After a train ride that can only
be described as eventful, we were due to our meet our guide who would take us
to the Urumqi station ticket hall in the hope of being able to change the
passport number on my train ticket (apparently if the passport number on your
train ticket is different from your actual passport you aren’t allowed to
travel on the train- this occurred as the ticket was booked with my previous
passport in Australia). After visiting three different windows we were left
with one option; to get a refund for our existing ticket and hope to repurchase
it immediately. But as the ticket was refunded it was instantly purchased by
one of the 1 billion chinese people just hanging out on the Chinese railways
website. It was also the season for migrant workers to return home from Urumqi
and there is only one train line out of Urumqi to the rest of China, the next
train ticket would not be available until mid-December. So with this problem,
Harris having a ticket and I not, we headed to the hostel to brainstorm some
new ideas. But in order to brainstorm we needed to feed ourselves so we headed
to the local shopping centre food court to grab some noodles. They didn’t
disappoint and left us ready to decide on our plan of attack- we decided Harris
would also refund his ticket and we would fly to shanghai. Making friends in
our new hostel, we left us wanting more to eat so it was with our new friend
Yang from Guangzhou that the boys went to dinner at a tiny Uyghur
restaurant. Flat noodles with vegetables
to share, milk tea, and some horse then night market for tofu and various other second dinners
including pork pastry led to more beers at the hostel. Revisiting celebrity
heads over beers also resulted in just as much fun as the train ride- salaman
rushdie, angry birds and buzz lightyear were just a few selections.
29/11
Given the change of plans we had jobs to do- buy plane
ticket, refund the train ticket and change the Kazakh Tenge that we withdrew in
Dostyk to pay the not forthcoming fine. All done by mid afternoon left us to
our leisure. So we headed to the Li Ning shop to suss out what the Chinese Nike
equivalent had in store. Leaving with full bags- Xinjiang Flying Tigers
basketball gear, we headed back to the hostel. There we picked up our man Yang
and the 5 boys- Yang, Me and Tristo, Andrej and new boy Yuri from Slovakia.
There we headed to the night market round
the corner for spicy laghman noodles then a few beers before hitting the sack.
30/11
Exhausted from the last few days of travel, trouble with
various border officials and reorganisation we were due for a sleep in. But
with all this sleep we had energy to burn so it was off as a crew of 8- the
crew of 5 plus Yang, Simon the French cyclist and Adrian the Singaporean to the
Xinjian autonomous region museum. After being treated to some ethnographic
displays, historical articles and freaky mummies we headed to Urumqi’s big
bazaar to try on fur hats and get a real vibe for Urumqi as a Uyghur city.
After having trouble hailing a taxi we tested Urumqi’s bus system with our
friend Adrian before arriving back at the hostel where hunger soon set in and
prompted us to hunt down dinner. Dinner came at the trusty spicy laghman
restaurant. Then it was time to party so we cracked the bottle of vodka we bought
in Dostyk to get the party started. But as we started late and the 0100 curfew
didn’t seem conducive to going out. So we stayed in and instead decided to make
our own party in the citizens park at the rear of our hostel. But not only did
we make our own party in the park, we escalated it by taking it to the middle
of the frozen lake in the park with some Balkan folk music. Despite dancing to
keep warm we were frozen ice blocks in -15 so headed back inside to finish the
party with some dessert and cup of tea. Then a bit of packing was to be done
before bed!
01/12
As the alarm rang at 7 am we said our goodbyes to Andre and
the dutchies before we had to get up ourselves to pack, get breakfast in us and
then head out into the freezing cold to get a cab and get to the airport. As we
hailed a taxi, we were reminded that although we were freezing our balls off
the rest of Urumqi thought this weather was bearable especially the 50 yo on
his morning run in singlet and shorts. While initially struggling for a taxi, the
running man seems our lucky charm as we soon had a taxi who understood our
actions and was taking us to the airport. With our bags checked in we indulged
in some coffee and cake, while discussing grossness of china- using immediate
examples of snott rockets on the floor and lurgies in the bin. Then it was time
to board the plane and we settled in after some brief turbulence to watch
Pixar’s ‘Brave’ movie. After 4 hours, we arrived in Shanghai where we were
treated to an awesomely efficient metro from airport to Zhogshan park where
then the hostel directions were faultless to take us to the front dor of Rock
& Wood International Hostel. There after checking in we settled into our
awesome room to have a beer, meet shaun the aussie who then took us to a local
noodle restaurant. On our return we met Arman the Armenian-russian, who was playing
pool and seemed cagey a first but then opened up to us. After placing a bet on
him disclosing his occupation to us should I win we eventually extracted what
he is doing in shanghai- import-export he tells us..suspicious!
