Last Day

Managed to get reception to sort out last lot of internet so last lot of photos uploading as we speak. Weren't sure we were going to do this but it seemed wrong somehow to need to make our last photo / blog posting from home so what the heck!

Had arranged to meet the rest of our group at 10.30 but quelle surprise they did not arrive. Checked their room at 10.45 and they were sort of pale but up for a shopping trip. We bundled them into a taxi and then didn't see them again all day - oops, due to meet them for dinner, hope they are okay. We are taking bets on what happened to them. We think they may well have been so hungover they just got in taxi, drove around the corner, stopped, got out and walked back to hotel and bed. They did not seem very sure about their stomachs or that going shopping would be a good idea when we last saw them! They were however still laughing about Rubber Duckie!!!

Still, not to be put off by hangovers in others we popped in our own taxi and ended up in an entire mall (5 floors) of complete and utter tourist tat. What an absolutely phenomenal place. Truly awful. But hilarious in a very tacky kind of way. Felt obliged to carefully review all 5 floors of tack and then it was all a bit much so went in search of lunch.

After lunch took subway back to Tiananmen Square and walked from there back to hotel down some very nice streets. Enjoyed just menadering along, taking it all in and saying farewell to Big Trip!

All we have left is farewell supper and trip to airport.

Chinas been great. Crossed off loads of the things on the 'must see before you.....' list.  I will not miss the hacking and flem at all but Martyn says he finds that preferable to the rural Vietnamese habit of sweeping all leftover food onto the floor in restaurants. Whilst we both very much enjoyed our little walks I don't think either of us are looking forward to walking up the stairs when we get home - they really are seriously into steps here!

Stunning scenery and some more great people. Its interesting that in the conversations we have had despite the completely different political management systems, the economic problems are exactly the same as those of democracies. The colours are not so intense as the parts of SE Asia we visited and in a lot of ways it 'feels' a bit like Russia in terms of colours. It feels like there are secrets here that we didn't quite manage to crack in to but then we travelled in a different way here.

And thats it - all done, apart from one or two things - they say life goes in circles. We started with a good few 'How Much' posts. I think there may be another when we do our first supermarket shop! There were also a few comments about 'bagstooheavy'. We're off to pack. I think bagsstilltooheavy may well be the final situation!

Its been an amazing few months. I seem to remember I ran out of adjectives sometime in New Zealand, hopefully I haven't repeated too many. Should have thought to find a web based Thesaurus really!

We both wonder who had the most fun, you reading this, or us writing it. If you've become used to an (almost) daily helping of hapless adventures, mishaps, comedy and the odd picture, we have too. And we'll miss it............

So this blog is dedicated to anyone who helped make this possible for us. Whether you looked after a key, checked the house, started the car, kept our paperwork safe, stored our post, covered at work, gave us giggles on fb or via comments, stayed in our house, put us up in your house or met us somewhere on our travels, enjoyed reading this or will simply enjoy reliving the memories with us when we get back. Thanks for everything.

Karaoke

It’s a good job I can type this in because I am absolutely speechless. There are not words to describe it but it true blogger fashion I will do my best. Your imaginations can add in the rest and might just get to something half as good as the reality.

Needless to say I didn’t need my ear plugs. Lucy (group member) was really quite good and she was the opening act. As the evening progressed some of the other people who were trying to use the bar might have needed ear plugs but we were so loud by then they just left. They obviously didn’t know true talent when they were witness to it.

I think the talent show on the boat cruise must have been the warm up. Our whole group renditions of Robbie’s Angels and Bohemian Rhapsody were to die for. The Australian Explore group who arrived, stayed and started adding to the list of songs on the play list (which we had to sing as they were too chicken) loved the Rick Astleys ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ that Martyn and I managed (oh, did I mention that we performed as well…….) Our ‘Pretty Woman’ was also received with much applause and the whole group ‘Uptown Girl’ would have made Billy Joel so proud. Bon Jovi will never perform Living on  Prayer as well as we can!

And then someone picked some tunes that to be quite honest are more suitable to dancing to than singing to but by then we were well warmed up and we knew our Macarena on the cruise ship had been applauded so we were full of confidence. Dancing Queen saw Lucy and I duet with a small number of ad libbed dance moves. Twist n Shout saw us give up on Karaoke but Twist n Shout with the Australians on the small stage. They were quite impressed with how low I could twist (so was I given the number of steps on the Great Wall!). Anthony and Martyn then took to the mikes for Stayin’ Alive whilst Lucy, Collette and I performed as a backing dance trio.

