Mountain biking in the snow

It's been a while since I've done mountain biking, what with our four months spent in Asia and all... So I was quite happy to accept Philippe's invitation to join him for a bit of cycling at the wonderful Massif d'Esterel. The original plan was to join up with a group of "local lads", but seems that the local lads chickened out due to the somewhat chilly weather, so it was just me and Philippe in the end, then.

As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the weather was indeed somewhat chilly - in fact, the temperature was below zero in the shady part of our route. Which actually meant we ended up cycling in the snow at times! Which was actually good fun, and not as difficult as I expected. I did take it quite easy going downhill.

I even accepted the challenge to cycle up Mount Vinaigre - I had my doubts about the viability of that one,since it does take a bit of hassle cycling up to the top, at the lofty altitude of 614 meters (OK, fair enough, it doesn't sound very impressive, but it seemed that way from a couple of hundred meters downhill...), and given my lack of recent practice.

But, I agreed to the folly, and even made it to the top! And the view from up there was as magnificent as ever! Cycling around this beautiful part of the world is one of the things I will miss, once we make our way over to Japan...

Guilin and Yangshuo

From a rather chilly Xi'an, we headed down to the South of China, go Guilin. After Shanghai & Xi'an, both big cities even by Chinese standards (but it like this, both have a far bigger population than all of Finland...), we felt the need to explore the Chinese countryside a bit (especially after the wonderful few days we spent in Huanshan).

So, as implied above, the main reasons to visit the reason are natural, rather than man-made wonders. We checked into our youth hostel, a nice enough place, with the predictably slow WIFI being the main drawback.

After a good night's sleep, we decided to head off and explore the famous Longsheng rice terraces. It turned out to be a bit of an expidition - we first had to take a city bus to the bus station, then take a bus out to a small town, and get on a minibus from there. Amazingly, in spite of the fact that we didn't encounter a single person who spoke any English, we made it to Longsheng without too much hassle of delay (it did take us about 3 hours, though).

A brisk walk took us to the village at the bottom of the rice terraces, from where there is a cable car service up to the top. We had a slight disagreement on how to get up - I wanted to hike, whereas Isabelle fancied a ride in the cable car. Eventually we came to a compromise, we decided to take the cable car up, and walk down. A good idea, as it turned out, as the too means of transport offers different perspectives of this magical landscape.

So, as I mentioned, the landscapes are truly amazing, especially from the top. So functional, and necessary to grow rice in this challenging environment, yet so beautiful at the same time. The area up at the top is a bit touristy, with restaurants, tourist shops, and the like (Isabelle even bought a selfie stick, noooo....!). We were quite thankful for the restaurants, as  we were hungry, so we decided to grab a bite. We decided to have bamboo rice (basically rice, that has been treated with the juice of young bamboo shoots - apparently it gives the rice a boost of vitamin B and a green tea-like taste).

The walk down to the bottom of the valley was wonderful - the landscapes were amazing, of course, but it also gave us a bit of an insight into how the local village people live and work. It seems that they have managed to maintain their way of life, in spite of the no doubt constant presence of tourists.

Actually, it was getting a bit late, and since a mini bus driver was looking for some passengers for Guilin, we decided to go for it. We didn't have the energy to do much in Guilin, we did have a walk around, checking out a couple of impressively lit up pagodas by the Li river, and having one of the most awful burgers (think worse than McDonald's!) ever in a restaurant that was well recommended in our Lonely Planet for some odd reason.

For the next day, we'd decided to join an organized tour to head down the Li river to Yangshuo, where we were spending the next couple of days, before heading up to Beijing. The Chinese organized tour experience was quite interesting. We (together with 4 Americans who were as clueless as us) managed to figure out the rough plan - we were to ride the bus for about an hour, then take some river boats down to Xingping, where we were supposed to find a bus, which would take us to Yangshuo (we were supposed to find the bus using a rather dodgy hand-drawn map, which we were allowed to take a photo of).

Then, the lady went on to speak non-stop (and I mean that literally, we were starting to suspect she was a robot or something since she didn't even seem to stop to catch her breath) for about 1 hour, no doubt explaining what we were supposed to see during the river cruise. She summarized it all in 5 minutes in English (rather efficient!).

Anyway, enough sarcasm - the river cruise was actually wonderful. We rode down the Li river on some traditional bamboo rafts (or rather, modern boats made to look like traditional bamboo rafts), and the views were just amazing. The images have been justly made famous by numerous Chinese artists and photographers (sugar cane shaped hills, lined up along the river).

