Hello again everyone, we've got a free day today, so we've actually got a chance to update you all, without having to have left it for almost a week! We've not been doing a huge amount over the past few days, so hopefully this will be a slightly shorter blog than normal?!
THURSDAY 26th April
This morning we got up fairly early, and after having breakfast we paid up for the meals we'd had from the guesthouse and waited to be taken by pick-up truck to the river. After a bit of a bumpy ride we were pulling up by the river. Nok collected our passports with our new Laos visas in and we were taken across the Mekong to Laos. We quickly got through the visa checking process and then met our guide, Chan. We then got loaded onto a couple of tuk tuks and were soon pulling up next to our 'private chartered boat', which we would be calling home for the next 2 days. It was pretty nice - it was huge considering there were only 14 passengers, there were loads of seats to camp out on, a huge dining table to eat at (and play cards), tons of seats to lounge in and it even had a 'sun roof'! So we made ourselves comfortable and enjoyed floating down the Mekong, with the most beautiful views of mountains and hills springing up from nowhere, lush green trees, buffalo's wading in the water, hill tribe families playing and fishing in the water, it was so relaxing! On our journey to Pakbeng, where we would be sleeping for the night (as the boats are not allowed to navigate after dark), we stopped off to visit a Hmong hill tribe village. Chan told us about the different tribes and how they are changing their lifestyles etc. Unfortunately he has a very strong Laos accent, so it can be very hard to understand him at times, so I'm glad I paid attention at the hill tribe museum we visited yesterday, as he was covering the same information. There were lots of children trying to sell us bracelets and other ornaments that had been hand-made by the villagers and lots of the girls wanted my hair clips too! After walking around for some time, Chan took us back to the boat and we continued towards Pakbeng. We finally arrived and took our bags up to the guesthouse we were staying in for the night - it was up a hill, so was rather sweaty work! We had time to freshen up (with a nice cold shower - mmmmmmm) and then we met in the dining area to order breakfast and lunch for tomorrow. Chan took us to a small Temple before taking us to his favourite restaurant. We went back to the guesthouse and made the most of the temporary electricity supply (it got turned off at 11pm) by getting the fan on and cooling the room down!
FRIDAY 27th April
After paying for our meals from the guesthouse we were back on the luxury boat and enjoying floating along for another lazy day. It was quite chilly this morning, as it was thundering and raining over night and then continued to rain this morning. But by lunch time, the Sun was out again and it was much warmer. We stopped en route to Luang Prabang at Pak Ou Caves. Here one of the Kings of Laos created a Temple. In the lower cave, as well as the stunning view, there was a shrine to Buddha and 100s of Buddha statues in all shapes and sizes. The top cave housed the Temple itself (along with a ton of bats), there's not much left of the Temple, but it was interesting to see, even if we had had to climb over 200 steps to get to it! Luang Prabang was now just an hour or 2 away, so we enjoyed the last of our time on our boat before we were being picked up and dropped off at our new hotel, which will be home for the next 3 nights. Nok took us out to dinner down on the night market street. We ended up spending the majority of the meal in candlelight, as the power cut out! It was a really nice meal and afterwards Steve and I took a slow saunter through the night market on our way back to the hotel. It's so nice, although our room is small, the air-conditioning is fantastic, so within a couple of minutes turning it on, it becomes a fridge!
SATURDAY 28th April
Today we had a guided tour, from Chan, of the Royal Palace Museum. It was quite surreal, as in the public rooms of the Palace it was incredibly opulent and ornate, but the private areas were incredibly plain and sparse, it was quite an odd contrast. We were then driven up to the Khong Sii Falls. It was a bit disappointing, as there had been the option of trekking to the Falls, which would have meant people would have had 2 half days to do their own thing. But the majority of the group wanted to have a full free day to do their own thing, so we were driven up instead. We walked a little way to the Falls and saw Phet the Indonesian Tiger and some Asiatic Black Bears, all of which had been orphaned, due to poachers, and then rescued by the authorities. The Falls themselves were startlingly beautiful - the water was crystal clear and an unbelievably vibrant turquoise/blue colour. Steve managed to get me to jump in off of a tree and the water was wonderfully cool. Steve then jumped in from the top of a waterfall (about 10 feet high) and I thought I'd have a look to see if I could do it, but it was so scary! I really wanted to try, but tons of people were watching etc and I spent the next 2 hours standing at the top being coaxed on by people to jump in! But I couldn't do it - my fear of heights and falling got the better of me. We arrived back quite early and so had some time to sort ourselves out before going to dinner at 6.30pm. We thought there would be a group of people going, but it ended up just being us 2 and Nok. It was kind of awkward at times, as we weren't sure what to say to one another. But it was nice being taken to a lovely little restaurant by the Mekong river to watch the sunset. We even got to watch a praying mantis which was having dinner on the table next to us! Steve ended up staying up until about midnight drinking the most awful whiskey with some of the other lads on the tour. They were all very noisy and Steve stank, as one of them in their drunken stupor knocked a Laos Beer over him!
SUNDAY 29th April
Today is mostly free for us. We had a little bit of a lay-in, but were soon up having breakfast. We've rented some bicycles to have an explore of Luang Prabang on our own and then this afternoon/evening we're doing a Laos cooking class with some of the other people on the tour, so that should be interesting.
We're not sure there's anything else to tell you. I have about 6 mosquito bites over my feet and they're right where all the straps are on my sandals (very itchy) and Steve's very proud about having got his first mosquito bite yesterday on his forearm!
Happy Birthday mum, hope you have a good day!
Hope everyone is still doing well, we're having a great time still. Missing you all!
Sunday 29 April 2007
Wednesday 25 April 2007
So Little Time, So Much Done!
Hello again everyone - I hope you've enjoyed your 'breather' from not reading incredibly long blog posts from us - but you know what?! We're back and with avengance - this one is going to be HUGE and we apologise before-hand, we hope you enjoy it though!
FRIDAY 20th April
After blogging to you all, we headed out to grab some lunch, we were complete heathens and had another MacDonald's - I felt so ashamed again, but we weren't sure that any restaurants would appreciate us coming in laden with our huge rucksacks and day bags! After getting watered and fed we flagged down a taxi and got dropped off at the Aviation building so that we could grab a bus to the airport and luckily enough there was actually a bus waiting, which we were able to hop straight onto! So we got to the airport (which had no air conditioning, so was rather stuffy and hot - making us dread even more how hot and humid Thailand would be) really early, by about 4 or 5 hours, so we sat and read whilst waiting to be able to check in our luggage. Finally it was explained to us why we were on an EgyptAir flight when we were going from Beijing to Bangkok - the stop at Bangkok was a re-fuel point or something, for a longer flight going all the way to Cairo! Anyway, once through check-in we grabbed a really nice cold drink each and had a piece of cake too! Then after a bit more waiting, it was time to board the plane! Scary stuff - although I wasn't as bad as on the flight to China in the first place, I just would have preferred to have been on the ground. It took a while to take off, as we were 6th in a queue of planes, but we were soon air-borne. The flight was good, the staff were friendly and we had a nice meal, which we weren't expecting to have and all of the drinks were complimentary! Once we landed we got through immigration smoothly, had to wait over half an hour for our luggage, but were soon stepping out into the hot soup-like Bangkok night. The heat almost took our breath away - it was so intense, but we got into a nice cold taxi and got taken to the hostel, which was very nice. Although the driver didn't know where to go, so we pulled over so he could phone the hostel for directions, but I had to dial the number, as his eyesight was so bad he couldn't read it from the page - even when I'd written it down quite large for him! That was a tad un-nerving, but we arrived in one piece! Then all we had to do was turn on the not-very-good air conditioning and try not to melt as we fell asleep!
SATURDAY 21st April
We had a complimentary breakfast at the hostel and after getting ourselves sorted out from the night before, we headed back out into the furnace that is Bangkok! It was stickier and hotter than it had been in the middle of the night when we arrived! We wandered over towards the skytrain at Chitlom and popped into the World Plaza so that we could see about getting US dollars, but we couldn't do that at any of the banks, so we hopped on the ice-box like skytrain instead. We then went on the river taxi so that we could have a wander around Wat Arun. It was really nice - from a distance it gleamed and sparkled in the sun, because of the glazed tiles decorating it. It looked so intricate and beautiful. Up-close it just looks like a mish-mash of broken tiles though! After wandering around for a while we went and had some lunch at a river-side cafe/shack. We were then going to go to Chatachuk market, but Steve wasn't feeling too bright, so we headed back to the hostel instead. We did go out for dinner and had a really nice, although spicy Thai Green Curry.
SUNDAY 22nd April
We had another complimentary breakfast before checking out of the hostel today. The hostel got a taxi for us and wrote down the address of the meeting point hotel so that we could get there easily. The driver initially took us to the Grand China Princess hotel, which wasn't correct, so he had to ask for directions and we were soon pulling up outside the Grande Ville Hotel and being helped with our bags. We got checked in and shown to our room. We decided to go and investigate this area of Bangkok before having to be back for our first group meeting at 18.00. So we wandered around the markets in the little streets outside - I managed to get a hand-decorated sarong for 199 Baht. Steve was going to buy a new lens for his camera, but indecisiveness got the better of him! We got back to the hotel early than we needed to, as I wasn't feeling quite right today, so we sat quietly in our room before heading of for our meeting. There are 12 of us in the group and we introduced ourselves to each other and did a little bit of form-filling. Most of us went out together and our group leader Nok came too and took us to a nice little restaurant, which was very nice. After dinner we headed out onto the streets and stopped at a couple of bars - Steve is finding the whole not drinking with his malaria tablets quite difficult! But it was a great night, but we were all soon yawning and heading back to the hotel for some kip!
MONDAY 23rd April
Today we were up quite early and checking out of the hotel. We stored our bags in a couple of the rooms and then headed out towards the river, so that we could have a ride on a Longtail Boat along the khlong (canals - Bangkok is known as the Eastern Venice, as it has over 200 canals). It was really good fun and we even tried our first mangostein (I think that's how you spell it) fruit - very tasty, I must find some more! After the boat ride we used the river taxi and then walked a little way to Wat Pho. Nok told us about the Wat (Temple) and took us around all of the different parts of it, explaining the significance of the buildings and stances of the Buddha images etc - it was nice to have some deeper explanation, rather than just wandering and thinking, "ah isn't this pretty"?! We even saw the largest reclining Buddha - it was amazing and completely covered in gold! After Wat Pho, some of the group headed off on their own. Nok took the rest of us to the Grand Palace. Steve and I, plus another couple (Kim and Chris - Australians), decided not to go in, as it was so hot and as Steve and I know we're coming back to Bangkok, we decided we'll do it on our return. So we headed to the post office with Kim and Chris and then all 4 grabbed some lunch from a restaurant recommended by Nok. We then headed back to the hotel using the river taxi again. Once at the hotel we each had a shower and than waited until it was time to leave the hotel to go to the train station. So at 16.00 we all piled into 3 taxis and went to the train station. We grabbed some food whilst we were waiting to board the train and then took our mountains of belongings onto the train. The set up was different to that of the Chinese sleeper trains - it's just one long carriage and the beds are all folded away to start with, then an attendant comes around after people have had food etc and flips down the top bunk and converts the seats into a bed for the bottom bunk and makes the beds as well - it's impressive watching the speed at which they can do this! So it's less private than the Chinese one, but I didn't find it much noisier and if people did get up to go to the loo etc during the night - I didn't notice them at all!
