May 2009

It was great arriving back in China - back on familiar turf. Spitting men, smelly drains, babies with no nappies, helpful signs in the toilets....

We checked into a brilliant hostel which used to be a printing factory back in the 1970s so we were straight down to the bar to use the free wifi and drink beer for 25p. The main reason people visit Chengdu is to visit the Giant Panda Sanctuary on the outskirts of town. It really was quite fantastic and we hadn't realised that there would be so many pandas and that we would get so close. The young ones were really very cute and seemed quite playful.

Of course, being in Sichuan we had to try the famous Sichuan Hotpot.

We'd had one of these when we were in China before...a bubbling pot of chilli where you cook your stuff much like a fondue. This time though we decided to step things up a notch and add some duck's tongues into the mix.....probably not something we need to do again......

And then it was on another plane and onwards to Lhasa! It had been quite a challenge getting all the paperwork and the tour organised for Tibet as the restrictions change all the time. At present the Chinese government has decided that all Western tourists must pay for a guide and a car each day. So it was a nice luxury for us to be met at the airport by our guide Nawam and transported straight to our hotel in central Lhasa. We met Sharon and Steven there who are both from Malaysia and were the other two members of our group. We all went out for lunch and immediately realised we were at 3600m as we almost passed out trying to bound up the 2 floors to the restaurant. Fi got stuck into some yak dumplings....the first of our many yak products. Yak lasagne, yak cheesecake, yak butter tea, yak cheese, yak steaks, yak yoghurt. We also walked the first of our many Koras...or pilgrim walks....around the Jokhang Temple seeing the sights and smells of Lhasa. It's imperative that you walk clockwise...the only people who don't do this are the patrols of Chinese soldiers.

Yak Butter...

Bryn getting stuck into the local home brewed barley beer

Prayer Wheels a plenty whichever way you look

We spent a couple of days with our guide doing the main sights of Lhasa. The summer palace of the Dalai Lamas, from where the 14th made his escape to India back in 1959.

And the first of many monasteries...the Sera monastery where we were treated to the monks 'debating' in the open air courtyard. They get quite impassioned by it....

We visited the Jokhang Temple early in the day,past the pilgrims doing their protestations out front....

And then on with the rest of the pilgrims and followed the trail through the numerous chapels all lit by yak candles. We played spot the Buddha with our guide........trying to guess the difference between the Past Buddha, Present Buddha, Future Buddha, Medicine Buddhas, Protectors, Disciples, Tara, Kings etc etc We weren't very good at it.....Buddhism is pretty complicated.

But we did have some fun on the roof looking out across Barkor Square and all the pilgrims doing their koras and protestations.

The Potala Palace is definitely the star attraction in Lhasa. It was a beautiful day for it as we puffed our way up the steps

No photos allowed inside as usual.....but we were blown away by it. The gold coffins of the Dalai Lamas were particularly impressive. It was sad to see the living quarters of the 14th Dalai Lama who is in exile in India. But all in all a very impressive building.

We were glad to get out of Lhasa and to see the Tibet landscape. We did a very long day trip to Namtso Lake...one of 3 holy lakes in Tibet. Namtso Lake is at 4700m and the highest salt lake in the world. Many barren landscapes on the journey there with a few yaks in....

The lake was really pretty....frozen round the edges, prayer flags fluttering everywhere.

We puffed slowly up a small hill at the side of the lake for a better view. It's very wierd getting so out of breath doing so little!

And then we off on our Everest Trip with a scattering of more monasteries on the way. We caused chaos with our Chinese guide who was quite unused to tourists wanting to walk anywhere! We did persuade him to let us walk the kora around the monastery at Shigatse early one morning. More prayer wheels, pilgrims and reincarnation merit for all Buddhists out there.

Lots more driving and we found ourselves in Shergar at 4300m a cold, windy place. Nothing to do there apart from huddle in bed!

And then up early for our final assault on Everest. Our first views from a distance!

And then after a very bumpy road for 4 hours we were off...walking the 4km from the tourist camp to the proper mountaineer base camp! Lots of stops for photos as we puffed our way up to 5200m!

But then we were there! A really great moment

And also a photo of our new travelling buddy who actually stowed away in our luggage - unknown to us!

And then a quick march back to the van trying to escape the impending storm...

Then it was a long long journey back to Lhasa (too much for some)....

....where we said goodbye to Steven and Sharon. We spent a quiet few days...feeling guiltly that we'd paid money for a guide and car and all we wanted to do was chill out. We did however go on a great walk in the hills around Lhasa where we saw the skyburial sites. Tibet isn't blessed with either soil for burial or trees to provide fuel for burning so they rely on vultures to dispose of their loved ones. We felt quite queasy as our guide explained how the bodies were pounded up. We walked to our first nunnery - where we were welcomed with open arms and spent half an hour chatting with one of the head nuns - with the aid of our interpreter/guide.

