Table Top Mountain and Phat Burgers – By Blake Ridler

23 April 2011

Paige, Byron, Tiff and I dragged ourselves out of bed nice and early, we then hassled Alice until she couldn’t stand it any longer and decided it would be less painful to just get up. We threw a few bits and pieces in the car, strapped on our walking shoes and made the hour and a half journey to the top of the Toowoomba range.

Getting ready at some ungodly hour

We had a bit of trouble finding our way to the Table Top Mountain car park, we got there after trying to decipher a map we found at Picnic Point and then asking some early morning walkers if we were on the right track. They told us to travel along South Street and it would become Table Top Drive which would take us down a steep narrow goat track, over some crazy speed humps to a car park (dirt clearing with some cars scattered around the place).

The Mighty Table Top Mountain

Once we reached the clearing Paige, Byron and I had a spot of breaky and then we all started up a long and grueling path that led to the top of a hill and gave us our first real view of the climb ahead of us to the top of Table Top Mountain. We continued on in spite of Alice’s protests that “nature was all over her” and once we made it across a ridge full of boulders to Table Top Mountain itself, the walk became a bit easier. Paige ever the mountain goat bounded ahead and would always be waiting for us at the start of the next bend. Byron did well considering he is only four and even managed to climb up the really steep bit at the end.

Action Shot

The Steep Bit near the Top

The view from the top of the mountain was well worth all the effort and we got some spectacular shots of the surrounding landscape. The mountain looks like it has had the top half sliced off by some medieval giant with a huge sword, leaving a massive flat elevated surface, hence the name. Although the top is fairly flat, it is strewn with stacks of small rocks that are just waiting hidden beneath the grass to trip the unwary traveler. Of course what goes up must come down and seeing as we didn’t find the cable car that everyone was hoping was hidden on the other side of the mountain we started our decent, climbing down really is the fun part.

Hooray we made it.

The view from the top

We made it back to the car in one piece and set off for our well-earned burger from Tiff’s cousin Richard’s burger shop, Phatt Burgers. Phatt Burgers is located in Ruthvan Street Toowoomba and churns out some of the best burgers that I have ever tasted. Tiff and I shared a burger called The Burghoffer, named after Clive Burghoffer the bloke that pretty much built and owns Toowoomba . The burgers claim to fame is that it is bigger than Clive and I can assure you it is one massive burger. Alice had the phoenix burger, as it was the one with the least amount of salad on it and the kids kicked back with some sausage rolls and a plate of chips.

Richard's burger joint

The Mighty Burghoffer and that is only half of it

It was great to catch up with Richard and because we arrived between the breakfast and lunch rush, Richard was able to sit with us and have a bit of a yarn, in between serving the customers streaming in and out. We left Richard just before lunch and made our way back down to Brisbane. Everyone was glad to get back, shower off, have a siesta and unwind after our adventure.

Chillin at Phat Burgers

 

China Trip Day 7 – By Blake Ridler

21 July 2009

We drove out into the suburbs to take a look at what was left of some local hutongs and so Song and Peichen could get us to try donkey meat. We finally found a restaurant and what was left of the hutongs that used to surround it. There was a low brick building in the middle of a demolition zone. Aside from that the building was just a rectangle with a semi partitioned off area out the back where the kitchen was housed and the people that owned the restaurant were some of the nicest people we had met in Beijing. Song later said that the owners were probably country folk who had moved to the city to seek their fortune.

Donkey meat, mmmm delicious

Modernization Zone

People would came in from the demolition zone walk straight out into the kitchen say G’day to the owners and grab themselves something to eat (kinda like, grab yourself something and leave the money on the fridge). We were treated to an early morning banquet with a stack of different dishes. The donkey meat was delicious and tasted a bit like silverside. While we were eating the owners kept trying to sneakily take photos from the kitchen until eventually Tiff let them know we would be happy to pose for some shots. After that it was on, everyone turned out for photos and we were busy lining up beside various people while others took the photos. Apparently these guys had never had westerners in their restaurant before.

