in-china

Beijing - Last Stop Then Home

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:51:55 +0100

At my final stop now before heading home. Counting down the days now. Very excited to go home and see everyone again, but I'll be sad to be leaving China after a year.

My plane luckily landed half an hour early which meant I could hop on the airport link metro rather than getting a taxi. Although I got so far with the airport link, I still needed to get the metro that linked one other stop, which happened to be closed. I looked on my map and it didn't look so far, only three blocks, 'I can do that' I thought, and true it wasn't to far away, but a heavy rucksack and flip flops slows you down a lot, so what should have been a quick 10 minute walk became about 40 minutes. I made it eventually, and this time without getting stuck in a storm!

Also arrived in Beijing was my package, or giant box, filled with all my souvenirs from the past year. I cant exactly get that box very far so first task was to find a suitcase so I headed of to a big market where I managed to find one rather easily. I met Elly and her boyfriend at the metro and the three of us then headed of to the Drum and Bell tower which we went to at the beginning of the year, except this time I remembered my camera! We sat for the tea ceremony after walking round the buildings, and this time bought some of the tea to take home. Rose, fruit and lichee tea, the rose and lichee mixed together is by far my favourite, it tastes just like Turkish delight. The fruit tea is fantastic, you can eat it once you've finished making your tea, a drink and a snack, two in one, what more could be asked for? After a walk round and the tea ceremony we headed for some Beijing Duck, very tasty.

Next day, the big news is I finally have clean clothes! Had a busy morning washing and drying, then got my box up to my dorm room and unpacked it into my suitcase. It all fits, and there's still space for more gifts and souvenirs. I had a wonder round the Hutongs (old courtyard buildings) behind the hostel, lots of gift shops, have to say my favorite shops are the Tibetan ones, you walk in and its filled with the smell of incense, pretty hanging decorations, giant Buddha images, beautiful jewelery, brass, copper and silver ornaments and they have shrines set up with Thangka (Buddhist paintings of their gods which they pray to). I bought some incense and a stand from one of the little Tibetan shops down a quiet alley, and the owner was very friendly, although a little odd. I was telling him why I was in China and that i'd been teaching English here, then he asked if I had a boyfriend so I told him 'mei you' (Don't have) at which point he takes me over to the shrine and starts chanting some sort of prayer, have no idea what it was meant to be or what he said, but it's not every day you have a Tibetan guy chant a prayer for you, so who knows, it may bring some luck.

Saturday - Josh Rosie Bethan Matt and Olly arrived today so our Project Trust group's starting to form again now. It was nice catching up with everyone and hearing all their travel stories, especially since Iv'e not seen some of them for 6 months. Me and Rosie went for a girly wonder round the Hutong shopping street buying a few more gifts and souvenirs. When we got back we joined the other four in games of Uno, team games of Uno, girls against boys. Boys won, but it was great fun although it got rather competitive quite quickly. Sitting out on the hostel balcony which we started our year on, it's strange being back at the hostel, everything's so familiar.

Sunday - Me and Rosie decided today was the day for the art district, so we managed to drag Josh and Olly out with us. The district had a bit of a mixture, some areas were really interesting others were just plain bizarre. Luke and Zak had arrived by the time we got back, then Ellie, Katie, Becca, and Katies twin Rebecca arrived later on. It was great seeing Ellie and Katie again, although we had a few tifs in the flat I really missed them whilst traveling, It'l be strange when I go home and they aren't there,. When living with someone for so long and sharing so many memories with them you get quite attatched.

Beggining of the week now, can't believe I'm leaving China this week. Just as i feel at home in the country I have to go home, but it'll be nice seeing everyone again. We headed to search out some Chinese clothes today, searching for Chinese dresses for me, Rosie, Elly, Rebecca and Lukes sisters, and Chinese jackets for Luke Olly and Zak. Me and Rosie managed to find a cheap dress, which doesnt fit fantastically, but its a nice keep safe. Sam and Florrie arrived in Beijing today, although they're staying at a different hostel to the rest of us. Almost all the groups together now, just Izzy and Sarah to arrive now. We spent the evening all together just chilling in the hostel then went out at night.

