! Nonetheless, we thought things must be getting interesting outside, so we got up.
Once outside, things looked pretty dead. We walked to the market place, and noticed the entrance was covered with lots of fresh blood. Yum-o -- not yet 8 am and we get our first sight of blood!
The market was only just starting, and the meat guys were still preparing their wares. We saw them hacking away at meat that was still warm enough to cause a lot of steam to come up in the fresh morning air. The floor was not covered in, but did have quite a bit of, blood, which was also available for sale to the connoisseur in little bottles.
We wandered around a bit, and saw more and more people arriving with their wares. We were impressed with the cow legs (I am sure there is a better French word for this) which still had the hooves on them, but not so impressed with the cow embryo lying in the gutter. Poor baby. It probably didn't suffer though, like some other animals surely did.
The Chinese don't seem to have much empathy for animals. We noticed before that goldfish, turtles and flowers belong to the same category (decorative), and hence are treated the same. Today, we saw some pretty nasty things -- I will tell all, since I promised a graphic post, but feel free not to read on.
The fish were scaled alive, and would still wiggle in their plastic bag afterwards. Some geese were not fortunate enough to die quickly and lay bleeding in a bloody basket full of more fortunate geese.
More fun to watch was the cleaning of the pig's heads (they were clearly not suffering anymore), and chickens. For the chickens they had fascinating high tech equipment such as burners and washing machines to get all the feathers off.
But really, we had come to this market to buy some handicrap, not for a short course in Chinese butchery. Since the handicrafts on offer were somewhat disappointing, we left town without buying anything.
We are now in Jinghong and will fly to Kunming, in the midst of fireworks I presume, at 8 pm this evening. Until then, I have nothing better to do then drink beers and write another post...
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Anniversary --- Special Brunch Edition
After paying our next batch of 4 months of rent, we decided that an expensive brunch was just a drop in the bucket (or "a drop on the incandescent plate", as the Dutch say). Also we felt entitled to something special after celebrating our anniversary with crappy airline food.
Look at Anke reacting to bottomless bubbly.
Beijing's brunches are not too bad. (And filling --- we are actually skipping dinner today.)
Look at Anke reacting to bottomless bubbly.
Beijing's brunches are not too bad. (And filling --- we are actually skipping dinner today.)
Achthuizen
We had great food in New York City (mostly), but I was very happy to have some good simple Chinese food again. We had a quick dinner at our local friendly neighborhood restaurant Ba Jia.
Yum-o.
Yum-o.
Special Anniversary Edition
We got married 6 years ago! To mark this joyous occasion we had...
... some really bad food. (The contrast with the food we had in Kaatje 6 years ago could hardly be starker.)
We were glad when we crossed the dateline, making this our shortest anniversary ever (whp).
... some really bad food. (The contrast with the food we had in Kaatje 6 years ago could hardly be starker.)We were glad when we crossed the dateline, making this our shortest anniversary ever (whp).
Patriotic
Making money is patriotic in the US...
... or is it making debts? (Bush 2006: "... and I encourage you all to go shopping more.", 911uliani in his "Finest Hour": "Go to restaurants. Go shopping.")
... or is it making debts? (Bush 2006: "... and I encourage you all to go shopping more.", 911uliani in his "Finest Hour": "Go to restaurants. Go shopping.")
Disappointing
On our last day in New York we went to have breakfast at Bouley Market. We had quiche and a croissant with egg:
Here's a picture of the whole table to illustrate the awkwardness, shitty paper napkins combined with heavy silver silverware:
The whole experience was wholly disappointing: the food was okay, but certainly not great, the service awkward, as well as the whole setting.
Here's a picture of the whole table to illustrate the awkwardness, shitty paper napkins combined with heavy silver silverware:
The whole experience was wholly disappointing: the food was okay, but certainly not great, the service awkward, as well as the whole setting.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
momofuku
New York is great for lunch. Yet another amazing restaurant: momofuku noodle bar.
We had soy sauce egg
7 spice potato chips
bouchot mussels – miso garlic sausage, black kale, fennel
roasted skate wing – brussels sprouts, kimchi, bacon
and even dessert --- cousin leroy & arlo’s soft serve ice cream – twist of quince and smoked maple
We had soy sauce egg
7 spice potato chips
bouchot mussels – miso garlic sausage, black kale, fennel
roasted skate wing – brussels sprouts, kimchi, bacon
and even dessert --- cousin leroy & arlo’s soft serve ice cream – twist of quince and smoked maple
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Fatty Crab
... or how Fodor's never disappoints. Looking for something special, we looked at Fodor's choice for New York restaurants. Among other restaurants, they recommend Fatty Crab, and we second this choice wholeheartedly.
A really tasty Malay Fish Fry:
Other great dishes we had (from top to bottom): Skate Panggang, Coconut Rice, Chinese Broccoli with Salted Fish and Watermelon Pickle and Crispy Pork.
A really tasty Malay Fish Fry:
Other great dishes we had (from top to bottom): Skate Panggang, Coconut Rice, Chinese Broccoli with Salted Fish and Watermelon Pickle and Crispy Pork.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)