stoxenus
Jamie Bowles Joined: April 16th 2008
Logged in: May 1st 2009
Logged in: May 1st 2009
Travel Blog Posts
sunrise
so it took fucken ages to get to Yangshuo, its such a awesome place and i will definitly go back there when i go back to China. so from Wuchang we took a 5.5hour bus to the tain station, the train then took 14 hours to get to Guilin, we arrived in Guilin at 6am and then got a bus Yangshuo which took maybe an hour or 2 i dont remember, so we saw the sun come up in the amazing landscape, there are rocks/limestone/little mountains just scattered across the landscape, its so beautiful and amazing to see. so we got to our hostel and had some free time, mw and Oscar went to the Li river and took a bamboo raft up the river to see the scenery. that evening we had a cooking class, ... read more
Chongqing
So after changing our plans we took a bus to Chongqing, it was an 8 hour bus ride and our driver almost fell asleep, everyone was dozing on the bus (even the driver) when Sabine and Tom saw that the driver was starting to nod off. so they jumped up and started making noise to wake him up, after that Terry our tour guide went up the front and spoke to the drive to keep him awake. it turned out that he had been drive all night and now all day with us. the bus was pretty shitty and dirty. after we stopped off for some lunch and so the driver could have a nap we drove on and finally made it to Chongqing, it a pretty big city. we found our hotel which had nice ... read more
P1020172
So we arrived in Chengdu, its a cool place, we all wished we had more time here seeing it was so cool. so we checked in and then went to this cool tibetan street which was just around the corner from where we were staying. it was a cool little walk way street place. like a mall or arcade back home. we had some food and then decided to jump in a cab and go to the peoples park. it was a really nice big park with a huge tea house and ppl doing dancing and a man made lake. so we hired a row boat and tried to row it around, so i found out im not that great at rowing but at least i gave it a shot. after the row we went and ... read more
P1010985
So after a 13hr!!!! train ride we arrived in Xian and booked into our hotel. Xian is so cool its the old capital of china (i think) and had the cool wall that use to run all aroud it but the city has expanded so much that its also outside of the walls. so once we had checked in our tour leader showed us around alittle and we decided to go to the muslim area and look around. it was a cool part of the town and we looked around for a while and met a really nice local girl who was looking after her uncles shop. we spoke to her for like an hour and then looked around some more. we went to pizza hut for tea, yeah i know how chinese can you get, ... read more
P1010938
Look im back.... so yeah thought i would pick this up again. so today i went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden city. i know this sounds bad but i didn't really get that excited about Tiananmen square. Maybe if i had gone in and saw chairman Moa's body it might of been more.... whats the word, i guess what im trying to say is it just felt like a public place, nothing special. So then we went to the Forbidden City and that was dissapointing, there was scaffolding all over the place and it was packed (which is to be expected i guess, maybe they are trying to get it ready for the olympics) it did have a nice garden at the end tho. after the forbidden city we went to a home/shelter for mentaly ... read more
P1010798
So it finally stopped raining (continuation from last blog) and i decided to go for a walk, so i walked up to Tiananmen Square. it was nice and cold from all the rain that day. so i walked around and saw the lowering of the flag and then went to walk back to the hostel. On the way back i bumped into Kate, Brandy and Deven and they were going to have duck for tea and invited me aswell. so we walked around a huge block and finally got to the duck restuarant (we went the long way). It was really nice and we all got to know each other and had duck and beer. then we went back to the hostel and to bed. The next day we all met in the common area and ... read more
P1010653
So yeah im writing this fom China but its all about New Zealand baby so lets see what i can remember.... we arrived the night before Aunty Kerrys birthday, we stayed at this awesome townhouse, unit thingy at the Viaduct, it was nice but a little noisy. So we had a suprise party for aunty Kerry at Lindas house, it was a fun night catching up with everyone, we went up the sky tower and took lots of photos and scott jumped off of it, 190ish meters i think, cant remember. we went to dads reunion, that was ok i guess all old ppl talking about the good old days. We went to see Zarry and May and i got a reading from May, seem like im going to have an awesome trip. That night we ... read more
P1010748
So now im in China, Ive been keeping a diary (kinda) of China so i can remember what ive done and on what day. so here we go. The flight from Auckland to Shanghai was diverted to Japan for an hour because it was to foggy to land in Shanghai. we sat in the pane for an hour while they refueled. when we landed and the plane had stopped we all had to sit in our seats while two Japanesse ppl came on the plane with face masks on and videoed everyone on the plane. was strange but then we got on the way and landed in foggy/maybe smoggy Shanghai. i got a taxi to my hotel coz i wanted a hotel for my first night. on the drive i saw rows and rows and rows ... read more
me and meg
So im sitting here and it still hasn't sunk in that i'll be leaving Australia for a year or more. Theres just to much to be excited about that i dont think i can be excited about it as a whole. Ive got Korn tomorrow night which is going to be so awesome and then i fly off to New Zealand for my auntys 60th and to spread my Ganddads ashes. After New Zealand im off to China, ive been wanting to go to China for so long and its kind of unbelievable that i am actually going, then its onto England and eventually Europe. so i guess i should put pics on here so i can see what it looks like. guess the only pics i really have are my going away drink ones. im ... read more
