Tequila!

Why did the Mexican push his wife off the cliff? TeQUiLA! (To kill her).  A cheapish tour (M$300/R250) took us to the infamous town known for it's little black-out inducing drink. We couldn't miss an opportunity like this, so off we went through the beautiful scenery 64km from Guadalajara to the quaint town of one of the nastiest, yet fun, booze ever!

A small selection of the tequilas available.

 Our tour lady was brilliant, she knew all the history and everything about Tequila. Before the Spanish arrived in 1521, the Aztec people would ferment the blue agave (tequila cactus) to make a little brew. Apparently, one day an indigenous person found a cactus that was struck by lightning, or burned somehow, tried it and liked it. They would then use the juices for their local drink, called Mezcal. When the Spaniards arrived, a brandy shortage lead one dedicated alcoholic to use the indigenous knowledge combined with the Old World knowledge of distillation & Voila! The first potent drink known today as Tequila was born.

The raven - the Mundu/Jose Cuervo mascott.

 We arrived in the agave plantations, and I see these plants in South Africa and want to rip them out and murder them so they don't destroy our beautiful country. But they are indigenous here, and despite the rows and rows of monoculture, it was quite a pretty sight. A man dressed in the most classic mexican cow-boy style showed us how they harvest the Tequila. He took his massive machete and zing zing zing gave it a little haircut, leaving only to core (pinas). I tried, and it wasn't as easy as it looked. Every single agave is hand harvested, so next time you have a tequila, think about all the hard work those buggers do to get the sweet nectar for your pleasure!

Using a rounded blade he chopped up that agave in no time!

Smile for the camera! The volcano in the background provides the perfect soils for the agave.

Off to the Town of Tequila we went, with a true wild west setting and men on horses in the streets. I couldn't stop hearing Marty Robbins in my head and wanted to badly to be in the Wild West with a pistol in a bar challenging people for a duel. Anyways, the roads were cobblestones, scared from wagons back in the day.  So amazing.

Tequila Town.

 The first commercial Tequila was made by Don Pedro Sánchez de Tagle, with his Mundo Cuervo distillary. We went to the little 'museum' and got a free Margarita and was keen for some Tequila tasting. In the Mundo Cuervo distillary we got a little tour to see the production. It's really simple: After harvesting the plants, the piñas are burned in an oven at 98°C for 37 hours or something. The piñas are crushed, the juices extracted and fermented for 3-9 hours, distilled again to make a 55% brew, and flavourants etc added.

Tons of tequila stored in smokes oak barrels.

 We FINALLY got to the Tequila tasting. The distillary was hot and stuffy and I was so thirsty. A woman in the tour infront of me tasted a baby shot of Tequila and her face scrunched up like she swollowed her tongue eating a lemon. What a wimp I thought! Our turn was up, and having the ingrained 'get as much booze for free' student mentality, slammed a shot down - oh my sack! Disgusting!!!! Blah!!  I did the exact thing the lady did. What a loser.  Rob couldn't breathe, he hates this stuff. We had the 55% stuff, pure alcohol, with added sugar, aging or anything. Gross.

The Nectar of Doom.

 After gagging for a while, trying to act cool we went to the storage facility. They store the Tequila is smoked oak barrels, just like wine. It was like Asterix and Obelix, where the Romans bash barrels open to find the magic potion. So cool. More Tequila tasting was in store, and we wearily drank some. We had to force ourselves to drink it. Rob said next time we go anywhere, it'll be a beer factory. Hear, hear!

The tour ended and we had another margarita. Yum! The pure Tequila isn't sold everywhere in the world. It's expensive. We drink Jose Cuervo, which is 51% agave, 49% other sugars. Our tour gave us a 5% discount coupon for the fanciest restaurant in the place where one drink cost something stupid. Rob and I missioned around the streets to where the walls were cracked and locals hung out.

A sweet little restaurant, tucked away in the building was serving some lekker grub, so I pointed to whatever the lady was making and waited a while. Two delicious tostadas came out. Oh my god, fantastic! Just what we needed. Sitting on the plastic chairs across a cock-fighting ring, we saw the locals start entering to watch the chicken fight. It was so funny, we saw a car, beaten up bakkie, with 4 guys squeezed in the front, all drinking beer, blasting music looking rough around the edges. A moment later a shiny new 4x4, windows up, not a sound with 3 tourists looking lost, all buckled up sitting quietly in the car with aircon drove by. Ja, local is Lekker!

Delicious Tostadas!!

