Delicate in China

---

As mentioned in the previous entry (which I was unable to edit, but could actually publish) written earlier this month, its been difficult to get a computer that doesnt have conniptions when I try to load this site. So stop whinging that you dont know where I am, here is news in postcard form!

Ulaan Ude (Russia, more than a month ago) -
Enjoyed some delicious shaslik (kebabs) and seeing the biggest Lenin head in the world. WHY? WHY??

Ulaan Bataar - (see last post). Everyone should go to Mongolia! Everyone. Even if you dont like fermented mares milk, you should try the cheese. Remember when everyone used hankies, and you'd find an old forgotten one in a coat pocket at the beginning of a winter? Those hard bits are Mongolian cheese! Same texture (concrete hard), same colour, and while I can't comment on the flavour of snot...the cheese was just as appetizing!

Countryside was spectacular though, especially if you like miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles of undulating grassland, punctuated with a couple of granite boulders and the occasional desert. The roads are up to a km wide (because if you dont like the dirt track you are on, you just make your own road through the grass) and fortunately we only saw one dead horse, because there are no fences to keep the animals in. and they wander freeeeeeee.

CHINA! CHINA!!!!! So much fun - loving it!

Beijing - with a day in Northern China (Hohot) to acclimatize to being stared at, Beijing was wonderful.
And everyone started eating again. It is very difficult not to under-order restaurant food in China apparently, which leads to more staring by the restaurant staff!
Thank you Olympics for making there be less pollution and clear blue skies!

My family arrived after I had been in Beijing a couple of days. My Mum, Dad, Sister, Brother-in-law, 2 nieces (3 yrs and 1 yr old) and my brother. The local papparazzi (everyone in China who has a camera) was in heaven. Who to photograph first? The kids or Michael, my brother who is 2m tall.
We quickly learned not to take the kids into any market, or let anyone touch them if they were asleep in their backpack-sedan chair (Sophie, the 1 year old had just learned to walk, and didnt care who watched her, but Lara didnt like everyones attention ALL the time). We WERE the tourist attraction.

So a quick tour of Beijing (the great wall, forbidden city, summer palace and all the government owned factories with their exorbitant price-tags) Xian (and the terracotta warriors), Shanghai and more shopping than could concievably fit on a plane within normal baggage regulations - they all had to go back to work, and I settled down to wait for my visa extension to come through. And waited, and waited, and waited.
Because of the Olympics, there was a backlog of applications, so I had a week where I couldnt leave the city. I am sad to say that I did almost nothing during this time, I read books, ate japanese food (to counter the countless banquets I had eaten with the family) and played drinking games with the Swedes every night.

Fortunately I have managed to get out of the destructive cycle and Im now in Hangzhou with its allegedly beautiful (I cant see the other side because of the smog) lake. Apparently in the early morning it is usually clear, so I am going to bike it tomorrow.

Current plans include a trip around the South to South-West China and then hopefully a train up to Tibet and overland to Nepal. Fingers Xed that they keep the border open.

So? What are you waiting for, come and join me!!!

---

Comments

[Augustin]

hey
nice to read from you. are you heading to XingJang? Kashgar is AMAZING!! but far from where you are. hope you are having great time. augustin

[Nick W]

Fermented mare's milk
I tried fermented mare's milk once. It's not as nice as it sounds.

[James T]

Re; 'while I can't comment on the flavour of snot'
Pull the other one Pearce, its got Mongolian cheese on...