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WONDERCRUST.

hard on the outside... (Part 2)

By Carolyn Chon

February 12^th, 2014

motherland : china

It’s hard to explain China. Really it is. As a third generation Chinese born and bred outside of China, I’m not gonna lie, I was apprehensive about China. The stories I’ve heard first hand, second hand, the awful viral things you watch and read online, boy, I just had to put on an invisible armour.

Our first destination was Kunming, Yunnan. Having no prior research or homework done, Jules and I really weren’t sure of our plans around China. After all, the plan was to not plan. As we were walking to the hostel we were gonna check out, there were pools of water on the ground, obviously we avoided it to our very best ability because somehow as we were walking the air was filled with a really strong stench of how shall I put it, atrociousness.

As we were waiting for the reception to check if there were any available rooms, a young Caucasian approached the reception and spoke Mandarin so fluent I wanted to kill myself. Jules and I eyeballed each other in somewhat of surprise and disbelief. Little did we know, this was only the beginning where we would come across several non-Chinese ethnic people who would speak Mandarin so bloody fluently.

Anyhow, as we were waiting for the reception to check on the availability of the rooms, a middle-aged couple approached us and said “Are you girls Malaysian?” . Obviously, the minute any Malaysians open their mouth, another Malaysian can spot them a mile away. We ended up sharing a very pretty 4-bed dorm with this lovely couple. We were glad we ended up sharing rooms with them, because our next destination was pretty much drawn out for us from their stories.

Here’s a photo of the nice couple. They were supposed to email us to keep in touch, so they took our emails and we didn’t take theirs…but we haven’t heard from them yet. So, if this is someone you know…

DALI. NO. NOT SALVADOR.

We caught a bus from Kunming and made our way to Dali. Bear in mind, that you need to have your identification with you when you purchase your tickets. Oh, and if you don’t speak Mandarin, please make sure you get someone to write down in Chinese, your desired end point, else you’re screwed. Of course, if you’ve got your guidebook with you, it should help even if it doesn’t have Chinese characters, it should at least have a map.

Dali, I have to say is quite a touristy spot, but quite lovely. We started doing this thing where we would guess which of our close-friends “can or cannot do” each place we visit.

We explored Dali on foot and on bicycles. I have to say, bicycles are perhaps the best way to explore anywhere. It’s easy to stop at the side of the road(s), you get breeze in your face and hair, fresh or stale, plus you get to work out and hopefully get a decent tan. We saw so much on just that one day cycling around the area, we saw a traditional wedding taking place, we saw old farmers attending to their paddy fields, but most of all, we saw dogs! So many of them, big and small, short coat, long coat. They were all so well-behaved!

I guess personally, I was surprised to see so many dogs because my impression was that all Chinese eat dogs. Wrong, Carol. Wrong. Yes, how ignorant I was.

In the evening, we would take a stroll along the main street, looking at funny shops, restaurants, other quirky looking hostels etc. We decided to try out their “steamboat”, as we saw that it was the popular choice and most people were going at it and even lining up. So, we decided to join in to have a seat out on the streets. Now, ordering the food was a bit of a challenge, and it was definitely one of the many to come. Sure, I could speak enough to get around and save my life (for sure), but reading it? Boy!! In the end, I went into the restaurant and started pointing at things, at the same time asking what they were. Long story short, food finally and we were excited!!

The minute the soup got inside of our hungry mouths, we made a pretend “Mmmm…so delicious” face at each other. This like many of the previous “firsts” reminded us how little we knew about our motherland.

This old lady was preparing baby shrimps on a stick, and my it was perhaps one of the few things that I could eat more of in China.

The other photo is a market we decided to check out, actually I don’t quite fancy going into markets, but Jules wanted to and so we did.

And this man, this handsome man. We called him Harbin Swai Ge. Well, because he was from Harbin, he was charming not to mention good looking and it was at this restaurant that we had the best meal possibly in China. If I were to ever go back to Dali, this is going to be the only restaurant I’m eating at. If memory serves me well, this was Foreigners’ Street. Uh huh.

an introduction : chinese trains

Before this trip, I’ve only been on Malaysian ones, Thai ones and European ones, needless to say I was very much looking forward to the Chinese ones. I love, love, love traveling on train, and luckily for me, so did Jules, in fact the grittier it was, the better. Personally, trains are awesome because well, it does take up more time than a plane, but you see so much more! Not only you see sceneries outside your window, but most importantly you experience the slice of culture of the land you’re in.

