China- A Backpacker's Tale ( Part 3 - Chengdu )

Day 6

10/7/2015

Chengdu

Chengdu- Day 1

The much awaited Panda town. I've heard a lot of stories about Chengdu from my Snekrish and Ann. My friends who studied in Chengdu. And finally I get to meet them cuddly puddly clumsy pandas. Also with a very very guilty conscience , might even get to hold them for 2 minutes after spending a fortune. We reached our hostel by a tuk-tuk ( 20 CNY ). Our hostel in Chengdu was the "Hello Chengdu International Youth Hostel"( previously called the Sim's Cozy Travel Hostel ). The guard opened the gates for us and we waited in the lounge with the little piggy and the cats till 8 AM. Shiveta slept for a while and I went back to reading my book. The room that we got was a 4 bed-dorm with a clean bathroom. I slept like a log for another 2 hours. Had a pretty hearty breakfast at the restaurant run by the hostel and we were off to explore Chengdu. Equipped with a map of Chengdu and bus directions, our next destination was the ancient village of Huang Longxi. This place was suggested by our very helpful hostel manager, Evan. We took the Bus.No.28 to Xinnanment bus station and took a bus from there to Huang Longxi.
The bus journey was super comfortable with pushback chairs and air conditioning. The ticket costs us around 20 CNY/person. The local bus fare system, at this point, is still a mystery to me. Sometimes we just dropped 2 CNY each in the box at the front of the bus, because everytime we tried paying the driver, he just ushered out hurriedly.

Huang Longxi

An ancient village tucked away in a mountain valley. Many buildings of the village was reconstructed in the past few decades. On entering the village, we saw a lot of vendors selling water guns ( pichkaris ). Wondering what one would do with water guns in a village at this point of the year, we walked forward. We didn't have to wonder for long. We were caught by surprise, as we walked into a slightly crowded street when a squirt of water hits us. Welcome to Huang Longxi Holi( Holi is the Indian festival of colours where people throng the streets with water guns spraying colour and water on each other ).!! Armed with water guns, buckets, vessels and bowls, toddlers to centennials are found playing in the stream around which the village is constructed. The water gushes through the stream and you even find a miniature waterfall under which children and their parents are going wild playing water wars. Happy faces! It was a weekday and you can't help but wonder how much fun it would be to live in a village like this. Throw your school bags onto the couch after returning from school, grab your water guns and run to the stream screaming. We do have our share of streams and rivers back in Kerala, but streams with water theme park effects was new to me.

The village was a part of the Chinese heritage restoration project, hence the built-up in tourism. We tried our first Sichuanese street food here. I tried the squid and chicken liver skewers, whereas Shiveta tried the Ma po doufu. Both were super spicy. You can feel the burn of the red chilli powder's journey from your tongue to your tummy. Spicy but yummy! Aysha had told us that as you go southwards, the cuisine gets spicier and closer to home :) Shiveta finally got to eat her favourite lotus stem( nadru ). It was in the form of skewers and was not remotely close to the Jammu preaparation of lotus stem. Neverthless she enjoyed it and it was a pleasure watching her savour her favourite nadru after months of yearning.

Look at her all ecstatic about finally laying
 hands on her favourite lotus root/stem( Nadru )

Huang Longxi village- Water fight day :)

 We walked past the traditional-style buildings and homes. We even got to watch a traditional martial arts class with little ones struggling to control their newly attained powers.

On our way back, we slept like Pandas and got down at Xinnanmen station.

Wenshu Temple Vegetarian Restaurant

We went straight to the vegetarian restaurant inside Wenshu temple. Shiveta's happy hopeful face was mirrored in mine. A buffet of 99 CNY was being served and it was the famous Chongqing hotpot( the veg version ). We ordered a spicy and a medium spicy one. ooh Boy! Were we in for a surprise! The big bowl of liquid fire, as I'd like to describe it, was brought to our table along with veggies which included mushrooms, leaves, tofu, radish and other white vegetables. I hoped to find a carrot or some spinach. To my disappointment, none of those were served. The tofu and mushrooms were good. The staff, including an English speaking monk from the temple helped us complete half our hotpot. With burning throats, a flaming oesophagus and a half-finished hotpot, we thanked the staff profusely for helping us and rushed out for our free tea( which was part of the buffet ). By the setting sun , we drank copious amounts of green tea and walked back to our hostel.

Using maps without GPS was an archaic concept for us. Something we thought was pointless during our school days. But , it looked like al that map practice we did at school was after all useful. After a long walk with us enthusiastically matching the street name to the one on our map followed by placing the map on the floor and figuring out which direction we had to head to, we finally reached our hostel. Now I know why people get smarter after returning from backpacking trips :P

We had a sound sleep. The walking around had definitely exhausted us. Next day was our day with the Pandas. I was still in a dilemma about the 10,000 INR worth 2 minute Panda Holding. Kent was more excited for me that I was for myself about the Panda holding. Hmmmm...

