GAP YEAR IN CHINA 2000-2001

Hello from China

As most of you know it was holiday season again for us as the whole of China broke up for May Day. 10 weeks teaching, a trip to Yangshou and then visits from both our parents had pretty much taken it out of us so we were definitely in need of a break and HK was just the place to have it

Sunday began early, in fact at 5am, when after a very sleepless night, I finally decided to give up and go watch the sun rise. We were supposed to be doing some recording for Junior 3 tests later in the day and so I set out early to get some errands run before off. Little did I know though that nothing opens until 9am in this town so after exiting the school on my bike followed by really weird stares from the students - never seen us out of bed before 10am before!! - I headed down to the main square for some exercise, or rather as I discovered to watch everyone and their sister doing early morning Tai Chi. It was a really surreal experience but also extremely beautiful at that time of the morning just as the sun was extending its rays out over the lake. I returned home in time to pack my bag get the recording done and head to the hairdressers for a very quick chop. The hairdresser had other ideas though and after half a head massage I really had to hurry him along. In the end I ran out hair still dripping jumped on my bike and charged back to school where I found a panicking Alex at the gate with our bags wondering where the hell I was. We jumped in a cab and got to the bus stop with time to spare.

The trip down to HK was pretty uneventful with none of the usually amazing scenery because we were heading down to the industrial epicentre of China. Instead I passed the time memorising the Lonely Planet and Alex dozed and complained of sickness because the bus was too smooth - nothing like a good bone shaking ride to keep you healthy!!! Crossing the border was more hard work than we had expected as it involved two stops. First we queued to leave China and got stared at suspiciously by an evil woman. Then back on the bus and another stop 2 secs down the road to queue to enter HK with a much friendlier looking customs officer although very confused by the idea that we could leave China on an out of date visa from last August. Our little green books soon set them straight though and we were through and glad to get back on the air-conditioned bus as the day was getting hotter by the second.

The boys [Project Trust volunteers at the Outward Bound centre] had said they'd meet us at the bus station but arriving ½ hr late and with still no sign of them we realised it really wasn't going to happen. So two worldly China girls set out into big scary Hong Kong armed only with a Lonely Planet and themselves to find their way home. The first problem we encountered was the roads, very big, very scary but most of all covered in very fast moving vehicles - cars, a vary rare sighting up until this point. Dodging bicycles was now our speciality but cars were another thing all together and I ended up running across one road and grabbing hold of Alex as I reached the other side safely, and people think this place is small, just imagine what we will be like when we get back to London again!! Anyway, luckily for us we found Rob and Jamie in the MTR station just about to go off . However, all the excitement was not over yet because on the way home they took us to their local supermarket. "Waaaarrrrrrr, look Alex they have cheese, and bread, and waaaaaarrrrr you can get Nutella"! We were totally mesmerised and the boys chose to stick to the other side of the aisles and ignore the strange freaks who were acting like they had never seen cheese before in their lives!!

Outward Bound where the boys live is about 15 mins cab drive from the nearest town and situated on a small hillside over looking the most amazing view of the South China sea. They use the whole of the bay area for kayaking and sailing and also own a big tall ship that sadly now stands majestically but out of commission by the side of the pier. So the area was great, we couldn't have chosen a better holiday spot if we'd tried. The boys flat, that they shared with 5 other Chinese instructors, although possibly not up to all health and hygiene standards, was a great place to stay! That night the boys cooked us steak and chips with a beautifully crispy green salad before showing us around. The sea was the most interesting part as it glowed brilliantly green if anything touched it. The boys called it phosphorescence but later Jeremy pointed out that there is a nuclear power station on a neighbouring island which probably has more to do with it!

