Okeday, the main highlight of the past few days has been a relatively solo trip of us going to xian by ouselves. So to get there and back we caught an overnight train, 11 hours each way, so it was an epic trip, fortunately we had beds so it was ok but still on the way there there seemed to be some compulsion of the train drivers to blow their horns every 5 minites as like a greeting to each other or something -.- it was anoying. but yea otherwise the train trip was fairly ok, (lots of fun when u do it with friends tho and highly recomended if traveling around with friends).
In Xian itself the first day we visited the terracotta warriors, which while they were impressive, it was hard to see some of them and the army part was mostly buried and still in pits which made it kind of anoying to get good photos. Still it was really interesting to see them, further they are impossibly hard to dig up because they have to use brushes to get the dirt of them so that they dont break anything so its a LOOOONG process. also on top of all that some genious general back in like 1500 BC or something decided to loot the place and break all the soldiers so they have had to be put back together on top of them being dug out. so yea its taking a long time. Still very kul to see them, and the building that they have been housed in (well the warehouse/building things have been built around the pits) but they are really funky, like modern architecture with the typical old school chinese twist with the roofs and stuff, kul stuff.
Also while in Xian on the second day we went to see the Bell tower and Drum tower they were cool, with the said bell and drums in each tower, and there were lots of displays and a mini concert that involved drums and bells (oviously) and yea kul places in generl. Then we went down to the muslim quarter of xian, it was a really interesting part of town where there were lots of interesting stalls and like side street food. Some of it looked a bit seedy but overall it was a great place to just walk around and see some of the weird things that were around. Some side streets had buchers with like multiple pigs just hanging, someone was walking wat looked like his pet goat around, alot of stores were selling birds...like yea randomly caged birds, was fairly odd.
For the most part food was fairly standard stuff but i did brave one random sweet thing from a stall in the streets was a rice pudding like thing with a sweet sause of some form spread on one side and then nuts and suggar were spread over it, then it was speared on a couple of satey sticks for portability. Overall it was tasty and didnt kill me which was good =D
UMMMMM yea thats bout it for that trip which has been most of the past few days...and yea
O
one more food for thought question that came up in discussion over this trip which i have forgotten to post: how can you know when God is telling you to do something and how can you know when it is you own desire or ambition, and how do u know to tell the two appart.
that was fairly badly phraised to in essence how can some of the major actions in life that some people account to God calling them to do something, how do u know when it is God's calling or your own want for God to call you in that direction?
still no concrete answer on that one, probobly because God speaks to all of us in differant ways
but there you go
=D
till next time
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Hutong Highs
Okeday so again havnt done too much in the last few days. Highlights have been visiting a Hutong (a bit of the houses where old beijingers used to live). They are like mini courtyard houses, so fairly self explainitory, a courtyard surounded by four rooms. Funniest thing about the whole set up was that in one of the bedrooms, there was the traditional enclosed bed thingame, but it was faceing a 32 inch TV... culture and tech all in one room. What fun. Annnnnyway... the weather is freezing...quite litererally in this case, lowest has been -10 but for the most part it's been just negative single digets. the lakes are also starting to freeze over which is kul, unfortunately probobly wont be around when they become ice skateable on, but thats for another time.
On the weekend we were again mostly just couped up in the apartment, but had nice long deep and meaningful convos (which have been going on for most of the trip) but yea. Interesting questions that are raised are like why do you believe in God? (if you decide to cop out and say faith) what gives you that faith? then there is the basis of beliefe in religion, and all kinds of other really obscure things, also started reading some of C.S.Lewis's more obscure stuff, namely mere christianity, realllllly interesting book (if ur brain dosnt start to melt within the first few pages) but gives insight into the nature of humans and natural laws and stuff (more things that we have been discussing). but yea, some interesting things to consider, (also been talking about relationships and stuff). Went out to a couple of pubs with my cosins, and found that im not a huge fan of beer...but yea. Plenty of other deep stuff that we talked about, just not able to currently think of them all... but its been interesting none the less =P
aaaaaaanyway
that would be about it for now
o
im leaving for Xian tonight so all interneting is probobly gona b limited for a few days, but yea, should b fun
=D
On the weekend we were again mostly just couped up in the apartment, but had nice long deep and meaningful convos (which have been going on for most of the trip) but yea. Interesting questions that are raised are like why do you believe in God? (if you decide to cop out and say faith) what gives you that faith? then there is the basis of beliefe in religion, and all kinds of other really obscure things, also started reading some of C.S.Lewis's more obscure stuff, namely mere christianity, realllllly interesting book (if ur brain dosnt start to melt within the first few pages) but gives insight into the nature of humans and natural laws and stuff (more things that we have been discussing). but yea, some interesting things to consider, (also been talking about relationships and stuff). Went out to a couple of pubs with my cosins, and found that im not a huge fan of beer...but yea. Plenty of other deep stuff that we talked about, just not able to currently think of them all... but its been interesting none the less =P
aaaaaaanyway
that would be about it for now
o
im leaving for Xian tonight so all interneting is probobly gona b limited for a few days, but yea, should b fun
=D
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Summer palace and lazy days
Okeday, not such a long post as there is less to really update on.
