Activities Vs. Culture

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Ihsan is dumb, yet he thinks he's clever.

He spends a lot of his time creating highly complex theories in his mind to explain things that can often be explained without any effort at all simply by observing the situation without any unnecessary elaborated theorising.

His latest theory is that I, Usman, "don't like culture." Instead he claims that I only like activities. Ihsan had this epiphany when we were visiting Pulau Penang towards the end of our trip in Malaysia. After weeks of inflated hype and raised expectations I was a little disappointed by Penang, and this left Ihsan confused. He claimed that I was too stupid/ignorant to appreciate the history of the island and the remaining legacy of colonial rule. He compared the trip to Penang to Tian Chi, which I loved, and explained that I only enjoyed doing things and not experiencing things. I just can't appreciate culture.

In reality, I pointed out to him, Penang was a bit of a drag because it took us four hours to get there in his Landrover for a two the day trip that was cut in half, and the weather was atrocious. It was worse than England, grim and cloudy with almost constant rain the whole while that we were there. A good portion of the visit was spent on the porch of the Islamic History museum watching a tropical rainstorm that just wouldn't seem to end. Add to the story the fact that we were fasting so we couldn't try any of the fusion cuisines of Malay, Chinese, Indian and Baba Nonya food and there was little left for us to do. If it hadn't been for Ihsan's friend Anisa rescuing us, we would have had very little to remember.

Contrast this with the beautifully pristine surroundings of Tian Chi, the fantastic people, charming settlements and complete tranquillity and the comparison hardly seems fair.

Effectively we are both the same. We both love getting out there and exploring, we both cherish and respect new and interesting cultures, we both enjoy meeting new people and we are both low maintenance easy going travellers. We had three amazing months doing things that we'll remember for a very long time.

So what is the conclusion to the question of Activities vs. Culture?

I guess it proves that Ihsan is dumb...

Tian Chi - Heavenly Lake

We'd always wanted to go into the wild but it felt as if we had just spent all our trip in these gigantic cities and their heavily populated surroundings. So a day after I had been vomiting, we set off for Tian Chi knowing that we had no time left to visit the renowned Karakul Lake by the Karakorum Highway.

Just a few hundred kilometres outside the bustling Urumqi in Xinjiang, lies one of the most beautiful sceneries in China. Hidden within snow-peaked mountain ranges, "Tian Chi" means Heavenly Lake and there's no reason not call it just that. The strange greenish blue waters of the lake, the alpine forests, and the mountains cast some kind of magic beauty to it. We loved every second spent here.

Getting here was easy as there are daily buses you can get from city centre but that also meant that the lake is heavily touristed. But we're glad that most people only stayed for the photos at the entrance and rarely left the tourist enclave - the rest of the place was devoid of them.
We only wanted to make a day trip to the lake but decided to spend the night when we stop at a local Kazak yurt for lunch. Welcoming us was an enterprising 11-year-old who managed to persuad us to stay rather than heading back to the city. We had a great time staying with his family - his mom cooked, his dad dealt with the bureaucracy (our police registration) and he and his little brother entertained us.

The bus journey was an annoying two hours on a Chinese tour bus, through vast desert, large mountains and fields of sunflowers, with the tour guide screaming proudly about every single little factory or random building along the way. But the bus could only get us so far and after that there was either a cable car ride (which almost everyone else took) or a trek through nature. Following are just a few of the fantastic photos we took over two days at Tian Chi. Unfortunately, due to being ill prepared, the good camera's battery died almost instantly but the photos still look great on the other camera.

A warning of the possible dangers ahead :p


The stream was flowing rapidly and was very cold and clear.


Off the beaten track - we left the hillside route and wandered into this serene valley

Ihsan ripped his trousers jumping across this stream. I found him on rolling around on his back wondering what just happened. Khainar's mum later repaired them for him!




The water was almost the same colour as my shirt.

A chain bridge hanging infront of a powerful waterfall

Khainar, 11, our charming guide, and his younger brother, 7.

We only went to their yurt to see if they were Muslim and we could get something to eat, but Khainar managed to convince us to stay the night. Temlik (delicious) food btw including fish caught in the lake.

We spotted the smoke rising from their settlement from a distance.

We hadn't really planned to stay at Tian Chi but by the time we had finished eating and had a little rest the whole area was deserted. Khainar's dad asked us if we wanted to go up into the mountains on horses; we had no idea that the area was even more spectacular than we could have imagined. Khainar took some amazing photos for us, he was a really cool kid.

Ihsan chatting to some of the local Kazakhs. Apparently almost all the Kazakh people in China are Muslim and they are the most kind and hospitable people you could meet. Sacha Baron Cohen is a nob for degrading these wonderful people.

