Tag: china

Tibet, the Roof of the World

Tuesday.

As I took off from Chengdu for Lhasa, I came to the conclusion I had left my phone on the counter top when I had bought lunch. I reflected on how I would travel without my phone. It wasn’t like I could use the Internet casually, and I had my iPad for wifi and, as well as my SLR, I could also be one of those awful people who took photos on their iPad. So really I didn’t need my phone. I put my head back and went to sleep trying to convince myself of these facts.

I landed in Lhasa, got my luggage, didn’t go through any security, and went outside to find my driver.

I was met with beautiful blue skies and warm sunshine. What a change! I put my bags in the car and while we waited for another tour member, I took my coat off and sat in the hottest weather I had had since I left Hong Kong. After an hour of sunshine, Rachel arrived and we headed to our hotel. En route I found my phone tucked safely away in my purse. Result.

The choice of hotel in Lhasa was Heritage Hotel and we were greeted with Butter milk tea which tasted like sweet soy milk and I wasn’t a huge fan. We dumped our bags in our room and I met Billy, my roomie for the week and went for dinner. Rachel and Billy were my two new friends from rentafriend.com. (The lonely planet website).

Dinner was at Lhasa Kitchen that served Tibet, Nepali, Indian and Western food. I had chicken pieces which were crazy spicy and a tandoori roti. Washed down with a glass of hot water as, as I was told, “it’s good for healthy”. We were also told to steer away from alcohol for a few days while we acclimatise as Lhasa is at 3650m above sea level.

The walk to dinner was an interesting one as we had our first sight of the pilgrims and prostrators circling the Jokhang temple on the Barkhor circuit. Visitors come from all across Tibet and many stopped to stare at us, say hello, or ask for our pictures. As a result the walk took a little longer than we thought!

Wednesday.

After an average nights sleep – unsure whether that was due to the heater being left on, the altitude, or my 2 hour nap on the plane, we had an easy day exploring Lhasa.

Our first visit was to the Potala. This was the home of every Dalai Lama from the fifth to the fourteenth yet now lies relatively dormant as a monastery and functions more as a museum. It was a stark reminder that the current Dalai Lama was forced into exile and can no longer reside where his predecessors had. There are only around 30 monks that live there now and they are there to look after the monastery and collect pilgrims’ donations.

The large white palace was built in the 17th century and the fifth Dalai Lama moved in. However the red palace was finished later and the Dalai Lama died during the construction of the red palace and his death was kept hidden for 12 years until the red palace was completed.

The Potala served as the seat of the Tibetan government and was a self contained world with schools, chapels, jails and tombs for the Dalai Lama. All photos of inside were forbidden but it was an impressive visit.

Also worth noting the horrific number of steps required to reach the entrance and the various temples inside. It was a very slow walk and fortunately I wasn’t the only one feeling the effects of the altitude at this point!

Lunch was at a small local restaurant. I tried Yak momos which were delicious and had yak meat noodles too. Equally as tasty.

Rachel had potatoes and a Tibetan dumpling which looked and tasted exactly like a Yorkshire pudding!

The afternoon took us inside the Jokhang temple. The temple smelt strongly of all the yak butter and ghee that is burnt around the temple. Again, no pictures inside the temple were allowed but I’m not sure pictures would have done the interior justice!

After the temple, Rachel and I watched some of the pilgrims prostrate outside the temple and then wondered to find ice cream where we had a minor ordeal trying to order one original Oreo ice cream (for me) and one chocolate Oreo (for Rachel). Given our lack of knowledge of both Chinese and Tibetan, the lady behind us got involved and I ended up settling with a chocolate Oreo. Two of the same was much easier.

Dinner was a trip to Lhasa’s very own Times Square as I was determined to find a supermarket that sold hot water bottles (the night at EBC is apparently a cold one!). The supermarket was full of unknown fruits and goodies so we stocked up and headed to a local Thai restaurant.

Again, the language barrier was a minor issue as Rachel is a vegetarian. Fortunately my “Learn Chinese” app had the required phrase and we were able to order some dinner. I love Thai food!

Thursday.

Today we were visiting the two great Gelugpa monasteries; Drepung and Sera (I don’t think I need to see another monastery after this trip!).

We met downstairs to the sight of snow. I had little interest in spending yet another day wondering around in the snow. Rachel however is from Melbourne and had never seen snow before so it was amusing to watch her delight in building her first snow man (albeit a mini one!).

Drepung monastery was first. This used to be one of the largest monasteries in the world and it was huge. Once again, there were many many steps to climb, made even more unpleasant by the presence of snow!

