Peaks in Zhejiang: Part 1

To avoid murder in Shanghai, I escape to Zhejiang often. For those of you who don’t know, I am on the hit list (like all Shanghai residents) of the delivery bike riders. They are a unique species, distinct from rest of humanity: blessed with Formula1/ MotoGP skillset, along with an unparalleled ability to break all the rules, knock and kill: in pursuit of their mission of getting the packages to rest of us in time.

So on a weekend, my ride changes: my bicycle (knocked down twice by maniacal bikers) is given a break and the car is rolled out to munch miles.

One may drive to Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi or even Shandong. But one realizes that if mountains are your calling, Zhejiang is the province to head to. These enigmatic mountains have been formed by crux of the Earth, tempered by nature for over a thousand years. They often help you to retain perspective: what all we do, and where it pales compared to mother nature, or grandfather time. If nature doesn’t cover enough, let me throw in some materialistic perspective: Zhejiang is rich and it shows with the quality of build of its interior roads.

Here is the ranking and some of the places are covered in this post (Part 2 later)..

Yangdangshan  (Rank 8)

DaLong waterfall at YangDangShan

A popular destination (UNESCO global), but the challenge here is is the number of spots one needs to cover. And of course - it is swarmed by humanity amply. I covered the DaLong waterfall (unique indeed) and the peak. The tourist area is well developed (China AAAAA rated) but one needs to plan a lot, face crowds and spend a lot of time and money (every area needs a separate ticket).

 If you are driving, you’d be challenged to park across various spots, and if you are not, you will be queueing up every now and then to get to the next buses ferrying tourists across.

The main trek is challenging, to mildly put it. However, the oomph factor for me was dulled by the popularity of the place and the volume of humanity that chooses to hit this place. Maybe I am anti-social: but I don't recommend this highly as the peace and equanimity in the equation collapses. 

Xianhua (Rank 2)

Not the highest peak, not so popular – but my favorite!

It has so little popularity that everyone I mention this to end up searching 'Xiangshan' and missing this masterful place (XiangHua).

Those of you who crib that trekking is focused on working out your lower body only, there is good news for the kind: You have to get on all fours. Your biceps and triceps have a lot to do and you may walk back with stronger muscles to showoff upon concluding your trek.

The climb & the chains

I thought the chains were to help those climbing up. I was terribly wrong. The chains' role is predominantly to keep the people crumbling down and delaying death. The bottle here in the picture is not to irritate my wife, who can annihilate anyone caught littering, but it is to give you perspective of the steps and the attack angles.

This is one of the best places I have seen. Ironically the results you get on google for the place is zero. Nil.

Unique thing here besides the chains: Lizards. There were ample rustles to scare you. I was greeted by 15 lizards of different scientific names in a matter of hour, all ranging from brown to psychedelic green. Google executives called me to inform that their global cloud space was running out as I started to write about my hatred for lizards, so I won’t delve in that. I remembered the strategy of my dear friend Bugga: who when accosted by beings of the wild, kept survival strategy simple: Run..

This is one of the best places I have seen. Ironically the results you get on google for the place is zero. Nil. Xianhua is not accessible by public transport, nor is it found as the top 5 places to visit on forums. However, I rate it one of the best factoring in just that. The crowds are kept away and if you are the contemplative kind or one who loves nature more than humanity – this place is a gem. If you do want to reconnect with humanity after your trek – head to Yiwu – the factory of the world to see where weirdest of the goods of the world (toy cars’ gears, glass grabber, 95% of the world’s Christmas tree decorations, etc.) come from.

Tiantai mountain (Rank 6)

The waterfall here is said to have inspired the famous poet Li Bai.

The waterfall that inspired Li Bai

The silly thing here is the split between the areas and tickets. I was terribly confused about the options and bought the overall package (160 as against 100 for the waterfall only)

The waterfall, with it’s majesty will impress. And it will ask you to undertake a treacherous climb.

Even beyond the waterfall, the trek is enigmatic with great views of the fall, the valleys and the reservoirs.

After an hour and half,  I came at a juncture where a ticket check was needed. Brilliant, this is where the extra money I accidently^ paid would be put to work.

(translation error by the only foreigner thanks to his broken Mandarin) 

Alas, that elation was short-lived; I was confronted by a major problem. That extra money I had spent had but bought me into fear. The author is incredibly scared of heights, and the path ahead entailed walking on a bridge (at unspeakable heights) with a glass base. This maximized the vision of possible plunge below, and sharpened my fear of heights..