02/12
Arman took us out to this noodle/dumpling joint around the
corner which was arguable one of the best places I have eaten; even though a
late night shazlick had poisoned me I could still manage a few. He enlightened
us on the eccentricities of Russian women and how they are weak and essentially
second class citizens. Russia sounds a bit backwards. We left Arman to seal
some drug deals with the local Shanghai-ites and ventured off to find the
French Concession. This area was developed as a premier residential area of
Shanghai and I would liken it to the Fitzroy of Shanghai. Some great indie
clothing stores and cool cafes which Finlay decided was worthy of 5/5 beans and
a leaf for the lovely barista. After all this activity I was knackered and
headed home for a sleep while Finn blogged.
03/12
TianTong copy market was the place to find all things fake
and the highest density of annoying Chinese sales assistants in the whole of
China. Although I always wanted to punch them square in the jaw to silence
their incessant chatter I thought that fighting off a store 7 storey building
worth of Chinese people would prove a challenge that even Finn and I couldn’t
win. Finlay did however use some impressive bargaining skills to pay $15 for a
pair of Vans. Next stop was the Peoples Park, a nice relaxing park amongst the
hustle and bustle of Shanghai. One thing we did watch out for was the young
Chinese couples that are uber friendly who come up to you asking for a photo,
then engage you in conversation and then bang! Before you know it you have lost
a kidney or are being charged $100 for a cup of tea. Luckily we were privy to
their plans and found lunch in Yangs Dumplings. After this I decided to head
back home for a nap while Finlay headed to Shangai Museum and learnt all about
the ancient pottery.
04/12
A trip to Shanghai is not complete without a visit to the
Bund. On our journey we encountered three old guys playing sax which was hooked
up to huge amps and a man rollerblading around them. Not sure if he was part of
the show but it added to the atmosphere. The Bund itself is the wealthy
waterfront area of Shanghai overlooking the business district and all its
skyscrapers, which include the can opener and the oriental pearl tower (two
pink alien ships skewered by some steel).
Two interesting cultural facts they don’t tell you in the
guide books (if we were allowed to keep ours) are:
- Spitting – Chinese people can spit. Doesn’t matter if it’s a grandma or a 3yo kid, everyone spits, everywhere. Watch out, its gross and the will hit you. This was most noticeable in Urumqi as when they spat on the footpath it was so cold that the spit would freeze. So you ended up with huge frozen lugies everywhere.
- Kids and toilets – any drain or bin is actually a kids toilet. Most memorably we saw a kid tell his mum that he needed to go (whilst in the subway) so she led him to a bin dropped is pants and held him over the bin while the kid took a duce. Gross.
05/12
Today was a very special day, Hammer’s going away party in
Beijing! Finn and I boarded the 300km/h high speed train from Shanghai to
Beijing. I frothed over the beauty of this train but then remembered a guy
telling me of the 2011 derailment. In traditional Chinese Government style the
train was quickly buried next to the tracks to dispose of the evidence before
the official crash investigation team arrived. Safely arriving in Beijing we
navigated the metro and arrived at our hostel was no problems. We were greeted
by Andrej and his first words were “do you want a Shisha?” followed by “how are
you?” he was back! Viola and Tessa arrived shortly after and it was time to
make a party. Wangfuching night market was our first stop which had any number
of strange meats and insects to try; spiders, silk worm, snake, dog, cow penis
were all sampled by Andrej and I as Fin and the girls looked on in disgust, but
still that didn’t stop them from encouraging us. Next stop was the Drum and
Bell tower for an overpriced beer until we found building no.206 where we found
Temple Bar. This was clearly the headquarters of all the expats as not a single
Chinese person could be found. We were treated to some good beers and an
average Brazilian/Beijing Funk band.
06/12
After a few too many beers and strange
meats, our head and our guts didn’t feel the best. But we mustered the energy
to head to Beixinqiao metro and hit up the hippest/trendiest/indiest part of Beijing Holland early the next morning and the lads were going to
beat the crowd into the Forbidden City .
