Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Diving Deep

Australia. Let's be honest, it's not hard to travel around England down under. The language is the same, the food is good, the weather better and overall, life is easy. There's no coincidence that it's in the middle of my holiday – I wanted to have a break from travel; Australia made the logical choice.

To ensure I didn't just arrive and veg out, I had booked myself on a five day dive course in the Great Barrier Reef. First though, I had a day and a half to explore Sydney.

After arrival, it became apparent that the clothing I had on wasn't all that suitable. Wearing a wool top and thick woollen hiking socks was not going to cut it in Sydney, where the temperature was in the high 20's. Cairns (where the diving course was) was even worse, being about 30-35 degrees. Time to get some new socks and some swimming trunks. Whilst I was at it, a haircut would also help.

After I had all this sorted it was time to explore Sydney by night. I was staying in a backpacking hostel, with 6 people to a dorm and had been kindly invited out to a local bar by a promoter under the lure of free booze. Now, I don't know which business school the bar managers from the Kings Cross district in Sydney went to, but I hope it has since shut down. Almost every bar offers free booze, free entry, free pick-up and some even offer free food. No strings attached.

As you can imagine, this was rather appealing. We strolled from one bar to another, taking advantage of either one or two free drinks, before moving on to the next bar, again consuming the free drinks. Value for money wise, this was the best night out to be had anywhere!

Now that I had seen some of the night-life, it was time to see the sights Sydney has to offer. Historically, Australia is pathetic, especially when compared to the history of China, so I decided to focus on what it does better – sports and aquatic life.



Taking a guided cycle tour of the city, I picked up most of the “must do” sights of Sydney in little under six hours. Here I managed to befriend the two guides and spent the remainder of the evening with them, chatting about life in Sydney. One thing I had noticed from almost everyone that I had met – Sydney has sticky streets. Many people arrive for a short term event of activity and never leave. Before I was struck with the same disease, it was time to take in the aquarium to do some research on the fishes I would be seeing later, then departing to Cairns for the diving course.

Arriving in Cairns, it became apparent that it was a town focused on one thing only – diving. Every shop was related to diving or had diving in mind. Signing on for the diving course commencing the next day, it was time to ensure that I can pass the initial test.

To go diving, you first need to pass a swimming exam. Now, swimming is one of about two sports that I really don't like, the second being football. However, since the last time I went swimming, my personal fitness has vastly improved. In fact, the last time I went properly swimming, I think I was about 14 years old and struggled to make it past 100m. To pass the test, I had to swim 200m and float in the pool for 10 minutes. Gulp – literally.

Donning the new swimming trunks and looking rather spangly with my lack of tan fresh from the northern hemisphere, I jumped into the hostel pool and began to float. Timer started, I kicked around and flapped a little bit, after a while I rested into a nice rhythm. Getting a little tired, I looked at my watch, 7 minutes 48 seconds, TO GO. Oh dear. Luckily, at this point someone saw what I was doing and offered some advice. “Just float on your back and wiggle your arms”. This guy was a life-saver, so whoever you are, thank you so much.

Over the next five days, ten of us would learn how to dive, completing two separate courses and gaining both our “Open Water” and “Adventure Diver” PADI qualifications. The first qualification is what most people do, and allows you to dive to 18 metres, the second tags on another 12 metres, bringing it to a total of 30 metres. I had signed up to both as I really wanted the extra confidence the second course would give me.



After half a day in the classroom getting bored to tears by the most fundamental of dive videos (do you know that things less dense than water FLOAT? - WOW) it was time to go into the pool for our swimming test (which turns out was easy after the practise) and our first confined water session.

Setting up our diving gear as instructed, we all waddled into the pool, feeling about as graceful as an elephant asked to hop through an army assault course wearing a tutu. Once in the pool though, our huge SCUBA system was transformed from a weighty cumbersome object into a miraculous device. Putting the regulators into our mouths for the first time, we breathed in... yuck... plastic air!

Now it was time to submerge and try the same thing, just under water. The initial response of one's body is to fight the urge to breath in. You're under water after all, so you would normally be holding your breath. Once the initial panic was suppressed though, you soon became used to breathing in under water. This was strange, but it was also darn cool!

Over the next two days we would hone those skills, diving to the full depth of 4m the pool allowed and practising breathing from an alternative source and clearing one's mask after full removal. All these skills would become invaluable when we finally hit the sea, so practise in this environment was very useful. We were all paired up with someone, who would become our “buddy” if we got into issues, or ran out of air and needed to borrow some rather quickly. I was 'devastated' to be paired with officially the coolest of our crowd.