Tuesday - I woke up early this morning, so I headed off and picked up my stamp, which I was very pleased with. I got back and Josh and Luke were just heading off to the Birds Nest Stadium, Beijing's Olympic stadium, so I tagged along with the two of them. We met Sam and Florrie at the Beijing Olymic Stadium MacDonalds, very traditional, but it was an easy place to pick out. By this point everyone was starting to run low on money, some more than others when (no names being mensioned) one of the guys decides he cant afford a simple stadium shapped astray, so nics one from the table in MacDonalds, now that really is a new low, stealing from MacDonalds. The stadiums arcitecture was really impressive, however to me the inside was just like any other stadium really. Im glad I got to see The Birds Nest, it felt sort of special, knowing thats where the last Olympics was held and its now currently being held in London.

Two days to go and the groups all together now! Me, Josh, Izzy and Sarah went to a tatoo and peircing place today, a completly unexpected trip. It was just mentioned so I figured if I was going to get my ear peirced again now would be a nice time to do it, a final end of year change. We had the group project trust dinner at a joazi restauraunt in the evening, which the four of us who had been out all day was running a little late for but we made it, just. After dinner me, Izzy, Sarah, Ellie, Becca, Rebecca, Katie Josh, Sam and Zak went to Vics club, free drinks for all us girls was a definate pull towards that club, especially since we were laking in money at this point.

The last day...Today everyone just spent the day together in the hostel, eating, drinking and telling the last of the stories to each other. After a year together (although we've been spread over the country) we decided to spend our last day as a group before heading home. After most of the day just relaxing, nobody seemed to be up for doing anything else so I went of exploring on my own for a bit and headed to the Summer Palace, the one thing left on my list to see before leaving. It was lovely, the sun was going down so I saw the sun setting over the lake going down behind the mountains. It was very peaceful, I'm so glad I just went as it really was gorgeous. I got back and I don't think anyone had moved from where I left them all.

So it's here now, the day we all get the flight home. We had until about 17:00 before catching taxis so before heading to the airport I went back to the Summer Palace with Luke and Florrie. Since we were going to be spending alot of time on planes we decided to spend the day outside, although the weather wasn't so good, it was really smoggy today so the mountains which I could see last night, you would have no idea they existed today which was a shame.

Well...It's time to go catch a taxi...next stop HOME!

GOODBYE CHINA i have had a fantastic year, made so many friends and so many brilliant memories! I'm going to miss you China! <3

Chengdu

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 07:58:32 +0100

I arrived in Chengdu with 5 days ahead of me to explore the city on my own. Not even a couple of hours into my time here I was already chatting away to groups of people in the hostel which was great. This is the first hostel which has been full of foreigners rather than mainly Chinese, and it certainly makes a difference, its so much easier talking to others when their English is basically fluent. I ended up going out with a group of French guys and an Australian in my first night there.

Second day I decided to try out some of the local temples. After finishing the temple area fairly quickly I sat down on a corner to work out where to wonder next, when I looked up I saw a foreign person walk round the corner, looked back down at my map ... and then it clicked ... wait a minute, I know that foreigner! One of the boys from down in Gansu, Josh, had just walked round the corner with a couple of guys from his hostel. So after expecting to spend the time on my own, I now had a friend to wonder the city with, yey! So I set of with them to the markets and stalls for lunch. The two others were both Chinese, so could point us in the right direction for good cheep food, and we had a selection of all sorts from jelly which tasted like beer, to chilly covered noodles ...mmm delicious... to the most bizarre kebabs - scorpion and locus (just me and josh on that one, the other two weren't quite up for it). The scorpion claws weren't bad, quite meaty for such little things, but the rest wasn't fantastic, but its something else to add to the list of odd foods.

Whilst in Chengdu we figured we should have a look at the giant Mao Statue, and it was big, however compared to the Giant Buddha at Leshan, seemed kinda small. We then headed for the Chengdu museum, it was interesting, but it wasn't the exhibits that were interesting, it was the fact that hardly any of it work, half the exhibits didn't do what they were meant to, some wouldn't plug in or show, but we did find the shadow walls and the light tunnel very amusing. We spent a while posing in front of the shadow wall doing different jumps, James Bond shootings, and of course the classic Chinese peace sign poses. The light tunnel was a walkway which had the lights racing round, if you kept staring at the roof it felt like you were being turned round so of course you would be trying to balance and ended up walking as if you had just had a bit to much to drink, and you felt rather dizzy once you came out the other side, it was great fun!