Friendly Beijing restaurant owners

When we finally managed to get away, we made our way up to the temple of heaven. There were not as many people at the temple of heaven and we were able to get photos with most of the attractions. One interesting structure was a bunch of buildings surrounded by a round wall, the round wall itself was the perfect shape to reflect the sound from one side to the other. Apparently if you whisper on one side, a person standing on the other side should be able to hear you clearly even though the diameter from one side of the circle to the other would have been 75 – 100m. Unfortunately there were too many people at the temple to test the theory.

Basking in the humidity at the temple

The mighty temple of heaven

We grabbed some ice creams and left the temple to go to some more markets so we could grab a couple of bits and pieces. While we were there Song’s wallet was stolen. The thief was extremely talented he had managed to remove songs wallet from a bag that was only a little bigger than the wallet itself. Even stopping to zip the bag back up before they left. The security people where most helpful, they took us through the building to see which cameras we had passed and then allowed us to review the various video footage and when that came up unsuccessful. The police turned up to escort us to the police station so Song could file a report. Song and Peichen were surprised by all the fuss, as they have never had that before even though Song makes a regular habit of loosing her wallet.

With all of the afternoon’s antics we didn’t have time to change before having to meet Songs Aunty, who had booked a table for everyone at a Beijing opera restaurant. We arrived just as everything was kicking off. Songs Aunty and Mum where already there. The dinner was superb and the show was spectacular, with everything from magicians, acrobats, dancing and singing to the Beijing Mask performance. I would strongly recommend checking it out if you ever have the opportunity. It was good to have the whole mask thing finally cleared up, I had asked Song and Peichen about it a couple of years previously but the answer was somewhat lost in translation.

Tiff with Song's mum and Aunty

Dinner and a show

It was good to have a yarn with Song’s Mum and Aunty in a more relaxed environment. After dinner we made our way to a massage place for a traditional Chinese massage, the masers were as intrigued by us as we were by them, they had not had the opportunity to practice on westerners previously. Peichen promptly fell asleep, Song and Tiff chatted with each other and the masers while I was happy to kick back and enjoy the experience.

 

China Trip Day 6 – Blake Ridler

20 July 2009

After breaky we drove about 70Km west of Beijing to a section of the Great Wall. As with most of the tourist attractions we had been near, it was full of people, mostly Chinese who had come to see one of their national icons. It was great to get out of Beijing and away form the constant ceiling that hangs low in the sky there. From the vantage point of the great wall I could see why there is a constant haze over Beijing, Beijing is inland so no sea breeze, it is also built in a ditch surrounded by mountains which certainly doesn’t help with air flow.

Enjoying the blue sky at the mighty wall/

That should keep the rabbits out.

The Great Wall was well great, we went up a fair way until we were stopped by the sheer density of people. I stopped long enough to get asked to be in half a dozen photos with the locals. Why you would want to trek to the top of the great wall to have you photo taken with a yob from Australia was beyond me, but I was happy to oblige. Peichen caught up at about this point and we decided to head back down, as it would have taken us into the following week to get through all those people. Peichen also let me know that Tiff and Song who are a bit smarter than us boys had started heading for the coffee shop some time previously.

One World

Mates at the wall

We met back up with the girls who were enjoying the most expensive cup of coffee in the universe and decided to head back into Beijing, giving the Summer Palace a miss due to all the crowds. Instead we made for the silk markets where you could purchase imitation brand name clothes. This place was a worry as it is frequented by foreigners so most of the stall holders can speak a small amount of a wide variety of foreign languages. We were set upon by the stallholders as soon as we arrived, handsome boy, pretty girl would you like to buy (insert whatever they were selling). This place was like the other shopping centers in that each level contained a different type of product one level was shirts, shorts and other clothing, another level contained wallets and handbags and yet another with leather goods.

Relaxing after the mighty wall

The prices we were initially quoted were ridiculously over priced and Peichen and Song took it upon themselves to bargain everything down, Song actually seemed to be enjoying herself. We eventually left the market after collecting a few bits and pieces.

