Raj-era

For part three of the golden triangle we arrived under cover of darkness and awoke the next morning to heat but no rain! A great start, we thought, as we headed towards the old (or pink, but it was actually red) walled city, Gremelin enticed by the prospect of hours and hours of shopping in the local bazaars.













We picked our way through the backstreets of Jaipur’s old quarter as the afternoon heated up and visited the intricately decorated City Palace, and the almost Gaudi-esque Hawa Mahal but only realised our true reason for visiting Jaipur when we stumbled upon this…



I mean I knew I was famous, but my own festival?!

I was firmly brought back down to earth back via the medium of intense shopping - I don’t think I’ll ever see so many shoes, bangles or so much silver jewellery in one afternoon again, or at least I hope not.



The antidote? A visit to the completely unexpected but charmingly kitsch revolving restaurant of Jaipur. We arrived on the 14th floor at the circular dining area admiring the stupendous views of the city and surrounding landscape but were disappointed to note the world was not in fact spinning as hoped. We sat down to a great meal and all of sudden there was a grinding noise and the floor started moving – my first rotating culinary experience!

The less famous Rajashtani city of Udaipur was a welcome relief from the fascinating but exasperatingly hectic state capital and we got away from the over friendly insects!



The centrepiece of the city is Lake Pichola around which are dotted ghats, havelis, temples and another City Palace. Feeling decidedly less stressed it was great to be able to wander around the winding backstreets without feeling hassled at every turn.





With captivating stark white architecture at every turn and a lavish hotel island poised in the middle of the lake, this city is truly serene and charming and deserves its title as Rajashtan’s most romantic city.











We even learnt how the members of the local legal profession travel around in Udaipur – no BMWs or Mercedes for these members of the Indian Bar!



After a refreshing few days we head south to the cosmopolitan chaos that will be Mumbai.

What monsoon?

It was once described as ‘a teardrop on the face of eternity’ – well there were plenty of tears falling on the Taj Mahal yesterday when we visited. A rainstorm unlike any I’ve ever witnessed. It was disappointing, but did not take away the awe felt when we took our first glimpse. It truly is beautiful – smaller than most people imagine but so perfectly formed, flawlessly symmetrical, delicately exquisite. Luckily as we were heading back the rain ceased and we could admire it umbrella-free, without getting drenched. Actually we already were, but we could forget that for a moment.














Shockingly, we learnt that some British imperialist once tried to auction the Taj Mahal for its marble! Thankfully it was saved from destruction…

We’d hired an auto-rickshaw for the day, and as the heavens re-opened we were tempted to call it a day after the first stop. But after a revitalising lunch we persevered and continued to the massive red sandstone Agra Fort, where we wandered around and took in the hazy view.






Third stop was the Baby Taj – Itimad-ud-Daulah – an ancient Persian tomb pre-dating the Taj but featuring very similar design elements and intricate marble inlay work.









Finally we stopped over the river for an uninterrupted view of the Taj from behind. Simply stunning.




Tonight we head into Rajasthan, to Jaipur, by train. Until then…

Some holy places

I was still recovering from a nasty bout of Delhi Belly when we left for Haridwar, and to make matters worse the pollution had started to affect me and I was coming down with a pretty nasty respiratory something or other. Or maybe it was just a cold. But either way I felt pretty rotten in Haridwar. But we were still amazed. Haridwar is located where the fast-flowing Ganges emerges from the Himalayas and is a very holy town for Hindus.

We happened to be there during the weekend of Swamgi, a yearly festival during which young men from all over the country make the pilgrimage here to collect water from the Holy Mother Ganga to take back to their villages. Needless to say the town was swarming with tens of thousands of people and we felt lost in the hoards of orange-clad devotees. It felt like we were the only foreigners in the whole place, and to make matters worse, half the people there had never left their small village so many had never seen a camera and certainly not a young white female. Oh yes, there was some staring. We wandered along the river banks mingling with the crowds and watching them bathe in the ghats.











We headed to Rishikesh, a small town nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, where we encountered several hundred more pilgrims. We’d heard so many great things about Rishikesh, and I’d really been looking forward to some yoga and chill out time in the yoga capital of the world. And I’d convinced Teej to stay on an ashram!

But first impressions were not so great. The narrow streets were so full of people and cows that it was a fight to get anywhere. It was muddy, dirty and quite frankly, for such a holy place, it was full of nasty characters. I was followed continuously by a very sleazy man, we were harassed for money every five minutes from everyone, not just beggars and sadhus, and I was groped by a passing cyclist. I know these are all regular occurrences in India, but in one of the holiest towns during a religious festival?!

I spent the next two days in bed with a fever and emerged to a nicer, more peaceful and more beautiful Rishikesh. The pilgrims had gone home and the ashram was beginning to feel more how I’d imagined it. We attended the evening aarti ceremony on the ghat – an evening worship of the Ganges. All the boys who live on the ashram come down onto the steps in their saffron robes and sit with their guru, HH Pujya Swami Chidanana Saraswatji, as they chant their prayer songs to the beat of the tabla. We sat with some lovely old ladies who gave us petals to throw in the water as they clapped and danced. Everyone lit candles to float down the Ganges, but mine was pulled under the current almost immediately.





After the ceremony we were lucky enough to attend an audience with HH Pujya Swami and we heard him speak the most beautiful words about peace. I have never seen a man so calm and serene, and just a few moments with him were inspiring. It was then I felt sad to be leaving Rishikesh.

Indian summer

No sooner had we arrived in Delhi than we experienced what the Indian monsoon is all about. I hadn’t appreciated the full meaning of a ‘downpour’ until now and our puny English rain is not a patch on this. The streets were like rivers and as we attempted to navigate our way downstream we were watched by sheltering bystanders evidently amused at our astonishment.

It’s all a little bit like Glastonbury really, only with less mud and more cows freely roaming the streets. These holy bovine drifters were also taking refuge under anything available and, which is their right here, often nudging people out of the way as they did so.





And then came the heat. The combination of temperatures around 37 Celsius and vast pools of water created a monumental sauna resulting in levels of humidity I have never before endured. So what better way to tackle it by doing some sightseeing (!!). After wandering around the Red Fort grounds in somewhat of a daze and heading onto the chaotic main thoroughfare of Old Delhi we were grateful for a break in the air conditioned mecca that was McDonalds. This stop was all part of the sightseeing of course as we were intrigued to see the usual Maccers’ menu minus beef. The ingenious replacements consisted of the Chicken Maharaja Mac and the McAloo Tikki Burger!





We also took in the impressive Jama Masjid mosque and the next day the serene Gurdwara Bangla Sahib Sikh temple as well as the national museum featuring some stunning miniature Indian paintings, a crazy selection of old sitars and other musical instruments and a fascinating section of ancient weaponry and armour.









We’re heading north to spiritual Haridwar next to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and so Grem can get in touch with herself and do some yoga while I sit about and do nothing!

And the rains came

Our first impression of Nepal was rain. The day before we crossed the border we descended over 2,000metres in just over an hour! As we passed through the clouds we realised just how wet the next couple of months are going to be. On the plus side it was warm again!





As we crossed over into Nepal we were informed that there had been a landslide and that we would have to carry our bags across it and change bus on the other side. It was pretty amazing how much of the mountain had given way – thankfully we weren’t underneath it at the time – but it was only after we had lugged all our belongings over that we stopped to appreciate the view!





We spent a couple of days recuperating in Dhulikhel at a lovely hotel set on the hillside with the Himalayas as our backdrop. Unfortunately the mist shrouded the view, but that didn’t stop us enjoying the chance to do absolutely nothing but sit on the balcony and read. We did take a walk down to a nearby Newari village, Parnauti, where I made a little friend who followed our group until we got back on the bus!

We arrived in Kathmandu in time to celebrate my birthday (and the last night of our Intrepid trip). I made the most of the good food, wine and of course fantastic shopping, much to Tim’s delight, which made the whole ‘quarter of a century’ ordeal very bearable.

Our week in Kathmandu has been a chance to prepare for India, get things sorted and recover from the exhausting time we spent in Tibet. We also took the opportunity to visit the Dashenkali temple to witness the sacrificial offerings to the bloodthirsty Hindu goddess, Kali. Twice a week, Hindus bring their male goats, chickens, sheep and pigs to have their throats slit and their heads chopped off! It was pretty gruesome but non-Hindus can only watch from above, so we didn’t get too close to the action.

We took a trip to the monkey temple to watch them pick each others’ nits, and wandered among the ancient temples of Durbar Square, where we sat and watched the world go by, met elaborately painted sadhus and were harassed by touts and tour guides!

Unfortunately the monsoon season makes trekking in the Himalayas dangerous and pointless as you can rarely see the peaks. So we’ve put off a visit to Pokhara and a trek through the Annapurna range for another holiday!

Now that we are in Nepal and away from the prying eyes of Chinese internet spies I can finally write some of the things we wanted to while in Tibet.

A month ago I wrote on here that I wanted to live in Beijing. Much as I love the city, I can now say that there is no way I could live under a regime that oppresses such a beautiful nation. I don’t know what I expected from Tibet but I was horrified at how few liberties its people enjoy – I knew it would be bad but not that bad.

It’s common knowledge that little religious freedom exists – any photos or depictions of the Dalai Lama are totally banned and the monasteries are fully equipped with CCTV cameras by the Chinese government. Monks cannot trust one another for it is a widely accepted fact that there are ‘monk spies’ living in all the monasteries, reporting to the Chinese of any politically sensitive conversation, anti-communist sentiment or ‘revolutionary activity’. The young Panchen Lama, second in importance to the Dalai Lama, 'disappeared' as a child and has never been seen since - the government instated another of their own choosing, educated the Chinese way.

Tibetans live their lives paranoid and cannot trust anyone, including colleagues and close aquaintances – they cannot talk openly about their situation or their hopes for Tibet. It’s not unheard of for people to just disappear and never return to their families – everything you say and do is under scrutiny. People still hang portraits of Mao in their homes to encourage visiting officials that they pledge their allegiance to the Chairman rather than their spiritual leader.

More obvious was the near-total Chinese presence in even the smallest Tibetan town. Huge tiled buildings bearing Chinese signage line the streets, leaving only a tiny portion of traditional Tibetan architecture. There once thousands of monasteries in Tibet but only a handful remain after the Cultural Revolution, and most of these have been almost entirely rebuilt.

Ah, the Cultural Revolution. This one is brilliant. Tibetans were issued an educational video by the government educating them on the atrocities commited by the BRITISH armies!! Apparantly the Brits rolled in, desecrated the monasteries and left China to pick up the pieces! Unbelievable.

The Dalai Lama has expressed that he will not be reincarnated in a Chinese governed Tibet. However, most Tibetans believe things will change, that the Chinese will back down and that theHis Holiness will return home. But not in their lifetime.

The “road” to Rhongbuk and that massive mountain

This was the moment we were all waiting for and despite the long, bumpy and at times slightly nerve wracking journey to Qomolangma (Everest) National Park, the minute I set eyes on those snow capped peaks I was mesmerised. The drive lasted around nine hours but with such enthralling scenery I would have gladly sat through longer.

The first few hours of the ride took us through seemingly endless open deserts featuring some enormous sand dunes which of course we stopped at to scale and tumble down!

Our pause at the Gyatso pass (at a height of 5,252m) was particularly memorable break in the journey, not least because that is the highest point I am ever likely to reach in my life!

We arrived at the Rhongbuk guesthouse exhausted but thrilled that we were finally at the foot of the world’s highest point and following such a long day and at such an incredible altitude all I could muster was a short walk to the chorten outside the monastery to gaze towards Everest. After such exertion we settled down for our overnight stay in the basic but perfectly located monastery guesthouse in anticipation of the next day’s task – climb to Everest……base camp!








Next morning at dawn we began the 8km walk up to base camp. We were blessed with the best possible weather conditions which provided us with a perfectly clear view of Everest making an already unbelievable experience all the more magical. My words and to a lesser extent our pictures hardly do the event justice but it was the once in a lifetime opportunity we had dreamt of and much, much more.

Shigatse shenanigans

After the somewhat basic town of Gyantse (3,950m) we traveled a couple of hours down the road to Tibet’s second largest city of Shigatse (3,900m). Not only was this an opportunity to relax a little before our onward ascent towards Everest but two members of our group, Ed and Michelle, enjoyed birthdays over the two days we stayed. So we went out for a slap up dinner, gave out pressies to the lucky two (nice utility pants guys!) and gorged on a magnificent birthday cake, all of which was followed by a visit to a Tibetan Nangma.

A Nangma is a Tibetan nightclub but it is best described as a cross between a Blackpool cabaret show and the Tibetan version of Pop Idol. We sat in a booth a tactical distance from the sizeable stage awaiting the entertainment, and what entertainment it was! Numerous acts ranging from traditionally clad dancing girls to teen-pop wannabes graced the stage and at intervals we rewarded our favourite acts by placing a white scarf around their necks – a sign of appreciation and respect in Tibetan culture. All in all a very entertaining night out!





The next day we visited the Tashilinpo monastery, the seat of the Panchen Lama, second only to the head guy, the Dali Lama. Our second night in Shigatse was marred by daylight robbery of the football variety. Less said about that the better.







The result of too little sleep, too much beer at altitude and a thorough lack of a deserved England victory (why always penalties?!!) resulted in a blurry start to our journey to the town of Sakya, located amongst yet more spectacular mountainous surroundings and perched at a staggering 4,280m. We visited the local monastery housing the Sakya or Red hat sect of Buddhism and then headed towards the hills for a kora around the small town. Even walking at a quick pace at this altitude is hard work let alone climbing the admittedly small slope towards the chortens overlooking the town. We were all feeling the effects of altitude by this stage with results ranging from shortness of breath, pins and needles in various places, all the way through to bizarre and psychedelic dreams!

We indulged in our last hot shower for a few days and stocked up on sleep ready for the long drive to Qomolangma National Park, home of the king of mountains – Everest!

To Samye, to Gyantse

We left Lhasa in a convoy of four Toyota Landcruisers, accompanied by our new Tibetan guide. A far more comfortable way to travel, the 4x4s give us the freedom to stop when we like for photo or toilet stops, and we can spread out in the back admiring the views. Over the last few days we have crossed over mountains under endless skies, through deserted plains and sandy dunes and across dried up river beds - we are now at just under 4,000 metres. The scenery has been awesome and still, the best is yet to come.








Our first stop was Samye monastery, Tibet's first monastery dating back to 770. We stayed in the monastery guest house, the most basic accommodation yet (the toilets were an experience) but located right in the monastery grounds and filled with pilgrims. We looked around the monastery, which is built as a mandala mirroring the structure of the universe according to Buddhist cosmology. We climbed up a nearby mountain (hill) for a wee bit of exercise and to see the monastery from above.













The next morning we embarked on a long 10 hour journey to Gyantse – never easy, but surrounded by such a wonderful landscape the hours flew by. We visited the monastery here too (as if we'd break the routine) and climbed up to the top of the town's fort for some more spectacular views.















Gyantse has retained more authentic Tibetan charm than most other towns, which was evident as we walked down streets lined with cattle and littered with yak bones and the odd hoof! A more unusual site was the local museum:




There was in fact a massacre here right at the end of the 19th century but the museum twists the whole incident around (captions by the Chinese, of course). Apparantly the British has tried to remove Tibet from the motherland (when in fact the battle happened 50 years before China invaded Tibet!) with 10,000 troops (there were actually only 1,000 British troops, but they were served by 10,000 servants!!!) See for yourself, and laugh!