We stopped by at a place where they sold touristy trinkets - you could also pay to pretend to be a Cormorant fisherman. Cormorant fishing is a traditional form of fishing in this part of China, where the fisherman basically has a pole on his shoulders, with a cormorant at each end, tied with a rope to its leg. The birds then does the fishing, basically. Isabelle, pictures besides this text, had a go... (OK, I'm lying, the pretending to be a fisherman means only posing for photos ;-) ).

We then carried on to Xingping, a nice-seeming traditional town, one which we didn't have time to visit, unfortunately, as we were desperately trying to locate the elusive bus that was supposed to take us to Yangshuo. Thanks to one of our American friends, who actually spoke a bit of Mandarin, we made it in time. (well, we didn't actually, but the bus was even more late than us).

Yangshuo was apparently a bit of a backpackers' haunt, about 20 years ago. Those days are long gone - mass tourism has taken over, to doubt about it. Still, it's a pleasant enough town, and the Youth Hostel we were staying at was an absolute gem. Located just outside of the town (but still a comfortable 10 minute walk from the town centre), we had lovely views from our rooms towards the surrounding countryside (as well as a nice terrace and even a swimming pool).

The thing to do in Yangshuo is to take out a bike and explore the countryside. Isabelle was more for renting an electric scooter, but I managed to talk her into a bike ride ;). So off we went, into the rugged countryside - the plan was to head off Liugong, a nice little village. It was a wonderful bike ride, taking us through some truly sublime landscapes. We passed through quite a few small hamlets (some of which were on our map, some which weren't - finding our way was a bit of a challenge actually).

Amazingly enough, we ran into the American couple we'd met on the organized tour on our way to Liugong, so we decided to team up, as they were heading to the same place. And we did amazingly find the place, and even a nice restaurant where we had lunch. It was quite a nice little village, a bit rugged, but not a tourist in sight. After lunch, we walked around in the village for a bit, and then headed back to Yangshuo.

In the evening, I decided to check out the famous West Street - which used to be the backpackers haunt in town. These days, it's an INSANELY busy tourist trap, full of bars, shops and restaurants. The street was just ridiculously busy - think Oxford street the weekend before Christmas. Well, I suppose that counts as an experience as well - but I rather preferred the calm countryside during our bike ride...

The next day, we were weighing up various options, but decided to do another bike ride in the end. The plan was to check out a traditional Chinese market at a small town called Baishapu. Again, the bike ride was fantastic, taking us along the river, with wonderful scenery (and more of those sugar cane hills).

We ran into some kind of old communist crazy tourist guide, who was dressed up as a soldier, who seemed to be really keen to take us on a guided tour. We gracefully turned him down, and he equally gracefully agreed to pose for a picture with Isabelle.

The market we ended up in was very traditional indeed - again, not a tourist in sight. Pretty much everything edible (and non-edible) imaginable was on sale - including dog meat (which is a local speciality, apparently!). I decided to have a haircut at the local barber shop, always a cool experience. Unfortunately I forgot to bargain the price beforehand, so no doubt I paid about ten times the price locals pay (which still makes it about 3 times cheaper than in Europe).

We had a wonderful lunch at one of the food stalls (for the more than reasonable price of about 1 Euro). Yummie.

The ride back was great too, with more fantastic landscapes, with some gorgeus riverside views. Looks like we'd hit a more popular section of the river, as there were quite a few tourists, cycling like us, checking out the views. Unsurprisingly, we got lost (too busy enjoying the views to follow the road signs, I suppose), but managed to find our way back "home" thanks to some helpful locals.

For the evening , we decided to check out the famous Impressions Sanjie Liu show, directed by the great Zhang Yimou (known to the wide public for having orchestrated the Beijing Olympic games opening ceremony, also a great film director whose films I rather enjoy). The show, based on the legend of Liu Shanjie, is a rather over-the-top affair, but undeniably impressive.

It takes place on the Li River at night (some of the nearby hills are lit up for added effect), the spectacle itself is a mixture of light effects, singing and dancing. I'm not sure I've ever seen so many extras in one show, either... Anyway, it's a spectacle worth seeing, but only once.

The next day, 'twas time for us to head off to Beijing. It felt a bit wistful to leave this beautiful region with its lovely countryside, but then again, I was very keen to explore the treasures of Beijing!