TUESDAY 24th April
Early in the morning we arrived at Chiang Mai. Minibuses were waiting to take us to our first hotel. We had breakfast while waiting for our rooms to be prepared for us and Nok got us to do a lucky dip for our rooms and I managed to pick the key to a room on the 4th floor! So we traipsed up 4 flights of stairs, dumped our bags, had a quick shower to freshen up and were then downstairs ready for our outing. Today we were able to choose an activity to do, I was torn between a cooking course and doing an elephant ride and bamboo rafting. We decided we'd do the elephant ride and bamboo rafting, as there are other opportunities to do cooking courses later on. So we headed off for about an hour to get to the elephant centre. I had slight reservations - I felt bad exploiting the animals in this way, but they seemed to be well cared for etc. We bought a bunch of bananas to feed our elephant on the way round and then very tentatively climbed onto the seat perched on it's back. The seat was really uncomfortable and it was pretty scary, as at certain times it felt as though we were going to fall out! Our elephant was a bit of a banana monster and finished the bunch within about 10 minutes, but around the route the elephants followed, there were places to buy more bananas - we ended up buying 3 bunches! When ours wasn't being fed bananas because we'd run out, he was being very naughty and not doing anything he was instructed to! There were also drinking/washing points for the elephants, so we got drenched in murky water/elephant snot - lovely! But it was good fun! Afterwards we had lunch and then got taken to the bamboo rafting centre. This was really lovely and sedate - we couldn't understand why Nok told us we would get drenched, as although your bottom got wet sitting down, we couldn't figure out what could get us drenched, but we soon found out! Whenever locals were in the river, as we went past they would splash us and that's what got us drenched, but it was nice and cooling, so we didn't mind! The guy who was steering our raft kept flicking bits of bicycle tyre out of the water at me, shouting "snake! snake!" It did make me almost scream the first time, but we all laughed! Steve had to help steer our raft, as there was an extra person and apparently he didn't do much steering, as he was concentrating so much on staying upright instead! After all this we went back to the hotel, time for another cold shower to freshen up! Then we went out again to a Temple at the top of a huge hill. It was really beautiful. Nok got us incense, candles and lotus flowers, to show us how the Thai pray to Buddha. When we got inside the Temple, we lit our candles, burned our incense and then left the incense burning in a special pot and offered the lotus flowers to Buddha. Nok then took us in to see a monk and chamen (pronounced shaymen - not sure of the spelling). We were blessed by the monk and then the boys were given a cotton 'bracelet' tied onto them by the monk, but as monks can't touch women, we had to have our 'bracelets' tied on by the chamen. We then watched the monks chanting and making their offering to Buddha. Nok took us around the rest of the grounds before we headed back down the hundreds of steps we had to climb up in the first place. We got dropped off at the hotel, but we went straight out for dinner. Nok took us to the food court in the night market. After getting fed and watered, we wandered slowly back to the hotel through the night market. We got ourselves sorted for the morning, as it was another early start and we even had our 3rd shower of the day!
WEDNESDAY 25th April
We had breakfast together and then loaded up the minibuses with our bags and headed off on our journey to Chiang Khong. We stopped on the way at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms - established to support the family planning aspect of life etc. It was really great food and afterwards we headed upstairs to have a look at an exhibition about the hilltribes. Afterwards we drove 2 more hours to arrive at Chiang Khong - the border village for Laos, from our hotel we can see Laos across the river. When we arrived we dropped our things off in our rooms and then Nok helped us to organise our forms for our Laos visas. After that and a little bit of briefing about the next couple of days, we were given some free time before meeting for dinner at 19.00. So we had a shower and then came to this little internet cafe to update you all!
I think that's about it, sorry it's a bit briefer than normal (probably a relief to you, as it means you don't have as much drivel to trawl through), but we haven't had much time! Hope you're all well, take care of yourselves! Not sure when we'll be able to post again, so it could be a few days again! Missing you all!
FRIDAY 20th April
After blogging to you all, we headed out to grab some lunch, we were complete heathens and had another MacDonald's - I felt so ashamed again, but we weren't sure that any restaurants would appreciate us coming in laden with our huge rucksacks and day bags! After getting watered and fed we flagged down a taxi and got dropped off at the Aviation building so that we could grab a bus to the airport and luckily enough there was actually a bus waiting, which we were able to hop straight onto! So we got to the airport (which had no air conditioning, so was rather stuffy and hot - making us dread even more how hot and humid Thailand would be) really early, by about 4 or 5 hours, so we sat and read whilst waiting to be able to check in our luggage. Finally it was explained to us why we were on an EgyptAir flight when we were going from Beijing to Bangkok - the stop at Bangkok was a re-fuel point or something, for a longer flight going all the way to Cairo! Anyway, once through check-in we grabbed a really nice cold drink each and had a piece of cake too! Then after a bit more waiting, it was time to board the plane! Scary stuff - although I wasn't as bad as on the flight to China in the first place, I just would have preferred to have been on the ground. It took a while to take off, as we were 6th in a queue of planes, but we were soon air-borne. The flight was good, the staff were friendly and we had a nice meal, which we weren't expecting to have and all of the drinks were complimentary! Once we landed we got through immigration smoothly, had to wait over half an hour for our luggage, but were soon stepping out into the hot soup-like Bangkok night. The heat almost took our breath away - it was so intense, but we got into a nice cold taxi and got taken to the hostel, which was very nice. Although the driver didn't know where to go, so we pulled over so he could phone the hostel for directions, but I had to dial the number, as his eyesight was so bad he couldn't read it from the page - even when I'd written it down quite large for him! That was a tad un-nerving, but we arrived in one piece! Then all we had to do was turn on the not-very-good air conditioning and try not to melt as we fell asleep!
SATURDAY 21st April
We had a complimentary breakfast at the hostel and after getting ourselves sorted out from the night before, we headed back out into the furnace that is Bangkok! It was stickier and hotter than it had been in the middle of the night when we arrived! We wandered over towards the skytrain at Chitlom and popped into the World Plaza so that we could see about getting US dollars, but we couldn't do that at any of the banks, so we hopped on the ice-box like skytrain instead. We then went on the river taxi so that we could have a wander around Wat Arun. It was really nice - from a distance it gleamed and sparkled in the sun, because of the glazed tiles decorating it. It looked so intricate and beautiful. Up-close it just looks like a mish-mash of broken tiles though! After wandering around for a while we went and had some lunch at a river-side cafe/shack. We were then going to go to Chatachuk market, but Steve wasn't feeling too bright, so we headed back to the hostel instead. We did go out for dinner and had a really nice, although spicy Thai Green Curry.
SUNDAY 22nd April
We had another complimentary breakfast before checking out of the hostel today. The hostel got a taxi for us and wrote down the address of the meeting point hotel so that we could get there easily. The driver initially took us to the Grand China Princess hotel, which wasn't correct, so he had to ask for directions and we were soon pulling up outside the Grande Ville Hotel and being helped with our bags. We got checked in and shown to our room. We decided to go and investigate this area of Bangkok before having to be back for our first group meeting at 18.00. So we wandered around the markets in the little streets outside - I managed to get a hand-decorated sarong for 199 Baht. Steve was going to buy a new lens for his camera, but indecisiveness got the better of him! We got back to the hotel early than we needed to, as I wasn't feeling quite right today, so we sat quietly in our room before heading of for our meeting. There are 12 of us in the group and we introduced ourselves to each other and did a little bit of form-filling. Most of us went out together and our group leader Nok came too and took us to a nice little restaurant, which was very nice. After dinner we headed out onto the streets and stopped at a couple of bars - Steve is finding the whole not drinking with his malaria tablets quite difficult! But it was a great night, but we were all soon yawning and heading back to the hotel for some kip!
MONDAY 23rd April
Today we were up quite early and checking out of the hotel. We stored our bags in a couple of the rooms and then headed out towards the river, so that we could have a ride on a Longtail Boat along the khlong (canals - Bangkok is known as the Eastern Venice, as it has over 200 canals). It was really good fun and we even tried our first mangostein (I think that's how you spell it) fruit - very tasty, I must find some more! After the boat ride we used the river taxi and then walked a little way to Wat Pho. Nok told us about the Wat (Temple) and took us around all of the different parts of it, explaining the significance of the buildings and stances of the Buddha images etc - it was nice to have some deeper explanation, rather than just wandering and thinking, "ah isn't this pretty"?! We even saw the largest reclining Buddha - it was amazing and completely covered in gold! After Wat Pho, some of the group headed off on their own. Nok took the rest of us to the Grand Palace. Steve and I, plus another couple (Kim and Chris - Australians), decided not to go in, as it was so hot and as Steve and I know we're coming back to Bangkok, we decided we'll do it on our return. So we headed to the post office with Kim and Chris and then all 4 grabbed some lunch from a restaurant recommended by Nok. We then headed back to the hotel using the river taxi again. Once at the hotel we each had a shower and than waited until it was time to leave the hotel to go to the train station. So at 16.00 we all piled into 3 taxis and went to the train station. We grabbed some food whilst we were waiting to board the train and then took our mountains of belongings onto the train. The set up was different to that of the Chinese sleeper trains - it's just one long carriage and the beds are all folded away to start with, then an attendant comes around after people have had food etc and flips down the top bunk and converts the seats into a bed for the bottom bunk and makes the beds as well - it's impressive watching the speed at which they can do this! So it's less private than the Chinese one, but I didn't find it much noisier and if people did get up to go to the loo etc during the night - I didn't notice them at all!
TUESDAY 24th April
Early in the morning we arrived at Chiang Mai. Minibuses were waiting to take us to our first hotel. We had breakfast while waiting for our rooms to be prepared for us and Nok got us to do a lucky dip for our rooms and I managed to pick the key to a room on the 4th floor! So we traipsed up 4 flights of stairs, dumped our bags, had a quick shower to freshen up and were then downstairs ready for our outing. Today we were able to choose an activity to do, I was torn between a cooking course and doing an elephant ride and bamboo rafting. We decided we'd do the elephant ride and bamboo rafting, as there are other opportunities to do cooking courses later on. So we headed off for about an hour to get to the elephant centre. I had slight reservations - I felt bad exploiting the animals in this way, but they seemed to be well cared for etc. We bought a bunch of bananas to feed our elephant on the way round and then very tentatively climbed onto the seat perched on it's back. The seat was really uncomfortable and it was pretty scary, as at certain times it felt as though we were going to fall out! Our elephant was a bit of a banana monster and finished the bunch within about 10 minutes, but around the route the elephants followed, there were places to buy more bananas - we ended up buying 3 bunches! When ours wasn't being fed bananas because we'd run out, he was being very naughty and not doing anything he was instructed to! There were also drinking/washing points for the elephants, so we got drenched in murky water/elephant snot - lovely! But it was good fun! Afterwards we had lunch and then got taken to the bamboo rafting centre. This was really lovely and sedate - we couldn't understand why Nok told us we would get drenched, as although your bottom got wet sitting down, we couldn't figure out what could get us drenched, but we soon found out! Whenever locals were in the river, as we went past they would splash us and that's what got us drenched, but it was nice and cooling, so we didn't mind! The guy who was steering our raft kept flicking bits of bicycle tyre out of the water at me, shouting "snake! snake!" It did make me almost scream the first time, but we all laughed! Steve had to help steer our raft, as there was an extra person and apparently he didn't do much steering, as he was concentrating so much on staying upright instead! After all this we went back to the hotel, time for another cold shower to freshen up! Then we went out again to a Temple at the top of a huge hill. It was really beautiful. Nok got us incense, candles and lotus flowers, to show us how the Thai pray to Buddha. When we got inside the Temple, we lit our candles, burned our incense and then left the incense burning in a special pot and offered the lotus flowers to Buddha. Nok then took us in to see a monk and chamen (pronounced shaymen - not sure of the spelling). We were blessed by the monk and then the boys were given a cotton 'bracelet' tied onto them by the monk, but as monks can't touch women, we had to have our 'bracelets' tied on by the chamen. We then watched the monks chanting and making their offering to Buddha. Nok took us around the rest of the grounds before we headed back down the hundreds of steps we had to climb up in the first place. We got dropped off at the hotel, but we went straight out for dinner. Nok took us to the food court in the night market. After getting fed and watered, we wandered slowly back to the hotel through the night market. We got ourselves sorted for the morning, as it was another early start and we even had our 3rd shower of the day!
WEDNESDAY 25th April
We had breakfast together and then loaded up the minibuses with our bags and headed off on our journey to Chiang Khong. We stopped on the way at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms - established to support the family planning aspect of life etc. It was really great food and afterwards we headed upstairs to have a look at an exhibition about the hilltribes. Afterwards we drove 2 more hours to arrive at Chiang Khong - the border village for Laos, from our hotel we can see Laos across the river. When we arrived we dropped our things off in our rooms and then Nok helped us to organise our forms for our Laos visas. After that and a little bit of briefing about the next couple of days, we were given some free time before meeting for dinner at 19.00. So we had a shower and then came to this little internet cafe to update you all!
I think that's about it, sorry it's a bit briefer than normal (probably a relief to you, as it means you don't have as much drivel to trawl through), but we haven't had much time! Hope you're all well, take care of yourselves! Not sure when we'll be able to post again, so it could be a few days again! Missing you all!
Friday 20 April 2007
Pricey Duck and Blooming Tulips
Hello again everyone, we've got a few days to get you updated on, but it's also the very last blog we will be posting from sunny old Beijing, as we're off on our flight tonight to Bangkok. We'll be departing Beijing at 20.05 (or 13.05 GMT) and arriving in Bangkok at 23.45 (or 17.45 GMT). I'm certainly not looking forward to flying again - getting to feel all paranoid for 4 hours and 40 minutes until we're safely back on the ground again! Well, anyway, enough about my irrational fears, here's what we've been doing over the past few days.