Before the end of the second day I was confident underwater with my kit. It was just like swimming, with the tiresome problem of breathing and holding breath taken away! Of particular fun was the joy of doing endless back-flips whilst underwater – I'm easily amused.

Completing our confined water section and the easiest written exam known to man, it was now time to jump aboard a boat and join some already qualified divers for our open water sessions – 8 dives in all. It's a hard life learning in the Great Barrier Reef, but someone has to do it! The only draw-back was the all in one "Smirf-Suit" which we wore to protect us from jellyfish.



Given that I was blown away by the whole process whilst in a pool with nothing to look at except for the tiles, you can imagine how happy I was to see some real scenery and fishes. Unfortunately for you though, we weren't allowed to take a camera on any training dives, which were all but one of our dives.



The practise continued as we completed our qualifications, gradually diving longer and deeper, whilst performing more technical tasks. On the final night though, there was a bit of a change. A night dive. Until this point, we hadn't seen any sharks - probably because sharks hunt mostly at night, being either docile, or asleep during the day. Most people would count their blessings at not seeing a shark, especially as there were two shark attacks in Sydney the week before I arrived. I really wanted to see a shark though, and I got my wish.



Now, if anyone has seen the film Aliens, whereby the marines all had puny little torches, which they were waving around frantically in the dark, searching for the aliens which were hunting them, you now know pretty much what a night dive with sharks is like. With our group of four people in the water, we dove into the pitch black water and quickly whipped our torches around, searching for the tell-tell signs of sharks; the reflection of their retinas...

Suddenly, the lead torch of our instructor stopped moving from side to side and seemed to “lock on” to a target. Through the gloom, the target grew larger and larger, until it came into clear view. A 2m reef shark. Luckily, humans aren't on the menu of that species!

Over the next 30 minutes we not only saw the sharks, but in a few moments of insanity, I actually joined my instructor in giving chase to a shark, in an attempt to touch it. Although I didn't succeed, getting within two metres of one of these creatures was close enough. Their power and grace is something that many other fish are still yet to acquire. I can see why they are top of the food chain – one I was very glad not to be part of.

With our trip drawing to a close, it was time to complete some final dives and paperwork before I was now officially qualified to dive to 30 metres. Hurray!

Back on land, and with what I thought was water in my ear, we had one final night celebrating our newly found diving qualification. Here at the very prestigious establishment of the “Woolshed”, we observed a wet t-shirt competition before dancing the night away like idiots. I even met someone who had trained with the military based in my home town of Poole, before discussing the intricacies of Australian special forces training – whilst drunk.

Bidding my buddies farewell, it was time to depart to the south with a view to taking a couple of days of sailing around some deserted islands.... little did I know that Mr Hamish would have other ideas...

Friday, March 27, 2009

Beijing and beyond...

Beijing, the capital of China and my last port of call before Australia.

Upon arrival by plane my first port of call was the big sight of China, big being the operative word. It was the Great Wall of China, and it ain't no picket fence.

From Hadyn's Travel Blog China Dump 3


Another early start brought with it a frigid sunny day. Following a two hour drive we had arrived at a remote section of the Great Wall, just outside the throngs of tourists who normally inhabit the key tourist spots. In an attempt to attract more tourists to the area, the wall had been partially refurbished a few years ago to give us the idea of what it was like in its glory day.

Shortly after setting off it seemed that we had acquired some extras to our group. In true Chinese style, we had about four people tagging on to our original group of nine from the starting point. One of our group asked (in Chinese) what they were doing and they replied honestly
“We are going to follow you all the way [for the next four hours it turns out] until you buy enough trinkets to make our day worthwhile.”
Well, at least they were honest about it!



With our mixed ability group, out-running our unwelcome guests wasn't possible, so we just had to endure as they partially acted like guides and partially tried to sell us anything from beer, water and food to trinkets of our journey. After a while, they almost became part of the group, helping those who needed it and offering to take photos without charging(!)

The wall was certainly one up from the Terracotta Warriors, and was damn impressive in both scale and conception. Completely useless historically, especially when you remember that it wasn't actually one large wall, but sections of very long walls. Unfortunately, the enemy the Chinese faced at the time were known for consisting almost entirely of mounted units; the wall just added a couple of day's horse riding practise before the battle.

From Hadyn's Travel Blog China Dump 3


After arriving back from a great day at the wall it was time to get down to business.

Whilst I was in China, more than three separate groups of people mentioned that I should get myself a tailored suit. My last one was purchased when I was a little heavier on the ground and I had since lost a good four inches around the waist, gaining significant width around the legs due to some serious cycling. It was time to go for my first tailoring.

