A trip to Song river

Our summer holidays in Dehradun were quite uneventful for the first two weeks as Ritesh was working on vacation and it was up to me to keep my daughter busy while she missed her friends back home. As she is a late sleeper, it was usually 12 by the time she woke up and accosted me with her favourite “Mummy I am bored” phrase. I saw my husband in between meetings and asked him if he would like to go for a walk to the river. It was a hot day and we weren’t so sure about what we would see on the walk. However, the hubby really needed a break since he had been working since early morning. I could do with one too as parenting my tween daughter, on my own,  at my in-laws place was not my cup of tea. So we decided to walk to the river bank. It would be the first walk to the river on this visit. We had been there twice, couple of months ago, on our last visit to Dehradun. 

As we walk, we spot a dog under the neighbours car. It looks at us and we look at it and we walk ahead. We seemed to have forgotten the way. New houses were being constructed in the colony blocking some old pathways. We reached a dead end and decided on exploring a different route. That’s when Oscar joined us. My daughter knew his name from our last visit here. He is friendly stray, adopted by a local family. He follows us and she encourages him and I allow it having no inkling that he will follow us further. He seems friendly enough looking askance at us with a wag of his tail.

Somehow he made us less unsure. Trotting behind us initially, then beside us and then when he knew he was invited on the trip, taking the lead. He lead us on to the pathway between the brambles and undergrowth to the river bank. Running up ahead and then waiting patiently for us to catch  up, he behaved like he was our dog. 

When we reached the bank we could see the river, narrow but in spate.  Oscar ran up to it and refreshed himself with a drink and dip that did him good in the hot sun.

We sat down on some of the boulders near the edge, dipping our feet into the cool water. As the water was slightly muddy because of the rains we did not wash our hands or faces. The view was breathtaking and the gushing river made a great sound that echoed through the hills that rose on the other side. We three sat on different boulders, smiling like Cheshire cats, acknowledging our good fortune to partake in this first hand. I also felt sad thinking about how long this would last, as neither the people or the government seemed much interested in protecting this wilderness. “A developing country cannot afford to fiercely protect what’s left of its natural forests” being the populist Mantra.

 We clicked some more pics and videos.

Meanwhile, Oscar who had run up ahead trotted back to see what took us so long. On seeing us resting by the river, he ran up to the water for a second drink and dip. He was very confident of his footing and knew how to avoid the strong current while we dared not venture beyond the edge. My daughter called out to him and he gently walked towards her and then towards me. Allowing us to pet him and stroke him, which we did warily at first but more confidently when we saw him enjoying it. He smacked his lips in approval and then as my husband got up and walked upriver  along the bank, he gently extracted himself and followed my husband. Suddenly, he shot off into the greenery beside the river bank. There was herd of young buffaloes there. He seemed to play with them or herd them by his barking. It wasn’t clear to us as we had never seen such a encounter before. One of the buffaloes rose up to his challenge and stepped ahead of the rest of them. Although it was a fun watch, we were also a bit panicked that they may charge at us. However, we managed to keep our cool and just called Oscar off. Thankfully, he too responded as he realised that a herd was more than he could chew. The stand off ended there and we retreated up ahead and there was no more action from the buffaloes. We also spotted spotted deer far up ahead. We could see them clearly through the binoculars, a very valuable addition to our Dehradun trip.

Two young Gujjars, a girl and a boy were walking down. They were the nomadic tribe who had camped behind our colony in a tiny settlement of thatched huts. There was an ongoing dispute between them and my father in law and other colony people about them stealing electricity, from the government supply, with periodic flares and police interventions. Mostly resulting in greased palms and status quo. Gujjars complained that the colony people harassed them by cutting off the wires they used, despite them( the Gujjars) never bothering directly the people from the colony. The residents of the colony didn’t care too much for the fact that they were stealing electricity off the lines for which deposit were paid by them. It also don’t help that the Gujjars were Muslim nomads in a pro-Hindutva state which had renamed itself as ‘ Dev Bhumi’ in all official communication. My father in law seemed to be in the thick of this dispute having lead the representation from the colony.

