Photographs

nihao (how cultural)

have made it to the last big town in china- kuming- with eight days to go until we have to cross the border.


have been mightily impressed with the town so far as it has proved the cleanest of the cities we have visited in china. the organisation of the road system has stood out as, although we have been lost many a time in the few short hours we have been here, they have a lane and instructions for everything, including u-turns.





we think that being back in the big city has been pleasing for queenie as last night we camped for only the second time in china. we were forced to such action as it was getting late and we were driving along steep and windy mountain roads with no lights but plenty of signs telling you that it is compulsory to beep your horn. beeping of the horn is something that daddy and tessie have taken to with gusto.


getting back to nature was a somewhat mixed experience. we happened to chance upon a perfect spot as we were driving along but proceeded to struggle to get permission for using the bit of wired-off land. in the end we had to ask several people from the hamlet at the bottom of the hill. the concensus was that it would be ok so long as we looked out for bandits that everyone assured us were there.


having erected our tents and used our emergency rations (in an actual emergency no less) for dinner in the dark, we settled down to sleep. having got past the seeming perpetual rain in china we were expecting it to be a dry night. rookie mistake. in the middle of the night more rain fell than you could shake a stick at; the whole thing was most exciting as there was also lots of thunder and lightening. it was after a little bit of time that we realised that tesco had failed us: the tent, which had proved trusty up until now, let in about half of the rain that fell on our tent. my sleeping bag was soaking as was the bottom of my roll mat; it was so wet that because of the water falling i had another roll mat put on top of me by daddy for protection.


it was also bucketing it down when we were packing up in the morning. bad times.











last of mongolia photographs:


the train station at the border. we went train spotting virtuallly every moment we were in the town and indeed the station was like its own community with people eating, sleeping and selling. this is an example of the typical passenger train that passed through, which ran the length of the platform, that we tried to beat on the morning of the border crossing.

said border- openly taking photographs

if you have been reading faithfully you will remember out haircut frenzy.
this is lewis post haircut.

lewis pre-cut. n.b. we did not get our ice-creams; it appears that there are genuinely no ice-creams to be had in mongolia outside ulaanbaatar. however, when we crossed into china there were loads of ice-creams: the soyabean one is out favourite and only cost about 1 yuan.

geography photograph- dried up river in the desert. we drove into the gobi just after the big rains so we were lucky. there was evidence everywhere of how the water had affected the land- much of it had also been turned to mud.

CHINA:

traditional farming- in the poorer farming areas they still use buffallos which are essential when the paddy fields are flooded. however, we have seen many farmers using a multi-use engine that may be attatched to differenct bit of farming machinery. this lady appears to be surfing on her field. the animals have generally been treated well and with respect apart formt eh incident when we saw some children throwing cans at their herd as they were taking them home through the village.

one of the many amazing views that seem to be everywhere in china. the expressways, which have been impressive in themselves, have been made even more stunning by the views that are either side of them the whole well. we have particularly enjoyed getting to the highest points in areas and today we reached a heady 2.2 km high. don't worry guys, we took a photograph of vera (sat nav) at the time- you will not be seeing that photograph at this time.
have also be speculating on formation of hills and different rock formations, of which we have seen many.

our first and last city wall. me in front of the watch tower. all the cities once had city walls and bell and drum towers but the only city with the whole of its original wall intact is xian. this is not xian. this one had a good view from the top of the tower over the river below.

more scenery on a typically misty day (our first non-misty day was today after the heavy rain of last night). the jagged hills are covered in vegetation. as the countryisde has been so hilly, most of the farm plots have been terraced;however, as we move from paddy to tea land this is becoming less common.

daddy- ever the trooper- driving through another lot of water taht the locals said we could not. we all had to get out and walk whilst daddy drove at the edge where there was less water and the road had fewer potholes. daddy leart his lesson with the stuck-in-the-river fiasco and so went slowly despite the racing trucks around him. we have notcied that in many of the towns the drainage system has been wholely inadaquate although on the mountain passes it has been impressive.
the forbidden city we wnet to see was not in beijing and had different architecture to its famous brother. when we explored on our own we enjoyed it but where dissapointed at the beginning where it was all new, for show and built for the olympics. we felt highly cultural but have since not been to any of these tourist spots as outside the major cities they are extremely expensive and, as far as we can make out, not worth the money. however, in tomorrow we are off to tiger gorge as recomended by jon and jack who said that it was well worth the visit despite the crowds and difficult access. we are putting our trust in them.

jon and jack are the father and son from melborne we met a couple of days ago who are driving, in a suitable car, from melborne to london. they are doing the same route in reverse to us so daddy is very keen on recieving and giving advice. they are moving rather quicker than we are and are hoping to reach paris on the 19th of december in order to meet the wife. we, on the other hand, make no such promises to anyone.

one of our favourite meals. queenie has, on occassion, tried valiantly to steer us away from the street stalls but we will not be swayed. it is here that we have found our best and cheapest food; we have also been greatly enjoying the variety that was severly lacking in mongolia. they do love chille a little too much here though. at this stall we had a form of chinese fondu: lots of different food on a stick in hot soup.

have been trying greatly to interesting photographs in china. these are pigs on a motorway. have also seen chickens, ducks and buffalos.

terraced land for paddy fields.

the yangtze- stopped illegally in the middle of the 3 km bridge taht crossed it. the water was full of silt and the day was cloudy but you can just make out, through expert photography, a couple of barges. the river was too bigt to even get even the whole of the width in shot.