TUESDAY 17th April
We just need to update you on something that happened after we blogged you last. We decided to go out and treat ourselves to a nice meal of real Peking Duck, as we'd had a bit of a naff day not being able to find anything we wanted to do. So we headed off to a nice sounding restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet book, where it wasn't too expensive. However, when we reached the street the restaurant was on, a gentlemen told us that the restaurant has been moved/closing down, so he pointed us in the direction of the new branch. Moments later he had caught up with us again and said we were going the wrong way and that he would take us to the restaurant, he seemed a little suspect, but he also seemed fairly genuine as well. We tottered off after him and we finally entered the restaurant (Front Door Roast Duck) and he showed us to a table. We were then given a menu (which we later realised was very different to the one given to Chinese people, ours was very restricted in selection and also only showed very expensive dishes). There was only one duck dish on the whole menu, which was 108Yuan (it was a set meal of, supposedly, 3 courses), but we decided to go for it as we thought it would be a really nice meal. However it was RUBBISH! We didn't get 3 inclusive courses (as we ended up paying an extra 15Yuan for one of the dishes, which we hadn't even ordered as extra), the food wasn't very good, the service was terrible and we had to pay 6Yuan for using the chopsticks as well! So all told, the flipping meal came to an almighty 252Yuan (this is only about 15 or 16 pounds, but when we normally eat very well across the road for about 70Yuan, we were rather annoyed)!
WEDNESDAY 18th April
Today we didn't get up to huge number of different things. We caught the trusty old subway to the end of the line and then began our search for the 318 bus stop. However, after a long while of trekking down the correct road, in the correct direction the bus stop never materialised, so we hailed a taxi instead to take us to the Beijing Botanical Gardens. The grounds were quite pretty, but there wasn't a huge variety of plants in bloom, due to the time of year, but there were lots of tulips etc and it was very nice to be away from the cars, buses, smog and so on, but we didn't manage to escape the people, as it was very busy! It was another really warm day, even the shade didn't bring that much relief - some people had taken to having water fights at the top of a 'waterfall' flowing into the lake and in the water fountains to cool off. There was a really big tropical rainforest conservatory there, but it was really expensive to get into, so we didn't see that (but we've resolved to go to the Eden Project at some point when we get home), but there was plenty of other things to see. We did manage to visit the Temple of the Reclining Buddha whilst we were there - it was absolutely huge! The grounds of the Temple were actually very cool in comparison to the rest of the gardens, so we wandered around for a while cooling off. After several hours of wandering, it was getting to the point when we needed to think about heading back to the hostel. However, rather than trying to find the elusive bus, we decided to hail another taxi to take us to the subway station. We were soon pulling into our familiar stop and then climbing the stairs to take us back to the hostel and rest our very tired feet.
THURSDAY 19th April
We made our way back to our sight-seeing starting point today - we were back at Tian Anmen Square. However, we were absolutely amazed that we only got approached by a couple of street vendors - maybe they only prey on the weak tourists who look particularly weary like we did on our first day! Anyway, we managed to get some more photos, before heading across the street to have a wander around Zhongshang Park (just to the side of the Forbidden City). It was amazing how green the garden was, not just in some areas, but all of it, there wasn't a single arid looking spot, which is the first time we've seen a completely green garden since arriving in China! This is probably explained by the huge fleet of sprinklers they have working almost constantly! The garden was very pretty though, and we took a few photos, before heading back out onto the street to decide what to do next. After some discussion, we decided to go to the Chinese Art Museum, which was at the top of Wangfujing Street, we decided to be cheap-skates and walked rather than taking the subway or a taxi. We managed to find the gallery easily and we were soon wandering around the exhibition halls. The main display presently on, was of the American West landscape, as painted by American artists, which was a bit of a shame in a way, as we were expecting to see more Chinese art, but it was still interesting to view and Steve enjoyed it a lot. We were soon wandering around all of the other exhibits of Chinese artists work, which was also very interesting. We couldn't believe how quiet the Museum was though, there could only have been a handful of other people walking around whilst we were there. However, the silence was constantly interrupted by the 'click' of cameras, as people wandered around creating their own portfolios of work by photographing almost every piece of artwork on display! It was crazy, as there were signs up asking you to not take photos and there were attendants in every exhibit hall and they just completely ignored people's blatant disregard for the rules! We were soon back out in the hazy sunshine and wandering back down Wangfujing Street to get to the subway. We stopped off to have a fruit smoothie each and share a banana split on the way (it was really yummy) and then we were soon making our very last journey on the Beijing subway system and arriving back at our stop for the last time!
FRIDAY 20th April
We've not been up to anything today. We tried to eat in the hostel restaurant for breakfast, but the staff weren't very good and a woman just kept saying "no" to us, so we left and wandered up the street next to the hostel to grab some breakfast from the shop instead. We've then spent the rest of the morning packing our bags ready for our flight later, praying that our bags are within the weight limits, as we have no scales to check them on! It should be fine, we've not bought that many things - fingers crossed! So now we're just sorting out a few bits on the internet before we head out for some lunch and then make our way to the airport to check in etc. It should be good moving onto a new place - it's felt like we've been in China for over a month now, even though it's only just been over 2 weeks! It'll also be nice being ferried around for a month and having things organised for us more! Time for us to relax a bit now!
Just so you know, we're not sure how often we'll have access to the internet whilst we on the tour (until 20th May), so the blog may become a bit sparse and randomly updated. Missing you all still and looking forward to sharing all our photos with you all!
TUESDAY 17th April
We just need to update you on something that happened after we blogged you last. We decided to go out and treat ourselves to a nice meal of real Peking Duck, as we'd had a bit of a naff day not being able to find anything we wanted to do. So we headed off to a nice sounding restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet book, where it wasn't too expensive. However, when we reached the street the restaurant was on, a gentlemen told us that the restaurant has been moved/closing down, so he pointed us in the direction of the new branch. Moments later he had caught up with us again and said we were going the wrong way and that he would take us to the restaurant, he seemed a little suspect, but he also seemed fairly genuine as well. We tottered off after him and we finally entered the restaurant (Front Door Roast Duck) and he showed us to a table. We were then given a menu (which we later realised was very different to the one given to Chinese people, ours was very restricted in selection and also only showed very expensive dishes). There was only one duck dish on the whole menu, which was 108Yuan (it was a set meal of, supposedly, 3 courses), but we decided to go for it as we thought it would be a really nice meal. However it was RUBBISH! We didn't get 3 inclusive courses (as we ended up paying an extra 15Yuan for one of the dishes, which we hadn't even ordered as extra), the food wasn't very good, the service was terrible and we had to pay 6Yuan for using the chopsticks as well! So all told, the flipping meal came to an almighty 252Yuan (this is only about 15 or 16 pounds, but when we normally eat very well across the road for about 70Yuan, we were rather annoyed)!
WEDNESDAY 18th April
Today we didn't get up to huge number of different things. We caught the trusty old subway to the end of the line and then began our search for the 318 bus stop. However, after a long while of trekking down the correct road, in the correct direction the bus stop never materialised, so we hailed a taxi instead to take us to the Beijing Botanical Gardens. The grounds were quite pretty, but there wasn't a huge variety of plants in bloom, due to the time of year, but there were lots of tulips etc and it was very nice to be away from the cars, buses, smog and so on, but we didn't manage to escape the people, as it was very busy! It was another really warm day, even the shade didn't bring that much relief - some people had taken to having water fights at the top of a 'waterfall' flowing into the lake and in the water fountains to cool off. There was a really big tropical rainforest conservatory there, but it was really expensive to get into, so we didn't see that (but we've resolved to go to the Eden Project at some point when we get home), but there was plenty of other things to see. We did manage to visit the Temple of the Reclining Buddha whilst we were there - it was absolutely huge! The grounds of the Temple were actually very cool in comparison to the rest of the gardens, so we wandered around for a while cooling off. After several hours of wandering, it was getting to the point when we needed to think about heading back to the hostel. However, rather than trying to find the elusive bus, we decided to hail another taxi to take us to the subway station. We were soon pulling into our familiar stop and then climbing the stairs to take us back to the hostel and rest our very tired feet.
THURSDAY 19th April
We made our way back to our sight-seeing starting point today - we were back at Tian Anmen Square. However, we were absolutely amazed that we only got approached by a couple of street vendors - maybe they only prey on the weak tourists who look particularly weary like we did on our first day! Anyway, we managed to get some more photos, before heading across the street to have a wander around Zhongshang Park (just to the side of the Forbidden City). It was amazing how green the garden was, not just in some areas, but all of it, there wasn't a single arid looking spot, which is the first time we've seen a completely green garden since arriving in China! This is probably explained by the huge fleet of sprinklers they have working almost constantly! The garden was very pretty though, and we took a few photos, before heading back out onto the street to decide what to do next. After some discussion, we decided to go to the Chinese Art Museum, which was at the top of Wangfujing Street, we decided to be cheap-skates and walked rather than taking the subway or a taxi. We managed to find the gallery easily and we were soon wandering around the exhibition halls. The main display presently on, was of the American West landscape, as painted by American artists, which was a bit of a shame in a way, as we were expecting to see more Chinese art, but it was still interesting to view and Steve enjoyed it a lot. We were soon wandering around all of the other exhibits of Chinese artists work, which was also very interesting. We couldn't believe how quiet the Museum was though, there could only have been a handful of other people walking around whilst we were there. However, the silence was constantly interrupted by the 'click' of cameras, as people wandered around creating their own portfolios of work by photographing almost every piece of artwork on display! It was crazy, as there were signs up asking you to not take photos and there were attendants in every exhibit hall and they just completely ignored people's blatant disregard for the rules! We were soon back out in the hazy sunshine and wandering back down Wangfujing Street to get to the subway. We stopped off to have a fruit smoothie each and share a banana split on the way (it was really yummy) and then we were soon making our very last journey on the Beijing subway system and arriving back at our stop for the last time!
FRIDAY 20th April
We've not been up to anything today. We tried to eat in the hostel restaurant for breakfast, but the staff weren't very good and a woman just kept saying "no" to us, so we left and wandered up the street next to the hostel to grab some breakfast from the shop instead. We've then spent the rest of the morning packing our bags ready for our flight later, praying that our bags are within the weight limits, as we have no scales to check them on! It should be fine, we've not bought that many things - fingers crossed! So now we're just sorting out a few bits on the internet before we head out for some lunch and then make our way to the airport to check in etc. It should be good moving onto a new place - it's felt like we've been in China for over a month now, even though it's only just been over 2 weeks! It'll also be nice being ferried around for a month and having things organised for us more! Time for us to relax a bit now!
Just so you know, we're not sure how often we'll have access to the internet whilst we on the tour (until 20th May), so the blog may become a bit sparse and randomly updated. Missing you all still and looking forward to sharing all our photos with you all!
Tuesday 17 April 2007
Lamas and Searching in Vain!
MONDAY 16th April
Today we finally arrived back in Beijing. The train journey wasn't too bad, I'm sure the train was noisier than last time and we also had the experience of sharing our cabin with 2 complete strangers. They were an 'older' Dutch couple, they were quite friendly and we sat and made small talk - we told them what Beijing was like and they told us what the South East of China is like etc etc. When it came to bed-time they were very liberal and got changed in the cabin (thankfully by this time I was tucked up in the top bunk pretending to try and sleep, whilst poor old Steve in the bottom bunk, well he got a bit of an eyeful)! We were soon making our way through the packed train station towards the taxi rank and being dropped off back outside the Feiying Hostel again (it seems some-what lacking since being in the luxury of the Lu Dao Hostel in Xi'an - but it will suffice for a few nights). After having a quick shower and chasing away all the bugs in our room, we headed out for the day. We first of all went to Prince Gong's Mansion and Gardens. We had a bit of a trek to get there from the subway station - around a 20 or 30 minute walk, we had some breakfast on the way a 'sausage roll' and a piece of really yummy carrot cake! Once we made it to the Hutong (small back-street alleys) though, we started to get lost and we were wandering for about another 15 minutes or so, constantly being pestered by Rickshaw drivers who wanted to take us on a tour of the Hutong - they really don't understand the phrase "no thank you!" Finally we managed to find it though, got our tickets and wandered in. It was a bit of a disappointment to be honest, it sounded as though it was going to be really breathtaking from the book, but it wasn't that great. Most of the attractions were closed off to us, as we were not part of a tour group! But we're getting used to things not being accessible, so we weren't too surprised! Once we'd wandered around a couple of times we headed out to a steamed dumpling shop, we'd seen on the way, for lunch - as usual there was lots of pointing and gesturing and confused Chinese staff! But we got our dumplings in the end (which were really nice), and filled with some renewed energy we went back into the streets to fight our way through the Rickshaw drivers again so that we could get to the Drum and Bell Towers. Unfortunately at each of the towers we had a very large number of very steep stairs to climb, so it was a bit of a wobbly-leg scenario as it was so steep, but we made it up! Unfortunately at the Drum tower we missed out on the drum-beating 'performance' as it was stopped during the lunch period. We decided to then go to Wangfujing Street again and we had a wander around the back streets there (which were absolutely packed full of souvenir stalls). Steve got himself a couple of long sleeved tops so that he can cover up whilst we're taking our malaria tablets (they make you more sensitive to the sun). We went to the Foreign Language Bookstore to grab a phrase book for when we're in Southeast Asia, but were very naughty and we each got ourselves a reading book as well (there are only so many times you can read the same things in a travel book) - so we ended up spending 285 Yuan! We stopped off to have a sit-down and a drink and were then heading back to the hostel to rest ourselves before dinner. We tried to order something which looked like spring rolls at dinner, but they were just weird things that were sweet and filled with 'congee' we think - very odd anyway! We also managed to order some cold slimy mushrooms - which verged on being gross!
