CONNECTIONS to HEALTH

Clare Dobie's China Trip Clare Dobie recently got back from traveling around China and Vietnam.  She sent regular updates while she was away as a diary of what she had been up to.  Here it is for you all to enjoy with some photographs of her trip too. 19/3/08 Hi all, just to say we got here safely; the flight was long and uncomfortable, but no delays, and were met at the airport as arranged no problem. Beijing is incredibly dusty - poor trees all over the place look scrawny and grey, as if stunted by the lack of clean air. Today is a lovely day, and the sky should be blue, but you can't really see it. We wandered around the alleyways (hutongs) near our hotel this afternoon, and drank rose tea (me) and hot chocolate (Roisin and Cai). Cai has got the stomach bug Roisin and I had before we set off, but he should be feeling better tomorrow. they've both coped with the journey really well, with almost no complaints. Will be in touch, Clare. X 21/3 Hi again, long day today - been to the Forbidden city and tiananmen square. Beijing is so big - distances that don't look much on a map take ages to walk. The forbidden city is huge, fabulous and crowded, and our legs were aching by the time we'd finished wandering around it. Tiananmen sq also huge - we didn't go to Mao's mausoleum, where apparently you can see his mummified body in a crystal coffin. We did see a very large, digital 'countdown to the olympics' clock - with the remaining time in days, hours, minutes and seconds! Lots of soldiers/police all over the place - I don't know whether this is always the case - probably -, and not just because of recent events. Ate Beijing duck - very good, but rich, one of those things it's best to have a little of. Posh restaurant though, fun to be in there with gold pillars etc. Hoping to get out to the great wall tomorrow, but it's not easy to do it without paying an arm and a leg for a taxi. we're going to try a bus. This morning we went to the giant panda breeding and research base which is near chengdu, and is not nearly as bad as it sounds. We saw young pandas and adults, and they are lovely to watch, though they don't do much other than eat. Apparently bamboo is so difficult to digest that they really have to spend all their time eating and expend as little energy as possible, because they only absorb about 3% of what they eat! They had red pandas there as well, which look more like racoons, but a beautiful deep auburn colour. Very endangered species. This afternoon to be spend relaxing and doing some laundry before going to see the world's largest buddha tomorrow in Leshan. Hope you are all well, Clare. X 1 /4 Dear all, just a quick note, as we're moving on to Lijiang by plane this evening. The giant buddha was very impressive, though the children both said they preferred the lama temple, which we visited in Beijing. There was an 18m high maitreya buddha there, and the whole place was full of people offering incense, bowing and spinning prayer wheels. They liked the fact that it was a live place. The Leshan buddha is 71m, and that's sitting down! He's carved out of a cliff. We planned to get a boat trip along the river for a good view of him, but didn't manage that - the bus that we thought was going to take us to the boat actually took us back to where we'd started from, and by then it was time to meet the other people we'd come with from Chengdu. One of the disadvantages of doing things in a group. Today we're taking it easy, and once we've packed our stuff we'll walk into the middle of Chengdu and look around some more. The flight isn't until 8.30, but it's only an hour and we'll be met at the airport. Will write again soon, love, Clare. 2/4 Hi, we got here last night on the plane from Chengdu, and are staying at a hostel called the pabna, which is very pleasant. When I phoned them from Chengdu they told me they only had a family room for 2 nights, so today we found somewhere to move to tomorrow. It turns out we don't really need to, but what happened today was that we met a dutch man who lives here (his girlfiiend has a bar/cafe called the sexy tractor!), and he found us a place to stay, and we went to look at it and said we'd take it. So I feel obliged to go, and it's ok, as it's even cheaper, and also more central (would you believe it's 100 yuan/night for all 3 of us. Nearly 14 yuan to the pound). It has an ensuite western style toilet (i.e. a sit-down one, rather than a hole in the ground). This was Cai's major priority. It's called the 'Past Enevts Inn' and it is spelled like that. We wandered around the town and round a park as well, which was lovely, as it was really quite warm and sunny and the views of the mountains from the park are beautiful. There's a famous mountain called Jade Dragon Snow Mountain which you can see from Lijiang old town - it is sno00"> Hope you are all well, Clare. X 25/3 Hi again, this time from Xi'an, where we arrived early this morning on the overnight train from the colossal Beijing West railway station. Our hotel is in the middle of town, and Xi'an, though a city of 3-4 million people, is a much more manageable size than Beijing. We've been wandering around the market in the muslim quarter this morning, looking at papercuts, jewellery, clothes, sunglasses, lots of trinkets. We got out to the great wall in the end - got a taxi to Mutianyu, and it wasn't nearly as crowded as I'd feared. It was a beautiful day, and we got a cable car up onto the wall, walked (or climbed - it's very steep in places) along and got a chair lift back down again. Tomorrow we're off to see the