Helo Borizonte

For the past couple of posts we have been exploring a state of Brazil called Minas Gerais and so far we have told you about a trip to Sete Logoas to see a cave, and a drive south to a quaint and beautiful historical town called Ouro Preto. The capital of Minas Gerais is a city called Belo Horizonte and it was the hub from where we took these trips and where we lay our heads.

When you mention this city to Brazilians they normally start salivating. This isn't because there is a high number of rabies cases but because the city is known for its delicious food. Katie will of course be blogging all about the food, which I'm sure by now you are all dying to see and read about, but for now, let’s take a trip around the city.

I guess our hotel is a good place to start. We stayed in Savassi, an area of Belo Horizonte known for its night life, and we had this wonderful view from our balcony on the 15^th floor:

We spent the evenings walking around to bars and restaurants and enjoyed the fact that the city was considerably less manic than Rio. It also felt safer. Not safe but certainly safer, although the usual precautions needed to be taken. As mentioned, Savassi is well known for bars and music and on the first night we sat outside drinking craft / micro-brewed / alcoholic liquid beer, listening to a live band. It was relaxing and sitting outside on a warm evening, drinking a beer is always going to feel like a treat to us Brits.

BH has plenty of daytime activities, besides gorging on delicious food. Very close to where we stayed was the Praca da Liberdade. This little square was very pretty and very popular with runners and joggers, which was entertaining in its own right as the place wasn't that big and they looked squished together.

After a walk around the little park we went to a museum called Memorial Minas Gerais Vale, and what a great museum it is! It is very interactive, explaining the history of the state from its slave roots, through the gold rush and beyond. Nearly everything is in Portuguese so a lot was lost in translation but even still, it was a couple of hours well spent.

Walking around town, it was impossible not to notice a number of old churches, buildings, and graffiti that were worthy of being snapped.

Palacio Da Liberdade

Basilica Nossa Senhora de Lourdes

The central market or Mercado Central is a very busy market. Recommended as one of the top things to do in the city, it was an interesting place to visit and was the sprawling, confusing mess one comes to expect from most markets. As I mentioned last time when talking about markets in Rio, the attitude of stall owners was very welcoming and not so “rich foreigner – let’s pull him into my shop and barter aggressively.”

Interestingly, there were several bars nestled in between the stalls, overflowing with people washing down the delicacies with beer. There were also plenty of coffee shops and places to try traditional Minas snacks. Aside from the food, there was a good balance of tourist tat, local produce and useful household items, and the general cost of things in the market seemed fairly low by Brazil standards.

The parking situation was bizarre. Cars drove in and up a ramp, and literally parked on the top of the market, which resulted in a rather annoying ricochet effect, with all of the constant horn-beeping bouncing off the walls and filling our ears. It also made me question the air quality inside the market…

We ate some fresh pineapple in the aptly named Pineapple Square, where they also sold watermelon. As we were leaving we came across “bird corner” where there were hundreds of beautiful birds for sale in small cages. Interesting but cruel… We didn't eat any this time.

The next part of our journey in Belo Horizonte was a visit to a combined botanical garden and zoo. We saw a huge number of animals there, from birds to monkeys to snakes. It was a great way to spend half a day, as the sheer size and outdoorsy feel made it different to other more concrete-concentrated zoos.

Obligatory ice lollies

We even saw a Brazilian leopard with her young

Check out those roots!

An agouti, which is the size of a very large rabbit

Crazed Cuckoo

Turtle riding a crocodile

Next up was the Hippie Fair. This Sunday-only market was hectic and huge! It was fun to walk around and take it in but it is definitely a bit manic. I bought Katie some earrings because I am a great boyfriend and we both had a smashing time window shopping (or whatever the market version of that is!) around all these stalls. We even bought a new pet for our flat and we named him in honour of his birthplace.

He's quieter than his name suggests.

Next to the market is a municipal park that is worth a gander. A little bit calmer than the market (although it also had a theme park at one end!).

On the final day of our holiday we took a drive south to the area of town called Mangabeiras, which has a great view point to watch the city from. First we mistakenly went to the park in search of the mythical view point. It was interesting but not what we had come to see.

We saw a wild coati that was fond of aqua de cocos

After some soul searching and anxious clock-watching (our flight was soon!) we managed to find the view point. It was definitely the best view of a city I have seen for a long time. A must-do if you have a clear day and transport to get here. For everyone who wants to find this place – it is here. The info on google is surprisingly sparse.

So there you have it. Our wonderful first holiday in Brazil. I know some of your will be rolling your eyes, wondering how I (Katie – italics remember!) can possibly call it a holiday when I have been on holiday since February. But it’s hard work being so relaxed! Oh and David has been working really hard so whatever you think about me, I'm sure you'll agree that he deserved it.