TUESDAY 17th April
Today has been full of 'ups and downs'. We went to the Lama Temple first thing this morning. We couldn't believe how many people were there praying! Each of them had bags full to bursting with incense sticks, which they were burning in each of the many courtyards, so the air was thick with smoke and heavy with the scent of the incense! It was jam-packed, but we still managed to get a good look at everything, we really enjoyed our time at the Temple. The buildings were really beautiful - they had glazed yellow roof tiles which made it seem as though they were gold and seemed to give off light and heat as they glimmered in the bright sunlight. Also the Temple hasn't been restored quite as much as the others, it seems to have been maintained for worshippers, rather than being improved for the benefit of tourists. Once we made our way back to the exit, we decided to try and find the Confucius Temple nearby. However, our wandering and searching was fruitless, as we were unable to find it, despite having 2 maps - but to be honest we didn't look too hard, as we weren't that bothered about looking around it. So we headed off to the subway and tried to find the Universal Theatre to see about booking tickets to see some Chinese acrobatics. However, there didn't seem to be anyone around to talk to about tickets and the only advertisement for acrobatics we could see were far too expensive for us! So we decided to head off and find the Cow Street Mosque. It was a bit of a walk from the subway again, but doing all this walking means we get to see a lot more of real China, rather than missing it all because we're always getting taxis or being ferried around on tours! We stopped for lunch on the way to the Mosque in a little restaurant, we tried in vain to order some spring rolls again, but ended up with some weird stodgy rice thing! We were more successful in finding the Mosque than the Confucius Temple, but finding it didn't help us as it was closed! So we decided to try and find the Fauyan Temple which was nearby, but following the directions in the guide didn't help us and we couldn't find the Fauyan Temple either! Feeling a little dejected we decided to head back to the hostel, stopping for a sit-down in a pretty area of parkland on the way, with an ice-cream to cheer ourselves up! We're just about to head out to dinner now, we're going to go to a restaurant which does Peking Duck - I think Steve's quite excited as he's wanted to try some since we arrived!
Well, we think that's about it for now, we'll update you again in a couple of days. Thanks for all your comments, they make us smile lots - so keep them coming! Hope you're all well, take care!
Today we finally arrived back in Beijing. The train journey wasn't too bad, I'm sure the train was noisier than last time and we also had the experience of sharing our cabin with 2 complete strangers. They were an 'older' Dutch couple, they were quite friendly and we sat and made small talk - we told them what Beijing was like and they told us what the South East of China is like etc etc. When it came to bed-time they were very liberal and got changed in the cabin (thankfully by this time I was tucked up in the top bunk pretending to try and sleep, whilst poor old Steve in the bottom bunk, well he got a bit of an eyeful)! We were soon making our way through the packed train station towards the taxi rank and being dropped off back outside the Feiying Hostel again (it seems some-what lacking since being in the luxury of the Lu Dao Hostel in Xi'an - but it will suffice for a few nights). After having a quick shower and chasing away all the bugs in our room, we headed out for the day. We first of all went to Prince Gong's Mansion and Gardens. We had a bit of a trek to get there from the subway station - around a 20 or 30 minute walk, we had some breakfast on the way a 'sausage roll' and a piece of really yummy carrot cake! Once we made it to the Hutong (small back-street alleys) though, we started to get lost and we were wandering for about another 15 minutes or so, constantly being pestered by Rickshaw drivers who wanted to take us on a tour of the Hutong - they really don't understand the phrase "no thank you!" Finally we managed to find it though, got our tickets and wandered in. It was a bit of a disappointment to be honest, it sounded as though it was going to be really breathtaking from the book, but it wasn't that great. Most of the attractions were closed off to us, as we were not part of a tour group! But we're getting used to things not being accessible, so we weren't too surprised! Once we'd wandered around a couple of times we headed out to a steamed dumpling shop, we'd seen on the way, for lunch - as usual there was lots of pointing and gesturing and confused Chinese staff! But we got our dumplings in the end (which were really nice), and filled with some renewed energy we went back into the streets to fight our way through the Rickshaw drivers again so that we could get to the Drum and Bell Towers. Unfortunately at each of the towers we had a very large number of very steep stairs to climb, so it was a bit of a wobbly-leg scenario as it was so steep, but we made it up! Unfortunately at the Drum tower we missed out on the drum-beating 'performance' as it was stopped during the lunch period. We decided to then go to Wangfujing Street again and we had a wander around the back streets there (which were absolutely packed full of souvenir stalls). Steve got himself a couple of long sleeved tops so that he can cover up whilst we're taking our malaria tablets (they make you more sensitive to the sun). We went to the Foreign Language Bookstore to grab a phrase book for when we're in Southeast Asia, but were very naughty and we each got ourselves a reading book as well (there are only so many times you can read the same things in a travel book) - so we ended up spending 285 Yuan! We stopped off to have a sit-down and a drink and were then heading back to the hostel to rest ourselves before dinner. We tried to order something which looked like spring rolls at dinner, but they were just weird things that were sweet and filled with 'congee' we think - very odd anyway! We also managed to order some cold slimy mushrooms - which verged on being gross!
TUESDAY 17th April
Today has been full of 'ups and downs'. We went to the Lama Temple first thing this morning. We couldn't believe how many people were there praying! Each of them had bags full to bursting with incense sticks, which they were burning in each of the many courtyards, so the air was thick with smoke and heavy with the scent of the incense! It was jam-packed, but we still managed to get a good look at everything, we really enjoyed our time at the Temple. The buildings were really beautiful - they had glazed yellow roof tiles which made it seem as though they were gold and seemed to give off light and heat as they glimmered in the bright sunlight. Also the Temple hasn't been restored quite as much as the others, it seems to have been maintained for worshippers, rather than being improved for the benefit of tourists. Once we made our way back to the exit, we decided to try and find the Confucius Temple nearby. However, our wandering and searching was fruitless, as we were unable to find it, despite having 2 maps - but to be honest we didn't look too hard, as we weren't that bothered about looking around it. So we headed off to the subway and tried to find the Universal Theatre to see about booking tickets to see some Chinese acrobatics. However, there didn't seem to be anyone around to talk to about tickets and the only advertisement for acrobatics we could see were far too expensive for us! So we decided to head off and find the Cow Street Mosque. It was a bit of a walk from the subway again, but doing all this walking means we get to see a lot more of real China, rather than missing it all because we're always getting taxis or being ferried around on tours! We stopped for lunch on the way to the Mosque in a little restaurant, we tried in vain to order some spring rolls again, but ended up with some weird stodgy rice thing! We were more successful in finding the Mosque than the Confucius Temple, but finding it didn't help us as it was closed! So we decided to try and find the Fauyan Temple which was nearby, but following the directions in the guide didn't help us and we couldn't find the Fauyan Temple either! Feeling a little dejected we decided to head back to the hostel, stopping for a sit-down in a pretty area of parkland on the way, with an ice-cream to cheer ourselves up! We're just about to head out to dinner now, we're going to go to a restaurant which does Peking Duck - I think Steve's quite excited as he's wanted to try some since we arrived!
Well, we think that's about it for now, we'll update you again in a couple of days. Thanks for all your comments, they make us smile lots - so keep them coming! Hope you're all well, take care!
Sunday 15 April 2007
Hard-Bargaining and Kite-Flying
Hello, it's Katie typing again today and I'm afraid we have 3 days of travelling to inform you all about today, so this might take a while! But it shouldn't be too painful, as at least I can read all of the keys on my keyboard (unlike poor Steve the other day)!
FRIDAY 13th April
Today we decided to head towards the Small Goose Pagoda, we managed to get off at the correct bus stop today, and despite initially heading off in the wrong direction, we were soon turning back and on the right track to get us there! Unfortunately the surroundings for the Small Goose Pagoda weren't as nice as the Big Goose Pagoda - it seemed to be a bit of a barren landscape and then millions of high rise buildings (most of which seemed rather dilapidated), so the climb up the 15 floors didn't really seem very worth it! We still got a picture at the top - Steve set up his timer so we could get both of us in shot, but it took the photo too soon and so I think it will be a rather interesting action pose! We headed down the Pagoda again to have a wander around some of the other buildings and the grounds. When we were wandering around though, we found that most of the buildings had been turned into shops and so there wasn't really that much to see to be honest! There was a very nice display of artwork in one room, but we got pounced on by a very persistent, but friendly, salesman! He got the in-house artist to write our names in Chinese characters, for free - my name is composed of ordinary characters, but Steve took the biscuit and had 2 interesting ones - the 2nd character in his name means Emperor and the third means husband! He tried to get us to buy some artwork, but we weren't sure about it, so we wandered around a small garden area and then decided to go back, as there were some paintings we liked. After a VERY long time of haggling with the poor salesman, we managed to get a suite of 4 paintings (spring, summer, autumn and winter) of 190 Yuan (instead of the R.R.P. of 600 Yuan)!!!!!! The pictures are beautiful and edged in silk, we weren't going to buy them as he wasn't going to let them go for less than 250 Yuan, but as we left he lowered the price again!!! Loaded with our bargain, we left the Pagoda and headed back to the buses so that we could go to the Muslim Quarter to grab some lunch and to go to the Great Mosque. We wandered around the hundreds of souvenir stalls to find some lunch and came across somewhere that did crepes containing some kind of vegetable, it was quite nice and after finishing that we had the rather daunting task of finding the Mosque which was tucked behind a very narrow gauntlet of souvenir stalls! We soon finished our mammoth task and stumbled across our destination (more by luck than judgement I think) and we were wandering around the grounds of the rather ancient Mosque. Lots of the rooms were screened off, as the Mosque is an active place of worship (there was actually some kind of service on whilst we were there). The buildings were interesting to see, as for once they hadn't been completely restored and renovated, so we felt like we were seeing the true Mosque, rather than a modern reconstruction! It did feel kind of odd wandering around, as there were so many people there to worship, but I suppose they wouldn't ask for an entrance fee and let people through if they minded us being there! After a wander around the Muslim market (where Steve bought a rather odd assortment of dried fruits - it's a bit pot luck with what you get and most of it is indistinguishable in taste and appearance) we headed back to the buses to go back to the hostel.
