China, Fujian

Hakka Huts

Joel

We decided to get outta town and up into the rolling green countryside. We hired a driver and took a looooong drive out to Fujian Chuxi Kejia Tulouqun to see some UNESCO World Heritage Hakka Huts, which are perfectly round and built out of rammed earth to defend against invading armies between the 12th and the 20th centuries. The Hakka Huts could be between three and five stories high and house up to 800 people.

The roads were all brand new and well maintained and our car was comfortable and well air-conditioned. The journey took around four hours in each direction. Along the route were banana plantations, lots of bamboos, grapefruit groves, tea plantations, and rice paddies – mostly in mountainous terrain. There were Western-style rest stops along the way, but most seemed deserted at this very hot time of the year. Then again, the extreme tropical humidity and heat seem to put most visitors off from visiting Fujian this time of year.

Once we got to our destination, a nice old lady met us in the parking area and seemed to want to give us a tour. Being wary of previously bad experience with defacto tour guides in other counties, I was a bit suspicious of her motives. She was trying to get money from us, but not as a tour guide. Rather, she was keen to cook for us in her little round-house restaurant. She even offered to slaughter a chicken for us in front of our very eyes. We felt we had no other choice but to eat there (considering the remoteness of the place), so we let her rustle up a nice meal while we explored the various Hakka huts and climbed up to the observation point overlooking them. Her lunch turned out to be quite nice, but the chicken was a bit too boney as usual.

China, Fujian

Temples, Cats, and Gardens

Joel

We decided to try and get the most out of Xiamen by hiring an English speaking guide to take us around to some of the more famous sites around Xiamen. Her English wasn’t great, but she was very nice and helpful. She initially tried to help us get some credit cards registered with WeChat so we could be included with the prevailing currency system in the area, but we had no luck getting them to work later in the day when we had tried to use them.

Our first stop, which we could walk to from our tower apartments, was the South Putuo or Nanputuo Buddhist temple. The South Putuo Temple is located on a small mountain range that rises on the island. There are good views of Xiamen from the peaks. It is also next to Xiamen University.

After visiting the temples and being caught in another monsoonal downpour, we hiked back to the hotel via a back alley, dedicated to cats. It contained a cat museum and all things cats, as well as lots of interesting little restaurants and market stalls. The alley stretched for blocks and took us the whole way back to our hotel. It was definitely a far more interesting way to traverse that part of the city.

In the afternoon we caught a public bus to get through the mountain tunnel to the other side of the small mountain range on the island under the temples to reach the Xiamen Botanical Gardens. The bus we caught was very was modern, clean, and well air-conditioned – but too crowded to offer up any seats. I was actually offered one towards the back of the bus by a young man, but it looked too difficult to get myself back there. Must have been my age,

Xiamen Botanical Garden covers around 4.5 square kilometres and is full of hills ranging from low to high with different garden displays with lakes and babbling brooks throughout. Of course, we decided to set off for the highest peak where a desert cactus display and lookouts could be found. It was quite a climb and a bit of a maze to find – although worth it in the end.

China, Fujian

Xiamen Island

Joel

Xiamen is a beautiful place, on an island overlooking Yundang Bay that has a sizeable nearby island occupied by Taiwanese. Xiamen is hip, modern, and touristy – but devoid of westerners. There are plenty of trendy malls and shopping areas, but they cater for Chinese tourists. It is hot and humid, but a nice breeze continually drifts in off the bay. Xiamen has an interesting history as a British-run treaty port between 1842 to 1912 – formerly under the name Amoy.

In the evening we took a long walk on a footpath along the coast until we reached Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Street, which was closed to all but foot traffic and full of restaurants and trendy shops. Dining can always be challenging because it can be difficult to read the menu and you are never 100% sure what you are eating. Nevertheless, I managed to get some tasty chicken dish with mushrooms and greens on rice. It was good but had a few too many bones to navigate.

China, Fujian, Guangdong

Choo Choo China Style

Joel

It was time to leave Guangzhou and head off to our next city. This was my very first foray into bullet train commuting. I purchased 1st class tickets, but my travelling companions only received 2nd class tickets, so it was interesting to see the difference between their seats and mine. Their 2nd class seats were more like airline seats while my 1st class seats were nice and wide and comfortable. We had to take two trains. the first was a relatively short ride to the Hong Kong suburb or Shenzhen. Shenzhen had a massive train station where we navigated our way to our much longer train to Xiamen. There was enough English used on the trains and throughout the train stations to make the journey easy.

