TRAVELLING AROUND SOUTH AMERICA
I live in
London with my friend Louis and we are 21 years old. We love travelling arround
the world and this year, during eight months we will go to South America.
When we
arrived in Brasil we stay in Macapá, a city near the Amazon River. There we
went to an hotel and we went to our bedroom. We leaved all the bags there and
then we went to ate something. The next day we went to visit the Amazon river.
We met Bill and Daisy. We stayed with they during all the travel in boat for
the Amazon. The river was amazing and beautiful, there were lots of animals and
plants. We saw caimans, giants tortoises, a lot of snakes and we also saw
jauars and tapirs... At 8 o’clock of the night we went down of the boat. Daisy
and Bill invited us to dinner in their house, we acepted and then we went in
their house and we stayed here during one week.
When we left Daisy and Bill’s house we went to a train station and Louis went to bought two tickets to go to Venezuela. Four hours later we arrived there and went in a camping. The weather was very hot and we decided to went in a beautiful beach called Medina. We arrived here and went running into the water. Suddenly we heard a shout of a girl and saw a lot of people went out of the water very fast. We were frightened and did the same of the other people, we went out of the beach and then we saw that there was a giant shark and a girl into the water, she was frighten but the group of rescate of the beach went very fast to rescate she and the shark cameback to his house. At eight of evening we arrived at the camping, we were very tired and went to eat something. The rest of the week in Venezuela we stayed visiting museums and one night we went to saw a theratre.
The morning that we leaved Venezuela we woke up at nine o’clock. I had a shower and after I breakfast milk with cereals. At 10:30 a.m we arrived at train station to go until Colombia with a friend of Louis, David. When we arrived to Colombia David was waiting us. We went to David’s house. It was beautiful and very big, there was a swimmingpool and a big garden. In the house there were David’s soon and dougther, Ben and Becky and David’s wife, Lisa. They trated very well us and we pased two weeks there. One day we went to a restaurant, the food was very good. The last day in Colombia Lisa, David, Ben and Becky came with us and we went to bought clothes and some records form Colombia for our family. We were very good in that house, but we must leave it the next day by boat.
When we arrived to Ecuador we decided to go to visit a poor village and help people. The village was small and there were a lot of children playing in the street. Also there were women working in their houses, cooking and with their little kids. The men were working with animals or in vegetable garden. This day all the people dinner togheter and after they did a festival with traditional things of the country. I helped to the women to do the food and Louis helped to men and children to prepare the table for dinner and the other things. We dinner very good and the festival of after was very funny. They danced and singed and all the people were very happy. We stay in that village two weeks and we donate money for help them. We pased the days here doing the things that the people do normaly. The last day in the village we dinner togheter and do another festival like the first day. We enjoyed a lot here.
After two weeks in Ecuador we decided to go to Perú and visit the city of Machu Picchu. We stay there from 10 a.m until 7p.m. There there were a lot of people taking photos and visiting it. Louis and I met a boy and two girls called Liam, Danielle and Eleanor. Liam and Danielle were the parents of Eleanor and they invited us to had lunsh with them. Louis explained to the others that we were from London, our works...and after Louis and I went to see some of that place and then we went to Liam’s house. Here we pased the night and the next day we went to take the train to go to Chile, there we pased one week. We left the house at 9 a.m and before we said goodbye to Liam, Danielle and Eleanor. We promised them that one day we’ll see them again.
We took
the train and we travelled untill the city of Santiago. We went to a hotel and
we reserved a room for two persons during one week. We went up and we put our
bags in the room. All the week we were visiting the city, but the final day we
decided to do something diferent.
- What do
you want to do? -asked Louis.
- We can
go to ride horses, I like it. –I answer.
- It’s a
good idea! But we can go at afternoon. Now I’m tired.
We stayed
all the morning in the hotel tidying our things in the room and later we went
to the swimmingpool. After that we went to changed clothes and after we went to
dinner in the restaurant of the hotel. At five at afternoon we went by bicicle until
riding club and one men leave us two horses and went to ride the horses for the
forest. At 8:30 we returned at the riding club, we leaved the horses here and
we cleaned them. After we cameback to the hotel, we dinnered and we saw the TV
until we feel asleep.