We're now in Shigatse, Tibet's second largest town and seat of the Panchen Lama (second to the Dalai Lama). We'll spend a couple of days here, then only one more stop before Everest Base Camp!

Lhasa continued

Our five days in the capital of Tibet were such a welcome relief from the long bus journeys - a chance to properly acclimatise to the altitude, eat loads of pizza and buy all my Tibetan treats!

On our third day we visited the famous Potala. The palace is immense and an awe-inspiring sight from the ground, and equally impressive inside its many chapels. I was slightly disappointed in the museum-like atmosphere, far from the working monastery of Jokang and its hundreds of pilgrims - due to the visiting restrictions at the Potala there are very few worshippers inside, although hundreds prostrate daily outside on the pavement. It's crazy to think some of the Chinese government tried to demolish this building during the Cultural Revolution (there are bus loads of Chinese tourists here now) considering what an impressive place it is. And the views from the top are amazing...










Another highlight was the chance to visit a school for blind children. Braille without Borders was the first training centre for the blind in Tibet and was set up by a blind German woman. We met an amazing 18-year-old girl who showed us around and impressed us with her impeccable English. In fact all of the kids there speak amazing English, better than any Tibetans or Chinese that we've met so far! There is also a massage training scheme there, so of course I visited the clinic run by past blind students for a relaxing Chinese massage.

We went back to school for a lesson on Tibetan medicine at the Lhasa hospital and learnt about the three channels that dictate our health (phlegm, bile and wind) from traditional thangka paintings. We saw herb samples and some terrifying implements of surgery from hundreds of years ago!

We didn't visit all of Lhasa's monasteries but the Sera monastery was a great place to see the monks debating their philosophy. Groups of monks sit around a questioner who poses questions and bluffs the students - correct answers are awarded with a high clap, wrong answers with a downward slap of the hands. It can get quite heated as the monks get into arguments!









On our last day in Lhasa we took a bus out to the enormous Ganden monastery up in the mountains at 4000m. It would have been a superb view but unfortunately the mist came in and we got rained on for the first time since we'd been in Tibet. Nevertheless it was a nice day out and good to experience the next level of altitude before we climb even higher into the Everest valley next week.

As we were leaving Lhasa our new guide told us that the China-Tibet railway was to be completed and open for business on July 1st. There has been much controversy about the train that will link Lhasa with China - much of the landscape has been interrupted, hoards of Chinese tourists will take over Lhasa which the locals will no doubt find hard to deal with, and coal being brought into the region in open carriages will pollute the air in the same way much of China has been affected. Of course the official line is that Tibetans will prosper with improved trade routes and the economy will boom with increased tourism....

Lhasa – another step towards the roof of the world

At the stupidly anti-social hour of 5.30am we got up to catch our flight from Chengdu destined for Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, or as the Chinese have branded it: the ‘Tibetan Autonomous Region’. The short two hour flight took us over some spectacular mountain scenery and the views over the Tibetan peaks on the approach into Lhasa airport were sensational – a taste of things to come!

Our orders upon arrival in Lhasa were to take it easy and relax to allow us to acclimatise to the staggering 3,683m altitude we had arrived at. We took a brief stroll around the ‘Tibetan’ district of the city where thankfully there still remains some of the traditional architecture that has been so crassly stripped from the other areas of the city and replaced with the usual unattractive modern Chinese style. We visited the Barkor Square and market which encircles the Jokhang Monastery and also acts as a Kora around which locals, pilgrims and tourists alike circumambulate in a clockwise direction. This proves quite awkward for forgetful shopaholics like Gremelin because once she has walked past one market stall selling beautiful things, she has to walk all the way around the square again before she can revisit the same stall – hilarious!

Besides being the spiritual capital of Tibet, Lhasa is also a traveller’s mecca and for those in our group lusting after western food and other home comforts this is the place to take stock – as we have been fully warned it is rice and noodles all the way to Kathmandu after this! Much scoffing of burgers, pizzas, sandwiches, cakes and coffee understandably ensued.

We stepped up the pace a little on our second day and went back to school for the morning for our Tibetan language class. I think we all grasped the basics – ordering a beer, ordering two beers and then finding out the Tibetan for ‘where’s the toilet’. Gremlin and the girls were of course more concerned with ‘how much?’, ‘give discount’ and ‘that’s expensive!’.

Later that day we made a flying visit to the Ani Sang Nunnery, the only working nunnery in Tibet and then Gremelin hit the shopping hard and by 5pm, after a full injection of Tibetan retail therapy, we visited the Jokhang Monastery.

Each day at the entrance to the monastery a collection of the Buddhist faithful prostrate by placing their hands together, touching them against their head, then throat, then heart before falling to their knees and finally extending themselves flat on their stomachs and then repeating this ‘cleansing’ process again and again. The most devout perform this ritual at every step of their pilgrimage to Tibet, often taking months to reach their destination. The Jokhang was fascinating and housed a staggering collection of Buddhas, Bhodisthattvas and related Buddhist items. We clambered up on to the roof and enjoyed excellent views over Lhasa with the Potala Palace in the distance.

The City of Pandas

Chengdu – the city of pandas. We arrived after a long drive in the pouring rain and headed out to the star attraction of this otherwise standard Chinese city to visit the Chengdu Panda sanctuary. Of course as soon as we saw the pandas the rain stopped and the sun came out – hooray! The pandas were ever bit as cute, fluffy and cool as I’d expected and far lazier than I’d imagined!

A panda’s day consists of eating as many bamboo shoots and leaves as possible – around 20kg of the stuff – and then spending the rest of the day sleeping off its all day dinner! What a life!

The sanctuary helpers had optimistically positioned all manner of panda activity devices such as swings and climbing frames etc presumably in an effort to get the b*ggers to do something. As far as we could tell, however, they point blank refuse and instead eat and sleep their way through life! No wonder they’re endangered if they’re so blinkin’ lazy!

I was a little disappointed that they hadn’t fully seized on the obvious sales opportunities available within house of pandas such as theirs. Everyone remembers Panda Pop and those liquorice panda chew bars, even Fiat pandas yet none of those on sale there. Tsk. Anyway, enough nonsense – here are some pictures of the silly, fluffy, lazy critters.

Home sweet home

We stopped in the town of Thangkor to visit the local school, which Intrepid supports, and play basketball with the kids. Once again we were accosted by hundreds of children who were in awe of Tim’s hairy arms and Michelle’s eyebrow ring!





Thangkor is the closest town to the grasslands where we would be staying in a homestay. We visited the family's ‘Summer place’ – a tent in the middle of nowhere - where we tasted Tsampa (barley flour with yak butter) and had a chance to ride the horse. Several families live close by and they each have a very vicious guard dog! Yak bones lie rotting on the grass – the nomads are totally dependent on their yaks. They eat the meat, drink the milk, use the stinky butter for almost everything (including moisturiser) and burn the dung on the stove. They use the wool to make blankets, and sleep on yak skins. An average family kills two yaks a year and subsists on only this and about 100Yuan (that’s about ₤6 a year!!!).








The family also have a brick house for the winter. Our host had set up mattresses on the floor and we cooked our own noodles on the yak-dung fire before settling down for our cosy slumber party. Boys in the cold, drafty entrance room and girls in the toasty warm living room with the stove!

We were really looked after and I like to think it was a fairly authentic experience – Intrepid is the only tour company that visits these parts and this was the only homestay that operates, so we really saw the nomadic life in a way others can’t. Not sure I could hack it though – yak meat takes some getting used to, and many Tibetans only have a wash every 6 months!

Lazy Langmusi

On the long bus journey from Labrang to Langmusi we drove past a nomadic festival on the side of the road. Some of us were sceptical about joining in the party but Atisha assured us that we would be welcome. Needless to say we caused a bit of a stir as we rocked up with our cameras – it was a bit intrusive and we all felt a little awkward but no one really seemed to mind. The kids went crazy over the cameras and demanded we take their photos so they could see themselves on the screen. A group of boys saw me reading the Tibetan Lonely Planet and went nuts over it – they were all crowding around trying to catch a glimpse of the Potala Palace and other religious sites that they’ve never seen but have heard all about.

We spent a couple of days acclimatising in Langmusi - the small village sits at 3,300 metres, a 300m climb from our previous stop. I had felt minor symptoms of altitude in Labrang (breathlessness and mild headache) but I felt much better on arrival here. That was until my first truly restless night – another effect of the altitude. As a consequence I had to drag myself out of bed the following morning, but I am so glad I did.







Atisha took us around the monastery here (after a spot of basketball) and we learnt a lot more about Tibetan Buddhism before embarking on a beautiful stroll through the valley. We walked for about an hour before reaching a beautiful alpine clearing where we sat about relaxing and absorbing the scenery.












We spent the rest of the day reading on the hotel roof, relaxing and feeling guilty about not having joined some of the others on a long walk up a very high hill. Acclimatisation was our excuse - mustn’t exert ourselves before another climb in altitude tomorrow!

Xian and on

A hot and hungover day in Xian was thankfully rescued by the hazy memory that we did in fact win the match after all that, and the reason for my fuzzy head was because the hotel bar was offering all you can drink beer for 20 kwai. That’s about £1.33, and boy did we make the most of it, some of us more than others! Some stayed up until 5am to watch the end of the Sweden v Paraguay game, and the bar stayed open!

Anyway we recovered from our British beer swilling football watching personas and did do something cultural in the end. We visited the Muslim Quarter and strolled around the tranquil grounds of the Great Mosque, a beautiful and peaceful place. Afterwards Grem indulged in her obligatory shopping fix, buying left, right and centre in the fascinating market area around the Muslim Quarter.

We boarded our overnight train to Lanzhou and after a brief stop for breakfast we boarded our bus for a bumpy 7 hour ride into the mountains through the stunning scenery to our next stop, Labrang (or Xiahe as the Chinese prefer) in the area known as Amdo Tibet. Our bus started overheating after half an hour but we made it! We met our Tibetan guide Atisha, who led us on the Kora of the focus of our visit here, the Labrang Monastery.








The Kora is the Buddhist ritual of circumambulating a monastery or other symbol of religious significance. In this instance around the Labrang Monastery there were over one thousand large prayer wheels (see pictures below) and during our Kora Gremlin very proudly turned every one (resulting in one very sore right arm). Surrounded by the breathtaking mountains we rubbed shoulders with numerous pilgrims, monks and local villagers each taking part in the Kora that evening. I am sure there will be many times that I will say this about our forthcoming experiences in Tibet, but it was a truly mesmerising experience.





The next day we toured the inside of the Labrang Monastery guided by an English speaking monk. Of its many notable features this monastery is the most important one outside of Lhasa in Tibetan Buddhism and is one the six great monasteries of the Gelukpa, or yellow hat, sect. Labrang is second only in size to the legendary Potala Palace itself in Lhasa and houses up to 2,000 monks. We visited a number of temples within the monastery grounds and witnessed hundreds of the monks a prayer, chanting, beating drums and cymbals, and smelt the soon to be familiar scent of yak butter and incense burning. Amazing.

Next stop Langmusi across more stunning scenery, dodgy roads and on to another awe-inspiring monastery!

Intrepid travellers

After a couple of days pottering arund Beijing we switched to another hotel where we joined our Intrepid group, a great bunch of people who we'll be travelling with for the next month through Tibet to Nepal.

We were priviliged enough to visit the Great Wall for a second time, but to a different section. This area, Mutinayu, is more restored than the length we trekked last time, but equally as incredible. The climb up there was pretty exhausting, and we walked along it for a couple of hours before descending to the car park on a toboggan! This was the closest thing to a luge we'll ever ride - a little plastic seat sliding down a steel shute, a bit like a open flume. It was brilliant!







That evening we saw a kung fu show and were blown away! Kids of about five jumping onto their heads, a man balancing a bamboo tower on his head with a boy on top and plenty of impressively timed fighting acts.

Another sightseeing day was spent at the Forbidden City, an extravagant walled city built by one of China's many ambitious emperors for himself and his concubines. The place is immense and there is just too much to see in one morning. We were helped out on that front by the fact that many buildings were closed to the public dure to renovation in preparation for the influx of tourists expected during the Olympic games in 2008. It seems most of the city is preparing for this mammoth event - there is construction work everywhere and several places are currently closed to tourists.










Next stop: Xi'an, one of China's ancient capitals. We arrived on the overnight train yesterday morning and headed out to see the Terracotta Warriors. The first emperor of China (the same guy that built the Great Wall) ordered for over 4,000 of these warriors to guard him in the afterlife. In 1974 a farmer discovered the site while digging for a well, and after extensive excavation several pits were unearthed, each housing armies of terracotta statues. The warriors are all life size and each one is unique, with different expressions and features. Quite horrifyingly hundreds of skeletons were found alongside the troops - he had all the workers killed on completion as he wanted this to remain secret to avoid looters!

On a final note, we stayed up until the early hours of this morning with our fellow travellers to watch the appalling match between England and Trinidad & Tobago. Who knows how we managed such a victory! We'll keep up the support here in China but it's not quite the same as the atmosphere in England - I've heard the whole country has gone football loopy!

The beautiful...

1) game

Result! We may not be celebrating with the masses but we weren't gonna miss it for the world. 90 minutes were spent with the best of Beijing's England supporters (most of them Chinese) and we were able to drink pints in front of about 5 TVs showing the match.





2) city

Beijing is awesome. I'm sure I wrote this last time but I love Beijing and I want to live here. Of all the capital cities in the world, this one competes with London as the best. It is captivating, friendly, progressive and above all it is Chinese. It is growing so fast and with the Olympics coming up it appears cleaner and more organised by the day. My only criticism is the demolition of the hutongs (old alleyways) for 'rejuvination' purposes, which is ridding parts of the capital of it's charm.









Today we took an epic walk across the city, along the lake and through the hutongs. The temperature has dropped somewhat but we're now enjoying a pleasant English-ish summer - the perfect weather for a cheesy Chinese wedding...





We climbed the old drum tower to see the daily drum show - a genuine authentic tourist experience, but pretty impressive all the same. A spot of shopping later and we found ourselves in the Sanlitun bar district, watching the football. What a great day!

Back in Bangkok

We've spent the last few days in the bustling metropolis that is Bangkok, our last few days in South East Asia.







I got eaten alive by sandflies in Hua Hin so the journey up here was an itchy one. It's started to feel like coming home, arriving in Bangkok, as we've stopped off here so many times during the last couple of months and it's like being in 'the west' - we can eat pizza and sandwiches and shop in Boots!

Of course we did some more shopping, who wouldn't, but we also managed to fit in some culture. And some modern medicine. A visit to a Thai dentist fixed my chipped tooth and made them all clean and shiny, and for a tiny tiny fee.



.



We took to the water and darted to and fro on the river ferries (such clear water...) and stopped off to visit Wat Po. Not only a beautiful temple, it houses the country's largest reclining Buddha and the largest collection of Buddha images. Thats a lot of Buddhas. The reclining statue is breathtaking - it is just so huge. The feet are incredible!















Wat Po is home to the oldest educational institution in Thailand, and the most respected school of Thai massage. So what did we do next? Thai massage of course! Actually Teej couldn't face it but I really enjoyed mine. It was relatively pain free, considering, and I came out feeling wonderful, a bit like I'd just come out of a good yoga class.

