Justine and Dylan’s Travel Blog

Anyway, after Xian (the fourth city on our trip which, until the Tibetan protests caused a reroute of our itinerary, was supposed to cover “Nomadic China”), we made our way to Emei Shan (Mount Emei). This is one of the four big Buddhist mountains in China which means it has a very long history of being covered in monasteries with thousands of monks. From a touristy perspective the place is incredibly scenic: the 3000m mountain is covered with rainforests including rivers, gorges and monkeys, interspersed with (excellent) walking paths between the various monasteries, shrines, etc. To add to this it’s often shrouded in clouds or mist, adding to the overal atmosphere.

Especially the Golden Summit (a temple) at the top, reached by a cable car, was particularly scenic the day we were there. It was quite a cloudy day to start off with and was quite misty at the bottom cable car station. The ride on the cable car however was like being on a plane as it ascended up through the clouds to pop out on top in full sunlight. Like being on an island surrounded literally by a sea of clouds.

Another cool aspect is that (as in some places in Japan), you can stay in (basic) accommodation at some of the monasteries. We stayed at two different ones the three nights we were here, one at the base, another one a fair bit further away from it all. I have to admit the being woken up at 4am by chanting monks was not quite my cup of tea, but otherwise it was very cool. Not often you get to sleep at what to me felt like a tourist attraction, but really is (as so many tourist attractions are) a working, living environment which the tourists are lucky enough to be sharing with their usual inhabitants.

That’s right. We’ve managed to join our Intrepid tour and let’s put it this way, they don’t beat around the bush.

Interestingly, our original itinerary was going to go to a few places on the outskirts of the Tibetan Himalaya, but had to be rerouted due to the protests that have taken place there recently. No drama, China has plenty of scenic places to go to.

So after a few hectic days in Beijing, which was still a few days short of what you could easily spend there (managed to squeeze in Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, other odds and ends, a side trip to Great Wall and, I feel just as impressive, Terminal 3 at Beijing international airport on our way in), we were off to Datong and the Yungang caves. Datong is not so exciting. The caves on the other hand are very impressive and worth the visit. Basically a set of Buddhas carved out of the side of a hill. To clarify, that’s about 51,000 ranging in size from a couple of cm to about 17m tall, spread out over about 45 caves. Not bad if that’s what you’re in to.

Then came Pingyao. Not to do things by halves, the entire city centre has been declared a World Heritage site. I agree, why stuff around with a few things here or there when you can just do it properly once We stayed at a guesthouse smack bang in the middle that must’ve originally been the dwellings of a rich merchant or equivalent. Very cool and something different.

Now in Xi’an, famous for the Terracotta warriors (tick), massive city walls (tick), Big Goose Pagoda (tick) and Great Mosque (tick). I’m beginning to feel quite touristy for some reason…

Overall, I’m just amazed though. All the places we’ve seen have been far more modern and western feeling than I expected. Apart from a total lack of newsagencies selling western magazines, it’s almost like travelling through Europe. This might change as we get more off the beaten track over the next two weeks, but still. Construction going on everywhere of course, but plenty of brand new roads, shopping centres and gleaming new sky scrapers already completed.

Lots and lost of smog though, so they obviously still have a few challenges ahead of them. If anyone can tackle them though, I’m beginning to feel it’s the Chinese… I just hope that they tackle them before it’s too late…

Our travel style that is. But we’ve managed to get away with it once more :) In other words, we were able to get our China visas. On the other hand, I’ve had more relaxing stopovers…

As I mentioned in an earlier post we accidentally managed to leave the application for our China visas until the very last minute (at which stage the application process had of course become far tougher due to recent protests in Tibet), so we had to reroute our trip through Hong Kong for a few days. Fortunately, Hong Kong is as efficient and modern a city (with a Chinese embassy to match) as we’ve come across. 48hrs after arrival (and 24 hrs before our flights to Beijing) we were the proud owners of a one month visa to China and able to continue our trip as planned. Phew… I’m going to need a holiday when I’m done with this trip. Apparently Australia is nice this time of year. (btw, on a slightly different note, not long till we’re there!)

