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Thursday 29 November 2012

有个旅人 Once A Traveler


施月潭 - 当我第一次知道马来西亚有这么一个人时,真的感到很惊讶!

心想,我们马来西亚吔,居然出现一个这么精彩的人物,莫名其妙的觉得很感动,打从心里佩服他。

试想,一个年轻的女子,在外背包旅游长达2年,去的地方竟然是包括中东!

巴基斯坦,那种落后不文明的囯家,女人完全沒地位的地方!难道他不害怕吗?他是怎样自我保护的?

究竟是什么样的原因使到他选择长期在外游走?还是根本沒有原因,只是一种远処的召唤,召唤着他,要他到世界的各个角落去看看?

看着“有个旅人”这本书时,可以体会到他的执着、他坚强的意志力,就是不愿放弃的信念,为求达到目的地。

明知危机四伏、困难重重,还是要去,那是何种、何來的勇气?有的时后,还真为他捏了一把冷汗!


 
佩服得五体投地!

 
 
 
 

Thursday 22 November 2012

Hangzhou杭州

It was already about 9.30pm. when we reached Hangzhou from Nanjing by bullet train. The queue for taxi was very long, so we had no choice but to accept the offer from one of the private vans after some bargainings as usual. So again we found ourselves in a very old and small van (first was when we went to Xitang). The driver told us he knew the way to our accommodation that night, Wushanyi International Youth Hostel. After about half an hour, we were told that he couldn't locate the exact location. We showed him the map and he agreed to call them for direction. After a few attempts, he said he couldn't get through the line. He continued to drive around and said he had to charge us more as he was making a loss! Hubby argued with him. It was dark and quiet and i was getting nervous, so i told hubby to give in. He even stopped the van at one point where it was so isolated. I then told hubby in English to ask him to drop us somewhere nearby. I was scared. It was then the driver said he had to drive to another road as he couldn't enter the road to the the hostel from where we were. So he did know the way after all! Finally, he stopped the van and we walked to the hostel by asking for directions. I was finally able to release when we saw the sign of the hostel! I think the driver had intention to get more $$ from us right from the beginnings!

The moment we entered the hostel, i had the warm feelings as it was quite cozy and it was filled with tourist from overseas. It was my idea to experience staying in a hostel. We found our family room clean and neat with ensuite bathroom.

The next morning, while we went down to the lobby, we saw tourist in their pyjamas holding their towels and tooth brush heading to the shared bathroom! So this is what hostels are like! Well, it was an experience.

After breakfast in MacDonald nearby the hostel, we walked towards the much acclaimed Unesco Heritage site West Lake, the day's itinerary.  On the way, an old but kind looking woman started to talk to hubby. She suggested to take a bus to Jiuxi, then continued to tour the lake. She emphasized that we must not retrieve the route, we had to go ahead instead until we reached the lake. She further said that it was the way to tour the lake! At the bus stop, another friendly woman approached us and started to tell us the same thing. So we took the bus to Jiuxi, took a cab as what they suggested.

When we got down from the cab, another old woman started to talk to hubby and kept inviting us to her house to take a rest. Hubby didn't have the heart to turn her down and so we ended in her house whereby she served us tea and of course we ended buying tea from her! After that she helped us to hail a private car to drive us to the point where we thought was very close to the lake. But it was not the case, we ended in the tea plantation which we were not interested in. We then hailed a metered taxi and the lady driver was curious that we ended in that area.  We told her about the women and she said she knew it! She further said that the old woman must had been following us and she knew for sure that we had bought tea from her. We could only think that it was indeed a consolation that we did not spend too much.

So we were finally at West Lake after all the hassles and time wasted. I was quite disappointed by now. Moreover it was a Saturday and the place was crowded with loud local tourist.

First we took the boat ride where we landed on one of the 3 islands on the huge lake, the Three Ponds Mirroring the Moon (三潭印月). We then took our lunch in a restaurant facing the lake. The crowd was even larger now with the congestion and noise from the cars on the road!