Playing at the silk markets

We went to a Korean BBQ for dinner, this place was awesome like many of the restaurants, there was a large cooker in the middle of the table only this one was designed to hold a round container full of heat beads. The heat beads were brought out already flaming and placed into the well in the center , an upside down concave dish was placed over the top of it and you were able to fry up your catch.

Song and Peichen ordered two dishes that contained dog meat one was a dish with a sauce this was a little strong flavored for my taste, the other was a dog meat soup, Tiff said she enjoyed this one and although I tried it, I am not sure weather it was the flavor or the concept of eating K9, I wasn’t really that keen. Though I have threatened our Maltese spike with this fate since then, especially if he keeps barking at nights.

The rest of the dishes were superb and this restaurant was the closest thing we had had to a normal meal since we had been in china (apart from eating the garnish at the wedding, it was broccoli). Tiff and I made our way back to Song and Peichen’s unit while Song and Peichen headed out to catch up with other people who had been there for the ceremony and were still in town.

The Korean BBQ

Songs favorite saying "Try this"

 

China Trip Day 5 by Blake Ridler

19 July 2009

We had organized with Jiaao and Xiao the night before to meet up and go to the forbidden city and Tiananmen square, as the night wore on the meeting time grew steadily later in the day. So it was fairly late when we finally kicked off and caught the train to Tiananmen. The square was packed with people and a little claustrophobic for someone used to a bit more space. Tiananmen square is the largest square in the world and apart from Mao’s frozen corps and a statue dedicated to the peoples heros it’s well, a big empty square, awesome. We got some photos and headed across the road (Chang’ an Ave) to the Forbidden City.

Hey look it's Mao

In the square

I thought the square was claustrophobic it had nothing on the crush of people attempting to get into the Forbidden City. After going through a couple of gates (massive outer walls) we came to a pay point and a 1-hour long queue. Lucky for us, a hawker who for a 10 RMB surcharge sold us genuine tickets to get in. We sent Xiao ahead just to make sure they were genuine (after promising to bail her out of jail if they weren’t, well eventually anyway) lucky for Xiao the tickets turned out to be real.

Hu Jintao's shed

Lost in the forbidden city

The Forbidden City is a large and interesting array of buildings with some highly ornate decorations. Also it was interesting to note that the crowed didn’t fan out on the other side of the gates they all stayed huddled together in one long line in the middle of some massive spaces so if you took a couple of steps to the right or left you had plenty of space to wander around and enjoy the scenery.

Gardens near the back gate of the forbidden city

Playing in the Emperors domain.

After we were done with the massive crowds and exploring the city we made our way down into the main part of town. There was an inner city market going on and apart from the usual trinkets and junk you find at most markets, there were some crazy varieties of food like scorpions on a stick, in fact there were quite a few things on a stick like centrepieds, grasshoppers, sea horses and star fish just to name a few. We settled for some spicy pork and squid on a stick, well at least that is what I think it was. Then we carried on checking out the wares, we picked up a couple of bits and pieces for people back home and then to escape the hustle and bustle we stepped into a tea house to grab a few thimbles full of tea.

The Market

Lunch anyone?

The teahouse was expensive by local standards so it was pretty much empty, but it did have some cool things in there. The tea was brought out on a tray that was around 5cm thick more like a box with a latticed top to catch any wayward drops. The teacups themselves were tiny with a cup inverted inside each one. This was to keep the tea hot for the first serve and the inverted thimble was kept in place by the suction caused by the liquid inside, very cool. The teapot itself was made with a porous earth that would soak up the liquid inside, in fact if you touched the outside of the pot, water would come to the surface. This means that over the life of the pot it would acquire and hold a distinct and unique flavor depending on the tea used and the age of the pot. Each pot is only used with one type of tea for its entire life and some of the pots have been around for over 1000 years, there were some of these pots with a story and timeline in glass cabinets around the walls of the teahouse.

The awesome tea house

The process was to fill the porous pot from a kettle, then filter the tea into a poring pot, then top up the tea cups, it was an awesome process and as there were no more than a couple of mouthfuls in each cup a continuous one.

Tiff and I made our way back to meet up with Song and Peichen while Jiaao and Xiao went to do some more shopping. After a shower and a bit of relax we decided to meet up at one of the converted Hutongs.

