Day 92: Home

Mood: I got a strange overwhelming feeling of happiness once I'd got off the plane.
Music: Bat for lashes - Two suns

Well... That's it, I'm all done and safely back home.

The flight last night seemed to go remarkably quickly. I was sat in between a two fair sized men and our shoulders touched if we all sat upright. My knees were touching the seat in front the whole way too. Even so I sat back and watched Potter 7i and the back of of the film Red again. I managed about.4 hours sleep too which is pretty good given I've got to drive home today.

This morning we landed almost on the dot of the expected time and I was picked up by my parents about 40 minutes later as I left the airport.

Yes, well. I think that's it. Thank you for reading those who did, I hope I've kept you mildly entertained on my travels.

The End.

Day 91: Homeward Bound!

Mood: Strangely unexcited
Music: Simon & Garfunkle, Bon Iver, King of Convenience & The Lemonheads

As indicated last night, I had very little planned today but I had a steely determination to get my chopsticks and a desire to get up to the peak to have a look around. The peak idea came from Steve Maxwell's suggestion of Cafe Deco (I just ate in their Airport cafe... nice food but crap service) and also some of the photos I'd seen last night when talking to some Brits I met on the water front.

I also had to pick up my suit at 1pm, which kind of got in the middle of everything. Anyway... I packed my stuff up and was out by about 10:30am and set out in seach of the Chinese arts and crafts centre in Wan Chai. I took the MTR and spent a few minutes trying to gather my bearings once I surfaced again into the concrete jungle of overhead walkways that make up the area. I was there a few minutes later, only to find nothing remotely chopstick like on sale. 'Rubbish' I thought.

I decided to wonder over to Times Square again, for lack of a better plan and had a wonder around the shopping centre that spans the first 7 or 8 floors of of the towers. It was then I realised I could nip up to the peak before having to go get my suit back and so hopped into a taxi and sped onwards up the hill.

About three quarters of the way up the weather foiled my cunning plan and the cloud descended to a level well below the summit. Not long after driving into the cloud I asked the taxi driver to turn around and head back to the view point we'd seen on the way up, just so I could get a few pics looking down over the city. He waited for me (meter running obviously) as I legged it out and snapped a little of the city sat below the clouds and then took my back down the hill to Admiralty MTR station so I could go and get my suit back.

It was 1:30pm by the time I'd tried on the suit and got it back to the hotel to put it into my luggage. At this point I decided to go for broke for the afternoon. With no plans, and no idea of any place to get my chopsticks, other than a shop on Ngong Ping Village, about as far away as you can get in Hong Kong, I decided to go for it.

About an hour of traveling later I arrived to the MTR station at the foot of the cable car that takes most visitors up to the viewpoint. I wondered over to the entrance, to find the place shut due to the proximity of a thunderstorm. Grudgingly I boarded the bus service that would take me 45minutes around the winding roads to the top of the island. It passes a couple of nice bays, but as we climbed higher we entered the cloud. At that point it started raining, just a little at first, but this grew to an almighty downpour by the time we arrived. At first no-one wanted to leave the bus, as the prospect of getting soaked in the first few meters looking for cover wasn't very inviting. I decided to go for it however, I'd not come this far to let a little bit of water slow me down!

Diving from cover to cover I dragged my ever increasingly soaked self to the shopping area and eventually found the chopstick shop I'd come all that way for... only to spend the first minute or so stood dripping in the doorway. After much perusing, I bought the set that caught my eye and headed back for the bus. There are some attractions in the area, including a large sitting Buddha, but I knew that the thick clouds and by now only drizzling rain would spoil most of what makes the area so special.

I found myself in the queue for the bus stood next to a Frenchman with whom I struck up a conversation that took us all of the way back to the MTR train station in seemingly next to no time. He was a fund manager in Hong Kong on business for a few days and had decided to take the weekend here too before returning to Paris this evening. We talked about the market and I got to use some of my new found knowledge (based on the book concerning the collapse of Bear Stearns that I've just finished) and other outlooks, including what we'd done at ScriptSwitch and the lack of impact of the "financial downturn" on our business.

We also talked about the notable lack of highlights of Hong Kong and how they are mostly coverable in the space of an evening. Also about the difficulties of life on the road. He travels a lot, in the three months leading up to Christmas, he said he's been away more than home. I know just how that feels, both on these travels, and on the road with work. You arrive in a place in time to find you hotel, do your work then spend a few hours looking for somewhere nice to eat, by that time you go back to your hotel room. It's lonely but people who don't do it think you get to have a whale of a time as you are always in interesting places (they don't factor in that you are on your own and interesting places are fine during the day, but most places are the same at night when all you want is a nice meal and a good bed).

On the MTR I was sat down and a young north Italian lady took the only seat remaining next to me. I traveled all the way back to the station next to my hotel as she was near living there for the time being. She had moved out a week previous for a year with work and was still finding it rather overbearing. She had been living in Innsbruck for a long while and works for the b2b section of Swarovski Crystal. We laughed and joked about the push and shove nature of life in the city and also the strange propensity of everyone to walk at a pace that would make a snail seem like a rocket ship. They also seem to stop in the middle of pavements at random, forcing the unaware to walk into (or in my case over!) them! She was fairly short but on the trek across Hong Kong station while switching trains, demonstrated the quite rapid walking pace of someone who, like I, walks to get places.

We parted at Tin Hai station and I went back to my hotel to put the things I'd bought into my baggage. At that point I decided I best just make my way to the airport. I had about 6 hours before my flight but nothing much to do.

It's here that I sit. I guess this is my last entry. I might put something up in the morning, who knows. It's my aim to get a photo of Rolf with the air hostesses/stewardesses for the flight home but I'm not sure how well that's going to work! We'll see.