SATURDAY 14th April
Today we decided to tackle the Xi'an City Walls. When we hopped off of the bus, we had a sinking feeling, as we looked across the road and realised we had to get across a rather busy roundabout to get to the South Gate of the Walls! We waited a while, saw an opportune moment, started to cross and then out of nowhere a very fast bus turned up and we had to peg it across the rest of the road! But we made it in one piece and we soon walking up the stairs to the top of the wall and trying to find somewhere to rent some bikes from! We soon found a place to get bikes and in a fool-hardy manner decided to get a tandem bike! After a few tentative pedals we were whizzing along, avoiding potholes and pedestrians! After a while we stopped to take some photos and Steve suggested I had a go at driving the tandem. However, the steering didn't seem to work very well and all that had happened was that we swerved around rather dangerously! By my third attempt I could just about go in a straight-ish line, but with tears streaming down our cheeks from laughing so much at my uselessness, we decided it would be best (and safer) if Steve did the driving! We ended up having to zip around the walls (as we had to get the bike back within 1 hour and 40 minutes) and were only just back in time! We decided to wander back round the wall to the East Gate as we'd seen lots of kit-fliers and wanted a go ourselves (although we hadn't realised just how far we needed to walk). We bought a 'string of kites' so they made a long line when they were flying and we were pretty good at it, although the salesman had been nice enough to get us started - we narrowly avoided a big tree (twice), but we came unhinged when we were trying to avoid another kite and hadn't noticed how low ours had got and I managed to get it tangled in some cables! So our high-flying time was over and we despondently left the wall to find some lunch! We were near the Muslim Quarter and so ended up back there, although we ended up taking a very convoluted route through the back streets to get there (and I must admit I was getting frustrated with Steve's "oh let's just wander in this random direction to get there" attitude - although, as usual his sense of smell didn't let us down and we were soon exploring the streets we'd visited last time). Our indecisiveness meant that we ended up having the same lunch (from the same place) as we had last time and after a little more wandering around we were back on the bus heading to the hostel. Once back we had a sit down and a shower before we were taken out to the Shaanxi Song and Dance Theatre Group. The show was really good (although we had to sit at a table with 6 Germans in front of us, so our view wasn't brilliant) - Steve's hopefully got some good photos of the dancers in their beautiful costumes. It felt like it was over too soon though (even Steve enjoyed himself) and we were being taken back to the hostel. We decided to eat out tonight and ate at a restaurant across the road again, but they forgot to bring us one of our dishes - apart from that it was very nice. Steve was a bit disappointed though, as since starting our malaria tablets he's not been allowed to drink alcohol - only another 97 days to go! The other thing with our tablets is they make us feel sick for about an hour after taking them, although as usual I seem to suffer more from it than Steve! We keep seeing the funniest thing - for some reason they have tanker-type trucks which go around spraying the roads with water (we can't work out why they do this, as it just seems to make the roads very slippery - a moped driver actually came off driving on a road that had just been sprayed today), but the trucks play music (kind of a mix between the style ice-cream trucks play and phone keypad tones) as they drive along, up until today we'd only ever heard them play the tune of 'happy birthday'! Today, we came across one which was playing the tune of 'my heart will go on' from Titanic - how completely bizarre?!?!?!
SUNDAY 15th April
Well, today we had the fun task of packing up our bags, which surprisingly aren't really that heavy. We're not really sure what to do for the rest of the day, as we've checked out of our room, but our train doesn't leave until 19.23! We might have a little bit of a wander later, as we've been able to leave our bags in the hostel check-room thing, but we don't know yet. Despite it being my birthday today (Steve was kindly telling me that I was past my peak now) it's not the most interesting of days, I do get to have the wonderful joy of sleeping on the train tonight on the way to Beijing! But, seeing the dancing last night was kind of my birthday treat. Well, we've got lots of bits and pieces we need to check out about our next flight and the Trail of the Dragon Intrepid tour, so we'd better get going so we don't pay a fortune in internet access fees!
Missing everyone loads, hoping you're all well - found out today that we are able to view the comments you've been leaving us (we just need to do it in a convoluted manner) - so keep talking to us using them! By the way Liz - you've given us a bit of a theme tune to remember this trip by - as we've had "What's that coming over the hill" song stuck in our heads since we arrived! Still it makes me smile and think of you lot every time I start humming it to myself! Catch up with you all again soon!
FRIDAY 13th April
Today we decided to head towards the Small Goose Pagoda, we managed to get off at the correct bus stop today, and despite initially heading off in the wrong direction, we were soon turning back and on the right track to get us there! Unfortunately the surroundings for the Small Goose Pagoda weren't as nice as the Big Goose Pagoda - it seemed to be a bit of a barren landscape and then millions of high rise buildings (most of which seemed rather dilapidated), so the climb up the 15 floors didn't really seem very worth it! We still got a picture at the top - Steve set up his timer so we could get both of us in shot, but it took the photo too soon and so I think it will be a rather interesting action pose! We headed down the Pagoda again to have a wander around some of the other buildings and the grounds. When we were wandering around though, we found that most of the buildings had been turned into shops and so there wasn't really that much to see to be honest! There was a very nice display of artwork in one room, but we got pounced on by a very persistent, but friendly, salesman! He got the in-house artist to write our names in Chinese characters, for free - my name is composed of ordinary characters, but Steve took the biscuit and had 2 interesting ones - the 2nd character in his name means Emperor and the third means husband! He tried to get us to buy some artwork, but we weren't sure about it, so we wandered around a small garden area and then decided to go back, as there were some paintings we liked. After a VERY long time of haggling with the poor salesman, we managed to get a suite of 4 paintings (spring, summer, autumn and winter) of 190 Yuan (instead of the R.R.P. of 600 Yuan)!!!!!! The pictures are beautiful and edged in silk, we weren't going to buy them as he wasn't going to let them go for less than 250 Yuan, but as we left he lowered the price again!!! Loaded with our bargain, we left the Pagoda and headed back to the buses so that we could go to the Muslim Quarter to grab some lunch and to go to the Great Mosque. We wandered around the hundreds of souvenir stalls to find some lunch and came across somewhere that did crepes containing some kind of vegetable, it was quite nice and after finishing that we had the rather daunting task of finding the Mosque which was tucked behind a very narrow gauntlet of souvenir stalls! We soon finished our mammoth task and stumbled across our destination (more by luck than judgement I think) and we were wandering around the grounds of the rather ancient Mosque. Lots of the rooms were screened off, as the Mosque is an active place of worship (there was actually some kind of service on whilst we were there). The buildings were interesting to see, as for once they hadn't been completely restored and renovated, so we felt like we were seeing the true Mosque, rather than a modern reconstruction! It did feel kind of odd wandering around, as there were so many people there to worship, but I suppose they wouldn't ask for an entrance fee and let people through if they minded us being there! After a wander around the Muslim market (where Steve bought a rather odd assortment of dried fruits - it's a bit pot luck with what you get and most of it is indistinguishable in taste and appearance) we headed back to the buses to go back to the hostel.
SATURDAY 14th April
Today we decided to tackle the Xi'an City Walls. When we hopped off of the bus, we had a sinking feeling, as we looked across the road and realised we had to get across a rather busy roundabout to get to the South Gate of the Walls! We waited a while, saw an opportune moment, started to cross and then out of nowhere a very fast bus turned up and we had to peg it across the rest of the road! But we made it in one piece and we soon walking up the stairs to the top of the wall and trying to find somewhere to rent some bikes from! We soon found a place to get bikes and in a fool-hardy manner decided to get a tandem bike! After a few tentative pedals we were whizzing along, avoiding potholes and pedestrians! After a while we stopped to take some photos and Steve suggested I had a go at driving the tandem. However, the steering didn't seem to work very well and all that had happened was that we swerved around rather dangerously! By my third attempt I could just about go in a straight-ish line, but with tears streaming down our cheeks from laughing so much at my uselessness, we decided it would be best (and safer) if Steve did the driving! We ended up having to zip around the walls (as we had to get the bike back within 1 hour and 40 minutes) and were only just back in time! We decided to wander back round the wall to the East Gate as we'd seen lots of kit-fliers and wanted a go ourselves (although we hadn't realised just how far we needed to walk). We bought a 'string of kites' so they made a long line when they were flying and we were pretty good at it, although the salesman had been nice enough to get us started - we narrowly avoided a big tree (twice), but we came unhinged when we were trying to avoid another kite and hadn't noticed how low ours had got and I managed to get it tangled in some cables! So our high-flying time was over and we despondently left the wall to find some lunch! We were near the Muslim Quarter and so ended up back there, although we ended up taking a very convoluted route through the back streets to get there (and I must admit I was getting frustrated with Steve's "oh let's just wander in this random direction to get there" attitude - although, as usual his sense of smell didn't let us down and we were soon exploring the streets we'd visited last time). Our indecisiveness meant that we ended up having the same lunch (from the same place) as we had last time and after a little more wandering around we were back on the bus heading to the hostel. Once back we had a sit down and a shower before we were taken out to the Shaanxi Song and Dance Theatre Group. The show was really good (although we had to sit at a table with 6 Germans in front of us, so our view wasn't brilliant) - Steve's hopefully got some good photos of the dancers in their beautiful costumes. It felt like it was over too soon though (even Steve enjoyed himself) and we were being taken back to the hostel. We decided to eat out tonight and ate at a restaurant across the road again, but they forgot to bring us one of our dishes - apart from that it was very nice. Steve was a bit disappointed though, as since starting our malaria tablets he's not been allowed to drink alcohol - only another 97 days to go! The other thing with our tablets is they make us feel sick for about an hour after taking them, although as usual I seem to suffer more from it than Steve! We keep seeing the funniest thing - for some reason they have tanker-type trucks which go around spraying the roads with water (we can't work out why they do this, as it just seems to make the roads very slippery - a moped driver actually came off driving on a road that had just been sprayed today), but the trucks play music (kind of a mix between the style ice-cream trucks play and phone keypad tones) as they drive along, up until today we'd only ever heard them play the tune of 'happy birthday'! Today, we came across one which was playing the tune of 'my heart will go on' from Titanic - how completely bizarre?!?!?!
SUNDAY 15th April
Well, today we had the fun task of packing up our bags, which surprisingly aren't really that heavy. We're not really sure what to do for the rest of the day, as we've checked out of our room, but our train doesn't leave until 19.23! We might have a little bit of a wander later, as we've been able to leave our bags in the hostel check-room thing, but we don't know yet. Despite it being my birthday today (Steve was kindly telling me that I was past my peak now) it's not the most interesting of days, I do get to have the wonderful joy of sleeping on the train tonight on the way to Beijing! But, seeing the dancing last night was kind of my birthday treat. Well, we've got lots of bits and pieces we need to check out about our next flight and the Trail of the Dragon Intrepid tour, so we'd better get going so we don't pay a fortune in internet access fees!
Missing everyone loads, hoping you're all well - found out today that we are able to view the comments you've been leaving us (we just need to do it in a convoluted manner) - so keep talking to us using them! By the way Liz - you've given us a bit of a theme tune to remember this trip by - as we've had "What's that coming over the hill" song stuck in our heads since we arrived! Still it makes me smile and think of you lot every time I start humming it to myself! Catch up with you all again soon!
Thursday 12 April 2007
Warriors and Pagodas
Hello everyone! Here's a new update, although you have Stephen typing today on a keypad that has all the letters rubbed off so expect some mistakes!!
WEDNESDAY 11th April
Today we were booked in for the Eastern tour which the hostel runs. We left at 9 in the morning and our first stop was a 'factory/giftshop' where they made terracotta warriors and ceramics using the traditional techniques. It was interesting to see some of the people at work creating the works, but the vast majority of the place was just a shop. Luckily we didn't stay for long but we did have time to grab our own little terracotta warrior. Our next stop was a small museum that had exhibitions of artifacts found in the local vicinity from different dynasties. This was only a short stop, which was good as most of the place was a building site (like just about every "historical" place seems to be in China). Our next stop on the tour was a place called Hua Qing hot springs, this was a site where the Emperor used to retire in the winter to bathe in the hot spring pools. However, the buildings had been destroyed long ago and all that remains now is modern reproductions built to resemble how it once may have been. Our next stop was for lunch which we did not have any choice in the location. We were taken to a restaurant that was probably more shop than food eatery! However the people we sat with, who were also on the tour, were nice and despite eating overpriced dishes, whilst being harangued by the staff to buy paintings, it wasn't that bad. Next we moved on to the main attraction, although the walk to the terracotta warriors site was a slog through a city of souvenir shops and hawkers. The pits containing the warriors were vast and it was difficult to imagine the scale of the whole site (especially as only 3 pits of 7 are open to the public). Seeing them set out in regiments gave the impression of how imposing and extravagant they must have been when they were all created. Out of all the warriors excavated only one has been found completely intact, and most of the pits look like ginormous jigsaw puzzles! After the warriors we headed to the tomb of Qin Shin nearby. However, the tomb has yet to be excavated due historical records reporting rivers of mercury and recent measurements having shown very high concentrations inside the burial mound. As a result there is little to see except a big mound which we climbed to the top of, if there air wasn't so hazy we would have had a lovely view! Tonight we were lazy and just had dinner at the hostel which is nice and convenient when you have achy feet.
THURSDAY 12th April
Today we headed out to the Big Goose Pagoda using the buses which was fairly painless and cheap (1Y each!), although there are few seats and the drivers can be a bit heavy on the brakes! The Pagoda was fairly interesting and the view of the sprawling city of Xi'an from the top was just about worth the climb up six flights of stairs! It was interesting to see a different style of architecture from all the newer Ming dynasty buildings we've seen over the past week. After grabbing some lunch we walked around the Shaanxi history museum which was nice and quiet. However, as usual not all of it seemed to be open due to restoration work. There was still a large amount on display to keep us busy, but before long we were back on a bus heading towards the hostel. We finished pretty early today but it was good to rest our weary feet and limbs!
That's it for now, we're gonna head off to hunt down some dinner!