Hutongs are the original courtyard houses that used to be everywhere in Beijing. They are basically a number of houses all facing into a courtyard or small ally, the families that lived in the houses would pass them down generation to generation. Quite often you would get a situation where some of the women and older generations would look after the kids from the various houses during the day, while the younger generation would go off to work. From the stories the Hutongs had a real sense of community, however out with the old and in with the new. The central government is bulldozing down all the Hutongs and replacing them with new high-rise apartment blocks, that all look the same as each other and stretch for as far as the smog will allow you to see.

Never the less a couple remain and the one we went to see had some of the houses converted into bars, restaurants and small shops. We took a taxi to the drum tower and ate at one of the small restaurants just up from it. We had just finished and were walking It off when Jiaao and Xiao caught up with us. I finally managed to find a note book so that I could write down some of our adventures, I imagined China to be a place where pens and note pads rained from the sky, it would still be another day or so before I would come across a pen. We did however see a bloke out walking his pet goose in the balmy evening.  We settled into one of the roof top bars for a couple of beers when Jiaao started complaining about all the walking.

It is hard to describe the sights, sounds, aromas and vibrant atmosphere that was around the best way to describe it is magic. It was an awesome evening kicking it on the rooftop having a couple of ales with a few mates and watching the world go by.

Chillaxing on the rooftop bars overlooking the hutongs.

 

China Trip Day 4 by Blake Ridler

18 July 2009

 

The day of the wedding we were all up and showered nice and early, Jiaao arrived just as we had finished getting organized. Song had stayed the night at her Mum’s apartment. We had a bit of a photo opp with Peichen’s family while we waited for the cars to arrive. When the cars and photographer arrived we all loaded up and set off for Songs Mum’s apartment. The vehicle procession consisted of around 4-6 Audis one stretch and the photographer hung out of the back of a 4wd that led the way.

Getting ready

The convoy

Having Fun

The gang with the stretch 4wd

Once we arrived at Song’s place things started to get interesting, Peichen had to bribe and fight his way through no less than four doors with Jiaao’s help. To bribe the doorman Peichen used red envelopes with varying amounts of cash in them. Once Peichen had managed to get through all the doors he then had to find Song’s shoes so they could carry on to the next stage. Peichen searched everywhere in the room and again had to bribe people for clues to the shoes location. He also had to perform physical tasks like 20 pushups and eating various noodles. This was all very entertaining for the people watching though it appeared to be a lot of hard work for Peichen.

The lads bribing and fighting their way through the first door.

All that fighting and bribing was well worth the effort, now to find the shoes.

Peichen working hard

Once the games were complete and the shoes had been found, the convoy made its way back to Song and Peichen’s unit so Song’s mum could pick faults with the decorations that would require fixing by the groom before they could get married. Song’s mum decided to take it easy on these guys this time and after a couple of minor alterations it was on to the hotel. One thing that was really cool was as Song and Peichen got out of the car people set off tubes full of streamers powered by a massive charge, kind of like a giant party popper on steroids. The effect was awesome and streamers rained down on a large area for a good 30 to 40 seconds after each tube was set off, more than enough time to get some really spectacular photos.

Confetti Chinese Style

Can't trust those crazy Ausies

The ceremony was awesome a little different to the way we do it over here, for starters Peichen had to walk down to the back of the room to collect Song then they both walked up the isle together. The music was more what you would expect from a motivational session and the celebrant was more of a motivational speaker. I must say it was pretty awesome all in all certainly a lot of fun. Song and Peichen split the ceremony in two, the first part was more the current style that they have in china and the second part was a bit traditional. Peichen said it was very difficult to find the traditional costumes in Beijing, pointing to the fact that traditional weddings are seldom done any more. It was an experience never the less and goes along the concept that the Groom doesn’t see the bride’s face until the day of the wedding, I wonder how you would go with refunds or exchanges, from either side

Traditional Style

We sat at the back of the hall with other friends of Song and Peichen’s who had studied in Aus. Once the speeches and presentations were done Song and Peichen made their way around the various tables and drank toasts with everyone. As there were a couple of hundred people in the room this took a fair chunk of time. Tiff had a bit of a conversation with Song’s dad utilizing Peichen’s boss as a translator and Tiff and I drank a toast with Song’s boss. Once lunch was completed everyone parted company quite quickly, a bit different to the kicking on into the night like we tend to do here.