Bye for now.

Day 90: The last full day

Mood: Sad it's coming to an end
Music: KT Tunstall, Suede and others.

I set out today with a single task... Find myself a nice set of chopsticks to bring home. I'd seen some nice things in Shanghai and again in Guilin but I'd no space at the time to carry anything more. For the return flight home I'm allowed 2 bags checked in and as such I planned to just buy these things once I got here.

Having located one such shop not too far from where I'm staying, and confirmed this by finding it on Google Streetview. When I got that far, however, I found that the shop had been replaced by something else. This led to some rather protracted wondering around back streets and markets as I worked my way across Hong Kong Island towards the Admiralty area.

Eventually I gave up and hopped into a MTR station and whisked myself to where I'd been the previous day for my second suit fitting. This went fairly well but there were several tweaks that were most definitely required.

On leaving the fitting session I decided I had two options for what to do next. The first was to go to the boat in Whampoa that I had said to Phil the previous day I'd get a photo of Rolf at... the second was to visit the huge new building on Kowloon, at the top of which sits the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. This had been opened 2 weeks ago as the highest hotel on the planet, resting between the 103rd and 118th floors in the building.

I went with the latter and walked through the Kowloon park, tiptoeing past a group practicing tai chi in the hot and humid early afternoon sun. On the way out of the part I saw a building with lots of bamboo scaffolding surrounding it. I looked at this for a while, considering just how safe the duct tape joined structure was... then decided I best move on, if only so I wasn't stood under it anymore!

Following a walk around the building at street level, then a wonder into it's underground service area, I eventually found a way in via the MTR station that sits under the complex and walked myself up to the hotel lobby. Here I found a queue and promptly joined it, without any idea what I was joining! It transpired that a large number of people had come to have afternoon tea at the two all day restaurants up top, and the rest of the people were waiting for tables at this.

I stood in line patiently for about 90 minutes before being told that they had run out of the tea sets but could I could choose from the a la carte menu once a table became free. Thankfully this was only a few minutes before the bar opened, which was my intended target the whole time.

With beer in hand and a sushi & sashimi meal in front of me (sea urchin sashimi might not be one to have again) I sat and ate and eventually the sun went down. I decided to try to make it to the viewing platform for the nightly light and laser show (frickin' laser beams on buildings!). As it happened I didn't quite appreciate that I had to go back to hong kong island and leg it to a different station to get back to the viewing platform. This still would have been quicker than trying to run to the platform but I only just made it to the front to see the last few seconds of the show. Tomorrow I'll be heading to the airport during the 8pm show.

As I was on the waterfront I decided to wonder down the promenade for a while, until I came across the Hong Kong star walk. Rolf is pictured on Jackie Chan's star, but there were a number I recognised (Sammo & Bruce Lee among others).

After this I hopped in a taxi and showed him the map on my phone displaying the road name where the boat is in Whampoa. He had no idea what I was asking and I went and found another taxi who did.

The boat is a  facade for the front of a small shopping centre. There is also a connected entertainment complex and cinema next door. I didn't see much to do here so I hopped in another taxi to be taken to the Temple street market. This is a street market that runs at night along small back streets. Almost everything can be purchased here, from clothing to FOakleys, Folexs, other assorted nick nacks and some electronics. I was in search of some chopsticks and in the end bought some cheap ones just in case I can't find anything better tomorrow.

After much more internet searching I've found one place that has a full shop, but that is far too far away to do anything else during the day, and also a possible place in the arts and crafts centre not too far away from where I started looking today.

I'll see how I go.

I will try to post something tomorrow but I'm not sure what opportunity I'll have. Therefore this may be my last entry until I'm back on home soil.

Take care, and have fun all, it's been great.

Day 89: Gone Shoppin'

Mood: Happy
Music: Various

My first experience of Hong Kong today was one of disorientation and slight confusion... As the map I had picked up at the airport had the hotel I was staying in on the opposite side of the road from where it actually is, I made a wrong turning at the first possible moment, as I stepped outside the front doors this morning.

From here I was a little confused why the road appeared to be turning in the wrong direction, but as I had no idea of the scale I was sure I would be fine. The swathes of huge high rise buildings leave you with nothing on which to get a baring either. In the end I ended up back on the main road I was looking for and hopped on one of the old trams that was heading down towards the main area of the island. After a while I got bored of this and so hopped off when I saw an MRT (tube) station that might get me there quicker.

I headed to central station and bought myself a 3 day travel card (with 1 airport train trip) to last me until I go. I was a little hesitant about doing so, as you have to use the MRT a large number of times (short journeys cost about 35p) to make it worthwhile. In the end I thought it better as I meant I wouldn't end up with piles of shrapnel from buying a million single tickets over the period.

From here I decided to head onto Kowloon and have a look around for a tailors place that I'd seen advertised in one of the magasines left in the hotel room. After a large amount of wondering in circles I nipped into several camera shops and inquired about the price of the lens I have been looking to get for a while. In the end I bought it for about 10% less then the lowest price in the UK.

From here I allowed myself to get hijacked into one of the tailors shops I'd eyed up earlier and was measured up for another cheap suit. One of the few things I had left to do was buy a suit carrier, which would make up my second allowed item of checked luggage on the trip back to the UK. I was pointed towards the Harbour City shopping centre at the end of the road. It was here I spent the next few hours wondering around the maze like structure looking for a shop that might sell me what I was looking for. In the end I gave up and went to sit outside by the ferry terminal reading my book. For a good 15 minutes I also got to watch an eagle circling over the harbour and occasionally circling in a spiral down to the water in an attempt to catch a fish. I only wish I'd taken my camera bag out with me for the day, as then I'd have photos to show for it.