This monastery houses Ganden Palace which was established by the second Dalai Lama in 1530 and became the residence of the Dalai Lama from the second to the fifth who then move to the Potala. The second, third and fourth Dalai Lama are all entombed here.

The other two members of our 5 person your group were a Thai couple who taught Yoga. The husband proceeded to film a update video, which was amazing to watch but his feet must have for cold and wet as he was doing it in the snow – much to everyone’s amazement!

A family from eastern Tibet wanted a photo and I managed to get he son (through various pointing actions) to take a cheeky snap of me and the dad in his traditional outfit.

We also came across a small boy sitting wrapped up in the cold. Our guide told us that he likely belonged to a family who left him there in order to collect money from pilgrims and visitors. Given how cold I was, this bought a tear to my eye. He must have been freezing. We did however manage to get a couple of smiles from the cutie.

We then headed to Sera monastery which was slightly smaller than Drepung.

Lunch was at a nearby local restaurant and I had a tasty yak meat curry!

The great Gelugpa monasteries once operated as self contained worlds. Drepung once housed 10,000 monks before the takeover in 1951. At Sera we managed to catch the monks during their debating practice which was an amazing experience. It was very loud!

Monks debate in pairs; one sits down and asks questions and the one stands and answers them. There are three movements of the answering monk.

The right hand represents method and compassion and the left hand represents wisdom. When they clap, wisdom and method are joined.

As they clap they stamp their feet which represents the idea that hell should listen.

The left arm is then held out simultaneously and the beads are bought to the shoulder. This represents the compassion being taken or being re born from hell (I think).

It was an amazing thing to watch – even if the spectators are controlled by grumpy Chinese security!

We then headed back to the hotel and I took the time to use the wifi and read.

For dinner, Billy, Rachel and I ordered a Tibetan pizza and watched Kundun which is a film about the life of the current Dalai Lama and well worth a watch. It was interesting to put where we had seen into perspective.

Friday.

Today we drove down the northern friendship highway to Shigatse. Along the route we went through a number of villages and stopped at a local home based incense factory. They used primative water operated tools to process the materials and we watched a man make an order for some burners.

At Shigatse our guide needed to obtain the Alien Travel Permit (ATP) that was needed for the border check at Shegar.

Lunch was at a small local restaurant where again, I had yak meat curry (the only alternative was rice) and made a new friend.

We continued driving after lunch and on arrival in Shigatse we went to Tashilumpo monastery. Here we were able to watch the monks chanting which was interesting. This monastery is known for the fake monks who are actually Chinese spies from Beijing. It’s also home to the largest future Buddha statue in the world – although I’m sure every monastery claimed this, it was pretty big.

Back to the hotel for check in, dinner, and a good nights sleep.

Saturday.

Early start for the drive to Everest base camp and an increase in elevation from 3900m at Shigatse to 5200m at EBC. I woke up with a sore throat but after a check to ensure it wasn’t tonsillitis (major paranoia), i was sure it wasn’t anything some paracetamol and ibruprophen wouldn’t cure.

The road to EBC was really windy and it was full of u bends which often resulted in my bag flying off the seat next to me.

We stopped a couple of times on route – one stop was the highest point of our trip at 5248m. The wind was bitterly cold.

The next stop was our first view of Mount Everest. That was pretty amazing.

We continued to Gawu la pass where we had views of five of the Himalyas that are greater than 8000m; Mt.Makalu(8463m), Mt.Lotse(8516m), Mt.Everest(8844m), Mt.Cho Oyu(8201m) and Mt.Shishapama(8020m).

We drove down through numbers of switchback bends lead to the dry valley of Tashi Zom and then finally the day’s destination – Everest Base Camp located in the Rongbuk valley. We paid a visit to Rongbuk monastery which is the highest monastery in the world and is located in a cave. It was so warm and peaceful!

We then headed to the base camp which was empty of tents as it is not climbing season but Everest was impressive. SO COLD.

Dinner was chicken fried rice at the local guesthouse. The rooms were freezing but the restaurant was warm so we stayed there until bedtime.

Tonight was possibly the worst nights sleep I have ever had. I had two thick blankets, my sleeping bag and a number of layers of clothes on and a hot water bottle but it was just so unpleasantly cold I couldn’t sleep. I think I had 3 hours sleep in total – the morning couldn’t come soon enough!

Sunday.

After the appalling sleep of last night, we were all looking forward to the pancakes for breakfast. The maple syrup and honey we were given were frozen so we had a hard time warming that up to get it out. At least there was hot water. I had an awful headache and whether it was the lack of sleep or the altitude (5200m), I felt awful.