07/12
After putting an effort in to make the
earliest get up of NLA so far, we had high expectations. With a quick pit stop
at our local dumpling house, we soon arrived at the main gate to greeted by the
large portrait of Mao we soon entered the ground of the Forbidden City. It was
fair to say we were were amazed with what we saw. The sheer size of the Chinese
medieval complex was astounding. However the chilly morning weather was getting
to us and we decided to take shelter in the warmth of the hostel. Once Viola
had returned from her early airport excursion we set off in search of more
sightseeing activities. A short metro ride led us to tick off both the Lama Temple
and another Confucian
Temple
08/12
Being a Sunday at the end of the trip we
decided to make the most of a sleep in especially given our afternoon was going
to be a busy one. This afternoon we had organised to go and play touch with the
Beijing Touch Club at their home ground in Chaoyang Park. With line 10 closed (our way to get there)
and the mercury at -18 degrees the training session wasn’t looking so enticing
but we persisted regardless. Eventually finding the ground we were warmly
welcomed by the club and straight into some games with the multicultural expat
crowd. After a couple of hours of fully clothed games we said thankyou to our
new friends; stopping for a couple of steamed pork buns for our post-training
protein fix. With walking our only option to get home or to the nearest working
metro line we started the journey and unexpectedly ticked another sightseeing
spot off our Beijing Bucket List. This time it was the CCTV building or the
‘big underpants’ as they are more commonly known. Arriving back at the hostel,
a warm shower was top of the list before we started indulging in some more
tsingtao’s and shisha. Then we made a team decision to go out and try some of
Beijing’s nightlife at an advertised dubstep party. A quick bowl of noodles
prepared us for the short taxi ride to the nightclub before we were greeted by
a largely expat crowd fresh from their Beijing Santa pub crawl. After some
heavy bass and some even heavier drinks we were good to head home.
09/12
Overdosing on santa/xmas vibes we were slow to
get up and get going. To cure our overdoses we headed to starbucks before
getting a dirty great big serve of dumplings and sweet and sour pork ribs. With
full stomachs we headed back to the hostel for a bit of Inception and the last
Dutch-Australian-MAcedonian Overseas Shisha Partnership Event (DAMOSPE). Then it was a
farewell to Viola and Andrej as they set off on their extremely slow overnight
train to Shanghai
10/12
11/12
Jingshan Park was on the list today. This little gem is a
rather large square park with two interesting facts:
- It consists of a large hill which was formed by all the excavated dirt from the moat surrounding the Forbidden City.
- One of the Ming emperors hung himself from a locust tree in this park when he fled from the forbidden city as rebels swarmed the city walls
The top of the hill had a few temples and an amazing 360
degree view of Beijing. We also discovered a large group of old Chinese women
dancing in synchronisation to 80’s dance music – it was fantastic to watch the
old ducks go at it!
11/12
Next on the NLABSA (No Longer Anchored Beijing Sightseeing
Agenda) was a visit to the Olympic district, the site of the 2008 Beijing
Olympic Games. The long 3 metro line journey to the area left us peckish. So
arriving at the first steamed bun shop, we picked up some handy treats and
continued on our way down one of the many smog-filled roads of the city. But it
wasn’t long before divisive steel structure of Beijing’s Bird Nest stadium.
Arriving at the district we were shocked to see the wasteland that now existed
in the place of temporary infrastructure that mesmerized the world in 2008.
We
pushed on through the polluted man-made canal and onto the stadium, the walk of
fame and the water cube where we were continuously harassed by various hawkers
and their elaborate flying kites. Underwhelmed we pushed through the district
out onto the main road and down to the nearest metro station and rolled back to
the hostel. Tonight we had arranged to meet up with our favourite Frenchman,
Raphael, to catch up and share stories on our very different paths through
Central Asia and Western China. Like many of our reunions, beer was involved
and after a few beers it was time to hit the sack- especially since tomorrow we
hard organised to visit the Great Wall of China.