Later I went back to the tailors for the first fitting of the suit, this was just the outline pieces cut and stitched, ready for a tailor to pin down to my fitting. I have a second fitting tomorrow afternoon too. On leaving the building I went out in the other direction and virtually fell into a luggage store that had the kind of bag I'd been searching for, right in front of me. I negotiated a little discount and walked out with it in about 2 minutes, after spending several hours earlier trying to find one!

Following that I went back to the viewing platform looking out over the harbour and watched the sun set and the buildings light up. At this point I remembered that Phil (who I used to work with) has told me there was something I had to go and see in Hong Kong, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what it was. A quick call back to the UK later I now have to go and see the boat that is parked on Kowloon! I'm also thinking of trying to go to the highest bar in the world, atop the highest hotel in the world recently opened here...

Day 88: Tites fall down

Mood: A little flat
Music: My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade

Today started late again, I wasn't being picked up until after midday and as such I spent some of the morning in bed reading and a little while wondering around looking for somewhere to buy some drinks and munchies for the rest of the day.

The first stop, after the 90 minute drive back to Guilin, was the Reed Flute cave. The was so named due to the mass of reeds outside the entrance when the cave was discovered. As the area is awash with limestone hills, the existence of impressive limestone caves is hardly surprising.

The cave is filled with deposits of stalagmites and stalactites that stretch from the floor to the ceiling some 10-15m above in places. It is all lit up in deep blues and purples, these lights changing over time and increasing when people are in a given area. The first thing I really noted was the number of black smears on the rocks along the walkway. These are caused by the acid on the hands of the people walking past rubbing the rocks. It is very tempting to do but will obviously make the whole thing much less appealing for those generations to come. It seems distinctly a Chinese things to do at the moment, tourism is merely about getting bodies through the door today, it has yet to migrate to the conservation stage that most tourist attractions in the UK have as one of their primary concerns.

After this I was delivered to the airport in plenty of time for the last short haul flight of my trip, to Hong Kong. It seemed to take the guy at customs quite a while to stamp me out of China but I was one of the first through so I didn't overly care.

On landing I gathered my baggage from the belt (it was waiting after the long queue to get past HK immegration) and set out for the train to Kowloon. My instructions from Audley said I was staying in the Kowloon Metropark Hotel on Waterloo Road. As such I got off the airport train in Kowloon and hopped in a taxi to my hotel.

To my slight surprise, the hotel had no idea of my reservation and they checked the other Mertopark on Kowloon (Meng Kok) and I wasn't booked in there. This forced me to call Audley in the UK and find out what was going on.

A few minutes later I got a call back from them saying that they had made a mistake in my documentation as they had booked me into the Metropark on Hong Kong island, not on Kowloon. They told me to take a taxi and keep the receipt and they'd give me a refund. I therefore went back downstairs and asked for a taxi to the Hong Kong Metropark, and this was relayed to the taxi driver in Cantonese as I got in. Obviously when we arrived in Meng Kok I told him that I was trying to get to the Hong Kong Metropark and showed him a map of where it was... Eventually I got in, checked in and ordered room service so that I could get some food without having to go wondering the local streets with little in the way of local currency and no idea where to go!

Enough for now.

Day 87: All the world is a stage...

Mood: Erm... er... WOW!
Music: Mumford and sons

Today I had a nice lie in. I woke in plenty of time to potter around my room for a while, reading and listening to music, and then to wonder down to the riverside and photograph the waterfall on the river's edge before finishing off my present shopping and going to get some food.

I went back to the place I ate at last night but this time asked for it to be spicey! The dish I got was a sizzling beef platter with lots of chili, ginger and garlic. It was rather delicious!

This afternoon I went for a bike ride around a couple of the local villages. The paddy fields were being flooded but and everything was very green, but most fo the photo opportunities were spoiled by overhead powerlines cutting right through some really nice scenic views of the huge steep pillars of limstone rock jutting haphazardly out of the flat soil. Most of the journey was spend on little side roads but we were constantly being passed by huge coaches and the like.

On joining the mains roads again we got back into the chaos that I've become used to seeing. Layers of bikes, e-bikes, scooters and cars overtaking each other, ringing bells and honking horns on their way at anything they think might pull out to overtake something in front of them. It gets more complicated when people start to ride the wrong way up the cycle lanes that are on both sides of the road. Especially confusing to me was the woman on a tricycle taking a water buffalo the wrong way up the cycle path...

Once back in town we stopped and sat in a cafe for a while to have a cold drink. It was massively humid out and probably not far below 30C so a drink was most definitely required. I also had some vegetable spring rolls from the cafe. These turned out to be wrapped in a thin layer of omelet, which was interesting but worked quite well.

This evening I went to the Impressions show, by Sanje Lin. He was the guy who went on to arrange and direct the Olympic games opening ceremony. This show has been running since 2004 and is a major attraction of the area. The stands hold up to 3000 people per show and the show itself has a huge area of water as its stage, set on the backdrop of mountains lit up in the distance. There are over 600 people involved in the production, including large numbers of local farmers who paddle nearly 100 bamboo rafts around at various points in the show.

I can see how people could see and think... so what. There was no real story or theme that could be understood but it was, as far as I saw, an amazing spectacle of light and sound, set in one of the most magnificent backdrops the planet has to offer.

I decided against the little electric car back to town in favour of walking. This gave me a couple of opportunities to take some low light photos of the mountains lit up along the way.

Tomorrow I have another late start and an afternoon flight to Hong Kong, my last stop before I'm home.