WEDNESDAY 11th April
Today we were booked in for the Eastern tour which the hostel runs. We left at 9 in the morning and our first stop was a 'factory/giftshop' where they made terracotta warriors and ceramics using the traditional techniques. It was interesting to see some of the people at work creating the works, but the vast majority of the place was just a shop. Luckily we didn't stay for long but we did have time to grab our own little terracotta warrior. Our next stop was a small museum that had exhibitions of artifacts found in the local vicinity from different dynasties. This was only a short stop, which was good as most of the place was a building site (like just about every "historical" place seems to be in China). Our next stop on the tour was a place called Hua Qing hot springs, this was a site where the Emperor used to retire in the winter to bathe in the hot spring pools. However, the buildings had been destroyed long ago and all that remains now is modern reproductions built to resemble how it once may have been. Our next stop was for lunch which we did not have any choice in the location. We were taken to a restaurant that was probably more shop than food eatery! However the people we sat with, who were also on the tour, were nice and despite eating overpriced dishes, whilst being harangued by the staff to buy paintings, it wasn't that bad. Next we moved on to the main attraction, although the walk to the terracotta warriors site was a slog through a city of souvenir shops and hawkers. The pits containing the warriors were vast and it was difficult to imagine the scale of the whole site (especially as only 3 pits of 7 are open to the public). Seeing them set out in regiments gave the impression of how imposing and extravagant they must have been when they were all created. Out of all the warriors excavated only one has been found completely intact, and most of the pits look like ginormous jigsaw puzzles! After the warriors we headed to the tomb of Qin Shin nearby. However, the tomb has yet to be excavated due historical records reporting rivers of mercury and recent measurements having shown very high concentrations inside the burial mound. As a result there is little to see except a big mound which we climbed to the top of, if there air wasn't so hazy we would have had a lovely view! Tonight we were lazy and just had dinner at the hostel which is nice and convenient when you have achy feet.
THURSDAY 12th April
Today we headed out to the Big Goose Pagoda using the buses which was fairly painless and cheap (1Y each!), although there are few seats and the drivers can be a bit heavy on the brakes! The Pagoda was fairly interesting and the view of the sprawling city of Xi'an from the top was just about worth the climb up six flights of stairs! It was interesting to see a different style of architecture from all the newer Ming dynasty buildings we've seen over the past week. After grabbing some lunch we walked around the Shaanxi history museum which was nice and quiet. However, as usual not all of it seemed to be open due to restoration work. There was still a large amount on display to keep us busy, but before long we were back on a bus heading towards the hostel. We finished pretty early today but it was good to rest our weary feet and limbs!
That's it for now, we're gonna head off to hunt down some dinner!
Tuesday 10 April 2007
Arriving in Xi'an
Hello again everyone! As a quick thought, for some reason Steve and I are unable to view our blog via the Chinese internet and so we are unable to read all of the comments you have left us at the moment! But we can keep on posting, so if anyone needed a response or anything to their comments, then send us an e-mail instead, otherwise we'll have to wait until we're goodness-knows-where before we can access the blog fully again (although should be accessible in thailand - so keep sending us your comments, it'll mean we have something extra to look forward to)!
MONDAY 9th April
Well, after we finished blogging to you all, we had a rather interesting time to say the least! We grabbed a taxi from near the hostel to take us to the West Beijing Railway Station, so we did a lovely job of pointing to the correct place (on no less than 2 different maps on several occasions), but we still ended up at the Central Beijing Railway Station - a half an hour drive away from where we wanted to be!! Luckily we had an absolute tonne of time to spare and so were able to grab a second taxi, which managed to take us to the correct West Railway Station! We had been a bit worried we wouldn't know where to go to catch the train, but we managed to work out where to go all on our own - pretty impressive really! However, we had the unfortunate task of needing the loo whilst waiting to be able to board the train and they were the most disgusting toilets we've ever come across - we won't go into any sorded details! However, things started to look up, one of the attendants came over to look at our tickets, as we think they noticed us looking very sheepish and they signalled for us to go through to the train. It was really good once on board, the compartment was really pleasant, although the beds were as stiff as wooden boards and so I got quite bad back ache - Steve's just weird and found it comfy! But we were soon on our way trundling along to Xi'an.
TUESDAY 10th April
When we woke up in the morning we were just outside Xi'an and soon after were pulling into the station and having to heave our huge back packs back on! We kept our eyes peeled for someone meeting us from the new hostel (Lu Dao) and soon saw a piece of paper being wafted around with our name on. We were able to walk to the hostel from the train station as it wasn't far at all and the person from the hostel was very pleasant and chatty. Well, when we arrived at the hostel our jaws almost hit the floor, as compared to the Feiying youth hostel in Beijing, this was a complete lap of luxury! So despite being pretty tired, we were very happy. Once we were settled in and showered, we decided to pop back to the train station to book our return tickets to Beijing, which we managed to do, although we have standard soft sleeper compartment this time not an executive one, so we'll have to share with 2 other people and use a shared bathroom. Once we got the tickets we went for a wander and finally decided to go to the Eight Immortals Temple, we weren't even half way and had been walking for ages, so decided to get a taxi the rest of the way! The Temple was nice, although I felt a little out of place, as it's an active Temple and there were lots of people there praying etc. It was also quite a small place and so we were soon finished and decided to head towards the main centre of Xi'an to grab some lunch. We're not entirely sure what we had, it was a mixture of different stir-fried meats and vegetables we think and some plain rice - Steve managed to chuck laods of the sauce down himslef while we were trying to find somewhere to sit and eat! After eating we headed off to the Bell Tower and then after that the Drum Tower. They were quite cool, in the Imperial style of the Ming Dynasty and they had dispalys on inside about the history of Ancient Chinese music etc. They weren't the most interesting of attractions we've seen, as they are so similar to everything we've seen in Beijing, but it was nice to get out in Xi'an - even if the heat was stifling and unbearable today! After the Towers we ended up going on an expedition to find some tights (for some reason a commidity very difficult to come across and very expensive when you do), as my walking trousers make my legs very sore and so I can't wear them directly next to my skin - I have been wearing leggings underneath, but it's just murder in this kind of heat! After what felt like many hours of searching, we finally came across some and I managed to purchase a couple and for what they cost, they'd better last me at least for the rest of the trip (but I bet they'll be wrecked in a week or so)!! We needed to cool down after this and grabbed a couple of ice-creams and then grabbed another taxi back to the hostel.
We've been chilling out for a little while, checking our budget and forming a plan of attack so to speak. We've got ourselves booked on a trip which will take us to the Terracotta Warriers, Hua Quing Hot Spring and Banpo Neolithic Village, which is tomorrow. All our transport is organised and we'll have an English speaking guide - yipee no worrying about taxis and public transport on the manic streets of China for us!
Still feeling homesick I'm afraid, but trying to keep my spirits up - I know I should be looking forward to the rest of the trip! Mum and dad, I'll give you a call tonight or tomorrow (although it will be lunchtime for you) - looking forward to hearing your voices again!
Well, we think that's it - think this is a fairly short one for once - you lucky lot! Missing you all still and hope your all well, we're off to dinner now, bye!
MONDAY 9th April
Well, after we finished blogging to you all, we had a rather interesting time to say the least! We grabbed a taxi from near the hostel to take us to the West Beijing Railway Station, so we did a lovely job of pointing to the correct place (on no less than 2 different maps on several occasions), but we still ended up at the Central Beijing Railway Station - a half an hour drive away from where we wanted to be!! Luckily we had an absolute tonne of time to spare and so were able to grab a second taxi, which managed to take us to the correct West Railway Station! We had been a bit worried we wouldn't know where to go to catch the train, but we managed to work out where to go all on our own - pretty impressive really! However, we had the unfortunate task of needing the loo whilst waiting to be able to board the train and they were the most disgusting toilets we've ever come across - we won't go into any sorded details! However, things started to look up, one of the attendants came over to look at our tickets, as we think they noticed us looking very sheepish and they signalled for us to go through to the train. It was really good once on board, the compartment was really pleasant, although the beds were as stiff as wooden boards and so I got quite bad back ache - Steve's just weird and found it comfy! But we were soon on our way trundling along to Xi'an.
TUESDAY 10th April
When we woke up in the morning we were just outside Xi'an and soon after were pulling into the station and having to heave our huge back packs back on! We kept our eyes peeled for someone meeting us from the new hostel (Lu Dao) and soon saw a piece of paper being wafted around with our name on. We were able to walk to the hostel from the train station as it wasn't far at all and the person from the hostel was very pleasant and chatty. Well, when we arrived at the hostel our jaws almost hit the floor, as compared to the Feiying youth hostel in Beijing, this was a complete lap of luxury! So despite being pretty tired, we were very happy. Once we were settled in and showered, we decided to pop back to the train station to book our return tickets to Beijing, which we managed to do, although we have standard soft sleeper compartment this time not an executive one, so we'll have to share with 2 other people and use a shared bathroom. Once we got the tickets we went for a wander and finally decided to go to the Eight Immortals Temple, we weren't even half way and had been walking for ages, so decided to get a taxi the rest of the way! The Temple was nice, although I felt a little out of place, as it's an active Temple and there were lots of people there praying etc. It was also quite a small place and so we were soon finished and decided to head towards the main centre of Xi'an to grab some lunch. We're not entirely sure what we had, it was a mixture of different stir-fried meats and vegetables we think and some plain rice - Steve managed to chuck laods of the sauce down himslef while we were trying to find somewhere to sit and eat! After eating we headed off to the Bell Tower and then after that the Drum Tower. They were quite cool, in the Imperial style of the Ming Dynasty and they had dispalys on inside about the history of Ancient Chinese music etc. They weren't the most interesting of attractions we've seen, as they are so similar to everything we've seen in Beijing, but it was nice to get out in Xi'an - even if the heat was stifling and unbearable today! After the Towers we ended up going on an expedition to find some tights (for some reason a commidity very difficult to come across and very expensive when you do), as my walking trousers make my legs very sore and so I can't wear them directly next to my skin - I have been wearing leggings underneath, but it's just murder in this kind of heat! After what felt like many hours of searching, we finally came across some and I managed to purchase a couple and for what they cost, they'd better last me at least for the rest of the trip (but I bet they'll be wrecked in a week or so)!! We needed to cool down after this and grabbed a couple of ice-creams and then grabbed another taxi back to the hostel.
We've been chilling out for a little while, checking our budget and forming a plan of attack so to speak. We've got ourselves booked on a trip which will take us to the Terracotta Warriers, Hua Quing Hot Spring and Banpo Neolithic Village, which is tomorrow. All our transport is organised and we'll have an English speaking guide - yipee no worrying about taxis and public transport on the manic streets of China for us!
Still feeling homesick I'm afraid, but trying to keep my spirits up - I know I should be looking forward to the rest of the trip! Mum and dad, I'll give you a call tonight or tomorrow (although it will be lunchtime for you) - looking forward to hearing your voices again!
Well, we think that's it - think this is a fairly short one for once - you lucky lot! Missing you all still and hope your all well, we're off to dinner now, bye!
Monday 9 April 2007
Temples and Parks
Right-e-o we're afraid we've got a few days to catch up on again, so it's going to take a while - we hope you have a cuppa to keep you going through this one!
SATURDAY 7th April
Today we weren't up hugely early (we managed to forget to set an alarm), but we were soon out of the hostel and heading off to the Summer Palace. In our usual sense of adventure, we decided to use the public transport system, so we caught the trusty old (packed to the rafters) subway train and then had to try and find the bus stop - which was luckily very easy to find, as it was about 100 yards down the street from the subway station. We only had to wait a few minutes for the bus to arrive and we were pointing away at our guide book again to show where we wanted to go. The journey was quite long, as the traffic was pretty solid, but the attendant got our attention when it was time for us to leave the bus and also pointed us in the direction of the Summer Palace, which was just across the street. The Palace was really lovely, with lots of open space to enjoy, including a vast lake. There was a gorgeous view of the Palace grounds from the top of the hill at the north side of the grounds (unfortunately there were a tonne of stairs to climb to get there - not a surprise and we're not sure how much more of it our legs can take)! The buildings were in the ususal Imperial style with deep red pillars, blue, yellow and green rooves and the most beautiful painings on the rafters and ceilings. We were piggies (and tight wotsits) when it came to lunch and just each had a rather large ice-cream! Unfortunately some of the buildings were again closed off due to rennovation, but luckily not too many. We didn't have it in us to walk around the entire perimeter of the lake and grounds, so once we were out of energy we headed off to find the bus to take us to the hostel again. Once back, we headed out for dinner in the restaraunt we ate in on the first night, but managed to order less food and so didn't waste as much this time!