So good, in fact, that I indulged in another foot massage today, and this time Tim joined me. We sat in this amazing bar/massage area in a petrol station! Safe? Maybe not - all the tables are candle-lit - but certainly unique! We ate the last of our fill of good Thai food at the best street 'restaurant' we've found yet, and said goodbye to Bangkok in a fitting way.




Tommorrow we board a flight bound for Beijing, back to China. In a way it's sad leaving one place, but this time I'm ready to leave the backpacker ghetto of Khao San Road and move onto the next part of the trip - we're heading through China and Tibet with a group, and we'll be accompanied by the World Cup!

Jazz on the beach

For our last few days in Thailand before heading back north to China and beyond we opted for an unconventional visit to the oldest beach resort in Thailand, Hua Hin. Only four hours south of Bangkok we were drawn predominantly by the lure of the Hua Hin Jazz Festival, the country's second largest, and also hoping to catch a last few rays of sunshine on the beach.



I have seriously missed live music (and have heard enough Jack Johnson now to send me insane) and although I knew none of the line-up for the festival there turned out to be some amazing acts which I hope see again sometime. Although the weather wasn't great all of the time we managed to get a few hours on the beach and although the beach itself and the water was no match for the likes of Ko Tao or Ko Lanta this was more than made up for by the festival.





Highlights included the awesome Ibrahim Electric (future Earth Fair visitors I think! check out www.ibrahimelectric.dk) a Danish trio sporting genuine Hammond Organ (and not afraid to show it - see picture below!), BB King style 'Lucille' guitar and a genuis drummer; Cuban Lazaro Valdes - from the second generation of great music following on from the Buena Vista Social Club; Malene Mortensen & the Jonas Johansen Trio - she being a 2001 winner of the Danish Eurovision song contest finals strangely matched with (also Danish) Jonas 'four hands' Johansen and his young pianist and string bassist; and finally Bill Bruford's Earthworks - Bill being an English drummer famed for his work with Genesis and Yes (!) but despite such a past he and his band gave an amazing performance.



There were two main stages, one called the Hilton Stage and one the Sofitel Stage and the whole thing was heavily sponsored by Heineken, so there was plenty of that flowing too. It's strange to say it but despite the heavy western influence of the sponsorship, the hotels etc it was great to be somewhere doing things amongst Thai people, admittedly some of the richer ones. One drawback with the well travelled paths across the country is that you tend to mix only with western tourists and although this festival was a big corporate event (yet it was free), and therefore nothing like Glastonbury for instance, it was predominantly attended by Thais and it was good to be 'amongst locals' so to speak.





So after three nights of great music we jumped on a bus for the short journey back up to Bangkok to spend our final four nights in SE Asia - no more beaches for 2 months!!!

Vientiane and back to Thailand

It is said that Vientiane could be the sleepiest capital city in the world and from what we saw this is no understatement. After a visit to the market of Talat Sao and a walk back to the centre of the ‘city’ via a couple of wats it appeared we’d done most of it!

The next day we took a ‘jumbo’ (not as I first thought an elephant, but a slightly larger than usual tuk-tuk) to the sacred monument of Pha That Luang. This stupa is the most important monument in Laos and represents both the Buddhist religion and the people’s national sovereignty. It is a very impressive structure and certainly no expense was spared on the amount of gold paint used!

After a final splurge on soon to be unattainable treats such as red wine, salad, French bread, Beer Lao and Lao coffee (amazing stuff!) we departed the next day to Thailand via the ‘Friendship Bridge’ (!) and on the overnight train down to Bangkok saying goodbye to the fascinating country of Laos.

Mud, Friends and Kayaks

On arrival in Vang Vieng, after a 7 hour bus journey, I had decided that Luang Prabang had been my favourite South East Asian town – it was just so relaxed and the days passed so comfortably. So arriving in the building site that is Vang Vieng was a bit disappointing.

I had fond memories of the town, of sipping Beer Lao by the river and tubing down the river amid unspoilt scenery and small villages. Now, however, it is full of TV bars playing back to back reruns of Friends and The Simpsons. We found about 3 places to eat and drink that didn’t have a television and we stuck to them.

Another downside is the constant building work that is going on. When we arrived the roads were just mud, and when we left 2 days later they were almost finished and no doubt about 2 new buildings had sprung up. And then there’s the reason so many backpackers never leave – the narcotics trade. Let’s just say that on most menus in most restaurants there is a ‘special’ page for those who like their food 100% adulterated.

But, we managed to avoid that scene by spending our only full day in Vang Vieng on the Nam Song river in kayaks. We were taken by truck to a spot about 20 miles upstream and kayaked our way back, visiting two caves along the way. The second cave was pretty special, we were guided about 500 metres inside floating on huge inflated tyres with torches – that was pretty exciting. The kayaking itself was fun too, we went over some little rapids (I think only grades 1-3) and didn’t capsize – although one couple did!

On our way back we stopped at one of the many bars that have opened up along the banks of the river. One of the town’s most popular pastimes is tubing down the river on a tyre, punctuated (not punctured) by drinking spots. The bar we went to featured a huge swinging rope for jumping into the river, and of course, lots and lots of alcohol. We watched many drunken tourists as they remounted their tubes (with difficulty), and so were not so surprised when we came across a single girl floating asleep in her tube. Had we not rescued her it could have been nasty… she was in a pretty bad state and needed to be taken back on our guide’s kayak while we took her tube. Apparantly she’s been drinking buckets of vodka redbull all afternoon before having a row with her friend over a boy…

I love Luang Prabang!

Wow, it feels like ages since I updated this blog.

Our last few days in Chiang Mai were wonderful, spent at yoga classes, markets and having massage. A great place to spend a few days relaxing and getting ready for another leg of travelling.

We flew into Laos as we had overrun our intended time in Thailand and wanted to make the most of our limited days in Laos. First stop: Luang Prabang.

As soon as we arrived in this lovely colonial town we met up with old university pal from Bristol, Celia and her Canadian man Jeff – it was brilliant to see them. We hit it off with Luang Prabang immediately. It’s such a beautiful town, although very small, set on the Mekong river and filled with temples. So many temples (65 in total) that it is now a UNESCO world heritage city. These, combined with the ageing French architecture, bustling night handicraft market and wonderful restaurants made Luang Prabang very difficult to leave! (I was reacquainted with red wine and salad – it was never going to be easy to say goodbye…)







We spent a day on hired bikes, taking in some of the temples and the local market, and climbed to a temple at the top of a very big hill for some spectacular views and some well-needed exercise!












On Celia and Jeff’s last day we chartered a longtail boat to the nearby Pak Ou caves on the Mekong. These two caves are crammed full with over 20,000 buddha statues – quite impressive but the day itself was not so wonderful. The rains had arrived in Luang Prabang and showed no signs of leaving.











On our last day, however, the sun shone down as we took a day trip to the Tat Kuang Si waterfall, where we enjoyed a refreshing dip in the pools and climbed for a better view to the top. The day was finished off with a far too civilized evening meal with group of English folk we had met – we dined on fine French food and wine and stayed up far too late, meaning our 7am bus out of town was not very well endured…

Chiang Mai Nights

The much done thing we of course did, which was to venture out of Thailand’s second largest and very chilled city Chiang Mai and explore the surrounding hills. Only an hour’s drive away and we were in the misty mountains where our first stop was to visit a village of the minority H’Mong people, originally from the Yunnan province of China and of the same descent as the villagers we met in Sapa, North Vietnam.

Due to it being the low season there was only three of us in our group making it feel like our very own private tour and ‘Charlie’ our tour guide, himself originally from a small village similar to the one we visited, showed us his knowledge of the countryside advising us how to spot poisonous mushrooms, pointing out waterproof leaves (!) and how to blow bubbles through the stem sap of a particular plant – hours of fun! Oh, and I got to shoot a homemade wooden crossbow!

Next stop was an elephant ride in the jungle, of which we were initially a little wary due to the uncomfortable experience had in Ko Lanta. Thankfully these mahouts and their elephants seemed to get on much better, meaning the magnificent animals roamed pretty much where they pleased and stopped to eat whatever and whenever they wanted – which was very frequently – as it seems elephants have one hell of an appetite (this making me feel much better about my own similarly sizeable appetite!). Our chair was even fitted with a seatbelt!





At the end of the ride I even managed to get Daniele to feed our elephant a bunch of bananas – yes, she went near, touched and held a whole bunch of bananas (for those not in the know, Daniele is petrified of bananas and that is no exaggeration!) – I even have photographic evidence (see below) to prove it!! Amazing what the love of a good elephant can do!







During our visit to a second village, this time of the Karen people, we saw some newborn piglets being tended to by the villagers – they were tiny and of course very cute leading to much oohhing and ahhing from Daniele!





Finally, we embarked on a ride on a bamboo raft down a nearby river – needless to say we got rather soaked thanks to our excitable guides but it was a great variation on the white water rafting offered on other tours, although thankfully much less in the way of rapids and white water!

Cooking in Chiang Mai

What a fun day! We did the standard tourist thing here in Chiang Mai and went back to school for a day (so much more fun than Home Economics ever was!).

We joined a great bunch of people at the Pad Thai cookery school and started off with a trip to the market where we were introduced to several different Thai ingredients, from fresh herbs to shrimp paste. Then the cooking began. We had a crazy teacher who loved posing for photos and kept referring to her students as ‘very sexy’… All the teachers wore pink bunny ears for the day and had us in fits of giggles all day!

The menu for the day consisted of pad thai (for breakfast), spring rolls (brunch), tom yam goung soup (lunch), green curry, chicken with cashew nuts and rice (dinner), finished off nicely with my favourite, sticky rice with mango (dessert). All in all, a very greedy day. One of the more exciting moments was stir frying the chicken and cashew nuts over an enormous flame – enough to singe the eyebrows – but my proudest moment was creating almost-perfect spring rolls from scratch. Although I guess if they look too good no one would believe your culinary mastery and you may as well buy them from M&S. Must remember to make them look a bit shoddy next time…

We came away stuffed, and in possession of a certificate and recipe book so we can impress you all on our return!

The tigers didn’t get us, but the fish did!

After our latest brush with stripy nature we felt like kings of the jungle, so we opted for a stroll there visiting the nearby Erawan National Park featuring a set of stunning seven tiered waterfalls.

Unfortunately Grem wasn’t really in the best of moods to fully appreciate the scenery as she’d indulged in a little too much the night before, too much caffeine that is! After a couple of badly timed ice-teas over dinner she was up until 4 a.m. buzzing around the bedroom while I was sound asleep. Consequently she stumbled around the jungle in a lethargic stupor (anyone who knows our Gremelin will agree this is not an unusual occurrence anyway!) cursing everything and wishing she did actually have a hangover for at least then she’d have something worth complaining about! Hilarious for me of course!








After our short trek we decided to jump into one of the pools at the bottom of the lowest waterfall to cool off, having only been briefly warned by our chubby and somewhat effeminate tour guide as to what we might find lurking under the water. We jumped in realising that the water was teeming with hundreds of sizeable fish seemingly a bit narked off to be sharing their pond with us humans – so they decided to bite us to show their displeasure! Well, bite is perhaps a little strong but the sensation of being nibbled on the toes by hundreds of wild fish is a little disconcerting at the very least!





The rest of our day consisted of visiting the remainder of the sights around Kanchanaburi namely Hellfire Pass, the Death Railway and the bridge over the River Kwae (or Kwai as it was misspelled in the book/film). Starting at the museum at Hellfire Pass we learnt of the shocking history surrounding the torturous conditions under which the thousands of Allied POWs and Asian conscripts were forced to build the Thailand to Burma railway under the Japanese occupation during World War II. We then caught a train along a section of the old line, aptly named Death Railway by virtue of the sheer number of lives lost during it construction. Finally we stopped at the infamous bridge over the River Kwae, now fully restored and a fitting conclusion as a chilling reminder of the dark history the area around Kanchanaburi holds.

And, no I didn’t catch any fish.

Touching Thai-gers

Two days on the island Ko Tao was enough for us. It’s a really beautiful island and there are some lovely beaches. But in the last few years it’s been totally taken over by dive resorts, and seeing as we couldn’t dive (my ear infections) and we both really wanted to, it was pretty depressing watching the boats come back in after a fun day under the water. That and the weather wasn’t really up to bumming around on the beach, and, quite frankly, we’d done enough of that over the last fortnight!

So back up to Bangkok for a night and a ‘doing day’ before heading up to Kanchanaburi, where we landed a nice room on the River Kwai. First day was a write off due to a severe case of travellers’ tum, complete with wrenching cramps and feverish aches and pains – not nice…

As soon as we felt better we decided to enjoy an encounter with some of Teej’s favourite animals – cats. Big cats. Very big cats.






Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampano (Tiger Temple) is home to 11 tigers. 7 years ago, a tiger cub was brought to the monastery having been rescued from poachers – she was dying as the poachers had already tried to cut her open to stuff her. The abbott took her in and looked after her, and soon after another several other rescued tigers were brought to him. The monks didn’t want to release them back into the wild for fear that they would be caught again, so for now they are kept in cages which do seem rather small.

But they are currently building a 3 acre island of forest for the tigers. There is a tiger research centre, and they are planning to release future generations of cubs back into the wild, once their mothers are capable of rearing them sufficiently enough to be independent. Each afternoon they are taken to a canyon area for their exercise – that’s when the tourists arrive. One by one we were led into the area and allowed to sit with the tigers, stroke them and have our photos taken. The more feisty ones were tied up, but I think the ones that are tame enough to be stroked were left free! I have to say I was very nervous, especially getting up close to two very hungry looking, playful cubs!

The monastery is set in a forest with loads of wild animals – boar, buffalo, peacocks, horses, cows… - and every evening the monks and volunteers leave out food. Apparantly this started when the abbott first arrived and he shared all his food with the animals. They just kept coming back for more and now they’re pretty much tame which I think is sad. But at least they’re well fed and not kept in cages – they just live in the forest and wander up to the temple when it’s feeding time! It’s like wandering around Longleat Safari Park! And the monk is just as crazy as Lord Bath…

Go Ko Phi Phi, Go Ko Phangnan (apparently?!)

We were sad to leave Lanta; idyllic beaches, peaceful lifestyle and friendly people all of whom warned against the ‘costa del Phi Phi’ and predicting we would be back within a day for some peace and quiet. Still, despite the warnings we were determined to press on and see for ourselves.

What we found was paradise (almost) equal to Ko Lanta. We arrived in the main town of Ton Sai and from there jumped on a water taxi for the 5 minute ride to the quieter Long Beach where we found a suitable beach bungalow complete with multiple mating geckos for all our bug extermination needs (found in all good Thai lodgings!).

Thankfully we discovered that Phi Phi was not only the party island we had feared – it also has some amazing beaches, islands, wildlife and yet still maintained the chilled out atmosphere that this national park deserves. Parts of Phi Phi were some of the most devastated during the 2004 tsunami but thankfully the island is recovering well - we saw only a few reminders of the destruction caused and the main town is thriving once again. During our four days on Phi Phi we took a boat trip around the smaller island of Phi Phi Lei featuring some excellent snorkeling, and the location for much of the filming of the film ‘The Beach’.

After Phi Phi we moved on towards Ko Phangnan to meet up with our fellow SE Asia travellers John and Emma, who are now stationed on the island for the next two months working in the local animal sanctuary. It was great to catch up with them but Ko Phangnan really is the party island of Thailand and so we gave ourselves a break and stayed on a very relaxed and picturesque bay away from the 24 hour clubbing and sleepless nights!