Day 7

11/7/2015

Chengdu- Day 2

Chengdu Panda Breeding Center

My Panda Day! Like a super excited bride on her wedding day, I woke up at 6. All I could think of was about the fluffy pandas and how it would be like to touch their adorable paws. We got into bus no.99 and got down at the station where we caught the bus no.198 towards Chengdu Panda Breeding Centre. We had no difficulty in figuring out where to get down. When we showed the name of destination written in Chinese, to one of our co-passsengers( an old smiling man), he put his hands behind his ears,  puffed up his cheeks and drew circles around his eyes with his fingers. This man knew where we had to go, our Little old Panda Man. He signalled to us when we reached our destination around 8 AM. Pandas! Here we come! Happy as a clam, I trotted and hopped towards the entry-ticket stations.
Inside, there were multiple enclousers for the pandas of different age groups ( Adult, New born & Young ones ). All  those Youtube videos with the pandas tumbling over each other and acting like big cuddly babies came into life here! AH! Such Delight! The gentle giants.
On our visit to the nursery, we saw the hairless kitten-sized new born Pandas as well. There are specific timings to visit these guys while they are being fed.
My yearning to hold them pandas only increased as we moved past each enclosure. Finally we reached the "Panda Keeper Experience Office". I was grinning from ear to ear. I had only reached the desk, when the lady at the desk looked at me with a sympathetic face and told me that they've stopped the panda keeper experience since 6 months. Whaaatt!!? My big fat smile was scrubbed off my face instantly. But on second thoughts, I realised that watching them flop around in real itself was enough to make me smile wide. I'm sure I wouldn't have enjoyed this in a zoo.< I hate zoos > These Pandas are by all means in captivity , but they are very much in their natural surroundings. The red Pandas just walk around everywhere and are not even in enclosures. The employees are gentle and caring. I hope the pandas are happy. They are safer in this mini habitat of theirs than in the wild.
These giant cuddlies facing extinction are sexually reluctant while in captivity. Getting them to mate requires a lot of effort including exercise to build their lower-body muscles and other funny "Turning-on" techniques such as Panda Porn( Yeah :P ).
The Chengdu Panda Breeding Centre has about 50 Giant Pandas and 50 Red Pandas. The red pandas, as I mentioned earlier roam around freely. I was lucky to have one brush past me without giving me a second glance. There are boards around the place warning you not to touch these red fiery guys because they can be quite fierce when irritated. Remember Kichi( Mowgli's friend ) with the chirpy voice from the Jungle Book adaptation cartoon !
A green green jungle with a well-maintained swan lake, a few peacocks, peahens and lots and lots of Bamboo trees. It is a pleasant walk. We returned to our hostel by around 12:00 PM.

The cuddlypoos munching away to glory

And the Red Pandas walk in between your feet. They definitely have no doubts about who is boss around here!

Wuhou Temple & Jinli Street

From the bus stop near our temple, we boarded the bus towards Wuhou Temple. This temple was built to honour several figures from the Three Kingdoms- Emperor Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and a few other kings.
Just behind the temple was Jinli Street- a small scale replica of an ancient village with lots of stalls and yummy street food. We had a chinese version of Empanada, a glutinous rice dessert of sorts and some rice cakes( A Chinese version of Puttu, a malayali dish sans the coconut). We got into Bus no.1 to Wenshu Temple.

Wenshu Temple

We had eaten our Veg Hotpot the previous night from the restaurant within Wenshu temple grounds, but had not been able to visit the temple. There were groups of ladies chanting prayers in front of the Manjushri idol and Avalokiteshvara idol. Photography was not permitted here. The atmosphere was serene and peaceful. The evening was cool and we enjoyed the walk through the temple grounds. It reminded me of the walk I had through the Vadakkumnathan temple grounds in Trichur with only of my best friends.


Sichuan University, Huaxi Campus

This was where my SneKrish had done her graduation. Started in 1926, the university has beautiful buldings and the campus grounds are really green. Sneha's friend took us around the campus. The lotus pond was a curious sight.  Around the lotus pond was the gathering of a multitude of people with cameras of all shapes and sizes focussing on a particular lotus flower in pond. On looking carefully you see a teeny weeny bird sitting on the flower. Highness, Sneha's friend, explained to us the reason behind this curious party.A really good picture of this bird costs around 8000 CNY( 80,000 INR!??). We took a long distance picture of the celebrity bird on our not so high-tech camera as well. As we moved away, we could hear the mad clicking away of atleast 30 cameras. The bird had moved. I was almost tempted to make a huge noise and startle the bird. The picture of 30-50 photographers chasing me down with cameras and stones would have been quite a shot. Highness booked a table for us at Sultans, one of the famous Turkish restaurants. After bading goodbye to dear Highness, we decided to give the metro(intercity train) a try.

Sichuan University

Metro Transport in Chengdu

The metro lines are really fast. The route maps were easy to comprehend. The staff sitting at the Help Desk speaks English and was really helpful. The travel costs around 2-5 CNY. We headed to Peoples' Park station from the metro station near Sichuan University.