In Argentina we arrived the next day at night and we went to my cousin’s house, Ann, in Buenos Aires. She lived with her husband Allan and that day we decided to go to the zoo. We arrived there and suddenly it starts to rain a lot. But we entered to see the dolphins’ show. The animals started to jump, swim and do other things with their trainers. When the show finished all the public applauded a lot and later we went to visit the rest of the animals of the zoo. We enjoyed a lot. When we arrived to home we ordered a pizza and while we were watching a horror film we were eating the pizza and at the end we went to sleep.
The next afternoon Ann, Louis, Allan and I traveled to Paraguay by Allan’s car. We went to do a hike until Salto Cristal, a beautiful lake.
When we
arrived at Paraguay we went to a hotel near the lake. The next day we went to
the lake walking and it was 22km away from the city and we took three and half
hours to arrived there. Finally we arrived at the lake. My cousin and I were
tired and the weather was hot. Allan and Louis went to the water and we
followed them. There wasn’t nobody, only were we four and we stayed very well.
We passed all the afternoon there. We took a lot of photos, we swam into the
lake and we sunbated. At 7 o’clock we decided to leave the place and went home.
At home we had a shower and we ate something, then we went to sleep because we
were very tired. We were one week in Paraguay and after Ann and Allan went to
their home and Louis and I went to Uruguay, the last city that we visited in
our voyage.
In Uruguay
we spend one week. As Uruguay was the last stop of our voyage we decided to go
to a thermal baths in the city that we stayed. We arrived there and went to the
spa, the swimingpool, the toboggans of water, at the jacuzzis... we were very
relaxed and enjoyed a lot the day. We also dinnered there and the food was
delicious. In Uruguay we also visited some museums and thetres, we went to the
cinema and also went in a restaurant two nights and we went again in the
thermal baths the last day of the week. We returned to London after eight
months in Sout America, we enjoyed a lot this travel but we also missed our
family. We bought them some presents and they loved a lot the presents. Now we
are all together in London but two years later Louis and I’ll travel from
Europa.
By: Judit Pegueroles
Travel
around Europe
Once
upon a time in a small village there were a group of children. They
were four boys and two girls. One boy called Jack was the
intelligent. The other boy called Toby was the fast. The other boy
called Finn was the naughty. And the last boy called Joni was the
pretty. One girl called Teddy was the creative and the other girl
called Paula was the leader. When the summer holidays arrive they
were thirteen or fourteen years old. They decided to did a travel
around Europe.
The
nine of June they started they travel. At 4 o’clock they went to
the airport. They get up to the airplane. They went to France. When
they arrive was midday and they sleeping in a hotel. The hotel was in
front of the Eiffel tower. The night was cold and foggy. In the
morning they went to saw the Effiel tower and the Northedram palace.
It was very beautiful. In the evening they went to do a walk with
boat for the Sena river. They saw a biggest fish. Jack said that this
fish was the biggest fish of France. The next morning they to walk to
the Pirinees. They went to a cave. Toby arrived the first and he saw
a bear. The bear was bigger and it had a soon. The little bear was
beautiful. When the other children arrived they did a fire and they
had dinner. In the night they explained scary stories. At twelve
o’clock they went to sleep in a cave and at the morning they come
back to the hotel. In the evening they get up to the taxi and to a
village of France called Caen. In Caen they get up to a boat and to
United Kingdom. There they get up to another taxi and went a other
village called Dover. They slep in a campsite. In Dover the weather
was very cold in the night but in the day was very worm. In the
morning Paula decided to went to the beach and the other children was
OK. In the beach Paula was sleeping in the sand. Tedy painting a draw
of the beach, Jony and Finn was playing with the ball, Jack was
reading a book about the sea ,and Toby was swimming in the wather. In
the evening they went to eat a ice cream at the port. They saw a lot
of birds and a lot of boats. The next day they went to saw the Big
Ben in London. It was very tall and big. After they went to the
London eye. They saw the sea and the Big Ben. Teddy was painting a
paint of Londres. When they went dawn to the Londres eye, a thief
robed them and they had not money. They had to work for wind some
money.