Of course we came to Nepal, like so many others, not just to enjoy the scenery, but to go for a walk. Well, having just finished the Annapurna Circuit, I think we might be walked out for a bit . Don’t get me wrong, it was the best trek I’ve ever done and is deservedly always included in the world’s top 10 walks, but it’s nice to be sitting around for a bit for several reasons…

Firstly, it took us 18 days (which included one rest day), which is simply just a lot of walking, even by our standards . Some probably do it in much less, some trekkers never make it though. The issue is not so much the 234km of walking (according to one guidebook I’ve seen, but who knows really, and that’s with sidetrips not included), but the crossing of the 5416m high Thorong La pass. Our trip included plenty of days to work our way up to this altitude (making the whole crossing perfectly safe) and we had the luxury of superfit porters carrying the bulk of our gear. Nonetheless we were overtaken by plenty of people along the way who a few days later were walking in the other direction (ie down the mountain) because they had pushed themselves too far. They were the lucky (and smart) ones, others less lucky were on mules, too weak to walk, probably on their way to an airport to be flown home. Anyway, most people of course do make it, but overall it’s definitely the most physically demanding (and rewarding) trek we’ve done.

Secondly, I’m not sure where we go from here . The trek itself is just awesome. The scenery is stunning and incredibly varied (going from an altitude of around 1000m to 5400m and back down). The guesthouses were basic to say the least, but most had some sort of shower and all had a bed to sleep on at the end of the day. The guesthouse owners were very friendly and whipped up great meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The weather was overall, just perfect, and as varied as the scenery. Temperatures ranged from humid and 25+ degrees, to crystal clear, dry and -5 degrees, if not less. Admittedly we had rain a few times (although always confined to the afternoons when we had done most if not all of our walking), but the mornings were almost without exception crystal clear and the days sunny. Most importantly, this included the days around and over the pass. One exception though: I will never forget opening the door to our bedroom one morning, expecting another crystal clear morning, only to be greeted by… snowflakes coming down gently right in front of me onto a pack of about 2 inches put down overnight. Of course it made the scenery even more stunning than it already was and it was the only day we had it. I guess that’s mountain weather for you. Melbourne’s supposed to sometimes have 4 seasons in one day, but on this trek I feel like we really had spring, summer, autumn and winter in the space of a few weeks.

Anyway, overall one of the absolute highlights of what has been a spectacular trip so far and I couldn’t recommend it highly enough to anyone interested. For now though, I might head back to the hotel and watch TV for a bit, just because I can . I’m sure it won’t be too long before I wish I was back amongst the Nepalese mountains again though…

Back in Kathmandu now. I say back because, even though there have been no posts yet in Nepal, we have just finished the (18 day) Annapurna Circuit and are now back in Kathmandu for a few days before we head off again! Doesn’t time fly when you… uhm, don’t have access to internet all the time

Seems like a lifetime since we left Japan. Not only because we have been here a few weeks now, but mainly because the contrast in everything is just incredible. I think it’s quite safe to say Japan is one of the wealthiest, efficient, clean and full places I’ve ever been too. Kathmandu on the other hand is well… just full really, and as far as I can tell, probably the poorest I’ve been too. (Then again, I’ve jokingly been told that if Kathmandu feels a little hectic, I should try an Indian city one of these days.) It’s probably just standard South East Asian fare (don’t really know, never having been much further than Singapore and Malaysia), but it takes a little bit to get used to all the touts, daily power cuts, dodgy fake clothes shops and crappy bathrooms. I guess everything is all relative, but unfortunately compared to Japan, it’s all very relative

Get out of Kathmandu though and you soon forget about all these things. The locals are incredibly friendly (although I’m always sceptic of local peoples’ friendliness towards tourists they rely on for an income, it seems quite genuine in the Nepalese countryside),  at every guesthouse they’re able to whip up a feast on something only slightly more advanced than what I’d generally make do with on a camping trip and the scenery is just stunning and incredibly varied. I imagine it’s only a question of time before we find ourselves back here.

