Ninth Day in India: back to Vallabh Vidyanagar

At 5:30 one of the guest house clerks knocks at the door, brings tea for breakfast. At 6:00am we assemble in the lobby and get into the car, to drive through the morning darkness towards a remote temple site on a hill for watching the sunrise. We are there shortly before 7am, driving up a very steep road (probably 30% slope). as we reach the top, a very surprising site: a wall straight ahead, and behind it we see - boats! We think this is a Fata Morgana, boats on the top of a hill. But there is indeed a small reservoid / lake on which a few boats are floating. As we get out of the car, a cold wind is greeting us. We climb up the wooden covered structure from where we can see the plain below slowly becoming visible through the darkness. I head back into the car for a while to warm up. Then, as the orange disk of the sun appears at the horizon, we all assemble on top of that wooden observation point and take pictures.

Afterwards we are heading back to Vallabh Vidyanagar towards West. Passing through a few lively towns. Small rikshahs and trucks are loaded with people: usually there are at least about 20 people per small vehicle: sitting on the roof, hanging from the back, squeezing themselves inside. On the way we see a road accident that must have happened just recently: a white car is damaged at the front, while a truck is lying in a ditch at the side of the road, the driver's cabin smashed by a tree.

We arrive safely back at the Vallabh Vidyanagar guest house and have a rest. I can upload a few pictures, then we head out again for dinner: at 18:30 Sunil picks us up in his car, and we drive first to Kiran Chauhan and his wife Sarika for a tea, where also members of his family are present. Then we all together move to Sunil's house where his wife Viraj has been busy the whole Sunday to prepare a meal for us: a mix of traditional Indian cuisine with Western and Mexican components. We enjoy the company of the family and friends: Surendra Gohil and Juhika are there, as well as Kiran Chauhan and Sarika.

Back at the guest house around 22:00 we quickly fall asleep after a busy weekend.

Again in Vadtal

On Monday we relax a little. The conference had been completed sucessfully, and we are quite glad about this. I want now to experiment a bit with my hear-worn camera, to try out the "subjective experience recording". For this, I would like to go back to Vadtal, as this busy buzzing scenery seemed to be most promising for this kind of recording.

Our driver from the university brings us first to the "Garden of Knowledge", which is near the Vadtal temple. A wonderful gazebo-like structure stands there in the centre, shaded by trees. But as I want to take pictures, a group of white dressed guards comes towards me and tells me that it is not allowed to take pictures here. What a pity! This must be because of the post card stores, who want to preserve their business. It is obviously ok for them to take pictures, butnot for us ordinary visitors. Well, I now find a good use for my head-worn video camera, and I record unobtrusively as I walk along. Unfortunately the quality of these videos is not very good, as the camera is a very unsophisticated 640x480 PAL video standard one. The colors are washed out, and the audio is dreadful. Fortunately I also record the audio through my in-ear microphones onto the digital recorder, which give an excellent sound quality.

But at some point I switch the camera off, as we began talking - I do not want to record conversations, as this may be an intrusion into privacy. I am just interested to capture the surrounding soundscape.

Around this garden there live some kind of "holy men", as we are being told. These men are not even allowed to look at a woman, because then they would loose some of their holiness... well, there are weird things in this world.

When some of the guides realise that I am German, then ask us to wait and meet one of their guests - who is from Germany too. After a while he appears, also dressed into the traditional white local costume. He lives here for a while, getting rest and inspiration for his life. He tells us that he is actually here on business, as an industrialist who works on developing a technology for saving the environment: creating fuel out of garbage, and using some kind of solar / wind energy. It sounds to us quite unbelievable, and the guy may be just a bit nuts. But when I later search the web, I find a few links to this kind of technology, among them a project with technology from Germany: www.free-press-release.com/news/200809/1221291170.html. So maybe this guy was not nuts at all...

We see some parts of the museum, a house with floors and walls built from cow dung. Then we go again to the temple town, where there is again music and a large crowd of people. It appears that there too photography and filming is forbidden, something that I had not been aware at our last visit. Also I realise that last time I had entered the temple through the wrong door - there is a separate entrance for men and women.

I film a bit more with the head-worn equipment. But as I later find out, the quality of this recording is also reduced because of the camera mounted on the head: I would have to walk around like I had swallowed a stick, being a human tripod. No head shaking, no nodding. This would make interactions quite unnatural. But when behaving "naturally", the resulting video is just not a pleasure to watch.

In Beijing

On the bicycle in Beijing.

I decide that it would be a great idea to rent a bicycle and drive through the inner city of Beijing. When searching the web, I come across the web site of the "Bicycle Kingdom". If I had found out about it earlier, I could even have reserved a bicycle per web form on that site.

On Sunday morning, 8am, I call the store to find out about the rental possibilities. Yes, they have bikes available. But they would not be able to bring them to the hotel, as they only do this for hotels within the 2nd ring road. Our hotel is just outside of the 4th ring road. Ok, I could go directly to the rental location and pick it up. The person to whom I talk speaks English very well. He recommends to print out the directions from the web page. Since I do not have a printer with me (mote to myself: next time bring also a portable printer.), I just take a picture screenshot of the address in Chinese Characters, which I would show to the taxi driver.

