Travelling (Three)

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Hello everyone,

I am still having an amazing time here in China!! 😊
since I last wrote I have been to a really lovely town called Pingyao, which is about 1-2 hours on the bus from Tiayuan. When we got there the bus stopped and we were instructed to get off where we were duly instructed to follow this guy where we would find "cheap hotel" so we followed him for a bit and just kept him hanging while we went from place to place negotiating the best price as we had 7 of us we have found that the best way. we eventually found a fantastic place with really comfortable beds and a really nice court yard just outside.
we then had some lunch before going for a wander around the city. the city was a fantastic place just as we had imagined china was! it was surrounded by the a wall and in places you could see the mud and straw that was used to construct it. else where it was grey bricks. In the middle there is a market selling all kind of random stuff - most of which is complete rubbish!! some of which was quite nice. however after a while myself and Camilla, tired of the constant pressure to buy things which we don't want, decided to wander off. we wandered around the city for a couple of hours, firstly by the wall before venturing back into the city to find out way back to the hotel. There we showered and relaxed in the lovely court yard.
When the others returned we relaxed together before setting off to find a restaurant, of Simon's choice as it was his last night. when he had made his choice we went in and had a lovely meal after which we were offered a massage, very random, but we politely declined. After dinner a couple of the girls went to make a phone call so we went to a bar and met them in there, in there we met a few other westerners which had been doing the same route a us. we had a few drinks in there before making our way back to the hotel for a couple more drinks before bed.
the next day we got up and went back the bar we had been in the night before and they also did a really good selection of western food. and had a nice fry up and some amazing satsuma juice which was gorgeous. most of the 'juice' sold here tastes like squash or just some kind of sugary syrup... nasty. we then went and took Simon to the bus station as he had to go back to Tiayuan to catch a flight to Beijing for his return to England. We were all quite sad to be loosing a member of the group. after Simon had left we made out way to a temple which was yet another really nice temple, so we spent a few minutes there and met a really nice Chinese couple and spoke to them for a few minutes before heading back. When we got back we had a bit of an argument with out rickshaw driver as he had made a mistake and still wanted his money when we had agreed a price! luckily there were two really nice girls passing by whom spoke English and helped us out.
We then had to get the bus back to Tiayuan so we could get out night bus to Xi'an. When we arrived back in Tiayuan bus station, where there had been lots and lots of taxis when we had left the day before there were now none. we had to haggle with someone in order to get back to where the night bus left. when we arrived we were in desperate need of food so we went to KFC... not exactly authentic Chinese but it filled a hole. We then went to the bus station and got on the bus. we put out bags in the hold and were given a tag which we were all very happy about as we were worried as night buses are notorious for bags getting stolen. so we get on the bus and found out beds and laid down. The bus pulled out of the bus station and went around the corner before filling up the isles with a load more people. unfortunately this meant that I was to get hardly no sleep that night as I had elbows on me all night and one of the guys next to me stank!! I was in the middle of the bus but I was told that apparently one of the many unscheduled stops that we made that we picked up some cigarette packets filled with a suspect white powder. hmmm very dodgy.
Anyway when we arrived in Xi'an it was raining and we spent ages trying to find the hostel. We did eventually find a place but could only stay one night as there was a mid autumn holiday, a bit like a week long bank holiday, although all this meant to us was everything was busy or sold out. so we had some breakfast and then got settled in our room before going to see a museum and a pagoda, from a distance. then we went back to the hostel and got chatting to a few people before wandering around the corner for a nice cheap dinner.
The next day we had to move house, we went over to another hostel which was in the centre of the city. We then went to visit a mosque followed by lunch and then we went in search of a bus to Shanghai and to try and get onto the city walls. The Mosque was good but not how I had expected it to be as it was well very Chinese. but we saw a bit of the local Muslims praying. We could not get a bus all the way to Shanghai but more on that later...
The search for the wall was interesting, as we found the wall no problems but getting on it was a different matter. on our search we saw a local parade which was fantastic. with drums and dancers all in traditional dress. brilliant. Eventually we got a bus back to the centre and got onto the wall for a quick stroll and watched the sunset before dinner and back to the hostel for a few drinks and more random conversations with other travellers.
The next day we had we did an organised tour with a bus and a tour guide, called Wendy who was completely mad but brilliant. She took us to a number of different attractions including the Terracotta warriors and a village from 6000 years ago. Finishing with a hot spring up in the mountains where various emperors had stayed. Everyone got on really well with out tour guide and we ended up inviting her out for dinner which was really nice.
The next day, our final day in Xi'an was a more relaxed kind of day with a bit of wandering around the local market and the usual haggling which causes great amusement for all. We also saw the bell tower and the drum tower which had great and had fantastic views of the city. we were also treated to shows in both towers, we all agreed the drum show was better, fantastic!!
Then we caught our bus to Nanjing, which is about 4 hours from shanghai. again we picked up a few extra passengers this seems to be the norm here. but after a long night we arrived and then went in search of some breakfast. ended up being McDonalds, but at least they do nice coffee.
we then went to the railway station and found out the price, however we would have had a really long wait as the next available trail wasn't for hours. So we thought we'd try and catch a bus. we went towards a bus station and met the usual shifty characters who told us they would take us to the bus so reluctantly we got in their van expecting to be taken to a bus station. we weren't. we were actually dropped off on the hard shoulder of the motorway!! I was a wee bit worried to say the least. so we waited and we waited while these guys tried to stop a bus as it went pasted, the promised bus came and went. eventually they stopped a completely empty bus which we boarded. the 2 guys assured us that it was going to shanghai. they were trying to get out money when we decided to ask the driver if he was going to shanghai. the bus wasn' t.o we argued and argues and eventually we got dropped at this service station. about 20km down the road from nanjing. we were just investigating taxi's when the girls found a bus to shanghai. the driver seemed a bit indecisive but did eventually allow us to sit in the ailes. never again will we moan about those people. we were just glad to be on out way.
We eventually arrived in Shanghai and found the hostel. Where John started to feel unwell. we had dinner in a very weird kind of bbq place and they brought red hot coals to the table which had kind of build in bbq place and we cooked all kinds of food. then we had a quick wander around the local area before bed and off to the centre the following day...

will try and write more soon. sorry it's taken so long to write but kind of hard to get Internet sometimes here

lots of love

Mark

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