On the logistical front, we’ve had to change our plans between here and China a little bit to include a few days stopover in Hong Kong to (hopefully easily) organise a visa for China. I know, I know (”visa, what visa?” were my words just before we set out on the Annapurna Circuit trek…). I basically stuffed up and forgot to organise our China visa’s before we left. Just slipped through with organising moving back to Oz, the wedding and the rest of our 6 month honeymoon. No drama hopefully, but it will be the first test of our usual travel style (being able to travel to a set schedule to maximise what you see along the way, but with little room for error), so see how we go…

Other than that, just a bit of souvenir shopping, catching up on sleep, catching up on news (The Economist interestingly is easier to find here than in central London, every second shop seems to sell it…) and enjoying a few last tasty and cheap meals is all that is left for us to do over the next few days… Hard work, I know

Not quite in the What The category, but thought I’d share them anyway. Safe to say the Japanese do things differently than some and one of the reasons this is a cool place to visit…

• This place is clean. And by clean I mean spotless. Trains, buses, public toilets, footpaths, you name it and you could probably eat off it. Especially the hordes of cleaning ladies in matching pink uniforms that attack the bullet trains at each end destination to ensure it’s spotless for the next trip are a sight to behold.
• These people are polite and very friendly (to tourists anyway ). Manifested in never-ending bowing, thanking (I’ve barely heard anyone say sayonara, ie goodbye, because they are always too busy still thanking you), offering (help or little gifts), it does make for an interesting experience and one that a lot of other nations could learn from.
• This place is small. Small cars, small trucks, small buses, small rooms, small chairs, small beds (my feet always seem to hang off the end) and doorways (I can’t remember ever having hit my head on things so many times in such a short time span), small slippers (come about halfway up my foot), small urinals (I quite regularly have to be careful not to pee on top of them… and no, I’m not using the kids’ urinals), small meals (fortunately sushi just keeps coming out as you order more), etc, etc. The idea of quality over quantity definitely rules here though, so not all bad.
• This place is full. This might be one of the causes for everything being small actually. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, you can never go to far without bumping into people (literally, when on public transport) or infrastructure of some kind. On the other hand, it’s incredible to see the use of space around here.
• This place is religious. Europe has a few churches but I have never come across a similar pervasion of temples, shrines, gates, etc as I have here. It makes for quite a varied landscape or cityscape along the way and in our brief stay here we’ve probably only just touched on how much day to day life must be influenced by religion. Good for the photo opportunities regardless of your views on this
• Plastic bags rule. This probably partially comes back to the clean thing they have going, but for instance go to your average bakery and they’ll put each item in a little plastic bag, after which all the items go in a paper bag which is then put in a large plastic bag to allow you to carry your two items more easily.

You get the picture. Some of it a little annoying, some of it quite refreshing, but all of it quite interesting and very different to anything we’ve come across so far and probably will on the rest of our trip. As a tourist, you just can’t go wrong here really.

The last few days we’ve been busy rounding out our stay here in Japan with stops in Takayama and Matsumoto in the Japanese Alps and of course Tokyo.

Takayama is home to a reconstructed rural town called Hida-no-sata with houses as they were (and in some places still are) a few hundred years ago in country-side Japan. Pretty cool and in typically Japanese style, the meticulous reconstruction (after moving them from who knows how far away) is amazing and must’ve taken a long time.

Matsumoto is known for Matsumoto-jo, one of the best, still original castles around Japan. Castle wasn’t bad, but after having seen Himeji-jo and Nijo-jo, probably not worth the effort.

Unfortunately, the other thing we came to Takayama and Matsumoto for, ie to get a bit of a feel of the Japanese Alps, was not helped by persistent cloud cover. The snow which was still everywhere was quite scenic though.