People's park

You got to give it to the Chinese when it comes to parks. Humongous parks built around artificial lakes and entirely green. We went searching for The Ming Teahouse. By the time we got there the sun had almost set( around 7.30 PM). The tea house was set on the lakeside with a good view of the lake and boathouse. We hd a special Ming Deng pot of tea. Around 8.30 , we got up to leave for Sultans. The lady at the help desk helped us with the station details.


Sultan's : An unaccomplished food quest

We got down at the Ni Jia Qiao sttation and followed the map directions. We walked around for about half an hour before we decided to ask for help. Even though we had a team of around 6 strangers who didn't know each other, trying to help us out, unfortunately we didn't make it to the Sultan's.

The Bookworm 

We made up for the disappointment of not making it to the Sultan's by eating at " The Bookworm", another Lonely planet recommendation in the neighbourhood. A bar cum restaurant with lots of foreigners and loads of books. It did complete justice to its name. Had a nice meal of pork and hummus and returned to our hostel.

Day 8

12/7/2015

Chengdu- Day 3

Leshan

We set out around 9, after breakfast to LEshan. The bus no.28  took us to Xinnanmen station. From there, we took tickets ( 46 CNY/head) to Xiaoba bus station. We got down at Xiaoba bus station and took the Bus 13( Ticket price : 2 CNY/head). The Bus 13 took us to the Buddha Scenic area. The route to the Buddha scenic area was rich with weird looking statues ( a mermaid on top of a crocodile ? hmm ). We reached the Grand Buddha in around 30 minutes. We were advised not to attempt to climb the Giant Buddha on weekends because of the traffic on the nicely laden stairs that take you till the top. From down below, we saw the almost standstill crowd and figured to go along with the advice and opted for the 30 minute round trip via a boat for 70 CNY. The Leshan dock was around 400 metres from the Giant Buddha entrance. The boat ride offered amazing views of the Grand Buddha. 71 m tall with ears(7m tall), shoulders( 28 m ) and each of his toes(8.5m). We couldnt possibly have appreciated the grandeur of the Giant Buddha statue better than we did during the boat trip. The boat takes you around the statue and gives you a full fledged view of the big carved structure. Another perk of the boat ride is that we could see the 2 guardian statues in the cliff side which is not visible from the land. The 1200 year old statue is carved into the cliff face overloooking the meeting point of Dadu river and Min river.  The idea to build the Buddha statue was proposed by a Buddhist monk by the name of Haitong with hopes that Buddha would calm the swift rivers and protect the boatmen from the dangerous current. Even though, the construction was completed years after Haitong's death, the statue did provide the calming effect predicted by Haitong. Or was it just Mother Nature doing her job?The Giant Buddha is a spectacle not to be missed.

One of the guardians that cannot be seen from land

The Giant Buddha of Leshan

We took back the Bus 13 to Xiabo station and got a ticket back to Chengdu. Both of us had just started to doze off when we were startled out of our sleep with a Chinese version of the song " Woh Chali " playing in the bus. Except for the chorus of "Woh Chali", everything else was in Chinese. Trust music to  always makes you feel at home, eh.


Day 9

13/7/2015

Chengdu-Chongqing train ride

By this time, we had figured out the bus fare system. Most routes within the system will cost you only 2 CNY. So you just drop 2 CNY in the little box infront of the bus near the driver and you are good to go. 

At around 8.30 AM we took the bus to Chengdu North Train station. Our train to Chongqing was on time( 10.30 AM). The train ride was breath-takingly scenic. I've fallen in love with the train jouneys through the mountain valleys. We reached Chongqing at around 12.30 ( 2 hour ride ).

China - A Backpacker's tale. ( PART 2 - Xi'an )

Day 4

8/7/2015

The Bullet Train trip - Beijing to Xi'an

The sight of the Bullet Train took me back to my Engineering days where seminars on Bullet trains and Maglev trains were " THE THING". Finally, I get to travel in one of those trains that was shown in one of those presentations. Running at an average speed of 300 km/hr , we reached Xi'an in 5 hours.

 Xi'an

Xi'an is the eastern most point of the Silk Route and the capital of Shaanxi Province. The present President , Mr.Xi Jinping is from Xi'an as well. Xi'an was included in our itinerary because of the Terracotta Warriors. Definitely an architecture marvel. 

We took a cab to the Xi'an main train station & got one of the 306 buses to visit the Terracotta Warriors. Since the idea of travelling with our backpacks and walking around with them looked burdensome, we decided to leave our luggage at one of the many "Left Luggage" counters inside the station. The one hour bus ride was very comfortable and we got a good view of Xi'an city, including the famous City wall of Xi'an (right next to the Railway station ) during the journey.

The Terracotta Army

The biggest Pit- Pit 1

This is  one of the most famous archaeological finds in the world. With around 7400 life-size Terracotta warriors and their horses , the most distinctive feature of this army is that NO two faces are alike. Emperor Qin Shi Huang constructed this army to guard over his tomb. Archaeologists believe that he expected his rule to continue in death as in during his life time. The reason behind the construction of the army sounds like a paranoid man's whim. Neverthless the army is magnificent. The dedication and work that went into unearthing and maintaining each piece was indeed applaudable.