One more beach stop before heading north, the quiet island of Ko Tao – I don’t think I could ever get bored of this much sand and sunshine although I’m spending a fortune on suncream!

Shopaholic in Thailand!

There are many things to do in Bangkok, but best of all is shopping. Having visited the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew we hit the shops! And it hardly feels like you’re spending any money!

We shopped with trendy Thai teenagers in the MBK shopping mall, and with dreadlocked backpackers on the Khao San road, and sent home another huge parcel of goodies for mother to open (some of which was even Tim's!). We’ll be back at least once over the next month, so plenty of time for culture!










I also experienced my first beer Chang-over of the trip, many more to come I’m sure. I forgot what that stuff can do to poor English stomachs…

Then we headed to Ko Lanta, a lovely island on the Andaman coast. We chose to stay on the almost-isolated Kantiang bay – there are only three small bungalow resorts and at ours only about 10 other guests.







We went on a short elephant trek through some jungle to a waterfall with no water (dry season) and a cave. Being on an elephant is one of the most uncomfortable forms of transport I have endured – I spent the whole time clinging on for dear life rather than enjoying the scenery! The elephants seemed well looked after and we got to buy and feed them bananas (I didn’t touch them but they seemed to go down well!). Our elephant was 41 years old!








Another fine day we headed out with some of the other guests (most of whom have spent the last two or three months on Ko Lanta and can’t bring themselves to leave!) on a longtail boat to nearby Ko Rok in the national park area. We snorkeled at three different points and saw so many amazing fish including a blow fish, loads of clown fish (Nemos) and angel fish – I think it was one of the best areas for snorkeling I’ve ever been! At one point I was in the middle of a huge school of little orange and blue stripy fish and they all started nibbling me! I got out of the water and my mosquito scabs had all gone! We enjoyed lunch on a stunning deserted beach with the clearest turquoise water – paradise!









Now we’re on Ko Phi Phi Don, hiding in our bungalow from the sun and nursing our severe sunburn (snorkeling always does that to me!). Hopefully we’ll make it on to the beach tomorrow and we’re hoping to go on another snorkeling trip…

Not cut out for teaching…

On our last day in Battambang we went for a look around a local monastery. As we entered the gates a monk stuck his head out of a nearby window and motioned for us to come over. Nervously we headed in his direction, and were met by a giggly teenage girl asking us to go in to speak to her teacher. Unable to say no to a monk, we were led into a small classroom of young Cambodians and the monk/teacher informed us that he was taking an English class and asked if we would speak to his students in English and ask them some questions.

We had no idea how advanced these kids were, but seeing as most of the country speaks pretty decent English, we presumed they did too. Our questions of ‘How did you celebrate the Khmer New Year?’ and ‘What do you want to do when you finish school?’ didn’t go down too well – I think they were expecting questions more along the lines of ‘What is your name?’ and ‘How old are you?’. As they shyed away from us and our ridiculous questions, our minds went even more blank and I felt more like a giggly teenager than the girl in the corner, who spent the whole time with her hand covering her mouth trying to stifle a snigger.

The not-very-good-teacher-monk eventually got bored of us trying to teach his class decided to use us for a more useful purpose – helping him progress with his English language skills! We spent the next 15 minutes chatting to him, listening as he told us about Buddhism and his life in the monastery and correcting his mistakes!

So maybe teaching adults is easier than teenagers….

Blood and Battambang

The four of us, before John and Emma had to leave us for Thailand, visited the Siem Reap children's hospital and each donated a pint of our blood. We were all virgins to the cause, and John and I were bricking while double-hard Emma was up on the table with a needle in her arm before I'd even signed on the dotted line and Tim didn't seem to bat an eyelid! My generous veins just kept on giving, and after a traumatic triple-change of plaster I had to lie down for half an hour (what a woos). I am now sporting a purple bruise all the way down my fore arm. And all for a free can of coke, a pack of biccies and an XXXL tshirt.

We spent a final day in Siem Reap shopping and randomly bumping into our friends Team America (Rachel found Tim on her video camera in the middle of the market!). We're now in Battambang, highly recommended by other travellers but in reality a boring town in the grip of a very loud thunderstorm. So we're relaxing and recharging the batteries before our jaunt into Thailand tommorrow. We're dreaming of beautiful beaches - and only a few days in Bangkok before those dreams come true...

Templed out? Not quite...

John, Emma, Teej and I shared the back of a two-man tuk-tuk, driven by the lovely Pee, for three days as we visited the glorious temples at Angkor. Angkor was the capital of Cambodia's ancient Khmer empire and some remain as stunning as they were ten thousand years ago.

Angkor Wat is the world's largest religious building, and the most breathtaking monument that we saw at Angkor; the Bayon is home to 216 giant faces that stare down on you; little Banteay Srei, dedicated to Shiva, has some of the most intricate carvings in the world. In total we visited more than 15 sites and only once, at midday on day two having risen for sunrise, did we feel like we couldn't take any more. The area is vast and there are just too many temples to see in three days, but we had a pretty good shot at it!

It was one of those experiences that can hardly be expressed on here - so I'll stop there. I'm sure it's easier to get templed out looking at photos than it is seeing them for real - so out of maybe 1.5Gb of photos between us (over 1000) I'll pick just a few...

Angkor Wat at dawn

Sunrise over Angkor Wat and its moat

Just to prove we were there

Jungle-clad Ta Promh (of Tomb Raider fame)

One of the Bayon's faces

Monks at the Bayon

Reliefs at the Terrace of the Lepar-King

One of many photos of doorways!

Entrance to Ta Som

Engravings at Banteay Srei

Three crazy fools

A history lesson in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, well that was hot. Very hot. We all suffered in Phnom Penh. Our little guest house on the lake kept us cool for the few nights we were there, and well stocked with food and beer - the area is like a little village for backpackers, with floating terraces overlooking the water. It was nice, but it's made us want to escape the gringo trail as much as we can from now on!

We spent a day immersed in Cambodia's dark recent history, with a trip to the killing fields at Choeng Ek, a remarkably peaceful place with a very bloody tale to tell. A memorial stupa has been built to house the thousands of skulls that were uncovered - nothing can be more shocking than the sight of them piled behind glass.








The same afternoon we saw the Tuol Sleng genocide museum - previously a school it was used as the S-21 prison by the Khmer Rouge during their brutal regime. Again, the setting is unlikely and it's easy to imagine the school children happily playing in the courtyard. Blood still stains the walls of the tiny cells inside, and chains and iron poles lie on the floor as they were found. In one series of rooms there is a display of the records left by the prison officials - they were meticulous, with photos of every single inmate, most of whom were arrested for no just reason and many of whom were children. Here they were tortured before being taken to their death at the killing fields. Only seven people were found there alive after the Vietnamese army liberated the city - 14 others had been tortured to death as the troops rolled in.

It was a very depressing day, but we learnt a lot and came away relishing every breath.










Cambodia was celebrating the Khmer New Year while we were in Phnom Penh, which meant a lot of places were closed, but it did mean we were the subject of amusement for many roadside kids. The tradition is to squirt each other and every single passer by, on foot, moto or tuk-tuk, with water, and slap talc all over them. They even stop passing cars, lining up in front of them until they come to a halt, and squirt through the windows! We saw a lot of very white Cambodians in Phnom Penh! It was really nice spending a couple of hours in a central park, watching the locals celebrate. And play with the monkeys. We had a lot of fun watching the monkeys, could have stayed for hours!






Now we're in Siem Reap and visiting the temples of Angkor. I feel very,very priviliged to see them for a second time, and I am as stunned as I was the first time. We'll write all about that in a couple of days...

Mekong Delta, some animals and on to Cambodia

After our excellent few days in Saigon we booked ourselves on a three day trip around the Mekong Delta ending with a boat trip over the border into Cambodia and up into the capital, Phomn Penh.

We seem to be recording only the dodgiest moments of our trip on this blog but this one was truly the funniest start to any tour thus far. Our LP recommended tour company was due to collect us at 7.45am from our hotel to begin the tour. We sleepily but promptly arrived downstairs in our hotel for collection and thought nothing of a half an hour delay putting it down to a relaxed attitude to time. Hey, no problem, it's early and we're in no rush and the tour office is only down the road anyway!

An hour went by.

We start to think maybe there's something wrong. Emma kindly volunteered to go and ask after our bus. She returned with an exasperated tour rep screaming into her mobile some very shrill and unintelligible words. The bus had left without us!!! All four of us and our bacpacks were bundled into tiny taxi and we were forced to share the back seat with the still screaming tour rep in the front as we hightailed it after our bus! Cue the Benny Hill chase music and 15 minutes later we were safely on our bus sheepishly muttering to our perplexed fellow passengers that no, we hadn't overslept and yes, it was the tour company's fault!

Thankfully the rest of the day quickly got better and we spent several hot and humid hours navigating around the river channels of My Tho, taking in a bustling market and lunching at a Cham minority village, then transferring into smaller boats motoring up narrower channels to taste some local specialities and play with a giant python. Yes, that was play with a giant python!

Grem and Monty the python (sorry!)

The next day we went to a bizarre floating market and afterwards saw rice noodles being made, as well as chancing upon the largest pigs I have ever seen. Strangely enough our guide informed us that these were 'Jersey pigs' - no comment!!

Fruit & veg seller at the floating market

A large 'Jersey' pig!

Some small 'Jersey' pigs!

As if we hadn't seen enough diversity on the animal front already, on our way to the border town of Chau Doc we stopped by a crocodile farm and saw rows and rows of crocodiles in varying shapes and sizes ready for export to China and other countries, for meat, belts and to play bit parts in the next 'Crocodile Dundee' movie (no, not really).

I've never been that close to any crocodiles before let alone that many in such a small space, and as they basked with gaping jaws in the sun I felt decidely uneasy behind the rickety fences surrounding these evil looking animals!

The next day crossing over the border into Cambodia was a surreal experience in itself compared with our other land border crossings! After only three hours on a surprisingly small boat we were at the border. We stopped briefly to purchase our Cambodian visas and to have our Vietnam visas stamped on exit. We then hopped on another boat leaving Vietnam and before we knew it we had arrived in Cambodia! As easy as that! I think Russia could learn a thing or two from these guys! Onwards to Cambodia then!

Saigon and on

After three weeks in Vietnam we have arrived safe and sound in Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon as it's know to most people. It's a fascinating city and a welcome return for us to the hustle and bustle of urban life. It was nice to get away from it for a while in Mui Ne and Dalat but it seems Grem and I are both city dwellers at heart and it's good to get back to a busy place after a short chill out.

Having briefly walked around the main areas somehow Saigon feels more like the Vietnam I expected than Hanoi did. Perhaps this is because we're more used to the country and it's so much hotter down here! I think it's averaging the upper 30s celsius and it's only going to get hotter as we head into Camdodia later in the week.

One of the main highlights of Saigon so far was the very moving War Remnants Museum. Grem visted this last time around and it left a big impression on me despite knowing very little about the war and the political situation at the time.

There were the usual war exhibits with tanks, helicopters, planes and artillery from the era but two exhibits in particular stood out among the rest. Firstly a gallery dedicated to the war correspondents and photographers who died during the war, complete with a selection of stunning and sometimes shocking photographs depicting the scenes they witnessed. Secondly, and more harrowingly, there was a gallery exhibiting the 'war crimes' committing during the fighting. Such acts ranged from imprisonment and torture, through to large scale massacres by US and South Vietnamese Marines and finally the results of the bombing campaigns using napalm and agent orange herbicides. Admittedly the content of these exhibits was one sided but despite the bias it shows just how much terror and torment the Vietnamese people went through during this catastrophic period.

Well, enough morbidity. We've booked ourselves on a three day, two night trip around the Mekong Delta which takes us over the border into Cambodia and to the capital city, Phnom Penh. Another country, another jump upwards in temperature!

Mui Ne or Goa? Or even Western Sahara?

At first glance we thought we'd arrived in Goa 6 months early! There were cows everywhere, on the beach, roaming the streets...




Mui Ne was the closest to a paradise beach resort we've come to yet. There is no town to speak of, and the resorts are very self contained - not always my cup of tea but it was lovely just to spend 3 days on the beach, not having to go anywhere to get a drink. We stayed in little bungalow-type rooms right by the beach, and spent the mornings lying in the sun - reading, swimming, reading...






It was just way too hot between 11 and 3, and as a side effect of our anti malarials, Teej and I both got pretty burnt and I was on the receiving end of some nasty prickly heat rashes! Tim had to buy me a rather attractive straw hat to prevent a recurrance of v-neck t-shirt syndrome...




Our one day out was in a jeep to the main sights of the area - the Fairy Stream, the white sand dunes, red dunes and the Red Canyon. It was like a mini world tour - Goa in the morning, then the Sahara, followed by Arizona! All on a mini-me scale of course.

The Fairy Stream is a lovely walk through the water to the source, surrounded by dunes and red rock. We were 'guided' (followed) by some very sweet seeming young boys who of course demanded our dollar at the end (we're far too hardened to that kind of behaviour by now!)






Next stop was the white sand dunes which we boarded down on plastic sheets, filling our pants and every available orifice with sand - a lot of fun. Head first was the only way to pick up any speed...









After a dramatic flat tyre incident we were taken to visit the Red Canyon, then onto the red dunes to see the sunset. By this point I had developed such a hatred for sand and it's accompanying hungry, leg-munching sand flies that I was not in the least bit impressed by the disappearing sun-light and was desperate to get back and enjoy a long shower - but all in all a good day!

Hoi An to Dalat

Well, Hoi An was my idea of fun! Row upon row of tailors, and so many clothes to be made. We spent 3 full days there and other than the tailoring, there is not a lot to report, but it was a very pleasant town to walk around with lots of lovely cafes and set on a river.



We spent a few hundred dollars each and came away with winter coats, work clothes, play clothes and shoes, all made to fit perfectly. I have a whole new wardrobe and it feels so good! Even Tim got into the spirit and came away with two new suits, a coat and several other bits and pieces. Oh, and we had to call a doctor out to our hotel - an ear infection I'd had a week earlier hadn't cleared up, and it appears I have developed an allergy to penicillin after 25 years! I was feeling really rough and the super cool doctor sorted me out with some new drugs.

We came straight to Dalat, bypassing the beach resort of Nha Trang and heading up into the highlands. It's about ten degrees cooler up here - about 25-30 today, and glorious. Dalat is apparantly the honeymoon capital of Vietnam, but from the first impressions of the town it's hard to see why. But it's surounded by beautiful rolling hills, waterfalls and lakes, and it's all very kitsch, even the temples - the decoration is so over the top it's funny, the dragons are like cartoon characters and the laughing Buddahs are so happy you'd think they'd been taking something...






Today the four of us took another full day motorbike tour, this time with the Easyriders, an unofficial crew of bikers who cruise the streets looking for tourists to take out for the day.






We headed out of the town through the mountains, first to the very crazy Crazy House, then on to a Zen Buddhist meditation retreat. After an hour of freewheeling down and around through the hills we were taken to a silk-worm farm, a silk factory, the huge Elephant falls and even a mushroom farm!












But the best bit was just being on the back of a bike. I think I have the bug. And it is the only way to see Vietnam - the way the locals do. We were taken on roads and through villages that we couldn't have seen on our own, and that we wouldn't have been taken to had we chosen a tour on four wheels.






