After a hasty exit out of Kaifeng we where happy to be on our way to a new destination. The start of the journey was good, free cab ride, free bus ticket (yep a nice girl, for some reason, bought them for us ???), what more could we want.
After about 2 hours on the bus i woke up to see some tall flats, in China they really do have rows and rows of tower blocks, its insane how many people they must fit in there.
Anyway i asked Tom to get out the lonely planet book, which so far has been our most valuable item away with us, to see if we could get some sort of reference as to where we were using the road names.
It was at that point that we both realised the book was back in Kaifeng on the luggage x ray machine....bollocks. Arguing whose thought it was (toms :P) we had no choice but buy a ticket and head back to Kaifeng, i guess it was karma making us repay the ticket we had got for free.
After getting to Kaifeng we found out the lovely people there had sent it on the bus that left just after us and was now probably in Zhengzhou (pronounced Jengjo). 2 hours back on the bus and we were finally at our new destination....yay -_-.
The lonely planet book did tell us that there wasnt much cheap accomodation at this place and that it was a mini metropolis so we were excited and also anxious to see if we could find anything in our budget.
Walking into the first hotel we were greeted with prices of about 200 yuan per room. Weeeellll out of our budget. The girl who served us was really really nice. Having to decline the room we headed out, she generally seemed sorry, i think she thought we were going to sleep on the streets or something.
Walking around a bit more, with more of the same prices, i thought we would try our luck back at the hotel with the nice girl. She seemed to like us and we thought we might be able to sway her a bit.
Walking back in we tried to explain the money we had and that we wanted 2 beds 1 room. Chinese write excellent english but speaking isnt too good. So we communicated to this girl almost entirely through pen and paper.
She tried and tried, at this point Tom was saying lets forget about it, but i knew she took a liking to us and perservered with trying to explain what we wanted, she called up someone and after 5 mins on the phone she wrote down 2 beds, 1 room, 100 yuan. Bingo, Sorted!
Smiling and saying 'yes, thankyou' seemed to cheer her up. It just goes to show haggling out here really does work. We got a room half price!
Once getting to our room in good spirits they were soon raised higher when we walked in there. By far the nicest room we had stayed in so far. Opening the curtains raised the mood even higher, we were on the 7th floor and our room faced the river looking out to the rest of the city. We had hit the jackpot and we were only paying the same amount we usually paid to stay in a hostel.
We walked around the river and saw loads and loads of people dancing. Literally 2-300 people where out in the park along the river dancing and practising tai chi, we had never seen this on such a large scale in China. Its really cool, you get a sense of community in the city, something non existent in London, plus people are exercising and keeping fit, all walks of life, all ages, hopefully a tradition China will not lose.
There was a street lined with restaurants, we decided to head down there and see if anything was still open, finding a nice quiet place at the end of the strip we were quick to order up 5 dishes between us. First up a huge plate of fried vegatables, going from the size of this plate we knew we had a feast on the way, the pictures looked tiny, but Chinese people really do not mess about with their portions. Up came the second plate, even bigger than the first, it was braised beef, baby sweetcorn, runner beans, peppers, chilli's in a beef gravy kind of thing. Delicious but too big, then came the fried Chicken which was amazing, the batter had hints of soy sauce in it but the batter itself was sweet, kind of prawn cracker kind of sweetness and texture, light and fluffy, so you had a sweet and sour hitting your tongue with every bite! Then a bowl each, and it was another big bowl, of noodles with beef, mushroom, peppers and corriander sauce. A huge meal that we never got to finish but boy was it yummy!
The next few days we just walked around city, there's no real attractions in Zhengzhou, it just a nice city to spend a few days in. We went back to the first restaurant another 2 times while we were in the city, the fried chicken was just too good to resist.
It was Toms birthday while in Zhengzhou and he wanted to find a cinema to try and watch a film in english. Asking the nice girl at the counter we got some directions, getting on the bus we cruised around Zhengzhou, we saw a whole new part of the city that we hadnt seen before and i quickly understood what the guide book was getting at when it called Zhengzhou a 'mini metroplois'. It was even more built up than where we were staying, there were loads and loads of shops, shopping complexes, cafes, bakeries, restaurants and.....a cinema! Tom was getting excited with the prospect of watching a film in english on his birthday but was soon cut down when he was told no english films were being shown, well that was that dream burnt to ashes. On a slightly better note i got a lovely haagen daz ice cream. Looking around for a few hours we headed back home empty handed.
As it was tom's bday we wanted to eat something good, thoughts of that chicken soon came back into our mind and after a shower we were straight back down there to order 1 plate each of the crispy chicken and a bowl of noodles each. It was so good, and very cheap. Walking back we saw huge crowds along the river again, it felt like they were having a party out in the park everynight.
Time came and it was time to move on to our next destination. It was pretty late at night and i knew the nice girl would be working so i thought it would be a good time to go down and ask for some more help. We wanted to know how to get to the bus station. Writing down on a piece of paper she told me where to find the station, the guy who was working the night shift as well, jumped up and told me to come with him, the girl said to me 'we want to help you, it will not cost you anything' i guess my face of confusion must of looked like i was expecting to get charged for their service, anyway i walked outside with the man and he pointed to his little electric moped. I started laughing, i pointed at the bike and then pointed at me in disbelief. This thing was pretty small and being electric powered i didnt think we would get very far with me on the back. Never taking no for an answer i was on the back of this bike whizzing along at midnight. It was my first time on the back of a bike, even if it was only electric powered, it was pretty exciting. The man drove me to the bus station so i would know where to go the next day, very helpful people indeed :)
The next morning came and we had to say our goodbyes, the nice girl wrote us a note with directions and messages to give to people if we got lost, she was really helpful and i was actually a bit sad to say goodbye.
Next stop, Louyang!