But the absolute star of the show, the winner of the next 10 Pop Idols and Britains Got Talent is most definitely Martyn. His rendition of Rubber Duckie by Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street. I’ll just pause here to let that sink in.

Have you finished laughing yet?

I think it was a one time only event but don’t panic – I’ve got video. It was out of this world.

I tell you, two 500 ml bottles of mineral water and a basket of popcorn can really make you lose your inhibitions.

What a finish.

Calzone Factory

Ha Ha – Martyn was finally got by his mis-hearing of Chinese. He was so excited all day – not by The Great Wall (although that was truly great) but instead by what he thought was the promise of a Calzone Factory.

It was Closoinne – you know, the French enamelling thing – apparently it’s a traditional Chinese art as well!

Poor bloke, he was quite disappointed. Until he saw the furnace and solder and other bits – then he decided it was quite cool, not quite as good as a Calzone but quite cool! It was also expensive (and not at all ‘us’) so we didn’t buy any. Hadn’t realized it was all made of copper – tiny little bits of copper glued on to the outside of copper and then the paint fills in the gaps. Very fiddly and very clever.

Anyway, all that came after lunch. Before lunch was The Great (not fire) Wall. Martyn conquered this one as well but then so did I – hurrah. We went to the Mutianyu section. Walked up the hill to watchtower 8 and then along the wall to watchtower 23. Well I say ‘along’ – obviously we went ‘along’ the top but well, its VERY undulating and involved LOTS more steps. The ones before gate 23 were particularly painful – 455 of them followed by 20 so steep that Martyn went up on hands and feet! So now we have thighs of steel and knees of jelly! Absolutely amazing though – a truly great wall!

And then we realized. It was our last ‘Big Thing’ of ‘Big Trip. We really are coming home soon. Although our bus ride back to the hotel did make us question that once or twice…….driver suffered from ‘Sudden Braking Sydnrome’ quite badly and our seats faced backwards which made the whole thing even more interesting as we could feel the effects and see the faces of our group who could see through the windscreen!

But yes, only one more day to go and the group has planned a shopping day. Not sure what we’ll do but its all after the excitement of this evening anyway – and what does this evening have in store for us? Well half our group quite like their beer (to say the least) and last night they went to a bar. In the interests of ‘group trip’ (and because we have nothing better to do) we’re off to the bar with them this evening. Of course we’re in China  - it’s a Karaoke bar. I have my ear plugs ready.

There are nine million

Bicycles in Beijing according to Katie Melua (or was it Norah Jones?) Our tour guide today agreed. Have only seen 5 in use so far though. Apparently everyone has swapped their bikes for cars. Oh and mopeds that run on batteries. I thought I’d got the hang of all the mopeds in Hanoi. At least you could hear those blighters coming. These ones sneak up on you silently!

Arrived in Beijing at 8:18 right on time. Bus to hotel, drop bags off, grab breakfast, no early check in for us today so off we go sightseeing.

First stop Tiananmen Square. Despite Martyns firewall shenanigans there were no tanks for us thank goodness. Lovely big square with lots of big buildings all around. Meandered through square to Forbidden City.

At this point I started having quite significant flashbacks. When much younger my parents hired ‘The Last Emperor’ on video for us to watch. Remember that one Mum? As per usual Dad fell asleep but even Mum said it was a bit slow to say the least. I don’t think we made it to the end. Well now I have to watch that blasted film again as today our tour guide told us all about the Last Emperor and I’m walking along looking at things in the Forbidden City and reading bits in the museum thinking ‘where have I seen/heard this before?’ Then I remembered.

Well despite my mental anguish at the thought of watching this film again (I’m sure some people will tell me it was a great epic of cinematographic history or something) The Forbidden City is stunning. Huge but stunning. Exactly the same layout as the Purple City in Hue but that was just ruins, this one was MUCH bigger and still completely standing which was a big bonus!

After Forbidden City on to the Temple of Heaven which was pretty amazing as well. Here the Emperors made animal sacrifices to the gods for a good harvest. No nails at all involved in construction all dovetail joints, on a completely circular building. Cool.

I confess then back at hotel I fell asleep. Oops.

Dinner followed by acrobats show. Brilliant. Diablo tricks, jugglers, balancing acts but the piece de resistance was one of those balls that motorbikes go around in. These were proper motorbikes with engines not batteries and four of them got inside this ball and whizzed around. Mad. We’re thinking of asking our Easy Riders if they want to give it a go!

Now sleep, big day tomorrow. Guess where we’re going!

