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As we write this blog you'll be glad to hear that since leaving Xi'an we've made a great deal of progress (although most of it unplanned) towards the south of China. We've miraculously overcome the completely underestimated Chinese New Year travel rush and along the way we've seen some amazing places, met loads of interesting people and experienced a little more of China, which has taken us by surprise in many ways. Anyway, more of that as we carry on the stories. So, we left you in Xi'an...
The hostel we stayed at, Han Tang Inn, was great and much of what had preceeded (i.e. drinking with the Swedes) continued. On the night we arrived there was a dumpling party which was a great way to mingle and meet people. (We've naturally now become masters of dumpling making, so instead of hosting only our infamous pizza nights, there shall be more variety in the future!) After a couple of beers I began to forget my earlier worries about the trains and we made friends with a bunch of people, including Joe from Leamington Spa, who is teaching English in Northern China and making the most of the school's 10 week winter break. Other than what we found to be amazing street food, the main reason to visit Xi'an is to see the Terracotta Warriors and for that reason, one of the mornings the four of us decided to ventured out on our own accord to try to avoid the hefty arranged excursion costs. We arrived in the busy bus station looking for the 306 coach, but as we arrived we were all rushed/forced on to a small bus packed full of locals. Hoping we would eventually arrive in the right place, the bus darted through the busy and rather dreary looking Xi'an streets, making mad-dash stops along the way to pick up more passengers. Thankfully, only about 70p poorer (or just under a euro) we arrived still intact, yet the initial sights provided a complete anticlimax. To make your way to the famous historical site, you have to walk through a newly built shopping complex complete with a KFC and a Subway; commercialised is an understatement. The Terracotta Warriors were impressive, but the way they were displayed took the shine off it slightly. You couldn't really see much, and at 110 RMB (GBP11 - expensive for China) we felt a little underwhelmed.
After another interesting journey back to Xi'an, that evening was 'Sauna Night' at the hostel. To my delight there was a Finnish-built sauna on the roof top, which cemented their 100% positive feedback on hostelworld.com. Despite our best efforts to have an alcohol free night, Shaun and I couldn't resist a few Sauna beers. Unfortunately, you can't just have a few sauna beers when you're with the Swedes and the night predictably descended into utter chaos. Jens even used the hostel's internal phone to order a beer delivery from the ground floor bar. "Yes, hello? We're phoning from the Sauna..." was his opening line in his stereotypical yet adorable Swedish accent. After a few hours of Sauna antics, we relocated to the downstairs bar where the drinking ensued until the early hours. Jens and I actually got an early-ish night, however I'm not quite sure what happened to Shaun and Tim, who came in at 4.30am and 10am respectively. Shaun also decided to have a little wander out to the corridor in his boxer shorts at around 8am and locked himself out for at least 5-10 minutes. When I woke up to him knocking and opened the door, I asked what he was doing, to which he replied "There were people. Don't ask questions, I'm f***ing freezing". Time to quit the boozing perhaps?
The following day we departed for Shanghai and Shaun was feeling delicate to say the least. In all honesty we were all quite jaded so our last journey with the Swedes was unfortunately the least eventful. We were all tucked up in bed in our train compartment at 10pm watching How To Train Your Dragon on our individual TV screens, a shadow of our Trans-Mongolian selves. Shaun blames the weak Chinese beer, "They wouldn't stand for this in Belgium" were his words. The next morning we said our goodbyes to Jens and Tim as quickly as possible to avoid the inevitable tears. After kissing them goodbye, we tried our luck in Shanghai Station with buying tickets to Guilin. Two and a half hours later and after many "No's", a lovely helpy-helper chap called Ding Yi, secured us what seemed like golden tickets to Hong Kong, albeit with beds in different compartments. Not what we originally intended, but we were excited nontheless and I was happy knowing that we were heading a good deal south.
Our three days in Shanghai were well spent, we took in all the main sights and on the second day we actively managed to avoid a common scamming technique. As we were emerging from the Yu-Yuan Gardens Subway Station, a Chinese couple posing as tourists asked Shaun to take a photo of them. He was baffled as there was nothing in the background worth photographing but he duly obliged. Straight after they began talking to us and told us they were from Xi'an. After about five minutes of trying to befriend us, they invited us to a 'lovely Chinese culture and tea show' which was only two minutes away and would only last for half an hour. Shaun told them we were rushing to meet a friend and after making our excuses and leaving, we pondered the situation further and tried to work out whether we were definitely targeted, as it was all a bit subtle and surreal. This was confirmed when we returned to the same station to see another couple targeting another westerner using the very same technique. The worst of it was that they spoke fantastic English and yet the only way they could put it to use is to scam tourists. Evidently there's still some progress required in this booming economy.