Day 86: I'm sure I've lost count somewhere...

Mood: Chirpy
Music: Symposium - Fairweather Friend

I was picked up in the lobby of my hotel today at 8:40am for the 45min drive to the pontoon from which the sight seeing boats leave. There were 5 of the 3 story vessels in our little convoy down the river and I was soon stood on the top deck watching the alien scenery waltz past. The area is famed for it's small limestone hills, all jutting up from the ground haphazardly, and the winding river that runs down in between them.

As I'm now back into the tropics, the weather is misty / foggy most of the year round. This didn't exaclty make for good photographic conditions for the frankly bizarre landscapes that I was presented with. The boat trip in total is 4 hours long and set off at 9:30am. Although my guide was also on board, I was sat with the only other english speakers on the boat, two Brits and two Americans. I had some quite interesting conversations with the british lady as she works for Westminster PCT and as such had an understanding of what we had done at ScriptSwitch. Just before midday they served lunch on board but while we were sat eatin we passed the most famous part of the landscape, as featured on the Chinese 20 yuan note.

Once off the boat, I was taken to my hotel and then agreed with my guide that I'd meet her tomorrow afternoon to take a bike tour of the area and then go to the light show in the evening. This is arranged by the same guy who put together the opening ceremony of the Olympic games and is the largest outdoor light show in China (apparently).

This evening I went to a restaurant for food but ended up getting a dish that was nowhere nearly as spicy as I'd been looking for. Afterwards I was told that they tone down all of the dishes for western tourists, as most of them don't like spicy food! I'll go back there tomorrow as the food was rather nice, but I've got to ask for it spicy next time...

Day 85: And don't mention the socks!

Mood: Tired
Music: Greenday - Dookie (among others)

I woke early again this morning. Checking my watch on the sideboard revealed the rather dissapointing sight of 4:45am. I had a number of things circling in my head and I struggled for some time to get rid of them so I could get back to sleep. I'd intentionally set my alarm early so I could take some photos of the reflections in the Black Dragon Park again with early morning light (the park only opens at 8am but was a 15 minute stroll away) but when it went off I decided on more dozing to offset waking so early.

Come 9am, when I eventually did get up I spent a while packing and sorting out my stuff again. While doing so I found the the hotel's "fixing the missing sock" was to put the two odd socks (only one of which was mine and big enough for my foot) back in my room. I thought I'd take it up with them later, when I actually had someone who could speak the same language as the staff to help!

I wondered up to the park and took a number of photos, almost all of which didn't come out as well as those I'd already taken and then headed back to the hotel via a restaurant. Here I had a nice chat / debate / friendly arguement about religion and politics in the news, evolution and free will with an American Christian. After that I had about enough time to get back to my room and get my bags out to meet Alvin, who was there to pick me up with the driver.

At this point I was asked to pay for the laundry but in doing so I refused to pay for the washing of the pair of socks that they had lost. They kept pointing to the note on the washing lable, made by the person collecting the washing, that there were a pair of odd socks. There were indeed a pair of odd socks, as I lost two unmatching socks while in Bolivia. They'd given me two pairs of unmatching socks and refused to apologise and it was as much as it was worth just to get them to knock the 50p off the total of the washing (out of principle) rather than asking them to refund the cost of the lost pair of socks! In the end I decided it wasn't worth the argument as they quite clearly don't have a western take on customer service. I very nearly opened up my main bag to show them the mismatching pair of socks that I'd given them and they'd washed for me.

Grr.

Anyway... Enough about the £2 sock. It was the principle of the thing.

From there I was whisked to the airport and reminded of my connecting flight details again before saying goodbye to Alvin for the last time. I was a little sorry to be parted as we got on very well and found it very easy to talk.

My first flight was to Kunming and from there I transferred to Guilin. The only slight hiccup in the plan was my slight confusion when looking for the flight details to find where to check in. The board displaying the flights was showing the boarding times of the flights and I only knew the departure time of mine, so didn't look carefully enough at the scrolling display for the first couple of rotations until I spotted the flight number I'd been given.

While waiting for the second flight I bought a tube of pringle like crisps to ease my slight hunger. On opening them I found the contents to be completely smashed. I'd really like to know how you can so utterly destroy a tube of crisps like that, leaving no more than a quarter of a crisp as the biggest part, without making a dent on the outside of the packaging!

The only notible thing about my second flight was the "chicken rice" meal which contained chicken pieces that had the consistancy and texture of a mushroom. I'm guessing it must have been chicken, although what part is a question I'd rather not have answered.

I met my guide once I'd got my bags on arrival in Guilin and was then ferried to my hotel for the evening. The hotel is on the edge of the canal that makes up the old moat of the city. Around this I could see numerous lights and so set out with my camera and tripod to take some photos. I spotted a half moon bridge a few hundred meters away and so wondered over to that to find two of them side by side. The area was swarming with young couples sitting on the benches by the canalside. Further on I heard a loud cough as I followed a tiny cobbled path while trying to get a better shot of the reflections in the water. I decided to beat a hasty retreat...

Anyway... It's way past my bedtime as I best leave things there.

Night all.

Day 84: Rolf Leaping Gorge!

Mood: Sleepy
Music: Air - Moon Safari

I was woken early again by the dripping water in my toilet cistern (now fixed). From here I thought about getting up and taking more early photos of the Jade Snow Dragon Mountain but decided on trying to sleep more instead! It didn't work too well but after a long period I though I'd check my watch as I was sure it was getting late. Sure enough, my alarm clock had failed to go off on my phone and I was due to be meeting my guide 8 minutes later.