Night train to Last Bit

Usually we say ‘next bit’ we’ve just realized now we have to say ‘last bit’.

Before train though, day in Xian. Visited the Shangxi museum which was lots of archaeological artifacts and very interesting. Added a lot of context to the warriors yesterday which was good. We are very dynastied out now though and we still get a bit lost in the Tang, Han, Qing, Ming, there is one other, I can’t remember…..my history head is bursting…..1911 cultural revolution, got rid of emperors, didn’t realize China had a democracy for a while there, or that the Emperors were around so relatively recently…….

Then off for a cycle ride along the top of the great wall of Xian – not so great as ‘The Great Wall’ but this one went around Xian old town in a square. We had a tandem. Called it Timothy. Then Martyn called it lots of other names, chain came off 6 times and I put it back on again, chain then broke so we had to walk. Picked up another tandem at the next stop, seats so low that when I pedaled at the back my knees hit Martyns bum! Oh and depressingly I think the suspension (?) is weighted for little Chinese people as we looked like we had two flat tires. This was even more depressing given that we had fallen in love with the weighing scales some sick person decided to leave in our hotel bathroom – they gave very nice numbers!

After cycle ride some of group had to go to bank so we got bus to Bell Tower and Drum Tower and found a market to wander around. Spent another group members (Anthony) money and Martyn bought ANOTHER pair of sunglasses having broken the last pair straight in half!

Late lunch / early dinner = hotpot. Nothing like hotpot at home. This was a personal saucepan full of water with a little burner underneath. Interestingly the burner was full of white crystals not liquid.  Anyway, boil water in personal saucepan and then add very thinly sliced beef / lamb and veggies, or an egg, tofu or noodles. Dip cooked food in your own personally constructed bowl of dip (from a selection on a buffet table) of soy, BBQ, sesame, coriander, garlic, chilli and lots of others. Leave to cool and then eat. Very nice.

And then train……to ‘last bit’

Warriors with Dumplings

Found them…..the Terracotta Army that is. Hard to miss really (well apart from the fact they were underground). All 11000 of them plus horses, carriages and a whole host of stuff the Chinese haven’t dug up yet.

 

I tell you, Indiana Jones, The Mummy and Sinbad the Sailor have nothing on this lot. They look just like they will start stomping along just as soon as some bad guy presses the button! There are rows of them in just about one piece but the ones with holes in and limbs missing and heads missing etc are a bit freaky. There is one that is just two feet standing there.

 

Phenomenal to think they were all painted bright colours as well – I didn’t know that. They even went to the detail of putting tread on the guys shoes – there is a kneeling archer and you can see the sole of his foot, his shoe had tread marks on it. 11000 hand made models and they are putting tread marks on shoes. Wow!

 

And they were chrome plating their swords and they cast the most magnificent (if small – well smaller than we were expecting anyway) horse and carriage out of bronze.

 

Breakfast yummy today – proper toast and jam that tasted of jam not runny sugar water (mind you it had come all the way from Austria in its little packets which was a little distressing on the carbon footprint level). Proper bacon as well. Wooops. Allowed though as no lunch so it was left over snacks for us, oh and a packet of mini shortbread biscuits we bought at our tea tasting ceremony. Very useful on two counts – one was lunch, the other was to take away the taste of the tea! We tried Lychee Black tea – this was the winner. Then Dragon Well tea, Ginseng Oolong tea (which should have an aftertaste of liquorice but Martyn said not – although I think he’s damaged his taste buds with his salt liquorice) and finally Ku Ding tea. Fortunately for me the tasting cups were very small and it was perfectly acceptable to throw away the bits you didn’t like into the servers little draining board!! Personally I preferred the little Buddha and pig models the lady had that changed colour when she poured the hot waste water over them but I did my best to focus on the tea!

 

Back to hotel for a quick nap. Well that’s what everyone else did. We went for a walk down the road – Martyn found a gadget shop. To be honest I think he spent longer looking at the gas burners and wok attachments than at the gadgets but at least I wasn’t subjected to the freezers and washing machines floor. They had a dehumidifier that had two goldfish in it. I thought you had to empty the water out of dehumidifiers. What would happen to the poor fish?

 

And then dinner – dumpling banquet. Well we compromised as we weren’t sure we all wanted an entire meal of dumplings so we had ordinary food for 5 and two dumpling banquets which was good as we all got to try a bit of everything. Followed by birthday cake for Lucy and Happy Birthday song over the loudspeakers and applause from everyone else in the restaurant as well. Very nice for her but we were very glad we had our cake in a much smaller restaurant with no speaker system!