So I take a taxi to the Oriental Plaza, a large Western-style shopping mall near one of the main shopping streets. The Bicycle Kingdom is a bit hidden and can only be found by someone specifically knowing it: The entrance is through the lobby of the North Garden Hotel. Down with an elevator into the 4th basement floor. There along a dark corridor, a sign on the wall indicates "Bicycle Kingdom". The owner welcomes me, remembering that I called. The bicycle is ready: a nice city bike with a basket in the front. Costs 100 RMB for the day, and I leave my ID card as a deposit. A lock is also included, so I could park the bike when I would want to walk.

As I want to turn north into the pedestrian zone of the Wangfujing Dong street, a policeman waves that I cannot go there. No bicycles, not even pushing. Ok, then I will go south. Visit the Temple of Heavens. Then ride further along those wide alleys with their wide bike lanes. As I finally want to go to the Tian an Men Square, where a lot of people seemed to gather, policemen again wave me away: no bicycles are allowed. Ok, then not.

A Gate in the park of the Temple of Heavens.

South of the Tien an Men Square.

Later I return the bicycle and walk along the Wangfujing Dong Street. There are large shopping malls, but also markets. I decide to buy a few souvenirs and try to haggle. This works quite interestingly: the seller types the price into a calculator and shows it to me. I take the calculator, erase the amount, and type in my own amount that I offer. Then it is the sellers turn to type again their amount, now reduced by 10 RMB. And then I type my amount, going up slightly. In the end, when we both arrive at the same number, the sale is done.
Somehow I still feel that I have been ripped off, when I carry my purchases away...

In the Wangfujing Dong Street - contemporary shopping.

On a side street there is a large food market, with freshly prepared food items. I am not hungry, and also I am quite sceptical, after all the warnings and scandals regarding food in China. But many things look quite appetising, and many people buy and eat them - so it may not be that bad as recently frequently reported in the news. I see a stand with very interesting items: Scorpions and a variety of strange bugs, grilled on skewers. Maybe I try one of those when I am in Beijing next time...

Only for the very courageous: traditional snacks.

As I walk through the tree-shaded allees, I feel getting tired. One of those motorized Rikshas passes by, the driver waving friendly at me. I friendly refuse. But then I think that it might now be a bad idea to get a little rest and go with one of those. So as the next one passes by, I make eye contact and indicate that I would like to go with him. As he slows down looking at me and waving, he gives a demonstration of his driving skills: while slowing down, his motor ricksha bumps into a parked moped which he had overlooked. Not any damage seemed to have been done, but the woman driver of the moped starts argueing with him, and the engage in a lenghty and loud dispute about this incident. I keep on walking... Another riksha comes up, and after a brief negotiation ("five", and he shows five fingers on his hand) I get in the back. That is nice, although the enclosed cabin feels a bit too tight in this sweltering humid heat. As we arrive at the destination after a few minutes, I get out my 5 RMB note, but he angrily shakes his head and shows the five fingers of his hand. I confirm, "five", show also 5 fingers on my hand, point to the 5 RMB note. He keeps waving his hand, and I guess that he meant 50 RMB. Well, I cannot much argue here, 5 RMB would have been quite cheap indeed. 50 seems a bit high... I guess these details should be negotiated at the beginning of the ride, with a clear understanding of both parties. Maybe it would be better if I had paid directly in the beginning?

From the back fo a motorized ricksha.

In the evening, I get slightly hungry. Should finally try the famous Beijing Duck, but when I go to the hotel restaurant, they do not have it on their menu. What a pity! I am too lazy to go out, and rather prepare for the departure in the next morning.

Excursions to Sights in Beijing

At this conference, also a series of tours had been organized for the participants, providing excellent opportunities for informal networking among the conference participants and at the same time to learn more about the Chinese culture. Several groups left in a couple of busses, and Andreas Holzinger recommended one particular tour guide because he was very entertaining. Andreas had not promised too little - Yiang Lee was very entertaining and upbeat indeed.

The busses stopped somewhere near the city centre, then we walked to the south entrance of the "Forbidden City", the old emperors' residence. It was hot and humid, and I bought a bottle of cold tea at every possible opportunity, of which there were plenty. A vast area is covered by the squares and buildings of this palace area, and the many visitors distributed themselves in the huge empty places.






After the end of the tour, our bus already approached the hotel, but then turned back one block to stop at a silk factory. There, we could see the various steps of silk production, from the cocoons to final silk bed blankets. Another guide explained this process, and afterwards every participant could buy some things, either bed sheets, blankets, or other silk products. Since I do know nothing about silk of fashion in general, this was all lost on me. I could not judge the prices, but they seemed a bit expensive to me: somewhat cheaper than in Europe, but much more expensive than appropriate for the average salary here in Beijing ($200 per month).



Another tour led to the "Summer Palace" at the Western outskirts of Beijing, where the Chinese emperors had build a large garden estate. Again similar temples, palaces, in the same style as the Forbidden City. A nice lake in the centre, with boats cruising on it.






The finish of this your ended in a pearl factory, where explanations about different types of pearls were given, together with the opportunity to purchase pearl products and other souvenirs.