Ihsan and Khainar on their horses

Grazing

Me and Ihsan roaming through the hills at a gentle pace. The horses wern't as well trained as the ones in Inner Mongolia and we were afraid of falling off some pretty steep cliffs.

Some sort of really sour cherry like fruits that Khainar picked for us.

Sitting by the lakeside at dusk.

Bedtime. It was downright chilly at night but we slept snugly in the thick blankets

Adorable. Khainar's brother wearing my giant headphones.

What a wonderful way to begin the day with breakfast in the fresh beautiful outdoors. Such a stark contrast to the choking pollution in the cities

The toilet... Unfortunately for Ihsan, he needed to go for a number 2.

The next day we wandered through the woods and climbed the hills. We sat by the side of the lake all morning listening to Sigur Ros while staring at the glistening blue water and the snowy peaks visible in the distance now that the clouds had gone. It was absolutely breathtaking and I still get a tingle in my spine when I think about it.

Picturesque is an gross understatement. Some of the Kazakhs offered to take us on a whole day trip on horse back to the snow line of those mountains visible in the distance but we had only brought enough money with us for a day's stay which we were very upset about.

While we sat lakeside an eagle circled above us for minutes and gracefully glided and dived very low down near the surface of the water.

Pure bliss and tranquility.

The official parlance

On a day that ought to be declared auspicious, Usman mooted this great idea of “speaking in codes”. While at first I thought it was pretty pointless because at the time we were in China where English isn’t really widely spoken, the merits of a secret language dawned when we left China for Hong Kong.

Well it wasn’t really a secret new language or anything ridiculous like that. Basically it was just English with unnecessarily extravagant words, which we hoped would confuse even the most advance English speakers. We coined it a similarly unnecessarily extravagant name – “the Official Parlance”. Although it was hilarious that Usman never heard of the word “parlance”.

I can’t remember much of it anymore but we eventually had to speak like that for the rest of trip outside China, especially in Malaysia and much of Southeast Asia. We were so used to it we probably didn’t stop speaking in that way even when there was no one else around. We even started to speak a Chinese version of Official Parlance while we were in Thailand.

Unless you speak a completely incomprehensible language to the host country, a code language is definitely essential when you travel. Especially when it comes to haggling, purchasing or whenever you need to make quick decisions or when you need to say that something is suspicious - you need secret communication. You avoid offending people and you can strategise the next course of action without having to whisper or hide in a little corner somewhere.

In retrospect, it was funny speaking like that knowing secretly we looked so stupid.

-Ihsan

Che fan le ma?

Everyone knows Chinese food is great. Its enjoyed all around the world is very popular in Britain. Still we were pleasantly surprised to find that Chinese cuisine is a lot more diverse and fascinating than we were used to and an integral part of the Chinese culture, it soon became one of our favourite past times.

Ihsan says these Tangbao (a type of small soup and meat filled dumpling, local to Xi'an) were his favourite, and you wouldn't argue with him from the look on his face.

What surprised us the most was the number of Halal options available to us, Muslim establishments were widespread and served a huge variety of cuisine. All we had to do was keep an eye out for the characters "Qing Zhen" "清真" literaly meaning pure truth, or Halal or anything associated with Islam. "清真" can be found everywhere from posh city centre restaurants to back alley stalls and even on supermarket shelves! With the exception of pork dishes we were able to try most major Chinese cuisines.

Traditionally pork and also chicken used to be the preferred meats for Chinese people, with mutton being considered filial animals, and cattle being considered beasts of burden. Beef and mutton were used as the Halal alternative to pork by Muslims and are now much more popular in China. We were mainly eating at Halal alleyway restaurants, or vegetarian restaurants and Buddhist temples which usually have a small strictly vegetarian restaurant inside for the residents monks as well as visitors.

For such a large country it is inevitable that there will be different culinary methods around the country. In Britain and many Western countries most Chinese restaurants are run by immigrants from Guandong and Southern China including Hong Kong so they serve a lot of South Chinese food. But there are also distinct Northern (Mandarin and Muslim), Eastern and Western (Sichuanese) styles.

Northern cuisine was favoured by the Imperial courts and had many influences. We tried one of its most famous dishes, Peking Duck, on our first few days in Beijing, after wandering down a few backstreets.

After watching the chef roast the glazed duck on a pole on an open fire oven, he brought out the duck and chopped it into thin slices.

The duck is eaten with scallions and cucumber with plum sauce, all wrapped in a thin pancake wrap. Delicious!

Nothing is wasted with the left over bones and excess fat made into a soup which is served last.

Another famous Northern dish we tried was Mongolian hotpot. It had been introduced to China by its Mongol invaders who used to use their helmets to boil meats during their rampages through Asia. Ihsan enjoyed it, but my first experience left me hot and sweaty wondering why i was paying so much to cook my own food.