Well, one for the record!

The archaeological site is split into three pits, out of which Pit 1 is the largest and the most important. It is believed to contain 6000 warriors out of which only 2000 are on display and horses , all ready for battle. The bronze chariots and horses that were unearthed near the Tomb on Qin Shi Huang is also wow-worthy. Pit 2 contains 1300 warriors and horses whereas Pit 3 has 72 warriors.
There are broadly 5 types of soldiers there : the Kneeling Archers, the Standing Archers, The cavalry men and their horses, The Generals and the mid-rank officers.
I kept a miniature version of one of the generals as a souvenior. Now I have a general on my mantel piece in my home to guard me from the unknown enemies :).

A Kneeling Archer

A cavalry man with his horse

We headed back to the train station for our luggage and then took a cab to Han Tang Inn, the cosy hostel we had booked for the night.
After a relaxing bath we got some dinner and ventured out. The alley was lively with groups of tourists and locals sitting around, eating and drinking beer.
The magnificence of the warriors fresh in our minds, we went to sleep.

Day 5

9/7/2015

Xi'an

Next day morning, we made a quick visit to the Bell Tower since we had very little time to spare before we rushed to the railway station to catch the train to Chengdu. The large bell at the Bell Tower is rung at dawn while its alter ego, The Drum Tower marked night fall.
We rushed to the Xi'an main train station in a tuk-tuk.

Train trip - Xi'an to Chengdu

The train was an AC seater and ours was a 15 hour journey. Not exactly being the ideal kind of seats for an overnight journey, we were surprisingly quite comfortable during the trip. It was one of the most picturesque train rides of my life. Through mountain valleys sprinkled with a few streams and rivers, the journey was beautiful. I was reading a malayalam novel "Verukal" during the trip and every time I looked above the book and outside the peaceful scenery with mountains in their grandeur would leave me gazing at it for a good 5 minutes. We managed to catch some sleep with Shiveta sleeping on my lap( I don't know how she does it. The tall Shiveta crouches and buries into a coccoon and sleeps very comfortably on my lap) and me sleeping with my head resting on her back. The toilets were cleaned every 3 hours or so. We reached Chengdu at 5 AM.

China - A Backpacker's tale. ( PART 1- Beijing )

4/7/2015

The Flight - Manila to Beijing

Why China, you might ask. Honestly speaking, backpacking in a foreign land was the idea. Why not Philippines would be the next question. I'm not really sure. The idea of China was seductive .  In a Zero- english speaking country, the idea of being lost was too tempting.

So here I am. On my way to Beijing from Manila. We got cheap tickets from Cebu Pacifc. My travel partner on this voyage was Shiveta. We had fun planning the trip and we got along pretty well. Kent says we would either return as life-long friends or as arch enemies. Apparently, that's what backpacking does to relationships. What about the people who dont really have a choice, Like you and Me, Mr. Allwyn Kent.

Major panic attack at the Manila airport. Maybe because the flight was only half-filled, the boarding gates closed way before it was supposed to while we were quite happily waiting in a cebu pacific queue . What happened after that was the first of its kind for me. I've missed my flights. True. But I've never had to run all over the airport with the flight crew shouting words of encouragement to us while running beside us. If you saw two women with a pretty big backpack huffing and puffing towards the boarding gates of Ninoy Aquino International airport- Terminal 3 at around 7.30 PM, doubt not, that's us. Laurel & Hardy ( Shiveta is taaalll ).

Once we had settled down in our seats, thanks to the very helpful crew, I thought to myself, a little less huff and puff would be a good idea for the rest of the trip .

1. I miss Kent. I felt horrible leaving him alone with his broken arm. On a more cheerful note, people are taking extra care of him because of his broken arm. And he had Paru. Thank you Usha chechi for the packed lunches :). Note to self- Stop feeling so guilty. It was his idea :P

2. I'm a little worried . That would be an understatement. I dont speak or understand Mandarin. I'm going to a land without Google. The zone of comfort looked like a dot from here. The only relief is that I have someone to worry along with me. Haha. We are bound to be so lost!

Our first leg of  the journey was a 3 day Beijing darshan. Designed almost entirely by Aysha ( our friend in Beijing ), I should say it was a wholesome package. As we got out of the airport, Aysha, Gince  & Aadam were waiting to receive us at the Arrivals section. Aysha's wide smile had become familiar to me from her Facebook pictures. Warm  :) Aadam was fast asleep by the time we me them. We remained our spoilt-brat selves until the day we left Beijing. Morning coffees, Malayali breakfast, Chinese dinners, Sulaimanis before going to sleep, packed lunches, night conversations-
"ഈ കൊയിക്കൊട്ടുകാരുടെ ഒരു കാര്യം ."
( The hospitality of the Kozhikkodans ( people from Kozhikkode/Calicut ) is unmatchable ).