The main attraction to Chengdu is the pandas. Finally I had made it to the home of the pandas! So it was a very early morning to get to the park for 8:00 to see the feeding of the pandas outdoors before they moved back inside to cooler enclosures as its to hot in the summer for them. I arrived a little early so they hadn't been let out yet, which meant i had time to get one of the front row views. The pandas were so cute! So, so, so, so cute! There were a few different enclosures, one with older cubs about 3 years old so not quite fully grown yet, a pen with fully grown pandas and a pen which had a mother and her young, maybe a year old as the cub was still much smaller than a fully grown cub and still depended on its mother. There was also a couple of red panda enclosures, which were cute, but compared to the giant pandas, the giant pandas get the cutest award from me.

Emie Shan

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:00:03 +0100

I went from the misty mountain surroundings of Dali to the clouded sacred Buddhist peaks of Emie Shan.

The first day I had a few things to sort out like washing and things so by the time I had everything done it was to late to go climbing mountians so I headed for Leshan to see the Giant Buddha. I started by catching a boat tour which took us round the front of the statue showing the rock carvings on the water front as well as the statue. I was expecting the boat to stop on the Buddha side of the river so we could get of and go exploring the Buddha Park, but it took us back to the opposite side of teh river. I decided I hadnt gone this far to stop at that so I jumped in a tuk tuk and headed back over the bridge to the Buddha Park. I eventually got a close up of the Buddha and did my exploring of the park, it was definitely worth that extra trip round as there was so much more to see than just the Giant Buddha. And the Giant Buddha really was giant! It's toenail was bigger than me, not hard to be biger than me since I'm so small, but that still shows the crazy scale of the statue.

Next day it was of to Emei Shan. I knew there was going to be a lot of stairs to climb, Chinese mountains use steps instead of just the natural paths, but wow was there a lot of stairs to climb, which isn't easy especially when it's really humid outside. Another difference between British mountains and the Chinese mountains is that there are many temples, pagodas and shrines dotted along the mountains, so you have a chance to rest from the walk up and see some beautiful places. At the first temple I met a couple of monks, I set of up to the next point just before them, and later saw them again whilst I was resting part of the way up, I then re-passed them while they took a break, next time we passed each other they stopped me and asked if they could take their picture with me, so from there on, me and the two monks walked the mountain together, stopping at each temple for them to take their prayers and me to take my pictures, we stopped at the viewpoints and pagodas to take a break from steps, and finally made our way to the monkey zone, where I then headed down as they continued on to find a place on the mountain for the night. It was lovely walking with the monks on the mountain.

Dali

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:49:02 +0100

I arrived and found the hostel much easier this time. In only an evening I had already seen much of the old town, and ... without getting lost, yey! It's very diferent to Lijiang despite being so close. The streets in Dali are wide and long, compared to being narrow and winding however the buildings are similar, with the curving rooftops and the carved wooden panels along the front of the streets. In Lijiang there was many little streams flowing alongside the paths, in Dali the streams flow down both sides of the street, and along the main streets the water has been directed to become a waterfall featured, which makes the place quite relaxing with the sound of water running past wherever you are. However the second day in Dali it rained, and rained, and rained, really heavy so that the waterfall was not only down the center alongside the path, but also flowed down the path.

With the constant rain it wasn't going to be a very full day, however I did make it down to the train station, and this time I was much more lucky with the tickets, getting a sleeper to Kunming and then another train straight away up to Emei Shan, so thats one less thing to worry about.

When I went out for dinner, the streets were dead, the bars and restaurants empty, with the rain the town seemed to have gone into hibernation. Whilst sitting under shelter I watched one lady sweeping water away from the step to her restaurant, I'm not sure what she though it would do, the flow of water was constant, but she seemed to be happy that she was doing something.