In
the morning they get up to a boat and went to Islandia. Thirty hours
later they arrived to Rekiavik the capital of Islandia. The first day
they went to saw a volcan. It was very tall and Tobby and Finn
decided to climb the volcan. The others wents to the beach. They
couldn't swim because the wather was cold because they saw a very big
bird. While the two boys climbed the mountain. At four o'clock the
arrived to the pick. There was a big hole there. Into the hole there
was fire but edthere wasn't smoke. When they star to walk down Finn
fell down into the hole but Tobby toke his hand. In the second day
they to fish in a lake.Sudenly, Paula saw a the biggest fish. It was
enormus and It had a large neak and four legs. His skin was purple.
He had two horners too. An old man explained them that this monster
was legendar and it was called Botty. The third day they went to make
a iglu. This was very fun and the iglu was beautiful. The last day
they get up to a aereoplan. They went to Noruega.
At
the night they arrived to the airport of Trondheim. The first day
they went to walk on the country. When they arrived on a side of a
lake they saw a group of wild horses. Teddy gave it some sugar and
after she painted apaint about it. They saw a group of rens too. The
second day they went to ski. They went up to a pick of a mountain and
after they went down on their skies. It's very fun and Toby arrived
the first. When they was in the city the girls went to visited a
museum about the art history and the boys went to saw a competition
of ski. The third day the group went to see the snow. They made a
snow man with a hat of Jack and bottons. After they did a snow
battle. They finished very cold and they went to their hotel very
quickly. The last they the children went to the port and got up to
the boat. They went to Dinamarca.
In
the morning they arrived to Dinamark. Their hotel was in Cophenagen.
The first day the group went to practice sail transport. It was very
exiting. Toby was great but Jack was bad. He fell into the water
twice. The second day the children went to a zoo. There was a lot of
animals in the zoo. They to see a dolphin water show. Jack had the
oportunity to swim with the dolphin. The third day they visited a
palace. He was scary but he found a mistery room. Into the room there
was a tresaure. Finn toke some money and he went out. Finnaly Finn
found his friends. The last day they went to the station and got up
to the train.
Four
hours later they arrived to Alemania. The first day the group visited
the dark forest. Into the forest was im the childrenpossible to see
anything. Suddenly they listened a noise. Then a wolf appeared and
they started to run. Finally the children arrived to the hotel. The
second day they went to see a football match. Of course the FCB team
won the match. The result was:FCB 3-0 Alemany. In the afternoon they
went to visit Berlin because is a beautiful city. Paula bought a lot
of clothes. The third day they went to saw a beavers booking. One
booking was wonder. Jack cure it because he was very intelligent and
he liked the animals. The last day they went to the station and they
got up a train.
The
next day they arrived to Croacia. Their hotel was in a village called
Buckminsterfullerene. The first day they went to the beach. The
children swam in the water and they played with the ball. In the
afternoon they participate in a sand castle competition. The second
day they went to see monuments. They saw a lot of status and a twice
palace. The third day they went to the library and they saw a lot of
books. They found a book that he was speaking about a history on a
dragoon that except to a village of the claws of a wicked princess
and that then in the flag of this village put the figure of a
dragoon. The last day they went to airport and went to Grecia.
They
arrive to Grecia very tired. The first day they went to visit the
palace wich on it's celebrate the first Olympics games. There were a
lot of tourist. They saw the athletic track, the track racing
cars...but it was very old. Then they played a racing. Toby was the
first because he was fast. The second day they went to saw a
monastery called Staroinmuta. It was very boring and sad and only
there were nuns and priests. Then a very naughty idea happened to
Finn. I change the holy water for alchol and when the people were
putting in the face the red face was putting on them. Then Finn took
the white tunics of the priests and put them in the washer with his
red cap and all roses went out. They went out and went to the beach.
The rest of the day they practice surf with a monitor and they were
lucky because there were huge waves. The third day they went to visit
the island of Crete. There were a few of their friends. They taught
the island to them. They rose to a ship and then they saw dolphins.
The last day they went to the airport and they went to Luxemburg.
They
came to the midday. The first day they went to see an underground
river. They crossed it with ship and ultimately there was an enormous
waterfall. They bathed under the waterfall. It was scary because one
did not see the bottom of the river but it was entertaining. The
second day they went to the nature reserve of Ardennes. They started
walking but after awhile they got lost. The hours happened and they
were still lost. Ultimately they found an old house. They stayed
there all night. To the morning they came to the city. The third day
they remained in the hotel because they were very tired. The last day
they went to the airport and they went to Italia.