5/7/2015

DAY I, BEIJING

We could not have started off our China backpacking trip in a more luxurious manner. Li'l Aadam did his bit of pampering us as well. The little rabbit is sort of the heartthrob of Beijing. Crowds surround us when we walk around with Aadam. The little Charmer.
Thanks to Aysha we got our SIM card the very next day. Now we could bug Gince when we get lost. Shamelessly handing over the phone to our taxi driver after dialling in Gince's number whenever we got lost, became a routine thing for the 3 days we were in Beijing.

Beijing is polluted. That said, the effort that has gone into GREENING Beijing is just standing-ovation worthy. You wake up to a smog filled morning , yet the greenery sprouting out of every nook and corner of Beijing fills your heart with hope and admiration.

The moment you get on to the streets of Beijing, you feel super unhealthy and it is NOT because of the pollution. You are suffocated by guilty pangs of not working out or taking care of your body when you walk past the  exercise equipments set up every 500 metres or so which are never empty. You find 2 year old children to 90 year old grandmothers working out there , no matter what hour of the day it is. That explains the agile bodies and the youthful body language. Exercise & Green Tea, I guess. Aysha said she has even seen people coming there in wheel chairs and heaving themselves onto the exercise equipments.

Dance! < Watch Out For ( WOF ) No. 1 > 

We were pleasantly surprised to  find men and women dancing to their hearts' content in front of apartments and inside parks . Music is played from someone's cellphone and amplified with the help of a speaker. And then they dance. They dance like noone's watching. They move oh so gracefully and in perfect harmony.

Tcch! Not another word about Chinese and their craving for dog meat! < WOF No. 2 > 

Enough said about Yulin and all of them Chinese being dog haters and dog eaters. The Chinese love their dogs as much as any other race in the world. And the interesting part is that the dogs are so well-trained, that you seldom find a dog being walked on a leash. While walking on the main roads, the dogs just trot next to their humans with no leash around them. Occasionally halts for a little pee break and in 10 seconds catches up with their humans. I’ve never seen dogs this disciplined and that too in such a huge number. Well done!

The one with the curious pair of slit - shorts< WOF No. 3 > 

The slit shorts! Couldn't take a picture ( privacy concerns ).
This is a picture from my google search

Little kids walking around in shorts with slits in between the two legs is a common sight here. As we observed with curiosity about this strange costume, we figured out that this was to enable the kids to pee and poop anywhere they wanted. Umm.. Kinda what Paru ( My dog ) does. The kids are almost always accompanied by a parent or guardian to clean up the poop and throw it into the waste bins. Well , there is no reason to squirm your nose here. Poop poop. Clean clean . Wipe Wipe. And off you go. Pee and Poop away li’l ones !

Tiananmen Square

Equipped with a nice lunch of dosas and chutney ( so much for backpacking ! ), we set out to visit Tiananmen Square. Aysha helped us catch a cab and saw us off with lots of good luck wishes. The cab dropped us at the NCPA( National Centre for Performance Arts ) building, which was a pretty good looking building. We didn't enter the building, since we were keen on visitingTiananmen square and Forbidden city. Outside the NCPA building , we found an English -speaking Chinese lady who told us that we had to go straight to get to Tiananmen Square. And we walked straight. With absolutely no idea about how Tiananmen square looks like, we whipped out the Lonely Planet Guide ( Our Saviour and Best friend for the next 15 days ) and started looking around for pictures. Pardon our lack of knowledge. Aysha comes to the rescue! She called us up to check on where we have reached. We admitted that we were officially lost and described the place in front of us.

The scene before Aysha's call

The conversation went something like this.

Aysha : “ So have you guys reached Tiananmen Square?”

Us: “ Umm. So we are in this garden like place with a tall building erected in the centre. On the other side of the road, there is a big red building, with Mao’s picture “.

Aysha( I’m quite sure with her palm on her head ): “ Darling. You just described Tiananmen square to me”

Us: “ ummm.. umm. umm…( Longer ummss..)  Okie dokie.  “

Aysha:” That’s ok. Just come back home in one piece tonight”

After all the embarrassment and mutual consolation , we entered Tiananmen Square. It is a big flatland of paving stones. It is said that, here one stands at the symbolic centre of the Chinese universe. It was built by Mao to portray the enormity of the Communist party. It has served as the venue for some of the major historic moments in Chinese History. 

Tiananmen square

There are beautiful well-maintained flower gardens here. You won’t find a place to sit thought. Assuming the rest of the places ( except the Great Wall ) we had planned on visiting would be almost the size of Tiananmen Square ( area wise ) was so so wrong. 

The Flag raising ceremony here at the Square is quite a scene to witness is what I’ve heard. But unfortunately it happens in the morning at 8 AM. Lamenting about not being able to witness it at 2 PM in the afternoon was pointless. We moved on towards Forbidden City.

Gate of Heavenly Peace

We crossed the road and walked straight through the Gate of Heavenly Peace, little knowing the importance of the gate.

At this point, let me remind you my dear reader, we did evolve as the journey progressed, into more observant people. Pardon us for our glitches so far.

We actually thought we were just entering the Forbidden city and walked further ahead. Forbidden City was all that we had in our head.