 A lovely tour, interesting and awesome to see how a small area produce all the Tequila in the whole entire world! Oh by the way - the worm in the bottle is a local trait in a town called Oacaxa, so no worm for us!

Guadalajara Goodies!

Woke up in this beautiful city, it’s so vibrant and relaxed. We went for a walk to these beautiful Cathedrals;  it’s so wonderful to see proper churches again. The Jacaranda trees made me feel like a home away from home, so nice.

Beautiful Cathedral, even more impressive on the inside.

 After chilling in the Hostel with some nice locals we went to the bar to meet Oscar. Another couchsurfer got hold of us and invited us for a drink at his place. There was another couchsurfer – the crazy Chinaman!! He’s Chi, and bicycled from New York City to San Diego, to Tijuana and is currently in Guadalajara. He’s fantastic, so funny and what a great guy. Argentina is his destination – all through the power of cycling and sleeping in parks along the way. Way to go Chi!

At 21, cycled across the States and now down the Americans!

Makako took us out, again, to Zapopan – a beautiful artistic area in downtown Guadalajara. It’s great, there are statues and murals everywhere, juxtaposed between Cathedrals and other interesting sights. At the bar Makako got a true Mexican drink Bandera (flag): shot of lime, tequila and tomato juice – the Green White and Red representing the Mexican flag. Delicious!

The Mexican Flag!

We chatted with some locals, and just enjoyed the vibe of the city. Every single pub/bar/restaurant had live music, full of Mariachi, live bands and everyone is dancing. Salsa really is the flavour here, and every car, house, shop etc. has blaring Latino music, I love it, it’s fantastic!

Mexico at Last!

Beijing 12:00 >> fastforwad 32 hours >> Guadalajara 22:00 (6 April 2011)

Due to our very short notice flight change we had little time to prepare arriving a day earlier. Once again, Couchsurfing came to the rescue and a nice guy replied and said he'd meet us. Unfortunately no wifi at the airport meant we took an airport taxi (P$260/R240) to Hostal Rojo at Chapultepec.

Our first night in Guadalajara!! Our hostel guy said it's safe to walk around so we went to the first bar we found for a cold one. All the locals were drinking litre beers, local is lekker and got one too. The bar snacks are great - cheap puffy chips with hot sauce! Great stuff. We were really shy to speak Spanish, but got a cerveza and were quite happy.

The next day (Thurs. 7th April) we wondered around the streets - what a beautiful city! It's a real colonial city with cute houses everywhere and large cathedrals with parks around them. We had our first tacos, which were great and met my sister's mate Carlos for some enchiladas. They were interesting, colourful and the flavours became slightly more bold as we ate them in order. Maagies vol, oeggies toe coupled with jet-lag sent us straight into a 4 hour coma.

Rob and Carlos with the enchiladas. Yum!

 Meeting our couchsurfing mate, Makako (alias) was the highlight of Guadalajara. Nervous to meet a couchsurfer, we met at the bar and he was great!! What a fantastic person. We got along like a house on fire, as we share common interests of diving, travelling, partying and having a great time. He took us to Parian in Tlaquepaque, a popular place for restaurants and bars downtown in Guadalajara.

Makako and Rob in the streets of Tlaquepaque.

 We walked into a beautifully lit area, with Jacaranda trees in bloom (felt like home!) and quaint little chairs & tables in a rondavel type patio. The best was the music - live Mariachi players serenading ladies and this was just 100% pure typical Mexico! I've never heard of the term 'Mariachi' but picture this: Approx. 6 men, dressed in leather shoes, jeans, large belt buckle, a tucked-in button up, light blue shirt with a 'Texan-style- tie (like a big button) and a cowboy hat...playing the accordion, guitar, trumpet or violin. Playing happy, upbeat latino tunes that make your legs twitch involuntarily. We were in Mexico, and it was just amazing...

The best shot I could get, but more Mariachi photos and video to come

Our drinks arrived - bowls with all kinds of citrus (lemon, orange, grapefruit and lime) mixed with soda water and a large shot of the most delicious Tequila! Even Rob sipped his up and we had a great night, with Mariachi in the background, guacamole, a huge bowl of just cheese - coming from Korea, where cheese isn't too tasty - to a bowl full was divine!

A little too excited at this point - even Rob the beer-drinker likes it!

Why do they call it cheesing?