I scrambled into the shower and pulled my stuff together in time to realise that in the pile of returned washing I'd recieved one of someone elses socks instead of a matching pair of my own. Hopefuly this'll be sorted out and my missing sock located!

Today's outing was to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, a deep gorge forged by the Yangsze river between Jade Snow Dragon Mountain and Ha Ba Snow Mountain. It has a large rock in the middle of the narrowest section and it said onto this a Tiger leaped to make good it's escape from a group of hunters from Lijang.

The drive took us a couple of hours and the only stop along the route was a bit of a let down. It is a viewpoint looking out over the whole valley, and from here we should have been able to see the twin peaks of the mountains that overlook the gorge. Sadly there was mass of white smoke in the valley and we couldn't see very much at all, in any direction. We later saw that this was due to a forest fire that was raging on the slopes of the opposite, Shangrila side of the valley.

The walk to the rock from the car park is about 30minutes and this is on a path cut into the face of the gorge and also a series of tunnels opened a few years ago to bypass some of the more dangerous parts of the gorgeside track. The focal area has a massive amount of water rushing through it constantly and I was told by Alvin that during the summer months this can increase such that the large rock in the middle of the flow is completely submerged, as are the lower viewing platforms (labelled as "Stands of Watching" on the site map).

On the way back we stopped for lunch in a small local restaurant. Here we tried the local carp, which was plucked fresh from a storage tank out the back and weighed for us. I have to say, boning fish with chopsticks is a rather skilled task, although I managed it fairly well. Alvin and Mr Hu, our driver, were just eating the fish and spitting out the bones. Mealtime manners in China are a not exactly aligned with those in England, as I may have pointed out previously.

I'm now back in my hotel and have discovered a network cable that had been dangled over something behind my bed. This means for the first time here in Lijang I don't have to write up everything and sort out the photos in a cafe before my battery runs out. I think I'll still head back to the cafe once I'm done though. It'll get me out of my room for a while.

Bye for now.

Day 83: Crouching elephant, hidden black dragon

Mood: Very relaxed and happy.
Music: Bon Iver - For Emma, forever ago

I woke early this morning. Most likely due to going to bed fairly early. I read my book for a few hours after dinner (where I chalked up 'yak' to the list of eaten animals this trip) but then just flaked out. I dozed until about 6:30am and then got up and walked around the Lijang old town with my camera. Alvin said that this was a good time to get photos of the place as the light would be good and there are no people around. He was a little wrong on both counts but I still got some nice pics in before I returned for breakfast.

After this I met Alvin for today's tours of the area. This started with the Black Dragon Park. From here is taken the picture postcard photo of the area, over the pond with the bridge and pagodas, the Jade Dragon Snow mountain in the back drop. The park is called black dragon as there are many springs in the area leading the locals to believe that there is a black dragon under the area sending the water up from it's mouth.

We walked around this area and then into a museum of the Naxi people, those native to this area. The museum had a living piece too, the head of the Dongba (local shaman). The local shaman are responsible for maintaining the history and customs of the Naxi people as well as keeping alive their hyroglyphic language, on top of their ritual obligations.

After this we walked back through some of the new part of town, back to the old city. I was then shown around to serveal areas I'd missed on my morning's expidition. This included several beautiful little bridges over the small canals that run aroud this 800 year old city. The wooden buildings and tight alleyways give it a huge amount of character and the bars and shops that line the streets make it a lovely place to wonder about any time of day. After this we went to grab some lunch at a local restaurant that Alvin often frequents.

This afternoon we hired bikes and rode out of town to the other two ancient little villages a couple of kilometers away. On the way we stopped at the local reserviour (very picturesque) for a litle stroll around. It was here that Alvin pointed out a few of the surrounding mountains and their names. He made a slight mistake and called one of them "Crouching Elephant" (rather than something akin to lying down elephant). The thought of an elephant crouching in the long grass waiting to pounce on something passing by has me in fits of giggles for most of the afternoon! The first of these was slightly less touristy that the old town of Lijang but set up in a similar manner. The second was mostly an tiny working village but contained the home and surgery of Dr Ho (pronounced who...) who is a world famous Chinese medicine practitioner. He shows people who visit cards and notes of thanks from other people who have visited him, including the former British Ambassador to China, Micheal Palin and John Cleese and many others.

After this we headed back to the city and I left Alvin after handing the bikes back in. From here I walked to and then around the old city with my camera in hand. After a while I heard a cry of "Hello! Hello!" from a bar I was passing. I'd become desensitised to this on my visit to Shanghai, where everyone who said hello either wanted to sell you something or extract money from you in some other manner. In this end of China it seems a lot more friendly however, as I've previsouly mentioned. Lots of people passing say hello at the western tourists and lots of people want their photo taken with you! I even had a 4 or 5 year old child say "How are you?" in the restaurant over lunch. Apparently they learn English from a very early age here. Anyway, I was waved over and sat down next to a group of Chinese men and women who were in Lijang on holiday as a group. I was then plied with wine as we tried to communicate in very broken English for the next hour or so (I must have had at least a bottle or so in this time) after this I came back to the cafe I wrote last night's blog from to have a couple of milkshakes and some dinner.

Time for a quite beer and then early to bed again. Tomorrow I'm off to Tiger Leaping Gorge!

Day 82: Wibble

Mood: Cheery
Music: REM - Automatic for the people + a load of others in the car

I was picked up this morning at 9am and have pretty much been on the road all day. There was nothing much to tell about the first part of the journey apart from the wonderful views of the whole lake before we climbed over the first mountain, leaving it behind us. From there is was a mixture of road and rough track (they are building the new road) winding around the edges of the mountains for mile on end. Occasionally I caught glimpses of long distant valleys as we snaked are way towards Lijang. The scenery changed at points we reached the base of each valley. There the steep cliffs gave way to rice paddys and fields, mostly planted with wheat. Most of the people we saw on the route were tending the fields, both men and women.