Built in the 15th Century , the Gate of Heavenly Peace is a potent national symbol. This gate was formerly the largest of the gates of the Imperial City Wall and it was from this gate that Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China. The soldiers emerge through this gate for the Flag Raising Ceremony at Tiananmen Square. ( Source : The Lonely Planet )
Imagine reading this about the Gate that we casually walked past without a second glance.

Forbidden City/ Palace Museum

Outside the Hall of Literary Profoundity

The moat around The Forbidden Palace

The imperial palace of the Qing and Ming dynasty ,so called because it was off limits for commoners for around 500 years . Uninvited admission, back then, would have meant instant execution. The Forbidden City is surrounded by a moat designed for security purposes. One pauses to muse on the Qing and Ming obsession with barriers. Moats , Walls. You ask it and they have it.

The tour of the Palace Museum was quite self-explanatory. 
Feel free to wander away to the East and West wings when you reach one of the many courtyards. 
The Lonely Planet had a 3D map of the Forbidden City which helped us in ruminating on the different structures and the stories attached to them. It was a long walk and most definitely worth it. Courtyards which can hold an audience of 1 Lakh people are definitely cardio-friendly.

The Forbidden Palace undoubtedly is a 1 day visit & we would fiercely recommend you start the tour around 10 AM. Like most of the places in Beijing, the palace also closes at around 5.30 PM.
Brace yourselves to encounter places with names like Hall of Literary Profoundity ( the Ceramics musuem for laymen ), The Hall of Character Cultivation, Hall of Joyful Longevity, Palace of Earthly Tranquility , Palace of Gathered Elegance. Somewhere down the lane of Mandarin to English translation, these unfortunate structures were baptised with such glorious names. You will see this everywhere in China. Its quite entertaining if you ask me.

We got out of the Forbidden Palace through the Southern gate right across the entrance of Jingshan Park.

Jingshan Park
A beautifully constructed park right across the Forbidden City. This is one of central Beijing's few hills. When I say a constructed Hill, I mean a "CONSTRUCTED" hill. A hill created from the earth excavated to make the Forbidden City moat.The best place for an aerial view of the Forbidden City in all its grandeur. One of the best spots for some People-watching. On our way up , we gobbled down our packed dosas .

On our way to the top of Jingshan Hill

Our Chinese Princess Moment was shot here. Well, When in China, one needs her Chinese princess moment. Half an hour was spent on top of the Jingshan Hill gazing at the golden topped Forbidden City. We clambered down just after sunset

Our Chinese Princess Moment

The Forbidden City from Jiangshan Park

The Guardian Lions < WOF No. 4 > 

The pair of lions that guard the buildings in Beijing was initially an amusing sight because of the difference between the male and female lion on both sides. Later on, we figured that wherever we go, the lions seemed to follow us and we decided to take a picture with every single pair that we met.
The male has a paw placed on a globe( representing the emperor's power over the world ) . The female has her paw on a baby lion playing with the mommy lion's paw. And this represented the emperor's fertility. "This ain't no mere Emperor Lion. This is an Emperor Lion with Balls" seemed to be the crux of the design. This did not stop me from looking out for Emperor Lions without the female counterpart. Unfortunately, the Chinese are not to be doubted when it comes to perfection. Ouch!

Keepie-uppies< WOF No. 5 > 

One of the many innovative sports of the Chinese. I'm not really sure about the origin of the game. You are bound to walk across a group of men and women tossing around an over-sized shuttle cock with their feet in almost every park here. More like a football juggling sport.

HouHai Lake

From Jingshan Park, we headed to Ho Hai. Aysha and gang were to meet us there for the Tea Ceremony. Ho Hai is an area around an artifical lake. Here, you have all kinds of restaurants. Aysha told us that Ho Hai is  where the locals come to hang out. We hung around the lake for sometime waiting for the Threesome to join us.

The Tea Ceremony

The Chinese Tea ceremony is quite a Ceremony. A lady comes in with the wooden tray, kettle, tea leaves, cups and the rest of the tools. She explains in Mandarin ( Gince translated most of it for us) as to how one has to go about while preparing tea, serving it and even drinking it. The etiquette. The ceremony begins with the cup cleaning. They have the customary steps to follow, even while cleaning the cups. Once the cups are cleaned, the boiling water is poured into the ceramic vessel which has the tea leaves. After squeezing the tea leaves gently with the lid of the cup, tea is poured out to everyone. Its polite to serve others before drinking your tea. This can go on for a long time until the last of the tea leaves are completely strained out.

We discussed the possibilities of inventing an Indian Tea ceremony ( popularly known as Chaaya Adi in Kerala ). Shiveta is a tea lover. She told us about Kehwa and other beverages popular in Jammu. Aadam slept through the ceremony :)


6/7/2015

DAY 2, BEIJING

After a nice breakfast of Puttu-Cherupayar, we headed out to the Summer Palace. 