Next stop is the beach - Mui Ne, the first of many to come hopefully!

Bikes, monks and tunnels.

After another exceedingly good train we arrived in very hot Hue and after offloading 9kg of washing (yes, 9kg!) we took a motorbike tour from Thu’s cafe - it was excellent although I started off a little cautious on the back of my driver's bike whizzing through the busy main roads, then twisting and turning down the backstreets before making our way along narrow paths in between vast expanses of paddy fields and vast expanses of ducklings! (noodle soup as our driver shouted, pointing and laughing!).

Looking cool!

The moat around the Citadel

The Gremelin in the Citadel

It was a great way of seeing a different side to Vietnam and it was excellent to see things from a different perspective, not from the inside of a tour bus. We visited a whole load of pagodas, temples, the Hue’s Citadel (complete with elephants!) and even had the mesmerising experience of witnessing some buddhist monks during prayers and chanting - it was amazing as we sat on the floor of their temple watching them chant, sounding gongs and chimes etc!

The next day we went for an all-day excursion to the de-militarised zone (DMZ) just north of the former demarcation line between North and South Vietnam. The most fascinating (and slightly scary!) experience was that we visited some underground tunnels made by the Viet Cong army in the 60s to avoid US detection - they were truly unbelievable and even included an underground kitchen, several wells, and maternity ward where 17 babies were born!

The bridge over the former demarcation line

Teej's great big chopper

Teej in the tunnels

Well, further south now to Hoi An where Grem is going to set the world record for clothes purchases in a three day period. This will be amazing for her and pretty dull for me – good thing the beer’s still cheap!

Halong Bay Cruising

After Sapa we ventured back to Hanoi then straight out again for a three day trip around Halong Bay, which is three hours west of Hanoi. It's an amazing landscape with enormous limestone outcrops jutting from the sea forming 1,969 islands and islets through which our jaded tourist tub weaved it's merry way. Despite it being an extremely touristy area with dozens of tour boats circling around the same spots it was a truly tranquil and peaceful few days.

We boarded our junk (not a junk in the truest sense of the word but it was probably soon to be junk!) and spent the afternoon sunning ourselves on the top deck enjoying the best weather we've had for ages.

We visited a couple of stunning caves, one of which on Cat Ba island, named Hospital Cave, was converted by the Viet Cong army into a hospital for the wounded during the American War and was designed to house up to 140 injured soldiers. It included a cinema and table tennis rooms and was completely undectable to the US Army from the air. The guy guiding us through the cave was a former Viet Cong nurse and was still incredibly patriotic and passionate about his time during the war and even gave us a song as an example of the activities they got up to pass the time whilst hiding out in the caves.

On our last day in Halong Bay we boarded a smaller boat which took us around some of the least accessible parts of the islands. We landed on a small island called Monkey Island (all those of the Amiga generation will know that I was hoping to act out the part of Guybrush Threepwood in my epic struggle against the evil zombie pirate LeChuck!) and spent the day sunning ourselves on the beach and I finally got my first swim in the sea!! On returning to the boat the skipper found that the tide had since gone out and we were grounded on a sand bank. Not wishing to be outdone (nor expose us to a night of monkey terror!) he ordered us to get off the boat and sit in the Kayaks attached to the boat in order to reduce the overall weight of his boat enough to get us off the sank bank. This culminated in the surreal and hirlarious sight of a dozen tourists sat in canoes attached to a boat which was eventually towed free from a sand bank with four monkeys sat looking on with astonished looks on their faces. Top marks to the captain, I'm glad he read his tide tables before setting out! I wish the monkeys had been in charge now!

a couple of monkeys

grem and teej go exploring

On our last day in Halong Bay we boarded a smaller boat which took us around some of the least accessible parts of the islands. We landed on a small island called Monkey Island (all those of the Amiga generation will know that I was hoping to act out the part of Guybrush Threepwood in my epic struggle against the evil zombie pirate LeChuck!) and spent the day sunning ourselves on the beach and I finally got my first swim in the sea!! On returning to the boat the skipper found that the tide had since gone out and we were grounded on a sand bank. Not wishing to be outdone (nor expose us to a night of monkey terror!) he ordered us to get off the boat and sit in the Kayaks attached to the boat in order to reduce the overall weight of his boat enough to get us off the sank bank. This culminated in the surreal and hirlarious sight of a dozen tourists sat in canoes attached to a boat which was eventually towed free from a sand bank with four monkeys sat looking on with astonished looks on their faces. Top marks to the captain, I'm glad he read his tide tables before setting out! I wish the monkeys had been in charge now!

After this maritime adventure we took a well deserved break from the sea and headed back to Hanoi where we jumped on another overnight train heading south for Hue!

Up in the hills

We've finally found decent internet and there's so much to catch up on! First off, we spent 4 days in Northern Vietnam with John and Emma - we took a 3 day trekking trip up to the former hillstation of Sapa in the highlands (1650 metres), close to the Chinese border.

After a pretty grotty overnight sleeper train-ride up there, we met May, who was to be our guide for the next 2 days. As we left the main town of Sapa, the fog that usually covers the area lifted and the spectacular view emerged. Sapa is surrounded by rice terraces and small villages home to several different hill-tribes, few of whom consider themselves Vietnamese although they are subject to the same laws. They are mostly Dzao and Black H'mong people who live very basic lives - although they have learnt how to make plenty of money out of tourists!

Black H'mong girls

May was a 17-year-old Dazo girl from a local village who had moved to Sapa a year ago to learn English and become a guide - and also to escape the two attempted marriages her parents had tried to arrange!

She took us 15km on the first day of trekking - on small tracks through the hills, along the stoney edges of paddy steps and across streams, hopping on slippery rocks. We stopped at Muong Hoa river where Tim and I took a dip - much to the amusement of the local fishing boys - before stopping in Y Linh Ho village for lunch. Another couple of hours later, having passed through Lao Chai and plenty more rice fields, we arrived at Ta Van village for the night, where we stayed with a local Dzao family.

We met up with two other couples at the homestay, and after a feast of Vietnamese food and Tiger beer (along with the three shots of rice wine - ugh!) we collapsed for an early night under our mosquito nets. Unfortunately our grand tour of the world's greatest snorers was to continue, and we were kept awake by the growls of our Canadian neighbour. And of course from then on I was kept awake for about three hours, scaring myself silly listening to all the crazy mountain noises - pack dogs barking, birds/rats/bats in the roof above our heads, killer mosquitos etc etc...

After breakfast on day two we continued our trek, heading up through bamboo forests and down the Giang TaChai waterfall, before heading back to the town of Sapa. It was such a good feeling to be out in the open, surrounded by such beautiful scenery and getting somewell-needed exercise.

The only thing interrupting our fun was my total irrational fear of chickens - which we encountered around every corner. Bird flu! Bird flu! Eventually I gave up holding my breath every time we found ourselves within a couple of metres of the evil creatures, although I did freak out when I discovered that our homestay kept a whole bunch of chickens, and that i had to walk past them every time I needed the (outdoor) toilet!

On the last day we took a trip to Bac Ha, a nearby town famed for its colourful Sunday market. Flower H'mong people get all dressed up in their traditional clothes and sell it to tourists who think it suits them. Lots of other lovely things - and we bought our fair share!

Flower H'mong girls

World tour of communism

Just in case we had forgotton who makes the rules in these parts, we were rudely awoken at 8am by a megaphone outside our window blaring out the latest goings on and internal affairs.... we were imagining all kinds of propaganda talk, and apparantly the government likes to keep it's people informed of the news at all ungodly hours...

And to continue our world tour of stiffs, we made the pilgrimage to Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body. After queuing for a very, very long time (about 1km), we were ushered around the body in the space of about 25 seconds, fighting back the giggles (how mature) as I'd been told off once for talking and then once again for having a jumper tied around my waist! The Vietnamese take the trip to see Uncle Ho very seriously, and bow their heads in reverence as they file past him. It was very similar to our experience with Lenin in Moscow, but the Russians have long since given up their religious worship of their once leader.

Still no pics I'm afraid - although I would have been on the receiving end of a nasty looking bayonet if I'd tried to take a pic in the mausoleum! Will sort out the backlog after our sojourn up to the highlands...

Dream a little dream...

Two wheels to carry a nation - the Honda Dream, bike of choice for every city dwelling Vietnamese. Hop on the back of one of these and for half the price of a taxi you can cross town in style - without a helmet, of course, but you'd hardly look the part showing off to your mates with your face covered up...





There are as many Hondas in Hanoi as there are bicycles in Beijing - and they rule the roads. Guys drive their adoring girlfriends around town, pairs of giggling girls gossip on their way, market traders carry all their ware in cardboard boxes piled inbetween their legs and it is not uncommon to see whole families squished on the back of their two seater.

Come evening there are hardly any four-wheelers around and the streets become bike tracks - and fewer cars means fewer crashes. If only we had our bike licenses, we'd traffic-dodge like the best of them - although I'm not sure how mandatory those slips of paper are in South East Asia - but until then, we'll make do on the back of a moto-taxi...

Hiking in Hanoi

Hong Kong to Hanoi - oh how simple it was but how complicated it was made out to be courtesy of Samuel of Cathy Pacific. Thanks Sam, you're a legend.

After saying goodbye to our sleepy American compardres in Chongking Mansions we jumped on a bus across Kowloon over to Lantau Island arriving at a very swanky Hong Kong International Airport. Checking in at the Cathy Pacific desk (carriers for Vietnam Airlines) we were greeted by the initially friendly Samuel (or Sam to us, as we're such good friends now) who went through the usual routine; collecting our bags; checking our passports etc. Then we were asked whether we had an onward ticket out of Vietnam or some kind of itinerary for our onward travels? We explained that we were planning to catch a bus from Ho Chi Minh city to Cambodia but that we could only book the bus once we arrived in Vietnam - all simple enough, or so we thought. It seems that this wasn't enough to comply with the airline's policy - i.e. they don't want to be held accountable for any travellers staying in the county past their visa expiry deadlines and as a result Sam threatened to block us boarding our flight!!! The only apparent alternative was to buy another 'very reasonably priced' flight there and then out of Vietnam and cancel the flight should we not decide to use it, the cancellation charge being in the region of $250HKD - absolute bats!!

After a lot of tooing and froing a waiver form was thrust in our face which we were required to sign before catching our flight with Sam tersely warning us that we may encounter problems at immigration control upon arrival in Hanoi.

So we got on the flight...

We arrived in Hanoi.

We had our passports stamped.

We collected our luggage.

We left the airport.

We even got a smile from the customs official (quite rare).

So, no problems whatsoever. Thanks Sam (and Crappy Pacific).

-------

We caught the bus into Hanoi city and the first thing that struck me was that everything was so green - a mere 2 minutes from the airport there were spectacular scenes of lush green rice fields, a winding stream and water buffalo and cows wading in the water - it was really quite stunning and much more how I expected the rural parts of China to be (which they may have been had it not been for the mist!). We arrived in bustling Hanoi and after a small wild goose-chase (more of a wild gosling-chase) where a local 'hotel-owner' led us round the houses for a little unwanted back-pack lugging we settled upon a hotel for the night - somewhat bigger than our spacious Hong Kong suite thankfully!

Although this is Grem's second time in Hanoi (though she has still wandered around as lost as anywhere else we've been!) this is the first time I've experienced this hectic but fascinating city. As Grem has posted the scooters and motorbikes are unbelievable but more importantly for me Vietnam has the cheapest beer in the world - I have now set upon a quest to find the cheapest (drinkable) beer in Hanoi - I shall report back with the results!

After a well deserved rest for a day and a brief exploration of the shops, cafes and nearby lake (with swooping night bats!) we set out on a day trip to the Perfume Pagoda. A two hour bumpy bus ride took us through some equally stunning scenery and more bustling little villages after which we arrived at the start of the Yen Stream where our group hopped on one of hundreds of small wooden rowing boats ferrying passengers to the temples, caves and pagodas beyond. Many thousands of Vietnamese travel along a pilgrimage on this route to the Huong Tich Cave and we made the one hour slog up the steep slippery mountain alongside hundreds of Vietnamese - it was fascinating, but rather exhausting. After the hike we opted for the cable car ride down the mountain and were again treated to some magnificent views.

That night we met up with fellow Guernsey/Bristol peeps John and Emma and after a quick beer reunion (0.0720489 GBP per beer!!!) we booked a couple of trips out of Hanoi - a three day trekking trip north to the mountains around Sapa and a two day chill-out boat trip around Halong Bay - we can't wait!

A Hong Kong haircut!

For those of you who enjoyed Tim's 'beard to Beijing' experiment, here is the next installment!

Having decided in the Hong Kong heat that his hair was far too hot, Tim decided to rid himself of his curly mop - and I was to be the barber!

Hong Kong - part 2

We've crossed Victoria harbour on the Star Ferry to HK island and admired the sky line, visited Hong Kong's oldest temple, ridden the central escalator - the longest in the world - for 20 minutes up through the mid-levels, and eaten a traditional dim sum breakfast. The tram ride up to the top of Victoria Peak was amazing - or rather the view was - and luckily we chose a clear night...

We battled through the Temple Street night market and bought fake T-shirts. Speaking of which, the shopping here is incredible - I battle with myself each time I pass a shopping centre (and there are plenty of those), knowing that I am not on a shopping holiday and I must not spend a fortune.

Our friends the Americans arrived, and we spent a couple of days sightseeing with them. We took a trip on a wooden sampan around the fishing harbour of Aberdeen, we shopped in Stanley market and walked up to the standing Buddha on Lantau island (the tallest outdoor standing bronze Buddha in the world) and wandered the nearby Wisdom Path, an ancient sutra engraved in a group of wooden pillars, overlooking the mountains.

That's it from Hong Kong - apart from the next episode of Tim's hair experiments - tune in!

HK part 1

Well, we're in Hong Kong and have been here a week now, staying in Kowloon on Nathan Road - the Oxford Street of HK.





We expected the humungous hotel prices so headed straight for the Mirador Mansions, wee sister and neighbour to the legendary Chungking Mansions (look it up...). The heavily populated Mansions are tower blocks of shabby curry houses, fake goods shops, tailors and, most famously, cockroach-ridden, cramped and very, very cheap guesthouses - the Mirador Mansions are slightly less horrendous than Chungking, and we found ourselves a box room on the 10th floor for a tenner a night. Not cheap enough, but the best deal we could find.





The bed fits in snugly between three of the walls, with a 30cm gap between the end of the bed and the door. Somewhere in there is a little pod bathroom, but it's pretty hard to maneouvre yourself into it! We have a tiny window that overlooks a shaft in middle of the block, and some very noisy neighbours.

But we like it, it's cosy and clean(ish), although the duvet smells remarkably of fish... and on several occasions have we spotted little cockroaches running around on the bed...






We've had 7 days here in Hong Kong, so we've been taking it easy, sorting out future travel plans and making the most of civilisation - most notably the western toilets, paper provided! There are so many reminders of Britain here, it's bizarre - the policemen wear Met style bobby uniforms, the cars drive on the left, people travel on London buses - the list goes on. The weather was the worst reminder - you're wet, it's hazy but there are no drops - classic British rain.... Luckily it didn't last and it's now 20-something degrees!

Macao = Med?