After stopping for lunch in a small town, we carried on our long and winding trip. After a long period of climbing we reached a peak from which we could first see the Yangsze river, China's longest. After crossing this we began our 1000m climb back up and over to Lijang itself. This road has 18 bends and a view point at the top where Rolf is pictured today. In the far background you can see the river curving off into the distance.

On arrival in Lijang I was shown a few places around my hotel to get some food and also where wifi might be available. I'm sat in one of those places. I think tonight I'm going to get some food and then have an early night with my book. I'm here for a couple of nights so I can explore more tomorrow evening if I feel like it.

Bye for now!

Day 81: On the lake

Mood: Happy and relaxed
Music: Air - Moon Safari

I was awoken this morning to the sound of the people above me and to one side preparing to leave. I tried to get my head down a little more until my alarm went off. I then got myself up, showered and dressed so I could take some photos from my balcony of the sun rising and reflecting in the water.

After breakfast I met my guide for the next few days, Alvin. He's a lovely bloke and although he looks about 16, he's only a couple of years younger than I. For some reason he thought I was younger then he is!

Our first stop for the day was a small lakeside village about 10 minutes drive from my hotel. From here we took a boat with a young chinese couple over the lake to the island in the lake that houses a buddist temple. This area of China has Tibetan Buddhism as their main religion. The temples are very simple but the prayer wheels around the edges are something I'd not seen before.

On the way out to the island I was getting cries of "Hello!" from the other boats going in the other direction. Alvin was translating some of the other things the people were shouting after I'd replied "Nehow!". It seems like many people in this area aren't used to seeing foreigners and as such I had my photo taken with and by countless Chinese people during the rest of the day.

After we got back to the land, we went to a museum / house of the local Mosuo people. They have a matriachal society where the grandmother of the family rules the roost. They also have no formal marriages but are known for their "walk in" marriages, where by the male is allowed into the girls room from midnight until sunrise (assuming he can climb up the timber wall) and from there has no part in the child's life. They are brought up by the family and the only role men have (other than providing food) is in the education of their sister's children.

From here we went and had lunch by the lake, eating in a restaurant run by people from the Si Chuan region (which borders with the province I'm in about 5 minutes up the road). I've been expecting the local food to be spicier than it is. Given the area is famed for such!

On the subject of food... I've acually been quite impressed. The Chinese have a lot more vegetable dishes then we'd ever see at home, one of my favourites so far being To Dou Shi or stir fried grated potato. They also seem very fond of a dish of chopped tomato stir fried with egg. I'm sure I said this before but 've been eating my fair share of Gung Bao Rou Shi too (Kung Po Shredded Pork).

This afternoon we went for a walk up in A Xia Yu Gu. This path follows a stream up a valley to a waterfall. The path is quite steep in places and it didn't take me long to remember that I was at altitude again (albeit only 2700m above sea level). The only scarey bit on the normal path was a small field that we had to cross that contained two Yaks. They were rather big and kept facing us the whole way around. I've never been too keen on being chased by cows but when they've got massive great horns that desire goes down somewhat!

After reaching the waterfall we followed a sign that pointed towards another path leading further up the mountain. Unfortunately we ended up unable to find where this path went and after 30 minutes of clambering through dense forest clinging to the side of a mountain, we desided to turn back!

I was then taken back to my hotel, where I've been sat on the balcony / terrace outside my room over looking the lake for the past couple of hours. As the sun has gone behind the hills it's starting to get a little chilly now. I've got dinner this evening and then I'm going to go and have a look at the local square dance. This might prove interesting as I'm fairly sure I'll be the only person present who doesn't speak Mandarin and I'd guess there are going to be few or no English speakers...

Wish me luck!

Day 80: Lu Gu Lige

Mood: Cheery
Music: Some random Chinese music with lots of strings on in the hotel
bar

Today started bright and early when I woke up hearing next door's alarm clock (6:30am). I was up and about by 7 and had time to take some photos of the lake on which the hotel is situated. After that I had time for a buffet chinese breakfast and then was met by my guide / driver.

Today's destination (Lugu Lake) was 300km away by car and it was going to take us a good 7 or 8 hours to cover that ground. The roads were rough, to say the least, and the little VW Polo was bouncing around at times. Although there was lots of overtaking today it was a lot more controlled than my last drive.

Soon the trucks we were passing changed into tractors and for a small while horse driven carts as we drove deeper into the countryside. The terrain was still steep clay hills and mountains but in each valley people were tending the soil, at times I saw large water buffolo pulling ploughs. Just as you might expect in images of such places. The landscape was quite a bit browner than I'd imagined. Mostly because it's the start of spring and everything has just been plowed.

We stopped for lunch in the only small town we passed through and I ate Gong Bao Dou Ding (Kung Po Pork Cubes) with rice and a couple of other vegetable dishes. The food was good and really rather cheap.

After a little more driving we came upon the lake. My hotel is situated on a very small peninsular connected to the land by a thin spit, On the is are a number of small hotels, each with 6 or 8 rooms. All of these face out onto the lake. My room has a balcony that sticks slightly over the lake.

I've been told that the sun rises facing the rooms, I'll let you know / see tomorrow if that's the case.
I'm going to leave it here for today, I'll spare a brief mention for the American / German couple who kindly ordered food in the restaurant next door, as they speak Chinese. We also ended up chatting for a large protion of the evening.