 

 

 

 

...because it's FON-TO-DUE

 A little girl selling sweets came past with the funniest shirt - Trust me, I will not lie to you, I love you. Written in permanent marker on her dirty shirt. She was full of character. She couldn't believe that we were from Africa - why are you white?! Tried to educate her a little, but ja....Anyways, she was bold, fiesty and hilarious which made up for her foul language. We gave her a Y1 (Chinese Yuan) note and she was so stoked! We had a wonderful night chatting, eating and drinking. The damage wasn't good, but we cleared the bill and were driven home to the hostel by Makako, what an amazing guy!!

Trust me...

Peking Donald, Daffy and Scrouge

Our last night in Beijing was spent feasting on a long awaited Peking Duck! Gen, Keith and 2 mates joined us for a delicious, traditional Chinese dinner. This speciality is famous for it's extra crispy skin, made so by blowing down the ducks neck and inflating the skin between the meat. I'm not sure if it's an urban myth or they figured out how to separate  fat from tissue by blowing in it's stomach. Regardless, it was fantastic!

One of the many plates decorated with Peking Duck!

I came to know the term 'foodie', which I say as 'foodster'- it just sounds better. Yes, I'm one of those, I travel with my stomach and eat what I can get my hands on. We love trying out new foods from different cultures, but this one wasn't wierd, wacky or gross...Oh quite the opposite!

Delicious spinach and peanut salad, mild and soft.

'Kung Pow Chicken' with aubergine

The remaining duck bones and meat were sitr-fried.

 Like all the Chinese food we had sofar, it amazed us with the boldness of it's flavours. The greasy, deep-fried foods we all associate with Chinese food is something that is only found in non-Chinese countries (as far as my experience goes). The flavours boarder-line Indian curries and chillies, great spices and flavours completely unassociated with China. This is a massive country, so the variety and diversity of foods is as great as it's nation.

The dinner table covered with dishes that will make your mouth water.

The chef carved the duck close to our table, with surprisingly less meat than expected, but tons of crisp skin. Too bad I'm not a fan of duckskin. I don't even eat chicken skin because it's too fatty, but oh well....this is it's trademark and was amazing! To eat the duck, you take a wee 'pancake' (tastes like a roti), add some crispy skin, duck strips, slices of pear and other small side dishes, wrap it up, dunk it in plum or bean sauce & devour it. Amazing! It's a world reknown dish and fantastic to eat it in Peking. To be honest I enjoyed all the food in China sofar, this was amazing, but I think the unexpected flavours of all the other foods was more impressive. Nevertheless, Peking Duck was a fantastic meal that sent me straight into a food coma...

I think Keith's trying to tell me something...

Camping on the Great Wall of China!

Meeting couchsurfers has huge benefits for travellers. We found out from our amazingly awesome couchsurfer Keith that we could camp on the Great Wall! That sounded amazing....So we got directions of how to get there, and off we went, with a backpack full of camping gear and one full of beer & snacks.

On the unrestored section of the Great Wall.

The queue to the bus was massive, so we pulled the foreigner card and wondered to the front asking if it's the right queue, and a lady grabbed us and shoved us on a bus - no waiting! Sweet! She was so kind. Unfortunatley the bus we  were put on was different to what our mate told us, and we ended up paying way too much for a taxi to get to the Wall. Damn - Y320 (about R300) for a 40min taxi ride. Bummer...

Nothing could get us down, we were at the friggin' Great Wall!! Never in my life did I think I would make it here. There were a ton of tourists, but not nearly as crowded as I expected. We had a beer - Tsingtao - and wondered to the entrance ticket. Funny thing about the beer - Keith, Rob and I all had one the night before, exact same brand. I said, man it's going to my head but Keith said it was so light.  We all looked at our percentage of alcohol: Keith - 3.2%, Rob 4.7%, Chrissie 6.7%....I won! No quality control/consistency there! Plus, there is a Chinese beer, and another Chinese brand that rips it off - only in China do they fake their local beers...

Hiking up with a bag full of ice and beers was worth it. Gunbai!

Up the cable car we went, as it was getting late and we had a 4-5 hour hike ahead of us and it was already 1pm. We rode in the exact same car that Bill Clinton did. Woop woop. Anyways, on top a few cherry blossoms were in bloom. We walked along the wall, and it's massive! It should be called the Big Ass Dinosauric Mega Wall of China! As far as the eye could see there it was, on the peaks and ridges of the mountains. Those poor bastards who had to lug up all those lumps of granite, just to let those goddamn Mongolians break my shitty wall...oh South Park, how you edumacate us.

A long hard walk to get up here.