Again, the Chinese surprised us by having a triple decker for overnighters. Comparing to the Malaysian ones, no, you will not have any privacy while you’re sleeping, or just lying down. There shall be no curtains for you lot! Mingle! And that is exactly what the Chinese will do.

We got to experience and learn some bits of the Chinese culture by seeing how communal they can be with one another, strangers or not. Oh, and they love their instant noodles in a cup. At every end of each compartment, there will be a hot water tap for their favourite cup noodles. Of course, they also love eating their groundnuts and kuacis (sunflower seeds), but hey where shall they dispose of these once they are done eating them? On the floor and out the window of course! Yes, throwing out plastic/styrofoam cups out the window is Nothing to be frowned upon.

chengdu. now, where's that panda?!

Ahh, Chengdu. Smog city. We both kinda fell in like with this city, somewhat felt different and a lot cleaner than Kunming. We stayed in Chengdu, the longest in the entirety of our China trip. We stayed at this really awesome hostel called Flip Flop. Everyday, they would have an activity for its guests. We signed up for a free bicycle tour round the city. We were greeted by the owner, Mix who was the one that would be taking us for the tour. Mix, is a super, super funny and nice guy, an avid traveler and photographer as well. You’ll see all his prints all over the common area.

I think it was quite daunting at first having to cycle in a city like Chengdu, in fact daunting to be cycling in any city in China I reckon. We survived anyhow. I’m not going into details about a city, sorry. I guess the highlight of Chengdu was of course seeing those black and white fur balls. All they do is eat, sleep and roll around with one another. Dammit. I want that life too.

Here’s a fun trivia bout Pandas! Did you know that newborn Pandas are not cute like what you picture in your head? Hah. Also, Pandas used to be carnivores.

Last two photos was taken in the hostel where we yum cha with Mix and some of his friends. I say it again, the people you meet always make travel more worthwhile.

turpan : flaming hot!

Almost like Peri-Peri sauce I reckon. Turpan, is one of the lowest depression in the world apparently. It’s like a friggin’ desert! There’s a large population of Muslims there, and it’s almost home to a large population of Uyghur peeps. We were there during the eve and first day of the Muslim new year, somehow the atmosphere there and back home, were completely different. People didn’t seem to make a big deal out of it. It is a quaint little town though. Cycling there? Well, you may think that you and the tyres are melting. It does however, have grapes growing randomly and wildly, at the market they sell grapes, but most of the time, they will also let you take a fair bit for free.

Ancient city of gaochang, turpan.

This place was epic. Unfortunately, it was too far out to cycle, or rather too friggin’ hot for us to cycle to. But, if you’re ever going to visit an ancient city, Turpan’s few ancient cities are definitely highly recommended. This one was so, so, so big…I wish we had a car, so that we had air-cond driving around. Bah!!

fire mountain. really.

That’s exactly what it’s called.

Yining, xinjiang.

Now, THIS is a place where I’d like to come back to. You can see I’m typing less and less because I believe the photos should be decent enough of an overview. Right.

But really, the highlight for both Jules and I in Yining, is a short little story.

This is our short little story.

We arrived Yining via train, 4 hours later than ETA due to a flood somewhere. By the time we arrived, it was 1am. Like before, we didn’t make any bookings for any hotels because it had been pretty easy over the last few places we went to. And at all the train stops we arrived at, hotels were everywhere…unfortunately not here. No hotel, or any other building besides the station was in sight. Great! We couldn’t walk to a hotel.

We haggled with the first taxi driver and decided he wasn’t too keen or friendly, so we walked away until a young boy approached us with a better price. A little doe-eyed, I felt comfortable and decided we should just go with him, after all it was well past midnight. Long story, not so short…

It was the second day of the Muslim new year and all the hotels were fully booked, well all the four stars and above hotels anyway. No, we’re not princesses! Anything three stars and below, foreigners are not allowed. Great news. Our taxi driver, God bless his soul for having drive us around for a good 3 hours plus, checking with each and every hotel for a vacancy for these lost girls, but to no avail. In the end, we slept in his taxi, it was about 4am then. He gave us assurance that we would be safe and unharmed, and even parked right next to a police booth.

He is also one of the reasons why I want to go back to Yining. We couldn’t afford then to give him all that much, but gave him pretty much most of our RMB.