Advertisement
Published: December 24th 2005
Edit Blog Post
Me eating a bit of scorpion
Had a buzz round the night market and that, scorpion was actually tastiest of the lot! Right, was supposed to sort this days ago but the internet's a bit bobbins in this hostel and couldn't get on this site. lol. Sorry if you've been texting me and all coz I can't reply with either of my sim's for some reason so have to just email instead.
Got to Beijing on Tuesday after a 25 hour train journey from HK. I was in a cabin with a Chinese family but the lad spoke English so it was OK. Only downside was the fact that he was a big lad and he snored like a walrus getting his end away so didn't get much kip plua my iPod batteries went half way through so I couldn't even drown it out - nightmare!
Finally got off the train at 4pm and walked straight outta the station only to be confronted by about 10 Chinese women trying to sell me a hostel room. Told them all to do one then got one of them to show us a bank then ended up in ths complete shithole down the road for the night. Next morning got up bright and early to get myself a decent room somewhere but finding it was a
Manc scally on tour...
I hate scallies like but I do look like one on this eh? Stunning views of the wall in Badaling all the same. nightmare. After walking around for about 2 hours with my backpack on getting more and more irrate I finally found Saga Youth Hostel so it was all good. Really nice place and all so well happy with it too (apart from it being really cold in my room).
One of the lads was taking the piss when I first got there coz I was drinking little bottles of Tsingtao beer (4yuan - about 30p) but you can get the big 650ml bottles for only 2yuan (15p) so he figured I must be rich or summat. God knows how that works but I'm not complaining! Soon sorted that anyway so I was on the big bottles and could get pissed for all of about 2pounds - ace! Cigs are only 70p a pack and all so I've been living on cigarettes and alcohol for the last week (I'm sure my Mum will be pleased at that one eh?!). ha ha.
The day I got to the hostel I went round the Forbidden City - absolutely beauitiful buildings and detail on the different parts so glad I went, most of the pictures I got were like something straight off a postcard and
Chinese acrobatics
Some of the stuff they were pulling off was absolutely stunning! all but didn't get many with me in (probably a good thing I reckon). lol. Got an ace picture of one of the signs in there - "Don't fall down!". Yes Sir... Got stung when I got out of the City as one of the rickshaw drivers said he'd take me to the Tianenmen Square for 60yuan but he took us all round the Hutong doing a sort of tour once I got on (which was actually very interesting learning what things meant and stuff), but then he wanted 300yuan when I got off so gave him what I thought was fair for a 1 hour tour and wandered off. I hate people taking the piss!
Had a quick scan round Tianenmen Square and all but it's exactly what it says - a big square with a pointy monument in the centre so not much to see really. I went back another day to see Mao's Mausoleum so I've now seen the man in person for myself too, the guards don't half rush you through it but at least I can say I've been.
That night I went to see some Chinese acrobatics which was pretty stunning and I met
That is an order!
I found this hilarious so had to add it for people to see. Cherry, one of the cute workers from the hostel at that and all so it was all good. I've spent a lot of time while I've been in Beijing with her and all and she's a really nice girl. She actually took me to meet her friend at the uni outside of Beijing on the Friday which was mad. Not many people there could speak much English so it was a bit bizarre but a bit of a buzz at the same time coz people were pointing and talking between them about me (probably "who's this bloody e r in our uni?!") lol
I got to the Badaling part of the wall on one of the days and it was just as good as I'd hoped, just a shame so many people mither you to buy stuff when you first get there though. I did the walk up the steep bit (instead of getting the lift thing up), in all of about 30minutes which someone said was pretty quick, I was absolutely wrecked by the top though! Need to lay off the fags methinks. As part of the Badaling tour they take you round loads of factories and stuff (jade,
Inside the Forbidden City
The detail on some of the buildings is absolutely stunning! porcelain, traditional Chinese medicine), which was pretty irritating but they soon realized I didn't wanna buy owt. The doctor at the medicine place was well funny, he kept saying herbs but he said it eeeeeerbs so it was proper hard to keep a straight face when he did! There were some other words he lingered on and all but my mind's gone blank now. We went to the Ming Tombs on that trip and all but that wasn't as impressive as I'd hoped.
That night I went to the night market with a Brummy couple that I met and the girl from the hostel. It's a big row of stalls which are selling pretty much any animal you can think of on kebab sticks to eat. I had sea snake, snake, frogs legs, silkworm and scorpion just to see what they were like. Scorpion was actually really tasty but the silkworm was well wrong as it was in the cocoon and that bit was too hard to chew so had to spit that out after eating the squishy centre. Ha ha.
On my last night there I went on the piss with a sound American lad I met at the
The obligatory Mao shot
Everyone's seen this one in the past but just to show I've been... hostel called Mike and an Aussie lad from there too called Steve so ended up getting leathered and blitzing a load of my budget there. In one of the bars we were in this stocky lad came up to Mike shouting "football hooligan" in his face and ready to kick off so thought it was all gonna start but I jumped in and started chatting on to him about football and that so it was alright then. Found out he was a Chelsea fan (f*cking typical eh Dad?), and he'd just got out of a German prison for football rioting out there just a few days before so we drank up and got off, last thing I need is a bottle round my head from some muppet.
Anyway, got the train out of Beijing fine so I'll let ya's know how Xi'an is soon. Laters...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.062s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0366s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Becki
non-member comment
Sounds fucking ace babe. The pictures are amazing. How many days were you over there for? Are you keeping in contact with that Cherry girl? Glad your having a good time and keeping safe, take it easy mister xxx