SUNDAY 8th April
Today we headed off to the Temple of Heaven Park, using the subway to get us to Chongwenmenwai and then walking for about 30 minutes to get to the Park itself. It was really beautiful there, the grounds were expansive, but very dry and arid as though it was the middle of a very hot summer rather than the beginning of spring. It was also very busy (just as yesterday had been) as it was the weekend. But we enjoyed walking around the grounds and even managed to get a nice tourist to take a photograph of us together with the Temple of Heaven in the background. It was a shame though because as usual we were unable to enter most of the buildings and so it is difficult to get a true perspective and awe of some of the most beautiful and impressive ones we have peered into over the past few days. Again some of the buildings in the Park had been closed off and so we ended up finishing quite quickly and so decided to go and buy some lunch. We went to a place called RBT (Real Brewed Tea) on Chongwenmenwai, the food was OK, but not exceptional (especially for the price of it), but the drinks were quite impressive - Steve had a milkshake type thing which was huge!
Once we'd finished lunch we walked along the Ming City Wall ruins Park, getting soggy from all the water jets spraying the grass and plants! At the end of the wall was the Southeast Corner Watchtower, which we went up and had a look around in. Most of it was taken up with a modern art display and the rest was focused around outlining the history of the Ming City Walls and Watchtowers etc. We were both really tired and ended up being back at the hostel really early today - mainly because I've been feeling quite ill over the past few days (I've got a grotty cold which is making me feel very groggy most of the time) and Steve's poor feet are suffering and are now covered in blisters! So we enjoyed sitting around for a little while before deciding to head out to find some food to take back to the hostel for dinner. We were going to go to a little place next to the restaraunt we ate at on Saturday, but there were no English signs and we couldn't tell what anything was, and there were no noodles or rice or anything! So we were complete and utter chavs and got a MacDonalds (yes we are ashamed about doing it, but we were just so tired)!
MONDAY 9th April
We've not really done anything today, as we didn't want to get stuck out in Beijing sightseeing and then not have enough time to pack our bags and check out of the room in time for catching the sleeper train to Xi'an. So we had our first proper lay-in before Steve popped out to buy us some breakfast. We're not sure what it was, but it was just about OK! Late morning we decided to pop out for some fresh air and went to the shopping area of Wenfungji (something like that anyway). We wandered aroud looking at the shops etc - Steve was very tempted by all the camera goodies on display! We found a nice looking restaraunt to eat in, where I managed to chuck sweet and sour pork down myself and all over the table as it slipped out of my chopsticks! After lunch we sauntered back to the subway so that we could get back to the hostel and pack our bags ready to go to the train station.
That's about it really, we're just sitting around with our bags packed, ready to jump in a taxi to get to the train station! We're both feeling a bit homesick at the moment (although I would probably say I'm making up for the both of us)! Missing you all loads and hope you're enjoying the blog!
SATURDAY 7th April
Today we weren't up hugely early (we managed to forget to set an alarm), but we were soon out of the hostel and heading off to the Summer Palace. In our usual sense of adventure, we decided to use the public transport system, so we caught the trusty old (packed to the rafters) subway train and then had to try and find the bus stop - which was luckily very easy to find, as it was about 100 yards down the street from the subway station. We only had to wait a few minutes for the bus to arrive and we were pointing away at our guide book again to show where we wanted to go. The journey was quite long, as the traffic was pretty solid, but the attendant got our attention when it was time for us to leave the bus and also pointed us in the direction of the Summer Palace, which was just across the street. The Palace was really lovely, with lots of open space to enjoy, including a vast lake. There was a gorgeous view of the Palace grounds from the top of the hill at the north side of the grounds (unfortunately there were a tonne of stairs to climb to get there - not a surprise and we're not sure how much more of it our legs can take)! The buildings were in the ususal Imperial style with deep red pillars, blue, yellow and green rooves and the most beautiful painings on the rafters and ceilings. We were piggies (and tight wotsits) when it came to lunch and just each had a rather large ice-cream! Unfortunately some of the buildings were again closed off due to rennovation, but luckily not too many. We didn't have it in us to walk around the entire perimeter of the lake and grounds, so once we were out of energy we headed off to find the bus to take us to the hostel again. Once back, we headed out for dinner in the restaraunt we ate in on the first night, but managed to order less food and so didn't waste as much this time!
SUNDAY 8th April
Today we headed off to the Temple of Heaven Park, using the subway to get us to Chongwenmenwai and then walking for about 30 minutes to get to the Park itself. It was really beautiful there, the grounds were expansive, but very dry and arid as though it was the middle of a very hot summer rather than the beginning of spring. It was also very busy (just as yesterday had been) as it was the weekend. But we enjoyed walking around the grounds and even managed to get a nice tourist to take a photograph of us together with the Temple of Heaven in the background. It was a shame though because as usual we were unable to enter most of the buildings and so it is difficult to get a true perspective and awe of some of the most beautiful and impressive ones we have peered into over the past few days. Again some of the buildings in the Park had been closed off and so we ended up finishing quite quickly and so decided to go and buy some lunch. We went to a place called RBT (Real Brewed Tea) on Chongwenmenwai, the food was OK, but not exceptional (especially for the price of it), but the drinks were quite impressive - Steve had a milkshake type thing which was huge!
Once we'd finished lunch we walked along the Ming City Wall ruins Park, getting soggy from all the water jets spraying the grass and plants! At the end of the wall was the Southeast Corner Watchtower, which we went up and had a look around in. Most of it was taken up with a modern art display and the rest was focused around outlining the history of the Ming City Walls and Watchtowers etc. We were both really tired and ended up being back at the hostel really early today - mainly because I've been feeling quite ill over the past few days (I've got a grotty cold which is making me feel very groggy most of the time) and Steve's poor feet are suffering and are now covered in blisters! So we enjoyed sitting around for a little while before deciding to head out to find some food to take back to the hostel for dinner. We were going to go to a little place next to the restaraunt we ate at on Saturday, but there were no English signs and we couldn't tell what anything was, and there were no noodles or rice or anything! So we were complete and utter chavs and got a MacDonalds (yes we are ashamed about doing it, but we were just so tired)!
MONDAY 9th April
We've not really done anything today, as we didn't want to get stuck out in Beijing sightseeing and then not have enough time to pack our bags and check out of the room in time for catching the sleeper train to Xi'an. So we had our first proper lay-in before Steve popped out to buy us some breakfast. We're not sure what it was, but it was just about OK! Late morning we decided to pop out for some fresh air and went to the shopping area of Wenfungji (something like that anyway). We wandered aroud looking at the shops etc - Steve was very tempted by all the camera goodies on display! We found a nice looking restaraunt to eat in, where I managed to chuck sweet and sour pork down myself and all over the table as it slipped out of my chopsticks! After lunch we sauntered back to the subway so that we could get back to the hostel and pack our bags ready to go to the train station.
That's about it really, we're just sitting around with our bags packed, ready to jump in a taxi to get to the train station! We're both feeling a bit homesick at the moment (although I would probably say I'm making up for the both of us)! Missing you all loads and hope you're enjoying the blog!
Friday 6 April 2007
Madcap!
Right folks, this one will probably be VERY long, as we are going to be writing about yesterday and today!
THURSDAY 5th April
We didn't have a hugely early start today, which was pretty lazy considering we had ended up going to sleep at 7.00pm last night! But anyway, we finally managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 7.30 this morning and decided to head back towards Tian Anmen square so that we could go to the Forbidden City. We started off at Tian Anmen Gate, which was really nice to look around, but we couldn't understand any of the displays as they were all in Chinese! But it was cool to see a different view of the Square etc. Once finished with the Gate we headed towards the City itself. Whilst I bought our entrance tickets, Steve was changing his film in his camera, but to our horror, it stopped working properly! We were gutted, but decided to continue anyway. So in we went and unfortunately our disappointment continued, as 3 of the main gates were covered in scaffolding and netting, as they were being refurbished for the Olympic games in 2008, and they just happened to be 3 of biggest and best ones we most wanted to see! But there were loads of other things to look at, like all of the exhibits of artifacts etc from the Ming and Qing dynasties. We kept getting lost, as it was so easy to lose your bearings in the smaller courtyards etc, but we wound our way through and eventually came out into the beautiful gardens, although we got the impression these were also being worked on - having new lawns and beds etc planted in for the games! Some good news though, a short while after entering the City Steve had another fiddle with his camera and got it working again - yay!
Once we left the Forbidden City we went to Jinhshan Park, just across the street. We stopped to buy a baked sweet potato on the way in for lunch and had a little sit down. We wandered around, before heading up the hill in the centre of the park to see the 5 pavillions (4 of which had their huge bronze statues stolen by the 8-Allies Forces during the 1900 invasion). The views form each of the pavillions were stunning, but the best were from the central one at the very top. It was from there that Steve noticed the White Pagoda and so we decided to head over to Beihai Park when we were finished. So we sauntered back down the hill and out of the park.
Beihai was really nice, first of all we went onto the Jade Islet so that we could go up the hill to see the White Pagoda. When wandering around after coming down the hill, we noticed a boat and so hopped on and it took us across the lake. We wandered around some more, but were disappointed as some more stunning buildings were covered in scaffolding etc as they too were being refurbished! But there were plenty of other things to see, including the 9 Dragon Screen and the House of Eternal Gratitude. We walked around the lake and then exited the park, with the intention of going to see some Beijing Opera and to have some dinner. After a long walk, we got to Wangfujing Street. We had some dinner in a really nice little restaraunt, although we felt like muppets, as when we said hello in Chinese all the staff giggled at us for pronouncing it wrongly and then we were the only diners in there for some time and so they kept watching us eat - which was quite off-putting when you know your eating etiquette and chop stick handling needs dire improvement! We survived anyway and then started the journey of trying to find the Changan Grand Theatre, which was a task and a half! I was desperate for the loo when we finally stumbled across it. As we assumed the show had already started, I dashed off to find a loo, while Steve enquired about tickets. We managed to get some for that night and managed to walk straight in for the performance, as it started 10 minutes later! It was quite interesting, but we didn't have a clue what it was about - Steve thinks it was something to do with an Emporer, his wife and concubine(s). Unfortunately I have to admit that we both kept temporarily dozing off, as we were still suffering from jetlag! But after about 2 hours the performance finished and we were able to head back to bed at the hostel after a very long day!
FRIDAY 6th April
Well, today we were (well, I was) up at 6.00am, so that we could get going to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. We started out on the subway and then had to walk to the bus station, we thought we were going the wrong way, as the scale of the map in our book is very deceptive, but we managed to find it in the end and walk straight onto the bus we needed. After some pointing at our book and crossed fingers we were going in the right direction we managed to pay for our tickets and were on our way. We were both really tired and soon after starting off I was falling asleep (I know you won't be at all surprised mum). The attendant on the bus let us know when we needed to get off the bus and she even called over a taxi driver to help us get the rest of the way to the Wall! After some more pointing and gesturing, we managed to agree with the driver that he would take us to Mutianyu and back to the bus stop for 100Yuan. So we were speeding along the roads again. When we arrived we had a lot more hand gesturing and pointing to agree that the driver would meet us again at 3.30 to take us back and we were then able to get to see the Wall at last after 2 hours or so of travelling. However, I'm afraid to say, we were lazy and got the cable car up to the wall, as it was such a steep section of mountain to climb up otherwise! But once on the wall (after having been harrassed by what felt like hundreds of street vendors) we were scrambling around getting very hot and puffed out, as it was so steep! But it was well worth the effort, as the views of the mountain scapes were beautiful and the wall looked stunning perched on top. Everything just went on for miles and miles around us - it was brilliant! Steve also became a tourist attraction at one point - being asked to pose for photos with a Chinese boy! I managed to stay out of the way! After 3 or 4 hours of trekking we hadto head back down the cable car so we could meet our driver again. Before meeting our driver we stopped off for the loos and I had my first experience of a squat toilet! Once we were back at the bus stop a bus turned up straight away, but it wasn't a proper one, it was more of a make-shift bus that seemed to just exploit the same route as the bigger bus companies, while stealing as many of their customers on their way as they could! We got on before we realised what we let ourselves in for! The bus driver was interesting, I mean we know that there are absolutely no rules when it comes to driving in China, but this guy took the biscuit! He was cutting across lanes here there and everywher, jumping red lights, driving in the pedestrian/cycle lane and goodness knows what else! But you'll never guess what?! I managed to fall asleep for most of the way again! We finally got back to Beijing and were dropped off just up the street from the main bus station. We grabbed a bite to eat on our way back to the subway and were soon heading back to the hostel, although we did manage to miss our stop on the subway and come back on ourselves (not a good thing to do when you're desperate for the loo)! Once finally back and refreshed we grabbed some 'Chinese pot noodles' for dinner from the hostel lobby and also had a very helpful member of staff book a hostel for us in Xi'an! So it's been a pretty good day all told. Not quite as tiring as yesterday though and we think we're going to treat ourselves to an easy-ish day tomorrow so that we're not completely tired all of the time, also our poor throbbing feet need a rest!
