Off Backpacking

Well can't sleep - always happens when I am off somewhere.

Driving down to Sydney this morning to the Chinese Consulate to try and sort my visa. Got a flight into Shanghai on Thursday for short three weeks backpacking.

Itinerary is vague. Turn up in Shanghai and spend 2 weeks wandering the countryside then spending a week in Beijing with family working there. Will take side trips to the Wall from there I suspect.

I have a small pack - weather is warm so don't need much. Basically a few changes of clothes, a towel, my toothbrush and MP3 player (for long train trips). I will be staying in backpackers, hostels, cafes etc and will budget about $10-20 per night on accm. I achieved $US5 per night in Vietnam and that was split with another fella I travelled with for twin rooms.

Thats how I like to travel. Meet the locals, get up early for a walk and street breakfast while a new city or town wakes around me. then explore and finish the day with a beer and a chat in a local cafe or a backpackers haunt.

Ideally I would love to go for 2 months and head across China to Russia or elsewhere but with a young family and a busy missus I am surprised to be allowed this much freedom - still it has been a slog putting her through uni these last 4.5 years - hard to believe she will be finished in under 6 months. Then the real hard work begins I suspect as she starts interning in a busy hospital.

I will see how I go for time and inclination, I may post the odd few jottings on my trip here for you folks trapped with your mortgage payments and dodgy tenants ... :)

Cheers,
 
Wow, what an adventure. I'm into adventurous things, but I'd probably never do that. I never really did much travel when I was single and young, and it's a bit of a regret now.

Good luck with it all.
 
Just been to the Chinese Consulate. All very officious and impressive. Was just like a bank counter but in shades of grey. A smart young girl took my application and told me to return at 1140 exactly. They close at 12 it seems.

I don't understand the need for the visa. They asked for hardly any info and will give me a flash sticker in my passport. There is no reason to deny it, doubt they could do any checks in the 160 minutes it is taking. Even the $80 wouldn't be that much of an earner when you see the number of staff they had working. I am guessing it is done because it has always been done.....

I have found that on earlier travels the less developed the country the flasher the Visa. Vietnam and Laos did ones worth framing whereas Aus and NZ don't even stamp in your passport anymore.... When Jenni taught in Malaysia they gave her a working permit with her occupation written in Bahasa Malaysia. She is the only person I know who has a document showing her as a Guru!

So killing time at an internet cafe until it is done. Left myself a day to spare in case of problems and I fly out tomorrow. Probably have a beer or three with my good friend Ash tonight.

and Topcropper - the only thing stopping you is your imagination. Although I am a 41 year old backpacker I have met couples and sigles in their 70s doing much the same thing. Age is no barrier - imagination is. Sorry I didn't post earlier - you might have joined me!

Will try and do some updates. First stop Shanghai. Was known as the Whore of the Orient but they are using different slogans now. Shame.

Cheers,
 
Hey Simon,

Hope you have a great trip mate. I will be on the phone for advice one day when I go do something similar.

What would you say would be the total cost of the trip including flights, $3k?

How many (if any) are you travelling with?

Cheers,
 
Hi Simon,

You will have an awesome time mate, but I will add some little bit of advice from someone who's done both Vietnam and China as a backpacker. My experience with Vietnam was pretty much spot on with yours. Dirt cheap and really easy to do with the whole tourist thing laid out for you. However, when I did China some 4 years ago it was much less tourist friendly. They force you to stay in "tourist hotels" which are more expensive than the local ones and there is virtually no backpacker accommodation. All the tours such as the great wall are via organised day trip tour companies and do cost quite a bit. You end up getting half an hour at the wall and lots of stops at chinese medicine shops etc where you can spend your tourist dollars along the way. Its a fact that the Chinese government has a stated policy of charging a lot more of foreigners. They believe you're rich so can afford to pay above local prices for everything.

It was still an awesome trip, just not nearly as cheap and backpacker friendly as Vietnam. I still consider Vietnam the best backpacker destination in Asia and recommend it whole-heartedly to all my friends.

Have a great time!

Cheers,
Michael.
 
Good insights, MW.

Do you think it's still that way or has improved in the last couple of years? How did you go not knowing (or do you?) the local language?
 
Hi Simon. Excellent stuff. I did a lot backpacking when younger. Can't beat it as a way to really get to know a place. I am definitely curious to get up and see China, and wanted to get over to Okinawa at sth end of Japan, on my next OS trip. Okinawans born pre war had the highest rate of centenarians in the world. So am interested in getting intimate with their tradtional lifestyle and diet choices...learning a little local cooking.

Might plan a trip to China late next year or 2008. I am concerned a that a lot of provincials are being hard done by (having land taken away etc), and suffering tremendously for it.

Have you researched cheap accomodation there, and what's the go with TB, hepatitis, dysentery etc....
 
dtraeger2k said:
Good insights, MW.

Do you think it's still that way or has improved in the last couple of years? How did you go not knowing (or do you?) the local language?
Language wasn't really an issue. Even when dealing with street vendors the old finger counting method and waving of small denomination notes seems to work. You point, they point, deal transacted! :)

I can't vouch for whether it has improved since I was there, but reports from friends of mine that have been since argue that I wouldn't recognise Shanghai today from what it was like when I went. Apparently its much more tourist friendly and western commercialised, but should still have its Chinese charm...

Cheers,
Michael.
 