terracotta army. Hope you're all well, Clare. X 27/3 hi all, We've just cycled around Xi'an's city walls; I rode a tandem with Cai and Roisin had a bike to herself. It's about 13km all the way round, and as wide as a major road. It's a sunny day. The views from the wall are mostly high rise blocks seen through dusty air, but it was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon all the same. The terracotta army was fantastic, and on a huge scale. It's not clear what emperor Qin Shi Huangdi thought would happen to him after he died. Apparently he had 700,000 people working on his tomb for 36 years. Interesting also to see some broken bits of warriors - it made me realise what a huge job it is for the archaeologists there. It hadn't occurred to me that they all have to be pieced together. Tomorrow we'll probably go to the big goose pagoda..….remember Monkey (journey to the west)? Well the monk Tripitaka was based on a real monk who brought back scriptures from India, and this pagoda was built especially to store them. In the evening we're catching the overnight train to Chengdu. Will be in touch, Clare. x 30/3 Hi from Chengdu, Sichuan province. We arrived here yesterday morning on the overnight train from Xi'an. Chengdu is another big chinese city, but a bit greener than Beijing or Xian - more trees around. We're found a great hostel here called Sim's Cozy Garden Hostel (!) The children are happy because there's a dvd library, a puppy and international food (including pancakes and bacon sandwiches). Food has been a bit of a challenge at times so far. We have seen all sorts of things on menus, which have often been illustrated with photos (presumably for foreigners) including chicken claws, ducks gizzard, fried intestines, tripe, stir fried cartilage, and many more items which we haven't had the inclination to try. We've eaten quite a lot of noodles, and also kebabs are popular at street stalls, though they tend to be very spicy. A typical chinese breakfast consists of rice porridge, some cold but spicy vegetables and steamed dumplings, which are just steamed doughy blobs, plain but ok. On the whole I think the chinese eat far less sugar and sweet stuff than we do, and they don't seem to snack much between mealsw-capped and very picturesque. Cai got grabbed in the park to have his photo taken with someone chinese - this happens a lot, and he hates it. I've told him to smile and try to make the best of it, but he appears very stony-faced - I don't know whether the people who photograph him notice. It is good to be out of the big cities, and we're planning to stay here for maybe 5 days (see how it goes). Hope you are all well, love, Clare. Xx 5/4 Hi again, Still in Lijiang, weather great now, really hot and sunny. Got a taxi to a nearby village, Baisha, today, and went for a walk along a track between blossom-laden hedgerows and canola fields. Clear blue sky, JDSnow mountain ahead of us, lovely! Hot though, and we sat for a while dangling our feet in a stream that ran along the side of the track. Now and then an elderly-looking woman with a large basket on her back would walk past and say hello (ni hao). Really nice to get off the beaten track. Lijiang is pretty, but very touristy. The shops make me think of ethnic craft stalls at a festival. Although we did have fun tea tasting earlier today in one of the many tea shops. Love to all, Clare.x 7/4 Got the bus to Dali today - about 3 hours - and were met at this end by friends of the people we stayed with in Lijiang and taken to the Flying Bird youth hostel. Basic but fine. Wandered around Dali, which is smaller than Lijiang, and has a great setting, between mountains to the west and a big lake to the east. Ate noodles at a café and the woman there let us take her tiny dog for a walk, which pleased the children greatly. Lots of people in China seem to have very small dogs. Lots of food stalls with live things swimming in bowls lining the street - mostly the live things are fish and shellfish, presumably from the lake. Hope you're all well, Clare. X 10/4 hi, we're going to have to leave Dali today, which is sooner than I'd wanted to go, but limitations on flights/visas mean it can't be helped. I don't feel ready to leave China just yet! We went on a boat on the lake today. Yesterday went on a horse trek into the hills near here, on small sturdy horses (the kind of thing I imagine Genghis Khan rode!) led by tough and wiry men who climbed the mountain (or bit of it) alongside the horses and didn't even take their coats off. The path was narrow and steep, and quite scary on the way down - the children were laughing hysterically - but the horses were amazingly sure-footed. Visited some pretty rock pools, and Roisin managed to fall in, much to the bemusement of our guides. I think they were full of meltwater from the peaks we could see higher up - it was a hot day, but it took her a good hour to warm up again. Going to get the overnight train to Kunming tonight, and from there we fly to Hanoi tomorrow afternoon. Bye, Clare. X 12/4 hi again, Here we are in Hanoi, and it's so different from anywhere we saw in China. The most obvious thing is the weather; very humid here, temperature in the 20's, so not desperately hot but very sweaty. Yunnan was hotter but dry and bright. We only arrived in Hanoi yesterday, but haven't seen the sun so far. It is lusher and greener here. Also there are far more foreigners here than in China, though Lijiang and Dali were pretty touristy. We went to a restaurant tonight, and almost everyone in there was foreign - something we didn't ever see in