Monday found us getting up rather too early as the boys headed off to work but we were soon out and about exploring for ourselves with a walk along the coastline. It was a really beautiful day and once again like on our Hainan holiday we couldn't think that anyone was having a better time than us. As the sun beat down we decided the sea looked very tempting but unfortunately although I had a lovely swim, I also ended up with chopped up feet from the very sharp barnacles - Oups! Soon got them cleaned up though and feeling refreshed after our dip, we headed into town to meet up with Jeremy (one of Mum's work colleagues who prints her books out here in HK) who had been given the task of passing on the spare cash Mum and Dad had left from their visit to us - a very important meeting!!! After a bit of a wild goose chase, we met up with him and later also his wife Melinda for a really great lunch in Dan Ryan's, an American Diner type place. Both Jeremy and Melinda were the loveliest of people and they really made us feel very at home. We had a good laugh over lunch as they watched us pouring over the endless choice of food on the menu and then listened to all our stories of life across the border. The one thing that Jeremy pointed out to show us up as having got into the Chinese lifestyle was our ability to hold a detailed conversation about cockroaches without flinching a hair as we stuffed our faces with mammoth slices of cheese cake!

As we had no real plans for the day ahead Jeremy and Melinda offered to show us the sights and then have dinner at their place. We had a really great day with first a trip up the famous Victoria Peak in their car and then a browse around Stanley Market. The view from the Peak was just like all the postcards and being a very clear day we were lucky enough to be able to pick out the very high HK skyline for a long way. Driving round HK Island we saw some amazing views out over the sea and the harbour always full of boats. Hong Kong really is a very busy place with very little breathing room allowed, however, somehow we over all managed to come away with the impression of calm. It doesn't have the high intensity all the time that London has. Yes, everyone is out and about making money or spending it in the never ending supplies of designer shops, but somehow they seem, to us at least, to be doing it all at a calmer pace. The tubes are less crowded, you can drive along the roads and there is still space to move along the pavement. But even so after a day of exploring we were thoroughly tired out and after picking up their children, we headed back to their place to relax.

They live in a really beautiful apartment on the first floor of a huge block but as it is high up on a hill they still get great views out over the city. Their apartment is very spacious with room for their maid! and a swimming pool down below. Once again we were made to feel very at home as Jeremy showed us around and then we proceeded to have an in-depth discussion about HK TV programmes of which subject Alex and I are rather too expert!! Dinner was really nice but unfortunately having stuffed ourselves at lunch we were now really too stuffed to eat another mouthful so left the meal without having done it at all justice. Give us 10 bowls of rice and we would be fine in about an hour but Western food and we came completely unstuck!!!

By about 10pm everyone was beginning to droop so we all piled back in the car and Jeremy drove us back to OB. In fact the only embarrassing moment of the whole day was when the whole family got out to inspect our chosen accommodation!! Jeremy offhandedly mentioned it was "just like Uni" and Melinda reiterated their offer to stay with them if we needed a break!! So we said our goodbyes and many thanks for a really great day before heading off to bed ourselves. The boys rolled home later with many a story to tell about their night out!

Tuesday both Rob and Aimee [another PT volunteer] had the day off today so it was their turn to entertain us. We all got up late and then after sitting around for ages finally headed up the road for some breakfast. Chips and milk tea at 10am ain't bad going. Anyway, the weather wasn't so great today so we headed back to the flat to put on trousers before once again missioning it into town. This was our first and last trip on the bus from OB to Sai Kung (nearest town) because all other attempts to get it just seemed to fail miserably! Anyway, our morning took us to 3 different shopping malls all very clinical and stuffed from top to bottom with designer shops.

Once we had finally dragged ourselves out of M & S the normality of which totally got the better of us (I just kept thinking, but hey you can get normal stuff here and bras that fit and everything, it was all very strange!) we headed across the river for lunch. Our mode of transport was the famous Star Ferry. It was a great trip across and you definitely got some great views of Hong Kong Island's famous waterfront. However, it didn't compare to going across at night later in the week which was truly fantastic. On the other side we convinced Rob and Aimee to walk to Deli France - Oh la la! - for lunch (walking just ain't done in HK) where I devoured my first tuna sandwich in 8 months. Having eaten tuna sandwiches for the past 15 years of my school life, I was certainly having withdrawal symptoms and fell on my first chance to eat it again.