 

Then everyone else went back to bed and Martyn and I stayed out – ‘what’ I hear you say. Martyn and Kay having a night on the town whilst everyone else is tucked up in bed. What is the world coming to????? Well, we just figured we’d come all this way and we were not going to miss out. If we can stay awake through The Nutcracker ballet in Russia after a night train we can stay awake for this. We watched the Tang Dynasty Show – lots of beautiful costumes and great dancing with some traditional Chinese musical instruments. It was very good.

 

And then, hello pillow!

Dam

No I’m not mis-typing a blasphemy. That’s where we went today!

Three Gorges Dam. Largest dam in the world. 2.4km long, 15m deep at top, 124m deep at bottom. HUGE.
Whether you agree it should have been built or not given the environmental and human implications it is a very impressive feat of engineering.


Martyn managed to stay up to see our boat go through the lock system down the side of the dam. This was at about 11.30pm and I had been asleep for an hour. Missed him leaving the room, woke up when he came back. I was in time to look out the window and see the boat moving down instead of along!

(yep, that's a 7x5 container barge and 3 cruise ships, there were also 2 other barges behind us - all in the same lock.)

Anyway, dam very impressive. Then we went along the last gorge of the three gorges on the Yangtse river but actually our ummmm, 7th counting the little side excursions! Then we found another dam at YingChang where we disembarked and had lunch. This second dam was actually built first and is 0.2km longer but still not as big as the three gorges dam.

After lunch bus to train station and then night train to Xian which is where we are now.. Of course given that we’ve spent about 95% of the last 4 days on bus, boat or train we still feel like we are moving. It was very odd having breakfast in the restaurant and looking out the window at scenery that stayed still.

Better go – apparently there is a Terracotta Army around here somewhere………

Slippery little suckers

We have met our chopstick match! Skills have been improving dramatically and we can now even get the last of the rice out the bottom of the bowl but dinner today was a challenge. Mini shrimp dumplings in soup. Even the Chinese were using spoons to get from big bowl to personal little dish. Then they went for the chopsticks. Everything else was fine – even the sweetcorn and the very awkwardly shaped carrot but those shrimp balls – they were slippery little suckers. Fortunately the Chinese like to get their bowls very close to their mouths and just sort of scoop it all in with the chopsticks. This was nearly the only way to manage the little shrimp balls. Although we did have some success with balancing said shrimp balls across the top of two chopsticks. Of course if the boat happened to hit a slight swell the ball rolled off. It added a certain challenge to successful consumption of dinner anyway!

Breakfast was somewhat disappointing. Our lovely guide had told us there would be western breakfast including bacon so we all opted for breakfast and skipping lunch. There was toast. The bacon was in with green pepper and soy sauce. I quite liked my noodles and steamed buns. The rest of the group were not so impressed. I think they thought they might get a full English with the possibility of nicking a bread roll for lunch.

Martyn and I did better than the others with lunch as well – in as much as we thought to take some with us on our optional excursion (although it was the leftover crackers, chicken sausage and dried Heinz tomato soup stick from the other day). Others in the group didn’t. Oh dear, our lunch was processed gunge and crackers but our group members were staring really quite longingly at it. Ah well, they found a shop and bought a double packed of Oreos (which along with Chinese Pringles is pretty much the majority of their diet along with beer, bananas and the odd apple)

Anyway food ponderings over – today was excursion day. Very exciting. Drifted through gorge number 1 on our big cruise boat this morning – very pretty. Then got off big cruise boat. Wow. Got on smaller boat and drifted through the Little Three Gorges. Then got off smaller boat and on to even smaller boat (Sampan) and pootled down the Daning River for a while. This was the best of the gorges. Very beautiful and, our murky sludgy Yangtse River became a stunning blue/green colour. Very pretty. SO yes, our excursion involved getting out of our seats on a big boat to sit on different seats on two smaller boats. There is a theme here. Stunning scenery though.

Back to bigger cruise ship for gorge number 2 (which is actually gorge number 5 today but its number 2 on the Yangtse river in our cruise ship (sorry if this is confusing but it makes sense to us!). We missed half of this gorge as we popped to our cabin to await the little ‘bing bong lady’ (you know, a bit like Hi De Hi’s ‘good morning campers’ although to be honest I think Gladys’ xylophone worked a bit better than the ships ‘bing bonger’ which occasionally sounds like someone is messing with the frequency dial on a signal generator!) to tell us that we had arrived at the gorge. There was a ‘bing bong’ message but it was in German and I didn’t quite get it so we were half way through the gorge by the time we looked out the window and realized we were missing it – ooops. Ran up four flights of stairs to observation deck in time to get last pictures – phew.