It was a long drive back to Shigatse and again, lack of sleep, the altitude or the very bendy road lead to a very poorly Katie. We couldn’t wait to be back in the comfort of the Shigatse hotel were the beds were soft, the room was warm and there was running water! I had little energy for anything when we got back to the hotel so Billy and I nipped to the supermarket across the road for pot noodles for dinner. Time for a well earned shower and a good nights sleep.

Monday.

Still not sleeping. Such a pain. I’d now developed some form of cold and again I woke with a banging headache.

Today was another long drive back to Lhasa. At least this time we were stopping at serious points and I had at least had more sleep than at EBC.

Our first stop was in Gyantse where we visited Kumbum stupa and Palkhor Choede monastery. This magnificent multi-door structure is the largest stupa in Tibet, it is not only well known for its architecture but also its old sculptures and paintings all around its inner walls that date back to the 14th century.

Whilst waiting for the others, a lady offered me butter milk tea – I wasn’t feeling great so politely declined. However within 5 minutes she had taken me by the hand and had lead me over to her bench and sat me down and handed me some tea and some strange sugar treat. A young boy then joined us and he took our camera and became the photographer which was amusing.

The afternoon drive was a long but pretty one one with various stops including a stop at Karo la (5150m) to see the holy mount Nyenchen Kangsar glacier and some super cute Tibetan mastiffs.

As it was our last meal as a group and it was Rachel’s birthday we went for a group dinner at a Nepali restaurant where I had a yak meat pizza! Delish.

Tomorrow I fly back to Beijing ready for an early morning flight on Wednesday to Japan. I’m excited for the snazzy toilets and ninja shows!

Pandas

Monday. 30th November

06:54 – I awoke at 6am for my ride to the panda park. Given that this was a highlight of my trip (or rather the whole point I came to China) my lack of planning was appalling.

I write this sat in the private van I have hired, where the driver is nice but speaks zero English, not having a clue whether I am going to the right park for panda photos or not!

My research last night told me there are a couple of panda parks in Chengdu, the biggest being Giant Panda Breeding Research Base that has a confusing website, followed by Dujiangyan panda base that has no website at all and when I google, I am taken to pages about Dujiangyan irrigation system, which, although is a UNESCO world heritage site, I have zero interest in visiting.

In 2014, a few pandas in chengdu caught canine distemper and the survival rate was low. As a result, the panda centres stopped allowing human contact including photos to protect remaining pandas. However Dujiangyan has since reopened this opportunity but requires people to wear protective clothing.

I have seen friends photos in the past and a couple on my DPRK tour had been and the photos have all been amazing so I can only hope that I can do it too and I will ignore the things I have read about booking in advance! I don’t think I’ll see baby pandas at this one though.

Local name: 大熊猫谷

Local address: 白马村余塘乡

Breakfast however was an enjoyable affair – pocketed strawberry jam sandwiches with the crusts cut off. I started taking ‘Fufang Gaoshan Hongjingtian Koufuye’ on Saturday night which Frank said would help with potential altitude sickness in Tibet. It tastes a bit like liquorice. I can’t read the instructions as to what it does but I was told to take two vials a day. I took that as morning and evening – I couldn’t stomach two of these at once. At least the strawberry sandwiches took the taste away. Unless you speak Chinese, it’s a bit of a waste of time googling too!

08:30 – We finally arrived at the Dujiangyan Panda Park. The security guard said we would have to wait 15 minutes. I was filled with dread. I’ve come all this way, paid 400 yuan (~£40) for the driver and I might be turned away. However after 10 minutes a girl in a blue raincoat came and peered her head into the van and it seemed I could go in. Whoop!

We parked up and my driver took me through into the office. Although he spoke less English than I speak mandarin, he did a great job in explaining that I wanted to see the pandas. The girl asked for my donation of 1800 yuan and I agreed to some form of terms and conditions that I wouldn’t sell my photos. Not sure who would want my amateur photos anyway but there we go.

I was then let loose in the panda park. There are only 4-5 pandas that are open to the public, each in their own enclosure. At the sight of the first one, I almost skipped. The park was empty, there was no one in sight and with no crowds, you could get unbelievably close to them. I was on cloud nine.

The first panda was called Dai Li and he was 16 years old. He was a cutie. He only had three legs as he was found in the wild after being attacked by other animals so his leg had to be amputated. It had since healed and he was doing well on his other legs.

