Lottie Carlton

Lottie Let Loose

Lottie is let loose - come and see where is she heading this time?



Travel Blog Posts


Seen from Space?

Published: April 30th 2013Asia » China » The Great Wall
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Lottie Let Loose
April 15th 2013

So to the most exciting day of my travels - a visit to the Great Wall of China! This iconic structure is so well known it hardly needs any explanation but here's my bit of potted history to fill in any gaps. The Great Wall of China - or the 'Long Wall of Ten Thousand Li' was first started in the 3rd century BC when disparate earthern ramparts were constructed by individual states. Under Qin Shi Huangdi's unification of China (the guy of Terracotta Army fame) the Great Wall was created through joining up the previously built ramparts. Construction continued right up until the Ming dynasty in the 17th century AD. This huge defensive military project undertaken by successive Chinese Empires, with a total length of more than 20,000 km or 13,000 miles, starts in the ... read more



Beijing-a-ling

Published: April 29th 2013Asia » China » Beijing » Forbidden City
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Lottie Let Loose
April 14th 2013

After a cross taxi driver took us to our hotel from the train station early in the morning - it becomes a theme for our stay here - a one way street is not their favourite place to be in busy Beijing - we settled in with our usual post sleeper train showers and then set off for a walking tour of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Fortunately this time we had all slept well on the train so were feeling a lot more perky. As soon as we set foot outside the hotel we realised the Tiananmen Square trip would be somewhat curtailed as right outside our hotel was passing the Beijing marathon and loads of runners whizzing by in a flurry of flags and numbers and costumes. All very exciting and we cheered ... read more



World's Biggest Jigsaw Puzzle

Published: April 29th 2013Asia » China » Shaanxi » Xi'an
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Lottie Let Loose
April 13th 2013

Everything was going so well the next morning. Our planned taxi journey to the station area of Xian to pick up our coach to the Terracotta Army went without a hitch - well there was a minor blip when our taxi driver decided he would stop for breakfast en-route but apart from that all good. And then we saw the queues for the coaches to the Terracotta Warriors! As they say in Norfolk where Lottie Let Loose hails from 'Ooooh moi gard!' There were literally hundreds of people in the queue (the fact that the Chinese were actually queuing warranted a photo!) and it wasn't moving as far as we could make out. Dennis hadn't ever seen it this bad before, but this is where having a fab local tour guide comes into its own. A ... read more



Awwwwwwww!

Published: April 29th 2013Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu
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Lottie Let Loose
April 11th 2013

We set off very early the next morning for the Chengdu Panda Breeding Centre, about a 3/4 of an hour taxi drive out of the city. We had to arrive early as pandas are only active early in the morning when they wake up and eat, then eat some more, and maybe if they feel like it, eat a little bit more! The rest of the day they have to stay pretty inactive to conserve energy - there aren't really a lot of calories to be had in bamboo. Sadly there was yet another hill to get up and my asthma coughing and wheezing (not having been helped by the city smog) was getting really bad so I had to take it pretty slowly. We first went to have a look at the panda kitchen where ... read more



Defo a Dafo! Great Big Leshan Buddha!

Published: April 28th 2013Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu
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Lottie Let Loose
April 10th 2013

It turned out that although our trip notes said the huge Leshan Buddha (or Dafo or Great Buddha - wish they'd make their minds up!) was in Chengdu it was actually a one hour drive south of the city. On the coach we were treated to the very same video we'd had on the ferry out of Hong Kong. Remember? The chef and pretty girl who gets revenge on her ex by getting the chef to help her bake a cake with the delightful addition of poo to give to her ex? We had the same scenes, the cursed lift, the handing over of the poo cake and the added complications of another pretty girl vying for the handsome chef's attention. As for the conclusion we'd missed the first time round...well of course it all ended ... read more



Chengdu-be-du-be-du!

Published: April 28th 2013Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu
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Lottie Let Loose
April 9th 2013

As we arrived at Chengdu train station we said goodbye to our new soldier friends who were off to protect ********! I probably shouldn't tell you what they were off to protect in interests of national security ;) We had arrived in another massively populated Chinese city. Chengdu, with a population of around 14 million (!), is the capital of Sichuan province, famed for its hot, spicy food and we were looking forward to seeing how spicy this actually was. We had to wait in a queue at the underground taxi rank for ages, it being morning rush hour, then we bundled into 2 taxis, us in the one without Dennis, hoping we didn't get completely lost in this huge city without him and no real clue where we were supposed to be, other than what ... read more



Dam and Blast!

Published: April 23rd 2013Asia » China » Hubei » Three Gorges Dam
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Lottie Let Loose
April 8th 2013

After a final message for us over the tannoy system in the morning from Dennis 'Peace out man!' we left the Oriental Emperor and bid farewell to the crew who had looked after us so well for our amazing Yangtze River Cruise. A tour of the Three Gorges Dam now beckoned and we boarded coaches to take us towards the early morning awakenings of Sandouping where the dam is sited. In terms of capacity our guide is proud to tell us that The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest although she admits the Aswan dam is five times higher size wise. The site was chosen due to the granite rock and the width of the river bed at this point. Then followed many statistics that just became, blah blah blah to me. I much prefer ... read more



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Lottie Let Loose
April 7th 2013

And so to the impressive gorge sections of our Yangtze River Cruise. First to wow us is the Quatang Gorge, its huge towering mountains enveloping us on both sides in all their majesty. Massive folds of rock cascading down to the water's edge, a white stripe indicating the levels the water rises to in the winter months. Rock beautifully drizzled with vegetation clinging to its folds, lush and green against light brown. In the gorge we are suddenly dwarfed, our previously large boat now a tiny spec floating on the water as if nothing but dust. Massive grins and sighs from Lottie Let Loose, in her favoured natural environment. But even here man has made his mark with massive red lettering carved into the rocks 'Kuimen stands powerfully and sails pass trippingly' it proclaims. Personally I ... read more



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Lottie Let Loose
April 7th 2013

We were again woken up at 6.20am with an announcement over the boat's intercom and zombies were in evidence once more shuffling up to eat a massive breakfast. For someone who normally only has a slice of toast and a cup of tea in the morning I was finding the volume of food I'd been having in China quite an effort and I assumed a bit of dieting was likely to be needed on my return to the UK! As we tucked into our breakfast our boat was starting to pull into our mooring spot, up against another cruise boat, and were treated to the sight of an older gentleman standing naked, bar his white Y-fronts at his bedroom window - completely oblivious to us! Not a pretty sight it has to be said, but pretty ... read more



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Lottie Let Loose
April 6th 2013

We arrived back at the boat after our fantastic tour to the Ghost City and were immediately treated to a hot pot demonstration by one of the chefs. One of the ingredients was dried mushrooms, packed into tiny boxes not much bigger than a standard matchbox. Once re-hydrated these turned into a huge pan full of jews-ear mushrooms! I couldn't taste the hot pot as it was meaty, but it was judged delicious by the others. Sadly we learnt that we wouldn't be able to stop off at the Shabao Zhai pagoda in the afternoon after all as not enough people had signed up to make it a viable excursion. So instead we settled down to a session of cards 'Beat up the Landlord' joined by the lovely Mr Wong in his red star hat. We ... read more






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