majhong den, den of mahjong. found these chaps outside a food stall at night and asked if we could watch. they were clearly very good and made for exciting watching as they were so quick. note ancient game being played whilst men were constantly on thier mobile phones.

one of the many things we have seen drying on the concrete driveways outside people's houses in the countryside. these are wood chippings. they put the items, that range from rice to chille, along the half the road aswell. this makes for interesting driving. it is clearly not thier land. they block off thier 'area' via strategically placed rocks.

example of the massive mist and fog. standard through out the day. not unexpected since it is rainy season. this was taken early on when driving on a mountain road with lots of tunnels that go straight through the mountains/ hills.

a shinning example of our covert photographing. this is the arrivals hall on the chinese side of the mongolia/ china border. the staff were lovely to us and we suspect they would not have taken any notice of me taking photographs even if i had not been taking them at random intervals from under my coat.

one of our favourite people. we met him a just under a week ago near the small village we were staying in for the night. we were wondering through the village and stumbled across this man. we then proceeded to force ourselves upon him and took many photographs of us working teh machine that you can see which is for blowing the dry skin off the rice.

we walked further down the village and ventured off the beaten track only to find ourselves at the back of this man's house. he invited us for dinner and the whole neighbourhood came to have a good look at the funny foreginers. when having dinner we found that him whole family had come round for chinese national day (last wednesday but last several days) but he was the only one doing any work as the old people are expected to work while their children do nothing. quite right too. daddy, tessie, queenie, loong and lewis at the caves during the early days in china. this cave was blocked off as some people were filming inside. buddha was the theme of all the caves. although you can see the bas-relief, this was one of the less well preserved caves.

house in the mountains. if you look closely you can see the yellow rows of corn hanging out to dry and ripen. these are hanging from virtually everyhouse in the mountains we passed at this time of year.

loong, lewis, daddy, son and queenie at our favourite old man's house for dinner.

when we were exploring the village with our favourite old man we came across many people who wanted to talk to us although their strong accents has made communication for queenie and tessie even more difficult than usual. this lady walked a good proportion of the journey with us. whe was carrying vegtables in the basket on her back. however, the basket that everyone uses, has also been used for transporting children; some even have specailly seats for them. luxery.
the bit of the great wall that we saw near the border when we came into china. is was slippery from the rain and the fact that it was just mude after the locals had stripped the suriving mounds of brick and stone for builing materialsn. the bits of wall we saw were located near some kind of massive pottery merchant. that is what the giants pots that you can see in the foreground are.

our first sighting of cotton. we have also seen much of this drying at the side of the road.

father-son bonding session. at the base of a mountain pass in the village with our favourite old man. how touching.

citroen central (am getting seriously catchy now). china is crawling with citroens, most made in china. the vast majority of the taxis are citroens and citroen zxs appear to dominate the scene. daddy, leaning out of the window, has been strategically placed at a juxtaposition to the parked citroen. cunning.

silk worms from erenhot. first exotic food from china. would most definated not recomend.

sparrow from the same restaurant as about. was just like a tiny bird crisp. whould most definately recommend.
a monunentous occassion- our first bin in china. we have been looking out for them ever since but when we do spot them they seem to be everywhere. have mainly been unloading our rubbish, of which there is a suprising amount concidering we are not camping, at the service stations of the expressways.

our favourite place of accomodation so far. a lovely and traditional guesthouse. the owners were so helpfull that the daughter even left to stay with her grandmother for the night in order that we have a good room. this is thier courtyard in the old bit of the town. we slept through the second door on the right.

one of the streets surrounding the gusesthouse above.
a typically bustling market at breakfast time. lots of food for eating and being sold freshly on the side of the street. most of the bicycles you see are electric. we have been most impressed by this aspect of china.
queenie cooking us a meal. she simply asked if she could use the kitchen of the resaurant we were eating at and they let her. they seem to be casual abou this sort of thing hense the photographs of the kitchen. the man at the back is cooking on a big stone cooker.
the grandad at our favourtie old man's house from the village. he even posed for us when he came out smoking the massive pipe. he does not have a wig on his head. it is in fact some form of traditional turban-like head gear. daddy made the mistake of thinking it was some form of poorly made head gear with a hole at the top.

man making noodles. typical in china but novel for us. noodles made on from scratch on demand right in front of you. as daddy is not a great fan of noodles he quickly made a vow not to have any that were not made infront of him. lewis is obsession with noodles. this vow did not last one meal.

in the old quater of a town. a photograph of the old bank in china (about 120 years old). we did not go in as we declared it an overpriced tourist trap.

the shop where daddy purchased yet another set of glasses. these ones are special as they fold into quaters (more stuff to break and now more difficult for daddy to put them on) and came in a patent leather case, attatchable to belt (makes him look an idiot).

really cool transport if you ask me. this seems to happen lots in china.

thank you to the internet cafe for downloading skype for tessie. we are swiftly learning that complaining gets you everywhere.
have no complained about two sets of toilets. one set was at the spa we went to two nights ago. it was boiling hot but the toilets had human waste all over them. to and insult to injury the spa had been bloody expensive concidering we are in china. queenie bought a swimming costume for under 1 pound especially for us and so as not to leave us unaccompanied at the spa.

am sure there is more complaining to come.

P.S. jon and jack's website is http://www.melbornetolondon.com/