Holiday Highlights

This week I worked mainly from home as the school had an Arts/Sports Festival. They put on a good show and I even took part in the staff relay race. Despite my team only having one man as opposed to two, we still managed to win the race! The next day, my thighs were rather sore and I only ran 100m.

Friday was a Bank Holiday (Labour Day) and so we head off to Ping Liang which is about 3 hours away by bus. Just outside the town there is rather an impressive mountain called Kong Tong Shan. Where we live is not too green as there is very little rainfall and so it was great to see so much greenery. The mountain is also a Mecca for Buddhists and Taoist and so there were lots of temples. We stayed the night on the mountain with some monks which was quite an experience. Let’s just say it was rustic! A fun weekend!

(Sabine)

Rustic! rustic! I'll say. Well let's go back to Sunday (26 April) to give you a fuller picture of our week. Despite noisy neighbours we managed a lie-in before catching up on 'paperwork' , and household chores, etc. The best bit of the day was 'Fajitas' for tea. I say Fajitas, we found a tortilla of sorts in the supermarket and cooked up some veg in authentic 'Old El Paso' spices to fill 'em - mm mm.

10 am Monday morning brought a meeting with the boss to sort out details reference the impending training sessions. However meetings in China are invariably well punctuated with interruptions - this one was no exception; should have lasted a half hour, we finished at 12! The remainder of the day was pretty standard: Bin jia cai (sort ot vegetable sandwiches) for lunch, work in the pm and a Chinese lesson after tea.

Tuesday: long day working (honest)

Wednesday: as above (stir-fry for tea)

Thursday: no change (it's all work, work, work)

Xing qi wu: May day/labour day, call it what you will, it was a holiday. Twas an early start with a swift stroll to the East bus station (meeting Kiko our aid en route) to negociate a price for the ticket to Ping Liang, a town/city about 3 hours away to the East. After settling on 80 kwai (8 quid) for all three of us we were on our way. The bus was like an engine driver's armpit which caused me unusually a bout of travel sickness. A bag of vomit later I was fine and ready for my Chow Mien lunch.

The reason for venturing to Ping Liang was an attraction called Kong Tong Shan. This is essentially a mountain upon which are numerous Bhuddist and Taoist temples. The journey to the temples was a hot, dusty and winding set of steps past purveyors of all manner of souvenirs. This neverending upward hike included quite a few enthusiastic Chinese parties at times almost insisting on that we were become a part of their photo albums (I think I'll start charging). Eventually we reached a temple which had accomodation for visitors. Kiko did the negociating and we were allocated beds for the night, with tea and zao fan (breakfast to you) all for 30 yuan each - a veritable bargain!

Tha rooms, next to each other, were basic but functional. Kiko and Sabine shared one. I shared the other with an elderly, snoring monk. Mind you, this was the least of my worries as far as being able to sleep was concerned; other monks (and monkesses??) seemed to spend the dark hours talking and shouting about I don't know what (cause I couldn't understand). To top it all, at 5 am a very brave monk started braying the living daylights out of a gong-like container as a signal to something or other. Anyway that was it for shuteye. The one suprising thing which helped with my comfort, was an electric blanket. No hygenic toilet or sink in sight but an electric blanket - oh yes (as Churchill would say).

Saturday: We missed breakfast despite arriving at the 'canteen' at 7.30. We munched on some bin zi and xiang qiao (bananas) instead. Following a few photos of a friendly monk we headed across the landscape to visit the Bhuddist half of things. One thing I learned was that Taoist monks have long hair contained under their headgear, whereas the Taoists shave it all off (whatever lights you candle).

More photos and step-climbing ensued before we headed back down the mountain via a different route to catch a taxi back to Ping Liang town. The taxi ride left us a little short of our intended destination so we walked part of the way. A pleasant suprise was a park-cum-advanture centre full of Chinese enjoying themselves. Refreshing as we'd thought they were always working.

We made it back to the bus station, bought our tickets home and boarded a minibis/people carrier. After half an hour we pulled over and were transferred to a single decker (apparently our tickets were the 'cheaper' ones, hence the switch) - this is China... The remainder of the journey was as sticky as the outward trip but the consolation was Jackie Chan movies gratis. Needless to say we slept well Saturday night.

Sunday we took it easy: a bit o shopping, carrot and pumpkin soup and Pirates of the Carribean 3 before bed. Catch you'all next time.

(Phil)