.
They
came to Italia to midnight. The hotel was in Florencia. The first day
they went to see the tower of Pisa. They thought of doing puenting
from there alove. It was fun. The second day they went visit the
Sicilia island. They saw a lot of catalans and a lot of monuments but
they were sad because tomorrow they went to their house. The last day
they went to the port very sad. When they arrived to their houses
their family were very happy. It was an unforgettable travel around
Europe.
Mercè Roig
We started our travel going to Argel with car. In Argel we went to the biggest city. There we meet a men called Carmon. He was expert in painting caves. We went to a cave to see the paintings of Carmon, and others caves. All the caves were very beautiful. They were more than four thousand years old. The painting cave called Tassil n’ajjer. After two hours we went to see the roman ruins. The romans ruins were big, stone made, and very beautiful. Then we went to Marrocco with motobike. When we arrived to Marrocco, we went to “fez”. Fez is a market very popular in Africa. Has got very shops and bough some presents: clothes, puppet dolls…Then two hours, we went to the museum called Buri-Aran. There we meet a girl called Alexia… The museum were biggest of Marruecos. There was bone of dinosaur, fossil of plants, fossil of animals…The museum was amazing and very beautiful.
After we went to Egipt with camel, to Alba didn’t
like. When we arrived we saw lots of pyramid. There were sand on the floor. We
went to the pyramid room. The room were
very big and beautiful. In the room appear a mumy and we follow until the desert. After very hours of adventure, we
went to Niger with a boat for the river Niger. First we went to fish. Then two
hours Ivan fished sardins and Alba one octopus. Then one hour we left
to a mosque called Viamez. The
mosque was amazing. The had minarets very big’s. Inside had monk pray with tunic. The ceiling was very tall and beautiful. The celling
was colourfull. Then
we bought a lamborgini of colour orange. He had a motor of four thousent
horses. After we arrived to Kenia. We saw lions, zebras, monkeys,
leopards… we
went to a hut near of reserve animals. Then
we went for a walk for the reserve animals with a jeep. We saw a lion hungry and start to run. Then we bath to lake covered of cocodrils. There
was a madness. After we meet a tribu called Abil. They hunted with the hans. One day they hunted a hedgehod with the hans.
They follow the footfrin until that find the animal. Was amazing. After that we bought two motobike kawasaki. As Alba don’t know
goig in motobike. A man called Tijan carry to Alba. Around there we went very
speed. We went to Tanger. The motobike
kawasaki arrived until the one thousent km. We arrived in two houers to
Tanger. At five o’clock, the boat embark in Tanger. There was lotrs of people
in the boat. The boat there was lots of things for exemple: a swiming pool, a
bar, a tennis court… we start to the
swiming pool. After we went to our room to sleep. When we finished the cruise
we went ti a excavate a dinosaur. There was very big. His name was
Velociraptor. They was in the city ok Tamuda. The dinosour weight ten metres.
We started to exave the dinosaur, five hours later
finished to excavation the
dinosaur. Was amazing. Then we went to Senegal with plane. We take long two
houres. When we arrived there and we saw policie with arms. They were waiting
to the president. Then we went to the river called Gamba for swim. After we
hire a boat of wenty horses. We drive a boat to one handred km. The boat was
colours black, pink, blue, and purple and he drive with a flounce of formula
one. After that we went to our campament near the river gamba with our boat. In
the river have very animals for exemple cocodril,caimans,cobras…. After one day
we went to Sudafrica with our jeep.
There, in Sudafrica we went to the Univerity of pretoria and we learned to spik
sudafrican. In the Univerity we meet a man
and his girlfriend called Jacob
and Lumina. They were persons
fantastics. For the night we sleeeped in other campament called “Sudafrica is
my live”. At morning we walked and
walked and we saw a Shakira dancing and singing. She singing fantastic.
She was beautiful. After four houers we went to cached one lion and one zebra
for eat. Finally we finished the travel.
Mercè Roig
TRAVELLING AROUND AFRICA
Alba and Ivan wanted to go to Africa but needed to travel to Cadiz
to take the plane and leave Spain and we
went to Africa.