So the highlight of the last few days has been the summer palace. The place is huge, like 2.9 square kilometers huge, albit there is a significant portion of water in the place. the day was really nice so there were plenty of photo oportunities, which lead to the problem of my memory card filling up...so now i need to find alternative ways of storing stuff... which sucks. in any case back to the summer palace, its realllllly big and has winding forest trails and temples interspaced around the area. It was an epic journey through the area as once we got in we just lost ourselves in the forest just following our nose really just kind of exploring and discovering new nooks and crannys. Even when we decided to head for the exit it took us an hour to find after a whole heap of wrong turns and discovery of new areas and temples. kinda fun really =D albit tireing on the legs.
Otherwise, the last couple of days have been fairly relaxing, iv managed to come down with a couph and cold, but otherwise just staying indoors watching tv series which has been adicting and otherwise just buming around.
On the foodish front the best thing that we've had over the past couple of days was the beijing duck. This puts all duck to shame, like its epicly awsome....in awsome ways... and yea otherwise food has been nice as always, and still hasnt killed us which is always a plus =D Had some rural chinese food as well, alot of pepper and lamb, tasty though. Ummmmmmm
otherwise thats it for now
So the highlight of the last few days has been the summer palace. The place is huge, like 2.9 square kilometers huge, albit there is a significant portion of water in the place. the day was really nice so there were plenty of photo oportunities, which lead to the problem of my memory card filling up...so now i need to find alternative ways of storing stuff... which sucks. in any case back to the summer palace, its realllllly big and has winding forest trails and temples interspaced around the area. It was an epic journey through the area as once we got in we just lost ourselves in the forest just following our nose really just kind of exploring and discovering new nooks and crannys. Even when we decided to head for the exit it took us an hour to find after a whole heap of wrong turns and discovery of new areas and temples. kinda fun really =D albit tireing on the legs.
Otherwise, the last couple of days have been fairly relaxing, iv managed to come down with a couph and cold, but otherwise just staying indoors watching tv series which has been adicting and otherwise just buming around.
On the foodish front the best thing that we've had over the past couple of days was the beijing duck. This puts all duck to shame, like its epicly awsome....in awsome ways... and yea otherwise food has been nice as always, and still hasnt killed us which is always a plus =D Had some rural chinese food as well, alot of pepper and lamb, tasty though. Ummmmmmm
otherwise thats it for now
Monday, December 1, 2008
wereGreat Wall of China
So its a fairly self explainitory blogpost, well kinda
So...today i went to the great wall (of china oviously) so that was epicly awsome. All the tv series and infinite documentories do it justice and then there is the fun of just wondering around. Well as much wondering as you can do on a wall. but yea...it was huge, and steep, like reaaaaaaaaaly steep. so we took a cable car up and went left and at the end there was a huge stair case, like 500 stairs all uneven and at a 45-50 degree angle, it wasnt particularly fun. though that was probobly our fault as being boys, at the base of the stairs, we looked up and were like, yea we can run up this, we can do it...clearly we failed...hard...not the hottest idea we've had. None the less it was an epicly awsome experience, the views were good and the weather was good (about as little wind as you can get that high up). Also, after the mega climb and walk back, we went right taking more photos and other fun epic cool stuff until we reached the end. Now to get down there are a few ways, you could walk (not a particularly good idea) there was the open cable car if you wanted to freeze, the closed one for softies...or you could just tobbogin down. So clearly Jus and I...walked down... just kidding oviously we tobbogined down, it was really good, actually i didnt slow down as much as i should thus was rewarded by a fliping of the toboggin, fortunately i managed to get it back together and keep going. Fun none the less.
