Hello. 

 

I am currently on my holiday away from Ningbo.  Jane suggested that I bring my laptop with me, so that I could watch films or whatever if I couldn’t understand the TV during the evenings.  I thought it would be useful for being able to write about what I was doing, and so you are going to be presented with a bit of a diary of what happened to me over the four day vacation.  I hope that this is as interesting as it is inevitably going to be long.  Enjoy.

 

Monday 2/10/06

 

Well, let’s start at the start.  I had a phone call from Jane at about 10:10 on Monday morning asking me to be ready for 10:30.  So I rushed around my apartment, jumping in and out of the shower and grabbed the things I would need for going away for a few days.  After meeting Jane at the front gate of the school, we walked for five or so minutes until we arrived at the residential area in which she lives.  She showed me up to her apartment, which is absolutely gorgeous, and I met her daughter Jenny, her husband and her mother.  We sat down and had some food.  Pretty normal food compared to last night too, and it tasted fantastic.  Jane’s mother complimented my ability at shelling shrimp.  I had only done this once before, and so it would seem as if I have stumbled upon an ability I never knew I had.

 

We climbed into the car not long after finishing our meal and headed out onto the highway.  The journey would take us a few hours, and Jane explained to me that we would also be making a stop at a tourist destination on the way too.  Jane’s family doesn’t speak English, or at least Jenny has just started, and her husband can read a little English, but is unable to speak it.  After about an hour and a half we were in Lanting (or something like that, I will have to check the name!) which is a relatively touristy city.  We drove a little further and pulled into a large car park with lots of cars, and people walking around.  This was the home of one of the most famous calligraphers in the history of China, called Wang XiZhi who was around in the 300’s.  We walked around looking at various examples of his, and others, amazingly skilful calligraphy demonstrated through the use of paper and stone tablets.  I couldn’t read much of what was going on, but Jane was very useful in giving me explanations of what it all meant.  After a while, perhaps an hour or so, we returned to the car and set off on the final part of our journey.  I became really very tired at this point and managed to drift in and out for the rest of the way.  China has an astonishing ability to drain your energy sometimes.  For example at one point last week I walked to the shops only 5 minuets away, and when I returned to my apartment I was absolutely knackered, actually needing to sit down and recover my breath.  This doesn’t happen all the time, but it seems every so often it all is a bit too much and you end up being really tired, and unable to function any more.   Maybe it is a mixture of the heat, humidity, and my inability to drink as much water as I probably should, all combined with my rather varied sleep patterns.

 

After however long we arrived at the apartment of Jane’s sister, or sister-in-law (I’m not entirely sure) which was also very nice, although not quite as precisely my taste as Jane’s had been.  All of the stuff was brought in from the car, and I was shown to my room.  I sat around for a while, watching the children play and talking to Jane about a while range of things, before the dinner call came and we all headed for the table.  Jane listed what was available for me, and it was pretty much all stuff I had come across before.  The one exception was that dog was available.  I had been asked before coming to China whether I would be willing to eat dog, and I had said that I certainly would.  I felt that it was just another animal, and I couldn’t really see the difference between eating a dog, and eating a cow or pig.  I thought I should really get this experience out of the way so that it didn’t become a focal point of the meal for me and I dug right in.  Dog is actually quite nice and has a taste rather reminiscent of turkey.  I told Jane that eating dog reminded me of Christmas. J

 

The rest of the meal was very nice, without being particularly eventful.  Jane family were all very nice, and while I obviously couldn’t understand what they were saying, the phrase ‘ing gwa’ (England) was said several times reassuring me that I was still a hot topic of conversation.  After the meal we headed back into the sitting room, and the rest of the evening consisted of essential preparing for bed time.  First of all the rooms were prepared, and people took turns taking showers, and then one by one people went to sleep.  People in China go to sleep very early, and I really wasn’t able to go to sleep so soon, but I found myself watching an English news channel by 10:00 with everyone else having gone to bed.  I thought that I too should head off, and so came into my room, and finished the writing up of the events of Sunday evening.  I then watched about half an hour of a film before finally getting my head down. 

 

So now it is the next morning, and I suppose I should really go and show my face.  As early as people go to be in China, they arise, and the first sounds of life were at around 6:30.  I managed to drift in and out for a while, but eventually gave up at about 8:00 when I thought that this might be a good opportunity to write up what had occurred for the last twenty-four hours.  That’s it so far!

