Last Trip in China
 

January 2007

Here is a little story to share from our last trip in China. As you might already know, Roy and I are leaving China in February and moving to Thailand, a warmer place for us

For our last holiday, we went to Singapore and met my Mum, my youngest sister, Liza, my brother in-law, my nephew and niece. My sister had never been abroad, and my Mum had only been to Cairns for our wedding. They were so excited and had a great time. They were so impressed with how clean and orderly Singapore is. My niece and nephew were amazed that people can drink water straight from the tap (a NO NO in Indonesia). We stayed in Singapore for 3 days whereas the rest of my family stayed for 5 days.

From Singapore we took a cruise liner, “Silver Whisper”, to Hongkong. Roy thought he needed a holiday where he could just do nothing. Cruising seemed to be a perfect idea, especially since we’ve been to most of the ports we were visiting. The cruise went from Singapore – Kuching (Malaysia) – Ho Chi Minh city – Na Thrang (Vietnam) – Guangzhou (China) – Hongkong. All in all we were at sea for 9 days.

The cruise we were on was really luxurious (we tried to use up our travel allowance … if we don’t use it we lose it). We were really well-pampered, being treated like a “queen” and “king”. Food was great and service was excellent. We had a couple of dining venues to choose from, and even room service with menu from the restaurants. However cruising wasn’t really our cup of tea. We had to dress up for dinner every night. We got a bit bored after a couple of days. It was true that we could go on land tours when the ship berthed on ports, and watched different performances every night, but when we were at sea there was nothing much we could do apart from reading our books or having a cuppa or beer or wine while watching the blue ocean. We didn’t really like sunbathing at the pool or going on cocktail parties like many other people on board. Well, at least it was a good experience.

Our first stop was Kuching. We had never been there. We took a tour around the city, but there was nothing much to see there. We were glad we didn’t make a special trip there when we lived in Malaysia. The second stop was Ho Chi Minh city. We were there in 2002. There were not much changes to the city, only more cars on the streets. I bought an “Ao Day”, traditional Vietnamese outfit, in the market. Roy wanted me get one when we were there before but I didn’t really want one then. Na Thrang was a beautiful seaside town. When we were there last it was wet and windy. This time it was a fabulous day. We went around the market. It was quite pleasant. We didn’t have time to stroll along the beach. Many people would have preferred to linger there longer. Then we were supposed to stop at Guangzhou, but due to some work at the port the ship couldn’t berth. Many people got a bit upset as they had put much efforts into getting Chinese visas. But we were quite pleased to have an extra day in Hongkong.

Saigon		Na Thrang

We had never been to Hongkong before, and thought it was just a big city like Singapore. However, it turned out to be quite nice. It really is a shopper paradise, and prices are cheaper than Singapore. But we didn’t do much shopping as China is still a lot cheaper…of course. We stayed in Kowloon, which has more characters we thought than Hongkong Island. The hotel we stayed at, Salysbury YMCA, was right at the harbour front, next to the famous Peninsula Hotel. We got upgraded to the harbour view suite, “at no extra cost….the front officer reluctantly said”. Well, we asked for a non-smoking room, and probably that was the only one left. The view from our living room was superp, especially at night when all the building were lit up and the lights were on.

View from Our Hotel Room

We spent 3 days in Hongkong. We walked around Kowloon. It was quite interesting, a mixture of the old and new. Apart from big shops, we could still find traditional Chinese shops and dwellings. Kowloon has many interesting sites, such as traditional markets, street and night markets, museums, the “avenue of stars” (located at the harbour front with famous Chinese movie stars’ names along its path, just like “Hollywood Hall of Fame), etc. On the second day we were there, we went across to Hongkong Island to catch a tram to the famous Victoria Peak. We were lucky to have clear sky that afternoon. From the peak we could sea the whole Hongkong and its surrounding little islands. The view was fabulous, especially at sunset. We ended the night with dinner at a flash restaurant with a harbour view which serves steaks (Roy was happy).