A few shopping malls later and some heavy use of the credit card in a book shop and it was time to get some ice-skating done. The weirdest thing was that the ice rink was in the middle of a shopping mall so that if people got bored of shopping they could just hang over the rail and watch you! It was a really good laugh whizzing round and round and I must say its much easier than roller skating which was what we attempted last time the boys were in China! Jamie turned up after finishing a day of hard boat scraping and so after a few more rounds Aimee went off to the cinema and we all quite gratefully removed our painful boots and headed off to Alex's only request of our visit to HK - an Indian meal. I'm not one for hot and spicy food having grown up with Dad who hates the stuff. So as we boarded the dodgiest lift ever up to a no doubt illegal restaurant [in Chungking Mansions] I was wondering if I could get away with just munching on nan bread all night. However, in the end I discovered a really nice little bird that much to everyone's disgust I totally devoured as they burnt their mouths out on weird spicy stuff!! We all had a good meal though and Alex was thoroughly satisfied so everyone was happy as we trundled home in a very tired out state.

But the evening was not to finish there because once we returned home the water was beckoning and we all ended up going in for an evening swim. Alex wasn't too thrilled by not being able to see anything thing so she and Jamie stayed near the pier whilst Rob and I went exploring phosphorescence out by the moored boats. Swimming at night really is the most relaxing experience ever, not having to worry about what might be lurking beneath the surface and just floating along looking up at the stars is one of those moments you will remember forever, until I realised that I was actually freezing to death and had to make a quick get away to the shower!!.

Wednesday everyone was back at work so once again we were left up to our own devices, we chose staying in bed until as late as possible! Then just before heading into town to meet Melinda again [to collect more traveller's cheques] I went for a quick dip to refresh myself and swam out across the bay and round all the boats moored out there. Swimming in the South China Sea certainly beats the so-called "clean" swimming pools of China.

Today was really supposed to be our tourist day but for one we were far too tired and second we wanted to go and check out the shops on our own accord. So we toodled off and once again found ourselves back in M & S contemplating the food section after having bought matching bras - we really have been living together for too long!! So armed with bras and pasta sauce we headed home to a pizza we picked up on the way and someone else's really nice flat where we all sat around and spent a pleasant evening watching Billy Elliot.

By Thursday we were really beginning to get pretty lazy and had also scrapped any ideas about going to Macau. The only thing that was slowly killing us was the long trip into town everyday so we decided that today would be a very lazy day spent exploring OB a bit more and just generally doing what we had come out to do - relax. In the morning we tried to make our way up to the top of the slope the boys had mentioned. However, all paths we took seemed to lead to someone's house, all except one...the night line! Yep in search of a nice path up we ended up following a horribly slippy overgrown little track up and down the hillside before it finally spat us out again only a few metres away from where we had started. And they make people do this thing in the dark! Well, very much muddier and nicely scratched up, I decided that the water looked tempting while Alex headed for the shower. This time even though I swam off the sharp rocks I didn't get my feet chopped up because of my very useful investment in some sporting sandals. Yep I've finally given in to the practical footwear and am finding them very useful indeed.

After lunch I called up the ballet school Mum had given me the number of ages ago and arranged to go for a class later in the afternoon. Watching Billy Elliot had spurred me into action and I also was not going to drag my kit all this way and not use it. So at 5 pm I found myself back in my leotard after 8 months of it rotting away in the back of my cupboard! The school I turned up at was one of those really scary professional looking places with evil receptionists that make you fill in difficult forms before directing you to the changing room as if you were a complete dunce. It was like being back at the RAD HQ in Battersea and as I had the warming up area pointed out to me, I was filled with dread. OK so I was going to do and Elementary class and I had passed the exam a year or more ago but I had hardly done much exercise in the last 8 months let alone done any kind of dancing. So as I stood apprehensively at the warm up barre trying to look like I knew what I was doing, I eyed up all the other girls to see what kind of hell I was in for. Needless to say they all looked like they could dance in their sleep and so put me even more at ease! However, then I decided to talk to them and discovered that there was one girl who like myself was beginning again after 6 months off. Woo hoo, I wasn't going to be alone doing weird things at the back of the class!

As it turned out, I completely surprised myself and had an excellent class. I remembered all the exercises, having done them for 3 years solidly I should hope so too, and managed to keep up with all the others. Apart from the fact that my ankles began to absolutely kill me (didn't remember how much you used them) I had a really good time. At the end of the class the teacher asked me to come and do another one the next day. How chuffed I was. So it was in a jubilant but totally knackered mood that I set off back into the centre of town to join the others for a night out.