They probably knew who we were, given that we were mostly hanging about on the terrace of our in-law’s house, at the edge of the  developing colony directly opposite their settlement, with a pair of binoculars trying to spot a new bird or animal. Despite this the young girl gave us a shy smile and asked in a dialect of Hindi I could barely understand whether we were exploring the river banks. I returned her smile and nodded yes.

We walked a bit more through the bank made up of smooth rounded stones interspersed with squelchy mud and generously littered with droppings of different species. As we walked back my husband spotted the small boy adding his own to the collection far away.

On our way back, Oscar dutifully trotted alongside or ahead of us till we reached the clearing from where the pathway began and then he suddenly disappeared. We decided to buy him some biscuits from the little shop in the colony so that we could treat him the next time we saw him. Village shops are in a league of their own. Our young neighbour came up on his cycle just as we reached the shop. The shopkeeper was missing and the boy, who had played with my daughter last winter, stood shyly extremely conscious of us, clutching his money and avoiding eye contact with any of us. When the shopkeeper came, he could barely whisper what he wanted. The shopkeeper kept asking “what? what?” The boy replied in an even softer tone all the while cringing in embarrassment. It was amusing as well as painful to watch the young boy’s discomfiture on our accord. The shopkeeper was also smiling by now, clued in to the boy’s predicament. The whole interaction must have lasted five of the longest minutes of his life:) We then waited patiently as the shopkeeper leisurely stuffed his purchases into a bag before turning to us. Thus, we bought a packet of biscuits in the time it takes us to do our weekly grocery shopping back home. However, the experience of it was much more enjoyable. 

As we headed home, there was still ‘Oscar’ again. Seeing the packet of biscuits in our hand ‘he’ bounded enthusiastically towards us. but we saw the dog which had been lying under our neighbours car.

With many happy wags of its tail he happily wolfed down ‘his reward’ and smacked his lips in delight. 

All in all our trip to the river was a big success, much more so because of Oscar our friendly and sweet companion!

A very sweet story right? Nevertheless, there is a twist. A neighbour saw us feeding ‘Oscar’ and said. “ Why are you feeding this dog? It bites everyone here! ” We were quite indignant at her calling our sweet ‘Oscar’ unfriendly.

Fortunately, we kept our indignation to ourselves for we later, when looking at pictures that we realised that we had fed the impostor, whom we had first found sleeping under the neighbours’ car and not Oscar! We felt quite sheepish for not even being able to recognise our loyal companion

And finally 'The Great Wall'!

The Great Wall at MuTianYu

Determined to catch the 'Mubus service at 8 am in the morning, we were up bright and early.  We rushed through breakfast and raced towards the Mubus starting point, which was around a km away from our hotel. We reached the boarding point in front of Swissotel, Beijing with 10 minutes to spare. As we approached the buses, we met an English speaking guide who informed us that payment could only be made by cash. We were unprepared for this and my husband raced to get cash from an ATM which was around 50 meters away. As my daughter and I waited, few more tourists boarded the bus and the bus left promptly at 8:00 am without us.
I was nearly in tears when our guide assured us that another bus was due to leave at 8:30. Fortunately for us, the bus at 8:00 am had mostly Chinese speaking tourists and so the guide speaking in Chinese accompanied it. The bus at 8:30 had mostly Western tourists so the English speaking guide would be joining that bus. Talk of small mercies!

Some fun while waiting at the entrance for everyone's turn at the restrooms!

Our ride to MuTianYu was nearly 2 hours. Tony was the guide on our bus and the scenic drive was more enjoyable for his witty banter and informative tips. I would highly recommend him as a guide for the trip to the ‘Great Wall’. According to Tony’s instructions the bus would drop us off at the entrance to MuTianYu section of the Great Wall. It was a hike up to reach the Great Wall from the entrance. Alternatively, there was a cable car service which would also take tourists up to the wall. The MuTianYu section of the wall composed of 10 towers with the way between them. It started from tower 10 up to tower 20 which was the steepest climb in that section. It was around 10:30 am when we reached and we had 4 hours to explore the Great Wall and have lunch before our ride back to the city at 2:30 pm sharp. Tony warned us that it would be near impossible to hike to tower 20 and back in the given time. To more sensible people it should have sounded like a warning; for us it sounded like he was throwing us a gauntlet!