 From Hongkong we caught a ferry to Shenzhen and then a plane back to Guiyang. We stayed 2 night in Guiyang and the were back to site. On the way back to site we saw “real” snow for the first time in our lives. It was beautiful. When I was waiting for Roy to check out from the hotel, I saw “slow-motion rain” and the ground was wet, but not white. I called Roy up to see and he laughed at me. He said it was snow. Then as we drove out of Guiyang everywhere was covered in white. There must have been a cold snap as the province where we live doesn’t get snow very often. I was so happy to see the snow at last.

Two days after we came back to site – enough time to do some washing as I was running out of winter clothes, I went to Min Gu to meet my friends, Wang Xia and Mr Deng, who were willing to accompany me to travel to Xingyi on their breaks. I tried to make the most of my remaining time in China to see more of the country. From Min Gu we took a bus to Xingyi. The bus was quite comfortable. It took 2-3 hours to get there. Xingyi is a small city in the south of Guizhou on the border with Yunnan Province. Wang Xia and Deng went to uni there and know the place very well. At last I experience the “REAL CHINA”. Well, when I travelled with Roy or other expats, we are always treated as “lao wai” or foreigners. But this time I was one of them. We stayed in a Chinese hotel right in the city centre (not all hotels in China accept foreigners), ate yummy Chinese food at food stalls frequented by locals, caught public transports, and didn’t get ripped off . I even got to try dog meat when we went out with Deng’s friends from uni days. Well, they said it was just the same as Australians eating Kangaroo which for Chinese quite exotic. It tasted OK, very tender, but I don’t think I have the heart to order it myself.

Xingyi is quite a nice town. The city centre is like a piazza surrounded by shops. Its surrounding country site has beautiful scenery. One of the main attractions is Maling Gorge with cascading waterfalls on both cliff faces. It was amazing to see. My friends said it is better to visit in summer when the waterfalls are a lot bigger and stronger. But visiting in winter has its own benefit, not many people there. We spent more than 4 hours walking through winding path, across bridges, and up & down steps into the gorge.

The second day, we visited Wan Feng Hu, a lake about 1 hour drive from Xingyi. We hired a taxi to get there. The view along the way was supposed to be beautiful but the day we went it was very foggy and a bit wet, we couldn’t see much. There was a bad accident the night before at one section of the road. A car rolled over the cliff and only stopped at the bottom of the valley. One of the passenger died and the rest were badly injured. We were stuck on the street for about an hour as a crane tried to retrieve the car and blocked other vehicles from both directions. It took many attempts before the crane managed to pull up the car. It was in a very bad shape. We arrived at the lake just after midday. Despite the cold and wind, we hired a “sampan”, fisherman boat, to take us around the lake. It was quite good, but it would have been better to do it in a warm sunny day. After the boat trip we had a “very-late” lunch at a small restaurant at the lake where the boat driver took us. They served the most delicious fish in China. The three of us ate a lot. That night we all missed dinner, but went to a Karaoke bar with Deng’s friends.

On the third day we went on a public bus to Lidang to see the house of a Chinese Minister (famous in China but I’d never heard of them) during Kuomintang era. Rural buses are different from comfortable long distance buses in China. In the bus that we were in people smoked, spit, and put various things on board including live stocks, farm harvest, and it was chockers. Deng and Wang Xia were kindly enough to always had the window seat. It was quite a long drive just to have a look of the Minister Residence, but the drive there was quite beautiful. We were lucky to have a better visibility than the previous day. For me, the residence was a bit of disappointment. I didn’t know the man, and all the displays (mostly photos and stories about the Minister) are in Chinese.

In the afternoon after Lidang we went back to Min Gu. Wang Xia invited us for dinner at her place. She called her Mum from the bus and asked her to get fish for me (she knows I love fish). It was nice. We had a hotpot fish. Very delicious.

The next morning I went back to site whereas others enjoyed the rest of their holidays. Well, that a quick rundown of our last holiday in China before we leave the country on thr 7th of February. It will be sad to say good bye to our friends here, but we are also excited about our new adventure.

Love,

Evi & Roy