Now sat trying to stay awake as we are supposed to enter the lock system sometime between 10 and midnight and we thought we would try to see it. Well, we’ll try anyway ….. let you know tomorrow!

longest toilet in the world

Lovely. Actually got around to reading the Yangtse cruise section in guide book today. Apparently the river used to flow quite nicely. Then they built the Three Gorges Dam and slowed everything down so all of the river above the dam (where we are) is something of a steaming cess pit. I was quite enjoying sitting on deck until I read that bit.

 

Quite a surreal day really – well the evening was anyway.

 

Breakfast in bed – sponge cake and banana bought in shops yesterday – too stingy to pay for buffet breakfast every day on the boat (but we’re having it tomorrow!). Nice lie in as we decided to skip the optional excursion this morning – no Abode of the Ghosts for us but its okay, the cruise ship sent a chap with a video camera to make a DVD for all the Chinese tourists and we’ve just watched it playing in the bar so we’ve seen the Abode of the Ghosts and we don’t think we missed all that much!

 

Sunbathed on deck for an hour. Had lunch. Went to talk advertised as ‘Chinese Traditional Medicine’ turned out to be on acupuncture and was in Chinese but our tour guide did a great translation job for us. Neither of us volunteered to be given acupuncture though. Apparently there are 12 routes of blood flow around the body just like there are 12 months in a year. There are 365 acupuncture points as per number of days in year. We now know four of them! Two for relaxation, one for funny tummy / travel sickness and one other that I’m not sure about!

 

Then had a Mahjong lesson for an hour. It’s a bit like Gin Rummy but you start with 13 bricks instead of 7 cards and you have to make 4 groups of 3 and one pair. If you get a ‘set of four’ you win double the bet money! Martyn and I lost 4 times. At least we were not betting otherwise we would be walking to the airport in Beijing!

 

Dinner was Chinese own brand pot noodle which was at least filling if not nutritious! Our food stash is looking much smaller though. Consequently have scheduled to have breakfast and dinner in restaurant tomorrow in the hope that if we have crackers for lunch we can eek out our supplies for dinner on the night train as well! Ah well, haven’t starved yet and we’ve always the ‘emergency biscuits’

 

And then there was the after dinner entertainment. Oh my goodness. It was billed as a ‘cultural show’. Hilarious. 7 of the most sullen looking Chinese yoooffs had obviously been forced by some sort of employment law to come up with a few dances to perform which they did with about as much enthusiasm as I had for listening to the second act – karaoke. Martyn held me in my seat and refused to let me leave which I think was a bit harsh as the whole show didn’t get any better. It was interspersed with two of the other guests performing more karaoke (actually they weren’t as awful as they might have been) and by the time the major ‘guest involvement’ sessions arrived I figured I might as well join in. One mad Chinese equivalent of musical statues later and I think our tour group had broken the ice with the Chinese tourists. Unfortunately our thought that ‘once will be enough’ didn’t quite hold out and we got dragged up for a sort of Chinese conga dance. Things dramatically improved when 4 blokes in silk dressing gowns arrived on stage to the sounds of Saturday Night Fever. Thankfully no strip show but instead YMCA – oh wow, one we all knew. An influx of 4 tall (relatively speaking) white English people ran to the dance floor. And then the piece de resistance – they played the Macarena. Well, the Chinese loved us. If they had been the sort of nation to give a standing ovation I think we’d have got one. Immense applause as we left the stage having done 3 rotations. That’s the funny thing about the Macarena. When on dance floor that is packed it seems quite a short tune. When on stage with two other people in front of a crowd of Chinese who have no idea what you are doing it seems like an amazingly long tune! Still I think we provided a good level of entertainment and we certainly have a starring role in the wonderful DVD that the ship sells and that strangely none of us will be buying!

 

And after all that excitement……bed methinks – we should arrive at gorge like scenery tomorrow…….

Toilet Humour

Martyn very chuffed with breakfast. Pre-ordered yesterday and he wasn’t sure his attempts to ask for an egg and bacon sandwich had worked. This morning – triple decker egg and bacon arrived. Ate on bus. I was allowed two small bites. Very nice.