A Terracotta Army, some Big City Walls, and other cool stuff at Xi'an

Our next destination was Xi'an, one of the ancient capitals of China. This time we decided to try the night train - and it was actually a pretty cool experience. We shared cabin with a very interesting Chinese chap, an astronomer who'd lived in the US and Europe. We had quite interesting conversations about China and democracy, and Trump. Basically his message was - please stick to your democracies, even if they ain't perfect, they're the best we've got... (hmm, I think Churchill might've said that, actually...)

We arrived in Xi'an, and immediately got our first whiff of the sadly famous Chinese pollution. Can't quite imagine what it must be to live with that grey haze all year around... The Chinese do seem to be taking action to reduce pollution - one interesting thing that sort of stands out is the fact that all scooters and motor cycles in China appear to be electric... Good for the environment, well, except I suppose they use coal to generate the electricity mainly. Oh well...

Anyway, me and Isabelle settled into our rooms in yet another lovely youth hostel. And again, dirt cheap (one piece of advice - if you are in China, don't use the tourist hotels, the youth hostels are far more charming and great value for money, too...). Nick was actually staying at another hotel on the other side of the town centre. Me and Isabelle foolishly decided to go to his hotel on foot - looked so close on the map. 2 hours later, we arrived... (poor Nick had a bit of a wait...). But it was quite an adventure, that took us through the old Islamic quarter (Xi'an was actually one end of the silk route, so it used to be quite an cosmopolitan place - and Islam was introduced in China via the silk route).

I really loved the Islamic quarter - it's a rather strange mixture of your average Chinese street market and an Arabic Medina. A very fascinating place, full of exotic scents, food and characters. Once Nick joined us, we spent a bit of time walking around. We found a pretty cool little merchant's house that was open for visitors - we even participated in a play of shadow puppetry. A pretty cool experience.

Me and Nick also decided to check out the great mosque. It was quite an interesting place too - actually the place really resembled any old Chinese temple, there were very fews hints as to the fact that the place was a mosque. We did find a Moorish style portal with some arabic writing.

The next day, it was time to check out THE tourist attraction of Xi'an. You guessed it, we were off to see the Terracotta Army - something I've been looking forward to doing for years and years. We embarked on a guided tour, with a really excellent guide who spoke English with an impressive set of accents (Australian, Texan, Irish, to name a few!).

The Terracotta Army is a collection of lifesize terracotta statues, representing the army of Qin Shi Huang (who was actually the first emperor of a united China, and the founder of the Han Dynasty). The army was buried in a collection of pits - hence the army was only discovered in 1974 by a local farmer. Estimates put the number of soldiers at an astounding 8000 soldiers, 150 chariots (with 520 horses) and 150 cavalry horses. And EACH soldier has been individually crafted from a human model. Just an absolutely amazing feat... It's for sure one of those few places on the planet that almost literally takes the breath away...

After a lunch in the nearby touristy town (rather tasty...), we headed off to check another famous tomb - that of Emperor Jingdi's. The place is in a way similar to the Terracotta Warrior site, and at the same time completely different. The idea is the same - the tomb contains a number of tombs with buried collections of terractotta statues. But this guy was obviously more peaceful than his ancestor Qin Shi Huang (indeed that is the case - he was one of the first emperors to really embrace Confucianism) - as the statues are of farmers, farm animals and so forth, rather than soldiers (well, there were some soldiers too). It's all a lot more small-scale too, but the place was just as interesting (if not as impressive) as the Terracotta Warriors site in its own way.

Me and Nick had a walk around Xi'an by night, checking out the lit-up city walls (dating back to the Ming Era - like those in Nanjing) as well as the famous Bell and Clock Towers (seems that all major Chinese towns have - or used to have - a Bell Tower and a Clock Tower). Pretty impressive, all in all.

The plan for the night was to check out the Big Goose Pagoda Light show. The Big Goose pagoda is one of the oldest historic buildings standing in Xi'an, dating back to the 7th century. Unfortunately it was too late to visit it, so we had to contend with a very impressive light show. Those Chinese sure know how to put up a big show, eh ? This was unfortunately Nick's last night in China, so we 'twas time for us to say our goodbyes to our trusty travelling companion.

We started the next day, our last day in Xi'an, by checking out the famous city walls. The current walls date back the 14th century, but they have been reinforced several times since. They have also been beautifully restored. Unlike the City walls at Nanjing, the Xi'an ones are open to the public. As they are a full 14km long, the way to explore the city walls is to cycle around them, which is exactly what we did.