After battling anxiety for those long moments, I managed to cross the ghastly life threatening piece that they called an engineering marvel. Only to find myself lost. I headed to the one exit sign, only to find that the aforementioned exit seemed to be miles away from where I wanted to be. Conversation transpired in my broken Chinese with the sole employee I could find there. I explained to her the facts: I was lost, my car was at the map location (which displayed English, a language she could not quite comprehend)

My problem statement was barely conveyed when she was joined in by a a couple of well wishing onlookers who shot a flurry of instructions and life advisory. With my limited understanding, I grappled to comprehend and I frantically took notes and tried to reconstruct the messages *:

- “you are truly lost”

- “Too far”

- “Find ‘that’ exit, and then find 'that' bus”

- “Hope you can find your way in life. And perhaps your car”

 *I am only HSK level 2 qualified, and there could be errors in my comprehension

I was incredibly lost indeed. I kept trekking, often in counterintuitive direction to what the maps depicted. There was another beautiful waterfall, a majestic lake, which tapered to become another waterfall at the edge of the dam. This sight did make my spirits plunge from a state of melancholy to elation for a while, until reality check rightly brought me back to the state of panic. For the sun was setting, the return drive was long, and if I took the simple way of returning the way I came to find my car, I was sure to be eaten up by the creatures of the wild by nightfall.
  

Miraculously, I did find 'the exit' mentioned by a well wishing onlooker, I did manage to get onboard 'the bus' and reached 'the car park' to retrieve the right vehicle. 

Was the whole ordeal beautiful? Incredibly so..

Did I enjoy it? Nope..

And this is because this is because of the guidance I could NOT get. Forget the foreigner/ English instructions problem, the area is sub-divided to many regions (my ticket covered couple of them), and at every region: the map changes, royally ignoring what the master map says. While you could expect an ill-read foreigner going astray from regular paths, my Chinese comrades had similar problems. I met many on the way with similar expression as mine: a unique combination of fear, elation and panic thanks to being lost in nature's splendor.  

The process remains complicated: entry from one, exit from another  area(s), taking the bus to car park.

So while TianTai righteously takes a spot in the top places of Zhejiang, my anxiety resulting from lack of directions forbids me to take it to the top 3.

Fangyan (Rank 12)

Fangyan's' fame: the bridge

This is a nice temple place with a relatively easy trek. The scenic area provides complimentary transport from parking to the ticket counter: saving you ~ 20 minutes of walk. The trek: though modest in terms of time and ascent, involves lots of stairs which can test your knees. There a quirky route which offers to land you at the film city when taking the cable car, but i avoided this to get lost from my car again (memories of TianTai haunting).

There are many interesting spots in the course of the trek, with temples, places of historical interest and view points. Yet, I will never go here again. Jinhua has lot of other interesting places to offer and I would advise to skip this one.

Disclosure: Author's rating is heavily biased as he was cheated into adulterated fuel at YongKang. This led to drops in power with the drive back and a visit to the service station to diagnose the issue.

Lingqi Caves (Rank 5)

River snaking into the karst system

To be clear: this is not a mountain trek but rather a phenomenon of nature worthy of pilgrimage. Hence including in this list. The stalactite/ stalagmite formations date back centuries. Like it is with many things in China: this has been maintained incredibly well and the displays are commendable (can't help comparing this with San Antonio's natural bridge caverns). 

Why it does not feature as one of the 'go to' places in China is a mystery for me. We accidentally discovered this gem during our trip to 1,000 island lake (QianDaoHu) and it turned to be the pinnacle of the trip. There is a moderate walk to get the the caves from the tourist entrance gate and then comes the boat ride, taking you through a secret river snaking through the mountains. The karst water system is a phenomenon to be experienced and wish it were more popular - for the benefit of humanity.

The drive to LingQi caves is an added bonus, with ample fast mountainous roads featuring more tunnels than I had cumulatively seen in my lifetime.

Splendid Vietnam

 

There is a backstory here: Let me start with introducing my friends first ..

My friend : Dr. Fei is one of the most logical creatures to be found on the planet.  While his logic stems from his superior genes, his PhD in mathematics (obtained in record time) from the elitist schools of Europe also has a role to play in shaping his superior thinking. This PhD of his and his analytical mindset do help him earn a living, but these are not the only qualities I cherish in him. More importantly, I lean on him for guidance for most of the other complicated junctures that life brings you at: From complex equations, life decisions, investment avenues and even the deep questions around the purpose of life: I have always walked away wiser after have picked Fei’s brain on the matter.

Miss Z’s nature has similar characteristics. Working on endless heavy-duty work, she still exudes calm and has time to help out rest of us humanity. Conversations with her would add perspectives for the conversant. Plus, she snowboards: and that propels her further up on the coolness chart, paling Fei, me and rest of us. I always look forward to hearing of her adventures & experiences of near and distant lands.

But when it comes to South Asia, this is where the wisdom of my friends take a back seat and strange tunings prop up. While both of them have seen the world, they detest the idea of visiting South East Asia. While Z has conquered the snowy peaks of Japan, worshipped most of the art & architecture in Europe, I have been unable to convince her to visit SE Asia. Ditto for Dr. Fei; who flinches at the mention of Thailand. When I pressed on for the reason, I got the feeling that security was an issue. Upon further investigation, I understood that as is for most of the world’s misperceptions (and negative impact to the grey cells): movies were to blame for this as well.

I got to know the plot of a popular movie, which goes like this. A Girl (who rates high on goodness, kindness and success scale) visits a Southeast Asian country for a well-earned holiday. But behold, she is identified by gangsters, who are of course working in connivance with all corrupt authorities of the country. She is kidnapped and presto: is drugged and operated upon to extract her kidneys. The kidney is transplanted to the relative of the corrupt Mayor of the town, who has been waiting for this moment too long.

