Ganden Monastery Assembly Hall

Ganden Monastery Assembly Hall
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

Yesterday we went to the Ganden Monastery which is 2 hours drive outside of Lhasa Tibet. It was the first Tibetan monastery that I felt was truly alive, many others felt like relics to me. It was on the top of this 'hill' at 4400 meters. Vultures circled overhead so they can't have been feed recently at the sky burial because apparently they cant fly for a day after gorging themselves on dead people.

Like all the monasteries it was full of various statues and holy relics but the bit I liked best was the Assembly Hall where all the monks gather for 'stuff'. It was full of smoke and the light streamed in from the top windows. It was great for slow shutter speeds so I whipped out my tripod and paid my 20rmb to the monk and clicked away.

This whole monastery had to be rebuilt after the cultural revolution as it was used as target practice by the Chinese heavy artillery.

Hope you like the pics =) click on them to see larger ones.

Quick update: Tibet

Tibet
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

We are now in Tibet and had one night/day in Lhasa.
Things happened so far:

• altitude is tiring - we are at 3800 metres in Lhasa and scoffing Diamox (we were forced to) which helps with altitude sickness but is a diuretic (you pee loads).
• Bianca has a cold (which is not good with altitude and dry air)
• My laptop has blown its hard drive I think (which is why you are getting this crappy photo for the update). How does this make me feel? Pissed.
• Bianca's hair goes straighter in dry weather.

Anyway this was just a quick update in case you have been checking the blog everyday without a post. =)

Three wise men

Three wise men
Originally uploaded by Mistress B.

For the record, Phil suggested the title of this photo! These chaps must do very well for fellas who have supposedly renounced all worldly possessions - they asked the price of an average meal for taking this photo.

Kathmandu sunset

Kathmandu sunset
Originally uploaded by Mistress B.

Our first full day in Kathmandu was spent wandering around in a happy daze. The city offers such a rich tapestry for the senses that my brain was exhausted by the end of the day just trying to absorb it all. The air is layered with tantalising smells of spices, incense and human bodies. Constant car horns blast around us but once we get into the smaller streets, they retreat to make way for bicycle bells and the urgent whistles of rickshaw men as they struggle to pull their passengers through the crush of people. A young cow wanders through the streets, earning slaps on the rump as it tries to grab a free sample of the vegetable traders' wares. The women are clothed in a stunning kaleidoscope of saris and brilliantly coloured fabrics spill from shopfronts whose windows glimmer with silver jewellery, gemstones and beads. Spirituality is everywhere - every few hundred metres there is a Hindu shrine with statues of gods annointed with red dust and the strangely decorated sadhus are everywhere, carrying their baskets of blessings. Such an amazing city!

Arrived in Kathmandu =)

Arrived in Kathmandu =)
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

We have finally arrived in Kathmandu! We could have easily got from Lijiang to Lhasa but we decided, in our ignorance, to go from Lijiang to Dali to Kunming to Shenzen to Hong Kong to Delhi to Kathmandu, with 8 hours overnight in Delhi Airport transit lounge =(
Well to be honest we have to pick up the tour in Kathmandu and our round the world flights meant we could not do the easy route.
Kathmandu is amazing. It has all the good stuff of India without, so far, all the bad stuff. People are happy and the weather is great. We are staying in an expensive (A$110/night including brekkie) hotel with pool to recover from the Delhi airport lounge.
You can see from the photo that we already have had a blessing from a Krishna Sadhu, red mark on forehead and petals in hair, and are enjoying the manic but happy streets of Kathmandu.
Lots more posts to come but on slow dial up connection. Stay tuned =)

Liming near Lijiang

Originally uploaded by nospuds.

This was a beautiful walk in Liming. With messing around it took us 3 hours to get to the top and back down again. The views were terrific so where the funny brain formations at the top. There must have been a good spring at the top as all along the path up was a hand made wooden water chute. The water only got half way down as it was in disrepair but it must have been working and looked after not so long back. Its now replaced by a metal pipe.

Bianca dances with locals

Bianca dances with locals
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

She didn't just dance with them but also tried to mimic their singing! Save me!

Bianca writes: In my defence, I was more in tune than they were and even added a few bits of nifty footwork into an otherwise bog-standard ethnic dance. Kudos to moi, I say.

Rural China

Originally uploaded by nospuds.

We are leaving rural China tomorrow, back to Hong Kong. I have loved the practicality and self-sufficiency of the rural Chinese. Many people have personal beehives that could be an old hollow log of a self made box. Corn, sunflowers and chillies dry from every beam. There are sunflowers and pumpkins growing interspaced between the main crops. Meats are hung and here I have a pick of a boned pig that has been sat for 7 years (yum). People get on and do. Trading is done on the road side next to the farms or trucks pull up and get jam packed with the produce of the day from the local farmers.
We tried some home brew to. The apple brew was good and sweet but the ‘wine’ would make you go blind I recon bt the old lady that owned the still seemed to be doing just fine.
I will miss rural China but I am also ready to see more of the Himalayas as we are tantalisingly close now.

