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Published: March 31st 2009
Tell me the way to go home.....
i'm tired and i want to go to bed!!!!!Ni hao (hello) from China!!!!
Well we have a lot to catch up on now that we have left India far behind us and moved on to China, a totally different ball game!!!
First of all we arrived in Hong Kong airport after a good flight with Jet airways, the airport was spotless and we had a smooth journey into the centre via an express tube/train. We headed to our first place of accommodation which was a YMCA building, not like the ones I've seen before!!! this one was an upmarket travel lodge whereby they had put two bunk beds in a hotel type room, so 4 people shared the cost - and the en suite..... At this stage we were not all that used to the currency and happily paid 52 British pounds between us for the privilege!!! We only stayed for one night, finding a double room for 150 hong kong dollars (15 pounds a night) for the rest of our stay, but what a room it was!!!! i think the term is 'micro' room, basically a small double bed with a room built around it (literally!), yes it had an en suite.... well if sitting on a
Hong Kong at night
Lightshow at the harbour. toilet sidewards with your legs in the bedroom counts! But we both really liked the lady owner, who was super cute with her pigeon English and made us laugh a lot.
Hong Kong is everything a major city should be, it has lots to see and do, is very clean, good city transport with a underground metro which puts London's to shame! Millions of designer shops (we fitted right in with our merrells and socks!), it is also very expensive to eat and drink, a big shock to our wallet after Indian prices!
On our first day we applied for our China Visas which was really easy and meant we had three days to explore before we could head into Mainland China. We saw a light show of the skyline down by the harbour one night, took a cable car ride through the hills to a giant bronze buddha, visited a temple and took the strangest form of transport through the city which consisted of 40 sets of escalators!
The weather in Hong Kong was another change for us as although it was warm/humid, there was no sun and the nights were cooler.
We got our China visas and
Chopstick gallery.
We have a set of these beauties on its long way home! took a bus ride into Guangzhou (about 4 hours), stopping twice in between to go through immigration and customs. As we were the only English speaking people on the whole bus we had no idea of what was going on when the bus stopped and just presumed it was a toilet break, so stayed on..... luckily the driver saw us in the nick of time, so we were not illegal immigrants!!!
We were dropped in Guangzhou at nowhere in particular, but still we tried to find our way, walking aimlessly around the streets with our 2001 guidebook in hand (not having a clue where we were to begin with!) This is when it dawned on us we couldn't read any signs or communicate with anyone to ask for help!
It's an odd feeling being surrounded by people, yet feeling alone! After struggling for about 45 mins with our backpacks still on we found a company called 'wall street English' so decided to head in and hope for the best, the lady behind the desk was really helpful and wrote some directions down on a post it note in Chinese which we could hand to a taxi driver...as they don't
Hong Kong by day
Bit of a change from Great Yarmouth! speak a word of English either!
We went round the houses abit, but finally we arrived at a youth hostel, pretty late, and managed to get the last two beds in a packed 10 person dorm.
Guangzhou is also a big city with an underground tube system but not an awful lot to do so we moved on quickly to a place called Yangshuo (about 9 hours on a bus), we had been recommended this place by another traveller and we are both really pleased we went, it is very picturesque with all the odd shaped mountain peaks you see in Chinese paintings, It also has a river running through it.
Whilst here we saw Cormorant fishing. Basically we went out on a boat, which followed a fishing boat containing a fisherman and his flock of 8-10 cormorant birds. The birds jump off the boat when told to do so by their owner and duck down catching fish along the way...they then come back to the boat and the fish are taken from their mouths before it gets the chance to swallow! (they have a tightened string around their necks preventing them from swallowing). The cormorants are allowed to
Tandem power!
Matching tops and all! eat every 7Th fish they catch, apparently they refuse to work otherwise!!!!
Another day we hired a tandem bike and headed off for the hills! It was so much fun, especially coming down the hills at about 50mph - with Ami at the back not being able to see or control, she screamed her head off, due to the lack of brakes!!!