Another panda there was called Pan Pan. At 30 years old, he was the oldest panda at the park and the oldest male panda in the world. A birthday party was held for him in September. Cute! He was less photogenic than the others!

WuWen was a female panda and was 2 years old. When I first saw her she was folded over in the most uncomfortable position.

10:20 – After an hour and a half of creeping on the 4 pandas there, I headed back to the office for the main event. A photo with what was to be, my new best friend.

My new buddy was 1 year old and super cute. I was told that winter is a good time to see pandas as they prefer the cold and they are more active than in the summer when they insist on sleeping all day. He was a mischievous fellow who refused to get on the bench at first to pose for a photo. After he was given his carrot to munch on however he was a happy chap and sat nicely for the photos.

It was surreal. He was so adorable and so fluffy and it took every part of me to not pick him up and whisk him away. He looked at me with this big eyes and I melted a little inside. What amazing creatures.

Definitely worth every penny of my “donation”. I even got a certificate and a tshirt.

When I told the lady it was hard to find things about the park online, she said it was because it wasn’t open to the public. You can only go on a tour group or if you are willing to donate for the photo. That explained a lot as to why the park was so empty.

If I had time, I would have loved to go to the other panda centre to see the red pandas and the baby pandas but as I won’t get back until after lunch, I am probably cutting it fine. I’ll just have to come back to China in the future. They are incredible animals.

The Polar Express to Suzhou and Shanghai

Before I go further, lets get this straight, Suzhou bought no warmer weather.

Tuesday. 24th November

The train from Xi’an was an interesting experience. The train station was busy with many policemen wondering around. Frank, the babe of a tour guide (genuinely – what a nice guy) informed us that the station was often subject to terrorist attacks and stabbings. Good start to the long journey!

We sat in a dingy waiting room to wait for our train. We were very early so got some seats but it very quickly filled up with the loud locals. When the train finally arrived there was a mad rush together on which seemed extreme until not much sooner after we were on the train with our bags, the train began to pull off and start its ~800 mile journey to Suzhou.

To put it nicely, the train was cosy. We had 6 beds in two, three bed high bunks in the cabin. Joined with all our luggage, breathing space was limited – but it’s all part of the adventure hey?

Train left around 8pm and lights out at 9:30pm. I lay down to read but was convinced I felt travel sick so forced myself to sleep. By 2am I was wide awake listening to the trains honk at each other as they passed. SO LOUD.

Eventually it was 8am and time to get up as we assumed we would be arriving at 9. We assumed wrong. Franky boy came to tell us we had slowed down due to the snow so we wouldn’t get in until half 11. I was bored of this train now so went back to sleep.

The upside to the train was that the toilet wasn’t as bad as it could have been – it didn’t smell great but it appeared clean. I also scored a bottom bunk so no climbing for me. Life could be worse.

We finally arrived in Suzhou. It was cold. We went to the Garden of the Master of the Nets which is considered to be one of Suzhou’s best preserved gardens. It was laid down in the 12th century and was left to die but was restored in the 18th century as part of the home of a fisherman (hence the name). It’s very pretty but given it was so cold, it was hard to enjoy the outdoor space so many of us headed back to the hotel after the garden for a decent sleep after last nights journey.

Thursday.

We caught an early bullet train to Shanghai. Top speed hit was 297km/h. I however was less speedy in taking a photo to show the speed!

We arrived into Shanghai to sunshine and blue skies. We checked in and went for a walk down the Bund for our first sight of the Shanghai skyline.

We had bought tickets to an evening acrobat show at the Shanghai Circus World which did not disappoint. The metro there was an experience – China in rush hour is crazy! Acrobat show was amazing though. Who mine you could fit 8 motorbikes into a caged sphere?

Friday.

Last day with the group. We walked back down the bund to the Yuyuan Gardens which were large markets that sold souvenirs and various bits of tat. It’s all in a nice setting though.

After a local lunch at Maccies, Lindsay, Hayley and I headed to the Shanghai Museum which is a large museum of ancient Chinese art. It was interesting but I’m glad it was free.

We then decided to head to an observatory tower. Given that we couldn’t access wifi we just guessed which metro station it was likely to be near. How wrong we were. Given that we didn’t know the name of the tower we wanted – just that it was known locally as the “bottle opener”, I couldn’t even attempt to find it on google maps. It is one of the tallest buildings in Shanghai, so you can imagine our surprise when we could no longer see it when we left the metro. Absolute mare. We guessed which way to walk and headed over. An hour or so later we finally arrived. Whilst writing this I have since learnt it was actually only a twenty minute walk – just shows you need to research where you are going first!!