A snack before the climb

Husband and me made up our minds to take the stairs to the Great Wall and to hike to tower 20 and back . My poor daughter had no choice to follow her suddenly hyper-active and determined parents. As always our sense of urgency was in direct contrast to my daughter’s and she decided she was very hungry just then. So we spent the first 20 minutes of our visit to ‘The Great Wall’ queuing up for chicken wings at a KFC outlet tantalizingly situated just opposite to the entrance to the steps that lead to tower 10.We finally started after her snack.

Steps leading to tower10

Weird tradition of embedding coins in a tree!

The climb to tower 10 was surprisingly steep in itself and it took us around half an hour. The view on the top was breathtaking and I felt so emotional just reaching the Great Wall. The experience is one that  will cherish forever. To be surrounded by the majestic mountains, painted in the colours of autumn and to be standing on one of the most impressive piece of history made my human hands created a churning of emotions in me. An accomplishment which had the tears, sweat and blood of hundreds of thousands of Chinese. This wall had also a dark legacy of being China’s biggest graveyard, according to local guides, as many of the workers who were forced to build it by the emperor had succumbed to their hard life and were buried under it.  The enormity of the structure, history and natural beauty surrounding it just overwhelmed me.

View from entrance to Tower10

Stepping inside The Great Wall

The beautiful view from the wall

Tower 11 was a standalone tower, a small detour on the way to tower 20. The wall wasn’t very crowded and we joined the  tourists past tower 12 and 13. At tower 14, it became more crowded as those who had opted for cable car service to the Great Wall were dropped off there. The ‘Towers’ were more like watch towers where soldiers in ancient China used to keep a lookout towards invaders. They were confined spaces with narrow entrances led to by steep steps and were mostly bottlenecks in the flow of tourists on the wall. The paths between the steps were cut up into steps which were nice and wide at some points and very narrow at others. Some of the towers were empty and some elicited more interest making them very stuffy . There were safety personnel deployed on the wall to manage the flow of tourists between towers and to make sure no foolhardy tourist decided to do stunts in the hope of that viral selfie!

Trekking towards tower 20

Standalone Tower 11

One of a million snap-worthy moments!

In front of tower 13

A light stream of tourists on the wall

Inside one of the towers

The Great Wall is a marvel of construction on top of mountainous terrain and follows the ups and downs of the peaks. As warned by Tony, the climb from tower 19 to tower 20 was the steepest part of the section. The steps were very narrow and high, so much so, that we could see some tourists descending bum-first as we approached the climb. Although we doubted if my daughter could climb the steep steps, she surprised us with her agility! We reached tower 20 by around 12:40 pm after nearly an hour and 40 minutes of trekking. It was the most crowded tower and the safety ambassador there had to regulate the crowd most actively.  Entry to the next section of the Great Wall was restricted by a high wall and this was the end of the MuTianYu section. However, some people climbed over the restricting wall to jump into the section of Great Wall in the next province. We would have considered it were we not really short of time and exhausted. We spent around 10 minutes in tower 20 soaking in the view and the experience before heading back. We saw the crowd of tourists come in for the afternoon slot and were pleased with ourselves for choosing the morning slot. Descending was very hard on our knees and calves and we barely made it back to the boarding point with no time to spare for lunch.

Steps cut up

Hungry but exhilarated, we boarded the bus back to the city. ‘The Great Wall’ had been all that we had imagined and more! An absolute treat and cherry on the topping of our visit China! Our drive back to the city took longer thanks to the infamous Beijing traffic. We weren’t complaining though as the scenery that greeted us was lovely. We reached our destination around 6pm, famished but supremely happy!

Although it was late when we returned from the Summer palace, we were still feeling very adventurous and so we thought of treating our palates to spicy Sichuan cuisine. We chose a hot pot restuarant called 'Papa Frying' located close to our hotel. All the tables had a wide opening in the centre, below which was the stove. We ordered whatever the waitress recommended. It came in a huge wok partitioned in the middle. To one side was the extremely spicy soup with mala chillies in it and the other was a milder tomato based soup. We had ordered a full platter of all meats, thinly sliced and a basket of green leafy vegetables.  In a bowl was a mound of grated garlic and finely chopped coriander. There were also soy sauce, vinegar and other condiments placed on the table. Looking around I saw other patrons mixing the garlic, coriander, soy sauce and vinegar to form a kind of paste.  I started doing the same much to the amusement of father and daughter who were teasing me.
The mixture tasted nice, and I was vindicated when our waitress made the same paste for my husband and daughter. It was our first experience with hot pot and we managed to garner that we needed to dip the meats for 2-3 minutes in the boiling sauce for it to be cooked before consuming. Simple enough!