Check out some pics from Zhengzhou (including the view from our room) here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_invalid/sets/72157621137803852/
Sunday 4 October 2009
Friday 2 October 2009
Kaifeng
We arrived in Kaifeng at about 6pm, we jumped off the train, put our bags on our back and walked to the exit, i heard the train starting to pull away and dropped my bags in a sudden thought of 'oh fuck!'. I then proceeded with this thought in my head with shouting out over and over 'shit, shit, fuck'. Tom stopped and asked what was wrong, i didnt even bother checking my bags, i was 100% certain of it, he asked again 'whats the matter'. I said probably the worst words a person in the middle of china can say......'ive left my wallet on the train'. Not just money, it had my passport, insurance card, BOTH of my debit cards and all of my money, to put it blunty, i was fucked.
The train was already picking up speed, i didnt even bother turning around, there was a police station at the train station, a man came out and with the use of hand action and toms wallet we got the message across.
He told us to sit down and he got on the phone, i was running through my head how on earth i would go about getting another passport, debit cards etc, for some reason i was quite certain i was going to get it back, i guess its was the goodwill of the Chinese people that i had encountered so far that led me to this thought.
A few more train operators came into the room and helped us carry our luggage into there office, by this time i was on the phone to my parents to let them know just incase i have to cancel all my cards and how long i should wait before i do it.
Luckily there was one person who talked english who worked there and he advised us they were calling the next station to ask them to look for it. I left it under my pillow when i took it off to sleep. I didnt think no one would pick it up other than the workers who change the bed sheets, all in all i was still pretty confident about getting it back.
Time ticked away, we were hoping to see some of the famous night markets of Kaifeng but it got round to 8pm and still we were being told they will let us know soon. At about 8.30pm the man told us they had found it and it was coming back on a train now, i was, as you can imagine, relieved, i thought, at the least i would have to head to the next city to pick it up myself.
As they were changing shifts they took us into a really nice swanky room where we could wait. 10pm came round and in came the workers.....They had my wallet!!! Shaking all there hands with a massive smile on my face i said thankyou.
10.30pm after a good 4 hours wait, we were in Kaifeng, we missed the night market but i was just happy to have everything on my person`:)
We had a look in the lonely planet book to see if there where any hostels near by, all of them were in the centre of town and we were outside of the city walls. We got a cab to take us into the centre of the city. In the cab we passed by the busy streets full of night markets, most where shutting up now (the guide book said the night markets are worth a visit to kaifeng alone). We got dropped off in the centre of town and picked a direction to walk in and headed off trying to find a hostel.
The markets where shutting up but the streets where still full of people, tramps and piles and piles of litter from the markets.
It was rather strange but the street names on the map of our lonely planet book differed from the actual signs on the streets. Kaifeng is pretty small so we knew we were down the right road just different names, i guess its because the book is over a year old and maybe, for some reason, they changed the street names.
Anyway we found a hotel (you can usually tell as they have numbers like 40,60,120 yuan) in the windows, stating the prices of the rooms.
We headed in there and with my newly learnt word 'binguan', meaning hotel, we quickly discovered they had no rooms. Asking where there was another cheap hotel we got pointed across the road to a rather expensive one. We sat on the pavement for a while with my torch in one hand and the map in the other trying to search for another hostel sign on the map.
We eventually found Dajintai hotel, which is the one we were looking for whilst walking around the streets, we must of passed it 3 times. Getting ourselves a nice cheap room for 40 yuan (£4) each was a good finish to the day.
There are a few 24 hour restaurant in kaifeng and managed to get a late night snack before heading to bed.
The next day we did what we usually do on the first day in a new city, walk around and get our bearings.
Upon walking around we soon discovered there wasnt really much to do here, a few temples, a park and the night market and that was pretty much it. We killed the rest of the day walking around, we just wanted to see what all the fuss was about with the night market.
7pm came round and we headed out, our hotel was down the same street the market is, its pretty much right outside. The streets were changed into a mass of stalls (easily over 300 of them), tables & chairs and plenty, plenty of people.
The streets were heaving, walking up and down the streets we noticed that, to our dissapointment, most of the stalls sold the same things.
It really wierd in china, you will find street of 50 shops selling the same thing, everywhere you go. This market was the same.
There were about 3 different types of stalls, one selling sweets, like peanuts in sugar, sweet rice puddings etc, the other selling grilled fish and meats, a lot like the Qingdao stalls i mentioned, and the last sold noodles, potatos etc. That was pretty much it, just hundreds and hundreds of these stalls selling the same thing, Very dissapointing.
We decided to stay in kaifeng for a few days, even though there wasnt anything really to do.
The biggest rip off we have come across so far was Longting park. Admission for 45 yuan, the place was surrounded by streets so really we could of just of paid and walked around its perimeter and seen all it had to offer. It had some crap statues of some people doing stuff, that really is probably the best i could describe it seriously. It had a temple at the top of the park which was filled up with more of these disney land type figures. I think we spent 30 mins in there, 20 minutes of which were spent sitting down thinking why the fuck did we pay to get in.
Kaifeng was a big let down, the park did it for us, we actually went back to the hotel checked out and got out of there and headed to Zhengzhou which will hopefully be better than Kaifeng.
The train was already picking up speed, i didnt even bother turning around, there was a police station at the train station, a man came out and with the use of hand action and toms wallet we got the message across.
He told us to sit down and he got on the phone, i was running through my head how on earth i would go about getting another passport, debit cards etc, for some reason i was quite certain i was going to get it back, i guess its was the goodwill of the Chinese people that i had encountered so far that led me to this thought.
A few more train operators came into the room and helped us carry our luggage into there office, by this time i was on the phone to my parents to let them know just incase i have to cancel all my cards and how long i should wait before i do it.
Luckily there was one person who talked english who worked there and he advised us they were calling the next station to ask them to look for it. I left it under my pillow when i took it off to sleep. I didnt think no one would pick it up other than the workers who change the bed sheets, all in all i was still pretty confident about getting it back.
Time ticked away, we were hoping to see some of the famous night markets of Kaifeng but it got round to 8pm and still we were being told they will let us know soon. At about 8.30pm the man told us they had found it and it was coming back on a train now, i was, as you can imagine, relieved, i thought, at the least i would have to head to the next city to pick it up myself.
As they were changing shifts they took us into a really nice swanky room where we could wait. 10pm came round and in came the workers.....They had my wallet!!! Shaking all there hands with a massive smile on my face i said thankyou.