We went all the way to the 100th floor at 474m high. It’s the tenth tallest building in the world and since we were fortunate to a clear day, the views across Shanghai were spectacular!

Dinner was the last supper. Last meal on tour. We all decided to get a taxi, which required 3 different taxis, and naturally, the three were taken at different times as they were hard to flag down and we all got dropped at different locations. However we did finally make it which was the best part of a miracle! After dinner a few of us walked back down the bund to see the skyline at night.

We made a detour via a bar for a well earned drink to celebrate a good week.

Saturday.

I had a final day in Shanghai by myself. I took myself off early to the Yuz Museum to see a new art installation called the RainRoom. It was a large room where 1800 litres of water fall from the ceiling every minute and yet you can walk through without getting wet.

It was amazing. It is all done through motion sensors and 3D cameras. The rest of the museum wasn’t hugely exciting but the rain room was well worth a visit.

I headed to the French concession for some lunch and a general wander round the area. Back then the hotel for an early night as I’d decided to brave the metro to the airport at 6am.

Back to Mainland China 🇨🇳

Beijing. Saturday 21st November

It was freezing when I left Beijing airport. My backpack had increased in weight by 6kg – likely to be a result of a bottle of gin I bought for the guides and forgot to give and the books – plural – I bought on the biography of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung that I am sure will make for fascinating bed time reading.

There was no taxi queue this time and the woman manning the rank pointed me to a guy who was beckoning me over. He showed me a card that read “I speak English” which made me laugh and then tried to charge me 500RMB for a taxi. That was not happening given that I was now a Beijing pro and knew it should only be 100. I loudly said “bù xièxiè” (no thank you) and went back to the queue for a regular taxi. I knew what I was doing.

At least, I thought I did, until I showed the next taxi man the hotel address (in Chinese characters) who then appeared to ask me how to get there. In mandarin – so at least that’s what I thought he was saying. After 5 minutes of him speaking very loudly in Chinese (which made me think the game Chinese whispers is an oxymoron as I don’t think it’s possible for them to speak quietly at all) he started off in what I figured must be the right direction.

My hotel was called Chongwenmen hotel and was right next to Chongwenmen metro station. The driver dropped me off at exit B (so it turned out) and according to my hotel directions, I wanted exit C. I paid less than 100RMB for the ride (glad I didn’t go with the original taxi thief) and headed into the metro to find exit C. I couldn’t cross through to exit C from where I was without a ticket so instead of going back upstairs to the road and crossing it, I just bought the equivalent to a 20p ticket to the next stop so I could cross the station. I exited at exit C and saw my hotel – 20p well spent.

The hotel was of a much higher standard than previous hostels which was a god send. So, instead of venturing out into Beijing, I went to the local department store for lunch, bought a new pair of straightners (which I rationalised by calling them my new “travel straightners”) and headed back to the hotel for a hot shower and a nap before the next tours orientation meeting.

Dinner was a very enjoyable affair of Peking duck with my new tour group. I never want crispy duck pancakes at home unless the pancakes are 1000 times thicker, at least 3 times the size and the duck is succulent and juicy. It was delicious.

Sunday

Early start for a trip to Tiannenmen Square and the forbidden city. It had snowed overnight and was still doing so when we ventured out. It was due to drop to -2 degrees today.

Fortunately at the time we got there the queue wasn’t too bad. The area looked pretty in the snow. It was still bloody cold though. My snazzy coat only kept me so warm and I made a mental note to wear more layers tomorrow.

After the trip we headed for a group lunch and then a few of us to the department store to buy more layers. I found a pair of 120 denier tights at an H&M and bought those as an extra under layer! Back to the hotel for a couple of hours before the evening activity as it was too cold to do much else!

The evening activity was a Kung fu show. It was brilliant. It was funny and a couple of parts required audience participation. Fortunately I was not chosen for that.

Monday

Today we were heading to see the Great Wall. We had a private bus to head out of town to the Mutianyu section, a recently renovated stretch of the Great Wall. It took two and a half hours to get there and naturally I slept the whole way. Travelling and being on holiday is exhausting.

“He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man.”

Mao Zedong

When we arrived at the wall the surrounding area was beautiful. We had clear blue skies and everything was covered in a layer of white snow. There was the option to walk up steps or get a cable car. Obviously I got the latter – figured I had climbed my fair share of steps this holiday at the rice terraces near Guilin alone!

The cable car didn’t not disappoint though. It took us up to tower 6 and the views were spectacular. The snow made it look so pretty. Myself and two girls, Hayley and Lindsey took the first selfies of many at the top and started walking carefully down the wall.