Luckily the next day the weather brightened up long enough to head of to see the three pagodas and palace, but after I hung around to see the hostels dog give birth to 11 tiny puppies, so cute! A walk out the town took me to the pagodas which were very touristy, however the ticket also included entrance to the temple which slowly worked its way up the backing mountain. So many stairs to climb, which meant a lot of the Chinese tourists payed for a buggy to drive them from temple to temple, leaving the walkways clear with very few people, so by the time i made it to each temple building the tourists had moved on already. As I worked my way up different temple buildings and towers, the view changed from pagodas and high peaks to lake views and city landscapes to misty mountain sides and temple rooftops.

Lost in Lijiang

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 10:44:16 +0100

I arrived in Lijiang just as a storm started, great, first problem! Next was that the taxi drivers refused to ttake me to where I needed to be, they just said 'ting bu dong' (don't understand) even when I spoke chinese to them - its your lanuage im speaking so dont tell me you dont understand ahhh!!! - eventually i found one of the police men who were wondering around the taxis who stopped one and he took me straight away, thankyou Mr Policeman!

After all that I was dropped of at the old town Lijiang, but at the wrong gate, the oppisite end it turned out to where i was supposed to be. I didnt have a map, the Lonely Planet didn't have a map, I had no idea which direction I was ment to go, and i was soaked through after being outside for the 5 minutes between the taxi to the shop i ended up in. the guy in the shop got his phone out and had google translate up (miricle site that) and tol me his friend would take me to where i needed to be. After hoping in a taxi with this random guy (which i wouldnt have normally done but on my own, soaked through, shivering, not a clue where i was ment to be going, i figured i didnt have much else to go on), we ended up at a hotel which wasnt mine, so got the hostel on the phone once again to hop into another taxi, to make it to the right area this time, but then had a maze of alleys to search through. luckily it didnt take to much longer till we found the hostel, and i was so grateful for the random guys help with carrying my rucksack and paying for the taxis. When I got to the hostel i was given a glass of hot water, and a group of the girls staying there were instantly giving me cakes, buiscuits and snacks to make me feel welcome, they were very sweet. first thing after dumping my things in the room was jump in the shower, I have never been so thankful for hot showers! When traveling and things dont go the way you want them to, the simple little things make you so happy!

Getting lost in Lijiang (and all over really) seemed to be the way of my travels. I started the next day wondering the streets, i even bought a map so i could find my way, and made it to the scenic area and main sights of the water wheels and Black Dragon Pool. On the way back i went wondering down little lanes and streets exploring the old town, but completely lost where i was on the map so tried to back track but ended up down streets where i definetely hadn't been before, it was just my luck, lost again. I ended up just heading up hill, following crouds as much as i could when i came out on top of a gorgeous view across both the old and new city walled by the towering mountains misted over by cloud. The things you find when lost really are brilliant, its just a shame I can never find these things and know where I am at the same time, but oh well. I followed the track that went from there round the hill and ended up on the main road under a sign pointing towards the old town. Luckily it came to the right end of the old town for my hostel.

Next day I left the hostel around 4 to grab a few kebabs from the market, I made sure to remember my turnings so I wouldn't get lost again. 2 and a half hours later looking like i had just jumped in a pool and gone for a swim, I made it back to my hostel. Somewhere along the way I had taken a wrong turning and ended up at the opposite end of the town, where i'd been dropped of the first day actually. On (kind of) my way back i got stuck in another storm and ended up walking round in circles for ages, until i recognised one of the streets as the way i went the day before when i got lost, so i managed to remember all of those turnings, back up to the viewpoint, down to the main road, past the bakery (quick stop for a arming capachino and cherry jam pastry) and back into my end of the old town. At least i now knew how to get to the main road for catching a taxi to the bus station for Dali.

Despite all the hassle, I loved the little alleys of lijiang, and it really did have that old china charm with white washed walls and turned up rooftops with carved wooden beems and shop fronts. A good place to bring you back to China.

Back to China!!!

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 08:01:27 +0100

I was glad to be back in China, even only being gone for a month. I didn't realise how much i'd miss it, teaching, my students, Kuitun, THE FOOD!!!, and all those little things that make up the culture (even the little pesky things that are irritating). Luckilly the border crossing from Vietnam into China was simple, off the bus, in a taxi, walk over the border, in a taxi, on another bus, then i was off to Kunming to catch a train to Lijiang...or so I thought.