We started our travel going to Argel with car. In Argel we went to the biggest city. There we meet a men called Carmon. He was expert in painting caves. We went to a cave to see the paintings of Carmon, and others caves. All the caves were very beautiful. They were more than four thousand years old. The painting cave called Tassil n’ajjer. After two hours we went to see the roman ruins. The romans ruins were big, stone made, and very beautiful. Then we went to Marrocco with motobike. When we arrived to Marrocco, we went to “fez”. Fez is a market very popular in Africa. Has got very shops and bough some presents: clothes, puppet dolls…Then two hours, we went to the museum called Buri-Aran. There we meet a girl called Alexia… The museum were biggest of Marruecos. There was bone of dinosaur, fossil of plants, fossil of animals…The museum was amazing and very beautiful.
Alba and Ivan
MY
TRAVEL AROUND OCEANIA
I have started this travel for pleasure, to explore
new parts of the world, now I'm on a plane flying towards Oceania where I will
spend the next two months exploring cities, customs .. countries now I'm
looking at a map I have bought at the airport.
I have decided that I will spend some days in each
city, starting with:
-Fiyi, Kiribati, Islas Marshall,
Micronesia, Nauru, Palaos,
Sam.oa, Tonga, Tuvalu y Vanuatu.
1rst day:
I have arrived at the airport in Fiyi
in Oceania, It has got 837 271 habitants, the capital
is Suva.
I have stay in a hotel near a beach, it’s infront of a exelent restaurant.
I’m going to dinner every day, the food is delicious.
Now, I have decided go this afternoon to Tomanivi, the tallest mountain of
it, she is 1324 tall.
It has got a lot of trees and bamboo, pines…
17:00
I’m climbing the mountain with a group of hikers and climbers, but i’m
not going to arrive at the top of it, only 400m.
I’ll sleep in a tent with two
of this.
2nd day:
I’m getting up, the sun
shines, there is few fog, one of the climbers is doing café.
It’s cold.
Now we are going to drink it.
10:00 am We’re continuing climbing, we’re arriving to the top.
12:00 am We’re at the top! Hurray! I’m exiting, I’m tired.
Now we’re going to come down.
3rst day:
4:00 am At last we are down of it.
Now I’m going to go at home.
4rt day:
15:00 When I arrived at home, I went to sleep and now,
I have got up.
In a hour I must stay in the airport, for go to the
next country: Kiribati.
I’ll do the suitcase and I’ll go
there.
It has been a good time in the
country.
17:00 Ohhh…Kiribati is fabulous, the
view from the plane is fantastic., in 9 minuts I’m goning to land in the
airport of Kiribati.
17:09: I’m in the floor from Kiribati.
I’m going to camp in the valley of a
mountain, but before of this I’m going cycling to the house of a loved friend.
20:00 I have set the tent and I’m
going to sleep.
ASIA:
From Tokyo
we flew to Taipei, where we remained a few days before flying on to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is the easiest place from which to enter mainland China. First of
all, there is barely any hassle to getting a visa here and secondly a good
train connection links Hong Kong to Guangzhou, from where you can start to
arrange onward travel in China at Chinese prices.In the train to Guangzhou I
finally got the feeling that I was traveling again into the unknown. Once in
Guangzhou we settled on the island of Shamian a former trading concession to
France and England.This is also the first time that we saw restaurants having
all kinds of live animals in containers on display for customer to choose which
particular one they want to eat. The concept kind of cut our appetite,
especially as some of the animals where turtles, snakes and even really
disgusting looking water beetles!In the streets of Guangzhou, we saw many
western couples with young Chinese children. Apparently adoption is another
booming business in China, as the Chinese themselves don't like to adopt while
in western countries there is shortage of adoptable babies.Our first impression
of Chinese people was that they acted somewhat nervous around us, but we didn't
quite manage to put our finger on the cause with certainty. Most likely it is
because they feel unsure of how to deal with foreigners.