When it rains ...

When it rains ...

Originally uploaded by Mistress B.

The weather we have encountered in China deserves some note. We have veered from almost unbearable tropical heat and humidity in Yangshuo to the chilliness of Lijiang, which currently has me wearing three layers of special warm clothing and two pairs of socks. The most ideal temperatures we encountered were in Dali, but then it decided to get wet ... and it sure did that in spades. This downpour was so heavy that the downhill-running streets turned into rivers that washed over bicycles and had walkers struggling against the current. Everyone took shelter under eaves and waited for it to clear. I was beckoned into a furniture store and spent a pleasant half an hour watching the events outside and sipping hot water with the young lass running the place. As I write this in Lijiang, it's raining and has been all day. But after a big previous two days, it gives us a welcome excuse to spend the day veging out and letting Phil's dodgy tummy (again!) recover.

Traditional Naxi orchestra

Traditional Naxi orchestra

Originally uploaded by Mistress B.

Lijijang's Naxi Orchestra is a piece of living history. Not only are most of its members 90 in the shade, but they have survived the violent purges of Mao's ironically titled "Cultural Revolution" to preserve the musical heritage of one of China's ethnic groups, the Naxi.
Enough of the tour book crap - these guys are amazing. Resplendent with flowing robes, flowing beards and barely one lot of 20/20 vision between them, they performed the strange, beautiful, occasionally discordant but always enjoyable traditional music with great dignity.
Their conductor Xuan Ke was a great character who himself spent more than 20 years in a labour camp, released at age 50. Fluent in English and Mandarin, he kept the crowd entertained with lengthy commentary between pieces. It's testimony to his humour and delivery that people remained attentive even when his monologues stretched to 15 mins. Many of the orchestra's older members took these opportunities for a quick nap. I don't blame them - with nightly performances, they've probably heard all the jokes before.
A line of black and white portraits stretch across the top of the stage - a sad reminder of the musicians who have either died or who went missing during Mao's reign of terror.
The only jarring note of the evening was the behaviour of quite a few members of the audience who not only left their mobile phones on but took calls and conducted long phone conversations during the performance, even one exceptionally rude fellow in the front row. Still, different culture, different practices.

Yunnan - rural china

shuhe street near lijiang





Originally uploaded by nospuds.

Many of the towns around and including Lijiang are world heritage listed. They’re beautiful but now crowded with full-on tourism. The streets are stone and often have fresh running water channels by the side. The water in Lijiang is clean enough to have loads of gold fish swimming around. The water is used for all sorts of things, including cooling beer, but there seem to be common rules to keep it clean-ish. Many people have fires burning in their houses which are either wood or coal. I haven’t smelt coal for ages.
Don’t know if you saw it but UK’s Channel 4 shot a multiple part doco called “Beyond the Clouds”. I have strong memories of that series and unlike most docos it was more like a soap opera than a doco as it followed various people doing everyday things. The doco is one of the reasons I wanted to go to China. After world heritage listing, earthquakes and being seen on the world stage Lijiang has now gone from rural town to tourist city. Don’t get me wrong, it is still very beautiful and you get hints at what it was like.
We had a trip out to Shuhe, which is a bit more preserved, where many of these photos are from. They had this cool three well system where the top well is for drinking only, and the water then runs down into the second well, which is for washing vegies etc, then it flows into the third well which is for the mucky stuff. Water runs everywhere and is so well managed.

Donkey

donkey
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

I don’t know what these are called but I am going to call it a donkey =) They are used everywhere but you see them most in rural areas. They run at such a low rmp that you hear a thud, thud, thud as they puttle along. I would guess that most farmers are deaf. Water steams out the top which I guess is the coolant that you regularly need to top up as there is no cap on it. You can see the size of the fly wheel which I guess allows for the low rmp. I haven’t seen one being started yet but would like to.

Bianca drunk on one beer again!

Bianca drunk on one beer again!
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

What can I say…give her one local beer and she’s anyone’s…well mine actually. Luckily she can still walk after one =)
This pic is in a pleasant little café on a street dubbed Foreigner Street 2 (after Foreigner Street obviously).

Old city walls, Dali

Old city walls, Dali
Originally uploaded by Mistress B.

Dali is like a Swiss mountain village mysteriously transported to rural China, with a healthy dose of yak butter products, ornate rooftops and tiny but very persuasive little old Bai ladies selling their embroidery thrown in to spice up the mix. We've had some financial ups and downs here. We got seriously done over at a huge Buddhist temple complex outside town, where some 'monks' thrust their complex blessings on us then held our hearts' dearest wishes for religious ransom until we coughed up several hundred yuan (Y6 to the A$1). Phil fell foul of them because he didn't have any cash on him (I'm the self-appointed moneybags of the trip) so I think they cursed him instead. And all he wished for was world happiness - oops. But I fell for it hook, line and sinker. Then we got ushered down a back alley by a persistent little Bai lady who'd been following us around for a day or so, but the upside was we got to paw through some amazingly beautiful embroidery and stuff. After some heavy bargaining (by Phil of course, I'm a total flop at the hard stuff) we bought a cushion cover and a lovely bell. We've also become addicted to Yunnan's Pu Er tea, which we've been buying in brick form and you just crumble a fingernail's worth into hot water. Good stuff. And Chinese beer is surprisingly good, hence our weakness for having a couple every night with food. So much for my plan to lose weight while travelling...