After recovering from just too much mud we jumped on our elegant overnight sleeper bus bound for the Chinese Macanese border saying goodbye to sleepy Yangshou. The bus itself was a sight to behold and it was more like stepping onto an aircraft. Comprised of three rows of beds two bunks high with TVs at various intervals and air conditioning for each bunk - I thought travelling by Chinese bus was meant to be the cheap and uncomfortable option! Obviously not! It is a weird sensation after travelling on so many trains to be swaying left and right in our bunks as the driver screeched around corners (honking like mad obviously!) as opposed to rocking up and down as per the sensation on the trains - still it was a surprisingly comfortable ride!

We reached Zuhai at around lunchtime the next day and after being dropped off at the bus station we were left a little confused at the lack of 'Exit from China' signs! Eventually we found our way to the border crossing and after a short queue at the Chinese exit and Macanese entry points we were in Macao! Hurrah! And all of a sudden it was Portugal - no kidding! We could smell the sea - it was 26 degrees, humid, there were fountains and everything was written in Portugese! What a transformation having walked a few hundred yards across the border!

Macao is an ex-Portugese colony located on a peninsula extending into the South China sea. It's a SAR (Special Administrative Region) in much the same way as Hong Kong is now, but it retains its own currency, Patacas or MOPS, and has it's own visa position meaning we had a free visa on entry for 90 days as Europeans! Catching a very South American looking taxi to a cheap hotel laden district we set about searching for a place to stay, eventually settling on a dorm room in a Thai Hotel (?), far pricier than China but this was all to be expected. We eventually realised that the street where we staying, Rua de Felicidade - translated as 'Street of Happiness', was a buslting red light district thus explaining the groups of women loitering on street corners pouncing on men walking down the street - and they say I'm unoberservant! It also transpired that on the 'M' floor of our hotel there was a sign saying 'Men's Area' and 'Women Turn Back' together with appropriate diagrams, and also the empty room next door to us had rather a lot of mirrors etc - it was all becoming clear now....still it was a cheap and clean place to crash for a few nights!!

NOT a lady of the night!

Macao itself is a fascinating city with a stunning mix of Chinese and Portugese culture, cuisine and, most prominently, architecture. There are mediterranean influences everywhere from the churches, colourful houses and mansions all the way through to the cobbled streets and peaceful gardens. The sudden shift away from busy China really took my breath away, and together with the vast improvement in climate (the sun came out again, finally!) it made this a refreshing stop over on our travels - I would gladly come here again!

After a couple of relaxing days we jumped on the short ferry ride leaving Macao peninsula towards Hong Kong and after only just over an hour we were in Kowloon!

Mud fest!

Our last day in Yangshuo was like Glasto '98 all over again! We took to the roads on our rented (decrepid) bikes to explore the surrounding region. Maybe climb a couple of hills. Go rafting. We just fancied a bit of adventure - this being the reason I decided to take Tim off on a scenic detour down some dirt tracks off the main road, through some paddy fields, along the Yulong river and into the middle of nowhere.




That was about half an hour before the rains came. And when they came, they made quite an entrance. The clay track we were cycling on soon turned to one giant red river and without a raincoat, there was hardly any point sheltering under a bare bamboo plant. So we just carrired on. Eventually Tim found a little ledge to cower under while I made an appearance at a local farm house, where I was laughed at by two very giggly local women. At this point, we had no idea how far the nearest highway was in the direction we were headed, so we figured it would be sensible to head back the way we had come. Tim remembered we had checked out earlier that morning and had planned to get straight on the bus to Macau that evening, so we had no access to a shower. He turned from fun loving adventure mountain biker to madly angry charging water buffalo, and proceeded to set the pace at about 74mph back through the deepening river/road back to Yangshuo, worsening the effect of our less than adequate mud-guards.

By the time we made it back to the village, our clothes were sodden and we were stared at as we walked back to our hostel. We had to negotiate a half price room for the rest of the day so we could clean up - they could hardly say no seeing as it was their staff that persuaded us to hire bikes in the first place!

Unfortunately the photos don't show the worst of it - tim was wearing a jacket that was more muddy than anything else - needless to say that came off as soon as we entered the hostel...

Yanks and Yangshuo

Three Americans are following us around the country, and they keep having birthdays! This time it was Nat's and he decided Yangshuo would be a nice place to turn 30, so they joined us down here a few days ago - and naturally we went out to celebrate.

We spent the day exploring the Black Buddha caves just outside Yangshuo. We went fairly deep in through narrow nooks and under low hanging stalagtites - it was hot and clammy, and just a wee bit claustrophobic. Some of the stalagmites and stalagtites bear vague resemblances to the Buddha, but whether you saw the likeness or not, the formations were impressive.










Later in the day we enjoyed a mammoth Chinese feast and several LiQuan beers, followed by a very bizarre midnight massage! Nat bargained with a very, very drunk and excitable receptionist to get us a deal of a couple of quid per person for an hour - four of us chose a long foot massage and the others went for the full body.

Deep in our squishy armchairs, we were treated to a very aggressive shoulder massage (it still hurts) while our smelly feet soaked in a bucket of green tea. Then followed a very ticklish 45-minute long foot rub, in front of Tottenham v Blackburn, with Chinese commentary. Simon, the big Spurs fan, was in his element, and I did everything in my powers to change the channel. Our relaxing massage was interupted on several occasions by screams from the next room - the full works was obviously not quite as soothing! An hour later we emerged, minus one who had fallen asleep on the table, to find that our drunk receptionist had vomited all over the bathroom - he was totally wasted!


Unfortunately our time in Yangshuo has been really foggy and damp, so not the best weather to appreciate the stunning landscape. Like Guilin (but even more impressive) the town is surrounded by enourmous limestone hills. The main street, Xi Jie, is nicknamed 'foreigners' street' by the locals as it is such a haven for travellers, which is nice in some ways - we can eat pizza and cheese toasties and salads and burritos - but it's not very Chinese. The streets are lined with tourist shops and all along the river banks stalls are selling the same old tat. But it's fun, there are lots of bars and we have met lots of cool people. The hostel we are staying in is run by a bunch of young Chinese people who are really fun to sit with and they are all learning so many different languages from their guests. In the rest of China, bar Beijing, we were pretty much the only tourists and no one spoke English. Here there are so many backpackers from all over the world. It's strange.







Today we took a little boat trip up the Li River and saw all the amazing rocks up close. Luckily it began to clear as we were heading up stream, and by the time we had turned around we had fairly good visability - at least far, far better than we had had the day before. It was beautiful - the peaks seemed to emerge from the water, shrouded in mist, as we rounded each bend in the river. Hopefully it will stay clear - tommorrow we hope to hire bikes and head out to climb one of the peaks...

Longsheng

Yesterday was another brilliant day - we went up 1000m to Longsheng to see the stunning Dragon's Backbone rice terraces.

A leisurely half hour walk up the mountain, through the 600-year-old minority Zhuang village of Ping'an, resulted in amazing aerial views of the terraces. The best time to come is probably May/June when they are lush, green and shimmering from the irrigation. But it was still beautiful. And a steady 20-22 degrees! Oh, how far we've come since Russia...

Climbing up to the village


Some ugly mugs


Rice terraces....


and more rice terraces...


and rice terraces from above


Tim at the top


Ping'an village


Cooking our lunch - bamboo rice


Vegetable sellers climbing the hill

The road to Guilin

Back on the boat, we sneaked in a couple of hours sleep before being rudely awoken at 3am for the bus to Wuhan, the nearest big city, for a bus down to Guilin (where we are now).

Well that was the start of an adventure:

3am - we get on the bus, to find it doesn't start.
4.30 am - along rocks up another bus. Do we all get off and get on the new one? No - but after some detailed maneouvering, we jump start ours.
4.35 am - we drive off, dumb-arse driver stalls.
4.50am - second jump start successful, a more competent driver takes over and we are on our way. Unfortunately, competent driving skills equals no sense of direction. Our new bus driver doesn't know the way to Wuhan.
6am - we drive around the same town for a third time, looking for the exit to the highway.
8am (due arrival time) - several irate chinese passengers, an argument we don't understand, and a sign for Wuhan, 110km.
9am - we turn back from a highway that appears to be closed.
2pm - 6 hours late, we arrive in Wuhan.

The plan was to get straight on the sleeper train to Guilin, to arrive the next morning, but that was never going to happen. So we checked into a cheap and pretty nasty hotel for the night, and ate lots instead, before getting on a train the next day. With some more champion snorers.

I was beginning to lose faith in China, at times everything can feel like such a hassle, getting things done is an effort, and to top it all off, it was bloody snowing, 2 weeks after we sent home all our cold weather clothes. But isn't it amazing the way things look up when the sun comes out!

We arrived in Guilin yesterday, and it has been glorious. We spent the day wandering the town, climbing some very steep, rocky hills and walking through parks. The scenery is spectacular - the town feels flat but there are these random big rocks jutting out of the ground and the surrounding landscape is hilly and beautiful.

We climbed this! The Solitary Beauty Peak


And here we are at the top


The spectacular views

Chinese bambo graffiti - probably explicit....


A pagoda at the water moon cave

Elephant hill (its trunk is drinking from the Li River)

Cormorant fisherman

Tim and Simon on a raft boat

Boats on the Li River

Pagodas at sunset

Cruising the Yangtze

Having left the dizzy and neon filled heights of Shanghai we travelled down by plane to Chongqing perched high up on the banks of the Yangtze river. We met up with Simon, one of our fellow trans-siberian travellers and after spending a day exploring the city we booked our trip down the river towards Yichang, Guilin and beyond.

After getting off to a slightly shaky start after the travel agent claiming we would be picked up from our hotel and taken down to our boat then led us with all our bags to a public bus stop. The bus then stopped in the middle of the city and we were ushered off the bus by the slightly embarrased travel agent who then led us down several more streets, our bags getting heavier and heavier then only to communicate to us that it 'wasn't very far to the docks'! We decided we'd had enough and hailed a cab to the dock and it turned out that the purported 'short walk' would have been at 20 minute slog down the hill! Once we safely made it to the river we thought it couldn't get much sillier, but then she didn't know which boat we were due to board....and so it went on!

Once finally aboard our ageing yet seaworthy Chinese tourist cruise boat we settled in to our comfortable 2nd class cabin complete with toilet and shower ('heads' for the yachties) we began our journey downstream. Despite the next morning being on the chilly side we ventured out onto the decks (we were the only people crazy enough to be outside in the weather - obviously still hardened from Siberia!) to take in the the amazing scenery. This cruise was all a huge contrast to the urban areas we had so far encountered. Small villages lined the river, with only the occasional cow and farmer to be seen for miles. On the river we encountered only a few tankers and local fishing boats during the first morning - all very tranquil!

One of the most bizarre features along the river were numerous signs marking the water level the river will reach after the completion of three gorges dam. The dam is due to be finished withing the next year or so and it will make a huge difference to the landscape we travelled through with many thousands of people being made homeless and with a great deal of archaelogical and evironmental damage to follow - it is also strange to think that the cruise we were on will no longer run once the dam is completed. It's tragic, and a classic example of communist might - the most important engineering feat of our time etc etc...

The first higlight of the cruise came at around 6am on the second day. Bleary eyed we ventured out onto the windswept foredeck to witness the hugely impressive Qutang Gorge. The scale of this geological phenomenon dwarfed our boat and it was an amazing sight to behold. Once we passed through the Gorge we arrived at a small riverside town to disembark from our cruise boat onto a smaller ferry for the lesser Three Gorges trip. Again we were the only people insane enough to venture out onto the deck to get a full view of the jawdroppingly spectacular gorges for the whole tour and despite the rain it was an awesome sight as we explored the many narrow passages of the area.

Having only booked our small ferry trip on board our cruise boat the same day, we had joined a chinese tour group and throughout the lesser Three Gorges tour we were subjected to the loudest tour guide commentary (in Chinese) I have ever heard - complete with singing, an award ceremony for certain members of the group and a book auction at the end - all received with rapturous applause by the Chinese contingent while we looked on with bemused smiles not having understood a word of what was going on - a surreal twist to the day!

Back on board, we continued through the Wu Gorge - even bigger than the Qutang Gorge, it looked very impressive through the mist, but unfortunately it was raining hard and we could only venture on deck for a matter of minutes. Grem watched from behind glass as Simon and I got soaked through taking the photographs...

Further down riverwe arrived at the Three Gorges Dam itself - unfortunately at 8.30pm, meaning that we were cloaked in darkness but were assured that the dam would be lit up enough for us to see. To fufill our curiosity about this beast of a project we again joined a Chinese tour group which visited the dam up close by bus. The guide was not wrong about it being lit up and it certainly puts the St Saviour's reservoir dam into perspective! The tour was scheduled to last until midnight and after having visited two viewing spots and a visitor centre dedicated to the Dam we were a little confused as it was only 10pm. Our tour bus then whisked us away to a huge Sturgeon Aquarium which not only held the fish in varying sizes in tanks, as you would expect in a regular aquarium, but also sold them tinned, in chunks, dried, in packets or in many other formats in the shop at the end!

The best bit was yet to come as we were led out of the Aquarium towards a showground for the final part of the tour. We were treated to 'The War Horse Battle Show' which consisted of a dozen guys dressed in Ghengis Khan outfits (yes, I'd thought we'd left Mongolia too) with flags and swords riding horses around an arena acting out what we can only imagine was a famous Chinese military victory - complete with booming Chinese commentary and hilarious sound effects! Brilliant! What made it more strange was that it was 11pm - long after the aquarium and arena should have been open and in the thousand person showground we were the only tour group, consisting of a mere 30 or 40 people.

Doing anything else after this surreal event would only have been disappointing so we went back to the boat to finish our journey to Yichang sleeping safe in the knowledge that we had seen a mighty big dam, met the best fish in town and had witnessed the pinnacle of Chinese tourist historical reanactments - what an adventure!

Lazy days...

We've just spent 4 days in Shanghai, exploring the city and generally relaxing and taking it easy. Shanghai is a British/French invention, and isn't really China at all - it feels more like New York for all the skyscrapers and neon lights.

Walking down the main drag at night is like being in Vegas. Which is pretty cool for a few days but it's not what we came to China to see. Although the rest of the country is developing fast and becoming more and more westernised, you always feel like you are in China. But it's as if there is no 'old China' beneath the bright lights of Shanghai, so there's not a huge amount to see or do - it's more of a 'city break', full of posh shops and expensive restaurants.







That's not to say we didn't have a great time there. We hooked up with our fun American buddies who we met in Siberia and hung out with in Beijing (that's these guys:), and spent the few days wandering around the city.

Nat, Rachel and Jacob

We strolled along the only real 'must see' in the city - the Bund - and looked out over the flashy high rises of Pudong. We spent a day walking through the French Concession and it's busy parks, and haggled hard in the Yuyuan bazaars.

Pudong at night

The Bund


Chinese checkers in the park


Lanterns in the bazaar

An interesting half hour was spent listening to the stories of an 80-something-year-old Chinese man, who pulled up alongside us on his bike and launched into an amazing account of his life and what he thought of the communists (not a lot). It was incredible to hear someone of his age talk so vehemently against the government - he was a touch paranoid with his tales of attempted murder in hospital by lethal injection, but he obviously had reason to think this way. We can hardly imagine some of the things he has had to live through. He wouldn't let us take his photo as he was terrified we would send it to the government and that he would get into trouble for speaking to foreigners (not even illegal anymore) - which he obviously loves to do, he had brilliant English and he desperately wanted to tell his stories.