I took an hours art lesson and was taught the art of Chinese traditional painting which was really cool and i seemed to get the hang of quite well.
We also visited a cave, which was nice to look at but not so helpful having a Chinese speaking guide showing us around!!!
The highlight of Yangshou for us was when one night we were approached in the street by two 17yr old girls who wanted to practise their English, this resulted in us going back to their school with them and taking a lesson for a whole class! (me being the teacher and Ami, my classroom assistant!) Afterwards we sat in the school gardens, being plied with beer and having questions fired at us from all angles!!!
Our first train journey in China took us to Chengdu
Cormorant Bird
Big fellow isn't he??!! after 25 hours, this is where we currently are but we are moving on tomorrow. The train itself was really clean and a whole lot nicer than India's trains, they even supplied pillows and duvets! During the journey i did some sketching which created an audience and many photographs. Ami decided to try and speak to them (via guidebook phrases), which ended in a full blown Chinese lesson - which was hilarious!
Chengdu is very big and everything is spread out so lots of walking involved. So far we have been to a couple of art galleries, visited a Panda breeding research centre and seen Dafo (the worlds largest buddha).
The Panda centre was superb! it had around 70 giant panda's of all different ages (including cubs). We were there early morning so got to see feeding time, which was super cute for the cubs who were drinking milk from a bottle whilst laying on their backs! It was so surreal to see them with our own eyes and so sad at the same time to know that they are going to be extinct, we could have watched them all day!
Dafo the buddha was a 2 hour bus journey
Quiet in Class!!!
Ami's contribution 'Hangman!' away in a place called Leshan, and well worth the journey! Its hard to begin to describe just how big he is, and I'm sure the pictures wont do it justice, very cool to experience.
On the way up to Dafo (yet again many steps!) we bought a padlock which i engraved a message onto, then we locked it to a few of thousands/ possibly millions of others. All of these padlocks are engraved with wishes and thoughts and the owner takes the key with them as good luck, to keep their wishes close to their heart.
China's food is adventurous, to say the least, as nothing is off limits!!! All dishes contain a lot of ginger which takes some getting used to, but generally we are enjoying the cuisine. Each area has its own specialities - Chengdu is known for its spice and we are saving crispy duck for Beijing.
The weather at the moment is reminding us of home!!! not good at all, we are wearing most of our clothes so at least our backpacks are light! there has been rain, fog, wind, just damn right cold!! Its very unpredictable, but has not stopped us doing
Silver caves
Not so silver! anything yet.
So far we are both thoroughly enjoying China, but wish we could speak the language as each time we need to communicate with anyone it consists of a whole lot of pointing and sign language! amusing when trying to buy shaving foam - and ending up with tights!!!
So that's all for now folks! and we will update in a couple of weeks....just to finish off, we would like to add that we have noticed a severe decrease in the amount of comments we are getting! Is it because you are not reading it anymore...??? lost interest???? or simply a case of out of sight out of mind???... either way we request you all buck your ideas up and get typing! after all this blog is for your benefit as we know what we have done!! NO COMMENTS.....NO BLOG!
Leave it with you x
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Claire P
non-member comment
Ouch!!!
what a burn hon but I defo deserved it x x please don't stop the blog it brightens up the crappy britsh days :) I'm just sooooooooo jealous of your travels that they put yarco life to shame!!! I can just imagine trying to communicate in china I have enough trouble ordering a take away ha ha, make sure you pick up some cooking tips or maybe just sneak a little chef into your back pack and bring them home! the time is just flying by it doesn't seem a week since you have been gone. I can't wait to finish school and get a job so I can book some holiday and come and track you down!!!! I look forward to hearing what you get up to on your birthday old bird you will have to try and cause enough trouble for all of us (probably best not to get arrested though!!!!) miss you loads and loads, don't talk to too many dodgy men and keep safe xxxxxxxxxxxxxx