When we were walking back to the hostel, we happened to stumble across Joe from Leamington Spa who we met in Xi'an and so that night we visited more sights with him and his friend Leika from Japan, including the very impressive Bund of Shanghai. The following day the four of us took a local bus to a place that was nicknamed the Venice of Shanghai. It was a local water village called Chu Jia Jiao, which on the sunny day provided some very pretty photos. We took a boat trip along the river, as it seemed mandatory and wandered through the narrow streets dotted with art shops, cafes & food stalls. Lunch consisted of an ingenious leaf-wrapped-sticky-rice-and-pork-dumpling, for want of a better name. Shaun actually insists you can buy these from the counter of the Chinese supermarket in China Town, Manchester and they come highly recommended from us. That evening, the hostel staff pointed us into the direction of a local hand-pulled noodle joint around 3 blocks away. Luckily, Leika spoke enough Chinese to ensure that we knew what we were getting (as we have adopted what we call 'the pointing system' in China, it provides for exciting meal times but you sometimes don't know what you're getting yourself into when you're just pointing to a line on a menu written solely in Chinese). Anyway, the noodle soup cost only GBP1 (just over 1 euro) and was definitely the best thing we'd eaten in the city.
To summarise on Shanghai, we were left very impressed and it's definitely the most diverse city that we visited in China. From the very Westernised architecture with obvious British and French influence to the rustic and authentic old towns in the suburbs, it certainly has something for everyone. I felt absolutely miniscule in the midst of the huge buildings and Shaun believes that it completely dwarfs New York, but has a similar feel with all the neon lights and taxis whizzing by. The diversity even spreads to the cuisine; we found a very good take on a western bakery as well as some curious seafood restaurants where they display their offerings (fish, toads, turtles, you name it) still alive in tanks outside for you to choose accordingly.
Three days after arriving in Shanghai we were back in the train station awaiting our transport to Hong Kong. Confident knowing the T99 train was on time, we settled in the soft-sleeper lounge and as our train switched to green on the displays, we made our way to hall number 6, as was instructed. After queuing up to the ticket check point with a hundreds of Chinese, we were faced with some stern Chinese words and hand signals pointing us away from the gates. Baffled to say the least, we walked back to the soft-sleeper lounge only to face the same. Slight panic ensued, but luckily after finding another helpful volunteer, we went from pilar to post and finally found a completely different entrance to the building, and a different T99 train which actually was Hong Kong-bound. Only in China can there be two trains with the same number leaving exactly at the same time yet to different destinations (only written in Chinese) during the worse travel time of the year... So we checked out of China in an airport-like fashion and boarded our train. In all the hassle we suffered our first loss of belonings for which Shaun was absolutely devastated about; sad farewells go out to a lovely bag of oranges and bananas, God bless, we hope they found happiness.
We found our two separate compartments, Shaun's was with a mother and two children and mine was with an elderly couple, who Shaun nicknamed Jack and Vera, and was insistant that we weren't to find out their real names. The couple lived between Shanghai and Hong Kong, Jack was a retired PE Teacher and spoke good English; throughout the journey he'd ask us grammatical questions that he was asked as a school boy growing up in the British-ruled Hong Kong. Shaun was also keen to know whether the Hong Kong nationals were happy under the British ruling prior to 1997 and apparently they were. Jack summarised it quite well by saying that they would rather be ruled by law than by people, possibly referring to their Chinese counterparts. Funnily enough after they left for dinner, initially only Jack returned with Vera to follow around an hour later with another man. Shaun wasn't sure if this was quite in their namesakes fashion but it provided for good speculation nonetheless. Thankfully Shaun was able to switch rooms into our compartment and we settled down early. Bizarrely enough, we were woken up numerous times during the night by Vera consistently snacking at hour long intervals, not surprising she slept until 12pm the following day.
We woke up to completely new scenery outside with green fields, lakes and misty mountains and we felt really excited to be approaching tropical climates. On disembarking the train we said our goodbyes to Jack and Vera and were wished all the good things you could ever imagine; what a lovely couple. Inside the train station we located China Travel Service, who we thought would be able to sell us onward tickets to Guilin, only to be faced with a familiar word - no. We were directed to another travel agent desk, and after a lengthy wait, we had finally secured tickets from Shenzhen (the next city across from Hong Kong) to Guilin, but only for 6 days in advance and at a ridiculous service charge. We had no choice though, as we couldn't chance leaving things to last minute.