It was all great fun - the pollution-originated mist gave the whole experience a bit of a spooky atmosphere. The views from the city walls are pretty good too, gives you a great birds-eye view of the busy street markets, people doing Tai Chi and so forth. There were also great signposts for giving you the low-down on all monuments in view (and a lot of monuments that no longer exist as well). So, anyway, if you do come to Xi'an, dear reader, you must check out the Xi'an city walls, I really recommend it.

To wrap up the day, we decided to visit the Shaanxi History Museum. Like the Nanjing History museum, it's free to those holding ID, which is great. It's also a great museum, covering a big part of Chinese history, but ending before the start of the Ming dynasty. Which is actually kind of convenient, since that's about the point in history where Nanjing's history museum picks up!

And then, alas, it was time for us to leave Xi'an and head off to the south of China, to Guilin. Xi'an was definitely a fantastic place to visit, with its historic heritage (hard to think of many places on the planet that can match it, in fact), a pity about the pollution....

Last days in Seoul

The next day, since the sunny (if somewhat chilly) weather was holding up, we decided to do a bit of hiking. Seoul is one of the biggest cities in Asia (with no less than 10 million inhabitants), but it's also blessed with a large number of very nice parks. To me, it makes Seoul one of the most liveable cities I've been to in Asia.




So anyway, after considering the various options, we decided to walk up Namsan peak, up to Namsan tower. With an altitude of 262 meters, we're not exactly talking about Mount Everest here, but we figured it would still make a nice break from museums and other urban attractions. The walk up was pretty nice, the autumn colours and the sunny weather really making it a delightful outing. Part of the walk followed a remaining, restored section of the Seoul city walls, which was a nice added bonus.

The walk ends up at N Seoul Tower, a communication & observation tower. It is actually the highest point in Seoul. There was a nice display of traditional Korean drumming by the tower. In general, it's a massively touristy affair, the tower, with restaurants, Perikura-type photo booths (which we, I have to admit, make use of!). I naturally had to ride up to the top of the tower for some aerial photography (actually, the view from the top of the tower isn't that much better than from the foot of the tower...).

For dinner, Andi and Vijola took us out for Korean Barbeque (the 2nd time, actually). It made for a nice change after all the fermented & ultra-spicy stuff we've eaten so far. Korean cuisine is a bit of an acquired tasty, it has to be said. One that I did acquire by the end of the visit, I must say - I was starting to accept Kimichi (fermented cabbage) as a mandatory part of any meal by the end of our Korean sejour! Naturally, the meal was accompanied by Soju, Korean rice wine (considerably more potent than for example Sake, a fact that was obvious to me every morning in Seoul!)

The next day, we decided to continue our healthy outdoorsy streak, and try cycling for a bit - even if the weather wasn't quite as good as we'd gotten used to during the previous days. We started our tour in Yeuido park, a pleasant ocean of greenery in the middle of a business district, by the river. We rented bikes there, and embarked on an itinerary suggested by our Lonely Planet guide. The pleasant ride took us along the river up to the World Cup football stadium (a rather impressive piece of modern architecture).

We even came across a replica of the little mermaid from Copenhagen (hmm, the Koreans are kind of known for copying stuff, right...). After returning our bikes back where we started, we explored the park for a bit. There is a nice Korean garden there, and even a C47 airplane on display! All in all, a very nice place to stroll around.

For our last night out, after a few beers at Andi and Vijola's place (as usual, it's getting to be a bad habit!), we headed off to try Pa Jun - Korean pancakes. Delicious - possibly my favourite food in Korea (close tie with the Korean BBQ). That, sadly, brought an end to our stay in Seoul.

Time to bid farewell to our wonderful hosts, Andi and Vijola. I hope to see them again, in some part of the world! Even more sadly, it was time for me to also say temporarily say bye bye to Mathilde, since she was travelling back to France, while I was continuing on my own to China.

On the whole, Korea was quite a revelation. I definitely have to say I prefer Japan, but Korea does merit a visit, definitely. And Seoul is one of the top cities in Asia, no question about it!

Weekend with Joel and Francoise

The timing of my business trip to Budapest was a bit inconvenient, as Mathilde's parents happened to be visiting at the same time. But thankfully, they were still around as I arrived in Nice Friday evening, after a rather tiring two weeks spent in Hungary.