Hot hot hot! We dipped a large selection of meats and vegetables in the hot pot which slowly change the flavours of the soup. Ihsan says their trademark sauce was not that great.

Traditionally Chinese cuisine has always been about balance. Meals usually consist of a number of dishes that are meant to complement each other, with the principals of yin and yang or hot and cold foods applying. There is also a variety of different meats and seafood as well as vegetables while grains such as rice usually considered a cheap filler. Chinese food really stimulates all the senses as dishes include a contrast of different colours and textures.

Several dishes including chicken with green peppers and chilli, vegetables, egg fried rice, chilli infused bread and green tea at a Uyghur restaurant in Beijing.

Traditionally Muslim cuisine included flat breads, kebabs and noodle soups.

Kebab stalls are everywhere around China and they're "temlik" (Uyghur for delicious). They are covered in various spices including chillies and cumin seeds and, although usually mutton or beef, also include tofu and seafood.

A Xi'an speciality, "yangrou paomo." You are handed some bread which you break into small pieces over which a mutton, or another meat, and soup and noodles are poured. My favourite.

Fruits are delectable and plenty in the Northwestern province of Xinjiang, famous for its grapes and watermelons amongst others.

Someone couldn't wait to finish their watermelon and left it in an ashtray in our hotel lobby.

Breakfast isn't really a proper meal in China apart from in the Guandong (dim sum etc.), but you can usually find dumpling shops or grab a bowl of rice to keep you going until lunch.

Breakfast at Tianchi included bread, potato and lots of green tea. Heavenly.

We had to plan ahead and stock up on packs of instant noodles for our epic train journeys; especially once i got really ill after eating at the train restaurant carriage. They taste pretty good and are stamped Halal.

We wouldn't recommend many chicken dishes in China because it is usually a WHOLE chicken, including the whole head and claws. Bizarrely there is no breast meat and lots of bones. Btw there really isn't anything meaty on the chicken's head to eat - we tried.

There might be another update, with the mouth burning Sichuanese and exotic Southern cuisines including a famous restaurant called Gaylord(!), if we can recover the rest of our photos. Sadly they seem to have been destroyed by a very nasty virus but I've still got my hopes up they will reappear.

- Usman

Hey, its been ages since we had a proper update to this blog.

If anyone got a chance to get a glimpse of the old blog you might remember Ihsan writing about how uncool i think it is to keep a blog, but its grown on me over time. Although its a pretty handy way to keep people updated on our trip i also hope it might be usefull to someone planning their own trip. As anyone whose done sum independent travlling will have realised, guide books can be shit, its virtually impossible to keep them upto date and they make some embarrassingly stupid mistakes. So the more sources you check the more likely you are to understand things. Although there is a very strong argument for not really reading too much about a place and just experiencing it fresh which i'll probably write about later.

It seems alot longer than a month since we left China but we've still got loads of fond memories. The next few posts will be kind of retrospective looks back at the China leg, from the safety and comfort of Ihsan's air conditioned study, knowing that we wont need to explain to someone in Mandarin that we want to drag our bags next to the top berth on the train because we are going to be on it for 30 hours.

We've just arrived back from Siem Reap in Cambodia (Angkor Wat was immense) via Thailand and BAngkok which was nothing like what i expected! More to come...

-Usman

Hey the seconds are running out at this internet cafe so im gonna keep it short.

We've been in Malaysia for a couple of weeks, touring KL n the Klang valley n doing tropical islandy stuff. Currently in Thailand... heading towards Angkor Wat.

Hope this works...

Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang

Around the newly developed International Bazaar

Urumqi is Xinjiang's capital and a major Central Asian city. Despite being the city with the furthest distance from the sea, Urumqi is anything but isolated. Arriving from the east through the Gobi Desert the city seems to just appear out of the nothingness. This feeling however quickly evaporates once you are drowned by the sea of skyscapers and its millions of inhabitants.

We stumbled upon a Pakistani restaurant and loads of men in shalwar kameez.

It's a thoroughly Chinese Han city and there's little to suggest that this is the capital for the Uighur Autonomous Region. Much has been blamed on the China's policy of "planting" Han Chinese into the region to strengthen its grip on the oil-rich province but despite that there are still pockets of Uighur communities. The city feels just like another Chinese boomtown but with a twist of Central Asian influence and I thought that this a wise move by the government to encourage the traditional Uighur architectural style to dominate in the newer developments. On the facade, Beijing seems to give quite an autonomy to the province. Although this could easily be dismissed as merely token (possibly induced by tourism) but more importantly it's a gesture that acknowledges Xinjiang as a homeland for the Central Asian minorities. Yes there are problems and hostilities from both sides at the moment but maybe a new way forward is slowly forging towards a new Xinjiang one day.

The night before Usman fell ill...