MichaelWhyte said:
Hi Simon,

You will have an awesome time mate, but I will add some little bit of advice from someone who's done both Vietnam and China as a backpacker. My experience with Vietnam was pretty much spot on with yours. Dirt cheap and really easy to do with the whole tourist thing laid out for you. However, when I did China some 4 years ago it was much less tourist friendly. They force you to stay in "tourist hotels" which are more expensive than the local ones and there is virtually no backpacker accommodation. All the tours such as the great wall are via organised day trip tour companies and do cost quite a bit. You end up getting half an hour at the wall and lots of stops at chinese medicine shops etc where you can spend your tourist dollars along the way.
Cheers,
Michael.

I just got back from a month in China and I must say things must have changed an awful lot! I found it excellent for backpacking. Probably the best I've done, and I've been to a lot of countries (but the most recent trip is always seems like the best i guess). There was plenty of backpacker accomodation/ hostels everywhere and at reasonable prices. I went on a great tour to the wall out of beijing. We went to an urestored section with no other people around, and werent herded into any cheesy tourist trinket shops. The guide, Ting, was quite a character, and he has a website www.tingstours.com.

Another highlight was Tibet, well where I went was actually Western Sichuan on the map but I assure you it's ethnographically and geograpically tibet. The town I went to was called Tagong. I don't think you were allowed to go there untill recently. Its like the wild west but devoutly buddist. Absolutely mindblowing (untill I got altitude sickness :( ). Theres a woman called Sally who runs a hostel there next to the main monastery whos very helpful for organising multi day trekking, staying in villages and with nomads etc. I would have loved to have gone futher into tibet but we had to head home. Would have loved to have travelled in Yunnan as well to see more of the ethnic minorites.

A gazillion other hightlights too....
 
Good luck Simon - what a great adventure to be embarking on.

The wife and I were fascinated watching that recent series on the ABC with all of those old cars starting out in Beijing and heading north through Mongolia and then right across Siberia and on through to Paris, retracing the steps of a bunch of adventurers who had trail blazed the same path 100 years earlier.

We both looked at each other and said that would absolutely fantastic to do.


I think getting out, from underneath these crushing mortgages sometimes and venturing forth to live and experience life (especially when it isn't ideal like it is here in Oz) is what we were perhaps meant to do.

Give us a hoy when you next go, my BMW R1200 is raring to stretch it's legs.
 
Springtime said:
I just got back from a month in China and I must say things must have changed an awful lot! I found it excellent for backpacking.
Springtime,

That's awesome! THAT was the backpacking experience I was hoping for, but it was a bit before the WTO and China's loosening of its conservative communism stance. If its anything like you described it then Simon will have an absolute ball and I must add it back on my to do again list. ;)

Unreal!

Michael.
 
Simon! so cool

You have probably already seen this and you will know most but may get a giggle from it anyway.

Have a MAGNIFICENT time. Backpacking and doing your own thing combined with visiting family... best of both worlds.

Gee I could go a steamed bun about now....
 
hi simon
have a great time don't forget to get your friends here to get a msn account via hotmail and get one yourself.
msn is free and the chinese love it so you can communicate via there network up there to here very cheap.
I have back packed all over most of europe and most of the east coast in my time and its a great way to travel.
I travel light anyway.
have a great time its a very interesting place from all accounts looking at going there soon myself.
 
Lucky you Simon,

I'm thinking of heading to Yunnan in October next year but not game enough yet to go backpacking being female and would be going alone. I would be interested in your perception of China and I guess the safety issues for single people. I backpacked through the US by myself and didn't come to any grief and would assume China would be safer than the US - I guess the language barrier and different culture makes me cautious about going it alone.

At the moment I have a 2 week guided tour in mind, but the downside with those is that you never have enough time in the places you would like to linger in.
 
Hi Simon,

Sounds great! I loved backpacking and meetings lots of interesting people. I backpacked on my own around Europe it seemed like I met more Aussies than the locals. We are just everywhere.

The thing I like about hostels, besides the fact that it's cheap, is that there' sno TV so everyone congragates in the bar/tv room. In fancy hotels, people just keep to themselves. But then there are also loads of things I don't like. And yes, I met a few 60+ retirees backpacking too.

Will keep an eye out for your updates.
 
Good luck on your trip Simon. That sounds exciting.

Do you speak any mandarin? I wouldn't be surprised if you find english speakers in most of the places that you are travelling through though... It's so much more interesting to travel when you speak a little bit of the local language. I have found that when I have shown that I have made an effort to speak the local language, the response from the locals was so much more welcoming and interesting.

All the best...
 
Has anyone got anything to say about the health risks of travelling in remote, or built up parts, of CHina? i.e. tuberculosis, hepatitis, dysentery?

I have travelled extensively in third world countries, and would be interested to hear from those who have been in China recently.

I'll take silence on this matter to be a sign of the bliss of ignorance.
 
House_Keeper said:
Do you speak any mandarin? I wouldn't be surprised if you find english speakers in most of the places that you are travelling through though... It's so much more interesting to travel when you speak a little bit of the local language.
I agree completely with that.

Though, as Simon would probably be well aware, the use of tone in the Chinese related Asian languages is extremely important. It's not enough to know just how a word is pronounced- you also need to know the "music" of the word.

In Thai (the only language I have any "tongues on" experience) the tone can completely change the word. I once tried to answer in Thai to a question "are you going to Chiang Mai" by saying "I have already been", But I used the wrong tone, and apparently aswered "I am going to Laos".

To explain the use of tones- we do use them in English. But we are probably not aware of using them. We use the tone when asking questions. The note rises as we ask "Do you want to go to dinner with me tonight?" With the question mark, the pitch rises as we ask the question.

Many asian languages use this technique to distinguish between words. It can help to keep words shorter (if you have 4 to 7 tones on every vowel you don't need to have longer words).

Mandarin, I think, has 7 tones. Which really adds to any learning difficulty.

The written language doesn't offer much help ;)
 
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