The bullet trains were extremely comfortable and smooth and almost always precisely on time. The scenery was often spectacular. The trip had numerous beautiful sections with lush green mountains and big valleys and plenty of long train tunnels. This train usually cruised at around 200km an hour but our first train peaked at over 250kph a few times. The train stations were huge, but easily enough navigable.

We arrived in Xiamen late in the day and were taken to our rented apartment in the Xiamen Twin Sea View Towers expecting to find a nice multi-room apartment. Instead, we found a single room crammed with two king-sized beds for three adults and two children. Knowing this was not going to work, I immediately got on my phone to see what other accommodation options might be available nearby. In the end, we were able to score a second apartment a few doors down for a super cheap rate. I was able to live quite comfortably and could have stayed much longer.

Xiamen appeared to be a very trendy Chinese-hipster type town that is not used much to cater to Western tourists. We headed down to find a tasty dinner in a nearby hawkers-hut, but nobody seemed to take cash at the shops: just WeChat and AliPay. With only cash and Western credit cards on us, we have had to get other people with WeChat accounts to pay for us after we paid them in cash. It was a very odd system, but showed the overwhelming size of the local Chinese economy and lack of significance Westerners were to them!

Xiamen is right on the coast and our apartments looked out over the water and can see parts of Taiwanese territory. There are bike paths wrapping around the island we are on and it looked like there would be plenty to do.

China, Guangdong

Tropical Guangzhou

Joel

As it turns out, the hotel in Guangzhou was about as nice as I experienced while in China. It was very comfortable and provided us with a luxurious and massive breakfast spread every morning. There were no problems accessing various internet sites which were often blocked in other parts of the country.

We had our luxurious breakfast buffet at the hotel before heading out to try Guangzhou’s metro subway system. There appeared to be lots of good designs ideas copied from the Hong Kong and Singapore subway systems, which made it very easy to navigate. We easily made it to The Museum of the Nanyue King of Western Han Dynasty – a tomb that was only discovered in 1983 and contains 2000+ year old artefacts and burial remains. The archaeological site was preserved as found (minus the relics) and you could walk around in the different rooms they discovered. The artefacts were on display in the accompanying museum – including the sarcophagus and coffins of the king.

While in there, we had our first taste of monsoon rains, but it soon let up long enough for us to hop the subway to the beautiful Chen Clan Ancestral Hall and its modern art installations. The buildings were over 100 years old and beautifully designed with many courtyards and interlocking walkways. Although mostly more modern creations, the exhibitions were designed and crafted using traditional Chinese techniques. It was definitely one of the highlights of Guangzhou.

After returning to the hotel, we tried out the pool, visited my travelling companions in the luxurious hotel suite the were upgraded to, and then headed out for another local Chinese dinner. Unfortunately, this dinner was not nearly as tasty as yesterdays.

China, Guangdong

First Night in China

Joel

I caught a reasonable non-stop flight from Perth to Guangzhou on China Southern. It was the longest flight I have ever taken without changing timezones: 8 hours. Guangzhou is more or less directly on the same longitude line as Perth Australia, so it was a straight north shot. I found myself sitting next to a polite and friendly elderly man who seemed to be getting deported from Australia for some reason. He had a letter in his hands from the airline stating that he was financially responsible for his deportation. I pretended not to notice. He seemed to be British and heading to the U.S. to see his daughter who was living there.

Once we arrived on the tarmac in Guangzhou, the plane had to taxi endlessly around the perimeter of the huge new airport. It got stuck in a queue for 15 minutes while waiting for a gate and then finally pulled up to one. The only problem was that the section of the airport we pulled up to had obviously not been finished yet, so we all had to exit down stairs to catch shuttle buses to a completed part of the airport.

I was easily able to get a local SIM with a local Chinese phone number with access to data for my time in the country. I eventually found an ATM to get some Chinese currency and then found the express bus to my hotel. Unfortunately, it had to make 3-4 10 minutes stops at various parts of the airport before finally venturing down the highway express to central Guangzhou. In all, it took 3 hours from touchdown to hotel arrival where my brother and his family were waiting.

My first impression of China was that it appeared to be a very modern and well cared for country, but by the time I got checked into the hotel, I must have been photographed hundreds of times along the highway and for each purchase I made at the airport – as well as for immigration – which I also had to be fingerprinted for multiple times. I guess a welcome to China experience.

