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Hello everyone, well on sunday we went to the great wall of china, it took 2 hours to get there by car. Again very scary being in a car with mad chinese drivers. We shared our car with an american couple called talbot and keisha who were really friendly and we had a good chat with them. You have never ever seen so many steps in your entire life, it was so hard as its all uphill in the sweltering heat, and that is just to get you to the actual wall. After about a 2 hour walk to the top watchtower the scenery was amazing and it is so hard to get your head around the fact that something this size was built hundreds of years ago on top of a mountain range. It is so big and covers thousands of kilometers and it mkes you wonder how long it took to build and how many people worked on it. Once we got to the top we really could not face coming all the way back--too much like hard work so we cheated and took a cable car back to the bottom. On the ride home keisha announced that
talbot has proposed to her at one of the top watchtowers and she said yes, so that was nice.
We have also been talking to a few people from the hostel in Beijing. Its good to hear other peoples plans for travel. Most people in the hostel are doing long trips. We met two Aussie teachers who were on holiday in Beijing before going back to the countryside to teach English to kids, and an Irish paraglider who had been to a business convention in Shanghai. Not sure how that goes together!
When we got back from the Great wall we went for another walk around Beijing to look for somewhere good to eat. We decided to go to a place that we had got a drink in the day before but when we got there they gave us an expensive English menu so we finished our beers and got a taxi to KFC! Finger licking good!
We have just realised how cheap it could be if you really scrimp it. Before getting on the Sleeper train to Xi-an we bought a few things from the local supermarket. It is very cheap. A can of beer for
10p? Cant go wrong. We bought two chinese pot noodle type things, two toilet rolls, baby wipes and prawn crackers for a pound. We have also done our first bit of haggling. We didnt bring a watch or phone so Donna has telling the time by reading the sun or something, i dont know but shes quite accurate. Unfortunately she is not too good at getting up on a morning (joking) so we decided to buy a cheap watch with an alarm. We got the lady down from 120 Yuan to 75 Yuan (about 5 quid). Not bad. We also bought our own chopsticks coz were proper good with them now (kind of)!
So now we are in Xi-an. Another big city but it looks nicer than big old Beijing. Just got here a couple of hours ago after a 13 hour journey that first looked like being a nightmare but turned out ok. We booked two Soft sleeper train tickets through our Hostel in Beijing to leave at 6.30pm from Beijing West train station. We looked at the map and thought not too far about a twenty minute walk. So we packed our stuff and were walking past
reception when the girl gave us a piece of paper with West Beijing Train station written in Chinese so that we could show the taxi driver. We thought it was a bit odd as the train station is only round the corner but it turned out we were just about to go off to the wrong station with no time to spare. After showing the taxi driver the paper (he spoke no English) he started making gestures which we guessed meant it was a long way and we might not make it because of the traffic but luckily he is good at changing lanes without indicating and got us there with time to spare. Unfortunately the train station is huge and very very busy. By the time we found out where to get the train from it had left. Nightmare. We changed our tickets for a later train but we would now be in seperate carriages. 3 hours later after worrying about the journey we got on the train. I had a word with one of the train staff and tried to explain to him that we wanted to be together by showing him the two different tickets. Luckily he
was a very nice man and let us stay together.
Each room had 2 bunk beds so me an laurie had a top bunk and a chinese man, woman and little boy had the bottom bunks. It was a bit strange sharing as i had to get my jammies on under the quilt and it was awkward going to the toilet in the middle of the night as i had to step on the mans bunk to get on the floor whilst trying to be quiet. In fact let me tell you about the toilets which i took a piccie of to give you all a laugh---they are disgusting!!!! They absolutly stink and i dont no whether my thighs are getting toned from all the walking or the squatting haha!!
On the train loads of old aussie grannies had been drinking god knows what in there rooms and they came out giggling like drunk teenagers--quite funny. It was nice on the train as we got to see the little villages out in the countryside and it really is beautiful. There was lots of people practising tai chi this morning and farmers working the fields by hand.
Well
we have only been here a couple of hours but it seems really nice, we had some breakfast and we are going to have a walk round shortly and see what is out here. We are going to go see the terracotta warriors tomorrow. We are now in the Bell tower hostel and it is so nice, it works out at 12 pound a night for us both and thats a double with an en suite and the room is really spacious and the shower is very good too better than leo hostel.
Hope you enjoy the pictures, we cannot put them all on as it takes so long for the pictures to upload and we have places to be..people to see so we will be in touch soon and we love you all loads!!!!!
P.S NEE HOW IS HELLO IN CHINESE!!
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NEE HOW
NEE HOW YOU TWO GLAD TO HEAR FROM YOU WAS GETTING LITTLE WORRIED .IT LOOKS GREAT YOU TWO WILL HAVE A BRILLIANT TIME TALK TO YOU SOON LOVE X MISS YOU LOADS TAKE CARE LOVE MUM X MARK XXX