Butcher

butcher
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

We're now in Dali, Yunnan Province. Its 17°C! Just walking the streets and found these great butchers where the meat is hung outside next to the clean channels of water that run down the streets. They seem to use everything, oh except for the bile that we saw the butcher piercing out from piece of animal which I couldn’t identify.

Bianca thought the skin sitting outside the butchers was a sleeping dog for a while.

We love Dali.

Bicycle with brolly

Bicycle with brolly
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

Leaving Yangshuo to Guilin then to Kunming for one night then Dali and the cold. Yippee! Just as we were leaving it pissed it down. Real tropical storm with thunder. Cant wait for the cool weather and snow topped mountains =)

Yangshuo

Yangshuo
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

Here is a simple context photo from Yangshuo. You can see a bit of the hills in the background that make it so beautiful. This is a true blue back backing place with multiple wood fired pizza restaurants where you can even get blue cheese! The main problem and why we wanted to get out so quickly is the heat and the humidity. The days were definitely ‘3 shirt days’ (a description from a book that B is reading describing how it’s so hot you have to change your shirt 3 times). We spent our time eating, having massages, drink cold beer, trying to find the best air conditioning, and sweating (well B glowed I sweated).

Bed of stone

Bed of stone
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

Just a photos to show the lack of 'give' in the beds we are sleeping on. With all my weight on the edge of the bed you can see that the edge of the bed is still straight!!! Do they expect me to sleep on this!? Their massage tables are softer than the beds.

Bamboo Boat Man fishing

bamboo Boat Man - Li jang river
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

These are the traditional boats on the Li Jiang (Jiang means river) near Guilin and Yang Shuo. They are so stable. God did something good with bamboo with its strength and sealed compartments all along it; bamboo is so useful.

War! What is it good for?

War_whatIsItGoodFor_huh
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

We have seen very little of fanatical or heavily communist China. This statue was in a destitute park in Yang Shuo. I must admit I like powerful images like this. Very comic book but with not so nice overtones. It’s funny how communist and fascist paths cross so many times. There is an inherent ‘them vs us’ feel about it.
So far though we have seen no ‘peoples party’ stuff just good old commercialism, entrepreneurialism & greed =) You can always rely on greed to get people to mix and be friendly and hopefully we will all see we are not so different after all! BUT one of the touts here thought I was German!! Really!?!

Beautiful Yangshuo

Beautiful Yangshuo
Originally uploaded by Mistress B.

Big thanks to Michael W for steering us in the direction of this tiny town, which we would never have found otherwise. Yangshuo is nestled in among the towering limestone pillars like a cat curled around the legs of a table. The surrounding countryside is so spectacular that it draws crowds of tourists from all over the world, which is both a plus and a drawback. The main tourist street, which has thankfully been preserved in its cobbled-stone-ness, is thick with touts and cafes offering western food, cocktails and all manner of tacky souvenirs. But they're not enough to detract from the quaint tiny buildings and old architecture, plus it means Phil is able to get decent coffee and we've just about to tuck into wood-fired pizza. Still haven't had nearly enough of Chinese food but we've got another few weeks for me to slake my thirst for dumplings and soy chicken. We've spent a fair amount of time veging out in airconditioned comfort and having extended afternoon naps to escape the heat, but have managed to do enough to feel that we are still meeting the criteria of tourists rather than layabouts! But we've advanced our flights to Dali by a couple of days because the heat-forced inactivity is already having an effect on our waistlines and we're both keen to do more walking in cooler temps.

Moon Hill View

Moon Hill View
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

We got up at 5am! Cycled for 1 hour in the dark and then climbed this hill so we could see the sun rise over the karsts (the pointy hills). It was an amazing view but the mist meant no sun rise. Even though it was 6am it was still stinking hot and I was so wet with sweat that I could ring out my tshirt (yuck).

Windows

windows
Originally uploaded by nospuds.

Hong Kong is full of tower blocks. This pic is just a small window into the life of one tower block. It seems that in Hong Kong people don't take to the streets as a community as much as they do in Beijing. From what I learnt the rooms are small in Beijing so you see people hanging out in a very social way. One morning (thanks to Ian) we saw a bunch of people who meet every morning with their caged pet birds. The birds are hung on a line and sing to each other as the old people chat.
I like Hong Kong but it has a bit less soul than Beijing I feel.