I'll be back soon with another food post for you to feast your mind's mouth on and then we'll be whisking you off to the dizzying heights of Rio de Janeiro's mountain city, Petropolis.

Beijing Part 2

So back in Beijing, after the wall – we were starving. After seeing the donkey on the wall, it flipped a switch in my mind, so we decided to try some donkey dumplings. They were delicious!
“Where else did you go?” I hear you cry. Well we went to the Summer Palace. This is basically a gigantic park with temples, pagodas, a huge lake and bridges. It was so huge that it wasn't actually rammo, which was nice. Oh yeah, it was also stunningly beautiful and my favourite place in Beijing. We spent about 6 hours in the park and here is a selection of our favourite photos.

This is us dressed in the "traditional" clothing
of the Emperor and Empress

Suzhou street was the highlight of the Summer Palace
- an old, traditional feeling street running along both sides of a canal

We then had a look at the Beijing Olympics’ site. The bird’s nest stadium was a sight to behold and it seemed to still be drawing in the crowds 3 years after the Olympics. I wonder if East London will have the same appeal? When I think of East London I imagine a Kosovo-like, decimated city but will the Olympics force East London to rise like a phoenix out of the ashes and join the rest of London (ignoring the South) in the 21^st century? It's unlikely but I'm sure Boris has it under control.

We saw two more parks in Beijing: Jinshan and Beihai park. Who would have thought we'd see more Parks in China than in Korea?! In Jinshan park Dave got an awesome panoramic photo of the Forbidden City - click the picture to full screen it and be overwhelmed by the size of the temple complex.

We also stumbled upon a butterfly enclosure.

Beihai park had a dragon screen, a lake, a pagoda and a wall of Buddhas. It also had a beautiful temple surrounded by ponds - apparently it's very unique.

Dragon Screen

We also went to Beijing zoo and, of course, saw some pandas. They were cute and seemed happy but the rest of the zoo was as disgusting as some of Dave's similes. We saw a man (a fully grown man!) throw a coke bottle at a tiger and numerous people poke crackers through the railings to feed various animals - because everyone knows the important role the great Ryvita tree plays in the African grasslands. The worst, though, was the bear enclosure. It was filthy.

Dirty Dirty Bear Enclosure

The experience only supported our impression that Chinese people seemingly have little respect for cleanliness and politeness. Maybe it is due to the sheer concentration of people, meaning that you’ll generally have more shit-covered apples than you would in any other country. But our views of Chinese people were conforming to the stereotypes: loud, dirty and rude.


Of course, we had travelled there from Korea, which is very clean and full of generous, friendly, respectful Confucianists, so our view would probably have been different if we had travelled from the scummy, needle-filled, Chav-breeding gutters of our beloved Manchester! 

Cute Small Pandas

Bigger Less Cute Medium Panda

Old Nearly Dead Panda

Let’s move on from insulting over a fifth of the world’s population to the next destination - Tiananmen Square. I only know of Tiananmen Square because of the student riots that led to that infamous picture of a young man standing in front of a tank with his arm up. But it was an interesting experience. The largest public square in the world had no shade and in the scorching heat it was a little uncomfortable so we didn’t stay long.
Again I have to wonder if China, in all its wisdom, couldn't have taken the time to install the world's largest gazebo over the square?
There were a lot of CCTV cameras and many military men. Some interesting statues and the surrounding buildings were very communist looking.

CCTV & an Interesting Lamppost

I feel like Tiananmen Square would be an interesting place to hold a flash mob freeze (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo). I wonder how the Chinese police would react – would they start cracking skulls or just ignore it? If they started murdering people like the student riots then at least it might not be as busy in Beijing.

So, we reach the end of Beijing, where the bulk of our holiday was spent. Would I go back? I certainly don’t feel the need to. It’s similar to watching Memento. I loved it but watching it for a second time seems pretty much pointless.
I, on the other hand, would like to go back, but do things in a different order - much like my feelings on watching Memento again.

We boarded a train for Xi’an and sat down in our hard seat where we would be treated to a 12 hour ride. My cunning, perseverance and wallet full of cash managed to get us an upgrade to a sleeper carriage, which was definitely good news. However I had to carry both our huge rucksacks through 13 carriages, which were littered with people asleep / squatting in the aisles. I arrived a hot sweaty mess but would at least be spending the night in the comfort of a narrow sleeper train bed.
As I drifted off, I couldn't help but think of "Namesake", and the train crash, and "The Overcoat"...I realised that the book in my bag was "The Help", and since I can't possibly name my first child Kathryn (and Stockett would just be silly!), I figured there was no way we were going to crash. And so I drifted off to sleep...