I got the bus here this morning and it dropped me about 10 km from my hotel. The connecting bus was a few streets away and so I headed in that direction and was lucky to come across a tourist information centre and they were very helpful, they wrote out my hotel for me in Korean so that I could give it to the taxi driver because by the this time the rain had begun and I was over riding on the bus. It turned out to be about $7 and well spent I may add.

I asked the young lady a few questions about Jeju and mentioned that I want to climb Mount Hallasan tomorrow or the day after and then she told me that this was not going to be possible because later today the Typhoon will arrive and this is the 18th of the season and so it looks like I will have to find a plan B, but I’m sure there are plenty other things to do but I’m a bit disappointed that I’ll be unable to climb and so I guess I’ll have to come back……… what a pity 😊

This morning I was awoken by the sun streaming in the window and the next thing the alarm went off, which was a surprise because I don’t remember setting it. Anyway the sun was shining and I decided to go for a walk and so I went to trail number 6.

There’s a waterfall that falls into the ocean and it’s near the beginning of trail 6. I was going to go for a look but it seemed that half of the island had the same idea and so I gave it a miss and continued on to the trail and was rewarded with another amazing waterfall just five minutes down the trail.

This trail is only around 10 km, which is a lot shorter than the other two trails but this one was a lot easier in comparison. I didn’t know what to expect but I was hoping for a repeat performance, similar to day one and at times it surpassed it in many ways.

The trail dropped down to the water and onto the amazing volcanic rocks that dominate this coast. The path leads to a set of stairs where I was supposed to cross over the small river, but it was in spate due to the torrential rain that has been falling every evening and so I went to plan B and found another path across the river as it entered the sea where the rocks were larger.

The coastline here is also spectacular and as you leave this part we move through a small fishing village and thankfully there is a 7/11 because my stomach was beginning to rumble.

So another trail finished and I check Google Maps for the bus home. There is one bus in twenty minutes and I’m at the bus stop in no time. Bus 231 is on its way and so I’m looking forward to heading back but you know after 30 mins the bus has still not arrived. I check Google Maps again and I only get one option.

I decided to walk and then as I was between stops and the bus went passed. I see plenty of 510 buses but Google doesn’t tell me where it’s going and so I don’t get it, I keep walking. The next 231 is not for 3 hours, well that’s what Google says and then guess what? A 231 runs passed once more. Fuck! I hate Google.

Google and Korea don’t seem to mix too well which is quite a surprise because even in China when I use my vpn I can get good directions at least. Google seems to give some information but not very detailed for some reason and so I end up walking a further 6 km or so back to the market near my hotel. My short walk nearly ended up double.

Are a series of walks around this lovely wee island and yesterday I did #7, which is along the beautiful coastline and today I did #7-1 which starts near the main stadium and then heads up to the top of the mountain. It’s uphill from the moment you get off the bus, entry is via the park and then you just keep climbing the roads and off course try to keep your eyes peeled for the route markings which is easier said than done.

The first point to head for is Eogtto Waterfall, which was dry. It was a little confusing here but I soon got back on the route and headed through the car park before turning left up the side of an olive Grove and then the climb was on.

The route zig zags up the mountain and every so often you need to use the main roads before you are directed once more up to the summit.

This walk was not as enjoyable as yesterday’s walk, one because of the scenery and secondly because this route was a little harder on the feet because of the road surface. My legs and feet certainly took a pounding today, I think I’ll see if I can get a bike tomorrow.

I landed in Jeju last night and it was pissin down. The bus took about an hour to go from the airport in the north of the island to the south of the island to where I’m staying for a few days.

This morning I left about 10.30am to go to walk one of the many trails that they have in Jeju. You can walk around the island on many coastal paths and today I walked number 7 which was around 17km and the coastline is magnificent. The volcanic rock is everywhere, used used for walls, paths but the most beautiful and amazing has been created by nature.

It was a very enjoyable walk with some of it on the paths along the cliff edge, along the edge of lime plantations, fields, the grounds of fancy hotels and even walking along the stone covered beach and I recommend you wear good footwear because some of the rocks are extremely sharp and it can get pretty rough underfoot and you have got to keep your feet happy at all times.

After I left Lingyenshan I walked a couple of hundred metres to the bus stop to get the No 2 bus home. It was only 11 am and so the bus is usually very quiet. About half way through the journey a man about a similar age to myself was forced to sit beside me, I say this because quite often on a bus,no Chinese will want to sit beside me willingly and I for one am very happy that they find me disgusting or scary or smelly or whatever it may be, but today this man grew a pair and sat beside me. Well he didn’t really have a choice unless he wanted to stand, or the alternative was the seat in front that had water sitting on it.