After lunch we continued with some of the scenic zones like Orioles Singing in the Willows (柳浪聞鶯), Fish Viewing at the Flower Pond (花港觀魚), the tomb and memorial hall to Yue Fei (岳飛), Curved Yard and Lotus Pool in Summer (曲院風荷).






It was another round of hassle when we tried to get back to town area. Taxi was extremely scarce and we ended in a private little van again. This time we were literally squeezed in this tiny van! I was so frighten with the way the driver handled the van even in this over loaded condition. Anyway we were back to Hefang street which is near the hostel.

We walked around the street as we did this morning for a while till it was dark. Then we went back to the hostel to retrieve our luggage and had another round of hard time to get the taxi to the airport. Even though it was too early for our 1135pm flight, we didn't want to take the risk of not able to get a taxi.

A reminder to myself about planning trip to China, try not to go during Weekends not to mention public holidays! And also do not listen to stranger no matter how kind and friendly they may look.

West Lake trip would definitely be more enjoyful if there wasn't any episode in the first place! Maybe we can come again on a weekday to really appreciate the beauty of this Unesco World Heritage site.

  


Thursday 15 November 2012

Ming Xiaoling Tomb

I have never been very interested in history all my life, certainly not ancient tombs of some emperors. But i had done a bit of homework before I went to Ming Xiaoling Tomb. With a very rough idea in mind, we reached the site early in the morning.

Ming Xiaoling Tomb is the last resting place for Emperor Zhuyuanzhang, the founder of Ming Dynasty. It is listed in the Unesco World Heritage sites! It was built in 1381-1405, making it 600++years old. Not that old compare to Emperor Qin Shihuang's Imperial Tomb which is 2,200++ years old. Legend says that in order to prevent robbery of the tomb, 13 identical processions of funeral troops started from 13 gates to obscure the real burying site. (info courtesy from Wikipedia.)

The map of the mausoleum. The inner most is the Ming Tower and beyond it the outline of a circle is the enormous Treasure Mound
From the map, we learned that it's designed like a garden! (Later I found out that the  Ming tombs are designed in this manner for the rest of the imperial tombs.) First, we found ourselves in a path called the Elephant path with 12 pairs of mighty stone carved animals. The animals are the Elephants, Horses, Camels, Lioans and fantasy ancient animals Unicorn and Xiezhi! They are supposed to guard the tomb! And there's another path called the Sacred path which were lined with some warrior figures and we missed it! We also missed the giant tortoise with stele! How sorry were we!

The Elephant Path.

Qiling (Unicorn).
Huge camels.




Horses.


Xiezhi.















Knowing that this area is vast, we proceeded quickly further in. We passed through the gate then the tablet hall. The tablet hall contain a stele constructed by emperor kangxi as a homage to emperor Zhuyuanzhang who is his predecessor of 300 years. We do not understand why the tortoise is carved with the the head facing the door and the tail at the other side of the wall.

The tablet hall by Emperor Kangxi.

The tail is at the other side of the wall.













We then walked further in where we reached the Ming Tower. At the entrance, we had to climb a flight of stair ascending to another area. At this open area, we found ourselves face to face with a wall! But I still didn't know where is the actual burial site! Hubby then explained to us that the wall beyond is the tomb and he pointed at the carving on the wall! The carving says "This mound is the tomb of the emperor"! I realised then that the big mound beyond the wall is the last resting place of the emperor! The coffins of the emperor and the empress are somewhere within the big mound and it stays untouched for all these years!
The Ming Tower.
 
The entrance of the stairs.



Steps to the treasure mound.

On top of the steps where we found ourselves face to face with a wall.
It says this mound is the tomb of  the Emperor!
Wall surrounding the Treasure Mound.
After we came home, I read from Wikipedia that the Ming tower is actually embedded into the mound which explains the ascending steps we climbed earlier. I have been wondering what is inside the mound and why is it so big. Hubby also shared with us the Dingling tomb he visited in Beijing which had been excavated and there lies red coffins of the emperor and the empress! I read on to know that there are chambers for different purposes in the tomb and of course there is the coffin chamber! Needless to say, tons of priceless treasures are also being buried!


