Going Solo in China
There is not much to tell about HK. there are double yellow lines on the roads and you can buy a normal pint sized beer and everybody can talk English. For me it was the first built up city with hundreds of sky scrapers. We did see the, famous Hong Kong Skyline Light Show, viewed from across Hong Kong harbor. The skyscrapers are lit with different colours of lights that are synchronized with the music. They do this every night in the name of advertising and considering Hong Kong is the pinnacle of capitalism its ironically the biggest waste of electricity.
Me and Gary split from each other here just for China to experience traveling on our own for a bit. I headed north up the east the coast and he headed inland to the west. It was weird at first, it really can be a lonely planet at times but traveling alone is also very rewarding as well. I got a train to Shanghai because I was trying to make it to Beijing for the chinese national day (60 years of being a republic). In china being a westerner in most parts people stare at you, with a smile so it doesn't bother me, sometime they really look happy to see you. The sleeper trains are better than in India cleaner but more expensive. On my way to Shanghai I was sat on the train and got talking to a Chinese women she could hardly speak any English, she was halfway through her sentence and still in eye contact with me she started burping repetitively then finished with a long one and just finished her sentence afterwards. l didn't know what do 'bless you' wouldn't work in this situation. There defiantly more open with there bodily functions violent spitting is still a problem here. The language barrier is very apparent here more so than anywhere else I have been in Asia. Luckily I had my book of pictures that I made in India it had basics like photo's of food animals an ATM machine, bus, toilet. This has become really handy for me and who ever I meet it even has a world map to show people where I'm from. Apparently Shanghai has twice as many skyscraper's as New York I went up the highest building in Asia, 'The World Financial Building' it looks like a giant bottle opener. I remember eating a meal in Shanghai on my own in a small café and looking up to see a whole family staring at me looked the other side and another group were just watching me eat, then discovered all the staff had stopped to watch me, crazy, I must be a chopstick retard or something. A guy had a serious snoring problem in the dorm here another reason for earplugs I was really tempted to hold his nose.
I loved Beijing, was on my own here sight seeing for three days because the hostel I wanted to stay in was too busy, I did get a huge room with a double bed and TV all to myself just made it difficult to meet people at first. Beijing was packed with Chinese tourists because of national day I visited The Summer Palace, The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and the Great wall. The smog in the city is apparently the equivalent of smoking 70 cigarettes a day, it is so bad I couldn't see more than 20m in front of me I saw the sun once could just make out the out line. There are some photos of me walking around lake I really couldn't see more than five meters ahead such a scenic place lanterns everywhere, people would appear out of nowhere through the haze. On the 1st of October national day the smog mysteriously disappeared, and the sun came out with a perfect blue sky. The Chinese use a technique called feeding the clouds, by Seeding the clouds with chemicals fired from the ground or released from aircraft rain is triggered before it premituerly, and there was a funny kind of rain the night before the ceremony. I watch the celebrations on TV with a Chinese family you couldn't get near Tiananmen Square. It seemed to me that the Chinese were messaging the rest of the world as well because they must have paraded all there new military technology through Tiananmen including there nuclear arsenal. I parted all night here amongst the locals with a great bunch of travelers its true what people say about Swedish girls hot!! I love the food here 'meat skewers' being barbequed everywhere for about 15p chocolate milk in bags 25p, I didn't know where to start. We were playing pool in our hostel and a chinese man walked past us stopped farted for so long it acually sounded like he had crapped his pant looked at us then just continued his strole back to reception, because he worked at our hostle, they really have issues with there body!!
I met a couple of Danish Girls who were traveling to Inner Mongolia so I decided to join them, here we went to the grass land and stayed in a yurt (a traditional Mongolian tent) and went horse riding. I was a bit skeptical of doing this as last time a touched a horse i went blind for a day, I just thought I was young and as long as I didn't touch my face, I was fine just a little bit sneezy, although it don't half hurt your groin when they gallop. I had to have the crazy horse that kept bolting off in the wrong direction i really can't drive those animals. It was like getting the busted trolley in a supermarket just unlucky but fun!! It was so could here I had every item of my cloths on including poncho an rainmac breakfast was some kind of rice gunge in hot water and some steamed bread. We also traveled to Baotou and went to the Resonant sand gorge in the Kurbuqi desert. Here there are sand dunes up 110m high, we talk a sand jeep ride up and down them and you could sledge down the gorge. My bloody camera got sand in it here and cost me another 20 quid, I did get a rather humorous picture of a camels face just before though. I wanted to visit to the Genghis Karn's mausoleum but didn't have time.
I split form the girls and made my was south I stopped in Shanxi province at Baotou a coal mining city, I had take the soft seat option rather than the sleeper this time to save money people were so nice making room for my bag in there section they all were staring at me and a women decided I needed feeding, seeds were on the menu and lots of them, she even showed me how to eat them properly, I felt obliged to eat them all, (they were disgusting). Didn't get any sleep at all never taking the soft seat again!! People really go out there way to help you in China, if you need directions they will jump at the chance to take you all the way to your destination even if that means getting on a bus with you. I visited the Yung gang caves here I when on my own and found a couple of English speaking girls from Beijing they were great haggled with all the transport and acted as my personal tour guides, I leant a lot about Buddhism from them. We saw a Monk who invited us to blow his conch towards the stone Buddha caved into the cave wall how spiritual of me.
Xian the Ancient Capital was a very modern and touristy city because of the Terracotta warriors they were impressive but maybe a little underwhelming because of the hype. I did meet a guy here Andy who had gone to Plymouth Uni I traveled with him to Chendu where I met Gary and another two Danish girls Gary had only one night with us but the rest of us when to see the Panda's they were fun we even saw some cubs 100 pounds too have a photo with them, never gonna happen. To get them to breed they actually put tv screens in a room with them showing 'panda porn' to encourage them to mate, so its just us and pandas on the planet that watch porn.
I can't believe it there is now a girl next to me in the internet café watching porn coincidence!!
I'm now heading to Lijiang in Yunnan province home to the Naxi and many other minorities I will be hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge.