Travel, Theatre, Music, Cricket, Tennis, Writing, Life
Links to lots of information about this vacation can be found through the placeholder and links here and below:
India and Sri Lanka, 29 January to 26 February 2011, placeholder and links
The following is a diary extract, perhaps with one or more illustrative pictures.
Watched some of the Oz Women’s final (Clizsters beat Li Na) before Mohammed collected us.
Uneventful journey in Club (no upgrade as no First Class!).
We were very keen to see a rural and scenic part of China; Yunnan seemed to fit the bill. We’d see interesting places.
We’d meet interesting people.
There would be opportunities to do some wonderful walks.
We could stay in high quality hotels; unlike our fascinating but hardy experience in Tibet eight years earlier. Steppes East put together an excellent itinerary for us – here it is available for download: Harris – Final itin dep 4 Apr 2010.
We took some great pictures, divided into three albums:
One good story is already up and available – an unexpected cricket match between Tibet and England, with me representing England. The match was also reported in excruciating detail on King Cricket, a few weeks after the event.
As usual, there are loads of notes waiting to be written up properly. If you are desperate to see them and try to decipher them before I get there – feel free to download and have a go:
Last morning in villa – take a little sunshine, and take light breakfast (no butter!) and a bit more sunshine etc.
Pack and stroll and prepared to leave. Chat briefly with Max in the sunshine before leaving.
Uneventful journey to Shanghai p.m., checking in to Ramada Pudong airport hotel. Not special!
Snacked on toast etc. evening then early night after wrestling with ineffective air-conditioning!
Light breakfast at Ramada followed by uneventful journey home!
Airport transfer was like clockwork, did duty-free shopping then boarded the plane on time only to sit on runway for an hour and a half – perhaps for Sarkozy!
Land at Heathrow one hour after scheduled time – Not too bad.
Grumpy cab driver home [we’re back]!!
Overnight rain postponed tennis but clears the air.
Ged starts Yiddish Policeman’s Union.
Ged’s cold still in full sway. Breakfast. Run backups on to drive, then enjoy our villa for the day, jacuzzi, steam, pool, vids and all.
Then early evening tennis.
Try some in-villa dining tonight – Daisy has a club sandwich, Ged a pasta with prawns washed down with the Venetian we bought yesterday – very nice
Try playing Go/Othello/whatever it’s called briefly.
Up early for tennis again today then wash, breakfast etc.
Another day relaxing in villa, another day of streaming cold for Ged! Again make most of the facilities – discover the water-bouncy ball doesn’t bounce! Still jacuzzi and steam works wonders.
Try the beach barbecue tonight starter of duck/Hainen chicken – then try prawns, oyster, scallop, clam, lamb, beef… with trimmings and some ice cream! Bottle of Stump Jump goes down well.
Daisy decides to open windows tonight as it’s cooler – bad idea mozzie wise! Someone or something must’ve been badly bitten by one of the mozzies but it doesn’t seem to have been one of us!
Oversleep tennis slot and it is bright first thing so take some sun then breakfast…
…then Ged’s guts explode!
Quiet day on beach (briefly Ged) and mostly around villa to recuperate.
Daisy swims (Ged doesn’t). Replacement bouncy ball seems more bouncy!
Daisy joins Ged’s “fast” to try to clear guts so quiet evening in and early night – looked at photos again briefly before bed.
Photo Attribution: Alex Kwok / CC BY-SA
Again rise early, coffee, tennis (Ged 6-4) then fiddle with Internet and backups a bit more. Then planned trip into town.
Taxi in from hotel. Duty-free shop won’t sell to us because we aren’t flying internationally from Sanya! On to department store/supermarket much better. Get bits and pieces there after getting a cheap small case for Daisy to replace the damaged red jobbie.
Taxi adventure on way home as driver takes us miles and miles in the wrong direction, to some godforsaken hotel on the other side of Yalong Bay! He returns us to mystified luggage vendor who sells Daisy a purse and then suggest we seek a taxi from another spot!
We really were only a couple of miles from home!
Spend rest of afternoon in villa swimming, reading, jacuzzing and steaming.
Thai meal again tonight – glass noodle salad starter, crab meat curry and with morning glory and coconut rice. Far too much especially with Ged streaming, but very good food. Chat together! Crash on return.
Rose early – started looking at a possible upgrades. Showed a spa suite which we liked and arrange to see the duty manager after breakfast. By 11 o’clock the deal was done we were sorting ourselves out in Villa 2102.
In the afternoon enjoy the Villa to the full, swimming, reading, jacuzzing etc.
Went for a stroll late afternoon to get our bearings. Played ping-pong – Daisy won as usual. Ged is reading A Spot Of Bother, Daisy is reading Shantaram.
Take dinner in main restaurant. Crab cake starter – prawns, pork, veg, and sticky rice. Delicious but too much. Early night.
Rose early, coffee, tennis (Daisy won 6-4), bathe, wonderful breakfast & back to our super villa.
Pass the day reading, swimming, walk to the beach, swim the main pool etc.
Quietly contemplate staying here longer, as northern Europe is still a no-fly zone.
Try out the steam in villa today.
Book Thai restaurant for dinner and try tuna salad, mixed veg, coconut rice, prawn etc noodle dish, and other stuff, again delicious but too much. Again crash early.
Again rose early, coffee, tennis (Ged 6-1), bathe, amazing breakfast, Ged plays with Internet and photo backups, then back to our amazing villa for more reading (Ged moved on to Netherland), swimming etc. Very nice indeed. Ged coming down with a cold however.
Still, back to main restaurant for Wang Chang chicken, prawns (again) different green veg and plain rice. Very good, although timing of dishes bizarre especially as we are, once again, the only visible diners in the main restaurant! (A few tables in Thai and the sound of buggies doing in Villa dining elsewhere).
Rose reasonably early to complete packing.
Took breakfast and await a transfer. Said goodbye to Huang, then just about avoided scrum at Zhongdian Airport, said goodbye to Palchen and waited in tacky first class lounge.
Met by Simon in Kunming, with whom we went to the Bamboo Temple (amazing statues et cetera)…
…and then on for a Muslim restaurant meal with Yunnan duck, chicken hotpot with asendo[?] ginseng, greens and rice…which Simon thought to be inadequate!
Meanwhile Mrs Fixit was checking us in at the airport early and on the phone a few times.
Returned to airport, said goodbye to Simon and (after a 20-25 minute delay) flew to Sanya arriving about 15 minutes late.
Silent but efficient driver whisked us to the Banyan Tree where they only half expected us but never mind.
Bualeers [can I read my own writing?] in villa – no doubt we’ll change room tomorrow!
I only remember that villa seeming small but no doubt there were other things wrong with it. Janie can’t remember either.
Rose a little later than usual having adjusted itinerary to lighten today.
Went 1st to the Tendol Gyalzur orphanage, where the kids put on a show for us and Sonny (Tendol’s son) explained about the orphanage to us.
Then into town for local beer//ginger honey tea at So Ya La (the orphanages restaurant) and on to Ringha village to start walk to tiny Dabaosi Temple with five wisdom Buddhas and only one small pupil on the whole site, seeking guidance from Palchen only on his multitude of gadgets. Very enlightening.
On through the increasing wind back to our hotel.
Relaxing afternoon and early evening reading, reviewing photos etc.
Usual routine morning before setting off on foot at 9 am to walk from the hotel through village around hills to town
We were joined by Palchen’s pal Yunden. We played some impromptu cricket along the way…
I reported on the cricket in some depth separately and on King Cricket:
…and took several snack breaks with biscuits, bananas and chocolate. Some of the walking was easy, summer is quite hard, About five hours in all.
Yunden was purportedly there to “learn the ropes”, but I got the impression that Palchen was worried that we “old folk” might not be good for high hill walking and wanted some back up bulk for just in case. I suspect that my tipping money was plenty of compensation for Yunden who seemed very happy with his day.
Searched in vain for combination locks in New Town & debated changes to the itinerary for tomorrow.
Back to lovely base by 15:00.
Sat out for a while before I got cold.
Massage by “Su Wu” [I think that must be one of Daisy’s pseudonyms], then hot tub etc.
Dined in à la cart restaurant, enjoying duck salad, yak burger with coleslaw and some chips, lamb shank Mongolian style.
Crashed early after looking at pictures.
In the high hills of Yunnan Province, in South-West China, on the lower reaches of the Tibetan plateau, you don’t expect much in the way of cricket experience, least of all playing the game, but when you travel, stuff happens.
I reported this extraordinary event on the King Cricket website, where I write occasional pieces under my nom de plume, Ged Ladd. Janie and I have called each other Ged and Daisy since the mid 1990s.
Click here to read the report.
Just in case anything ever happens to King Cricket, I have scraped the piece to Ogblog – only click the link below if the link above doesn’t work:
Among my King Cricket pieces, this one comes second only to my impromptu live commentary experience in India, which can be found through this link.
But I digress.