Having
discovered how cheap it is to fly in China, we flew on to Guilin, where the
famous Li river flows between magnificent peaks. The kind of landscape
reminiscent of Chinese scroll paintings that you may see in your local Chinese
restaurant.A cruise on the Li river starting near
Guilin ends in Yangshuo. Yangshuo is a mellow place with a very nice main
street filled with little shops, restaurants and bars. A great place for
backpackers to chill out. The town is also a good place to take some Chinese
(or more precisely Mandarin) lessons for the equivalent of just 3 Euros per
hour.A stranger aspect of Yangshuo is that
you can buy T-shirts of Mao, Che Guevara and Bin Laden. Portraits of Bin Laden
to hang on your wall are also on sale, surrounded by portraits of young good
looking Chinese men and women. So I asked one of the shop keepers what the
portrait of that ugly face was doing between the portraits of those good
looking people? The answer was: 40 Yuan for that portrait.I had the feeling that I wasn't being understood! I tried a few more
times, but to no avail, when I left she said again, "40 Yuan". I
replied that I wanted my future home to be beautiful, and would never buy
something that ugly... but I don't think she understood, although she did act a
bit offended!
We had read
that the raising of water levels in the Three Gorges was only going to be
completed by 2008 or 2009, so we thought, there might still be something left
to see. We flew to Chongqing, where we signed up for a cruise down the Yangtze
river.Since reliable information is difficult to get in China I asked the agent
about the situation regarding water levels in the Three Gorges. His answer was
that "everything is more beautiful now".That was not only a totally
useless answer, but also a typical Chinese denial of reality!!! On the Yangtze
I saw nothing that I would call a real gorge! Sure there are still some high
peaks which they have not managed to submerge, but there is barely any gorge
left to admire!In fact the water has already risen by 140 meters, affecting
water levels all the way to Fengdu! The old town of Fengdu is not yet
submerged, but will be when the last 35 meters of water are added to the
artificial lake. A new town has been built higher up on the opposite
shore.Ghost city, a religious site near Fengdu apparently dedicated to death
and hell, was the first stop of our tour. The guides spoke only Chinese, so we
just ventured off alone. In fact the most interesting part of this stop would
be the old town of Fengdu itself, which is about to be submerged and has been
abandoned, except by street vendors. It is slowly crumbling and being
demolished. That was the real Ghost City!The next stop was at Shibaozhai (a
kind of pagoda in the side of a mountain) you can be carried for a few meters
in a chair for 20 Yuan. A bit of a rip off. But instead of being thankful for
the bit of business I gave them, they bitterly complained, when I indicated
that I did not want their "services" for the way back. It was
pathetically amusing and I felt like saying, "I am sorry that I ever gave
you ANY business" but didn't know how to.Shibaozhai, does look more
authentic than most religious monuments, which have mostly been destroyed
during Mao's Cultural Revolution and reconstructed since, usually with lots of
concrete. Unfortunately it seems that the bottom part of this construction will
be submerged as well, so it will be standing with it's feet in the water! What
a shame.Then came the so-called lesser three gorges, this did have something
more to show, but again most of it is gone. All kinds of other things, such as
singing people standing on the mountain slopes, were added on for tourists,
most of whom were Chinese. In this spirit we were also submitted to a modern
day version of Chinese torture, in the form of a singing tour guide!During the
Yangtze cruise I felt some anger at all the destruction of natural and cultural
beauty. To add insult to injury they dared to call this dam after what they
have destroyed and added the word "great" to it. In Chinese the dam
is called the "Three Gorges Great Dam". Yeah really great!The tour of the so-called Three Gorges,
ended in Yichang, from where we got on the first bus to Wuhan. Wuhan seemed
well developed, its main attraction being the Yellow Crane Tower and the Hubei
Provincial Museum. Since we were going to fly to Xiamen (pronounced Shah-men)
the next day there was only time left to visit one thing so we chose Yellow
Crane Tower.