We try to maintain open minds in all countries that we visit. Things are always more complicated than they seem. And we tried our best to find out as much as we could on the politics, economics, culture etc of Tibet from our 3 guides. Having Tibetan and Chinese guides did give us a more balanced view on things. Whilst many businesses were run by Han Chinese...there were options to patronise Tibetan businesses which was great. It was interesting understanding the Chinese viewpoint.......and whilst there are definitely pros and cons of Tibet being part of China, it was quite sad some of the things we found out. It's sad that they aren't allowed photos of the 14th Dalai Lama as he is their religious leader. It's wierd that the 11th Panchen Lama is stationed in Beijing and not in Shigatse where all Panchen's before him have stayed......leaving aside whatever happened to the little boy who was installed as the 11th Panchen Lama before him. It's sad that some Tibetans are seemingly not allowed to get passports. There's definitely a very visible Chinese military presence in Lhasa. Definitely no photos allowed of them!....we did see them run after tourists who tried to take photos! But just a reminder that Big Brother is always watching you in Tibet....

After a grueling day of 4 buses from Brunei we arrived in Miri and caught our 15 minute flight to Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Borneo

Where we had our sights set on their most challenging trek that they offered to help prepare for our Nepal trip - 'only for the super fit'...and us it would seem! Mulu is set in the middle of the dense Borneo jungle and it was great to see that not all of Borneo is palm plantations

Gunung Mulu NP is really well organised and they offered a whole series of trips ranging from canopy walks......

To Clearwater Cave, the largest cave system in the world....

However, before we knew it we were off on our 4 day trek up to the Summit at about 2500m - a 48 km round trip.

It was quite a pricey trip and we'd been lucky to meet up with Linus from Sweden to share the costs. Linus turned out to be an ardent Middlesborough supporter and he and Bryn were able to talk football for four days solid. We had a great guide, Henry, who was really keen on doing the trip. It turns out that only 10 groups do the summit trip every year despite the large numbers of visitors who go to the park so the guides don't often get to do the trip. We'd already been prepped that day 1 was going to be tough....and it was! 6km on the flat, dodging the mud swamps and crossing a couple of big rivers, and then 6km straight uphill to 1500m. It was really tough carrying all our gear and food for 4 days! However, we were truly impressed when we arrived at Camp 3. It had a kitchen, toilets and a great sleeping area to hang our luxury mosquito net!

Bryn and Linus cooked up a storm in the kitchen and did their best with the tins we'd been able to buy in Mulu.....cockle curry being one of their delights.

Day 2 was up and down....passing pitcher plants - carniverous plants which trap insects in their pitcher shapes which are filled with water. Thankfully day 2 was a lot easier than the previous day and we were able to take time to admire the views....

And arrive in enough time for a game of 500 on the helipad at Camp 4.

And assessing the summit....

Before getting up pretty early for our summit ascent.

Thankfully we were able to leave our packs behind in camp 4....because before we knew it we were hauling ourselves up ladders, hanging onto ropes next to sheer drops and generally scrabbling up the mountain anyway we could.

Getting to the top was a great moment

Just a pity that Fi couldn't see the view from the viewing pole....

After half an hour wait at the top the clouds finally parted as we had to start our descent! Note the pitcher plant on the side

Going down Tracker Fi spotted a tiny bright green frog on the trail.....which Bryn promptly picked up.......and then threw away quickly as Fi screamed it could be poisonous. Henry had only been telling us the day before that frogs can be much more deadly than snakes!! Turns out that this one wasn't poisonous and that actually it was quite rare. People have gone up the mountain for weeks just to see the frog and failed!!

Going downhill was pretty tough going and it took us all day to get back to camp 3 - where Bryn uncovered a near deadly leech attack.....

We'd actually been really lucky with leeches as it hadn't rained once on our trip - which was unbelievable luck as that would have made things even tougher!!

The next day, despite having trailed the lads all trip, the talk of post trip beers powered Fi down the mountain in record time...arriving at Camp 1 for a long river swim before the boys even turned up! Everyone was impressed to see us back in time for lunch. We were quite the celebrities down at HQ as all the staff seemed to know about our trip! Unfortunately Linus had to go catch a plane so we headed off on our own to Royal Mulu...the posh hotel in the area for our post trip beers.

The next day was a few more caves....Deer Cave, the largest open passage in the world....

With it's spitting image profile of which US president??

And Lang's Cave with it's impressive stalagtites and mites...

And then the bat exodus at 5:30pm. This was a really amazing sight.....as 2-3 million bats exit the cave for their nightly supper. They tend to leave the cave and swirl round until they have sufficient numbers to head off in curling ribbons made up of thousands of bats.....trying to stay as part of the group to avoid the bat hawks which in turn are after their supper. These ribbons went on for about an hour and we watched completely mesmorised by this display....we're told it is on Planet Earth for those with the DVD.

And then it was off to Singapore and a manic 48 hours there. We were staying in Chinatown which is a great place to stay and although we arrived at midnight we checked in and were straight out and enjoying our beloved dumplings...yumyum The next day we headed over to Raffles for our Singapore Slings, courtesy of a wedding present from Tom - thanks! We had fun eating the monkey nuts and chucking them everywhere.

Reeling slightly from the effects of a mid afternoon cocktail we headed over to Harbourfront where we were reunited with our winter clothes which friends of Katie's had been looking after for us - thankyou Nicci and Neill! We had dinner in Little India and the next day headed to Changi Airport which is definitely worth the hype. We were just upset that we hadn't arrived earlier in order to make use of all the facilities!! However, Bryn got himself in prime position for the Premiership roundup....

And then at 2am in the morning we were off on our flight back to China!!