I made it to Kunming to find out that there were no tickets left to get to Lijiang, so I managed to get one for the next day, but then had the joy of finding somewhere to stay the night. I tried every hostel and cheap hotel in the Lonely Planet, however every single one seemd to be fully booked. So i then went treking the streets (in the rain) to be told by every hotel, which wasnt to far out the budget, that they were either full or couldn't take foreigners. After ac ouple of hours a night in Dicos (Chinas version of McDonalds) was looking more and more likely, until eventually I found a place not to far from the station which would take foreighners, had room and was only £16 for the night (even though thats 4 times the price of most the hostels i've been in, its better that £60 a night).

Next morning I was on the train and on my way to Lijiang! Finally!!!

Hanoi

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:52:35 +0100

From Ho Chi Minh, we flew up to Hanoi, the capitol of Vietnam. We were in Hanoi for the next three days. We had hoped to do a trip out to Halong Bay, but we needed 3 nights, 4 days which we didn't have, which is a shame, but we still had a great time. Hanoi was quite similar to Ho Chi Minh as it had lots of little alleys and backstreets.

Our hostel had a rooftop bar in it so we figured we'd head up and see what it was like, the hostel staff were really good at getting everyone drinking, they were giving out free shots, two for ones, and all sorts. One of the staff then came through and got everyone up for heading of to a nearby bar, so we went along with it and met a group of girls from Ireland who we ended up spending most of our time with over the next few days. Our time in Hanoi was very relaxed, hanging about during the day chatting, eating and wondering the streets, and going out in the evenings meeting and chatting with lots of people from the hostel.

I then had a sleeper bus to catch from Hanoi up to the border to cross over into China. As i'm so small, I could stretch out on the bus, only just though, not much extra room. The bus seats/beds were slanted, kind of like a dentist chair, so they weren't fully up or fully down, which meant you kept sliding down them, so you would get to sleep, then wake up half way down the chair all stiff from being cramped in. But I got to the border earlier than what I was told, and the jorney wasn't to bad.

Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:35:08 +0100

Our first stop in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City. Our hostel was down a little alley way, just round the corner from a brilliant streets for shopping. Vietnam has many gorgeous materials, hand woven with ribbon and strips of fabric making up patterns, some cross stitched patterns, I found a bag made up of many of these fabrics, very traveler looking, perfect for when I start uni when I get home. Along with the gift shops are the little cheep clothes shops full of quwerky tops, which we bought a few of as being in Xinjiang for a year, I had few strappy tops and it's way to humid in Vietnam to have shoulders covered with t-shirts, you just get far to hot.

Elly happened to be here the same time as us, so she found our hostel and joined us for our shopping. Me and Elly also wondered down to the Cathedral, which was very pretty, and on the way I had my first experience of the back of a motorbike! It was a bit scary at first (that's just me though, a bit wimpy sometimes) but once I relaxed it was great fun. It wasn't to far away, so we decided to walk back, popping into KFC for a bit so not to get soaked as a storm came on, it came down really heavy but very fast so we weren't sitting round for long. Saw some giant rats along the path edge on the way back, sounds odd, but I never knew rats were that big, they're massive!

After a bit of shopping and relaxing on roof top bars, me and Becky headed out for the day to the Mekong Delta. It took a few hours to get there, traveling through rice paddies and little towns of houses with corrugated iron rooftops. When we got there we got onto a boat which took us down the Mekong and into a little floating market. We were expecting to be taken to a larger market, however then found out that only the people who were doing the 2 and 3 day Mekong tours got to see them, but at least we saw one of the floating markets. We got taken onto one of the islands where we shown how they made sticky popped rice and coconut toffees (which tasted delicious). We then got to have a cycle around after lunch, which was nice, I miss my bike, I got used to cycling everywhere so it was good being back on a bike.

From there we got onto a little canoe, got given a straw hat for the journey and headed of down the canal rivers lined with reeds and swampy plants. Only five minutes down river, and a storm came, of course we had no waterproofs so got absolutely soaked through. On the bus soaked,, got rather cold, but luckily the bus stopped at a little place on the way back where a grabbed a t-shirt, putting a big dry t-shirt on made a huge difference, then got a hot coffee for the bus. Warmed up we soon made it back to the hostel where we stayed the rest of the night, no going back out into rain.