One thing these two days in the Alps did bring to the fore (again) is how little real wilderness (ie completely unaffected by Japanese infrastructure) there is in Japan. Having not ventured further north than Matsumoto this might be different in say the northern-most province of Tokkaido, but having seen a lot of places in the southern half, there is a distinct trend emerging. I read in the lonely planet guide the other day that they estimate that only three of Japan’s over 30,000 streams, rivers, etc have NOT been dammed. I would happily believe this. Everywhere we’ve been we’ve seen power lines, communications towers, roads, houses, dams, concrete reinforcements (to stop hills eroding), etc, etc and even on our more “remote” walks, we’ve been walking on very well-maintained paths, linking temples, shrines, etc.

Mind you though, none of this is different to the U.K. and probably most of Western Europe, but I’m far from convinced that I’ll ever come back to this country to purely go for a hike (ditto with the U.K.) which is interesting for a country that boasts so many walking opportunities. Fortunately this country is cool in so many other ways that it hasn’t really mattered and we’ve had a great time nonetheless.

Finally, the last few days in Tokyo. First of all a side trip to Nikko of course, followed by a walk on a beautiful day up Mitsu-toge-yama in the Fuji-san area (with awesome views of Fuji). Yesterday we spent looking around the Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya suburbs which are just incredible districts filled with neon lights, shops and people. Interestingly enough, they made our hikes that I referred to above, do seem like they were out into the middle of nowhere. Everything’s relative I guess :)

As mentioned before, I won’t be able to post all my Japan photos till a later date, but I figured I’d put up a few here for now…

One of the nicest walks we’ve done so far was that around Atago-san. As with all of the walks we’ve done, temples were floating around, but this one actually lacked a lot of the touristy aspects which we’ve grown accustomed to. Sure, there were a few others (only Japanese of course) walking around, but the whole place was practically deserted.

A few other hikes which we’ve attempted didn’t get very far as there was snow on the path (or falling!) or construction going on (March is obviously too early for hiking season), but this one was just do-able. There was still snow at the top (at 924m), but it was a sunny day, it wasn’t too deep and as always it really made the place (including the temple at the top, Atago-ji, look even more scenic). After the climb  (starting in Kitoyaki), the second part involved following a beautiful gorge with crystal clear water and moss covered rocks to the next village over (Takao), which had a few interesting (moss-covered) little temples to finish things off with. Very cool and highly recommended if ever in Kyoto.

On the photo side of things. Have tried to post some photos, but as always seem to be having technical issues. Hardware: no problem. Internet: faster than it will probably ever be in Australia. Unfortunately, FTP access: denied. In other words, bulk uploads of all the Japan photos will have to wait till a later date. Perhaps Tokyo

Have spent the last week or so exploring Kyoto and surrounds. All great stuff and worthy of the “not to be missed” description often given to it (if you’re into guide books).

One observation though: it is very easy to overdose on temples. They are everywhere. Which kind of makes sense when you find out over 2000 of them are in just this city. Apart from the big touristy ones, there are little ones, ones with gardens, ones with other types of gardens, ones with shrines, ones tucked in between shops (think Chadstone style shopping centre, but with a handy temple tucked in between JB Hifi and MYER), ones inside of other seemingly unrelated tourist attractions, ones on hills away from it all, and ones just about everywhere in between. And then there’s the shrines, torii gates, etc. Kiyomizu-dera, Todaiji, Choin-in, Heian-Jingu, Ginkakuji, Kinkakuji, Nanzen-ji, Atago-ji and Fushimi Inari are a couple we seem to have stumbled across while walking around.  And trust me, we have stood literally outside the gates of more than that and decided not to go in because there just wasn’t enough time.

To mix it up a bit (we came prepared), we were also able to throw in a few castles (Himeji-jo, Nijo-jo), a few walks (Daimonjo-yama, Atago-san), gardens (Todaiji, Kokoen), a day trip to Nara and of course some shopping.

Topped off by sampling some of the local cuisine (sushi still rules in my mind, even having now also tried okonomiyaki, ramen, udon noodle varieties, syabu-syabu), it’s been an amazing few days. Do seem to be developing a craving for steak, potatoes, normal cereal and brown bread though.

Off to Takayama, Matsumoto and Tokyo tomorrow for more fun and games. Should be… uhm, different… to say the least (as always).