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Crazy week in China!!!!!!!!!!! This blog is going to b REALLY long -sorry!
Hi everyone - what a week - I cannot believe its only a week today since I lef the UK - we have done so much in that time! Cannot upload photos in this poxy internet cafe in the hotel so they will have to come later I'm afraid!
Last Friday I woke up feeling rather nervous and had a bit of a cry with my mum (who didnt shed a tear - thanks Mum!) then popped to see Tara and headed off to the airport.
The flight wasn't too bad although the man in front of me had severe dandruff which I was worried would fall into my food, so that gave Gemma and I a giggle for a while. We got hot in our seats and the cabin crew guy let us sit in the cabin crew seats at the back, but alas no amount of flirting with him could get us upgraded! From these seats we went through our lonley planet and worked out some of the things we wanted to see on our travels.
We arrived in Beijing on Sat morning and it was hot hot hot! Got to our hotel and went straight out for some local food - we were recommended to try the restaurant across the road from the hotel but as wewalked past there was a huge filthy minging fish tank in the door way which made me heave so we moved onto the next place (although others in our tour group went there and said it was fine!) We got some chicken rice dish at the next place and a beer - the beers are a quid for a big bottle here Tara - need I say more! Get your flight booked!
After lunch we came back to the hotel and went to bed - with the plan to get up in the evening and go out and about - but we slept straight through and ended up wide awake at 4am! Felt very strange knowing we were in China!
The next day we met everyone in our tour group and we couldnt have asked for a better bunch of people! There are 14 of us altogether and a nice guide called Feng. First stop was Tiananmen Square which is partly framed by illustrious Chang-an Avenue and basically the heart of Beijing Its a public square and home of the mausoleum of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, the Communist father of the Communist Peoples Republic. The queue to get into his mausoleum was huge and we didnt fancy it so we just had a wonder around - it was at this point that we noticed most of the chinese people were really staring at us! Worried that we may be dressed inappropriately (but knowing really that we werent!) we asked Feng about it and she said that many people from far flung places of China come to see Chairman Mao's mausoleum and many of them had never seen Westerners before! Which explained a lot! We sat in the sun for a bit and then suddenly a little family were asking if they could take photos with us! We were so embarrassed but its something we have learned to get used to as it has happened in just about every place we have been to - much much more so to Gemma as she is tall, blue eyed and fair and the chinese people seem to worship her like the beautiful goddess that she is! Although Gemma is very embarrassed by it all!
Next we went to the Forbidden City which was awesome, we did get hassled by lots of people staring and taking photos again which was starting to piss us off as every time we sat down we'd be swarmed, some didnt even ask they'd just come up and stick the camera in our faces, but we did get a really sweet group of girls about 14 who all had a photo with us individually then we asked if we could have photos with them and they giggled like they were really pleased! Bless!
Next we took a Ricshaw through the Hutongs area which are the traditional parts of Beijing with old style houses and little windey streets - was really cool, and onto what was basically someones home passed off as a restaurant for a really yummy lunch and to hear some of the local history. Next we went to a traditional chinese tea place where we were shown exactly how to brew the different types of tea and got to taste them all which was really cool. Later on we went for a traditional dinner of Peking Duck! I got talking to one of the girls in our group over dinner and it turns out she lives literally a couple of roads up from me in London - Louise Maclachlan said I'd find that but I didnt think I'd find someone so close from home! After dinner most of the group went across the road from the hotel for a few beers and had a right giggle!
The next day we woke from a crapnight of sleep and went straight to a cloisonne workshopto see the production of decorative items which was nice, and then onto the Great Wall of China! You can go two ways -one is much more touristy but with better views, the other wasmuch more quiet and we opted for that one - but soon found out the reason its much more quiet is actually because its a killer - that blasted wall is so steep in places its like climbing a ladder! I thought I was going to die and it was even worse coming back down, at one point it was so steep that we were standing on one part before some steps and it looked like it was a sheer drop over the edge - I came down on my bum at that point like a toddler going down the stairs! Scary stuff! Great exercise though, we were all knackered by the end of it! The heat didnt help either!
Next we stopped off to have a quick look at the Birds Nest stadium where the 2008 Olympics were held, then we went home and Gemma and I went on the hunt for a traditional chinese massage! Boy did we find one! Lets just say I now know where the term 'chinese burn' comes from - those women should be used as interrogaters for the police cos after 5 mins of that I would have done anything to make it stop! I guess thats what you get when you spend ten pounds on a 45 min full body massage!
We then thought we'd go look round the local big supermarket, we ended up picking up random things that wehad no idea what they were and bought them anyway. Afterwards we met up with one of the girls in our group - Emma and went for a few beers again (at a pound a go how can you say no!) We did start off walking round looking for some bars but Chinese people dont tend to do the whole night time binge drinking like the brits do......
The next day (Tuesday) we got a little lie in and packed all our stuff up - I dont know how I packed my bag to come away but I can barely get everything in it now and I've hardly bought anything! We then met the group and went to Silk Alley Market which was hell on earth - you literally had every single person on every single stall in your face trying to sell you something. I think Gemma got a bit freaked out with the little chinese girls calling her 'Hey Sexy Lady you wan buy hat?' oh how I laughed! She did manage to haggle a leather bag down from 120 pounds down to 15 pounds which I thought was beyond impressive! We had our first western food at lunch - pizza, but only because it was the closest thing.
Next we went onto the Summer Palace is set on Kunming Lake and took my breath away. The Dowager Empress Cixi loved it and we could completely see why. It was a huge lake with immense grounds and buildings, the best of all was the long corridor - a covered walkway 730m long with hand painted scenes from Chinese history, legend and literature. There was also a huge solid marble boat, we did take a ride on a boat but it wasnt that one!