My first taste of biting into a Sichuan peppercorn or mala chilli as it is widely called is unforgettable!
It was spicy and horrible. I felt like I had bitten into Camphor. In fact I was sure I had bitten into something inedible by misake. Tears streamed out of my eyes and nose and steam out of my ears. My husband took one look at me and asked me to have the paste I had prepared. That really helped! The mixture I discoved was like an antidote to that Chilli. So much so, that I was emboldened to try the sauce again. Believe it or not, we all enjoyed the platter and our adventure at 'papa frying' a lot. It was an expensive and bold chance but we enjoyed choosing to have our dinner there.

This concluded our China trip and also was the last travel before the great pandemic stalled our travel for a good two years. It was a changed world when we travelled again both personally and otherwise.

Beijing Part 1

The iconic forbidden city!

Like all our flights in China, the one to Beijing was also late night and was further delayed by another 2 hours. So, we ended up at Beijing airport at 2 in the morning and found ourselves in the taxi queue outside the airport. The friendly man who was hailing taxi cabs at the beginning of the queue, bundled us into a taxi driven by a senior citizen. Our experience went south as soon as we settled in and showed him the address. We were already on the motorway and as soon as I mentioned '1 Chunxiu road' he just went ballistic. He started grumbling and I suspect swearing in Chinese. I thought he did not know know the way and so tried to show him way on my phone using Apple maps. He just waved my hand away and continued with his tirade in Chinese. We were quite fed up with this and told him to drop us back at the airport. This quietened him and we rode on in an uneasy silence in his taxi for another 45 minutes or so. As we were reaching the hotel, the driver asked my husband for directions, somehow the app on my husband's phone led us into a wrong lane. The driver promptly told us to get out there and search for the hotel ourselves as if it was a logical thing to do with a young child in a foreign country. We politely asked him to drop us at our hotel instead and we would pay the extra fare. After a lot of back and forth he reluctantly agreed and took us to the hotel we were booked to stay in. When we were safely in front of our hotel I typed my heartfelt "You're the rudest driver ever" onto my translate app for him. I dunno what that translates to in Chinese but his demeanor changed completely as he started to apologize profusely. He also wanted to reduce our taxi fare to 70RMB from 90RMB but we declined. I waved him away as he tried to help me with the luggage and even at the risk of pulling a muscle I wouldn't let him touch any of the backpacks as I clumsily unloaded them from the boot.

As I entered the foyer of the Holiday Inn Express in Beijing, I was ready to burst a vein at the slightest provocation. However, I need not have worried because the staff there was wonderful and made us feel very relaxed within minutes. We got a room with a good view of the city and a comfortable bed and as I plonked down I felt the tension slowly seep away as sleep overtook me.

A view of our neighborhood

We were quite sleep deprived and just woke up for breakfast at around 10, after which we all fell back to sleep and finally woke up around 2 pm. It was a cold rainy afternoon and we stepped out, after some inquiries at the front desk to explore the area around our hotel in Dongzhimen.
We had hoped to do some shopping but alas the malls we visited were either quite lacking in variety or otherwise too pricey for our middle class pockets. However, the food courts inside the malls were another story altogether. As it is my daughter's natural tendency to skip the wonderful options at the included-in-room-rate breakfast buffet and announce she's hungry when the only nearby food available are fine dining restaurants, I was grateful for the food courts and their variety. After she had had her fill.

Heading out in the rain..

Breakfast at the mall

We visited Sanlitun shopping village which was walking distance from our hotel. It had outlets of most expensive international brands and boasted of equally high end clientele. Making a grand purchase of a pair of socks for my daughter we quickly availed ourselves of window seating in the crowded Starbucks and watched the stylish customers walk by below. When we finished our drinks, the cold weather and our diminished purchasing power quickened our steps back to the hotel. Ordering take away from the popular joint next to our hotel. we enjoyed the rest of the uneventful day enjoying a Hollywood blockbuster on the TV.