Hanging with Pi and his lady

After the ceremony we headed back to the unit for a siesta, Song and Peichen stayed at the hotel as they were given a suite with the hire of the venue. When we had all had a rest we met up to go out for dinner, this time there was a stack of us including Pi and His Girl, Jiaao and Xiao, Song Song, Jing, Han Fei and the tall bloke who spoke excellent English. There was one other bloke, a work colleague of Peichen’s but he didn’t do or say much. The meal was awesome and once again the conversation, food and beer flowed easily into the night.

Unwinding at the restaurant

After the meal we made our way to a karaoke bar, we managed to get a small room with its own sound equipment. Amazingly enough most of the people we went with could actually sing, apparently karaoke is a popular past time in china and these guys had all had a lot of practice. We were all really appreciative to get home to bed that night.

Fruit and beer platter at the karaoke bar.

The end of a massive day.

 

China Trip Day 3 by Blake Ridler

17 July 2009

Tiff and Song headed out to get their nails done after we dropped off the ironing, did I mention that labor is inexpensive in China, People don’t do their own Ironing it’s cheaper to have someone else do it. Peichen, one of his school mates and I went on one crazy shopping expedition. I wanted to get a spare battery and a USB key so we could empty the cameras onto it. Peichen took us to the electronics part of town, the building that housed the electronics was massive with each floor dedicated to a different electronic device. One floor was dedicated to mobile phones and another floor had cameras, we made our way up to the floor that had batteries and memory cards.

 

We presented the sample battery to a sales assistant who was manning one of the stalls, the sales assistant grabbed the battery and headed off into the maze of various electronics retailers to see if she could match it. Peichen asked another attendant about the USB stick and she too disappeared into the labyrinth returning a short time later with a 4Gig memory card. The battery however was not to be found and we were advised to go to the equally large building full of electronics next door. Peichen always the fierce negotiator was able to get the USB key for 65 RMB when the previous day I had seen a similar one for 120 RMB. After we collected the battery from the building next door, we went to get Peichen some shoes for the wedding and he managed to negotiate a discount on those and then sold his receipt to some random who could claim it on tax for a further 20 RMB.

 

We all met up at the hotel where song and peichen’s ceremony was going to be held the next day. Every one pitched in and helped to set up the table arrangements which took most of the after noon, Songs Aunty dropped of some KFC at some point to help feed the troops. When most of the tasks we could help with were completed, one of Song and Peichen’s friends offered to take us to see the Olympic stadium and the Olympic park.

The Finished Product

Room for a couple of hundred of your mates.

The drive over there was something to give Sydney cab drivers a run for their money, however once we arrived and cleaned the pedestrians and bikes out of the grill we had a good wander around and took loads of photos. There were stacks of things happening with bands and street performers all over the place. Some people were flying kites they would have been at least 1km up and they had strung heaps of small LEDs at various intervals hanging down from the main string so that you could see it in the dark. The Birds nest was interesting enough I was thinking that perhaps they had just dumped the steel there and decided to weld it together where it lay. The Pool covering was something else and was lit up from the inside with an array of alternating lights.

I reckon with an angle grinder and a welder we could probably make something out of it.

Spectacular

On the way back to the hotel Song and Peichen’s friend dropped into the place where she was going to have her wedding the following year. It was one of the walled off houses that have been in Beijing for a long time and would probably have belonged to someone of importance back in the day. Quite a nice little joint and if I had known how to speak a little more Chinese back then I could probably have asked more about it.

Converted walled house

The Dragon room

We arrived back just as everyone was starting to clear out so we caught a lift back to Song and Peichen’s place to crash for the night. Tiff stayed up with Peichen and helped him to put money into red envelopes for the games to come in the morning.