Day 79: Bumpy plane rides

Mood: Not too bad (as in "How are you?" "I'm not too bad thanks")
Music: Baggage tunes (The 4 tracks I listen to getting off every flight and waiting for my luggage)

Today was another fairly long day of travelling. I was picked up at 8:30am in order to be taken to Shanghai Pudong airport for my flight to Chengdu. I landed not long after 2pm and wondered through the airport (ahead of the slow crowd) to find my bag just arriving on the belt.

I'll stop here to make some comments about the Chinese at this point. I've a feeling nobody could find them unfair. From what I've found they are fairly used to having to push to get what they want. This goes from their driving to their sight seeing. Barging people out of the way seems just to be par for the course in everyday life.
When getting off the plane today, for example, everyone had stood up and made a bee line for the door before the plane had even fully stopped. Getting off my second flight I really annoyed the guy behind me as I blocked the middle passageway for a good 5 seconds while grabbing my bag from the overhead locker. He seemed determined to push past me to the point he very nearly got the full weight of my camera bag on his head as it actualy came out of the locker. Needless to say, I'd caught up with the person in front by the time I reached the front of the plane (and was only a few rows back) and proceeded to walk past everyone else once we were off the plane.

As for the sight seeing comment, I noticed this first in the Forbidden City, where there were large numbers of domestic tour groups going through the site. When it came to taking photos of specific things or loking through the tinted windows into some of the buildings, the crowds turned rather savage with pushing and shoving galore. It's only because I'm less easy to push out of the way then most of the people around me, and that I can be quite bony when I want to be, that I managed to see any of those things at all. Once I'd gotten my photo it was then a struggle to get out. Like being 10 deep at a free bar trying to get served back in the UK. We just don't do that when at static tourist attractions.

Anyway... After collecting my bad I went back up to domestic departures and checked in for my flight to Xichang. The plane left just past 5pm for the 50 minute flight. On arrival I was met by my guide for the next couple of days (Sammy). He drove me up to my hotel and then took my out for a bite to eat. I'm trying to learn the correct names for the things I'm ordering but it's taking a bit of time. Many of the sounds in Chinese just simply don't exist in the English language and as such I'm having to try to get my tounge around making these noises so I can say the words!

I'll leave it here for now. Apparently my hotel does have internet, I just don't have an RJ45 cable with me to plug myself in. It's quite unusual not to provide one in the hotel room but there's noting much I can do. I'll see what I get tomorrow :)
Night all.

Day 78: Gardens

Mood: Laid back / Terrified
Music: Royksopp - Junior

Today started with a little more washing before making my way down for breakfast. I was then picked up and taken to the train station for my short bullet train transfer to SuZhuo. On arrival I met my uide for the day and was whisked to one of SuZhuo's many gardens for a brief look around before being shown the only original section of the city wall (over 2000 years old) and both a land gate and a water gate (for entry into the inner canals) side by side.

From here we went to a silk factory, where I saw silk crysalises spun into threads. Each thread is made from 8 pods that are unwinding the whole time. As one runs out the people running the machine simply pick another out of the pot and add it to the flywheel drawing up the thread.

After lunch we headed to another beautiful water garden and then went for a boat ride around the old canals in the city.

From here it was onwards for a look around Tong Li, an ancient water village, filled with canals rather than roads. On the banks of the canals you can pay to watch a man comorant fishing. The birds catch the fish but hold it in their gullets, to be retrieved once they are back on the boat!

It was then time for my drive home. I was told this would take  up to 2 hours depending on the traffic. The driver seemed to set about it at some pace. Now, I know that most road users sem rather suicidal in China... The bicycle and e-bike users seem to weave randomly amongst traffic in cities, paedestrians saunter over 6 lanes of traffic etc, but I have to say I'd not witnessed anything like this before. The driver we had was weaving over all lanes of the highway (they have no lane discipline here but this was serious tight turn weaving) at high speeds, passing most cars with no more than a few inches to spare. I'm normally quite a laid back passenger, but I have to say, I felt quite shaken up when I got back to the hotel. It was as if the guy had seen the film Taxi (the French one) and taken notes!

I've now got the rest of the evening to kick back and unwind from the trip home. All day I've been in an awesomely chilled mood. Wondering around those beautiful gardens just made me more so. I'm going to go have a beer and see if I can recover that feeling.

Tomorrow I'm travelling most of the day so I'm not sure when the next update will be.

Until again...

Day 77: So... did anyone see where I left my table?

Mood: Cheery
Music: Pendulum, Sub Focus, Zero 7 & Royksopp

Today I had a free day. That meant a nice lie in, followed by another large load of hand washing in order to give me socks and underwear for the next week. Once I'd got that out of the way I went to Subway for brunch. I know it's a bit cheating but it didn't really taste the same as back in Europe. I had my standard Italian BMT with southwestern sauce and it tasted very bland. I'll hopefully not need to do that again though.

From there I walked to the other end of the main peadestrian shopping street. From there I wondered into the People's Garden. At the south end of this is the Shanghai museum. Although it's free to enter, the staff maintain a one in, one out policy after capacity has been reached. This meant a fairly long queue to get in.

The museum has a large number of exhibitions, from bronzeware to paintings and sculptures. Some of the bronze pieces are from the 11th to 13th century BC where som of the pottery on display dates back from between 5800 and 6200BC, along with the Ming and Qing Dynasty pieces. Rolf is pictured next to a pottery dog, dating back to around 200AD.