Like all good shopping in China, it was more a battle than a gentle stroll down to the local shops. First, I had to choose my battle-ground. The site must be strategic. It cannot be the fabled Silk Market in Beijing, which is known for it's tailors and tourists alike – this would no doubt have low quality and high prices. It also could not be a true local tailor, as they were known for taking a few weeks to finish a shirt, let alone a suit. What I needed was something in-between...



With the location identified, it was time to choose which one of the many tailors were to get my trade. I decided quality was what mattered the most, and learnt the Chinese for “I want to see the tailored suits you have just created” was. I then went from store to store, not looking at the perfect products which were placed on the manikins, but instead looking at the items for collection. Each item was studied carefully, not that I really had much of a clue what to look for, but stitching especially was pulled and tugged. I think I now have an idea what the UN Weapons inspectors were up to in Iraq – searching for an unknown shaped needle in a stack of needles!

After my fourth store, the quality was deemed acceptable. Now was time to pick the fabric, colours and styles for my two suits. One was the work suit, the other for a wedding of a good friend when I return from my travels.

After a rather lengthy process of trial and elimination, it was time for battle to commence. The price war from hell.

Starting my haggling about a single suit (which started at 300 pounds despite my use of Chinese for the whole haggling process) I managed to battle it down to 110 pounds. Then I threw in the second suit, which was made from a superior fabric – the first was silk, the second cashmere. Finally, after almost 25 minutes of battling, victory was mine. Both suits for 190 pounds. I then mentioned about a tailored shirt, which was priced at 15 final price. The whole lot was mine for 198 pounds. The 8 was a “lucky” number to end the transaction on. I was very chuffed, but still probably got fleeced...

With the sweet smell of victory, despite the fact that I'm sure they are still making a healthy profit margin, it was time to meet my good friend from Xi'an that I walked the mountain pass and enjoyed a meal with the Communist government...

...Despite him being over 2 hours late....
From Hadyn's Travel Blog China Dump 3


When we finally met we decided on our itinerary for the next few days. Some of the key sights of Beijing, and some of those more random moments which make travel so much fun. Perfect.

First it was time to see the Forbidden Kingdom, the emperor's central throne, and the centre of the kingdom for many years.



Here, Jesse did an excellent job of describing the mentality behind the building. Unlike in western buildings, where the building itself is the most important, the space around the building is almost as important within Eastern styles. The forbidden palace, whilst quite impressive, is not really anything special when removed from the space which it occupies. However, when placed in the middle of a large square, atop a raised plinth, it forces the viewer to look up to the building, and the emperor if he were still there. This then couples with the 4 mile journey through gate after gate, which the viewer would have had to undergo to achieve an audience. Psychologically, it was well ahead of its time.

What causes its vast sense of scale and mystery is all lost when the user finally makes it onto the throne chamber. Once here, you can see out of the kingdom's confines back into the real world. This is a view no normal Chinese would have had through during its use.

From Hadyn's Travel Blog China Dump 3


Following some more walking and site-seeing, it was time to move on. It was time for one of the more random moments of my travels.

Jesse is part of a very informal ex-pat choir within Beijing and mentioned that he had to attend the choir meeting that day and so would be unable to meet with me in the afternoon. I don't think he was expecting it, and neither was I, but I then offered to come along and join in. After a brief audition in the middle of a street, I was allowed a special entry permit for a single session.

Let's get the record straight right now. I'm certainly no singer. Whilst I'm not tone deaf, I have never done any singing and would regularly mime if I had to sing whilst at school. Time for a baptism of fire...

On arrival, we all sat around a table and very politely drank our Chinese tea, discussing reasonably intellectual topics of conversation. I was now getting a little worried that this was not as relaxed as Jesse had indicated. I was then asked what part I usually play in the choir – much to my shock. Upon hearing that I had no idea at all, we started a song. I was worried.



The song went like this:
“Mighty Mickey Mouse, Makes love to Minnie in the moonlight, Mighty nice....”

After each repetition it would get lower, probably by a note, but I didn't have a clue. At the end of approximately six minutes of singing about Mickey's marital prowess, I was one of only two people left 'singing'. It turns out I am a bass, which means I can go very low... so I have a use after all!

Although the singing got slightly less light-hearted, including some Latin and French work, the end result was good enough and I don't think I disgraced my country.



That evening we decided to go out for a final night of fun, indulging in the Russian quarter to appease our sudden lust for a good drink. One bottle of vodka later, we all realised why nights out in the Russian quarter are never a good idea.

With a raging headache, it was time to leave China and Jesse for Australia – diving was calling...