The restored section of the wall at Mutianyu was great. It was steep as hell and we were exhausted. How the hell are we going to backpack for 8 months if we have half the gear and can't even make it up a massive flight of stairs?! Everyone was struggling, but we had so much stuff with us. We need to rethink our backpacks. On the wall were vendors selling sweeties, water and beer for a ridiulous price. Some tourists paid whatever they asked. We haggled like mofo's - a street vender wouldn't budge so Rob screamed to another vendor and got sweet deals.

Some histroy - the section of the wall we went to was called Mutianyu and was built under the Emporer Zhu Yuanzhang during the early Ming Dynasty (ca. 1368). This section is unique because it has several watch towers and passes on both sides of the wall. This made it possible for us to get on and off the wall as we pleased. This section is built on a 1000m high ridge, and goes along the ridge 'like a flying dragon' - accurately described!

After our beer break with some almonds and a boiled egg we felt ready to take on the world. Our hiking legs kicked in and it was all alot easier to do. The beginning was tough, but it just got easier after that. The restored section of the wall ended abruptly, and 2 pillars with red flags and some Chinese writing on a sign marked it's end. We just kept walking and the wall went from lovely even cobble stones to quite rundown rubble with trees growing all over it - so much more beautiful and authentic!

Everything the light touches, is our kingdom...

The unrestored section was really amazing. Almost no tourists and we really felt like we were on the wall now. We hiked for about 3 more hours, bumping into groups as we went along. One group of Chinese all had 2-way radios...we thought they were patrol or something and tried to look casual with our obvious massive bags! They turned out to be a tour group - with 2-way radios. Oh Asia, if the apocolypse happens you'll be so screwed if you can't orient yourself on a one-directional MASSIVE wall!

Houston, we have a problem.

Another beer break and a group of Chinese students were so interested in us. We chatted with them and were really amazed at their English! The one girl immediately said she is a minority in China - from Korean heritage (DPRK). She was interesting. We busted out some Korean and made her happy. It was a beautiful day and nice to see the locals appreciating the Wall too.

Say Kimchi!

We had about 1.5 hours of sunlight left, and tried to find a nice even spot on the wall to camp. It all looked uneven and reall uncomfortable (we don't have mats, only sleeping bags). We kept walking and arrived at the most beautiful section. Here the mountains narrowed into steep cliffs on either side, unlike the rolling hills we'd seen previously. Exposed rock made the sheer cliffs more remarkable. At a few sections we had about 30cm to walk on, but only for a few steps. It was really amazing - not suggested for those of fear of hights or balance issues! A dodgy vender guy wanted to charge us Y5 to use his crappy ladder. We just jumped down & climbed back up the 1-2m break in the wall. Opportunists are great but bloody annoying at times.

The iconic scene of the Great Wall, with sheer cliffs on either side.

The steep sections has less comfotable-looking spots to sleep on, we went back and found a lovely flattish area off the Wall in the forest where our tent could be a little hidden (it's bright orange though!!!). We cleared a little scection and had a celebratory sundowner. Watching the sunset on the Wall, just Rob and myself was just spectacular! We saw francolin-like birds and could hear the wildlife. Amazing...

Great sundowner spot.

After pitching the tent and preparing the braai, we just relaxed while the sun was disappearing. Rob has a magnesium lighter, and wanted to bust a Ray Mears and light the fire. Within 2 strikes he lit the fire! Wow - good on you Robbie! The area is so dry and some of the logs felt like polystyrene - so incredibly dry. We were very careful with embers and made sure the fire didn't get too big. The warmth was great and we had a few more cold ones to end off a great day.

The cut scene from the Blair witch project.

Dinner was ramen (noddles) mixed with spam and tomatoes. Yummy! Night time was horrendous! My 'super ice breaker' sleeping bag is a fraud and I froze my nuts off! The area was super Blair-witch creepy, as it was just entering spring and all trees were bare. An owl was hooting close by, but it was really amazing to hear birds again! I loved it, wasn't scared at all - just flipping cold. Rob was snug in his brand new -20 degrees sleeping bag and I tried to fit into it, but I couldn't :(

Wish it was that warm in our tent!

So we had a pretty bad night with Rob trying to keep me warm. Eventually he crawled into my sleeping bag (it's bigger) and we tried to wrap his around us. We knew that the most cold comes from the ground, but damn, didn't think my sleeping bag was that kak! Morning broke and the sunlight instantly made us warm. After a quick nap we packed up and made the place look exactly as we arrived. The cherry blossoms opened overnight, stunning.

