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Published: July 12th 2009
Fun in the fountain.
It was so hot we were playing in the fountains to cool down.So, we headed from Xi'an leaving behind the terracotta warriors and the friendly fellow travellers.
We have come to realise that our domestic tour of China has allowed us to learn more about the customs and traditons of a chinese culture. the fellow travellers we met seemed to have a lack of knowledge in certain areas such as birthday traditions and pop culture in China, which we hadmanaged to acquire whilst staying with Olina.
Anyway, we got the train to Yichang which turned out to be 16 hours. We figured out to how to make hot noodles with the trains supply of boiling water and enjoyed it as our meal for the journey. We also met somemore accomodating Chinese students. Two boys helped us to figure out the train timetable for our next journey and took our phone number. As nice as it was to talk to them we got a few text messages checking we are ok, with which we replied...yes. We hope we didnt offend them.
We arrived late at night to Yichang and followed a lady to her hotel which was nice and cheap. We slept well.
8th July-
Went and found a
'Our Tour Family'
Check out ''Orange hat lady'', ''Afro Lady'' and "Loner Dude"... the list goes on. travel agancy in the middle of the city by pure luck- we seem to have it on our side. We were able to book a tour to the dam that afternoon at 2pm. So we went and got some lunch and sat in a nice park.
At 2 we went to the three gorges dam, which is huge! Unfortunately our tour guide didn'nt speak any English, so in tru travelling style we tagged along with another tour guide who spoke english. During this tour we also managed to gain the attention of a chinese family- the mum wore an orange hat...;eading to her being named ''Orange Hat Lady''. Whenever we got lost we looked for her hat, and she made sure we were ok on the tour. The dam is not yet finished another 30years and it should be. It was started in 1993 and should be finished by 2030. Anyway it was very hot and we got a good look at the dam. We then got dropped off back in Yichang and went to a restaurant-sort of shop thing, and ate what we thought looked like chicken but we now know was snail- oh well you can eat
anything in China!
After a walk around we went to bed ready for our train to Wuxi back to Olina's house the following morning.
9th of July-
We got very little sleep as the hotel was very noisy as it was ajoined to a shop/night kiosk thing.
But we got our train at 8am and arrived in a place called hankou in the afternoon, the station was mental! We had to walk a fair distance around the city to get to the departures platforms which was odd as we had arrived at a perfectly usable platform. But never mind we had somehting to eat and then caught the next train for Wuxi. We arrived at 1030pm and Olina's dad picked us up.
When we arrived home Olina had some presents for us to open. She has made us a photo frame with us in it and got us some traditional chinese fans which are so nice. Her and Her fmaily have been more than generous and it is so nice but sometimes you have to put your foot down. Just today Olina told us her dad thought of us as family and his daughter so hesaid he
the temple
this was so peacful will treat us the same as Olina.
We fell fast aleep that night tired from the train journey but ready for the travels to come.
10th July-
We woke at 10am and had breakfast, we went to a temple down the road which was lovely and so serene but massivley contrasted by the constant construction of blocks of flats surrounding it. In the afternoon we went to the town and got some stationary (sounds boring but it was well worth it as books and pens etc are like 20p). Then me Daisy and Olina went to a restaurant for our favourite food.
11th July-
Today we got up at 5 am as we went to a water town and because it was a saturday we anticipated it would be busy. Olina's dad took us and it was so pretty, like a venice of China. We visited a few stalls around the little street and got a pure silk dress for only 4 pounds! So cheap, not sure when i will wear it but hey its a novelty!
We had some luch next to the boats going through the little water streets. Then we got
tiny turtles for sale
Only 10p for a turtle on one of the boats and it was so nice, ladies move the boat and sing whilst doing it.
Later tgat evening we came back to the flat and had a delicious meal- i will really miss the food here. In the evening we visited another flat which was being decorated. (people here hire decorating companies to decorate and furnish the whole flat before they move in) Then we taught Olina and her dad how to play some card games. Her mum works 7 days a week so unfortunately she could'nt come to the water village (suzhou) as she was working.
So having a nice time back at Olina's visitn surrounding places. Felt nice returning as it felt a little bit like coming to a home from home. Next we venture to a massive house warming party of 300 people and then on to shanghai when daisy will leave and i'll be on my own!
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maggie
non-member comment
brill..
Sounds like you are having a fantastic time, we are so proud of you. Maybe I will cook you some yummy snails in one of my nice creamy sauces for your welcome home meal!! Olinas family have been so good to you both that you will have to think of something that we can buy and send them as a special thankyou gift. see you soon, miss you xxxxxx