fraybentosdoesasia

After China’s endless claims of OLDEST, LONGEST, BEST PRESERVED, at various tourist sites, it is a great feeling to be in the world’s BIGGEST democracy. This does have occasional drawbacks, most often when trying to get something done: the downside of a bit of healthy democracy is that everyone has his or her own opinion about how things should be done …. So it takes that bit longer to actually do it. At times Clare possibly sounded like a raving NIKE fan, ‘just do it!’ I know from your feedback about previous blog entries (thanks for being honest!) that most of you are far too busy to read the detailed insights of our travels, so I keep it brief this time (this also helps me as I my former high speed typing ability has diminished ... read more

Ni hao women de pungyou ... jintian nimen gaoxing ma? And for those of you who cannot understand the above... hello to our friends, are you happy today? Time to put our Mandarin lessons into practise! First, and possibly the biggest challenge travelling in China is obtaining a ticket to get to your next destination. Trains are often full & you can spend days waiting for tickets ... if you're English & have been brought up to queue properly. When in a Chinese railway station the trick is to forget any etiquette you have ever been taught & find a way to push in the queue/mass of people, as close to the front as you can. Ticket counters are sometimes quite entertaining places as it's the scene of much angst & melodramatics, but once you are ... read more