I barely had time to drop off my bags at the airport, before I joined Mahtilde, Joel and Françoise at Yoko, our favourite Japanese restaurant on the Cote d'Azur. In spite of Yoko herself being absent, we had a great meal (as always!) there. Great preparation for our upcoming Japan trip as well ;-)

The next day, we took it easy in Cagnes-sur-Mer. We joined Joel and Françoise at their flat, located by the Cagnes river, not far from the sea. Which meant it was rather convenient to pop over to the beach for a swim after the meal (even if the weather wasn't the greatest!). Joel and Françoise then came over for dinner - followed by a game of Scrabble of course!

On Sunday, we decided to venture into Italy for a bit of cycling. So off we went to San Remo, well known for the ominously named "Pista Ciclabile Area 24" (any  connection to Area 51?) - we already checked it out some time ago and really enjoyed it. We rented our bikes, and cycled down Eastwards. It was all good fun - the perfect way to combine a bit of sport while enjoying the sun.

The sport bit done, we found a nice little restaurant by the sea side, where we enjoyed a surprisingly good meal (expectations weren't that high, as it seemed like a bit of a tourist trap - but I thoroughly enjoyed the squid I chose). This being San Remo, we naturally headed down to Grom for dessert (Grom is a chain of ice cream shops known for their delicious, naturally-flavoured ice cream, yummie). We finished our day with a nice swim in the 'Med - the perfect ending for the perfect day!

And then, it was time to say bye bye to Joel and Françoise, as they headed back towards the West of France the next day. Nice to have them over, even if it was all a bit short in my case!

La Chapelle de Notre Dame de la Vie.

I'm quite lucky, having my office located in Sophia Antipolis. Not only is Sophia-Antipolis considered "the Silicon Valley" of France, which is great in terms of professional opportunities. But it's also located in an area with a lot of beautiful nature. Just next door to the office, the Parc de Valmasque has great footpaths, and mountain biking paths. This has lead me to do rather more sports than I'm used to!

This particular time, we decided to cycle over to nearby Mougins, and more specifically, to the Chapelle de Notre Dame de la Vie. It's a rather curious little chapel for at least two reasons. First of all, it was immortalized in a painting by the one and only Winston Churchill (yes, Mr. Churchill was a rather multi-skilled individual, and one of those skills was painting). Second of all, none other than Pablo Picasso spent the last 12 years of his life in his villa, which was located just next doors (the Mas de la Chapelle de Notre Dame de la Vie). Apparently he very much appreciated the chapel. It's easy to see why - it's a very beautiful place.

There's also a pretty nice view over the surrounding scenery, which we checked out (and in my case, immortalized with my smartphone, naturally). The ride back to the office was pretty much routine stuff in the Valmasque. I have to say, my bike and myself were both in rather messy states after the ride - the tracks were very muddy after the rain from the day before!

Back in the Esterel!

New year, and plenty of fat gained during the holidays to burn off (actually, less than I expected, but still...). So on this sunny winter Sunday, I was more than happy to join my colleagues Philippe and D.B. (code name used to protect my mystery colleagues name...) for a bit of mountain biking in Massif d'Esterel (a great place for it!). Apparently it was going to get "technical" this time around...

The Esterel looked rather gorgeous this morning, there was a kind of layer of mist covering the landscapes, with the tips of the mountains coming out of the mist. The mountaintops almost looked like islands in a sea of mist... Beautiful.

Things did indeed start rather technical, with a rather steep single track, heading down the slopes, towards Lac de l'Avellan. And how did I fear ? Things did indeed get rather technical (there were plenty of roots and slippery rocks to worry about), and I have to admit I even got off the bike a couple of times. But I managed to get down to the bottom, without actually falling and hurting myself. Well, almost... Of course, just as I reached the end of the single, there was a dead easy bridge to cross across a stream, where I naturally slipped, and fell (nearly into the stream!). Nothing much got hurt apart from my dignity (apart from a slightly scraped leg), so we carried on.

No more technical singles for me then, so we decided to pedal up to Mount Vinaigre, which is the highest peak in the Massif d'Esterel, measuring a lofty 618 meters. Not that high, perhaps, but the views from up there over the Esterel and the Cote d'Azur are pretty amazing. We had about 350-400 meters of height difference to deal with all in all, which actually didn't feel all
that hard.


So I suppose I've made some progress, then, I'm pretty sure it was much harder the first time around, last year!

Heading back to our cars, we had a go at some somewhat easier singles than we did at the beginning of the ride, it was all great fun!

All in all, a splendid way to spend a Sunday morning!