10.30pm after a good 4 hours wait, we were in Kaifeng, we missed the night market but i was just happy to have everything on my person`:)
We had a look in the lonely planet book to see if there where any hostels near by, all of them were in the centre of town and we were outside of the city walls. We got a cab to take us into the centre of the city. In the cab we passed by the busy streets full of night markets, most where shutting up now (the guide book said the night markets are worth a visit to kaifeng alone). We got dropped off in the centre of town and picked a direction to walk in and headed off trying to find a hostel.
The markets where shutting up but the streets where still full of people, tramps and piles and piles of litter from the markets.
It was rather strange but the street names on the map of our lonely planet book differed from the actual signs on the streets. Kaifeng is pretty small so we knew we were down the right road just different names, i guess its because the book is over a year old and maybe, for some reason, they changed the street names.
Anyway we found a hotel (you can usually tell as they have numbers like 40,60,120 yuan) in the windows, stating the prices of the rooms.
We headed in there and with my newly learnt word 'binguan', meaning hotel, we quickly discovered they had no rooms. Asking where there was another cheap hotel we got pointed across the road to a rather expensive one. We sat on the pavement for a while with my torch in one hand and the map in the other trying to search for another hostel sign on the map.
We eventually found Dajintai hotel, which is the one we were looking for whilst walking around the streets, we must of passed it 3 times. Getting ourselves a nice cheap room for 40 yuan (£4) each was a good finish to the day.
There are a few 24 hour restaurant in kaifeng and managed to get a late night snack before heading to bed.
The next day we did what we usually do on the first day in a new city, walk around and get our bearings.
Upon walking around we soon discovered there wasnt really much to do here, a few temples, a park and the night market and that was pretty much it. We killed the rest of the day walking around, we just wanted to see what all the fuss was about with the night market.
7pm came round and we headed out, our hotel was down the same street the market is, its pretty much right outside. The streets were changed into a mass of stalls (easily over 300 of them), tables & chairs and plenty, plenty of people.
The streets were heaving, walking up and down the streets we noticed that, to our dissapointment, most of the stalls sold the same things.
It really wierd in china, you will find street of 50 shops selling the same thing, everywhere you go. This market was the same.
There were about 3 different types of stalls, one selling sweets, like peanuts in sugar, sweet rice puddings etc, the other selling grilled fish and meats, a lot like the Qingdao stalls i mentioned, and the last sold noodles, potatos etc. That was pretty much it, just hundreds and hundreds of these stalls selling the same thing, Very dissapointing.
We decided to stay in kaifeng for a few days, even though there wasnt anything really to do.
The biggest rip off we have come across so far was Longting park. Admission for 45 yuan, the place was surrounded by streets so really we could of just of paid and walked around its perimeter and seen all it had to offer. It had some crap statues of some people doing stuff, that really is probably the best i could describe it seriously. It had a temple at the top of the park which was filled up with more of these disney land type figures. I think we spent 30 mins in there, 20 minutes of which were spent sitting down thinking why the fuck did we pay to get in.
Kaifeng was a big let down, the park did it for us, we actually went back to the hotel checked out and got out of there and headed to Zhengzhou which will hopefully be better than Kaifeng.
Thursday 2 July 2009
Tai Shan & Climbing Mt Tai
We are getting better at the trains now, the journey to Tai'an was painless. Tai'an was a bit of a surprise, from what i gathered from reading the book i imagined it to be a little town at the foot of a big mountain. The place was buzzing, it was hotter than anywhere we had been and was full of life. Markets, street stalls, street vendors and probably the worst condition roads i have ever seen.
We walked down a few roads and manage to get a crowd surrounding us asking for directions to a hostel, Chinese people love to help westeners and test out their English. After 20 minutes wandering the streets hopelessly we decided to get a cab to take us to a hotel. We got dropped off at Yuzou hotel which charges 200+ yuan per night, a bit out of our price range, after asking a few locals to point us in the direction of Jixiang hotel (charges 40 yuan per night) we found ourselves settled in a spacious 2 bed room with probably the most hardest beds in China, literally 2 towels on a wooden box, that was it, no exaggeration. We didnt care £4 a night we are happy to have a roof over our heads.
We decided to hit the mountain tomorrow and just walk around for the first day. Where we were staying was right outside a temple wall with a park on the other side. It was really nice, especially at dusk.
Tai'an is quite small, it has a few large markets and some shopping malls and thats pretty much it, oh and of course Mt tai.
We had one of the worst nights sleep in China so far, i woke up with about 6 mosquito bites on my arm, i fell asleep and forget to put on the repellent. I got up to find the repellent and woke tom up in the process, though i think he was already awake due to the punishing pain of the bed.
We spent probably the next hour or so trying to kill all the mosi's in the room. We both cant sleep when we know they are buzzing around our heads. It was about 3am now and we had a mountain to climb in the morning. After a failed effort of trying to kill them we put up our nets. Thinking i was safe from the little bastards i turned on my torch to see if any where landing on the net, i managed to shine the light instantly on one that landed on the net, shouting out to Tom 'haha the fuckers cant get through' the little mosi just crawled its way through the net and started buzzing around in the net, i couldn't believe it. At this point i could not be assed to do anything, we didnt get much sleep but luckily the repellent kept them at bay. Im hoping it was a baby mosquito or something and maybe its only the female adults that feed. Have to wait and see.
The following day we woke up about 9am to head off to reach the top of Mount Tai, the excitment was brewing, a 20 minute bus ride and we were at the base of the mountain....it looked a lonnngggg way up to the top. Entrance fee was 60 yuan to get in. We set off up a road that we saw the tour buses going up, the walk was really nice, it wasnt too strenuous, it was a constant incline for about 3 hours but the sights took your mind off it. Going from the guide book we was led to believe that the route we were walking up would lead us to the summit. After 3 hours of walking we realised that this only took us to a cable car, we walked up and around another mountain to get to Mt Tai, where the mountain we had walked up was an easy steady incline, Mt Tai was not, the only way up was a cable car which was pretty annoying because we wanted to walk up there but it would of taken 8 hours extra, at the least, and probably the death of one of us to reach the top.