I met them at the Tism Sat Tsui MTR station and then we moved on to a local pub to drastically damage the boys bank accounts! The whole being back in a pub experience was very strange. Having it full of westerners didn't help to set our minds at ease either. From the pub we when to a bar called Bahama Mamas where we downed a few tequilas. Then Alex and I hit the dance floor, something we are far too deprived of in China. Being the only two in the whole place dancing we must have looked a right pair but we didn't care. We were having a great time. Rob and Jamie, on the other hand, preferred to stick to hugging their drinks and discussing rugby. So I did my usual trick of chatting up the nearest people to us and got a group of Chinese people and the DJ chatting and dancing with us and returned with a successful 5 phone numbers!! At about ?hrs we decided to call it a night and slept our way back home to bed.

Friday morning reared its head as an ugly hangover. But we soon set ourselves straight with an early morning swim and then off to sort our the days kayaking trip ahead. The boys had managed to get a couple of days off so they were taking us kayaking and camping for one night - woo hoo! We were very excited as they sorted out all the details and kit we needed. In fact all we did was to mill around looking useful. However, getting the boys out of bed had been a bit of a struggle, so when we finally pushed the kayaks out into the bay, after Jamie's wonderful 5 sec lecture on how to kayak(!), it was already quite late.

So we set off in our little kayaks across the great big ocean.We tootled up the coast in between some really nice islands and generally had a really relaxing time just kind of drifting along - well, the boys were drifting, we were paddling like mad to keep up -until we found the little bay that Rob had identified as our camp for the night. It was a really beautiful spot of deserted white sand and just the lapping sea and us to intrude into the peace. Others had definitely been there before but we found a nice patch and as Alex and I cooled off in the sea, the expedition leaders did their job and set up camp. The food we had brought was limited to baked beans and spaghetti hoops in tins with no tin openers or spoons, so we set out once more to find a little restaurant across the water that Rob had previously been to. Unfortunately, though this place was not to be found. So after kayaking up and down the fishing huts and the small village, we returned to a fishing hut near the entrance to the bay where Alex said some people had been taking an interest in us earlier. In fact we both thought it was a kind of floating small restaurant and so using our very poor Chinese to talk to the men, we identified the fact that it was....not! Having removed ourselves from our kayaks and sat down at their big table to begin to dry off and wait for the food we realised that in fact this was their house and fishing farm that we had just randomly turned up at - no food on the menu. Lots of sign language later and they offered to take us to the village where they said there was food available. However, we weren't happy with this plan and wanted to eat there. They must have thought we were a right bunch of freaks turning up and demanding food but after a while we kind of came to an agreement when they produced a packet of noodles and we nodded vigorously. We figured they'd finally come round to serving us food there and sat back to wait. Not so. They kindly got out noodles, two tins of sandwich meat and some veg and left it in the kitchen for us to cook. Thinking this was all great fun and highly amusing Jamie and I set about showing off our culinary skills. Non existent was the verdict of the Chinese fishermen as between much laughter they intervened and helped us out. The result was a massive wok full of fried noodles, spam, cabbage soy sauce, soy jam and loads of tomato ketchup - the secret ingredient!! A meal fit for a king and we all dug in eagerly while the mosquitoes dug viciously into us.

It really was a very strange experience to have ended up eating what turned out to be a free meal, as they refused payment, on a fishing platform somewhere in Hong Kong. A very memorable one though and we paddled back to our camp through the phosphorescence feeling very pleased with ourselves. We had a great if not very strange night on the beach playing games round our tiny fire and then randomly jumping back into the sea when we got bored and to look at the really bright phosphorescence that appeared for a short time late that night.