2 hours later stopped for toilet break. No cubicles at all this time. Just three holes in the ground next to each other. For some reason two Chinese women filled these up from the closest one to the door so I had to walk past them to get to my allocated hole! Wasn’t sure of the etiquette but it seems that you wait until everyone is ready and then all go together. I think maybe I messed up by standing up before they were ready – I don’t really want to think about what else may have caused their little giggles! One of our group decided the ladies was too public so went in the gents. Fortunately this worked to her advantage as they were empty. It could however have been a very interesting experience.

2 hours later, lunch break. Toilets here had cubicles and doors and everything. All a bit disappointing in a way! Quite a relief in more than one other way though!

Lunch on bus – all others in group had Oreo cookies and Chinese Pringles. Martyn and I had savoury biscuits (we think tomato and Chinese leaf flavor given the pictures on the packet) with chicken flavoured processed sausage and tomato flavoured processed sausage (think Heinz tomato soup but sort of dehydrated and made into one of those plastic cheese stick things kids eat nowadays……). We’re saving our pickled chilli tofu for another day.

Another 2.5 hours later arrived at ChongQing  and bus stop. On the way passed over a flyover and glanced left to see lots of blocks of flats that looked just like Birmingham!). Unfortunately our transport to the harbor was at another bus stop. Waited a while and it found us. Boarded cruise ship. Luxury liner it is not but we have ensuite and a window…….we just won’t be putting our bare feet on the carpet in the corridors that’s all. At least there is not the Titanic theme playing over the loudspeakers (yet!).

Dinner and shopping to stock up on goodies and snacks for our cruise. Chinese pot noodles for dinner as eating on board is quite expensive to say the least! I have gone for ‘roasted beef’ while Martyn has two different variations on ‘hot n spicy’. We’re thinking we might mix them together. We’ve unpacked all our food onto the little table in our room. We seem to have half a supermarket but I’m sure we’ll make an effort and eat it.

Wow – cruise has literally just started. We checked in at 3pm and got our rooms and then went out for dinner. Its 9.30pm and we’ve just left the dock. Not bad really, when we asked what time the boat left it was anytime between 8.30 and 11 depending on when the last person arrived!

So we’re off, never done a cruise before. Should be interesting. Its dark outside. I wonder what we’ll see when we wake up………

The Great Firewall of China!

Yes, he’s done it.

 

Did you ever doubt it.

 

You’ll notice some pictures in the blog posts now.

 

I’ve told him he’s very naughty!

 

Hopefully they will let us leave when its time to go!

 

Apparently there is a box at home somewhere called ‘Slug’ its working very hard. I think it needs a new name!

Monkey Magic and the Big Potato

They were right – the pancakes for breakfast were amazing, Martyn ate a whole double layer pancake with chocolate, honey, apple and banana!!! I think the next Shrove Tuesday will be a little disappointing for him.

 

Martyn very happy. He came down at least half of the 1185 steps from the temple with our local guide ‘Nathan’ who knew all about ‘Monkey Magic’ with Monkey, Pigsy, the other one (can’t remember name) and Tripitaka! Much reminiscing over story lines – well Nathan reminisced and Martyn realized that only now he’s had it all explained does the series actually make much more sense!

 

After that he had a lovely conversation with Jerry our main tour guide. Martyn said he was going to walk with ‘the big cheese’ for a bit. Apparently they don’t call the boss that over here – they call him ‘the Big Potato’.

 

Anyway, back down more steps, narrowly avoided the Gangsta Monkeys again, forged a small stream, visited temple we didn’t stop at yesterday with red ribbons and padlocks – apparently couples in love bring their wish on the red ribbon and padlock it to the chain so their love never splits. Cynically Martyn wondered if someone comes and unlocks the padlock and throws it away if there is a divorce. I hit him.

 

At that point we split up. 5 of the group carried on straight down the hill. Martyn and I opted for the extended walk with Jerry. He said another 4 hours, very nice. I lost count at about 2200 steps. I thought they would never stop. I am never going on the stepper machine in the gym again. We have calves of steel and thighs of jelly now. Or is it the other way around. At least the knees held up. Jerry walked at the back all the way up. I swear once it was just the three of us someone released a catch somewhere coz he shot up the steps like a rocket. My only consolation is that when we stopped he was sweating as well. He was good enough to tell us that usually with other groups he stops two or three times on the way up but he knew we could do it in one go…….I think this was a compliment, I’m not sure my legs agree!!

 

It was a lovely walk though. More temples swathed in ethereal mist, lots of forest and best of all – only 5 tourists (and they were locals) for the whole time. Very nice!

 

Back down in time for lunch, repacking, buying of snacks for lunch tomorrow and other important things and hopefully a good nights sleep!