Tower 6 was quite high compared to some of the latter towers and walking down the wall required a descent down a number of steep steps. Often it was a case of watching someone else go down to conclude how slippy the steps were. Given my lack of general balance and coordination, I was glad I managed to do it in one piece.

The ‘original’ wall was begun more than 2000 years ago and it was hard to imagine the poor souls who dragged the required materials up the mountain without that handy cable car.

We walked down to tower 11 where we bumped into Ruth, a member of our group who had braved the steps up the mountain. She said it hadn’t been too bad so we decided to walk down and the steps looked manageable.

After the wall many of our group went to the Subway by the ticket office (the shops just at the base of the wall consisted of a subway and a pizza joint) and 3 of us went with Frank our guide to a local restaurant a few minutes walk away. Frank’s order did not disappoint and was delish.

The afternoon then consisted of a drive to the airport for a delayed flight to Xi’an. The Chinese were loving the group of western tourists sitting on their bags waiting for check in.

Tuesday

Late arrival and early start for a trip to the Terracotta warriors. This army is one of the most famous archeological finds in the world. In 1974, farmers were digging a well and uncovered an underground vault that yielded thousands of underground soldiers and horses in battle formation. These pits had never previously been mentioned in historical records.

On the warriors we could examine upclose, it was clear that no two faces are the same and their hairstyles,armour and even the tread of their foot ware was all unique.

There are three pits at the museum, pit 1 being the largest housing more than 6000 pottery warriors although approximately only 2000 are on show. The Warriors are reputed as the “Eighth Wonder of the World”.

The warriors were found in 1974 when local farmers were drilling a well in search of water. They found pottery fragments which soon turned out to be all of this!

The below chap on the left is one of the seven “generals” found in the pits. The height, clothing and headgear of him all indicated his high rank.

The right picture above is one kind of the armored infantryman. The pose of his hands suggest he once held a crossbow. The back of the statue still had some colour from when they were originally painted!

I then attended a tea ceremony with some others and bought some lychee tea which was glorious. Chinese tea leaves can be used 6-7 times in one day and not lose their flavour. I wasn’t convinced I could drink that amount of tea without needing to visit the bathroom every 10 minutes! I was prepared to give it a try though.

After the tea ceremony we drove to Xi’an’s Muslim quarter. The area north of the drum tower has been home to the Hui community (Chinese Muslims) for centuries.

It is an area full of butcher shops, markets, one of China’s largest mosques and was a great place to wander and buy some fantastic smelling food.

Myself and Haley tried the lamb kebabs. I thought the skewer of meat was glorious so had one the bought another. Hayley didn’t seem to think the same so I had hers too. They were very enjoyable.

Tonight we board a train to Suzhou. I can’t say I’m looking forward to 14+ hours on a train in cramped cabins! Let’s hope Suzhou brings some warmer weather!

Guilin, Yangshou and a lot of rain 🇨🇳☔️

Wednesday.

On arrival into Guilin, I had to navigate my way on two buses to the hostel through rain and the cold with no English signs and limited mandarin knowledge. Where had I taken myself to?Fortunately the group of people I had heard speak English on the train were going to the same hostel so I tagged myself onto their group and onto a very busy bus.

Given the size of my bag, I stayed downstairs as walking up the bus steps was just not an option. Although we were on the bus and knew we needed to get of at Guilin South train station, the map of stops was in Chinese and we had no idea where to get off. One of the guys from the other group, whose name was Pedro, attempted to ask these two Chinese girls who were wearing identical cat ear hair bands if they spoke English. They giggled at him instead. Typical.

However, we were none the wiser so he tried again, this time using an app on his phone to try and translate. It sort of worked as they were able to tell us we were 12 stops away. Unfortunately the bus got particularly busy and it proved hard for anyone to move past the monstrosity that was my backpack. Life was great.

We finally arrived at the hostel and it was time for a well deserved beer and some dinner. Two of the guys, Felix and Ming , wanted to source some duck neck for dinner so we went in search. Whilst wondering in a shopping mall, there was a “9D experience”. 20 yuan (£2) for 10 minutes – why not? I chose the roller coaster option and I spent the next 10 minutes on a roller coaster in a virtual reality and needless to say I came off it feeling a little sick and dizzy so a good £2 well spent.

Dinner was clay pot rice that was super spicy. No duck necks.

Headed back to hostel for beers and a night out in Guilin. China nightlife is bizarre. Girls were giving free drinks out left right and centre and the choice of music was ridiculous. I am the Music Man mixed with some horrific techno beats was not my choice of fun. However hostel Tsingtao in 600ml bottles for £1.20 was very enjoyable.