Summer Palace 

Like every other place in China, the Summer Palace is also HUGE! I hope to shed some kilos after all this walking around. We entered through the East Palace Gate and walked towards the left. It's a refreshing stroll around the Kunming Lake. Laced with willow trees , the sun hardly gets to you. The grounds, temples, gardens, pavilions, lakes, bridges, gate towers and corridors are architectural marvels.
You walk past by iron statues of various animals. Mostly mythical- dragons, qilins..
We crossed the 17-Arch bridge ( so called, because the bridge has 17 arches obviously ) to the Dragon King Temple. The God of Rains seems to be the favourite God around here. Makes sense. By the time , we reached the Longevity Hill ( You were warned! )after crossing the Silk Bridge, The Willow Bridge and The Jade Belt  Bridge, we were super exhausted. I longed for a bicycle. It was the perfect place for a cycle ride. The Huffs and Puffs seemed to follow us all the way from Manila. The Longevity Hill had to be climbed. Artificial Hills! Got to give it to them Chinese! We got a pretty picturesque view of the setting sun from the Longevity Hill. We missed the Suzhou street because it was closed by the time we got there. The lesson to be learnt was right there , dancing naked in front of us. EARLY TO BED, EARLY TO RISE, will at least guarantee entrance to most of the places in CHINA! 

The Qilin < WOF No. 6 > 
A mythical hybrid animal that only appeared on earth at times of harmony. 
Me thinking " Kali yugam cannot possibly be the right time for this interesting animal. "


We headed back to Aysha's place for a delicious Neychoru ( Ghee rice ) with chicken curry and Beef pickle dinner. Sulaimani time and off to sleep.

7/7/2015

DAY 3, BEIJING

Today we Get Lost! There is always a First.
The day for the Great Wall of China.

The Great Wall of China

Gince suggested we visit the Mutianyu stretch of the Great Wall. We took the 916 "Kuai"( Fast Passenger for the Mallus ) bus from Dongzhimen Wai bus stand that goes to Huairou. We were supposed to get down at a bus station called Mingzhu Guangchang and take a minibus from there to Mutianyu. This was our first bus ride in China. It was very comfortable, until disaster struck in the form of a cab driver who ushered us out of the bus saying this was where we had to get down. In our defense, the bus station did read "Huairou". The ONE thing that was written in Lonely Planet was NOT to be lured away by cab drivers before you reach Mingzhu Guangchang and that is EXACTLY what we did. We certainly didn't expect to be lured out of a bus from our comfortable seats. The LURING OUT picture that we had in our mind was AFTER we got out at a bus station. Well. That was embarrassing. Looked like we didn't have a choice but walk till Mingzhu station. 2 Indian ladies walking on the street, trying to ask directions from the locals by frantically pointing at a book defines LOST in a city. The locals are extremely helpful. But the communication part is a torture. You almost feel like giving them a hug for all the effort they put into helping you out with directions.

The Extremely Helpful Locals.< WOF No. 7 >

Either the pair of us look so helpless with our book in one hand and multiple maps in the other, OR the locals are just really nice and helpful people by nature. Either way, EVERY single time we opened our book and pointed at the address of our destination to any local, we were overwhelmed by the help we received. Below are some of the ways in which the PROBLEM- SOLVER locals helped us:
1. They draw the route for you on a piece of paper and animatedly usher you towards the route.
2. They whip out their phones and open the Bing translator in an effort to communicate the directions to you.
3. They call up English-speaking friends on their phones and hands over the phone to us.
4. If they are not sure of the way themselves, they ask people passing by to help us out. And NOpe! They don't leave until you have a solution.
5. We even had one of them actually running after you to apologise for the wrong directions and to show us the right direction. Who does that kind of thing ? :)

We were inspired. Next time, someone asked for directions. WE WILL MAKE SURE he/she FINDS his/her way !

Coming back to the Great Indian Walk to the Great Wall of China. A lady finally helped us out with the directions in the form a route map drawing in our book. That was one long walk. It did not help that it was around noon and the sun was shining bright right above our heads. We got into the minibus which charges 15 CNY/person and reached Mutianyu.
We booked the cable car upwards and toboggan downwards. 4 tickets each. A total of 8 tickets. Assuming that the 2 extra tickets were entrance tickets to somewhere once we reached the top, we walked on.
After almost half an hour of walking and NO cable car station to be seen, we figured something was wrond. NO! DO NOT SMIRK AT US! We saw buses ( shuttle buses, we realised later on ), whooshing past us and even tried to stop one of them for a ride up. But they didnt stop. As we reached a steep slope up, we figured something was miserably wrong. We asked an old man the directions to the cable car station in sign language. I wish I had a video of it. He almost laughed at us! We were walking all this while clutching the bus tickets close to our hearts.
Naivety strikes again.
Aysha consoled us later in the night that this happens to most people( Bless her kind heart ) and that multiple tickets is a problem every non-Chinese person faces.
We held the tickets up ( Like Harry Potter sticking his wand out for the Knight Bus ) when we saw the next bus. Voila! It stopped and we scrambled in.