We had an okay time here, there's not much to see but the Central Asian flavours felt here was a welcome change from the previous provinces that we've been to. Usman fell ill for a couple of days so I was left to my own devices most of the time. He was down with a mild fever that rendered him lying on the bed motionless. He recovered after a day but we agreed that he needs an extra day of rest. But it was fun to try and explore the city on my own and have only myself to blame whenever I got lost.

Inside the International Bazaar.

Urumqi's modern city centre was a bore and the touristic Uighur market was too fake but straying from these, I found colourful bazaars in the alleyways which reminded me of Morocco. However several days spent here, I realised that I'm completely bored of hopping from cities to cities and knew that I must get out and see some wilderness.

Wuyi Lu Night Market

Hi everyone. Sorry for the lack of updates recently but we've been really busy for a variety of reasons including ill health and a serious lack of planning. Being spontaneous was cool to begin with, and it took alot of effort to convince Ihsan its ok, but we're still wandering around China and the summer is almost over.

Since the last update we've been travelling further along the silk road which was our original, rather simplistic plan. From the old imperial capital of Xi'an we moved Northwest back to depessing Lanzhou for a second time, and then towards the "New Frontier" of China, Xinjiang, which has more in common with Pakistan and other central Asian countries. We visited Urumqi, Turpan and Kashgar as we crossed the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts and were almost at the border with Pakistan! Lots of updates will follow about our ventures "into the wild" (finally) and some security incidents and stuff.

Suddenly realising how many days we had wasted because of Ihsan having a shit passport and me having a shit immune system we had no choice but to fly out of Urumqi. In hindsight we had been pretty nieve thinking that we could travel a country that is more like a continent by road and rail alone. We're currently in Chengdu, Sichuan province, which was recently devastated by a strong earthquake, and we have been prevented from going to Tibet (a big sarcastic xiexie to Phill Bartell, Tirian Mink, Iain Thom and Lucy Marion for making it difficult for everyone else). With out our planned grande finale of our first leg of this tour, we again have no firm plans and anything is possible. With a target date around 16th August to get to Malaysia, the South East Asia part of the tour is on hiatus. Watch this space for where we'll end up.

-Usman

Xi'an

Ah the fabled city Xi'an.

It's one of those quashed dreams.. again over-romanticised by our own ignorance. I imagined that Xi'an being the starting point of the ancient Silk Road to be a little bit more old and dusty than Beijing, teeming with tea-traders, artisans' workshops and silk weavers. But again it is another thoroughly industrialised and modern city.

The Muslim Quarter (during the day(top) and at night (bottom))

Cycling on the city wall was fun, we had a few races and I beat Usman 4 times. He complained he got a bad bike and we swapped bikes - he still lost.

But thankfully, there are still remnants of the Silk Road that survived the onslaught of China's intensity to be modern, sleek and international. We liked Xi'an. It's very touristy but there are still few places where you can find genuine experiences. Being a capital for 13 dynasties, it boasts grand architectural relics especially from the Ming dynasty and Tang dynasty.

The Big Goose Pagoda is beautiful and exemplifies the clear geometry of Tang dynasty architecture.

In a teahouse, where we got a room with a TV, computer with internet access, and a mahjong set!

Usman sipping a cup of Huang Shan tea (cheapest in the menu) enjoying the good life...

Usman devised a game that we could play with the mahjong set which he lost. Notice the pitiful number of mahjong pieces he had and compare it to mine! Try again Usman.

There is also Muslim Quarter right in the heart of the city centre, which is slightly geared towards tourists (bus loads of them) but manages to preserve its character nevertheless. Food here was great and atmosphere lively. At night it feels like a Marrakech with its al fresco restaurants. Souvenir shops dominate but seem to be a little ignored. As you move away from the main shopping street, the Quarter becomes much more genuine. The community life takes centre stage in the absence of hording tourists. Restaurants here are for the locals so it was a lot cheaper and this is where I found the best baozi (dumplings) yet. Even if you've got nothing to do, the quarter is just a great place to just linger around and meet ultra friendly locals.

Dinner in the Muslim Quarter with Henrik

From Xi'an, we went on to visit the Terracotta Army just outside town to have a look at ourselves "the great artistic achievement and a display of enormous power by the First Emperor" but only to return a bit underwhelmed. I don't really know why. Maybe it's the rampant over-tourism (visit to fake terracotta army-making factories, stops at tea house etc.) or just the huge swarms of people or maybe I feel like the real significance of this whole thing is the historical context. Although these terracotta figures itself are important cultural relic in China, they are just a manifestation of what's really on display - the absolute power of the First Emperor. The tourists' quick lazy photo-ops with statues just pissed me off. Maybe that's why Usman thinks I'm a bit geeky. Don't care, like I always say, GEEKS RULE THE WORLD.

-Ihsan

That joy on Usman's face...