Thursday.

Up early and feeling far from fresh for a trip to the rice terraces. 2 and a half hours and a replaced flat tyre later we arrived. Still raining we bought some snazzy plastic footwear to attempt to keep our feet dry. This was today’s attire:

Unfortunately due to the rain the views weren’t great but we managed to see some pretty impressive views. Again, millions of steps which was a bit of a mare but I certainly couldn’t complain about being cold anymore!

Quiet night in at the hostel with dinner there being enough in one portion to fill a family of 6. All for £3. Bargain. I also needed to do washing. It was only after I took it out of the machine that I realised there was no dryer and it was raining outside. Good start.

Friday.

Another early start but this time we were off on a four hour cruise down the Li river and into Yangshou. The trip is a popular one for Chinese tourists (which there were many of) as the scenery is picturesque and can be seen on a 20 Yuan banknote.

We didn’t have quite the same view but the rain didn’t make it any less impressive. A four hour trip might have been a bit excessive though. Lunch provided consisted of bean sprouts, pickles, egg and some plain rice. Not great – explained why everyone else on board bought their own picnics – we obviously missed that memo.

Gerado, me, Ming, Thiemo, Pedro, Felix, Erik

Yangshou itself is a pretty place. Much more traditional unlike the concrete city that was Guilin but as a result was much more touristy. The group were keen to head up to the tv tower on top of one of the mountains so we acquired a map and made our way.

Ming was directing us and told us to cut through the market. The market was almost deserted. It started by selling some typical weird animals such as eels and frogs and fruit I’ve never seen but as we ventured further in we began to see the dead animal carcasses. It started with ducks cut down the middle and hanging limp over a table but it very quickly descended into goats, rabbits and sadly cats and dogs.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I saw a cage with 5 or 6 kittens in there waiting for their fate and it nearly bought a tear to my eye. How can people think it’s a normal thing to eat? I made a swift exit after that not wanting to see any more upsetting sights. I nearly made it until I saw the remains of a dog, still with teeth intact. This market was in a different world.

We finally made it to the base of the route up to the tv tower. The steps started again and I have to admit, I did not feel like doing that again so I returned back to Yangshou with Pedro in search of other sights and a toilet. We met back up with the others an hour or so later and headed back to Guilin.

Another night was planned at Muse so after some more cheap beer and not so cheap G&Ts we returned. This time it was short lived for me though as the novelty of the appalling music and performances had worn off. Smoking is still allowed in clubs in China too so the air was pretty stuffy too. After a couple of hours we headed back to bed leaving Felix and Thiemo pulling some edgy shapes on stage.

Saturday. This morning we could lie in. I’d booked a flight to Beijing in the afternoon so I said my goodbyes and headed off to the airport after lunch.

See you soon Beijing!

The journey to Guilin from Hong Kong

So I awoke at the crack of dawn to get the train from Hong Kong over to mainland China.

To fly would have cost £130 and the train would be £21. Although I knew my way to the airport, I knew how to get through customs, I knew I could sleep safely on the plane, I knew the hostel the other end had a free transfer service, I decided to brave the train and save the money for a rainy day (as it turns out though it was pouring with rain in Guilin so maybe that day was today but never mind!).

I first had to make my way to Lok Ma Chau on the border using the subway. Which I needed to get a bus to first. In rush hour. But that was fine. I could cope.

I arrived (finally) at Lok Ma Chau, got through immigration fine and entered no mans land. I still had to get through to Shenzhen and through immigration and customs there. I managed that fine without any speaking, by following the crowd. Happy days.

The problem came when I had to buy a ticket from the border in Shenzhen to Shenzhen north where the train to Guilin left from. Although the machine said there was an English option, it lied. In the end a very nice lady asked if I needed help and bought my ticket for me. I say nice, she was probably too fed up of waiting behind me.

That ticket in hand I got another metro to the next station. To pick up my train ticket I had the instructions written in a handy piece of paper. I had come prepared. I handed that over in silence and the unfriendly lady printed the ticket without a smile. I began to wonder whether being unfriendly was a requirement of selling tickets in China; her, the machine in Shenzhen and the lady in Hong Kong. I kept that thought to myself.

I found my way to the correct platform and started to queue. The Chinese love a good queue. The train wasn’t leaving for an hour yet!