 

Maybe no blog for a few days again as we are off to start our Yangtse River cruise tomorrow!

 

 

Gangsta Monkeys

Each evening as we write this, it has pretty much got slightly colder and wetter. Last night we had quite heavy rain, and awoke to a misty sky. Our guide suggested an alternative route for our mountain (hill) walk, which involved slightly less bus riding and more walking (including 1185 steps apparently) according to Kay’s counting – I gave up as we were 6 steps out by the time we reached 400!

The 1185 steps were the last ones up to the temple where we are staying tonight. They came after the 4.5 hours of walking, including ‘thousands’ more steps we had already done. Fun though – well we enjoyed it, not quite sure our group did but we all made it here!

Got here via Wannian temple, lunch, another smaller temple and a nunnary. Oh and also via ‘monkey road’ – had to pack all our stuff inside our bags for this bit, not allowed to take anything out our bags or pockets for two hours as the Tibetan Maaques are very wily and try to get at food and drink. Our guide said most of them are okay, but some of them are ‘gangsta monkeys’!

Up Emei Shan mountain we progressed. Several years ago it was designated one of the 4 sacred mountains in China. This one being ‘Good Luck’, the others Longevity, Wisdom and Good Health.

Currently sat in bed in temple where we are staying at the top – Electric blanket is on maximum power. I am wearing all the clothes I have with me (including hat, but not gloves as they are not typing compatible). We are only at about the same height as Snowdon but it is a tad chilly. The others who have been in China with us a week from the UK say it is just like at home, and are in fleeces only. I am freezing! I do so love acclimatizing. Very glad we have lugged our warm clothes around for 4 months, as we nearly sent them home after Chile.

Ho hum, only have to go back down 185 steps to get dinner then back up again to electric blanket! – yum.

Have watched afternoon Monk chanting – didn’t think we’d make the 5am session – thanks.

Better go, I need to use the bathroom, and they are ‘interesting’ even for me. Hole in the ground, no door, no curtain, just a concrete wall to make a cubical and all of them face the entrance. I don’t think I’ll be having a drink with my dinner tonight! – still If I time it right, I might get the loos’ to myself.

Strangely, we all skipped the showers as well in favour of a wet-wipe. I finished with girls changing room showers a long time ago, and its also not quite warm enough to get wet!- Having washed my hair in the hotel in freezing water this morning (no hot water for some reason) I am chickening out!

Bright side is that apparently the pancakes for breakfast are divine!

Man made Panda baby and the Happy House

Guess what we saw today!!

 

Ace.

 

Saw Red Panda as well but obviously picture is of Giant Panda. Totally amazing.

 

Lovely guide (Echo) spent some time explaining to us how the Panda Breeding Centre makes ‘man made panda baby’. She also invited us to use the Happy House – we were all very confused until she said ‘toilet’.

Obnoxious Odour

‘There really is a most obnoxious odour coming from my bag’ said Martyn.

‘Oh dear, umm I don’t think there is anything in your bag that could smell that bad is there?’ said Kay

‘.. then again, it could just be me’ mused Martyn.

I haven’t gotten that close to him since then!

Arrived in Chengdu hotel about 2.30am wearing a jumper and shivering. Fell into bed, 8 hours later the world was a much better place – sleep is an amazing thing!

Brunch at 11, la-de-dah, brunch ha. Ha.

Sichuan dishes – nice and spicy. Breathing through my stuffed up nose suddenly became much easier!

Walking tour of Chengdu to some little old streets, the peoples park, and then the main square to see a statue of Chairman Mao in ‘hailing taxi’ stance.

Back to our hotel for an hour before dinner – Martyn has discovered that we have free internet and is therefore making the most of this, currently he is:

1)      Preparing more blog pictures for you to enjoy

2)      Downloading episodes of Battlestar Galactica to watch on our upcoming 8 hr bus journey

3)      Rigging up something at home remotely to allow us to get round certain.. ah .. restrictions.. from the country we’re travelling in.

Off to see a show this evening, Not sure what, something to do with masks apparently.

By the way, Pandas tomorrow!!- have I mentioned before that we’re seeing Pandas? – Really we are tomorrow. I’m not excited at all!

 

New Pictures

China blocks access to the Blogger website, so we can’t get to our blog directly in china and therefore can’t change the slideshow on the right to add our first set of China Pictures.

Here is a link to them instead:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25677427@N05/sets/72157626774904412/

Enjoy

[Edit: The carosel has been updated above, so you can see them there also 8-) ]

Rudolf the red nosed tai chi studebt

Doesn't quite have the right ring to it. I have to go and buy bore dishoos! Ah well, never mind.