After paying 140 yuan for a return ticket on the cable car we stepped inside a gondola and headed up to the summit. The journey was about 8-10 minutes and we really gained some height in that time, ive never been in a gondala that climbed up so rapidly, the views got more and more sublime, and the drop below us grew each time i looked down.
After jumping off the cable car we stepped out onto the summit of Mt tai, there are temples, hostels to sleep the night and a few shops that sell incense to burn and a few things to eat and drink.
The views were amazing, its above all the other mountains in the area and you're on top of it all, it was cold, windy and rainy at the summit, wearing shorts and a tshirts we quickly whacked on our jackets, avoiding the wet and the laughs from the locals.
We walked about few 30 mins trying to get to the highest point in the area, we went off the paved trail and decided to see if we could get any higher. We saw an overhanging piece of rock that looked like it was the highest point on the mountain, it overlooked the little mountain village and looked like it was the best place to get a view of everything. Pushing our way through some bushes we made it to the rock. I stepped up first and shouted out to Tom 'fucking hell, you got to see this'. We were on top of the world, we could see all the mountains below us and even the city Tai'an where we were staying. I noticed a group of other tourist who had gathered below us on the paved trail, more and more people started to stop and stare up at us, it was like a scene from a film or something, here was this group of people all pointing up at this large figure on top of the mountain overlooking everything, i pulled off my hood and let the wind blow through my hair, they probably thought i was moses or something :P, then behind me an even larger figure appeared, resting his hand on my shoulder peering down at all the tiny humans. I put up my hand and started to wave at them, they all didnt respond straight away, probably still thinking what the fuck, how did they get up there. After a few moments they all waved back at us, then as soon as we appeared to these people we disappeared into the bushes. Mind drifting a bit but it was a funny moment, i wanted to get some pics of us at the top but the wind and rain made it impossible, you're just going to have to believe me.
Walking around a bit more we ended up in someone's back garden, we really did go off the paved trail. A chap came out of a door and we walked past and said hello, he was in shock, he didnt reply, just starring at us as we walked past, after the tour of a back garden we headed up to a shrine, it was the only place i had a chance of getting a pic, it was raining quite heavily and i still couldn't get it out in the open (cue sexual enuendos).
There was a disbanded building overlooking the mountains i didnt know why anyone wasnt living there, the views must of been amazing from the windows. After a few snaps we headed off to the cable car and made our way down.
The wind was picking up and the ride down was bumpy, the gondola was swaying from side to side, it got a bit scary, i kept having the thought 'its gona drop riggghhhhhttttt now' saying that out loud really didnt help Tom's nerves, but looking back was worth it.
The rain was still falling when we reached the bottom of the cable car and a 3 hour walk back in the rain really didnt appeal to us, we got a tour bus the way down and headed back home.
All in all a really good day, the views of Mt Tai are amazing, some of the best views ive ever seen.
After conquering what we come here to do we had nothing else but to head to Kaifeng, plus the beds were seriously bone numbingly bad!
Again China is not letting me do much with this block so i cant embed any pics, but you can see a few snaps from Tai Shan. Unfortunately, as i said before, i didnt manage to get many pics up on the mountain due to the rain.
Click here to see my pics from Tai Shan
We walked down a few roads and manage to get a crowd surrounding us asking for directions to a hostel, Chinese people love to help westeners and test out their English. After 20 minutes wandering the streets hopelessly we decided to get a cab to take us to a hotel. We got dropped off at Yuzou hotel which charges 200+ yuan per night, a bit out of our price range, after asking a few locals to point us in the direction of Jixiang hotel (charges 40 yuan per night) we found ourselves settled in a spacious 2 bed room with probably the most hardest beds in China, literally 2 towels on a wooden box, that was it, no exaggeration. We didnt care £4 a night we are happy to have a roof over our heads.
We decided to hit the mountain tomorrow and just walk around for the first day. Where we were staying was right outside a temple wall with a park on the other side. It was really nice, especially at dusk.
Tai'an is quite small, it has a few large markets and some shopping malls and thats pretty much it, oh and of course Mt tai.
We had one of the worst nights sleep in China so far, i woke up with about 6 mosquito bites on my arm, i fell asleep and forget to put on the repellent. I got up to find the repellent and woke tom up in the process, though i think he was already awake due to the punishing pain of the bed.
We spent probably the next hour or so trying to kill all the mosi's in the room. We both cant sleep when we know they are buzzing around our heads. It was about 3am now and we had a mountain to climb in the morning. After a failed effort of trying to kill them we put up our nets. Thinking i was safe from the little bastards i turned on my torch to see if any where landing on the net, i managed to shine the light instantly on one that landed on the net, shouting out to Tom 'haha the fuckers cant get through' the little mosi just crawled its way through the net and started buzzing around in the net, i couldn't believe it. At this point i could not be assed to do anything, we didnt get much sleep but luckily the repellent kept them at bay. Im hoping it was a baby mosquito or something and maybe its only the female adults that feed. Have to wait and see.
The following day we woke up about 9am to head off to reach the top of Mount Tai, the excitment was brewing, a 20 minute bus ride and we were at the base of the mountain....it looked a lonnngggg way up to the top. Entrance fee was 60 yuan to get in. We set off up a road that we saw the tour buses going up, the walk was really nice, it wasnt too strenuous, it was a constant incline for about 3 hours but the sights took your mind off it. Going from the guide book we was led to believe that the route we were walking up would lead us to the summit. After 3 hours of walking we realised that this only took us to a cable car, we walked up and around another mountain to get to Mt Tai, where the mountain we had walked up was an easy steady incline, Mt Tai was not, the only way up was a cable car which was pretty annoying because we wanted to walk up there but it would of taken 8 hours extra, at the least, and probably the death of one of us to reach the top.
After paying 140 yuan for a return ticket on the cable car we stepped inside a gondola and headed up to the summit. The journey was about 8-10 minutes and we really gained some height in that time, ive never been in a gondala that climbed up so rapidly, the views got more and more sublime, and the drop below us grew each time i looked down.
