jenniffler

Right, second blog entry of the day, and a big update on everything we've been doing! Now back in Beijing, and can hardly believe I'm flying to Tokyo on Wednesday! Will go back to Dandong and update from there :) So, we went to the North Korean restaurant. It was... really interesting, actually. The decor was cheesy and very 70s, 'We Are The Champions' was playing, and we noted that they were selling Evil Imperialist Capitalist Coke, but the waitresses looked very cute, decked out in their little blue hostess outfits and matching shoes/hair clips. We ordered some standard Korean fare - love Korean tea - and it tasted pretty good, but what was funniest was that our waitress really wasn't all that friendly. We decided that they must have thought us to be American, and ... read more

Hello all, have made it to Dandong and made it to a (surprisingly non-dark and non-scary) internet cafe, and we feel almost as though we've landed in Korea! A lot of fun, and an ace city, but more on that later. Last stop was Hohhot, and off to Beijing. The overnight bus wasn't as horrific as I'd feared - picked up some kung-fu moves courtesy of Jackie Chan and people didn't smoke/spit, but my seat didn't recline and the man in front loved his mobile phone a little too much! So didn't sleep a great deal and when the bus got in at 4.20am we were confronted by a bunch of scary men, so hopped in a taxi to central Beijing. In the end, had a great little daytrip to Beijing! Dumped our bags in a ... read more

Greetings from Inner Mongolia! Apologies (especially to Dad!) for the relative dearth of blog entries - unfortunately have spent the last couple of days being pretty sicky and not really in a bloggy mood. However, feeling a lot better now, and very excited for the days ahead! This is going to be a beast update, and I'll definitely try to add some photos if I can. Right... so. Leaving from Xi'an. We'd booked ourselves on to a hard sleeper from Xi'an to Xining, a city which is right on the Tibetan Plateau. The train itself was fine, despite being on the top bunk! Chinese hard sleepers are a pretty civilised way to travel - bunks are comfy and clean enough, in tiers of three, and although open to the corridor, everyone settles down not too badly. ... read more

A MUCH better day today. For a start, MY BACKPACK ARRIVED!!!! Went downstairs in the morning just on the off-chance, and there it was! Minus a minor hand sanitiser explosion, all is well with it, although I'm definitely keeping those 'Quick Transfer' and 'Expidite This Baggage' labels (aye RIGHT) as war medals! So I had a pretty nice morning of generally looking at outfits that weren't my travelling outfit, and having a good long shower (a cool shower...!), then headed to Tiananmen Square. Was pretty buzzing, lots of people, lots of staring but was all good... funniest moment was definitely when a tiny child just about sparked a major incident by making a break for the Chinese flag in front of the Forbidden City! Suddenly there was police everywhere, and a highly embarrassed mum! The only ... read more

It's all seeming very soon now! For quite some time it was all very far away; as though all the planning was simply just planning, with nothing concrete actually taking place at the end of it. Even my flights seemed pseudo-booked, confirmation emails floating around in the ether. But now, I am flying out next week, NEXT WEEK, I finish up work for good tomorrow at half past 12, and last night I lay awake for half an hour making a million different lists in my head. Still so many things to do before heading to London, and then on to Beijing. I've definitely made progress since the last entry, mind you! What is scary is everything that is yet to be done. I think most of the stressful things are actually incidental to travel, such ... read more