 

 

Tuesday 3/10/06

 

Well this, the second day of the holiday, was truly a day of ups and downs.  I left my bedroom at about half nine, and was given breakfast of some bread, some ham type stuff, a fried egg and some yogurt to drink.  I ate most of what had been provided before getting ready to go out.  It was going to be just Jane and myself for the morning as we went to a local tourist site.  Jenny had already gone to the park with the other children, and Jane’s husband would drive us and pick us up, but did not come with us.  The drive to our destination was fairly long, at about an hour, and I managed to drift in and out of sleep as we travelled.  We finally arrived at the site, and departed the car.  We took the short walk to where tickets were purchased, and it became very clear that this was going to be a very busy place.  There were enormous numbers of cars, and huge numbers of people.  We bought our tickets, and then started our walk.

 

The attraction that I had been taken to was a series of five waterfalls, each one leading down to the next, and as you climbed further up the mountain you encountered a new waterfall at each plateau.  Before we got to the first waterfall however we had a bit of a trek, with the first part being a walk up to a damn at the edge of a large reservoir.  Once we had reached the reservoir we ‘queued’ for a boat that would take us, and the other awaiting masses, to the other side of the water.  The wait was quite long at about twenty minutes, but Jane didn’t enjoy the speed boat option, so we held on for the slower, bigger boat instead.  Some of the people around us used this opportunity to take photos of themselves with me, some covertly, so that they could show their friends at home how tall I was.  This happens fairly regularly, and I am pretty used to it now.

 

Eventually the boat came and we started our voyage across it.  The scale of the reservoir was really amazing.  It actually looked, and I’m not sure if this is true, that they had cut out the inside of a mountain to put the water in.  It sounds a little crazy, but would certainly fit in with the Chinese way of thinking if that’s what had been done.  The boat took about ten minutes to get across the water, and I took some photos which can be seen above.  At the other end, we alighted from the boat and headed up to a path which would take us closer to the first waterfall.  At the start of this path was a sign telling a little bit about the area.  It was a bit like a national park, one of only two in the ‘local’ area.  There was a huge amount of animal life, including several snakes and such, and huge quantities of rare and protected flora.  It was about a ten minute walk along here before another mode of transport presented itself to us.  Some electric car things were available to reduce the rest of the walk to a ride.  Jane decided that it would be a good idea, and we jumped on board.  Only a few minutes later we had arrived at another path, which once again we headed along.  We had only taken a walk into the ‘sub-tropical jungle’ when a large, neon green spider was spotted hanging from a tree.  I took a photo, but I’m not sure how well it will turn out.  Jane thought it looked very pretty, but I wasn’t quite as sure.

 

The walk was relatively flat to the first waterfall, and it didn’t take us too long.  We walked past a few restaurants and other touristy developments that reduced the effect of walking amongst nature, and eventually came upon waterfall number five (They count up for some reason).  I had been led to believe that this was the most impressive of the waterfalls, and I would agree.  The distance the water falls reduces with each waterfall, and this one by quite a long way was the biggest drop.  The sign had described this waterfall as being like a dragon bursting from the mountain river.  If I was rather more excitable I may have been inclined to agree.  It was certainly very pretty, and perhaps if there had been a little more rainfall recently the dragon would have been more evident.  I stepped over some pretty precarious and ominously slippery (slippy isn’t in the dictionary, apparently it is ‘UK, informal’) stones so that Jane could take a photo or two with me in the shot.  I only saw one person fall into the water trying to do this, but it was enough to remind me to take my steps cautiously.  A few snaps later, and an equally careful return to the riverside returned me with my camera, and Jane, and we moved back onto the path which now lead up some rather steep steps, the first real climb on the path so far.

 

The steps up really were steep, and there approximately one hundred of them leading to the next waterfall.  The climb wasn’t helped either by the people coming down, or the Chinese tendency to push past anyone in their way.  This made the ascent both more perilous and more exhilarating.  We were pretty hot when we reached the top, and we took a few moments to appreciate the second waterfall (or waterfall number 4) before continuing up.  This waterfall actually was not considerably smaller than the one below but comprised of several smaller falls, making the overall effect somewhat less impressive.  I thought that it was significantly more beautiful, watching how the water graced itself through the jagged outcrops of rock to reach to near still pool at its base. 

 

Before long we were prepared to move on, and so we crossed the stream by a number of stepping stones that had been placed.  Once having made the crossing we began up another series of steps, a little less than before perhaps about seventy five, that took us to the next waterfall.  This, it was universally agreed, was called waterfall number 3 and was described as being like a curtain of beads.  Not a bad description actually, as the thin later of water broke into small droplets that shimmered in the sunlight.  The last two waterfalls, I was told correctly, were much smaller than those so far, and so I will offer a less detailed description.  The second from last was mostly a pool of water from which the water fell a short distance, before being rejoined in a larger pool below.  The final waterfall, called waterfall 1, was sadly rather unimpressive.  So much so that I didn’t actually realise we had passed it, and had to take a photo from above after we had realised.