After jumping off the cable car we stepped out onto the summit of Mt tai, there are temples, hostels to sleep the night and a few shops that sell incense to burn and a few things to eat and drink.
The views were amazing, its above all the other mountains in the area and you're on top of it all, it was cold, windy and rainy at the summit, wearing shorts and a tshirts we quickly whacked on our jackets, avoiding the wet and the laughs from the locals.
We walked about few 30 mins trying to get to the highest point in the area, we went off the paved trail and decided to see if we could get any higher. We saw an overhanging piece of rock that looked like it was the highest point on the mountain, it overlooked the little mountain village and looked like it was the best place to get a view of everything. Pushing our way through some bushes we made it to the rock. I stepped up first and shouted out to Tom 'fucking hell, you got to see this'. We were on top of the world, we could see all the mountains below us and even the city Tai'an where we were staying. I noticed a group of other tourist who had gathered below us on the paved trail, more and more people started to stop and stare up at us, it was like a scene from a film or something, here was this group of people all pointing up at this large figure on top of the mountain overlooking everything, i pulled off my hood and let the wind blow through my hair, they probably thought i was moses or something :P, then behind me an even larger figure appeared, resting his hand on my shoulder peering down at all the tiny humans. I put up my hand and started to wave at them, they all didnt respond straight away, probably still thinking what the fuck, how did they get up there. After a few moments they all waved back at us, then as soon as we appeared to these people we disappeared into the bushes. Mind drifting a bit but it was a funny moment, i wanted to get some pics of us at the top but the wind and rain made it impossible, you're just going to have to believe me.
Walking around a bit more we ended up in someone's back garden, we really did go off the paved trail. A chap came out of a door and we walked past and said hello, he was in shock, he didnt reply, just starring at us as we walked past, after the tour of a back garden we headed up to a shrine, it was the only place i had a chance of getting a pic, it was raining quite heavily and i still couldn't get it out in the open (cue sexual enuendos).
There was a disbanded building overlooking the mountains i didnt know why anyone wasnt living there, the views must of been amazing from the windows. After a few snaps we headed off to the cable car and made our way down.
The wind was picking up and the ride down was bumpy, the gondola was swaying from side to side, it got a bit scary, i kept having the thought 'its gona drop riggghhhhhttttt now' saying that out loud really didnt help Tom's nerves, but looking back was worth it.
The rain was still falling when we reached the bottom of the cable car and a 3 hour walk back in the rain really didnt appeal to us, we got a tour bus the way down and headed back home.
All in all a really good day, the views of Mt Tai are amazing, some of the best views ive ever seen.
After conquering what we come here to do we had nothing else but to head to Kaifeng, plus the beds were seriously bone numbingly bad!
Again China is not letting me do much with this block so i cant embed any pics, but you can see a few snaps from Tai Shan. Unfortunately, as i said before, i didnt manage to get many pics up on the mountain due to the rain.
Click here to see my pics from Tai Shan
Sunday 31 May 2009
Qingdao
Im slightly slacking in keeping the posts up to date, its because China has decided to block millions of blogs and mine is one of them, ive found a way around it so ill start posting again :)
We arrived in Qingdao and managed to get ourselves a nice little twin bed room in Zhan Ying hotel. It cost us 40 yuan (£4) per person, per night.
Once we got ourselves unpacked we were pretty shattered from the journey to Qingdao so we slept till about 1pm. After getting some sleep we had a shower, which also doubles up as the toilet and set out to have a look around Qingdao.
Qingdao is a lovel seaside city. Tall skyscrapers overlook a beach running along the coast. Theres are a few piers, fishing boats, a lighthouse and plenty of little huts and street stalls that cook freshly caught seafood.
We boooked 3 nights originally, but soon sucumbed to the laid back atmosphere Qingdao had and in the end we stayed there for 1 week.
First day we walked for hours all along the coast, through parks and checked out our surroundings, the weather was perfect, warm, but with a nice sea breeze to keep you cool.
At night time we headed out to find a place to eat. The lonely planet book said that Qingdao was a cauldron of good food, and it was not wrong! Our week in Qingao mainly consisted of eating and chilling by the sea, the two things were really that good, it' all you needed to do.
We had sweet and sour ribs (which were amazing) and vegatable dumplings. A very good start to the week of eating. (I still compare everything i eat with these ribs and nothing has beaten it yet).
There is one thing that really stood out for me on the week in Qingdao and that is the little story below.
There were plenty of street stalls selling seafood and on our third night we found a spot on the beach that sold all sorts of grilled food, it had tables and chairs set out facing the sea and looked like the ideal spot to spend the night. The chap who run it seemed to love his life. Chilling by the sea, eating seafood and drinking with his friends. He was knocking back a bottle of spirits as if it were water, me and tom had a shot each and after it burnt my insides we found out it was 54%. No wonder why he seemed to be enjoying life so much.
First time we went there we got some grilled squid. They put chilli power and pepper on them and grill them. Its really really good and cost us 8 yuan (80p). We went back there the night after and he remembered us. We quickly ordered us a round of grilled squid. This time it only cost us 5 yuan (50p). We thanked him and guessed he must of liked us or just charged less as we come back. We got another round of squid and this time he served up some octopus tentacles with it free of charge. Another example of the guenuine kindness of the Chinese people. We went back the night after that as well and stayed there quite late. This time he was giving us beers, crabs, squid and all sorts free of charge. He offered cigarettes and simply would not take no for an answer. It's a shame all we could say was thankyou. We shook hands and hugged and went back to the hotel. Still astounded at the generosity of the man (even now we didnt manage to get his name) we decided to go back there and give him more business to try and pay him back. On the last night we went back (nights before we was either too full to eat anymore or he was shut) . He still offered us free food and i tried to give him a little extra money for our last order ever. We was literally wrestling each other as he was trying to place the extra money back on the table. Tom was in hesterics, the man simply would not accept it after alll the free food and beer he gave us. We tried to explain to him that we were setting off the next morning, i dont think he understood but we said our final goodbyes and hugged and off we went.
On the third or fourth day we hired out a bike and took to the roads by ourselves, luckily not as busy and dangerous as the roads of Beijing. We spent about 4 hours riding around Qingdao and its probably the best way to see the city, any city for that matter, i think ill definitely get a bike when i get back home.
