From the ancient Orient to the cutting-edge

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China was only an afterthought on the road to Sydney, undertaken partly because I had more time than expected and partly because I didn't think the lads were capable of making up to Beijing on their own : - )! But I'd have hated to have missed out though on what we've seen over the past week. We could never come away from this trip and boast that we have "done China". Giving 2 weeks to such a fascinating and vast country when it deserves 2 months means we only have time for the well worn path and popular cities of Yangshuo, Hong Kong, Shaghai and Beijing. But it already feel like we've been here for months.

By the time I leave Beijing next Friday I'll probably be the size of a small house, in fairness the gills are starting to form already! The food's been excellent here, with the odd exception.... none of us have had the guts to try the snake bile wine, bamboo rat (actually kept in a cage outside many restaurants like bloated gerbils so you can pick and choose the one you'd like), dog or chicken's feet yet! I have however conquered one demon while in Vietnam and China. You see you just don't need chopsticks in Cappatagle, they were never really designed for bacon and cabbage! And I had survived just fine through Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, forks and spoons being readily available however that luxury stopped in China so it was really a case of learning quicksmart or starving to death. I'll not catch any flies with them and there is still a fair amount of stabbing going on but I'm getting there!

Yangshuo was our first stopover in China and really was beautiful. It's a popular destination for tourists from all over China due to its stunning scenery. It's set in a valley at the junction of two rivers and surrounded by rolling hills and limestones karsts similar to the ones we'd just seen jutting out of the water in Halong Bay. It's also got some great little bars and restaurants and does a roaring trade in rip-off designer handbags! Not a bad place to put the feet up for a few days, the heavy rain and stiffling humidity meant you never really felt like doing much more than that..

Surviving with only 3 phrases of Mandarin has been fine actually, most of the shopowners and restaurants in Yangshuo had English and when we stepped off the train into the concourse and stared blankly around the town of Guilin we were 'lucky' enough to run into Mack who ran a hotel in Yangshou and accompanied us all the way on the bus. He was a bit of a character alright but looked after us well in the end. One day he even came cycling with us to the caves waited the 3 hours for us to eat and visit. His wife was also mad as a hatter and would shout even if she was standing right beside you, she hadn't a word of english and her communication involved over-elaborate hand signals and laughing hysterically. Good craic all the same...!

Apart from a day cycling around the area the only other thing we did of note was a day trip to the caves under the mountain called Buddha Water Caves. Actually they were fairly good and we had a a few stops to keep us entertained along the route, firstly squeezing through a gap that looked no more than 6 inches wide at first, wading knee high through an underground river for 400 metres and best of all a big mud fight at the end! Yes, we were getting used to these mineral mud baths now, but unlike the civilisation of Nha Trang, this one was a free-for-all! Carnage ensued as the doughy mud was plentiful so we flung it at each other for half an hour...all while 400 metres under ground and freezing. A great way to spend the afternoon!

The 'sleeper' bus to Hong Kong promised much and it seemed like the 11hr overnight journey would be a breeze....It was like a normal bus but with two rows of bunk beds along each window and one more row in the middle. Sounds fine right, except the beds were designed for wee Chinese and not lanky 6"1' Galwaymen, meaning I had only two positions you can lie in, scrunched up to the left or scrunched up to the right. The roads were also the worst I have ever been on, and I include Cappatagle bog road in this! You really felt every painful one and the journey took 3 hours longer than advertised. A new entry straight in at number one for worst journey so far....

While I'm bitching the other thing that is slightly annoying about the Chinese is their habit of spitting everywhere. And I mean really hocking one up! The guy across from me in this cafe has just spat out on the ground, its disgusting! Oh and they also can't queue to save their lives, very frustrating when they jump in front of you at every given opportunity!

But China is modernising at a massive rate. You only have to look around this internet cafe is packed with young kids playing computer games and instant messanger. All the time though you can still tell that there is the shadow of the Government keeping an eye on proceedings in the background. Take today for example, in order to use this computer I had to give my passport in at the door, I haven't been able to read BBC news for ages (one of the Western sites they determine to be corruptible and ban in many places) and since Google sold out and agreed to let the Chinese Government monitor what they can show on their pages (no opposition sites no criticism) their sites can regularly crash. In fact they are probably keeping an eye on me as I write this......!!

Hong Kong is a great city, more like New York than anywhere else on earth but fook mai, it's expensive there! Its a bit of a shock too, after 3 months in real Asian cities you are dropped back into the west overnight. They have one of the finest public transport systems I have ever seen, the metro is fantastic, trains spacious and air conditioned and stations spotless. Begs the question how come the Brits could put such a great system here but leave their own tube in such a state!!
In fact the Brits didn't do a bad job here, the border control is strictly controlled and you can see why, the people here enjoy a standard of living unheard of in mainland China. Now ruled by China again, its run as a Special Adminstrative Region (SAR), or one country two systems. They've got their own currency, laws, border, and political systems and crossing over takes ages, you even have you temperature taken as you walk through! But by God its a shock to the system after paying Vietnamese, Thai and Laos prices for beer. 5EUR a bloody pint, its daylight robbery and the sooner you can accept this and just forget what you've been paying the sooner you'll start to enjoy yourself...

It's the small things in life that make it so enjoyable and it was one such thing that put me in a good mood for all of last Tuesday. The other lads are travelling on British passports by choice (Dondo and Bugsy) or necessity (Martin). We arrived into the travel agents to have our visas done for re-entry to China, to be told it would cost 35EUR for the Irish and 70EUR for the Brits, twice the price.....cue much swearing on behalf of the lads! "After all we've done for you!"

Our last day in HK was an interesting one. Martin cashed in some of his loyalty hotel points and we stayed in the Intercontinental for the last night! Spent the evening sipping cocktails on the top foor over looking the harbour...nice but we probably stood out just a tad with our filthy backpacks, shorts and flipflops! Went for a quiet ONE pint in the local Irish bar to catch the end of the Italy game, was just about to leave at the end when I heard my name being called. Sitting at the bar was Fergie, a guy I'd been to school with 15 years ago and was here
on his honeymoon, my parents had even been to the wedding in Mayo 2 weeks previously! Well he has a lot to answer for, after buying us drinks all night we almost missed our flight next morning only just checking in 20mins before take-off. Thanks Fergie!

We have just arrived in Shanghai and have only 2 days here, something I am glad about given first impressions of this city. I don't think we are going to like it much here. There is a cloud of smog hanging constantly over the city that blocks out most of the many large buildings and the air tastes of foul petrol fumes...I'll let you know next week if it improves!

Enda

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Photos

And this week there's a new Number One
The view from Moon Hill, Yangshou was as spectacular as any other I've seen on the trip

They've found me!
Discovery after 4 days surviving only on my own urine...

Caked
To a certain extent we've managed to bond since we joined up as 4

Brucie bonus
The sighting of this statue was a welcome surprise