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12/12
Today was the day that we decided we would make the journey
out of downtown Beijing and to the Great Wall. We had chosen to go to the
Badaling section of the wall; the cheapest and most accessible section of the
wall. Our touring party, da boyz, Paul Hammelman (the german biomedical
engineer) and ?? set off from our central Beijing location with directions of
the hostel staff to the bus station at the end of the metro line. As we stepped
off the metro we were greeted by pouring snow – ideal conditions for heading to
the mountains. Arriving at the bus stop, some men from the Beijing Transport
Authority conveyed to us (in their fluent Mandarin and broken English) that no
buses to the Badaling section of the wall would run today- it was only private
cars that would face the terrible conditions. Deflated by both the pouring snow
and the bad news we were left wondering what our day would now entail. As we
stood their discussing our next action we were approached by the dudes from the
transport authority who offered to drive us to the wall. A lovely but
nonetheless expensive offer. Given we had made the effort to get out here we
thought we may as well go the extra distance to the wall. We soon agreed to an
extremely inflated price, and reached Badaling. There we were met by more
aggressive hawkers but pushed on up the huge stone stairs, past the treacherous
ice slides to the furthest accessible parts of the wall. With all 3 of us
frozen to the bone we soon bailed out back to the car, back to the metro
station and back to the warmth of the hostel. With the arrival of the Polish
GAP unit, Tahlia, Matt, Joel and Nathan, to Beijing, we organised to have
dinner at our favourite handmade noodle shop where we indulged in some noodle
soups and crispy chilli green beans.
13/12
Cooking school – dumplings
With most of things ticked off the NLABSA we were free to
enjoy some of the less popular activities of Beijing. On the recommendation of
some fellow travellers from our time in Turkey we had enrolled in the Black
Sesame Cooking School Dumpling-making course. With the course beginning at 830
we all arrived bleary eyed but keen to cook up a storm. Our enthusiasm was
bolstered by the fact that we knew whatever we cooked we would be eating. After
some quick lessons from our Chinese-American host on knife technique and
etiquette we began with the dumpling dough. With some vigorous kneading and
hands-on guidance from both our host and imperial chefs we had finished our
dough and were onto the filling. On the menu today was pork and pumpkin and
shiitake mushroom and glass noodle dumplings. The dumplings were challenging to
wrap but as we steamed through the wrapping, we were onto the cooking and one
step closer to the eating. With a beer and rice wine in hand it was time to hoe
in to our delicious dumplings. Full to the brim with dumplings we thanked our
wonderful hosts, packed our cooking school aprons and headed out into the
freezing cold. With the afternoon to ourselves we snuck in another bit of
sightseeing; a visit to the Drum and Bell Tower. Our arrival conveniently coincided
with the daily drum performance. With our ears ringing we headed back down the
steep stairs and to the nearest cafe for a well earned coffee.
14/12
Paul emerged from a
day of sightseeing with a Australian girl called Eva. She was a Sydney sider
who lived in a strange warehouse commune and loved all things Psych Trance
including Rainbow Serpent. They were both planning on heading to an acrobatic
performance, which Finn and I decided to tag along to. We all hopped into a
taxi but after sitting in gridlock for 30mins we realised that we wouldn’t make
the 7pm show. Instead we formulated a new plan, off to the Hutongs for beers!
It was after all my last night in Beijing and with Finlay; I was off to
Melbourne tomorrow. Finn led us though the maze of Hutongs until we found a
nice looking Reggae bar which seemed to only play Christmas songs. Having said
that it was warm, had cheap beer, foozball and Jenga! With all these games
about teams eventually formed and we had Terafractile (Harris and Eva) vs
Arselicker (Finn and Paul). The first test was Foozball. Naturally Paul should
dominated being German but Eva used her Psych Trance abilities to her advantage
and we tore Arselicker a new one winning the series 3 – 0. Finn was in a
shifting mood and soon we were hitting back tequila shots.Then a man walked into the bar and challenged Paul to a game
of Foozball. Paul, determined to boost his shattered ego accepted and began to
play. Little did he know that this dude was a ded set freak just using one hand
to play the game and sharked poor Paul. Guttered bruised and battered Paul
sought comfort in the form of a small kitten that appeared at the bar. As the
reggeae beats died away we decided to head home. Stepping outside we were
treated to a fresh dump of a foot of snow! Running through the Hutongs of Beijing
we had some serious drunken snow ball fights to cap off one of the best
evenings that Beijing can offer!
15/12
Who ever thought 5 months could go
so quickly? And who thought we could actually get from Brussels to Beijing in
one piece with rather large beards! In celebration of what could only be
described as the #besttripever #yolo we treated and celebrated our numerous
achievements and friendship with two peaking ducks. Paul, Jo and Eva (the vegetarian
duck eater) joined us for the feast and we had a quacking good time.
Finn quietly chaperoned me to the
train station on my way to the airport. It was over – for me at least and I
don’t think either of us could believe it, but as Yoda said once “it is
decided”. The NLA gods had spoken and we embraced, beards intertwining. Men
don’t cry, so we didn’t. Thanks for an amazing trip brother. Hasta luego – West
Africa 2015….?
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