We cycled along the road that run parralell with the sea and then set off more into the city. We found ourselves in a residential area and soon came across a network of street markets. It's not in the guide book and in my opinion something they should not have missed out. Its not a tourist market so it wasnt filled with the meaningless crap you usually get but was full of food, spices, fish, meats and stalls to buy little snacks. We made our way through the market and right at the end saw a stall making pancake rolls we got 1 each and i know i say this about every bit of food i taste but they were the best pancake rolls everrrrr. The streets stunk, puddles of blood and fish insides littered the streets, they do most of the fish preperation on the streets.
On the last day at Qingdao we headed 40km east to Lao Shan, its a famous taoist retreat covering an area of 400km. We got a bus to the entrance of the area and then a cab to the mountain path entrance. It was raining by this point and i was glad i bought my rain jacket. We didnt know where we were going as usual and just headed off up a path. The clouds were low that day and visibilit y was pretty poor. As we were heading up the path we saw people coming down the path but no one was heading up like us, we later found out that theres a chair lift that takes you up there but we were happy to walk it, its a really nice place, and the low clouds may of made the views lacking but the atmosphere was great, it really felt like we was climbing up into the sky. We didnt manage to find the peak, there are loads of routes and we must of taken a wrong turn somewhere, i would recommend to try and not go when it's raining, the rock steps get really slippery when wet and the steps are steep, there were a few moments when i lost my footing and nearly fell down 20m of rocky steps.
Qingdao has been a really nice place to chill for a week, it has been really nice weather everday, after a week rest we are now ready to tackle Mt Tai and hopefully reach the peak of something.
ps i cant embed pics but you can check out my Qingdao set of pics here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_invalid/sets/72157617894614842/
We arrived in Qingdao and managed to get ourselves a nice little twin bed room in Zhan Ying hotel. It cost us 40 yuan (£4) per person, per night.
Once we got ourselves unpacked we were pretty shattered from the journey to Qingdao so we slept till about 1pm. After getting some sleep we had a shower, which also doubles up as the toilet and set out to have a look around Qingdao.
Qingdao is a lovel seaside city. Tall skyscrapers overlook a beach running along the coast. Theres are a few piers, fishing boats, a lighthouse and plenty of little huts and street stalls that cook freshly caught seafood.
We boooked 3 nights originally, but soon sucumbed to the laid back atmosphere Qingdao had and in the end we stayed there for 1 week.
First day we walked for hours all along the coast, through parks and checked out our surroundings, the weather was perfect, warm, but with a nice sea breeze to keep you cool.
At night time we headed out to find a place to eat. The lonely planet book said that Qingdao was a cauldron of good food, and it was not wrong! Our week in Qingao mainly consisted of eating and chilling by the sea, the two things were really that good, it' all you needed to do.
We had sweet and sour ribs (which were amazing) and vegatable dumplings. A very good start to the week of eating. (I still compare everything i eat with these ribs and nothing has beaten it yet).
There is one thing that really stood out for me on the week in Qingdao and that is the little story below.
There were plenty of street stalls selling seafood and on our third night we found a spot on the beach that sold all sorts of grilled food, it had tables and chairs set out facing the sea and looked like the ideal spot to spend the night. The chap who run it seemed to love his life. Chilling by the sea, eating seafood and drinking with his friends. He was knocking back a bottle of spirits as if it were water, me and tom had a shot each and after it burnt my insides we found out it was 54%. No wonder why he seemed to be enjoying life so much.
First time we went there we got some grilled squid. They put chilli power and pepper on them and grill them. Its really really good and cost us 8 yuan (80p). We went back there the night after and he remembered us. We quickly ordered us a round of grilled squid. This time it only cost us 5 yuan (50p). We thanked him and guessed he must of liked us or just charged less as we come back. We got another round of squid and this time he served up some octopus tentacles with it free of charge. Another example of the guenuine kindness of the Chinese people. We went back the night after that as well and stayed there quite late. This time he was giving us beers, crabs, squid and all sorts free of charge. He offered cigarettes and simply would not take no for an answer. It's a shame all we could say was thankyou. We shook hands and hugged and went back to the hotel. Still astounded at the generosity of the man (even now we didnt manage to get his name) we decided to go back there and give him more business to try and pay him back. On the last night we went back (nights before we was either too full to eat anymore or he was shut) . He still offered us free food and i tried to give him a little extra money for our last order ever. We was literally wrestling each other as he was trying to place the extra money back on the table. Tom was in hesterics, the man simply would not accept it after alll the free food and beer he gave us. We tried to explain to him that we were setting off the next morning, i dont think he understood but we said our final goodbyes and hugged and off we went.
On the third or fourth day we hired out a bike and took to the roads by ourselves, luckily not as busy and dangerous as the roads of Beijing. We spent about 4 hours riding around Qingdao and its probably the best way to see the city, any city for that matter, i think ill definitely get a bike when i get back home.
We cycled along the road that run parralell with the sea and then set off more into the city. We found ourselves in a residential area and soon came across a network of street markets. It's not in the guide book and in my opinion something they should not have missed out. Its not a tourist market so it wasnt filled with the meaningless crap you usually get but was full of food, spices, fish, meats and stalls to buy little snacks. We made our way through the market and right at the end saw a stall making pancake rolls we got 1 each and i know i say this about every bit of food i taste but they were the best pancake rolls everrrrr. The streets stunk, puddles of blood and fish insides littered the streets, they do most of the fish preperation on the streets.
On the last day at Qingdao we headed 40km east to Lao Shan, its a famous taoist retreat covering an area of 400km. We got a bus to the entrance of the area and then a cab to the mountain path entrance. It was raining by this point and i was glad i bought my rain jacket. We didnt know where we were going as usual and just headed off up a path. The clouds were low that day and visibilit y was pretty poor. As we were heading up the path we saw people coming down the path but no one was heading up like us, we later found out that theres a chair lift that takes you up there but we were happy to walk it, its a really nice place, and the low clouds may of made the views lacking but the atmosphere was great, it really felt like we was climbing up into the sky. We didnt manage to find the peak, there are loads of routes and we must of taken a wrong turn somewhere, i would recommend to try and not go when it's raining, the rock steps get really slippery when wet and the steps are steep, there were a few moments when i lost my footing and nearly fell down 20m of rocky steps.
