Heartbeats

To hear, to feel, to see-the rhythm of life..
So close to me yet revealing in only signs and feelings. Shrouded deep in mystery, making me both terrified and excited. Seeking reassurances in moments of silence.

I asked the outlines of the tall mountains against the dark sky,
The moon that later appeared in its daily rounds..

I asked the river as our bamboo raft made way,
And the birds that swooped to catch their prey..
I stood at the harbor asking the waves,
Even the wild ones that were busy in their play
I asked the swish of the water as I swam,
And the playful spray of the monsoon waterfall 

Did you hear the little heartbeats?

Sometimes I wonder if life is but a feeling. We feel most alive in the momentary flutters and the rush of emotions. Yet life is bigger than just being alive, it is about growing, learning and opening up to new experiences and feelings. To be honest the normal grind of human life follows the same rhythm (getting education, job, marriage, family) yet inevitably we embrace the flow of life because we develop attachments and feelings that we think we are incapable of. To feel vulnerability and great strength at the same time, to feel the little heartbeats in moments of silence..

Guilin Travels

In my mind the post's title has a faint word association with the book title 'Gulliver's travels'... I just skimmed a picture book as a child so the Lilliputian image stayed in my mind and as we toured the famous karst landscape of Guilin i couldn't help but feel like a Lilliput surrounded by magnificent peaks that rise from flat ground sudden and unprecedented. 

Every vista is breathtaking and immensely playful in some way, you can weave a thousand stories with the characters that begin to take shape if you look at these peaks for a quite moment. It is quite fun to hear the tour guide's version of the popular folklore passed down in ancient Chinese poems, stories and try to visualize it. 

A more tangible visualisation that has acquired popular currency is commemoration of a landmark site on the country's currency. The primary image on the reverse side of the new 20 Yuan note is a view of a fisherman on his bamboo raft floating down the Li River through the spectacular Karst mountains of Guilin, so when the tour guide made the announcement that we were nearing the scenic spot even the sleepy eyed jumped out of their reverie and whipped out their 20 Yuan notes to compare notes...(multiple pun intended).

We did a Easter weekend trip to Guilin and Yangshuo and came back with a completely different perception of China-Everything somehow works despite Everything...! With my HK bought sim we were navigating around with Google, people were incredibly helpful and our 'flag bearing' tour group guide found us or we found them somehow. Also Yangshuo being a very popular destination with foreign tourists, both language and finding vegetarian food is not much of a struggle.

We took a bullet train to Guilin from Shenzhen and after an overnight stay we took the early morning Li river cruise to Yangshuo. Its a 4hour cruise, a leisurely way to make your way downstream while admiring the abandon and playfulness of Nature. It is an experience that will stay in some quite recess of the soul forever-complete with the colors, shadows and reflections. 

To capture the sound as well, Yulong river bamboo rafting will do the magic. Sitting on makeshift chairs atop bamboo raft(poles tied together), it is the traditional way to experience the beauty of the river, the mountain, the quaint countryside and farms-all to the accompaniment of the swishing sound of the bamboo paddle(pole) and chirping birds.

For an aerial view(sum of the parts view) head to Xianggong Hill, just a 15min climb will reward you with the most breathtaking view of the entire trip(headline picture).

This area is a geological marvel and has some spectacular caves with breathtaking stalactite and stalagmite formation but the jazzy lighting was a major distraction in my opinion. We also went for the famous Liu San Jie Impression Light Show in Yangshuo(same guy who choreographed Beijing Olympics). The waters of the Li-river set the stage and a dozen beautifully lit karst formations form a natural backdrop, so it is quite awe-inspiring in that regard however you don't really follow the plot(no info for non-Mandarin speaker)and the imagery doesn't elevate to magical levels.

Longji rice terrace are better attempted from Guilin with a night halt so didn't work with our short itinerary. Hopefully there will be a next time to explore the area further in a more self reliant way without the tour groups.

So Long, misty mountains and shadows!

Notes from Down Under

This was our first trip to English speaking world in around 3 years, so there was less travel research involved. There was no detailed itinerary and no cheat sheet for common words and phrases especially for ordering vegetarian food. We just picked up our bags and with other Chinese New year tourists in tow headed to Sydney. The plan was to explore the city, spend a day at the beaches, a day tour to Blue Mountains, may be another tour to the vineyards in Hunter valley and call it a wrap.