He put his hand up to the air conditioning vent above the window to check whether it was on, I had already cracked the sliding window open beside me about an inch which was sufficient for me because I was sweaty from the walk. He got up and went and opened the window just in front of the seat in front and then came back and sat down and proceeded to lean over me and slide the window next to me fully open…………………….I closed said window in a millisecond, I turned and looked at him and he looked at me , he looked a bit surprised by my reaction……………it totally threw him and he really didn’t know what to do and so we both sat there for at least 5 seconds staring longingly into each others eyes, but it felt much longer and then he turned back to his family on the other side of the bus to complain……………what a rude prick………….he had only been on the bus for two stops and he has the audacity to just open a window where someone else is sitting………….where I was sitting…………so fuck you I said. Now if he had asked me I would have probably been happy to accommodate his request but since he decided to take matters into his own hands and be an ignorant selfish prick, I decided to say no in no uncertain terms.

Got to love China, everyday is an adventure for the foreigner…………..

My morning stroll through the bush. It was good to see that there was a group of young folk walking through the trails today with bin bags picking up the rubbish from all the Dickheads that walked through here in the last few days. I haven’t seen this before, maybe my post on the local social media here has sparked some guilt in the local community.

It seems to have confused someone in the house as to how to use it, or in this case not use it. The clever foreigner, that’s me, put his dishes in the rack to work with gravity, which was kind enough to tell any excess water to fall in to the draining board, however the Chinese method for stacking dishes seems to have completely bamboozled gravity and so the dishes remain wet for quite a while. Mind you it doesn’t really matter in the big scheme of things because the dishes have not been washed properly, no dishwashing liquid was used during the Chinese process…. they are happy to waste water and just rinse each dish until it looks clean. The water is turned on full bore, enough water in fact to relieve the drought conditions in Australia right now….. I’ll never understand the thinking behind this.

I use my own dishes in the house because I know that they are clean and if I have to use anything else I always clean it first just in case there is a wee ecoli waiting to pounce and give me a severe kicking.

As the 70^th anniversary of China approaches, subtle changes can be seen and felt. Everyday more and more flags are being hoisted around the city. It’s also getting a bit of a spring clean, even although it’s autumn, but more importantly the internet is becoming even slower and the VPN is struggling to stay connected. It is a constant battle to stay connected to a server in another country long enough to go where I want and it seems to be more so in the evening. Mind you China has a lot on its plate at the moment. Xinjiang in the west is causing them problems because they have finally had to admit to the concentration style camps that they have there. Hong Kong is going crazy, which is a major distraction; although there is not too much coverage here and when there is the story is slightly different to the one that you will see on the BBC or Aljazeera. I also think Beijing may be a bit worried that events in Hong Kong may overshadow this year’s celebrations, we don’t want another Tiananmen.

The third thing that is of interest is the social experiment which is now going to become a reality. Each person will have a personal credit score and if you do something bad then you will lose points, if you obey the law and do everything as you should then you have the freedom to do what you want and by that I mean live your life in a normal manner with no extra restrictions imposed. You know I’m sure many other western countries would love to implement such a system………..petty thieves might lose 10% each time they get caught………..muggers may lose 20% each time they break the law…………all these juveniles that break the law and get off Scot free would begin to finally get their comeuppance. This is one Chinese invention that I think could work quite well in other countries. If we are not prepared to bring back such things as public floggings to try and control all the wee bastards that cause so much trouble to society and of course use the system to their advantage, then by giving everyone a 100 points just like your driving licence and each time you break the law or are just being a prick then you lose points until the day comes you have none and we feed you to the sharks. This could be a win win situation not only for us, but for the sharks. Of course if you do a good deed then you can get points back just like you do when you get frequent flyer points, help an old lady across the road………2 points………obey the road rules……..2 points………eat with your mouth closed…………2 points……….wear headphones instead of letting the sound escape from your phone in public and being a fucking nuisance…………..1 point, just a few suggestions.

This system has already been trialled on a few people such as journalists that have written articles against the current government, their punishment so far has been not allowing them to buy any form of travel, no bus, no plane, no train, in China you need your ID card to buy tickets and so because of this there has been a rise in black market transport where drivers are prepared to crisscross the country ferrying such individuals and of course making a pretty Yuan (penny) along the way. One door closes and another opens, entrepreneurship is everywhere.

But one question looming on the horizon is; will this apply to the foreigners currently in the country, will they also have to abide by these rules? Why not I say, when in Rome…………………

I also watched the first part of a BBC documentary about China and the first one focused on Xinjiang and what is happening there to the Uyghur’s and also about the rise of Xi Jing Ping to where he is today, he now has complete control and has a job for life. He has certainly shut down any threat from the western state of Xinjiang although I would think that in years to come this might come back to haunt him and China in ways we can’t imagine yet. I must admit after watching the first part of this trilogy I was feeling ready to leave China and find pastures new. And I think I will next year when my visa comes to an end, “why not now?” I hear you say………….well I am just unable to do that at the moment but as soon as I can I will.