Qingdao has been a really nice place to chill for a week, it has been really nice weather everday, after a week rest we are now ready to tackle Mt Tai and hopefully reach the peak of something.
ps i cant embed pics but you can check out my Qingdao set of pics here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_invalid/sets/72157617894614842/
Thursday 7 May 2009
Our journey from Beijing to Jinan to Qingdao
So we had our first experience with China railway yestersday and it was one hell of a journey. As i said in the previous post we was on our way to Jinan and then travel to the coastal city of Qingdao. We got a soft seat to Jinan and it took about 4.5 hours, we had plenty of room on the train and as you can imagine the seats were soft.
About 45mins into the journey the man next to me, who i later found goes by the name of Charles, kept curiously looking at my laptop, he asked me what the specs where and that he was thinking of getting the same laptop for his girlfriend. He and I chatted all the way to Jinan, he spoke good english and was very intruiged in how we westerners work, live and how our cultures were different. He was amazed we were travelling for a few years without any means of work, he was even more amazed we had no plan on where we would stay or go once we arrived in Jinan. I asked him if there was much to do in Jinan and he laughed and just said 'its very dusty'.
When pulling into Jinan we could see it looked a bit of a dive, Charles walked with us out to the station entrance, we was still chatting and laughing, we was greeted with even more stares than when we arrived in Beijing, when we got out of the station we could see that Jinan was basically a Chinese version of Romford. Nothing was in English and we, quite quickly, decided we wanted to leave for Qingdao as soon as possible. The time was about 6pm so we knew we had to hurry up so we could find a place to stay once we arrived in Qingdao.
The ticket office was teaming with people, the entire wall was cover in Chinese characters for train numbers, destinations and times, we didnt have a clue what we needed to do to get a ticket. Luckily Charles didnt have work till tomorrow so he was still hanging with us. He offered to get our tickets for us, we accepted and 20 mins wait later he come back with 2 hard seat tickets costing 28 yuan each (approx £2.80), this was going to be our first experince with the hard seat on the Chinese trains and i was actually excited about the experience. Only problem was it didn't leave till midnight so we had 6 hours to kill in a place we didn't like the look of.
Charlse invited us to go and get something to eat with him, we thought why the hell not and off we went 30 mins bus ride later and a 10 min walk further we arrived at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. It was 38 yuan (£3.80) for all you could eat and drink, definitely a bargain!
We filled ourselves up with sweet potato cakes, asparagus, sausages, chicken, squid, langastine, watermelon, ribs, beef cutlets, salad, prawns and pretty much anything else that was there. We sat, chatted, drank and ate for about 3 hours. We exchanged emails and offered Charles a guided tour of London if he ever came over in the future. He walked us to the bus stop and we said our zaijian's (goodbye) and thanked him over and over for all his help and hospitality.
It was about 9.30pm now, we made our way back to the train station and sat in the waiting room till it was time to go. 11.45pm slowly dragged close and we started queing, we saw people starting to run to the train platform and we soon found out why......they wanted a seat.
Our carridge number was 14 and the stairs down to the platform led us to carridge 4. We had to run a good 100m with all our gear on (my main bag weighs just under 19kg). Whilst running past the other carridges we could see all the seats had already been filled up and people where standing down the isles of the carridges. By the time we got to number 14 we were some of the last few to get onto the train, well getting on is probably an exaggeration. There simply was not enough room, there is a small area inbetween the doors and the main carridges where the last people squeeze themselves onto the train. The area probably measures about 3m L by 1m W. Each one of these areas in every carridge had about 10 people in them. I was shocked, we physically couldnt get on. Our bags took up the space of about 2 people, let alone the size of me and Tom. The doors started to shut one by one and we was dashing up and down the carridges to try and see if there was space.
We was fucked, it was midnight, and we were stuck at Jinan station with nowhere to go.
Tom's bargaining, blagging, pursuading, however you put it, skills came into action. The station attendants didnt understand a word of english but somehow Tom managed to plea with one of the chaps and he smiled and waved his hand to say 'follow me'.
He took us onto the other side of the platform and told us to wait here. Another train pulled up and i saw the sign 'Qingdao' on the train, i felt a bit more at ease but didnt know if we was still going to get on the train. The train pulled up and out stepped what i think was the boss. We walked behind the station attendant who was talking to the boss. He reminded my of King Louie from the junglebook, he was shouting his head off and kept looking back to us shouting some words and then started laughing at us, his co workers walking beside him laughed at us as well, we just smiled and nodded. We came to the entrance of the sleeper carridge and we picked up one word in the sentence as he was speaking to us....'english', we nooded and said 'Yes London' a few more loud words come out his mouth and a few more laughs ensued and he then pointed at the door and said go'. I couldnt believe it, Tom managed to do it, he got us on the train, and even better we was in the sleeper quarters. We shook their hands and said xiexie (thankyou).
We was in the small area that i described earlier but luckily it was just me and Tom so we had room to stand. A few people working on he train came into our area and started to try and talk to us. The only words we could exchange where 'England' and 'London'. One chap showed us an Indian Rubee and said 'pound', we didnt understand at first but then it clicked, he was obviously collecting money from different countries. Tom to the rescue again luckily had a few 20,1 & 2 pence pieces. He gave them to him and he kindly offered to exchange them for some Yuan, we told him to keep it for free.
After the train started to move he led us to the sleeper quarters and let us stow our bags up on the railings. We each had a little fold out chair to sit on, the carridge was very dark as people where sleeping and it stunk of piss, we was sitting right next to the toilets but it wasn't a problem i still couldn't believe we managed to get on the train and was overwhlemed at how kind and friendly the Chinese people we met in the last few hours were.