Unfortunately for me I ended up in a queue that ran parallel to a Chinese tour group. You can guess what happened there. One guy insisted on taking photos of me and my massive backpack. At first they were subtle. That quickly stopped as he began to angle it so that he could compare me to the poor 4ft lady in front who definitely could have fit in my bag.

I got on the train hoping I would finally be away from it all. But no. My luck had taken me to their carriage. And I ended up in the seat next to Mr Camera Man himself. Which the tour group found very amusing. Me, not so much.

I couldn’t help but laugh however as they keep talking to me in Chinese and I understood none of it. They clearly we’re loving life as they inspected my backpack and tried to lift it.

As the train pulled out of Shenzhen, they pulled out their lunch which consisted of a large bag of monkey nuts, a bag of dried prawns and a tub of an unidentified meat object. At first they offered some and I said no which they obviously didn’t understand as Mr Camera Man poured a large pile of prawns and monkey nuts on my tray. Tasty.

He then showed me pictures of his family and videos of his house which was fun. He was actually really friendly.

Through the tour of his photos I forgot to look out of the window. We were beginning to see the start of the bizarre Guilin landscape. The mountains are known as Karst Mountains and in the current weather they looked really eerie.

3 hrs and 41 minutes later I finally arrived at Guilin. I just had to get myself through the rain to the hostel!

The visa process

I used a company called CIBT for my visa – I’ve dealt with them before and they are pretty helpful. The China visa application form itself didn’t seem too complicated but since I need a double entry visa, they seemed to want a large amount of information on flight and hotel bookings.

Since I am going on a gadventures tour and I booked all my flights through flight centre, I was entitled to a discount on their visa fee.

I paid an extra £46 on top of the £111 embassy fee for my visa but considering they do all the checking of documents and I was not going to risk being rejected, I figured it was a good investment. Especially as I had a number of different hotel bookings – including the fake ones required because I want to go into Tibet. God forbid you mention that on your visa. I was told it’s almost a guaranteed rejection. It would be like the UK Government saying to tourists, yes you can come to our country but you must not go to Wales. Weird.

Flight centre are an absolute dream to book with. I recently went to Bali on a family holiday and we booked our flights with a lady called Megan in the St Albans office. She then moved up to Manchester but took our booking with her and kept us updated on flight changes and the like.

As a result of how wonderful she was, I asked if she would help me in booking my flights on this trip. I sent her my handy trip spreadsheet – see, an auditor at heart, and she came back with various options for flights – especially for the second half of my trip which is still all up in the air but at least we were able to get the Asia part sorted!

Booking with flight centre also gives you a discount on the gadventures tours and the flight centre people get paid by some form of commission so anyone looking to book through flight centre, I would highly recommend it! Not sure I could have done it without them to be honest.

A waiting game for the visa

Back in May this year when I should have been revising for my final exams I stumbled across this article: How One Man Realized His Dream of Visiting Every Country on the National Geographic website.

I had already been toying with the idea of taking some time out when I qualified but didn’t know how long I’d have or whether work would even want me back.

This guy confirmed that seeing every country was possible and I decided that’s what I wanted to do. I dreamed of living my life all over the world, ticking off all those “100 places to see before you die” (one of which is space?! Richard Branson if this ever reaches you, please know it’s something I’m keen on doing so please do just get in touch) until I realised that my family naturally worry when I’m driving down the m6 on a Monday morning let alone on a plane into the unknown depths of Africa.

As a result I’ve since reined in my wild dreams of every country and just want to live each day as it comes, planning the next trip instead of doing the audit I should be doing. (I jest I obviously always do all my work and I obviously ❤️ audit).

So when I finally qualified I figured I would take some time out. I say finally because a) 3 years of exams after 3 years of uni after 15 years of school slowly kills you and b) because out of the 15 exams I should have taken, I’ve managed to do 18 – exams are so much more fun when you have to do them twice.

It’s now September 2015 and yes I should have qualified but I’ve learnt such things don’t go to plan and I’ll hopefully be qualified when I’m touring Japan. If again that doesn’t go to plan, I’ll just have to take another 3 months off next year, which I’m totally ok with. Fingers crossed that won’t be the case though.

So anyway, I’ve got 3 months off and I fly out on this world tour 2 days after my final final exam. I’m going to have to remember revision > trip planning.

Currently planned for the first leg of the trip are China, North Korea (DPRK as they prefer to be known) and Japan. Obviously I speak none of these languages and I’m about as British looking as they get so naturally I’ll blend in and no one will ever know I’m this lost English kid looking for a bed for the night.

The Chinese visa has finally been sent off though so once my passport is back in my hands – I’m good to go.

I just need to play the waiting game to get it back.