Sydney is an easy city to naviate with a straighforward public transport system-train,buses & ferries and the city centre is best explored on foot. All the major city attractions are in close vicinity and we surveyed most of them in the course of an evening stroll on Day1(stepped out at 6pm after catching some sleep at the hotel). The next day we did the deep dive-guided inside tour of Sydney Opera house, leisurely walk in the botanical gardens with 20 pictures on the same spot.. Sydney bridge walk(with highway traffic on one side and wired mesh on the other side and sun shining overhead). Museums-contemporary Art was a good one and again lots of pictures of the city from different vantage points and lots of ice-cream in between.
And just as you start the day with a good long black, you end the city tour with a cup of cappuccino in any one of the cosy little cafes that catches your fancy.

Our beach day was hijacked into a walking tour as well, we did the 6km coastal trail from Bondi to Coogee while stopping periodically to play in the sand and waves and watch the surfers at their game. Beaches have their own character and culture, and i guess the Australian 'no-worries' mantra is quite palpable here. The waves are also quite fiesty here, almost kicking you out of the water.
There were lots of joggers giving us company on the trail. I would say that the joggers are spoilt for choice in Sydney- the botanical gardens, the sydney bridge, coastal trail, Hyde park(local will have their own favorites). We spend the evening at Manly beach and it was perfect to take the night ferry back-bedazzled city lights celebrating Lunar New Year. I guess what can really top an awesome day is an awesome dinner and it was quite easy to pick winners in Sydney.

Food is a big part of travel experience, sometimes you can remember a place just for a meal that you had. The dosa and filter coffee I had on one rainy day in Munnar is still my benchmark for authentic South Indian food and every-time i sit down in a south Indian restaurant i am hoping for those flavours that exist only in my memory. There is an intrinsic local knowledge, produce and traditions that makes food special from a place but the rest is a function of our memory and the associations that we build.
I cannot write about authentic Australian food, what we dined was Thai, Italian food in relaxed, cosy and approachable setting. What would qualify as authentic was the cafe culture with their strong coffee game. Cafes we visited had influences from all over the world-French, Japanese, American but i guess what made them authentic was how well they fitted with the daily life of the local people-breakfast coffee or acai bowl, lazy big brunch and close shop around 4pm-local Beer time.

Moving on to the group tours, both Blue Mountain and Hunter valley seemed predominately touristy. I didn’t get a feeling like a lot of locals hit these spots. At Blue Mountains, all the tourist buses first stop at the vista point of Three Sisters range, and then head up to Scenic world for the different rides. There is a zoo visit and a ferry ride back as part of most tour packages.

Since we signed up for a smaller group tour, we were able to shrug the crowds and explore some of the ‘hidden-spots’ in the smaller bus. From all vantage points what you see is a glimpse of the infinite expanse of the mountain. Our tour guide gave us good information regarding the history, flora, fauna and typical way of life of people leaving in the area starting with Blue Mountain 101-The Blue Mountains is densely populated by oil bearing Eucalyptus trees. The atmosphere is filled with finely dispersed droplets of oil, which, in combination with dust particles and water vapour, scatter short-wave length rays of light which are predominantly blue in colour. 

I had seen flaky tall Eucalyptus trees back home, but here they were humongous. Also saw tea-tree shrubs for the first time, it is good Aussie fun to rub the British tourists for having ancestors who used this shrub to make an infusion to drink in place of tea!

A group tour is a microcosm of the general profile of the tourists visiting a place and there was an interesting dynamics that I noticed in our group of fellow tourists. The demographics was slightly skewed towards the age group who reminiscence about World WarII, especially the American and British tourists in our group who were happy to engage in animated discussions with the guide about the history. The other spectrum of people were those who you were rooted in one place but lived in another part of the world. Japanese working in China, Chinese kid raised in Netherlands studying English in Australia, Taiwanese learning Queens English in Britain(while unlearning his Hollywood English). It was a diverse set of people curious about property prices as we drove from the city to the suburbs!

And here I am back in Hong Kong on my way to work, and I chuckle to myself when i overhear another conversations about Sydney property prices.. its a small world.