From Hadyn's Travel Blog China Dump 3


Something to muse from one of our more intellectual topics of conversation...
During one of our more in-depth conversations about the differences between East and West, Jesse and I turned to the example of Government. In the West, government is often viewed as interfering. Everything they do is seen a meddling and laws often unnecessary and barriers to our freedom. In the East, things are the opposite, government laws are well respected and generally loved by the people as a way to restore order to the populous. After some time in China we believe that we know why.

Take a queue, the bastion of British society. In the UK, everyone knows how to queue, if you need something, then you must wait behind anyone else who was there first, only after they are served will you get your turn. Now, in China, that isn't the case. If you need something, then push to the front and you will get it before everyone else. If that were to happen in the UK, people would say something, they would react and get annoyed. In China, they do not, the government would have to intervene by placing someone to watch the queue to ensure no queue jumping happens.

Historically in the UK, queue jumping was always stamped out sharply and swiftly, especially in smaller towns you would never do it, as you knew the people you were jumping and didn't want to be known as the arse of the village. When the village grows however, and people are less inclined to spend their day arguing, there is a chance that queue jumping beings to work. For those who jump, they receive the reward of quicker service. Although everyone thinks you are a jerk, the town is now large enough that you probably won't see you again, and if they do they would have forgotten by then.

China has very large towns. Therefore the queue jumping has been happening for a while, and whilst in the beginning it benefited those who did it, now that everyone does it, no one wins and what you get is the sheer chaos you will often witness. How do we get around this – government intervention. Consequently, the government is viewed as a positive force; bringing order to chaos.

Supply vs Demand
Another good example of a key difference between China and the West is that of the supply or demand cultures. Within the West, if we get a bad meal at a restaurant, we complain. This usually results in the restaurant providing us with a reduced bill, free food or some other incentive to keep us happy. Within China it's different.

One morning, Jesse and I sat at a table discussing what we wanted to do that day, just having ordered some breakfast with eggs. About 20 minutes later we were told by the owner that they didn't have enough eggs. That's it. Not, “Sorry I don't have enough eggs, but you can have some extra bacon”. No, just “We don't have enough eggs, so one of you will have to do without”. When we then threatened to leave, we were told we cannot, as one meal had been cooked with the available eggs. This is supply side mentality. The supplier had run out of its supply, thus the consumer must suffer. Tough.

The story did have a happy ending, with us suggesting that a trip to a local shop which supplied eggs should be in order, but one suspects that would have not been on the cards if we were Chinese.

Again, one can see the logic to this. In the West, we have a very out-dated view of businesses. If someone in the village doesn't like it, they will tell all their friends and then no-one will eat there. Now, what happens if your village has a very high population density who rarely eat at the same place anyway? With hundreds of restaurants all serving the same food, all within a few square miles, all serving the same millions of consumers, many of which are transient. Now supplier side mentality works.

We can see and example of this ingression into our society at tourist hot-spots and viewpoints. If you open a restaurant near a tourist location such as Stonehenge, you will always have customers, no matter how awful your service or awful your food. In this location, it would be best to maximise profits by employing idiots for minimal wage and providing the cheapest food available. Okay, give your customers the best from those ingredients, but if it fails, so what?

Friday, March 6, 2009

Leaping Tigers



Ahhh, the joy of Tiger Leaping Gorge. It is fabled as the world's deepest gorge and brings tourists to the region from far and wide. Personally, I saw a picture of a friend relaxing with the most awesome background and was green with envy. I had to go.

After an early rise we were packed into our minibus for a two hour ride to the beginning of the gorge. Like any good journey, there was much anticipation as the sides of the valleys got deeper. This was amplified by the lack of decent information we could extract about the gorge. How steep was it, what was the terrain like? Anything but hand-drawn maps were impossible to come by. We wound up mountain pass after mountain pass. We waited.

At the drop off point the view was okay, but no better than many other mountain passes I had been to. What was all the fuss about?

From Hadyn's Travel Blog China Dump 2


A hole seemed to occupy all the anticipation which was there before. Disappointment must have been evident on my face after some of the most fantastic scenery in Bhutan. I had traveled for over two days for this? Surely not.

As we began to climb we realised that there was a sharp right bend at the beginning. We were not in Tiger Leaping Gorge.

The wait was worthwhile..



Wow.

The single width path slowly wound up the side of the valley, each turn exuding gorge-ous scenery. Pun most definitely intended.



Our group was of mixed ability, but everyone was in high spirits. With the scenery getting steadily better, even to most inexperienced hikers pushed themselves to the next hill to see what beauties would be shown. Refreshment stops were offered regularly by locals, with beer, coke, water and dope (!?) being offered at almost any turn. Sometimes the locals wanted a little more though, which did mar the best viewpoint – as they attempted to claim that walking onto the viewpoint path would require a payment. When we refused the payment (which was around 10 pounds) they got really angry and threatened to throw a stone at one of our group. We weren't impressed – it was time to move on.