Also over the weekend went out to the dirt markets (thats the local name for it, normal people just call it the antique market). This was a much better market than any other we've been to, because it has plenty of awsome kul things. however, the kulest of all things was that there were multiple (MULTIPLE) WEAPONS STALLS. they were awsome, like there was this mad claw glove with spikes on the back (iv got photos with me wearing one) and there were plenty of swords, axes, knives, halberds funky 3-in-1 weapons (think a handle with an axe head coming of one side, sword coming of the top and spear on the bottum) also a few maces, armor, also there was one stall with a kuni pouch and kuni in it (for those who dont know what that is its a throwing knife pouch with throwing knives in it, think of that pouch the blind girl in house of flying daggers used) so that was fairly awsome.
Food wise there hasnt been too much interesting happening, but there has been one good find is this pancake like thing that is cheap and sold from street stalls and stuff which is a staple breakfast or lunch food called jien bing (i think that the spelling) anyway its a massive crepe with egg spred on it to hold it together, then a paste like thing is spread on it (like vegimite im told, but it tastes better cos i hate veg usualy) sometimes the sprinkle a bit of chillie then some coriander and cucumber that have been choped up are dumped on top, to finish a fried piece of dough or something fried and tastey is put on top, the pancake folded up and served hot and ready to eat (all normally for less than 1 au$). so yea...we've had some mexican stuff when going out, nothing out of the ordinary really, aaaaaand finaly another kind of kul thing is that you can buy premade crispy duck (the ones that you use with the pancakes) from supermarkets around the area. so yea. Good stuff.
Otherwise..... thats it for now
So...today i went to the great wall (of china oviously) so that was epicly awsome. All the tv series and infinite documentories do it justice and then there is the fun of just wondering around. Well as much wondering as you can do on a wall. but yea...it was huge, and steep, like reaaaaaaaaaly steep. so we took a cable car up and went left and at the end there was a huge stair case, like 500 stairs all uneven and at a 45-50 degree angle, it wasnt particularly fun. though that was probobly our fault as being boys, at the base of the stairs, we looked up and were like, yea we can run up this, we can do it...clearly we failed...hard...not the hottest idea we've had. None the less it was an epicly awsome experience, the views were good and the weather was good (about as little wind as you can get that high up). Also, after the mega climb and walk back, we went right taking more photos and other fun epic cool stuff until we reached the end. Now to get down there are a few ways, you could walk (not a particularly good idea) there was the open cable car if you wanted to freeze, the closed one for softies...or you could just tobbogin down. So clearly Jus and I...walked down... just kidding oviously we tobbogined down, it was really good, actually i didnt slow down as much as i should thus was rewarded by a fliping of the toboggin, fortunately i managed to get it back together and keep going. Fun none the less.
Also over the weekend went out to the dirt markets (thats the local name for it, normal people just call it the antique market). This was a much better market than any other we've been to, because it has plenty of awsome kul things. however, the kulest of all things was that there were multiple (MULTIPLE) WEAPONS STALLS. they were awsome, like there was this mad claw glove with spikes on the back (iv got photos with me wearing one) and there were plenty of swords, axes, knives, halberds funky 3-in-1 weapons (think a handle with an axe head coming of one side, sword coming of the top and spear on the bottum) also a few maces, armor, also there was one stall with a kuni pouch and kuni in it (for those who dont know what that is its a throwing knife pouch with throwing knives in it, think of that pouch the blind girl in house of flying daggers used) so that was fairly awsome.
Food wise there hasnt been too much interesting happening, but there has been one good find is this pancake like thing that is cheap and sold from street stalls and stuff which is a staple breakfast or lunch food called jien bing (i think that the spelling) anyway its a massive crepe with egg spred on it to hold it together, then a paste like thing is spread on it (like vegimite im told, but it tastes better cos i hate veg usualy) sometimes the sprinkle a bit of chillie then some coriander and cucumber that have been choped up are dumped on top, to finish a fried piece of dough or something fried and tastey is put on top, the pancake folded up and served hot and ready to eat (all normally for less than 1 au$). so yea...we've had some mexican stuff when going out, nothing out of the ordinary really, aaaaaand finaly another kind of kul thing is that you can buy premade crispy duck (the ones that you use with the pancakes) from supermarkets around the area. so yea. Good stuff.
Otherwise..... thats it for now
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)