China. I'm really missing having a little of the language too - all I've managed to remember so far in Vietnamese is thank-you, and I don't feel very motivated to learn much more (but think I'll have to make a bit of an effort). I must have known a bit more mandarin than i realised, because it made a huge difference. As we drove into Hanoi from the airport, though, it appeared to be a far more attractive city than any of the large chinese cities we've seen. There were few high rise buildings to be seen, and a lot of colonial style, rather quirky looking buildings in many different colours and sizes (widths especially) with balconies and various roof shapes. Probably dirtier than, say, Beijing, where people drop litter in the streets, but the government employ legions of street sweepers - you see them all over the place with long-handled dustpans and besom-type brushes. And indeed the streets are remarkably clean and litter-free. Same in Xi'an and Chengdu. No dog poo lying around on the pavements either. Kunming seemed more littered, but maybe that was because we arrived there early in the morning and the cleaning wasn't properly under way yet. The area we're staying in is the old quarter - the streets are narrow and chaotic, and each is named after what used to be sold there. We found a book exchange nearby, (on what I assume must be called gravestone street, judging from the shops there) and managed to get Cai the first Harry Potter book, which he doesn't remember having had read to him, it was so long ago. So he's got quite engrossed in that, which is great. There's a computer in our room here, and I've had to ration the use of it. The children don't know yet, but I'm planning to drag them to the Hanoi museum of ethnology tomorrow, which is supposed to be very good, and have models of the different kinds of houses made by different minority peoples around Vietnam, as well as stuff about their various arts and crafts. We're booked to go to Halong bay on Tuesday and stay on a boat overnight, returning to Hanoi on Wednesday. Lots of love to all, Clare. X 16/4 Hi, this woman wrote to me a little while ago, and I wrote back advising her to get in touch with the centre and see David, but perhaps she thinks my aol address is linked to the centre. anyway, hope you're all well. We've just got back to Hanoi from Ha Long bay - we stayed on a boat overnight. It's a beauty spot, but a rather overcrowded one. Apparently there are about 500 boats in the bay, as well as floating villages, so the pictures on postcards which show an almost deserted scene and clear blue water are rather deceptive. We did swim, but I was slightly worried about what might be in the water - it didn't look particularly clean. Tourism is tricky! In a way it was quite nice to be on an organised tour, where everything is arranged for you, and there were some interesting people in the group we went with. On the other hand, it's very much a packaged experience. Hanoi is hot and sticky. We're moving on tomorrow night, but first we're going to the Sofitel Metropole (very posh hotel) for a chocolate buffet (!) which they do every afternoon, 3 - 5.30. It's a birthday treat! Love to all, clare. X 18/4 thanks for the birthday greeting. we were on the train from Hanoi to Hue last night - a later one than intended, as the hotel messed up the ticket booking, but we got here ok. It's quite a long trip - about 12 hours, and some fantastic countryside on the way. Treating ourselves to one night at a really posh hotel (my birthday is the excuse). Could really get used to this kind of luxury, but we're off to the budget place tomorrow......oh well, will have time to use the pool again before we go! Very hot here, but good to get away from hectic Hanoi. Will soon be into beach territory, though no beach here, but a river, the Perfume river. The balcony of our room looks out over it. Will probably go for a cruise in the next day or two. Love to all at the centre, and thanks for sorting out patient, Clare. X 20/4 Hi, Even the locals are saying it's hot here at the moment. Went for a tour of Hue on the back of motorbikes today, but had to cut it short, it was just so hot. We did go to one of the various imperial tombs around here (there were emperors living in Hue until 1945), and to an arena where the emperors used to watch tigers and elephants fighting. There's also an imperial city here, a bit like the forbidden city in Beijing but much smaller, which we visited yesterday. There's a lot of cultural and historical stuff to see here, but it's too hot to do much really. Saw a frenchwoman who had collapsed in the heat at the tomb we visited being ministered to by other members of her tour group. I think we'll find somewhere to swim tomorrow! Hope all's well with you, Clare. x 23/4 Hi from Hoi An, a pleasant small town on the coast in central vietnam, famous for tailors, of which there are over 500 in the town. It must be hard for them to make a living, even with the number of tourists here, so they tend to stand or sit by the entrance to their shops and start talking to you as soon as you slow down to look at anything at all (or even if you don't). But despite the warnings I had about being hassled in vietnam, we haven't found it too bad at all for the most part- certainly no more hassle than in Egypt. Also a lovely beach about 5km away. Travel plans messed up because the flights we wanted are full, so not sure exactly what we're doing from here. Really want to go away from the coast and up into the central highlands (Roisin is especially keen as there is the prospect of riding