Xiamen was
a welcome break. We settled on the island of Gulang Yu, which is just a 10
minute ferry ride from downtown. This island has a very welcome feature, there
are no cars!!!One major irritant in China, is
traffic. I don't think I ever saw a car stop for pedestrians, not even on
pedestrian crossings!Given Chinese homicidal driving habits it was a great
pleasure to stay on this island. Though the golf-buggies that are used for
transport on the island, make a serious attempt to fill the vacuum left by
those cars.The island of Gulang Yu was a foreign concession until the Second
World War, architecture on the island still testifies to this. In 1949
thousands of refugees fled to Xiamen in an attempt to cross the Taiwan Strait
trying to escape from the advancing Red Army. Interestingly the island of
Kinmen just a few kilometers away is still in Taiwanese hands.Xiamen later
became one of the first Special Economic Zones in China resulting in a
relatively high degree of development.Several tunnels go through the hills on
Gulang Yu, these were built at a time when the confrontation with Taiwan was
high. In one of these tunnels replicas of the Xi'an terracotta soldiers are on
display. Though not as large as the originals.There is a statue of Koxinga
(locally known as Zhen Chenggong) on Gulang Yu, looking towards Taiwan, an
island that he once conquered from Dutch traders while fleeing the advancing
Manchu armies (who in 1644 set up the Qing dynasty in China that lasted until
1911). China's claim to Taiwan is rooted in Koxinga's conquest.On Xiamen island
itself the Hulishan Paotai (gun emplacement) has what they claim is the world's
biggest Krupp cannon, incidentally aimed at the Taiwanese island of Kinmen.
Through binoculars available at the gun emplacement, one can see the Taiwanese
island where a large text is written on the side of a mountain, which I could
not read.After a pleasant few days on Gulang Yu, where we had managed to get a
room with a view of the Xiamen skyline for a bargain price, we took the bus to
Chaozhou, mainly because the Rough Guide said it was a pretty town overlooked
by most travelers.
Chaozhou
was indeed different, no other foreigners to be seen anywhere and streets
teeming with bicycle-rickshaws offering to transport you.In Chaozhou we
discovered what is now our favorite Chinese restaurant. It is called Ciyuan
Jiujia. We simply asked for 100 Yuan worth of food not specifying what kinds of
food we wanted. I thought this was particularly risky, as I would rather not be
served with snake, turtle or dog. But it paid off as we got five great dishes
to share between the two of us! It was the best meal we had in China. The sweet
and sour sauce on one of the dishes, reminded me of the Chinese restaurant in
our old hometown of Delft where we regularly ate. Could it be that that came
from here?Chaozhou has a good section of its ancient city wall left, there is
also an ancient bridge, but it was being reconstructed when we were there. The
main other attraction is the Kaiyuan Si temple which seems more authentic than
most temples we have seen.Across the river the old Fenghuang tower covered in
part with vegetation overlooks the river. Our travel guidebook says that it
used to be a pagoda. Because our Chinese vocabulary was very basic there was no
way to find out from the locals what it used to be. It has walls at least 3
meters thick and stairs going through those walls all the way up. At the top
are good views over the river bed, which was nearly dried out when we were
there.Although Chaozhou can easily be covered in a day, we stayed for two days,
revisiting our favorite restaurant before catching the bus back to Hong Kong.
There is a
lot of internal tourism in China, everywhere we went, large groups of Chinese
tourists were also visiting, in fact it is nearly impossible to get any English
explanation at all as everything caters to the Chinese. A large section of
society now seems to be quite well off, financially speaking, as even we balked
at some of the prices for certain attractions.Wei's Chinese lessons in Yangshuo
were great, we got to use what we learned often and we even seemed to be making
ourselves understood with the few basic words and sentences he had taught us.
But on occasion, when dealing with people who probably have little education,
such as rickshaw drivers in certain regions, they did not understand the few
words of Mandarin that we tried to utter and could not read the Chinese
characters on a map. It seems to me that Mandarin is not spoken or understood
everywhere.Some of the customs in China, can seem a little unpleasant for
Europeans. One is that the Chinese like their beds hard, so cheaper accommodation that
caters to the Chinese themselves usually comes with harder beds than what we
like.What is probably the most off-putting custom, is all the throat scrapping
and spitting in China, but after some time, you even get used to that.Privacy
is almost unknown, when you are looking at a private document for example some
stranger will just come up and look at it as well.In an internet cafe a girl
sitting next to me, sneakily pointed her webcam at me during a chat session she
was having, probably to show her chat partner, the foreigner that was sitting
next to her!The Internet in China, is another topic of frustration as the
government has blocked websites that it deems too critical of its policies.