That evening we arrived in the hostel at our approximate half way point, about 6 hours after setting off. Here we were to rest for the night, enjoying the company of many random trekkers who had taken the same path. Unfortunately we weren't able to stay at the same place that Michael Palin stayed during the filming of “Himalaya” due to renovation, but we did visit it the next day.

That evening as we relaxed with our running hot water, beer in hand. It felt satisfying, but somewhat strange. During almost all multi-day treks I have ever done, there was no rest bite after a hard day's trek. No beer unless you carry it, certainly no hot water. Don't get me wrong, it was excellent to have these facilities, it just didn't make it feel like you were in any way remote. We were treading the well-trodden path, and whilst the scenery was excellent, it would have been superb if it felt somewhat more remote.



What was excellent though was the company. Or group seemed to gel really quickly and at the end of the first day we already felt like old friends. As we sat in the open courtyard playing cards and eating our evening meal, the lights when out as the generators spluttered and ran out of fuel. For a few special minutes the sky was illuminated with millions of different constellations. Now it felt better.

The next day we continued our trek, splitting up into two different groups. In the faster group we decided to trek like the hare, stopping often to take photos before walking at a fast pace to catch up lost ground. This continued until early afternoon when we arrived at the final stop where the minibus would pick us up. Here we ate and then decided to try and fit in the 300m descent to the water's edge, where the story tells us that the tiger leapt from one edge of the gorge to the other, with the assistance of a rock in the centre. Like all stories, this was probably invented in the late 1980's to attract tourists. Certainly if he had managed to make the leap (which would have required a very athletic tiger) the ascent would have been impossible. Either way, the journey down and up would be fun.



With time running short our party of five began the steep descent before making the bottom within 40 minutes. With our legs already tired from two days' trekking it was now time to make the ascent – and we only had about 70 minutes before out bus left!

To break up the steep incline, we all decided to take one of the more rickety ladders on the way up. Just to add to our trepidation, it was labelled as “Dangerous Ladder”.



With a length of 30m and a slight overhang, it certainly didn't feel as safe as I would have liked, especially due to the high winds which whipped down the valley, but we made it all safe and sound. I was especially proud of one of our group, who had been finding the trek a little hard on the legs and really dug deep to make the ascent as fast as they could. You know who you are – so well done!

With a few minutes to spare at the top, we took a second group photo, with everyone looking rather elated. It was certainly a worthwhile experience, one I would recommend to many.



On the way back, I agreed to spend a couple of days exploring Lijang with someone from the tour. Lijang is a very touristy but also rather nice little town which was the staging point to the Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Over the coming days we explored the city to varying degrees of success.

Initially we decided that a partial hike and cable-car trip up to a glacier would be an ideal idea. We hopped on the local bus as it wound its way over to the base of the mountain. Then we died. Not literally, but almost. It was over 23 pounds for the privilege of setting foot on the mountain, and almost 40 to take the cable car up to the glacier. That's certainly a lot of money in any world, let alone China where accommodation was averaging 3 pounds a night.

From Hadyn's Travel Blog China Dump 3


It was time for plan B. Off to the bike hire place we went and there soon ensued some cycling fun across to a local village known to be very picturesque. The bikes certainly weren't a carbon fibre Cannondale, but they got us from A to B, even though stopping was slower than we would have liked.



On the way back, we then took in some more scenes, including the “classic photo of China”, before taking in a local courtyard filled with all the large dogs in China. Here we spent the next two hours exchanging various card games as we watched a collie dog slowly drive everyone crazy by hitting a coke bottle just out of reach before barking and whining until someone put it within lead range.



Later that evening, we discovered that both of us knew a mutual friend very well who had studied in the same university. Chances were that despite knowing each other for over three days, we had probably met in a party three years previously! It's certainly a small world.

Before departing we took some time to take in the local Chinglish and explore the less touristy side of the town.

If you were ever likely to contract any bird diseases (H1N5 anyone?) this would be the place. The stench of the killing grounds was potent, although the freshness of the product being offered was not to be questioned. Once the bird was chosen, it's throat was slit before being slung into a bin. Once dispatched, it was then taken out of the bin and placed into a centrifuge device which skimmed all the feathers off. The whole process from death to serving must have taken less than three minutes!



After some good time spent together, it was time to say farewell to my friends in Lijang, with my imminent departure to the Chinese capital, Beijing. The great wall and my American Chinese Historian friend beckoned...