The cable car got us to the top. We walked along the Great Wall marvelling at the enormity of the wall. Oh! The damned slavery. The people who worked on the wall construction were mostly political prisoners. I missed Kent and his class on slavery.
It is most often mistakenly assumed that the Wall is one continuous entity. In reality, the edifice exists in chunks scattered between mountains ( the natural barriers ). The Mutianyu piece of the wall has 26 watch towers and it is a good walk. It is cold, almost chilly inside the watch towers.
The Toboggan ride downwards was worth every penny spent. Felt like Calvin & Hobbes on one of their winter WHEEE... adventures down the snow-covered hills. Very simple mechanics to control the speed . Absolutely safe if you follow the simple instructions to slow down and speed up written on huge hoardings during the ride.
We had a Subway wrap( Veggie for Shiveta, much to her delight ) when we reached down and headed back to Beijing.

Gince had booked a table at the famous Quanjude Roast Duck restaurant. We ate the famous Peking Duck. Honestly, this Peking duck business is sort of overhyped. But well, one for the record.

We went to the insect market next, where I got to eat crispy little scorpions on a stick. As Aysha had told us earlier, it tasted like prawns. I would recommend this little wiggly scorpions for your personal list of " Dare to Eat ". The snakes and bats did not look too fresh.

We went back home to catch some sleep. Our train to Xian the next day was at 7 in the morning.

A diary note in Yogyakarta - February 22, 2015. The Year of the Horse for the Kent household.

22/2/2015
Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Prambanan temple: A complex on 240 temples built by the Hindu Sanjaya kings around 850 CE. Dedicated to the Trimurti ( Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva )

Notes :

1. The modes of transportation of the Trimurtis ( Angsa/Hansa- Brahma, Garuda- Vishnu, Nandi- Shiva ) have temples dedicated to them in the same compound right across the temples of the deities they transport . It was almost like the driver's quarters next to the employer's bungalow.

2. The proximity of Borobodur( the Biggest Buddhist temple ) and the numerous mosques to the Prambanan temple spoke a lot about the country's religious tolerance and mutual respect. For a moment I'm forced to think, Is this the level to which the events happening in India has brought me down to. Am I acknowledging the kind of insecurities I never thought would ever develop within me. ?

The  architecture is beautiful and wonderfully engineered. You are left awe-struck at the impeccable arrangement of stones, the perfect packing on one stone over another and the engravings on the stones. Having withstood the numerous earthquakes and other natural disasters that the country is prone to, Prambanan temple is Robustness personified!

While you admire the beauty of this architecture marvel, you can't help but wonder( thanks to a little prod by the husband ! ) about the history of slavery that went into the making of it. The philanthropic part of one is forced to ponder over it. 

On that note & some good Bintang beer & avocado shake, we move onto our next ( unknown ) destination.

Our next destination is the ViaVia cafe  & Mediterranean cafe on Jl. Prawirotaman. Mr.Kent's notorious plan to take me to a restaurant that serves Snake meat was served was ( haha ) foiled .The Mediterranean cafe had good music and the perfect square wooden tables for our conversations. And thus we decide to explore the street. Interesting cafes, the kind that makes you want to unearth the stories behind them.  Viavia cafe was one such chance encounter. Good music. Interesting people. The ambience was very very On-the-road ;)

We had a hearty meal and went back to our hotel.

Good wine  & Wine-filled conversations.

We were supposed to go to the Borobodur temple the next day. The Anti-morning people that we are, we slept in and happily missed the 3 AM sunrise at Borobudur. But voila, There is a 6 PM sunset view at Borobodur. As we discuss lunch, it starts raining. It was a pretty sight with the diligent accompaniment of petrichor arising from the freshly drenched soil. But, the fact that it was sort of impossible to get to Borobodur remained. The wayanadan spirit is hurt and challenged. Lets take a bike trip in the rain. Grab those plastic rain coats from the random shop on the road and Lets get going! Well , I got to admit, that was by far the BEST bike trip I've ever had. Not that my collection of bike trips is vast. A quick late lunch at one of the Masakan Padangs. Ah I love those Masakan Padangs ( It's kind of the Indonesian version of our thattu kada cum Oon Ready places ). Fish, beef , chicken, spinach with rice and all this with the typical Malayali flavours. I love Indonesia for this. The view towards which we where speeding was breath-taking. Reminded you of wayanad in a lot of ways.

So we did reach Borobodur and as we prep up to Oohs and Aahs, the guard comes and tells us the temple closes at 5!! Waaaa ?? But what about the sunset at 6 and the amazing photographs of the sunset at 6 ?  Looks like the website had not updated the timings !! And we catch glimpses of the huge temple . Sneaking our heads in through fences and taking pictures of the temple. One of the locals then told us about Manohara hotel where you can get a good view of the temple. It was also the place where heritage studies was being conducted on Borobudur. So in the pretext of getting a room there, we enter the hotel and order 2 cups of coffee at the restaurant. Woah! Brilliancy! Made a mental note to visit Borobudur with Appa ( He would love it ).

Nighty night. Sheraton Hotel , where we were put up, was set in a beautiful location. With a fuming volcano ( Mount Merapi ) for a backdrop and a room that opened to the pool we couldn't ask for more.

That said, we are going back to the Allwyn Kent mode of travelling next time onwards - Hostels and Lonely Planet !! Waiting for our next trip.