These unsurprisingly seem to include every website that has something to say
about Tibet, but also such websites as the BBC and Google groups.For those
websites which are not banned, speed is horribly slow because they get filtered
for "bad" content through the "great firewall". My mail
access, through Yahoo Mail, for example was sometimes so slow as to be
useless.In some parts of China, we could watch an English language channel
(CCTV 9) which gave us the official version of events. Watching it you can hear
near hilarious statements such as the ones about farmers who were resettled
because of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. They are now apparently
"much better off" and "produce more in spite of living on less
fertile land".In spite of not understanding Chinese, many people were
friendly to us and made a serious effort to understand and explain things.
Furthermore, we always felt safe.All in all, traveling in China was a very
interesting experience, the country was much more diverse than I had expected,
each area had its own features. Given the sheer size of the country we only
visited the south eastern part, missing out on some of the greatest sights.
Which means that we will have to return one day.
Then, we went to
Japan: On Monday morning we left of there,
appropriately described in the Lonely Planet guide as the "Las Vegas"
of Japanese spa-resorts. Here we visited the so called "hells", or
hot pools, such as Blood Hell which is red and Sea Hell which is blue. After
visiting the hells we soaked in some of the onsen, which are Japanese thermal
baths.Our stay in Beppu lasted only about half a day, as we had to be in Osaka
on Tuesday, to meet Chisako.Two of Japan's most historic cities are close to
Osaka, these are Kyoto and Nara. Both have at one point or another been the
capital. Some of the best known landmarks are here, such as the largest indoor
Buddha in Nara and the Golden Pavilion and Rock Garden in Kyoto.
Finding a Long Lost Friend
Our stay in Osaka ended on a personal
note, as I was lucky to meet a long lost friend. During my previous stay in
Japan in 1992, he had helped me a lot, this was a colleague of mine called
Tsuru. Unfortunately we had lost contact over the years. But I managed with the
help of some other friends to locate him. He had moved to Osaka.It was
absolutely great to meet him again, talking with him reminded me of how much he
knew about Japan. He seems to know every little detail and he is very good at
explaining things.He explained why 4 and 42 are unlucky numbers in Japan. The
letters for 4 and 2 in Japanese can be pronounced "shi ni", which
closely resembles "shi nin" which could mean "4 persons"
but also happens to mean "dead person". So how do you say "4
persons" in Japanese? Well there is alternative way to pronounce 4, it is
"yon". This is an important little detail to remember if you want to
make reservations for 4 in a restaurant...It all reminded me how lucky I was
back in 1992 to have him help me find my way and get accustomed to Japan. He is
also one of the kindest and most unselfish persons I have ever met.Telling him
that we wanted to see something in northern Japan he suggested Matsushima,
which is one of the 3 great sights in Japan. So we used the last few days of
our Japan Rail pass to visit Matsushima. There is indeed a beautiful seascape
full of islands to admire.
Japanese Railways
We returned to Tokyo on the last day of
our Japan Rail pass, rested a day, and made a two day visit to Nikko. The
photos of Nikko below will tell enough about the place.Nikko is best reached
using the private Tobu line from Asakusa. The Japan Rail pass is only valid for
the lines on the 6 JR companies. But very often a competing private line also
runs between two cities, these train lines are usually cheaper than JR lines.
The term "private" is a bit inaccurate as Japan Rail itself is now
also composed of 6 private rail companies.In total we traveled approximately
3350 km on Shinkansen lines (the bullet trains) and 1300 km on normal lines.
Most of this was done using the Japan Rail pass, which therefore was really
worth it!
What has Changed in Japan
As we left Japan, I thought about what
has changed since 1992. On the downside there are now homeless people on the
street, a result of the decade long economic slump caused by the inability of
successive governments to reform the economy and rekindle growth.But for the
foreign traveler a lot of things have improved. More people now seem to
understand some English. The Latin alphabet is now used in station and place names
nearly everywhere. This certainly was not the case back in 1992. Furthermore,
Katakana, the easiest of the three Japanese alphabets, is much more widely
used, as it is considered to be a "cool" alphabet. Which is great for
someone like me, who made the effort to learn it.Not unimportant either is that
Japan has become relatively cheaper, price levels are now comparable or just
slightly higher to what they are in Holland, in 1992 things were at least twice
as expensive. Many people asked me what the highlight of our trip was. After
having thought about this several times, I concluded that it is not a place or
a thing to see, but that the highlight is Japan itself, its society and all the things that make it a
different, certainly unique experience.