Well, we think that's about it for now, we hope you're all well. Missing you all.
THURSDAY 5th April
We didn't have a hugely early start today, which was pretty lazy considering we had ended up going to sleep at 7.00pm last night! But anyway, we finally managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 7.30 this morning and decided to head back towards Tian Anmen square so that we could go to the Forbidden City. We started off at Tian Anmen Gate, which was really nice to look around, but we couldn't understand any of the displays as they were all in Chinese! But it was cool to see a different view of the Square etc. Once finished with the Gate we headed towards the City itself. Whilst I bought our entrance tickets, Steve was changing his film in his camera, but to our horror, it stopped working properly! We were gutted, but decided to continue anyway. So in we went and unfortunately our disappointment continued, as 3 of the main gates were covered in scaffolding and netting, as they were being refurbished for the Olympic games in 2008, and they just happened to be 3 of biggest and best ones we most wanted to see! But there were loads of other things to look at, like all of the exhibits of artifacts etc from the Ming and Qing dynasties. We kept getting lost, as it was so easy to lose your bearings in the smaller courtyards etc, but we wound our way through and eventually came out into the beautiful gardens, although we got the impression these were also being worked on - having new lawns and beds etc planted in for the games! Some good news though, a short while after entering the City Steve had another fiddle with his camera and got it working again - yay!
Once we left the Forbidden City we went to Jinhshan Park, just across the street. We stopped to buy a baked sweet potato on the way in for lunch and had a little sit down. We wandered around, before heading up the hill in the centre of the park to see the 5 pavillions (4 of which had their huge bronze statues stolen by the 8-Allies Forces during the 1900 invasion). The views form each of the pavillions were stunning, but the best were from the central one at the very top. It was from there that Steve noticed the White Pagoda and so we decided to head over to Beihai Park when we were finished. So we sauntered back down the hill and out of the park.
Beihai was really nice, first of all we went onto the Jade Islet so that we could go up the hill to see the White Pagoda. When wandering around after coming down the hill, we noticed a boat and so hopped on and it took us across the lake. We wandered around some more, but were disappointed as some more stunning buildings were covered in scaffolding etc as they too were being refurbished! But there were plenty of other things to see, including the 9 Dragon Screen and the House of Eternal Gratitude. We walked around the lake and then exited the park, with the intention of going to see some Beijing Opera and to have some dinner. After a long walk, we got to Wangfujing Street. We had some dinner in a really nice little restaraunt, although we felt like muppets, as when we said hello in Chinese all the staff giggled at us for pronouncing it wrongly and then we were the only diners in there for some time and so they kept watching us eat - which was quite off-putting when you know your eating etiquette and chop stick handling needs dire improvement! We survived anyway and then started the journey of trying to find the Changan Grand Theatre, which was a task and a half! I was desperate for the loo when we finally stumbled across it. As we assumed the show had already started, I dashed off to find a loo, while Steve enquired about tickets. We managed to get some for that night and managed to walk straight in for the performance, as it started 10 minutes later! It was quite interesting, but we didn't have a clue what it was about - Steve thinks it was something to do with an Emporer, his wife and concubine(s). Unfortunately I have to admit that we both kept temporarily dozing off, as we were still suffering from jetlag! But after about 2 hours the performance finished and we were able to head back to bed at the hostel after a very long day!
FRIDAY 6th April
Well, today we were (well, I was) up at 6.00am, so that we could get going to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. We started out on the subway and then had to walk to the bus station, we thought we were going the wrong way, as the scale of the map in our book is very deceptive, but we managed to find it in the end and walk straight onto the bus we needed. After some pointing at our book and crossed fingers we were going in the right direction we managed to pay for our tickets and were on our way. We were both really tired and soon after starting off I was falling asleep (I know you won't be at all surprised mum). The attendant on the bus let us know when we needed to get off the bus and she even called over a taxi driver to help us get the rest of the way to the Wall! After some more pointing and gesturing, we managed to agree with the driver that he would take us to Mutianyu and back to the bus stop for 100Yuan. So we were speeding along the roads again. When we arrived we had a lot more hand gesturing and pointing to agree that the driver would meet us again at 3.30 to take us back and we were then able to get to see the Wall at last after 2 hours or so of travelling. However, I'm afraid to say, we were lazy and got the cable car up to the wall, as it was such a steep section of mountain to climb up otherwise! But once on the wall (after having been harrassed by what felt like hundreds of street vendors) we were scrambling around getting very hot and puffed out, as it was so steep! But it was well worth the effort, as the views of the mountain scapes were beautiful and the wall looked stunning perched on top. Everything just went on for miles and miles around us - it was brilliant! Steve also became a tourist attraction at one point - being asked to pose for photos with a Chinese boy! I managed to stay out of the way! After 3 or 4 hours of trekking we hadto head back down the cable car so we could meet our driver again. Before meeting our driver we stopped off for the loos and I had my first experience of a squat toilet! Once we were back at the bus stop a bus turned up straight away, but it wasn't a proper one, it was more of a make-shift bus that seemed to just exploit the same route as the bigger bus companies, while stealing as many of their customers on their way as they could! We got on before we realised what we let ourselves in for! The bus driver was interesting, I mean we know that there are absolutely no rules when it comes to driving in China, but this guy took the biscuit! He was cutting across lanes here there and everywher, jumping red lights, driving in the pedestrian/cycle lane and goodness knows what else! But you'll never guess what?! I managed to fall asleep for most of the way again! We finally got back to Beijing and were dropped off just up the street from the main bus station. We grabbed a bite to eat on our way back to the subway and were soon heading back to the hostel, although we did manage to miss our stop on the subway and come back on ourselves (not a good thing to do when you're desperate for the loo)! Once finally back and refreshed we grabbed some 'Chinese pot noodles' for dinner from the hostel lobby and also had a very helpful member of staff book a hostel for us in Xi'an! So it's been a pretty good day all told. Not quite as tiring as yesterday though and we think we're going to treat ourselves to an easy-ish day tomorrow so that we're not completely tired all of the time, also our poor throbbing feet need a rest!
Well, we think that's about it for now, we hope you're all well. Missing you all.
Wednesday 4 April 2007
First day?!
What a couple of days it has been for us!! It all started at 6.45am on Tuesday morning, when we were rudely awoken by our alarm clock after a rather naff sleep! We managed to drag ourselves out of bed and get our last few bits together before we left at about 8.30. The traffic got a bit congested at times, but before we knew it Steve and I were jumping out of the car outside terminal 4 and being hugged and kissed by mum, Liz and Andie (with surprisingly few tears I must add). After that it all turned into a rather frustrating waiting game. We got checked in quickly enough, but the had to wait for over 2 hours before we knew which gate we would be boarding at and then almost another hour before we were on the plane and ready for take-off. By this point I was absolutely terrified! Steve was cool as a cucumber as usual, but things went smoothly, despite the fact I almost crushed all the bones in Steve's hand during the take-off as I was so scared! More waiting then ensued, as we had a 9 and a half hour flight ahead of us.
We watched some inflight entertainment and 'enjoyed' the food (I think I had a little bit of bacon with the fat they served me for breakfast)! But neither of us managed to sleep much, try as we might! So when we landed in Beijing, we were wishing that we were curled up in bed as to us it should have been approaching midnight - not 5.45am! But we got through customs and what not, with a quick text home to say we were safe and well we soon got stuck into life in Beijing - which started with a scrum to buy tickets for the airport shuttle bus into the inner city. Once we arrived in the main city we decided to save a few pennies (well, Yuan) and walk the rest of the way to the hostel. This was an interesting task, as the roads are just manic!!! People just walk out into the road and expect people to just avoid them or stop! We tried to be vaguely caustious and wait for the green man at traffic lights, but even when he was on green cars were driving at you! We managed to make it in one piece, just (as our bags are so heavy)! We got booked in and were able to get into our room straight away.
The hostel is quite good, we have our own bathroom and the staff are friendly and helpful. We freshened up a bit and made a bid for the big city (mainly to try and keep ourselves awake for the rest of the day)! So we got the subway to get to West Beijing Railway station, but had to walk some of the way (so much easier when you're not carrying 2 and a half stone on your back)! We managed to buy a sleeper train ticket to Xi'an, we have a luxury cabin to ourselves, as there were no other classes available, but we shall try to cope as best we can! After buying our tickets we got some lunch, this was interesting, as the staff spoke no English, so there were lots of random words and hand gestures made before we got some really nice dumplings, green tea and a bottle of beer (which must have had 2 pints in it - Steve was feeling a little wayward afterwards anyway)!
We hopped back onto the subway after lunch and went to Tian Anmen Square, it's pretty impressive, but it was a shame as the Mausoleum and National Museum are both closed until September due to refurbishments in preparation for the Beijing Olympics. But we enjoyed our wander nonetheless (despite being harrassed by 'students' and street sellers)! It is quite strange being stared at a lot though and it's quite bizarre as the city is kind of cross between London and Rome - it's historic and beautiful in places, like London, but then like Rome, it's completely manic - with tonnes of moped and bicycle riders who tend to drive at, rather than around things! Steve then almost got us lost trying to find the subway, but we managed to have a nice wander around the old city gates, which were very beautiful. I managed a masterful act - I fell asleep standing upright on the Beijing subway! Steve found this very amusing (as you can probably imagine) - but in my defence I have been up for at least a day and a half without having had any proper sleep!
We're back at the hostel now and will be going out for dinner shortly, will hopefully stay awake until later on tonight! And despite all these activities we have only spent 3 pounds 30p each (except on accommodation and the sleeper train)!!!
Tomorrow we're going to go and see the Forbidden City and surrounding attractions and on Friday we'll be going to a relatively remote stretch of the Great Wall (hopefully). Well, we'll let you get going now, as we've rambled on long enough! Hope you're all well!
We watched some inflight entertainment and 'enjoyed' the food (I think I had a little bit of bacon with the fat they served me for breakfast)! But neither of us managed to sleep much, try as we might! So when we landed in Beijing, we were wishing that we were curled up in bed as to us it should have been approaching midnight - not 5.45am! But we got through customs and what not, with a quick text home to say we were safe and well we soon got stuck into life in Beijing - which started with a scrum to buy tickets for the airport shuttle bus into the inner city. Once we arrived in the main city we decided to save a few pennies (well, Yuan) and walk the rest of the way to the hostel. This was an interesting task, as the roads are just manic!!! People just walk out into the road and expect people to just avoid them or stop! We tried to be vaguely caustious and wait for the green man at traffic lights, but even when he was on green cars were driving at you! We managed to make it in one piece, just (as our bags are so heavy)! We got booked in and were able to get into our room straight away.
The hostel is quite good, we have our own bathroom and the staff are friendly and helpful. We freshened up a bit and made a bid for the big city (mainly to try and keep ourselves awake for the rest of the day)! So we got the subway to get to West Beijing Railway station, but had to walk some of the way (so much easier when you're not carrying 2 and a half stone on your back)! We managed to buy a sleeper train ticket to Xi'an, we have a luxury cabin to ourselves, as there were no other classes available, but we shall try to cope as best we can! After buying our tickets we got some lunch, this was interesting, as the staff spoke no English, so there were lots of random words and hand gestures made before we got some really nice dumplings, green tea and a bottle of beer (which must have had 2 pints in it - Steve was feeling a little wayward afterwards anyway)!
We hopped back onto the subway after lunch and went to Tian Anmen Square, it's pretty impressive, but it was a shame as the Mausoleum and National Museum are both closed until September due to refurbishments in preparation for the Beijing Olympics. But we enjoyed our wander nonetheless (despite being harrassed by 'students' and street sellers)! It is quite strange being stared at a lot though and it's quite bizarre as the city is kind of cross between London and Rome - it's historic and beautiful in places, like London, but then like Rome, it's completely manic - with tonnes of moped and bicycle riders who tend to drive at, rather than around things! Steve then almost got us lost trying to find the subway, but we managed to have a nice wander around the old city gates, which were very beautiful. I managed a masterful act - I fell asleep standing upright on the Beijing subway! Steve found this very amusing (as you can probably imagine) - but in my defence I have been up for at least a day and a half without having had any proper sleep!
We're back at the hostel now and will be going out for dinner shortly, will hopefully stay awake until later on tonight! And despite all these activities we have only spent 3 pounds 30p each (except on accommodation and the sleeper train)!!!
Tomorrow we're going to go and see the Forbidden City and surrounding attractions and on Friday we'll be going to a relatively remote stretch of the Great Wall (hopefully). Well, we'll let you get going now, as we've rambled on long enough! Hope you're all well!
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