Mall hopping on a rainy afternoon

 Day 2

The rain spoiled our first day in Beijing so we were determined to make the best of the rest of our stay. We set out early the next day after breakfast to visit the famed Forbidden city. I was very excited as this was one of the first places I had known about in China, having seen the movie 'The Last Emperor' in my early teens. The cab dropped us off at the South gate where while we were clicking the customary entrance pics, a Chinese guide speaking fluent English with an American accent accosted us. He was offering his guide services for a tour to the Great Wall. We kept his card.

Where the taxi dropped us off

Before entering the famous gates, we paused to admire the moat around the city. We also added the hungry crocodiles to it for my daughter's sake.😀

Moat with hungry crocodiles😉

 We stepped through the entrance and walked a few hundred meters to reach the imposing gates of the forbidden city. My daughter had recently seen the movie and so she went on 'knob touching ' spree as in Karate kid. :) In the meantime, my husband went ahead to get entrance tickets on my advice and I soon lost sight of him. This triggered a minor meltdown on my part and my hubby and daughter got an earful for pulling me in different directions in a crowded tourist area. My bipolar disorder kicks in at the most opportune moments!

Knob touching spree

As we made our way inside, we were approached by many guides but we chose the electronic guide instead, which was way cheaper at 40 yuan. It consisted of a head set and a control piece which had language settings and on and off button. The idea was that we could roam around the complex and whenever there was interesting information transmitted at certain points, the receiver would play out that information in our chosen language. The theory was very attractive but the practical experience was quite different. At some places, I circled the same spot slowly, thrice in the hope of catching some historical tit-bits but all in vain. Not a peep was emitted. At others I heard the female voice saying in flawless English "and the fire was" before the sound trailed off and the device went quiet. No amount of backtracking and side stepping would make the device work again. After unsuccessful attempts by all members of the family to get the contraption working, we abandoned it in lieu of reading the boards and notices around each of the artifacts. Occasionally we also resorted to eavesdropping on other guides explaining to their paying customers.

Taking turns to NOT hear

Access to the inside of most buildings were denied or restricted. As a result we were peering into dark interiors of the beautiful but similar looking pagodas while standing in the sunny courtyards. There was little chance of seeing anything worthwhile about the royal quarters from above a sea of heads.

Interiors

Peering inside the halls

It was difficult to sustain our own interest, let alone my daughter's in these circumstances. She started feeling hungry and the only food available to eat was in an overpriced shop next to the museum. She opted for a burger that came prepacked and wrapped in plastic and true to it's appearance was as tasteless as it looked.

What NOT to eat and drink..

We were quite despairing of our Forbidden city tour when we saw an opportunity to get clicked in royal Chinese costumes. The museum shop had an interesting corner with props where we could dress up as the Chinese royal family and get photographed for a 100 yuan. It was an interesting experience and made for a lovely souvenir! We could choose 3 of the photos clicked to get it printed and laminated.

Freshly anointed Chinese royals

We headed out of the Forbidden city after this as frankly we had had our fill of sunny courtyards, crowds and peering inside dimly lit palace rooms from barred entrances.

A fantastic tree near the exit -North Gate

Once outside we decided to visit the Tienanmen square which was adjacent to the Forbidden city but was close to where we had entered. So we had to walk 2.5 km around the city to reach the Southern entrance and proceed to the Tienanmen square on the opposite side. As we started our walk, we realized that we were very hungry and quite short of time for a sit down meal at any restaurant. We then decided to taste the roadside delicacies which were up for offer on our walk.

Walking around the city back towards the entrnce.

Right at the start was a stall selling sticks of some sort of candied berry at 5 yuan each. As I bit into one I tasted the crunchy, extreme sweet of the sugar coating followed by the soft and mildly sweet and sour taste of the berry to my delight. The sourness perfectly complimented the sweetness and I was hooked from the first bite onward! I later on learnt the name of the fruit as 'Hawthorne berry'.

Candied Hawthorne-berry on a stick

As we walked on, we came across a little hole-in -the-wall shop selling Chinese crepe. This crepe had a crunchy topping followed by egg and parsley. It was wholesome and delicious. Further on, we bought steaming dumplings from a man selling them off his cart. Our walk to to Tienanmen square had turned into an impromptu food tour and we were loving it! We rounded off our lunch with the unique Chinese yogurt sold in small pots . They were smooth, creamy and mildly sweet . Absolutely yummy!