We ate very, very well in Shanghai, most memorably the delicious baozir - hot steamed buns filled with pork and gravy - 2 for less than 15pence on a street stall. If I lived there I would eat those for every meal. Mainly because everything else in Shanghai is so expensive - beer went up from 50p in Beijing and even less in the smaller towns, to about 2.50 there. Eating anywhere near the Bund is pretty much unthinkable...

Our last night in Shanghai was Jacob's birthday, and to start the celebrations we went through the 'sightseeing tunnel' under the river. 5 minutes of psychedelia - it was bizarre. we went in this little car through strobe lights, fibre optics and green lazers. Crazy.

We ate dinner and went off in search of the 24hour indoor go-karting track - where they encourage drinking! But after several failed attempts, and a helpful young Chinese girl muttering 'Tiny cars! what are they talking about, tiny cars. Crazy people...' when we asked for directions, we cut our losses and gave up. (Tiny cars was the closest to go-karts in Chinese Nat could remember. You'd think it would be pretty obvious, a bunch of stupid tourists squatting down, miming a steering wheel and asking for tiny cars on this road).

We're now in Chongqing, heading off on a Yangze river cruise tommorrow. Until then, here's Jacob and his 'Pink Lady'!

Our first setback

I take back what i said about Chinese food. Outside of Beijing we have seen nothing that we would eat at home. It's amazing.

On our last night in Kaifeng we visited the night market one more time and gorged on noodle soup, steamed dumplings (mmm), sticky rice and toffee fruit on sticks....

Hundreds of food stalls


The nifty noodle makers


Tim with his 3Yuan feast - there's 15Y to the pound!

Now we're in Zhangzhou, about to leave for Shanghai. So much for 'overland all the way' - we are having to catch a flight as there is no space on a train for the next week. Or so we think. We can't seem to understand anyone well enough to figure out if that's what they really mean. The woman at the flight desk was the only person we could understand, so we went with her!

Another set back - our dream of fighting with the Shaolins - at least watching them - has been shattered. It was the only reason we came to Zhengzhou, but no ATM will serve us, no bank will change our dollars and the hostel staff are the least helpful beings on the planet. So we can't make it to the Shaolin temple as we have no cash! Very disappointing...

Bye to Beijing...

After our last day in Beijing (well, until June anyway) and having bought our fill of cheap and far from authentic clothing (a pair of Etnies for 9quid and a North Face jacket for 11quid) we had a farewell meal with our fellow Trans-Siberian adventurers, and what better way to say goodlbye than by feasting on Peking Duck - although Daniele and others were a little put off by our 'ringside' seat viewing the chefs prepare the duck for our meal - a little more authentic than ordering from the Choi Lee (Princey - you'd be in heaven here!).

We took the overnight sleeper from Beijing West train station, a collosal beast of a railway station which stands up in size to Heathrow let alone being only one of Beijing's many railway gateways. We arrived at the gate in good time where a sizeable queue had already begun to form for our train - just in the nick of time, we thought. After waiting for half an hour or so the number of people queuing for our train continued to grow and grow and grow. When the annoucement was made for the train to board there was the most unbelievable surge of bodies towards a tiny number of gates, all desparately running for the train to get the best seats in 'hard seat' class for the overnight journey - it was amazing that so many people could fit onto one train! Luckily we had 'hard sleeper' tickets meaning we had reserved beds for the night in another carriage - not that we had much sleep mind you - I was fortunate enough to have bed opposite the Chinese world snoring champion on his national tour of the country - it was a great honour to meet such an accompolished athelete - boy can that guy make some noise!

We arrived in a city called Datong, famed for its Hanging Monastery and for the Yungang Caves, and chanced upon a small group of English speaking travellers and joined them for a tour. First stop the Hanging Monastery...

This unbelievable building attached to the side of the cliff was originally constructed in this way so the flood waters would not destroy it every year. The Chinese Government have since damned the river further upstream and now it is literally 'hanging' onto the side of the cliff as if suspended in mid-air. Quite an amazing sight, but more amazing was climbing up inside it although my fear of heights was not amused it was a great experience and these photos barely do it justice...

Next onto the Yungang Caves featuring some 50,000 carvings, also of Buddist origin. These carvings stretch over 1km but many of them have been irreparably damaged due to coal dust deposits eating away at the designs - the coal transportation route has now been moved elsewhere but much of the damage has already been done. Many impressive carvings remain though and thankfully we had amazing weather to wander round and view the caves.








At one point, our guide pointed out some carvings of the first Buddha at different stages of his life, but parts of his adult life had been cemented over. When we asked why, she replied in a hushed and slightly nervous voice, 'Our father, you know the father of the New China? He covered them in the 50s as they were not suitable for children.' She didn't want to say his name, but it was pretty clear what she was talking about. So much for the 'Cultural Revolution' Chairman Mao.









Before leaving Datong we did battle with the local travel agency who were determined to make us stay in Datong overnight, which apart from the sights we had already seen was a pretty average city, and after telling us several hundred times that there was no train outta their one horse town and that we should stay in a very nice hotel that night which they highly recommended (presumably owned by their brother/uncle etc), they eventually produced two hard sleeper tickets heading in the direction we wanted - thank you very much CITS Datong!

Before getting on our train we found a place to eat, and using the usual tactics (look for somewhere where a lot of locals are eating) we ventured into a likely looking place that looked suitably inviting. Bear in mind that up to now we had been in the urban jungle of Beijing which is fast becoming more and more westernised in time for the Olympics and where there is usually an English menu or something that passes as one - not so in Datong! We sat down and without even having a chance to catch our breath the waitresses had placed several small dishes before us with garlic, chillies, noodles, vegetables etc and then waited with clipboard in hand for our order, except there we no menus, not even in Chinese.

Now, I've mastered the art of ordering beer now in two new languages (Russian and Chinese) and I even know my first Mandarin character - the symbol for 'bar' (aren't you proud!), but this was a whole new ball-game! We eventually figured out that we had ambled into a restaurant serving Mongolian Hot-Pot, a local speciality, and once we had overcome the 'no menu' hurdle and ordered a bunch of meat, noodles and green stuff in which we were shown to dip into either of the two sections of bubbling broth before us, we had a great meal at an amazing price - oh and we got the beer I ordered as well, I knew my skills would come through in the end!

We boarded our train at a yawn-inducing 23:55 and encountered the same crush of people rushing for the train. Luckily the champion snorer was on a different leg of his tour and we actually got some sleep. We were reliably informed that the train would arrive at a city called Shangqui at 18.10 from where would be able to catch a bus to our intended destination, Kaifeng. How hard can it be? We assumed that although this 'city' was not listed in the Lonely Planet (nor was there much on Google) that it would be a simple enough task to find a bus for the relatively short journey to Kaifeng. Piece of piss, we thought!

At around 18.00, prior to our scheduled arrival, we were mildly concerned when all around us were fields, the occasional cow, and then a few more fields. No problem, maybe it's a bit out of the way, we thought. At 18.10 we arrived amongst what looked like a set of diused warehouses and things then made an interesting turn for the bizarre!

We disembarked from the train and as we walked out of the train station - BAM! - people, everywhere - absolutely thousands of them, and not just people but cars, buses, taxis, bicycles, scooters, rickshaws, cats, dogs, children - the works! Not so easy to find a bus after all, but after a difficult English Chinese conversation a couple of helpful locals took pity on us and our bemused faces and escorted us to the bus station, which was only a short walk away and if it hadn't been for the equivalent to the population of Guernsey being crammed into one small marketplace we might have seen the 'long distance bus station' sign clearly printed in English! We were herded onto the bus and made the two hour journey to Kaifeng, along the way being treated to the Chinese equivalent of a cross between Police Academy and a Carry-On film on DVD we arrived in equally bustling Kaifeng.

Our helpful taxi driver took us straight to a LP recomended hotel, weaving his way through the back streets with liberal use of his horn (a regular feature in China!) and after dumping our bags we ventured into the legendary night market of Kaifeng. Much like the food market in Beijing - but much less commercial - everything and anything was on sale, mostly on sticks, and we treated ourselves to a couple of 'meat pockets' consisting of pitta bread, pork, seaweed, bean sprouts, soy sauce and chilli, all washed down with a large bottle to Tsing Dao beer - awesome! Daniele enjoyed a large sticky apple floating in hot syrupy apple juice and a large bag of multi-coloured popcorn (while I had a couple more meat pockets!) and all for less than 1quid!

Next we head West for Zhengzhou for a trip to the Shaolin Temple to the visit the monks and indulge in a bit of kung-fu viewing - can't wait!!

This is Kaifeng...

Beijing, finally!

So, we're in China!

And finally we have been able to upload our pictures. Unfortunately, the connections are so slow that we've had to shrink them so they might be crap quality - only we can't find that out for ourselves as all blogs are banned here so we can't view the finished product. At least we think so - noone we know has been able to view their blogs, only edit them. And even that has been tricky.

Beijing is amazing, I want to live here - there is so much to buy and it is so cheap! I am in heaven! Just kidding - I don't just love it for the shopping. It's such a massive city and so much to see - we haven't stopped walking for a week.

Our hostel is in a traditional hutong (Chinese for back alley) and wandering around the chaotic network of lanes is great fun. There's so much noise and colour, everyday is exciting. You can buy and eat pretty much anything you could want, and we have become the Jedi of bargaining.

The hutong in the day...


and at night

We are staying in the same place as the most of the friends we met on our Trans-Siberian leg, and there has been much socialising and eating of wonderful Chinese food - although whatever anyone says, it's not been that different from the Chinese at home - it is nicer and it tastes healthier, less stodgy and not as MSG-fuelled, but ultimately they're the same dishes and flavours. We've been sampling all the street food - meat on sticks, corn on sticks, fruit on sticks - they even have star fish on stick. We haven't tried that one...

Our first tourist spot, the Lama Temple, was beautiful - it was our first day, the sun was shining and we weren't missing the Siberian winter in the slightest.

Thankfully we aren't yet templed out, but from past experience I know it can happen very easily so we're saving a few for when we return to Beijing in June (before our venture into Tibet). We're also saving the Forbidden City - although we have walked around the walls and it is pretty immense!

The moat around the Fobidden City

The most impressive thing we have seen, without a doubt, has to be the Great Wall. We trekked for 5 hours from Jinshangling to Simatai - a tough walk up and down very steep sections of the wall - millions of steps. I have seriously damagaed my legs, at least it feels like it - I am a cripple and Teej has been loving every minute of it. I think he has tired of my complaining though - it has been 2 days and I still can't walk down stairs!

The wall really was stunning. We went with a group of about 15, without a guide, and we all took it at our own pace. The problem with the lack of guide was that we were descended on by about 20 local farmers trying to sell us books, postcards, water.... they joined us as we got off the bus, and followed us half way along, only to withdraw in defeat. One of our group, Nat, speaks a little Chinese and he managed to get rid of a few of them early on, but they were not backing down! It was the only bad experience we have had so far - we just wanted to enjoy the wall in peace but we felt crowded and harassed.

But it didn't spoil the experience - the day was amazing. Parts of the wall were totally unrestored, so we were clambering up broken steps and by-passing dangerous gaps - although Seamus, a nutty Irish guy we met, made an impressive 1.5 metre jump across a pretty high gap - and luckily only hurt his knee. He could have tumbled down the mountain! Here we are after a particularly gruelling climb...

Yesterday we walked to Tiananmen Square and through the Gate of Heavenly Peace - that's the one under Mao's massive portrait. It's always weird visiting such a familiar sight for the first time - it's such a famous image that it took me a while to realise I hadn't been there before - and then suddenly it hit me, one more time, that I was in China...

A big red gate into the Fobidden City

The end of the line

Having left the Ger Camp we made the short drive back to Ulaan Baatar with the ever-insane Naki. Our last night in the capital was in a rather unexpectedly swanky hotel, the largest in the city with twin pink towers (insert your own joke here). Along the train ride and at the Ger Camp we met a great bunch of new friends and we all went out for dinner to celebrate leaving Mongolia, heading for the amusingly entitled Gengis Khan (or Chinngis Khan as he is in Mongolia) Jazz Cafe.




Boarding the train the next morning we arrived at the Mongolia / Chinese border at 8 in the evening having crossed the vast wastelands of the Gobi Desert.

After waiting for the bogeys to be changed on the train, (where they lift up each individual carriage and replace all the wheel mechanisms because Russian/Mongolian and Chinese train gauges are a different size - pretty amazing considering we were still in the carriage when they did this!) we were on our way towards Beijing marking the end of our Trans-Siberian Adventure! Here we all are arriving in Beijing:



Also ending at this point was my self-imposed 'beard to Bejing' experiment - as you can see my beard had reached a sizeable scruff at this point and rather than waste a good three weeks growth I decided to try a number of different styles - you can cast your votes as to which one I should keep permanently - my personal favorite is the moustache, making me look very dodgy indeed!

Magic Mongolia

Mongolia was amazing.

We loved every minute of our stay there. The first morning was spent wandering around the Gandan Khiid Buddhist monastry complex which houses four glorious temples and a university - 200 or so monks live there.





We went in a couple of the temples - both were stunning, full of gold buddahs and flickering candles. In the first, rows of monks were chanting their sutras, smashing symbols and blowing on conch shells - chaotic and peaceful at the same time, if that's possible. Hundreds of people came in and out, walking around clockwise and spinning each and every prayer wheel. In the main temple stands a 40foot high golden buddah with four arms, adorned with precious stones. It's enormous. Again, unbelieveable amounts of people came in to worship, burn incense and leave offerings. There are prayer flags tied to all the trees in the area.








Lots of the older Mongolians, and several of the small children, were walking around in traditional attire - long coats with braiding and wide colourful sashes, fur hats and amazing colourful leather Mongolian boots, with the curly up pointy toes. It was strange - in the middle of a capital city, you can turn a corner and go back a hundred years. People still live in ger tents on the outskirts of the city!





After lunch we piled into a mini van and drove off through the snow into the Mongolian Steppe - the middle of nowhere - to the Elstei Ger Camp. Although only used by tourists and one nomadic family, the place felt pretty authentic and we were amazed as we walked into our ger. It was just amazing. Four cot-style beds, a table and even a dressing table were all painted in ornate Mongolian style, around the central stove. And boy was it hot. Really, really hot. The fire burns all day and the smoke leaves via a chimney in the centre, and someone comes in avery 6 hours or so to top up the fuel. The round tents are covered with three thick layers of felt, so it got really warm, even at night.











The place was just stunning. 8 tents and a small brick dining room, surrounded by snow covered hills. We went for a walk to the peak of one and, apart from the snow clouds that quickly descended, the view was spectacular. We could see herds of yaks in the distance.




We shared a tent with another couple, and everyone at the camp was great fun. For 2 days and nights we relaxed and were fed traditional food (mutton, dumplings, more mutton, even for breakfast... actually it wasn't so bad, some of it was delicious!). We had a crazy guide, Naki, who despite being about 28 and very camp had the energy and character of a 12 year old. It was so funny - we stayed up the first night playing games with ankle bones, and he kept coming up with punishments for the winners - I was the first to win one game, and he sent me out of the room before announcing I was to give someone a piggyback and run across the room three times! Other punishments consisted of singing, dancing, mimicking farmyard animals and drawing a number in the air with your bum! The guy was crazy! Far too much energy. It felt like a childhood sleep over, there was so much giggling going on!

The next morning we practised our archery and skipping! It was really nice to be out on the countryside, getting a bit of exercise and relaxing. The only problem was the toilets - outside drop toilets again, but a good distance from the camp, so not much drinking went on!

Russian Railways and the Bored-er Crossing..

We've been on the Trans-Siberian railway all this time, but so far we've not said much about the trains!

Me, Seamus and Simon (and some random Chinese guy) stretching our legs after a lengthy crossing into China....

Here we are in front of the train which took us into China!


The trains themselves vary greatly from journey to journey. We have had fairly basic trains which are starting to show their age and are a little worn around the edges, all the way through to much newer carriages with air conditioning, much clenaner toilet facilities (with soap AND toilet paper!) and a window you can see out of, which helps!

We've travelled in the soft sleeper section which consists of four bunk beds, a table, a window and storage compartments above and/or under our bunks for our luggage. Their are around 8 of these cabins in one carriage and at each end is a toilet with wash basin but not much else! At one end is the carriage attendant's lair (or 'provodnista' in Russian) where we tentatively approach to ask questions with phrase book in hand. At the same end is the lifesaving 'samovar' or coal heated hot water dispenser which has kept us in hot drinks and more importantly packet noodles and soups!

On every journey except the the last one over the border between Russia and Mongolia we have we been placed amongst Russian travellers heading in the same direction and there has been the occaisional perplexed look from the locals as we drag oursleves and our oversized backpacks onto the train to find our cabins.

I mention the border crossing because this turned out to be a bit of an ordeal in the end - we had boarded our train at Ulan Uday early in the morning and soon realised that most of the english speaking travellers we had met en route were also in our carriage. It turned out that all the people in our carriage were non-russians and rather than dwell on this revelation we thought nothing of it, putting it down to good fortune enabling us to catch up with everyone we had met so far.

Several hours later we reached the outskirts of Russia and the border crossing at which point we had been assured by our guidebooks that the train would stop for a couple of hours while Russian officials checked our passports and visas etc then wishing us on our merry way with a cheery smile....

not likely....

We arrived and after a substantial wait heard some sudden clanking noises which after investigation turned out to be the railiway workers disconnecting us from the rest of the train. It now became clear why they had put all us foreigners in a carriage of our own - the rest of the train, presumably carrying smug Russian travellers had skipped across the border far quicker than us and we had been left isolated, our one lonely carriage sitting on the tracks at the mercy of the Russian border officials!

To cut a (very) long story short it took us 9 hours to travel the very short distance over the Russian border into Mongolia. We were visted by three sets of far from cheerful Russian customs, immigration and other assorted officials who even went as far as checking for stowaways in each of our cabins! What made matters considerably more astounding was that whilst the train is in a station, the toilets were shut and after 9 hours this became far from amusing for us and our fellow travellers!

To add insult to injury once safely across the border and into Mongolia (Mongolian border control taking a mere half an hour) we were told that the new train did not have a restaurant car for much needed refreshments, the provodnista then locking us in our carriage to prevent us from finding out for ourselves!

As you can imagine we were far from pleased at this point and having formed a band of English and American 'allies' we set about trying to find this illusive restaurant car by whatever means possible in true 'Great Escape' fashion. Despite some very cunning moves, and some less than graceful pleading we resigned ourselves to our imprisonment and hunger until arrival in Ulan Bator the next morning.

However, whilst the provodnista was prowling outside our American friends' cabin after 'lights-out' they noticed that she had delved into a hatch and fished out ice cream (!!) which she had taken back to her cabin and shared with her provodnista colleagues. Word spread fast amongst the hungry but before we could tunnel our way in (or something?!), the provodnista sensed her ice-cream was in danger moved it out of the hatch and transferred it to the section between our carriage and the next carriage, from which we were definately locked out. One small consolation for our friend Joe who, when going out for an early morning cigarette between the carriages, realised that the previously locked passageway between the trains was now open and before he was rumbled by the provodnista helped himself to as much ice-cream breakfast as he could manage!

So a little excitement on the journery into Mongolia but quite a bit of boredom too - apologies if a little a dramatic but we were stuck for nine hours so we needed all the entertainment we could get!

Goodbye Russia!

Ulan Ude is so close to the Mongolian border that it doesn't really feel like Russia anymore.

We stayed at another homestay, this time with hot shower and indoor toilet, but with just as much food as the last. The town itself is pretty small and there's not much to see, apart from Lenin's head, the biggest head statue in the world. Now that's some ego.



Nearby there are a couple of really beautiful Datsuns - Buddist monastries. They follow Tibetan buddism here and in Mongolia, and it's the most colourful religion in the world. Cathedrals and mosques seem so sombre in comparison.

We had this guide to drive us from the town out to the temples, and on the way back announced that we would be going to have lunch with a traditional Buryat family. As we drove past a very siberian looking wooden village, she said, 'Usually we would be stopping here for lunch, but the family has moved into the city.....' and in minutes we pulled up in front of a soviet era housing block. Very traditional. Inside, the apartment was fully equipped with widescreen tv, electric keyboard and tropical fish tank - we were greeted by our host, dressed top to toe in traditional costume, and her six-year-old daughter, in a trendy tracksuit.

The whole thing was so surreal. We were fed a four-course Buryat feast in a luxury apartment, and they made us try on their costumes. After lunch we played a traditional game with sheeps' ankle bones (ugh!). They had clearly made so much money out of feeding tourists that they had chosen a better life, but i kept thinking, 'If they love their culture so much, and if they want to preserve it, why did they leave it behind?'

But, as Tim says, this is the way toursism works and i guess everyone deserves Sky TV and running water!

Listvyanka and Lake Baikal

Well, this is what we looked like ater a 3 hour walk around Lake Baikal. It was more than -30, verging on -40 with wind chill - hence the frozen beard and hair!

Lake Baikal is the largest and deepest fresh water lake in the world - the size of Belgium. Surrounded by mountains and totally frozen over, it really is beautiful.

We stayed in Listvyanka village, a small fishing village near the town of Irkutsk. Walking on the lake is pretty terrifying - although the ice is about half a metre thick it's totally transparant in places so you can see the water below. And to make matters worse, the area is on moving plates so there are constantly small tremors under the water - not enough to feel, but you can hear the ice creaking and cracking as you walk on it, and so there are massive cracks in the surface of the ice and huge chunks of ice in places where it's been pushed up. Pretty spectacular....

Ha ha - they're not going anywhere in a hurry!

We stayed in a homestay with the lovely Rita, who fed us like kings (but we're not fattening up - being so cold burns so many calories - it's great!). The house was a traditional siberian cottage, built around a stove, very warm - but so traditional there was no running water indoors. Meaning an outdoor drop toilet. Imagine that. Bearing your bum to the -40 elements in the middle of the night. That's got to be dangerous. No more beer for me thanks. There was no way I was getting up in the night for the toilet!

Showering was interesting too - at the back of the garden was a wooden shed, a Siberian banya (sauna). The stove heats up all day, ready for us in the evening - it's a full on fight between sweating and trying to wash off the sweat, tipping buckets of water over yourself. But it was quite an experience!

We're now in Irkutsk and ready to board the next train - on to Mongolia!

Around Lake Baikal

Ekaterinburg - Irkutsk

The train from Ekaterinburg to Irkutsk was the best yet. With two nights on board, we were hoping to have a cabin to the three of us (new friend Simon, Tim and I), so were a bit annoyed when our game of Shithead was interupted by a fourth occupant.

It turned out to be Yuri (well thats what we call him anyway, we never quite grasped his name. Jenge or something like that...), a young Russian policeman. First instincts were to get out our passports for a document check....

We were soon joined by Pasha, a soldier, from the next cabin, who was madly excited to be able to practise his broked English on the way to his next military base. And so began 24 hours of hilarity. They were very keen on beer, which is always a good start to breaking the language barrier, and they refused to let us buy a round until well into the night. Then out came the tupperware - several boxes of meat they'd prepared for the journey. At one stop, Pasha ran onto the platform and came back with two whole smoked fish and a bag of piping hot boiled potatoes.

We exhausted all small talk, discussing our families, jobs etc, and amazed them at the price of vodka in London. And when we'd run out of things to talk about, we introduced them to Soduku and tried to teach them Shithead.

We were quite sad to see them go the next afternoon - it was our first real experience of damn friendly Russians.

Walking on water

We have just walked across a frozen river. Amazing. And there were these little tents scattered over the surface for ice fishing. Inside, a guy will sit all day freezing his bits off, around a hole straight through to the water (the ice is about 2 foot thick). It's crazy.

A boat. People. And a tent. On a river.

A Ruff Ride..

Russia has been a great experience, and you'll be unsurprised to learn that my linguistic skills now cover the essentials - I can now order two beers (not one mind you!) and say thank you - luckily all Russian Beer is excellent, so simply pointing hopefully at an appropriate beer tap has been successful so far - and you don't get a scowl when you gesture for a 'large' beer over here as every Russian drinks far more than I ever imagined. It is most usual for an average Russian to sit down for a lunchtime or evening meal with a sizeable carafe of vodka and a shot glass and have several shots of the fiery stuff over their food - it's amazing!

Yesterday Grem and I ventured out into the woods of Ekaterinburg (Boris Yeltsin's birthplace and third largest city in Russia) with a guide in the back of a basic but unbelievably sturdy ex-military van - somewhat like a VW Camper but instead of surfboards on the roof there were sledges with skis for runners and what looked like an couple of old zimmer-frames for the main frame....we jumped inside the van to head out of the city and it took us a little while to realise that in the boot behind us were 12 large husky dogs! (Grem interupting here - it seemed to me i was the only one slightly concerned about their well being! But they turned out to be very well-loved animals.)



Upon arrival it turned out that our 'driver' was in fact the dog owner who quickly hoisted the sledges from the roof of the van and had released the dogs ready to be attached to the sledges. After much barking and gnashing of teeth (also from the dogs) we had 5 dogs attached to our sledge and with Daniele wrapped up warm in her seat on the sledge and me at the helm(!) we were off into the woods at the mercy of our huskies! We had nothing to be worried about as the dogs knew exactly which way to go and far from me steering them, the dogs were fully in charge of us! After riding for 30mins (with Daniele's feet as cold as they could be - actually colder) we stopped and had our first taste of medicine for the cold, a couple of shots of vodka, which went down surprisingly well!



Our next stop is a town called Irkutsk on the shores of Lake Baikal, and if we thought it was warming up (now a mere minus 22 degrees) it's forecast to be around minus 31 degrees when we get there after a two day train journey! More warming vodka required I think!

Teej

Sunny Moscow

Well, we arrived in Moscow yesterday morning at 5am on the overnight train from St Petersburg. We shared a cabin with two Russian men, one snored lots and the other was very friendly and translated between us and the provodnik (scary woman that guards each carriage and sells bedding).

Our last day in St Petersburg was spent metro hopping and checking out all the amazing underground architecture. And we did the same here this morning. Apparantly it was part of Stalin's great plan - to build a socialist underworld. It's crazy - some of these stations are like ballrooms. Here are a couple of Moscow's finest...





It's still pretty damn freezing here, although i think it has warmed up a bit. More like -20 now. But in Moscow it feels totally different. In St Petersburg the roads were cleared and the wind blew away any fresh snow, so only really gardens and parks were white, but it felt so much colder there because of the wind. Here all the roads and pavements are covered in compacted snow and ice, so it looks more wintery, but it gets pretty treacherous! Walking into the metro is like being at Glastonbury indoors, it's so slushy!

We stick out a bit. wearing our ski clothes, looking like we were about to hit the slopes while everyone else wears jeans and fur coats. But we are toasty warm inside! My god, I have never seen so many animal skins walk the streets. Elle MacPherson seems to be the preferred fur model here, she seems to be in every magazine wearing a black mink. To say the least, I haven't managed to pull off the Russian Dr Zivago chic that hit the catwalks before I left home. I have, however, been snapped up as the star of the latest Michelin campaign.

Had a bit of a contact lens incident yesterday morning and ended up in an eye clinic. In and out in 5 minutes, for about 4 quid. He had to tweezer out lots of little shredded pieces of contact lens. Luckily we had a 'buddy' for the morning (as part of our Russia Experience trip) and she took us there and translated for us. Buddy Lina walked us around the city for a few hours and told us loads about recent Russian history, what it was like to bring up kids during the 80s when there was no food, and how much the country had changed in her lifetime. Usually i get a bit bored listening to guides, but this was really cool, i was really interested.

Tim finally got to say, 'Gremlin's in the Kremlin', and hasn't stopped doing so, in the obligatory Russian accent. Which sometimes doesn't sound that different to the Mexican attorney voice. The Kremlin was pretty cool. Lots of beautiful old buildings and churches. And we wandered around the Red Square too, saw St Basil's cathedral and Lenin's mausoleum. We might go in tommorrow morning, although I reckon if it's anything like Ho Chi Minh's body, it's definately come out of Madame Tussauds.

The imposing walls of the Kremlin (and Putin's official office)

St Basil's Cathedral - well, a bit of it

Cathedral of Jesus Christ our Saviour (originally intended by Stalin to be a swimming pool)

I always said I wanted to see a ballet when i was in Russia, so last night we went to the Kremlin State Palace Theatre to see Giselle. The building's really retro, with mosaics of the hammer and sickle everywhere. It's where the Soviet Parliament used to meet in the days of the USSR. Anyway, I only really wanted to see lots of pretty ballerinas in tutus like in Swan Lake, and all the costumes last night were a bit Robin Hood. And Tim was utterly bored anyway, having to sit through a ballet, so half way through we made our escape. At least we got a taster!

Anyway, time is nearly up in Moscow - 3 days is not enough! we are leaving tommorrow afternoon on another over night train to Ekaterinburg, but we have a lot longer on the train so will get to see some countryside scenery. Until then... here's Tim with his better looking girlfriend, Daisy...

St Petersburg

It's bloody freezing.
My snot froze. And my eyelashes.

We've been in snowy St Petersburg a day and I have learnt the hard way not to wear glasses outside when it's -28 C. They freeze over and you may as well not wear them.

Last night we were introduced to the underworld of the Russian mafia. We were sat in a window booth enjoying our Nevoske beer when two Mercedes screeched to a halt outside and eight suited and booted and very stern looking men stormed into the bar. One carried a rather important looking briefcase straight into the toilets and the bodyguard waited by the main door while the others came into the restaurant area. Mr Briefcase took another guy with him into the toilets and barred entry to even the friendly cleaner.
Ten minutes later they're all sitting around a table having a beer, while a pretty damn scary looking bloke guarded over the briefcase in another booth. All very exciting. Meanwhile, four or five minders loitered around guarding the vehicles (another jeep and a shiny Daimler had also appeared) and we watched a dodgy looking exchange between the head minder and a truck driver, who was soon taken around the block and dealt with.

We soon left.

I'm sure it happens every day here - the waitresses seemed unfazed and were laughing and joking with them all. Only the bodyguard and the briefcase guard looked really menacing! Today has been slightly more easy going. We spent a few hours in the Winter Palace and Hermitage museum, admiring lots of gold and a few Leonardos. Among other things. We went to The Church of the Saviour on Spilt Blood, a pretty awesome onion top cathedral. And had a coffee. Here's some snaps...

The Church of the Saviour on Spilt Blood

Outside the Winter Palace

Over the river

Another day here tommorrow, then we board an overnight train to Moscow where we have 3 days. Will report back then!

Hamra street, Beirut.

For more pics of Lebanon go here