Overall, it was an exhausting trip and an endless wait for the people waiting up for me at the hotel for dinner, but we headed out to find a nice dinner and ended up at a fabulous local restaurant where we had ourselves a banquet of excellent Chinese food.

Lisbon Area, Portugal

Lisbon Camping

Joel

Rainy Day in Beja, so we quickly pack up and try to venture into town for some breakfast. We found what we needed but got drenched in the process. Fortunately, we heard the weather was better at our destination in Lisbon.

We headed out of town and stopped for a pizza lunch along the way before arriving at our final campsite in the city of Lisbon. Oddly, this city campground turned out to be the nicest commercial campground we came across on our travels – but it was much more expensive than the others.

The campground was located in one of Lisbon’s largest city parks and there were hiking trails going from place to place. We explored a few loops before returning to the campground to freshen up for the evening. Some of us swam in the freezing pool before we headed back into downtown Lisbon for one last dinner together.

It was Saturday night and the streets were packed. Driving the big campervan through the busy streets and finding parking was very tricky. Eventually, we found a spot a good mile away from the restaurant, but some entrepreneurial scammers were charging for parking and pocketing the proceeds there. We just paid them anyway because we were out of options.

We took a hike back up to the Indian restaurant that didn’t actually sell Indian food and had our feast. The dinner was the best we had all week. I knew Portuguese food could be very good and tasty from my experiences with Portuguese restaurant in other parts of the world, and this place confirmed that. We were all very happy with our meals and stopped for ice cream down the street on our way back to the car.

Alentejo, Portugal

Beja

Joel

We arrived in Beja, Portugal in time to set up camp and explore the historic town. Beja was the biggest town of any we had visited since leaving Lisbon at the beginning of the week. It also had plenty of charming cobblestone streets and a castle.

We explored a bit and settled in for a dinner at a recommended restaurant. So far, all of our meals have cost less than ten euros. This restaurant looked extra fancy, but the price range turned out to be in line with all the other places we had been eating. Oddly, we were presented with big menus and plenty of options, but after attempting to order something, I was quickly corrected and told that only six items were actually available at that time.

The campsite was nothing but dirt next to busy roads and a football stadium, but I survived through the use of my earplugs. By morning it was pouring rain and we needed to get back to Lisbon so my fellow travellers could fly back to Canada the next morning.

Andalucía, Spain

Cumbres Mayoress to Cumbres de Enmedio Historical Trail

Joel

I was awoken early by very strong winds trying to blow over my tent. After attempting to weight it down with big rocks, I had to eventually bail and pack up before the tent got damaged. The winds reminded me of our easterly winds in Perth and whether there was a connection between them and these winds and the Santa Ana winds of southern California – all locations with Mediterranean climates.

The town of Cumbres Mayoress was very small and not so friendly. There were few places to eat, but we did manage to find a place open for coffee next to the square in the morning. We also found a supermarket to restock our supplies in.

Once we were stocked up and packed up, we parked our van on the outskirts of town, hiked up to the village castle, and embarked on what was supposed to be a ten kilometre hike to the neighboring town of Cumbres de Enmedio.

The hike was beautiful and a real interesting find. We could only conclude it was the original laneway connecting villages from back in Medieval times. It followed old rock walls on either side and passed scores of small farms along the way. The spring flowers were blooming everywhere and the rolling hills of the countryside were wonderful to look upon. The hike only managed to extend about 8kms in the end, but we all enjoyed ourselves very much. The village of Cumbres de Enmedio was very small, but a nice place to relax for a bit after the hike. From here we headed back into Portugal for the night.

Andalucía, Spain

Aracena

Joel

Woke up to a few friendly toots from local farmers passing by in cars, but the beautiful pastoral scenery of lush greenery and mist rising over the Rio Alcarrache surrounded us while we cooked up and ate a hot breakfast.

From here we headed into the small town of Aracena. It was nice and a bit more developed for tourism than most of the other towns we had visited, but our frustration grew adjusting to Spanish schedules. Many sites close early for siestas and evening dining is never available until after 9pm.

We hiked up to the Castillo de Aracena, only to find it locked up for the afternoon – so we attempted to hike to other locations around the town. Nothing really worked out and we found ourselves walking around in circles.

There was free camping in town in a vacant lot, which did not appeal to my fellow travellers, so we headed out of town to find another place to camp for the night. We were having trouble finding a suitable place, but finally found a farmer happy to have us camp on his property just outside the town of Cumbres Mayoress.