Freshly prepared Chinese Crepe!

All our eating made our walk quite enjoyable and we reached the front of the Southern gates which were lined with shops selling dresses, shoes, breads, toys and everything bright and shiny. My daughter set her heart on a simple wooden toy which was being peddled by a few women who looked Tibetan. It was a simple clickety contraption but kept her so absorbed for the rest of our trip. We also fell into the tourist trap and bought shoes from a shop placed right in front of tourist attractions paying twice the price for something my daughter would wear only once and then complain of shoe bite.

The toy that held her attention for the rest of our trip!

I decided to pay a visit to the loo. However, when I saw the open stalls in the ladies loo with women going about their business in full view of other patrons, I did a quick about-turn. This aspect of Chinese culture needed a bit getting used to!

On our way to Tiennamen square from South Gate

Reaching Tienanmen square took quite sometime as we were a bit confused about ticketing . There was a long queue for ticketing, which we realized on reaching the window was not for the Tienanmen square. Apparently there was no ticketing for Tienanmen square as it was NOT an attraction. It was an open square in which soldiers were marching in tandem. However, it could only be viewed from across the street and was barricaded from approach. It almost seemed like the Chinese government didn't want it to be a tourist attraction! Wonder why?😏

Tian'anmen square across the street

I was here.

After posing for a few pics from across the road with the square as backdrop, we decided to take our chance with Beijing Metro and make a quick visit to the Summer Palace. We figured out the destination and route to take from the jumbled maze in Mandarin with help from kind Chinese passers-by and took the nearly an hour long journey. Unfortunately, it was closing time when we reached the gates of the Summer Palace and we could only see the entrance to this much praised attraction!😞

Beijing subway map

On our way to the Summer Palace

Too late for Summer Palace, might as well eat some corn

A token photo at the entrance

 We took the Beijing Metro back to Dongzhimen, the station close to out Holiday Inn Express.
On our way to the hotel, my husband quickly stepped into a local supermarket and my daughter and I went back to our room. I was actually quite puzzled by my husband's detour but as I freshened up  hubby and daughter had a sweet birthday surprise for me! He got a cake from the supermarket and we had a small celebration in our room. Despite early morning messages from family and friends, I had actually forgotten about it being my birthday in the midst of all the excitement and to be reminded of it like this was the best thing ever!
 

An impromptu birthday celebration!

We decided to have dinner at a Muslim establishment we had seen earlier on while my daughter stayed in with take away watching cartoons. Beijing has a considerable Muslim population and their food is a good fusion of Persian and Chinese cooking! We helped ourselves to Naan, chilli beef and rounded it off with delicious, sweet yogurt. There were yummy kebabs too but we had no space for them. Also, alcoholic drinks are served in these restaurants unlike any Muslim establishments anywhere. Each day was a new adventure in China!

Naan in China

Meetha Dahi (sweet curd) with toppings

Dinner and dessert over we pondered about our best which we had saved for the last. Our visit to the Great Wall of China! However, my hubby announced in complete horror that he had forgotten to actually make any bookings for the trip. It was 9:30 pm on our 2nd last night in Beijing. We had only the next day for visiting the Great Wall! Too late was an understatement. My hubby then remembered the guide who had given us his card outside the Forbidden city that morning. Luckily he was one of few people in China with whatsApp and my husband messaged him on it. The smart guy realizing that we were in a pickle to be contacting him so late naturally quoted us exorbitant rates for a trip to the Great Wall the very next day. Hubby decided to do a last minute check on the net, before accepting his rates. He came across a service called MUBUS which was allowing bookings for the next day to be made online! The rates were 1/3 of the ones quoted by the English speaking tour guide we met outside Forbidden city. We made a booking online to reserve seats but the payment was to be made only we reached the bus to avoid the bus waiting for paying customers. The bus would leave at 8 am and anyone who didn't make it would be left behind.
There is nothing more satisfying than being able to rectify our oversights in time and getting a bargain on it too! So finally we conked off mighty pleased with ourselves and looking forward to another exciting outing in China!