Right, started today with brilliant tai chi lesson - 10 steps

1) collect energ
2) make tai chi ball (yin)
3) protec lef sigh
4) make tai chi ball (yang)
5) protec rye sigh
6) two han pull dow
7) han together push up
8) push away social movemen
9) han fla turn away
10) collect energ

We know what it means!

Then it was break time so we went and checked out, then Chinese calligraphy lesson. Left handed calligraphy is not easy (but then neither is right handed) although forming the characters left to right meant Martyn had to draw them all backwards or risk very inky hands! Just like handwriting practice in school and we were both still quite rubbish - it's good to feel we have progressed so far with our education!

Wandered around town for a bit, wrote last lot of postcards - 10 - got arm ache, navigated post office having tried to buy stamps in one bank and one mobile phone shop. Changed the Hong Kong dollars Martyn found in his wallet last night - doh.

Late lunch / dinner. Now awaiting bus for flight to Chengdu.

Hoping our posts are reaching the blog, as we dont seem to be able to check it!

Extension cable and a condom?

Forgot to mention - had to laugh earlier, we' ve been blatting the odd mosquito in our room for the last two days.

Today I saw what I honestly thought was a condom packet on top of what Martyn had assumed was an extension cable.

After a moment or two of confused picking up and turning over we worked it out!

Condom actually = mosquito tablet thingy
Extension cable = burner / heater thing for mosquito coil.

Quite reassuring really as we didn't think our tour company would have booked us into that type of hotel!

Backward Train and a Plastic Boat?

Wow - confusion , awoke to the expected limestone scenery BUT the train was going the opposite way to when we went to sleep. We decided it must at some point have done a switchback without us realising as the scenery proved we definitely had not returned to Guangzhou!

We were at Guilin. A quick bus ride later and we were at Yangshuo. Breakfast - very proudly presented as western style - Martyn enjoyed his bacon! And then a quick walk around town. Dash to supermarket to buy water and snacks and at 12 noon left for bamboo rafting down the Li river.

Bamboo raft was interesting. Bamboo pole was used to push raft out of the 'raft car park' but raft was made of large White drainpipe with an outboard motor. Scenery stunning though (even though I slept through a good portion of it - ooopsie - you never sleep as well as you think on overnight trains)

Same same but different to the limestone karsts of Vietnam. It's sort of bigger and more spread out here. Very nice though. Darker greens than Vietnam.

Back to hotel, check in, shower, out for dinner - then to sound and light show which we were going to skip but are very glad we didn't. It was directed by the person who did the opening / closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics and was really really good. Over 600 people involved in performing and lots of sound and light (strangely!).

In bed now with sore throat and stuffy dose! Have been infected with a cold. I've told it to be gone tomorrow !

Oh and the lady of 20.1 kg bag fame was getting the hotel to do some laundry today! Perhaps she brought her own bike for tomorrow?

Still, sleep needed now, playing catch up from train and starting early tomorrow!

School Trip Mode

Left Hong kong on time in bus at 8.15am on the way to Chinese border.......very exciting.

We were let in no problem.
Lady with heavy bag also fine
Anthony - welsh contingent also good
Paula also alright.

Lucy and Collette had organised their own visa - they got a single entry visa and someone gave them the wrong stamp when they flew in to Shanghai before connecting to Hong Kong 8-(

It took three hours to sort out visa issues in customs at the border, and took lots of phone calls! Our bus left without us, so did the next bus. In the end Jerry (guide) organised private car for us - bit of a squeeze, 8 of us plus big bags in a people carrier but we made it.

Oh the joys of group travel. Still - we got to read some of our books while we waited!

I know it's been a while since we did serious group travel but later we also gave lessons in adjusting the straps on your brand new rucksack. Apparently peoples new bags only checked in at 9-10 kgs but after walking to the train station were really digging in to shoulders. I nearly offered to swap bags!!!!

Bless them all, Martyn and I have already stopped 'school trip' mode once - we discovered I was walking at the front and he was walking at the back, every so often we would check we hadn't lost anybody. After a while we remembered we had Jerry!

Quick lunch - at 3.30pm and then off to night train. Pickled turnip and spicy tofu for dinner on train! Break out the Pringles and raisins!

Should arrive somewhere else tomorrow - Guilin I think and then a bus to Yangshuo for some Chinese limestone karsts ! Oooh, just read itinerary, pandas soon..... He he he. Bike ride for my birthday apparently.