After a hour into the journey the chap who Tom had given the english money to pointed at the empty sleepers in the carridge and made the hand gesture to get some sleep, i'm guessing he was repaying the favour with the coins. At first we declined, they had done too much for us already, they even went and got tom a cup of water because he was thirsty. Another hour into the journey and i was trying to sleep, i was sitting on a tiny chair and a window seal acting as a pillow, i felt the horrible feeling that i had when i was on the plane, extremely tired but simply unable to get into a position that would allow me to sleep, it didnt even have to be comfortable just something that would mean i would fall on the floor when i drifted off. The man came walking down again and offered the bed again, this time i was quick to jump up on the bed.
Im not sure how much sleep i got maybe 2 or 3 hours, i woke up and it was daylight and the noise of the train (they are very loud) stopped me from getting back to sleep.
We sat up and started to try and have a conversation with the people in the beds above and below us (they are stacked 3 high). Its funny how people cannot speak any words of the same language but still managed to have a conversation and share laughs.
We arrived in Qingdao around 5am and what a journey it was. We said our goodbyes to the people in the cabin and also the workers on the train who helped us out. Whilst walking down the platform we bumped into the big chief and he smiled and shook our hands, then of course started shouting and laughing at us.
We got out of the station and managed to find a a cheap hotel with the help of one of the many salesman littering the streets 24 hours a day.
Within 30 mins of arriving in Qingdao we had already been asked to have our picture taken with 2 people, im sure the more south we go, the more intruiged the Chinese people will become.....
Monday 4 May 2009
Beijing!
Well it's been hectic, haven't had much time to check emails or call home but i've finally managed to get this laptop on and connect to the net, im heading off to Jinan tomorrow afternoon so we are just chilling tonight (hence why im able to write this :))So where to start, well we arrived around midday on the Thursday and i have to say it was the most uncomfortable journey i have ever made. Being 6ft3 i know i was going to struggle fitting in the seats. Fella in front put his chair back on recline as soon as we lifted off, as you can imagine -_- face .
It was like sleep torture, i hadn't slept a wink the night before leaving and felt really really tired on the plane and also in Vienna airport while we was waiting 7 HOURS for the flight to Beijing. I wanted to sleep but just couldnt get in a comfortable position on the plane, i was shattered when i landed but it all soon went away when we landed in Beijing Aiport!
The place is huge, really clean and quite peaceful. We managed to find our bags really easily and then came face to face with our first challenge....getting on a bus.
Cut a long story short it basically took us about 45 mins to find the right bus. Once we was on we noticed something that would bug us still now. Everybody, and i mean EVERYBODY starred at us. We both really wasnt expecting it. As we walked to the end of the bus we was greeted with long cold stares, no smiles, just stares. We thought we had done something wrong and kept asking each other why the fuck is everyone looking at us??? (few days later we found out they are just curious as most hardly ever see a white westerner, and as a whole are really really nice people.)
So once we arrived in Beijing we managed to get our way through the swarm of people, hagglers, salesman and into our hostel (took us about 40 mins to find :D)
For £3 a night its really not too bad. The mattress is really really thin and you can only sleep on your back because you wake up with a dead leg if you sleep on your side. Shared toilets, bathrooms are generally kept really clean. There is free wireless internet for laptops, 24 hour security, you can walk in and out when you please. Only problem is we have 4 other people sleeping in our room and all of them snore. I just play music and wake up with it still playing, does the job.
Me and Tom have had some trouble navigating the city, we have walked hours and hours around the city, usually in the wrong direction but the last day before we leave we have got the hang of it.
We have travelled around the city mostly by train. They are very quick, clean, air conditioned and cost 40 pence for a return. Bit different to the £14 i use to pay travelling into London.
Ok so some things we have done since we arrived, i cant remember everything -
- Visited the Temple of Heaven
- Took a bike ride around Beijing (nearly got run over, within 5 seconds on the bike i pedalled out into the road and remembered they drive on the other side of the road). We got a a free guided tour by 3 students, they wanted to show us around as it helps improve their english as not many people from London come over, so they relished at the chance. We rode around all the main sites (Tianamen square etc) for about 3 hours and was very good fun.
- Visited The Forbidden City
- Visited the snack street, which sells really good cheap food
- Trekked the Great wall of China and got a tobogen slide back down, best day so far.
- Tasted proper Peking duck, we ordered a whole duck and got it cut off the duck right in front of us. Tom and i both agree its the best duck pancake we have ever tasted.
- We got chatted up by 3 different groups of prostitutes whilst walking down 1 road, quite an achievement.
Keep checking on my FLickr account as thats where they will be uploaded to - http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_invalid/
Ill leave it there. Beijing is an amazing city and the people are equally amazing.
Peace
Pauli
Monday 27 April 2009
Living out of a bag.........
So here it is.....here is what i will be living out of for the next few years.
Starting from top left -
Laptop
Gerber Multi tool
Laptop & Camera Chargers
Berghaus Jalan 60L Rusksack
3 pairs of trousers
1 Waterproof trousers
Mosquito net
7 pairs of pants and socks
Waterproof jacket
Toiletery bag (soap, sponge, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrush, razor, flanel etc)
2 pairs of shorts
2 fast drying Trek towels
1 rucksack waterproof liner
1 waterproof bag
Firt aid kit
Secuity pouch
Silk sleeping bag liner
Fleece
150 Malaria tablets
Sweatshirt
Day pack
Money Belt
3 tshirts
Notepad & Pen
All in one travel charger
Camera (not in pic as i used it to take this pic :))
24mm Lens
50mm Lens
Thermal Top
Thermal Trousers
Bog Roll and Chopsticks courtesy of LCH
Scarf
Gameboy
Torch
Watch
Vaseline
Passport
Wallet
Walking boots not in pic.
There's a few other things i need to get before i go. Nearly there :)
Friday 24 April 2009
Welcome
Hi everyone, this blog will be my connection to the western world for the next few years while im travelling.
I will try and keep you all updated as much as possible with pics, ramblings and a mish mash of my experiences (good and bad im sure) while im travelling around Asia.
Peace
Pauli
x
I will try and keep you all updated as much as possible with pics, ramblings and a mish mash of my experiences (good and bad im sure) while im travelling around Asia.
Peace
Pauli
x
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