On the way back, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, beautiful.

The hike back was 1000 times easier. Our hiking legs were going strong and my bag was much lighter - it was empty now! We casually strolled back, watching all the people huffing and puffing up the mega stairs of the restored section of the wall. It was so nice to lie on the wall chilling watching their red and poofy faces desparatley trying to motivate themselves to just walk for 5...more...steps...

Watching the exhausted folks walk past, chilling on the Wall.

We walked past where we entered about an hour further to where there was a TABOGGEN! I didn't even know that word until China - it's like a bobsled, so you ride on a skateboard like thingy down the mountain from the Great Wall. Sweetness! Robbie was in front of me and we went mega fast. But then had to stop abruptly because theses slow idiots infront didn't know how to use it. It's not rocket science - push forward to go forward, back to break. Grrrrrrrrrrrr! Anyways we waiting until they crept down the hill and then let loose....yeeeehhhha! So much fun! An easy taxi and bus ride back to Beijing where we met Keith and Gen for a fantastic meal and last night in China.

Who needs to hike when you can taboggen!

Chengde & Lama Temples

After a few days in Beijing we thought it would be nice to visit another part of China. Unfortunatley all tickets to X'ian were sold out, due to a Qingming, a public holiday of sweeping family tombs. We bought tickets to Chengde, a small town north of Beijing to see a temple built in 1755 and has the largest wooden Buddha scultpure in the world. So on the train we went...

The largest wooden Buddha in the world!

Beijing railway station is really beautiful - a great amalgamation of typical British-style railway station with traditional Chinese architecture. We saw a train for Pyongyang - pretty interesting. Our train was crowded and we were surprised there were no chickens on board, it was full of sacks, bags and presents with people compressed into every available space! We were the only foreingers and everyone was interested in us, but no-one knew what or where South Africa was, despite illustrations of soccer, world maps and even our flag.

We arrived, found a hotel and walked around to get some grub. For dinner we tried to find a restaurant with pictures - no such luck, just plain white pages with chinese writing and some prices. We eventually found a dingy little cafe with a few people smoking inside. We decided, why not? and walked in. Zero English, and we felt the need to speak Korean. I pointed to some other guys table and asked for venison dumpling (a freind wrote it down in Chinese - they are apparently famous here). No dumplings, but we got a meal, and it had zero resemblance of what I pointed to...

It was fantastic!! We got a hot pot of meat in a delicious broth with tomatoes. No idea what animal it was, but we assumed it was venison....Was a little weary at first, but it was great. I drew a bowl of rice and a spoon and got that too. Great success!

Nom, nom, nom let's hope it's nothing dodgy!

The next day we went to 'The Temple of Universal Peace' or 'Puning Temple'. It was really interesting as it's a replica of the Samyai Monestary in Tibet. The style was very different, and to top things off, tons of people were praying and burning insence for Qingming. People would literally buy two handfulls of insence and burn it. The whole temple area was filled with smoke, and was quite beautiful actually.

The crowds lighting their insence infront of the alter inside this Tibetan style temple.

Ladies praying infront of the temple, burning insence and bowing.

The temples were very impressive, with fine details in the paintings. Huge brass bells surrounded the temple, and people would slowly spin them as they walked past chanting. The whole area was alive with people on their spiritual quest. Along the last temple was a chain filled with locks. Apparently lovers lock their names engraved on the lock - so their love will be eternal. Cute.

Locks locking lovers' love.

The temple was bustling and a whole group of Lamas/Monks came out and chanted while walking in a ceremonious patterns. They had little bells and symbols which made the atmosphere even more calm and enchanting. I was stupid and thought there would be lamas, as in the animal. Can you imagine lamas chilling there, how cool would that be?! Rob just laughed at me.

Monks chanting infront of the main temple.

After the temple we saw tons of people playing outside. It was a gorgeous day and we had a beer in the park. We checked our train tickets and saw they were book for Thursday - we aren't even going to be in China on Thursday! So in a panic we amazingly managed to change the tickets. Rob cleverly printed some useful words - one of them was 'wrong' and with body language we change the seat. The trip back wasn't bad at all - watched Bill Hicks and were stuffed from the huge meal we accidentally ordered (we wanted 2 beers and 1 plate of food. They got it mixed up). A little kid popped a squat in the middle of the aisle and peeed three times. The loo was a stone's throw away...guess potty training isn't popular in China! Oh well...interesting experience, a little rushed, but nice to see another part of China, especially one that resembles the Lama Temples in Tibet.