On the way to the hostel there was the familiar holiday smell, something you can't explain but I'm sure you all know the kind of scent we mean. Hong Kong was warmer, although the first two days were rainy, but being able to ditch our winter gear and comfortably walk around in t-shirts was such a relief and spirits & morale were defitnitely high. So high infact that we fell to our usual beer drinking exploits whilst getting to know all the cool people in our hostel, most of which we'd hope to keep in touch with. The second day was a complete write-off; we went for a brief walk but my usual hangover ways meant that we had to return to the hostel so I could sleep it off. That evening's hair-of-the-dog led to a second night of boozy encounters; fortunately, Shaun had made plans with a few of the people for the day after so the next morning we had to function. We met up with Taylor from New York, Jill from Canada, Adam from Adelaide/Canberra and Olivier from Belgium who had heard of a Michelin Star Dim Sum Restaurant somewhere in Kowloon Island. We set out and found the place to be completely swarmed with people outside. There was a formal queuing process, so we put our names down and three hours later we were eating some of the best food we've enjoyed ever and for a rather humble GBP15, we had eaten 5 dishes each (for those who don't know, Dim Sum is like a cantonese tapas; lots of small dishes which are intended to be shared across the table). The experience actually led to us compiling a top 10 meals of the journey; this is still a work in progress, but look out for the first edition in all good book-stores near you soon.
After the meal we said goodbye to Olivier as he had a helicopter to Macau to catch (a birthday present) and so the 5 of us carried on to The Peak, which is the place to catch the Hong Kong sky line. We weren't disappointed, even though we missed the sunset as the night lights over the water were spectacular. On our way back to the hostel we were entertained by Taylor's endless, yet highly interesting and amusing tales of his action-packed twenty-year life; what a dude. We definitely hope to see him, Adam and the rest of them at some point soon.
On our final full day in Hong Kong, all of our buddies were departing so just the two of us set out to find a place that we had scouted out on our first day, a bay one hour away from the centre called Sai Kung. We were aching to finally be by the sea and what we found was little short of a paradise. The day was perfect and sunny and as we strolled along the sea front we felt immediately at home and actually started visualising ourselves living there. We found everthing we'd hoped to see; lots of seafood restaurants overlooking the bay, a million boats in the harbour and most of all an abundance of happy people (including what seemed like a small western community). Towards the end of the day the fishermen were gutting and selling their catch just off the pier to bargain seeking locals. We could have watched this go on for hours and it was a shame that we couldn't buy any due to the primitive kitchen facilities at the hostel (a microwave). After returning to the city, the final night was spent beer-free playing Monopoly Deal card game in our room (thanks to Taylor for introducing us to it, we're now addicted) and pining over Sai Kung.
The day we departed Hong Kong, we left with heavy hearts and spent the entire metro journey to the border plotting a way to return here for a month at the end of our travels. We had expected Hong Kong to be yet another metropolis, a New York of the east if you like and whilst it does offer that, it holds so much more. Funny how we weren't actually even supposed to go there and yet it's turned out to be the best place we've visited so far. I guess that's what travelling should be all about though; unexpected adventures.
- comments
Ilse Hei. Olipa ihanaa taas kuulla teista. Hieman jo huolestuin. Olette kunnossa ja jossain hiivatin kaukana... Luen tata blogia paivittain. Pysykaa terveina. Tyttö rakas. Tule pian kotiin ja ota se Shaun mukaan. ja laittakaa uusia uutisia milloin vain voitte paivittaa blogia.
Anne Joo aiti, kaikki on kunnossa ja kivaa on. Ei me nyt kylla ihan pian tulla takas, tiedat sen varmaan! :) Kaikki on hyvin, ihmiset erittain ystavallisia ja on todella mahtavaa kokea kaikkea uutta, nahda kauniita maisemia yms. Ihan huoletta voit olla, laita sahkopostia jos haluut etta vastaan tai kuulla enemman suomeksi juttuja, vastailen kylla (laitoin itsekkin sulle eilen postia).
Uncle Andrew Sounds like you two are having a fantastic time, really enjoed reading your journal... I'm thinking that you will now be in Vietnam, remember what i told you and for gods sake do not let your guard down their especially in the south..... Cambodia is amazing and when you get to Thailand - Well that is something else... Let me know when you are going to be in Thailand and i may well come out for a couple of months and travel about with you then when your ready to move on i'll stay 4 weeks or so in Phuket.... Don't drink too much in Vietnam i don't want to put a damper on things but you really need to have your wits about you 24/7 I'm really happy that you are both having a wonderful time. Its giving me the travel bug again reading your aadventures and the characters that you are meeting. You two live the dream. If i can't make Thailand for whatever reason i will DEFINATELY meet up with you in Australia and New Zealand.. I don't know if you still remember what i told you about re locating camper vans www.standbycars.com then hit the locations button. I drove from Sydney to Cairns over 7 days free of charge all expenses paid. sometimes you get paid as well i earned $350 but i had to drive from Cairns to Sydney New Yrs Eve 0900 arriving no later then 1500 on the 2'nd if my memory serves me right 2,600 km's in 56 hrs with 2 6 hour breaks.. If you work it out right you can circumnavigate Australia FREE and on some relocations get paid and of course no hostel fees to pay.... That is something i really want to do again drive right round Austrailia... Any way thats it for now already looking forward to your next instalment... Take care, god bless x