Woke upon Saturday morning in an inferno as the sun had heated up the tent to boiling point. So we quickly exited and surveyed where we were. It was amazing waking up on a beautiful beach with the waves lapping at the shore and the sun shining - we were in heaven, albeit very hot heaven! Unfortunately though, the sea was not looking pretty as a red tide of nasty algae had come in. So we covered ourselves in sun cream and set out to spend our time lounging around and in and out of the fresh water pool and waterfalls instead. I found a really great spot to sun myself on some rocks by a waterfall and so stayed there until our "private" beach got invaded by a small speed boat and some other freaks. This made us realise that lunch was probably what we needed and so after a tin of spaghetti hoops had been successfully smeared all over our faces, we decided to head back for some real food. The trip back although with the wind and tide was totally and utterly knackering and even though we were paddling as hard as possible it still didn't seem as though we were getting anywhere. We were not impressed, especially as we were getting nicely fried by the midday sun at the same time. However, we did eventually make it back and after a wonderful shower, sank thankfully into the sofa and fell fast asleep while Alex and Jamie attended to their very red and crispy bits!

Sat night was certainly one to remember. When we finally dragged ourselves out of our dozey moods, it was off into town for Cath (one of their friend)'s 30th birthday party. She hadn't been out properly in HK yet so was determined to live it up and that is exactly what we did. First we went to an Irish pub place for really nice food and then moved on to another pub called the Oxford Circus where we were supposed to be meeting Siobhan [another PT volunteer at the OB] who in fact never turned up. The group we were with was really great and it was good to be able to speak to other westerners again and to compare notes on the experiences we had all had in China. However, most of them had only been in HK for a few months - mere novices at the whole China game - and it made us feel like old hands. When I tell people that we have been in Zhaoqing for nearly 9 months now it seems like forever and they are all pretty impressed. Even the locals think its a long time! Anyway, back to the night at hand...

After the Oxford Circus we crossed over onto Hong Kong Island on the Star ferry - amazing experience at night and I had my head stuck out the window the whole way! - to get to an area famous for expat bars, and it certainly was. Lan Quai Feng (or however you spell it) was I think by far the scariest place we went in HK. It could have been anywhere and on arrival both Alex and I stood for at least ½ hour with our mouths wide open just staring at everyone. We must have seen 3 Chinese people the whole night. The place was just packed out with westerners and we were totally spooked. Anyway, once we had finally managed to close our mouths we made ourselves at home in a karaoke bar type thing and got Cath up on stage as we sang Happy Birthday to her and then got her to sing. Once again we got a chance to dance and so were very happy! Also should point out that the boys had taken it upon themselves to make their nationality quite clear and were wearing their kilts!!! So having thought that we'd retreated from staring eyes into the anonymity of a western area, we were once again the group to stare. But then I guess we are used to that by now!! About 3-4 am the rest of the group decided it was time to head home, leaving Alex and I to head out to Wan Chai with the boys and their rugby friend for a last drink and a kebab before somehow very drunkenly and very sleepily making our way back to OB in time to see the sun rise! It had been a very long but totally excellent night out.

Sunday morning wasn't such a good experience though as unlike the lucky thing Alex, I could hardly move my head let alone move anywhere and poor Jamie had to get up for work after less than 2 hours of sleep! All I wanted to do was lie on the sofa and complain about my sufferings but we somehow had to get home in time to teach again on Tues, so Alex dragged me off the sofa and back into town to get our bus tickets. All we had to do was get two bus tickets but somehow we managed to spend the whole day over it cause we were both moving so slowly! We also stocked up on a few last minute supplies in Watsons (their chemist) before dragging our feet back to OB. This was the day when all the air-conditioning finally killed me as I had dared to go into town in only shorts and t-shirt (bad idea, need at least a polar fleece and thick trousers to survive the MTR!). So by the end of the day when Alex went to the supermarket, I had to stay outside because I really could not stand the cold any longer. Back at the flat I had my final cold shower of the holiday - never having quite managed to figure out how to operate the gas! - then went off to find the boys who were quite happily installed in front of the Nintendo. I chose to read about Everest instead - our next mission - before we all collapsed in front of the TV, where I promptly fell asleep.

A couple of hours later and we were up and about again (6 am) heading back into town to get our bus home. It really was an unreasonable hour to be dragging ourselves out of bed and as we waved goodbye to the boys I think they were certainly thinking the same thing. We really had had the most amazing and excellent holiday and were sad to say goodbye but were also looking forward to the last few weeks of our term ahead.
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