 

Once we had moved away from the last waterfall, we decided we were unsure of whether to continue on our way, or to double back and head out the way we had come in.  Jane had never continued this far previously, and we asked some others what was up ahead.  Clearly I didn’t understand the response, but Jane seemed to be confident enough in the answer to suggest that we continued on.  It turned out that we hadn’t quite reached the summit, and so we continued on our way a little further, up yet more steps and over further ledges.  This part of the ascent was actually quite tiring, the day was warm and an occasional bottle of water was most appreciated refreshment.  It seemed like about an hour before we stood on the summit and took a few breaths.  I took some more photos of the surrounding scenery.  It was really awe-inspiring to be amongst that kind of beauty.

 

Before too long we began the journey back down again.  This was a rather sharp decent, and it took us almost no time before we were riding our electric buggy thing back to the boat.  We waited for a while at the front entrance before Jane’s husband came to pick us up.  It was on this car-ride that the day went a bit wrong.  When we got into the car Jane received a phone call from someone, and spent a considerable time talking on the phone.  I fell asleep quite quickly, and so I’m not sure exactly how long, but about ten minutes before we arrived back at the apartment Jane put the phone down and told me what she had been talking about.  I wasn’t quite sure on the details but I think that her apartment had been broken into.  Her mom lives with her, and quite a lot of her mother’s money had been stolen in the burglary.  She told me that we were going to head back to Ningbo straight away, and cut the trip short.  Obviously I said that was no problem at all, but she apologised several times anyway. 

 

When we got back to her sisters apartment we packed our bags and I sat around feeling very useless.  Within about ten minutes the car was packed, including about twenty pairs of socks I had been given as a present, and we were gone.  It goes without saying that the journey back was not in the same high spirits that we had been travelling with the day previous.  For me it was going to get worse too.  About an hour in to the three hour drive I started to feel a bit ill.  I was feeling a little sick, and my stomach was feeling very strange indeed, but I thought I would be fine.  I managed to keep this until about half an hour from Ningbo when I was pretty obvious something was wrong with me.  I needed to get back to my place as quickly as possible.  The longest half hour ever came and very slowly went, but eventually I got into my room.  A sleepless night and countless trips to the bathroom informed me that somewhere along the line of events I had picked up a little food poisoning.

 

Thursday 12/10/06

 

The next few days of my holiday week were not much fun at all, as you can imagine.  It is actually the middle of the next week now, and although I have felt fine for quite a while now, I really didn’t have to inclination to write about such a catastrophic end to what had promised to be such a wonderful trip.  I am very much aware that the conclusion however was far more traumatic for Jane and her family than it was for me. 

 

Anyway, sorry for the lack of entries recently, I hope you will forgive me, and I will try to put some photos up on here too of the waterfalls and stuff.  The next entry will probably be on Monday now, as I am going on a little trip with Vikki on Sunday.  I’ll tell you all about it.

 

Hope you enjoyed the read, sorry it was so long again.

 

Mat

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Hi.

 

Well I said I probably wouldn’t write anything before I left for my little vacation, as I wasn’t expecting anything overly exciting to happen in the few days between my last entry and my departure.  How wrong I was!

 

The first thing may not sound like much, but it was very significant for me.  On Saturday after my last lesson (taught this Saturday because we have a week holidays now) I was beckoned over by a group of students to play football with them.  This was the second time I had played football with these kids, and while playing football with some of the school pupils may not sound so wonderful to you, it really was for me.  I miss football more than almost anything.  Not so much the playing, as I don’t do that all too much in England, but the observing and banter that goes along with the game in general.  What makes it even better is that I appear to be better at football here than I am in England.  Or maybe people in China are worse?!  Either way, it allows me to do more in the game than I am used to, and most of what I try comes off.  It’s amazing what a little confidence can do. J

 

Anyway, while football on Friday night was good it couldn’t compare to the Saturday that I had.  I had arranged to meet a girl that I had met a week or so ago.  We had met in the bookshop while I was looking for guides on how to speak Chinese, and she offered me her opinion on which she felt were the best.  She is teaching a Korean man to speak Chinese so I valued her opinion more than just any lay person too.  We talked a little and we mentioned the idea that perhaps she could help me learn Chinese, and I could assist her with her English.  I gave her my msn address, and since then we have spoken a few times.  Neither of us had any plans for National Day, and se we decided to meet up then.

 

At first we walked around Tian Yi and climbed some steps to give us a better view of the shows taking place.  The centre of the city was unbelievably busy (something like Christmas Eve in a major city in England) and before long we decided to take a walk to a quieter part of the city so we could find somewhere to sit and talk for a while.  We headed over to an area of the city that is very pretty and also holds many of the city’s pubs and more expensive restaurants.  This area used to be where the docks were in the city, before the docks were moved further out from the centre, and so has enjoyed a lot of renovation.  This means that has become one of the most attractive areas of the city centre, and even more so because of the various European style buildings that have remained from the traders that frequented the port.  We walked a while before sitting by the river edge and talking about this and that.  After a time we decided to walk a little more.  We came upon an art gallery and decided to go in.  We were inside for several hours, looking at a mixture of styles, and comparing what we felt each piece meant.  Some of the pieces were fascinating, especially when some of the more culturally specific meanings were explained to me. 