Yesterday Lydia and I went to the Kiln Museum in the north of Suzhou. I had heard of this place but had never managed to find it and it was only by pure chance that I did. This is where they made the bricks and many of the stone slabs that you will see in the Forbidden City in Beijing. The Grand Canal that was built from Hangzhou back in 468 BC was used as they main transport route which they used nonstop until completion.

The Kiln Museum is a simple yet interesting place where they will show you the simple tools they used to make the bricks and they do explain the process in some detail and they have English translations. We arrived quite late and so we had to quickly work our way through the floors before we got kicked out.

In the gardens surrounding the museum you will see the remains of a couple of old kilns that look a little bit worse for wear, but it was an interesting museum and I guess some of the processes are still in use today.

Last week it began to get cooler but the summer came back for a second bite of the cherry this weekend. It’s muggy and sweaty and really quite uncomfortable and I’m really looking forward to the cooler weather.

After a busy week the pace changed at the weekend. Saturday was a day for reading and lying on the couch and watching TV and it was great. On Sunday I caught up with a few folk for a short tour of “The Couples Retreat Garden” and the “Kunqu Opera Museum” which you will find in the old city in Suzhou. These expat events are held usually once a month and it is really the only time that I catch up with other expats, generally I try to avoid them. The conversation usually turns to Brexit or Trump or Hong Kong and frankly I don’t care anymore, I just want to get to the last page of these books to find out what happened, I struggle to listen to any of it for more than a few minutes………..mind you Trump is a complete numpty and so it’s still fun to listen to his ramblings at times.

We even got covered by the local newspaper, although I don’t have a copy of it just yet but I am hoping to acquire one for posterity. I’ve had my name and picture in the paper a few times since I’ve been here and I was even on TV…………..and on every occasion I was being very good, anytime I got a mention in Scotland was usually because I did something wrong 🙂

A translation from the local paper.

The translation was done through Google and so you will see a few strange phrases throughout the article

Foreign friends praised “100 foreigners tour hundred gardens” Suzhou gardens are more beautiful than imaginedGravitational broadcast2019-09-08 19:28

Well Well Well

Today (September 8th) afternoon, the “100 Foreigners Touring 100 Parks” sponsored by the Suzhou World Cultural Heritage Classical Garden Protection and Supervision Center welcomed a group of foreign friends who took a tour from Zhangjiaxiang to the North Road. Feel the charm of Suzhou gardens in the late summer and early autumn.

At two o’clock in the afternoon, the All-Jinhui Hall (China Kunqu Museum) in Zhongjiajiaxiang was particularly lively. More than ten foreign friends listened to the history of Kunqu Opera and Suzhou Garden, and felt the charm of Chinese traditional culture. “Look at this pool, the stone around the pool is the famous lake stone.” For the foreign friends to explain the translation is the Suzhou civil organization “Walk through Suzhou” responsible for Qu Weiqiang, he pointed to a pool in the Jinjin Hall Explain. Foreign friends are very interested in everything in the garden. Besides listening carefully, they are taking pictures, taking pictures and taking pictures with their mobile phones.

If the All-Jin Club is the beginning of foreign friends to know the gardens and Kunqu, then the coupling garden and Ming Xuan are the highlights of the in-depth understanding. In front of the main hall of the coupling garden, the interpreter tells the story of the love between Shen Bingcheng and Yan Yonghua, the owner of the coupling garden, and emphasizes the clever use of “coupling” and “even” and the symmetry of the design in the garden. Foreign friends are obviously puzzled by the meaning between the two characters. Qu Weiqiang uses “couple” to further explain. The foreign friends who listened to it seem to realize suddenly, and they all make a “squeaky” voice, and even erected the thumb to express their appreciation.

Jeff from the United States is a teacher at Zhangjiagang Liangfeng Middle School. His Chinese name is Li Yuanhang. He was very excited to tell reporters that the coupling garden is the sixth Suzhou garden he has played. He said that each of the Suzhou gardens is different. At first he thought that the gardens were the same. After the play, they discovered that the same garden elements, such as mountains, water, buildings and plants, combined to produce works with such different effects. “Every garden is a good piece of art.” Isabella from Canada is an elegant lady. She told reporters that Suzhou gardens are far more beautiful than she imagined. “I didn’t expect that in the garden.” With so many plants, I really want to bring the garden home and bring it back to Canada.” She also poetically said that the Suzhou garden culture is also very beautiful. The most precious thing is time. She is willing to use time to explore every inch of Suzhou. land.

It is understood that this event is one of the series of activities of “100 Foreigners Touring 100 Parks”. As a co-organizer of the event, “Walking Through Suzhou” invited more than ten foreign friends from the United States, Ireland, and the United Kingdom to participate. The person in charge, Qu Weiqiang, said that they used to hold similar activities in the past, but basically it was the first time to visit a place like this, and to launch a Suzhou garden tour line like this, for systematic and in-depth travel. “This kind of tour is like a garden culture study, so that foreign friends can have a deep understanding of the cultural essence and connotation of Suzhou gardens.”

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