Docile Dad of the good girl finds out, who now transforms into Die Hard Bruce Willis & John Wick combined. Lands there and annihilates the gang and the country in revenge, rescues his daughter, killing around 835 bad guys in the process (Do I sense John Wick getting insecure now? per minute kill metric threat?). You know how it goes in movies.

I tried to convey to my friends that this was a work of fiction and the region had a lot more to offer than crime. I have played the price card amply to drive the point of luxury, food, et. all that can be obtained for a lot less money.

When I failed to convince them (neither would go to Phuket), I decided to lead by example and broke the news that my family would be going to Vietnam to prove the point.

They were genuinely worried for me and I assured them that I would take good care of my family, myself, and especially my kidneys..

Saigon, Cuchi caves and the Mekong Delta

We landed in Saigon (the locals and old fans of the city detest calling it ‘Ho Chi Minh city’). While the leader is revered, the name of the city will always be ‘Saigon’ they say, no matter what the sign posts say..

The city has quite a character; lot of it. There is history, war and the grappling between the West and the Asia written all over it. Quick history lesson: you could look at anything in Saigon central area and meditate on how differently survived or served under the French, Americans, Japanese, South Vietnam, Vietcong or the unified Vietnam. As a WW II buff, I loved the war museum visit, it has ample of captured machinery from the war.

Cuchi caves/ tunnels offer ample of those 'see it to believe it' moments. The intensity of war, civil engineering (Vietcong) machinery (primarily American), human determination (of both sides, with respect to their respective causes)is in full display, only to be humbled by the forests. How a tank wreckage stands in middle of the jungle, the logistics mystery & the almost mythical Ho Chi Minh trail: there are ample cases of enigma which need to be though on.

The highlight of Cuchi tunnels was the Automatic Kalashnikov. Raw beautiful, rugged: some of the words I would use for handling the machine: 

The author cannot boast about a 100% hit rate, but can say that I was overwhelmed by the indestructibility and mechanics of the machine. The machine that I got my hands on was a couple of decades old, not military grade, poorly maintained and severely worn by the looks of it. Yet it fired with poetic precision.

Dare I say: when offered the option to switch modes, my shoulders could not muster the courage to switch from burst to full auto mode. I tried my luck by checking if they could lend me their lethal instrument with the leftover rounds. While I had no particular side to wage a war against, I reasoned it could be handy to fend off any kidney racketeers eyeing my organs.

After this, we made a run to the Mekong delta region. Again, nature and recent history leave an impression on you. The place is beautiful, raw and deserves a visit.

HaNoi

With the lovely hangover of Saigon, we landed in Hanoi. Sona's disappointment was very visible, for we started wondering why we were here in Hanoi. There is ample history for sure, but we were unsure if this is what we wanted. The evening had a lovely visit to the Church and the old-town, and soon we were wondering what we were to do with one more day.

The conclusion was cancel rest of the day in Hanoi and reallocate it to Ha-Long bay and Halong city.

Ha Long bay:

Standard operating procedures for foreigners of the place prescribe that you reach here from Hanoi (~2 hour drive), get a cruise and head to the bay.

This is the place where James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) and Colonel Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) beat the hell out of the wily news mongering villain Eliot Carver and his goons.*

*If you do not follow what we're talking about, stop reading, cancel all your plans, switch the brain off and watch Tomorrow Never Dies (the best Bond movie - IMHO) 

The cruise we were booked on was 'Peony cruise' (recommended) and the whole affair is a grand one. While one ought not to expect a megaship with casinos and shopping mall, the cruises here are the fashionable Goldilocks scenario (not too big, not too small) and offer incredible service. The meals are very regal indeed, with formal seating, live entertainment, etc. As part of the cruise, they allowed us to kayak, swim a bit in the bay and made a stop at Cat-Ba island for the caves.

 

The next day, I checked my kidneys (there were there in the usual place, intact for now) and headed for the Ha Long city. While the usual tourist itinerary focuses on cruises; giving a miss to the town, we had it from the day reallocated from Hanoi. And this turned out to be a beautiful choice. The beaches are pristine and the town has quite unique things to offer: A theme park, the Bai Chay bridge, the town center and the small eateries.

In all Vietnam left a beautiful impression on us. Distinct from some holiday plans which aim to push you to poverty, we ended up with the same net worth we had started from, most of the things are reasonably priced.

Grab does a good job, though the currency sometime scares many. While the kidneys may not bother on this one, but the heart does have a problem: A family meal + shopping bill of 1 million VND may initiate a heart attack! But here is the trick to avoid wasting time in the ambulance: before you succumb to cardiac arrest, you quickly take out the calculator and compute that the million was USD 40, a number that may not necessitate filing for bankruptcy. Your heart returns to its normal pace and enjoying Vietnam.

The cities have their charm and nature has a lot to offer here. Cities, history, sea, mountains and lush greenery - pick what you like.

PS: The author’s kidneys are safe and at their usual place at the time of writing this.