 

After all this time we were getting a little hungry, and Vikki (Just realised I hadn’t mentioned her name before) was getting rather concerned about me needing to eat.  I told her that I was fine, but like so often in China it’s very hard to say ‘no’ sometimes. J  It was during this meal that the direction of the day was to take a turn.  Vikki had told me earlier in the day that she had to leave by about 4:00 as she was going to a wedding reception (in fact we had originally arranged to meet later and we changed the times around this)  She had taken a call and asked me if I wanted to go with them to the wedding.  I thought it would be foolish to decline and so gratefully took her up on her offer, after first confirming that my rather casual dress wouldn’t be an issue. I was told it wouldn’t be so we made the appropriate arrangements.  We finished our meal and walked a little more around the city, looking at the occasional shop, or stopping by a park we were near.  As four o’clock came closer we took a taxi to a hotel where we met up with Vikki’s boyfriend and his mother (who was our rather tenuous link to the wedding party) with whom we entered the reception room.  We thankfully took a place on a table at the rear of the room as we were amongst the first to arrive and could choose to place ourselves a little away from the action.

 

The focus of the event was the food, as it so frequently is in china, and this is certainly what I will remember of the evening.  First of all is the quantity of it.  It just kept on coming, and coming and coming.  Courses don’t work the same as in England, and I remember being given a slice if cake at some point between jellyfish and spicy beef.  This also means that it is impossible to gage how much had come, and how much further there is to go.  And so you just keep on eating, confident that it has to cease at some point. J  More memorable than the quantity though were some of the dishes.  I think I have a bit of a reputation amongst my friends for being a fussy eater, and probably correctly so.  I think I would make any of them proud however with my exploits so far here however, as I have impressed even the Chinese people around me with my desire to try every single thing on the table.  This means that this evening I tried some things I had not expected.  We started of pretty easily, having lobster.  Not unusual, but just something that I had not had a go at before.  It was very nice, and something that I look forward to having again.  The second of my four new experiences was not overly unusual either.  It was salmon.  Now I have had salmon before in England, and I’m not really very keen on it.  But this salmon was white.  I thought salmon was always pink?  Isn’t that why we have the colour ‘salmon pink’?  Well, this salmon not only was white, but was also gorgeous, tasting nothing like the salmon from home.  Ok, enough about the salmon then.  Third up were oysters.  I have wanted to try oysters for some time, but in England they are always served with lots of garlic which really isn’t my favourite flavour.  I got a chance to try them here without the intrusion of garlic.  Although, they were raw.  After teasing the shell apart and revealing a very bloody mass inside you simply dipped the remaining half shell into some vinegar and sucked the flesh out.  It had a very unusual taste, but not wholly disagreeable, and so I went back for several before deciding I had had enough.

 

The last delicacy was the most upsetting, and perhaps also the most rewarding.  When the table was spun around so I was face-to-face with a turtle, I was a little taken back.  It was whole, with its shell, head, arms and legs all available.  I needed a few minutes to gather myself before tucking into the dish, and so by the time it came round to me again, much of it was gone.  But with a little assistance from the fabulous man sitting to my left, and with some physical assistance from Vikki to my right, I had a piece of Turtle, including skin, in my bowl.  I wasn’t expecting a taste sensation, but that is certainly what I got!  It was amazing.  Without a doubt my favourite taste of the entire meal, and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity.  Although I must admit that the little face still staring at me from the soup was slightly unnerving.  The rest of the evening was wonderful too, with plenty of wine and a chance for the married couple to come round to every table.  

 

After a good few hours it was time for us to leave, and I was taken to a taxi by Vikki and her boyfriend (who I have given the name of Rhys, as I had never heard of the English name he was going by before.  It was something like ‘Vae’).  I had very little expectation when I had left in the morning.  Not because I did not think it would be a good day, but just simply because I did not know what to expect.  I could not have imagined that the day would have worked out so spectacularly, and I wore the biggest of smiles as the relatively surly taxi driver took me back to the school.  It appeared that Vikki too had had an enjoyable day, and I look forward to the next time we can meet up.

 

Well, I wasn’t going to write anything before I went away, and as it turns out I didn’t get to publish this before I left.  However I felt it was such a wonderful experience I thought I should publish it anyway, even if it is a little delayed.  I hope you enjoyed the story, and you won’t have long before the account of my holiday is coming up.  I expect it will be another long one.  Sorry! J

 

Byebye

 

Mat

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