elephants there) but logistics are a bit tricky. And time is running short unfortunately, as we have a hotel booking in a beach resort (Mui Ne) on 30th, and staying there until it's time to come back to England, except for 1 night in Saigon. The thing everyone seems to know here about England is Manchester United football! Tomorrow are going on a trip to My Son, ruins from the Cham civilisation which flourished here.....don't know when, but I'll look it up before we go! Definitely an Indian influence, as apparently there's a temple to Shiva there, or what's left of one after the area was somewhat flattened by Americans in the 60s/70s. We go there by bus (takes about an hour) and return by boat along the river to Hoi An. There's a good family restaurant next door to our hotel, and we might do a cooking lesson in the afternoon, but it'll be slightly limited, as the children have decided to be vegetarian for the moment after seeing a live but half plucked chicken in the market in Hue. Animal welfare doesn't feature much in China or Vietnam. The food speciality here is seafood, with lots of squid and prawns. Hope everyone is well, love, Clare. X 27/4 Hi, we're still in Nha Trang, moved hotels, as ours was noisy, with a karaoke bar below our bedroom. Apparently the sea is usually beautifully calm here and perfect for swimming, but at the moment it's not. It's lovely and warm, but big waves and fierce undertow, so have only played about in the shallows, and the children are happy with that, particularly since hearing that a boy drowned yesterday. I'm told that there's a strong wind coming from china at the moment. Don't know whether that's true, but it's a shame anyway. Tomorrow we're going out to one of the nearby islands to try snorkelling. Today went to a 'hot spring centre' where we soaked in tubs of mud and then doused ourselves in warm mineralised water. The place was lacking a cold pool. The swimming pool looked beautiful, and I couldn't understand why nobody was in it until I jumped in - the water is at 38 degrees, and swimming was hard work. Walked a good part of the way back, finding gorgeous flowers, then accepted the offer of a motorbike taxi (two actually, for the three of us). Mine was driven by a man who looked about 80, but drove like a 20 year old. Looks like we will go up into the highlands for a couple of days after all, day after tomorrow. Nha Trang is ok - the setting is pretty, with a long beachfront and mountains behind it, but the city itself is mainly hotels. The beachfront is nice, with a park that stretches along most of it, with winding paths and some slightly surreal topiary. Hope all's well in England, love, Clare. X 3/5 Hi, We did get into the highlands, which was very interesting, and good to see a different side of vietnam, away from the coast. The children got tired of driving - we did cover a lot of miles. Saw lobster farm, brick factory (not to be confused with what we'd call a factory over here) - they make clay bricks, very low tech, and fire them in kilns that look a lot like the bottle ovens that used to be used in the potteries. Also a silk factory. The children tried to rescue some silkworms - there were thousands of cocoons, and they put them in boiling water and then unravel them to get the silk thread, and then send the dead worms to China and korea where people eat them. No waste. Unfortunately the rescued silkworms ended up in my spectacles case to protect them from the bumps of the journey, and they suffocated. We saw lots of coffee plantations, and it's time for the first rice harvest at the moment, so there were plastic sheets spread out all over the place with rice laid out to dry on them. I love the paddy fields - they are a bright bright vibrant green. We did visit a couple of villages where minority peoples live - these are ethnically distinct tribes who live in villages in the highlands. I think they tend to be poor - the villages we saw certainly were - but I don't know what their quality of life is like. Some minority peoples have been compulsorily rehomed in purpose built villages provided by the government. We drove past one such village, with white and green houses, and I asked our guide whether people had a choice about living there. He said not, that they had to move to there, but that they were happy, as there was a school and generally better facilities there. Who knows? Arrived here in Mui ne a couple of days ago. It is just a beach resort and nothing else, and the sea and sand is lovely, as is our bungalow, about 10 yards from the beach. Love to all, Clare. x 7/5 Hi all, this is our last day at the beach: it's been lovely - the sea is warm, the weather is hot and humid, and thunder stormy. Have seen some spectacular lightning. It's been a good place to relax before the journey home. Tomorrow we get the bus to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), and we'll spend one night there before getting the plane home the next evening. It seems very odd to think that in 3 days time we'll be back in Leek. The hotel here has beautiful tropical gardens, so I'm going to take some flower pictures before we go (on Roisin's camera - I lost mine in China). Hope you're all well and happy, Clare. x barber, hanoi bee troot salad buying drinks, ha long bay fish kebab, dali food for sale, dali hue jade dragon snow mountain many boats, ha long bay mui ne olympic clock & guard pagoda, dali pandas pea-flavoured ice lolly steep wall traffic, xi'an back street xi'an city wall year of the rat decoration, xi'an city wall

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