Tan Yan Kai tomb.
Also found in Ming Tower are some brief informations of other Imperial Ming Tombs in other parts of China. Most of them are untouched and still stays intact till today, not even Emperor Qinshihunag! Also very interesting is that the imperial steles are always built on top of a tortoise as pedestal. It is said that the tortoise is being highly respected in ancient China for it's longevity  and it's also associated with divination.


The giant tortoise stele.
Somehow i find all these facts quite interesting and have since developed some special "feelings" towards the history of our ancestors. To be able to see and to touch the artifact that has been around for a few hundred years have given me the sense unlike before!  This is only the beginning, there are so much more !!


Tuesday 13 November 2012

Xitang, Ancient Water Town 西塘


西塘 - 生活着的千年古镇

Out of the numerous water towns nearby Shanghai, I opted for Xitang instead of  "Venice of the East", Zhouzhuang and others. Xitang has definitely preserved the ancient charm for one, and also it's nearer compare to Zhouzhuang. Most importantly, the original condition still remain and not much restoration has been done. Unlike other water town where there's too much of beautification work done hence it lost its original and genuine charms.  Xitang is also dubbed the Living Thousand Year Old Ancient Town simply means there are people living there till today.

We took subway from our downtown Shanghai hotel to Hongqiao railway station for bullet train to Jiashan. Little did we know that the station is super huge and that we needed some times to locate the boarding gate and we missed the train. We were told to change the time at the counter. There we waited for an hour for the next train. Lesson number one, the boarding gate close few minutes before the departure time.

When we finally reached Jiashan station, immediately we were approached by numerous offers of transportation to Xitang. After some bargaining, we were being driven by an very old and tiny van which took about 30mins to the ancient town.

The driver.
The narrow side alley.











I had earlier read that one can skip the entrance fees which cost RMB100/pax by enter through the back or the side alleys. So I told the driver to drop us at the back of the town but was told that we couldn't do that anymore as the alleys are all closed or guarded now. He further offered to drive us to one of the side alleys to show us. Upon arriving at the side alley, we saw that it was in fact guarded. It was only then that the driver told us he could "sneak" us in by his way. He stopped the van at the dead end of the road, he turned his head to us and said by paying him half of the entrance fees, he could bring us in or he would just drive us back to the main entrance where we had to pay the full fee. Left with no choice, we agreed to his offer. He then drove around and stopped the van at a very narrow road and told us to follow him quickly and quietly! I was so nervous!  I remembered walking into a shop and people were starring at us and murmuring that the driver has the consent from the owner of the shop followed by some very narrow alley and there we were, inside the ancient town! My, what an experience! We realised that the driver must be doing this all the time and that it was his idea to show us the blocked side alley from the beginning!

Were immediately greeted with this view on the bridge!
Xitang did not disappoint me at the least for it was indeed so charming and beautiful! I was totally fascinated by the tranquility and the beauty of it! Even though it is quite small, nonetheless it displays it's loveliness and elegant beauty at it's own way. Walking through the ancient path, I could hardly believe I was in fact walking the path which is so very old, in the era of Ming and Qing dynasty! There are all together 9 rivers flow through the town. The ancient buildings are very well preserved and they are today mostly converted into some basic accommodations and small eateries!

Ancient buildings!
Basic accommodations and small eateries by the river!

This is so dreamy.....
Perfect ambience!

Mystical....
Taken with soft lens, so misty and beautiful!

Picture perfect!
We had our lunch at one of the shops by the river. The shop is so tiny and the stairs are very steep. We ordered the local specialties which are the Chinese escargot and steamed chicken. The fish was tasty but was full of bones and the vegetables was just normal. Very much home-cooked style.
  
Lunch at the first floor balcony!



煙雨长廊,Amidst the promenade,  what a beautiful name!
The wooden pillar and the floor tiles reveal the age of the town!
Old tiny shop and narrow walkway.

Ancient stone path and narrow street!
It was a pity that we did not have much time here. It will be great to spend a night here to enjoy the peacefulness at night. Read that at night it will illuminate with red chinese lanterns!  Also,  it will soar with crowds during weekends and public holidays which will definitely ruin the charms and tranquility!