That night, we drove to the main train station in Beijing to get our overnight train to Xi'an, and lemmie tell you - that was one experience I'd never had before! Firstly there were some real shady characters at the train station watching our every move, staring as if mesmerised as we stocked up on beers before boarding (typical westerners!) Once on the train it was 4 to a cabin and Gem Gem and I got the top bunks of one cabin and two of the other ladies from our tour took the bottom two - however 12of us ended up squeezing into one cabin and proceeded to have a party with beer, music and lots of laughter, even when a very well spoken chinese lady knocked on the door and said we were unreasonable for being so loud at such a late time (it was about 10pm). We carried on til about 1am then retired for the night - I hardly slept with the rocking of the train and the snoring of Hilary in the bunk below........
The following day we woke in our cabin about 6 as we were arriving in Xi'an at 7 and you have to use the toilets early because they get busy. Xi'an is the biggest hell hole I've ever seen - the weather was dreary after all the lovely sun in Beijing and the city is filthy and smogging and well just depressing! We had a new tour guide with us who is possibly one of the most annoying people any of us has ever met. He really likes to repeat himseld. He really likes to repeat himself. And also refers to himself in the 3rd person which was doing my head in!
First stop after breakfast was the Wild Goose Pagoda whoo hoo! It was basically a buddist temple with statues around and scary monks walking round. Hilary asked one of them if she could take his photo and he gave her the v-sign which I nearly fell over laughing about. Great little stones in the grass with buddist type sayings (see pictures when they are up)
Next we went to a Terracotta workshop to find out how its all made etc then on to a hotel for the mankiest lunch I've ever had! I don't think Gemma ate any of it and I hada bit of rice and not much else! Next was the one thing I most wanted to see on this trip- the famous Terracotta Warriors! The find of the 20th century and named the 8th wonder of the world - the Terracotta Warriors are 7000 life sized soldiers which stand in military formation in excavated pits guarding Emperor Qin's grave. No two warrior faces are the same, and they really did just amaze us completely! I still can't believe I've seen them.
When we got back to the hotel we were knackered having not slept well on the train so we thought we'd grab the nearest thing to eat and get into bed with some telly, there was this dodgy little KFC place next door (its a chain of places called Dico which is apparently quite popular over here) so we ordered burgers and took them back to the hotel only to discover they were totally rank -sub standard stringy chewy chicken - we couldnt eat it and had to venture out for 'normal' food. Our dinner ended up being a packet of oreos! Once in bed we read a while then went to sleep - oh its tiring being on holiday! Gemma was woken at 2am by someone rattling the door and we were both woken at 5.45am by the same thing. I whispered in a shaking voice 'Don't open the door Gemma' and then we proceeded to scare ourselves silly with talk of Japanese horror movies and Hostel horror movies and who it could have been both times at the door! Went back to bed and slept til 10!
Yesterday we were too tired to have breakfast so just came downstairs at 11.30 to be taken to another place for lunch - which again was nasty - I dont know if the quality of the food is going down as we go along or whether we are just so fed up with chinese food that everything tastes like s***e - but its not good and considering we've only been away a week its not a good sign! The lunch was a chinese hot pot where basically you have your own individual little pot of biling chicken stock and you pick things from the middle of the table, boil it and eat it. Rank! I boiled an egg and ate that, I did try the meat and noddles but it wasnt nice! Gemma ate hardly anything.
After this we drove to the cuty walls and this actually turned out to be one of my fave things of the entire trip - we were all given a bike to cycle (no laughing Louise, Sheila & Chrissey) the entire city walls which is a big square - 9 miles long - it was awesome! It got the bloody pumping and the sun came out and we were all smiling! Was so much fun!
We rode past a primary school and looked down at the playground and all the little kiddlies were waving and calling to us! Was really nice. Afterwards we said goodbye to most of the group as only 6 of us were taking the overnight train back to Beijing (the others were going onwards for another week of China) and headed back to the hotel, Gemma and I had a bit of a walk round and learned the best way to deal with the 'starers' is to say 'Ne Hao' and smile at them! They either smile back or look embarrassed but either way it stops them! Afterwards we showered at the hotel and then went to get our overnight train again! Was not looking forward to it at all. It was much more subdued this time, we still had a few beers but we all went to bed about 10pm, I stayed up reading for a couple of hours then went to sleep and slept really well - Gemma had a crap sleep and it was because Hilary started rustling chocolate wrappers at 4am, then tried to deny it in the moring even though she had chocolate all round her face! So funny! Best thing about the trains is that you can smoke in the areas between the carriages so I didnt have to go without and it felt very naughty so was right up my street!
We arrived back in Beijing this morning, we've had breakfast and now we're writing blogs/emails then heading to the post office and a walk around before being picked up to head to the airport for our flight to Hanoi.
Facebook is banned in China so we havent been able to get on if any of you have left any messages but hopefully we'll be able to pick them up at some point in Vietnam. My phone also died 3 days ago and Iwont be recharged until Sat so sorry if I havent picked up some of your texts - however I am LOVING not being addicted to my CrackBerry anymore!
Over all we are having an amazing time and China has been awesome - although quite stinky! The worst thing has been getting used to the squat toilets which absolutely stink no matter where you go - I honestly will never complain about a toilet back in the UK again cos some of these have been absolutely horrendous! But we are getting used to them now, although trying to squat over a hole in the floor while a bit drunk on a moving train is a bit of an effort!
Anyway my hour is up so I better go - we are missing you all loads and I will write again as soon as I can. Much love x x x x x x x x
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