Vietnam!

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 11:46:26 +0100

I really liked Vietnam, it had a lot of Chinese influences to it, which made me feel a little more at home there. It was very busy, lots of motorbikes whizzing up and down the roads constantly, but it was a laid back busy, lots of people going places but going places to relax, where as Bangkok was busy with people going places to work and complete tasks.

Me and Becky only had a week in Vietnam, so we stuck to the two main cities, Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon) and the capitol, Hanoi.

Koh Samui

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:16:17 +0100

Koh Samui was only a short half an hour boat trip from Koh Phangnan, and on the boat we had the entertainment of those who were feeling a little rough and whos friends were trying there hardest to make it as difficult as possible for them. We arrived and hopped in a taxi to our hostel which was on the other side of the island, as we got closer the buildings around us seemed to fade and we were getting further and further from where everything was. We finally arrived in a little town area, which was next to a beach and did have a pool, but the beach wasn't very clean looking, and the pool looked more like a paddling pool, it got better when we got taken up to our room, which I like to call 'The Shed'. It was a tiny square room which had wooden pannels, like a shed, with a bed plonked in the middle. First thing we did was get onto hostelworld and book a different place back on the other side of the island for the next few nights.

The only good things about this place was its movie channel, which got put on when we arrived, and we watched movie after movie after movie (it was pouring with rain outside), so the shed and it's movie channel kept us amused for the evening.

The new hostel was much better, we had a room about 3 times the size of the shed, and it was done up in bright colours with comic style paintings all over the place. The hostel shared a pool with the neighboring hotel, which really was a pool, and looked out over the white beach. It was here me and Becky spent the next few days, sunning ourselves and cooling of in the pool.

Whilst lying on the deck chairs we heard a loud bang, a kind of whipping noise, we looked over to where the sound came from to see a snake slither along the ground, a bird had just pecked it out of the tree, it was rather a little one, skinny and green, but it was a snake all the same! Next day we decided to lye in the beds a little further from the snakes tree, just in case, and it turns out we were right to, as again, the snake fell out its tree and slithered of into the nearby plants again. Although this time, there was a little kid near where it had fallen so one of the girls sunbathing closer bye got up and warned the kids dad, who when he went over to check, the snake had gone under the kids chair. The grandfather then tried to get rid of it and it bit him, luckily it was non poisonous, but the hotels 'snake removal' man soon came over and took it away. the next day me and Becky were sitting waiting for our little snake friend to fall out its tree, but I think it must have move trees as it never did.

We were going to attempt to see some more of the island and its waterfalls, however the only way to do it without it costing a fortune was by moped. So, we got our moped, and I wasn't going on it until I knew Becky could drive it, I told her to test drive it first to get used to it. It was different to the ones she'd used before, so she did as the lady told her and about 3meters down the road the moped and her were down. Luckily she was fine and the moped only suffered a smashed mirror. Becky got up and was saying 'the bike, the bike, is the bike ok?' where as me and the hostel ladies were like 'Becky are you alright, are you alright?' So ... that was the end of our mopeding, before it even began, but it's another story to tell.

It was time to leave Koh Samui and after our sunning ourselves we were ready to head to the cities. We still had a week and had seen the areas of Thailand we wanted to so figured we'd hop on over to the next country, Vietnam. After our past experience of night buses, we were to scared to get another one, so decided it would be safer to fly back up to Bangkok from Koh Samui then onto Vietnam. Koh Samui is said to be one of the most beautiful airports in the world. We weren't quite sure how a little island airport could do this, but we soon found out. The airport buildings had thatched rooftops just like the beach huts, once you checked in your luggage you then walked down a gorgeous 'street' lined with little boutique shops, plants and palm trees, all open aired, then the security check was yet again a small thatched building. We then went into the departures lounge which was a large circular room with a high roof, where, can you believe it (because we couldn't) we then had a whole selection af free food and drinks!!! Now we had just had our dinner, but free food in departures, who could resist? Orange cake, pies, sandwich triangles, pastries, it was a picnic in the airport.