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Darren and Vicki's Travels
Hi all,
Sorry it's been a while, i think i take things up from when we left Hong Kong. Can't remember exactly when that was though :)
We got train tickets to Xi'an for the soft sleeper- i would not like to know what the hard sleepers are like if this is supposed to be soft - takes me back to the guest house at Bangkok, well maybe not as hard as that - but close enough.
Okay we are in a dorm with 4 beds one of the other guy is okay - but the older guy is so annoying it's unbelieveable. He insists on going through all his ring tones numerous times a day- the people here do not know how to eat quietly - they slurp away at there meals - never mind the phlem problem that they see to have - clearing there throats all the bloody time - v.annoying - but it's only for two weeks and then we are in some kind of normality - europe :)
So i managed to brave the toilets, eurgh - a metal hole in the ground - so far i had managed to visit only western toilets up til the train journey, but on a 27hrs train journey - needs must. Well it's another experience i suppose.
We get off the train at 8:30ish pm - tourist information closed at 8 - luckily enough we have booked a hostel room for the next few night - but we weren't aware of how long the train journey would be(27hrs) - so we eventually arrive 12 hrs late. That is after a taxi and a tuk tuk like thing - eventually we find the right hostel. Well more of a hotel really but much cheapness. The problem we had in finding it was there are two hotels called the same thing although one is an internatinonal hotel the othet isn't and it's reflected in the price.
As we were late we missed our booking and don't have any doubles for the night - so we end up in a suite. A bit worried about the standards, the cealing in the bathroom in leaking.Although we can't be bothered to complain as we were so exhusted.
We relaxed for a few days, sorted out travel to Beijing. Cheaper to fly to Beijing and much quicker. Visited the Terracotta Warriers, and some museums and just tried to relax although the weather here is absoutely roasting not bareable at all. Well not for me, Darren seems to be finding the heat fine.
So we arrived in Beijing. Booked into a place for the night - so that we could sort out further accomodation for our stay in Beijing. We are now in the hostel, Monday we are going to the Great wall.
We visited the Great wall. Mutianyu (the part of the wall we visited) is situated on top of a huge hill. Darren decided that we should walk up instead of getting the able car (Vicki not feeling that well cos of the food) but hey we did it.
So after climbing 100's of steps we arrive at the top of the wall. It was quite misty so the view wasn't that great - and what do we find at the top of the wall - more steps!!!!! we didn't managd to get right to the Guard Towers but we did well and we got some pretty good pictures. Darren's choice was to take the tabogan chute back down to the bottom of the wall. It was so scary, he thought it was great but as i was infront of him going v. slow it was really scary so he couldn't go that fast:)
On the way back to Beijing we saw where the Olymics are going to be held (in 2008) - the main stadium is called the birds nest - cos guess what it resembles, yip thats right a giant birds nest. The local press are v. keen to let the public know that the progress of the building is going well - i don't think they want any repeats of the last olympics in Athens.
That night we visted an indoor market, which was hilarious, all the traders are desperate to get you to buy something from them that they grab you as you walk past, when you do want to buy something you have to haggle v. hard to get a decent prices, even then they are still cheeky, but it was a good laugh, well you had to laugh otherwise you'd get grumpy v. quickly.
The next day we visited the Forbidden Palace and unfortunatly i was a tad bit disapointed- the weather wasn't that great, the main buildings had scaffolding around them and the place was so busy that at some points it was like a scrum - where you were pushed, pulled and trampled on.
To chill after the forbidden palace we went to a tea house which was the perfect place to drink away our disapointment - this place was lovely, they had so many different teas to try and the lady working there was so helpful. it was nice - so after drinking a lot of tea (Jasmin Darren's preference) we wandered about a shopping mall and found a tea shop and invested in some green tea for me and a nice little tea set to go with it.
That night we get another train - not as long this time, only 13hrs to Shanghai. The train it's self seem better - newer, the two guys we shared with we nice - they at least new a little English, and the train guard was really funny. This journey, we got complementary food - unlike the other one where people would wheel carts up and down the walk way (just imagine Harry Potter Train carriages similar to that - except there are bunks and a walk way along one side of the carriage) Yelling what food they had to sell. not good. although this one seemed 10 times better - although i did dream that night that i failed my driving test again - when darren woke me up i was well peeved.
So we arrived in Shanghai, two metro trains and we get to the hostel, this has to be one of the nicest hostels we have stayed in. No ants, no leaks from the cealing or any where else for that matter, no horrible smelling toilets, a proper western toilet, nice staff we have stayed in a few dumps in out travels so it's real easy for us to appreciate nice, clean, cheap accomodation. the last couple of day we have chilled, the hostel has a pool table and we were v. bad at pool, we hadn't played since Australia. It's good to get a couple of games a night in. just been relaxing.
We leave China on Tuesday for Europe.No idea what we are going to do for the remainder of our timei n china. it's v. hot so probably not alot.
Managed to speak to a couple of you guys tonight - it's really good hearing from you all, although it was short - tad bit expensive to call from here. Sorry again mum, we aren't really staying here for 6 months.
Today we spent the majority of the day tyring to find a camping shop - it's well expensive to hostel it in Europe - so we are going to try and camp it although, we couldn't find a big enough tent - well it has to hold us and all the bags and stuff so will keep trying to find one.
It's still really hot, makes doing stuff during the day difficult, i get extremly tetchy in the heat and trying to ride the trians here test my limits, although i now use my shoulders to get anywhere. I think we are both looking forward to getting to Paris on Tuesday. China has tested our limits. Although it is amazing.
Right i think i have blabbed on for long enough, hope everyone is well. we stilll love hearing from you all, even better when we hear you in person. I'm away before i get myself in a state :).
love to all.
D&Vx
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