Once I'd explored all of this I headed back to my hotel quickly. From here I waited a few minutes while the sun went down and then headed out with my tripod into the now lit up city. My target was the TV tower the other side of the river, one stop away on the metro line near my hotel. This is a major feature on the skyline of the city and, unbeknownst to me, also hosts the highest revolving restaurant in Asia. I bought myself a dinner ticket and headed up to the dining level, 367m above the floor. It was only after I had left my seat to look over the various food stations, picking out a starter for myself that I discovered that it was only the circular section of floor holding the tables that rotates! When I sat down I was near a gap in the glass fence seperating the diners from the food stations. When I returned I was rather confused, seeing no gap anywhere near my table and also it lit up very differently! Only after I sat down again did I figure out which part was actually rotating...

After dinner I went to the observation lounge and took a couple of photos of the skyline, including the ever present Shanghai trading tower.

After that it was time to come home and sort through the photos for the day.

I'm up earlier tomorrow so I best go. Night all!

Day 76: Hanyanling Tomb and... well... being sat in a fog bound airport

Mood: Bored now
Music: The Beatles - Blue best of album

I was up today in plenty of time to both pack my bags and have breakfast. Not that surprising really, as I was only picked up at 10am. I was then taken to the airport via the Hanyanling, a museum covering the excavation site surrounding the burial mound of the 4th Emperor of the Han Dynasty. In the pits were pottery models of not just soldiers, but also other figures, from musicians and dancers to eunuchs. Also in the pits were clay animals of many kinds and various pots.

The museum is a low light underground centre with glass walls and floors separating the public from the excavated archaeological site. The clay figures are naked and have no arms, this is as they were originally closed in silk and their arms were made from wood. Obviously both of these have perished in the 2000 years since they were put in the ground.

From there I was dropped off at the airport for my flight. Once through the security checkpoint, I could see the fog rolling out over the runway. This caused a series of delays to my flight and once we got on board, we had to wait for the backlog of planes to clear before we could take off. This put me back almost 3 hours.

I as met at the airport and taken to the Maglev station in the airport. It is in front of this train that Rolf is shown today. The train speeds back to Shanghai from the airport at 300kmph and as such the time taken is rather short. From there (after walking almost the whole way around the train station looking for our driver) I was taken to my hotel. The Sofitel is just off what looks like a main shopping street. I have been for a brief walk, but as I arrived after 9pm all I wanted was to find food. In the end I walked into KFC, only to find the menu rather different than I'd expect. Instead I returned to my hotel and phoned down for room service.

Tomorrow I have a free day to explore. I think that mean I get a nice lie in ;)

Day 75: Some clay men and horses and things

Mood: Impressed
Music: Traditional Tong Dynasty music performed live

Today I woke up (several times) on the train but we pulled in just after 8am. One notable thing about the trip was that I ran into another couple of Audley customers as I boarded the train last night and had a quick chat to them this morning as we got off and searched for our respective guides.

I met Amy, my guide for the next couple of days and was whisked to my hotel to shower and have some breakfast before setting out.

The first stop on the tour was a cycle tour of the city walls. These are a good 20m tall and apparently stretch for total of 14.6km in a rectangle around the centre of the city. I have to say, it seems a lot further on an old chinese single gear bike with a saddle set nowhere near high enough for a tall man!

From here we set out away from the city, towards the museum of the Teracotta Warriors (and horses). These lay buried for a couple of thousand years until, in 1974, a local farmer dug into one of the trenches while trying to sink a well, and pulled out a pile of clay parts.

The museum on the site now has 3 main buildings, each holding an excavation site. The first I went to was P2 or pit 2, the second to be dug. This contains a flexible flighting force consisting of archers, (both kneling and standing) some infantry, and a number of charioteers. P3 seems to be the excavation of a control area, as the soldiers are more senior and are facing another rather than being in a batlle formation, as in the other areas. P1 is the main attraction and we visited that last. They are still excavating this area and the building covering the site is over 200m long and almost 70m wide. The room contains 6000 warriors, mostly still buried in the ground, some of which are being pieced back together in the rear section of the hanger like structure.

As we had entered the building from a side entrance, the sheer scale of the rebuild soldiers only became apparent as we approached the front. Hundreds and hundreds of completed figures stand lined up in the trenches that have held them for centuries.

On coming back to the city, we had a little bit of time to kill and I was asked if I would like a foot massage. I thought I may as well and this took up most of the rest of the time before this evening's entertainment. I was booked into a theatre show in town and the performance of Tong Dynasty music and dance, was preceeded by a large amount of dim sum dumplings, for which the area is known. After eating almost two person's worth of these I sat back to watch the show.

The performances were great and mixed music and dance with some comedic music. Each piece telling a story or adopting a strong theme.

I took quite a number of photos here and have published a few of them, trying to show quite how much movement and colour was on display.

Now I'm back in my hotel trying to sort through and post photos and post the blogs :)

Time for bed now I'm finished!

Day 74: Summer Palace

Mood: Pensive

Music: REM - Out of time

Today I got a lie in! (hurrah!) I was to be met at 1pm by Stephen. I surfaced in plenty of time to wash and dress, then pack up my bags once again. The few things that I have bought over the last few weeks are starting to have a serious impact on my ability to close my bag with everything in it. The amount of time required to close the zip seems to grow each time I  have to try doing so. At this rate I'll be buying more baggage just to stop me going mad trying to fit everything in this one.

An admission I failed to make previously, was my purchase and use of what amounts to a man bag. This was initially used to carry that which was living in my pockets. In Malaysia it was far too hot to have all of my pockets full to bursting with the things I would need for the day and as such I bought a small satchel to hold these things. Anyway, it started to also function as an overflow bag on days I was moving hotels, but can no longer do so due to the books I bought in HK while in transit. I guess I now need something that I can check in that will also hold this bag!

We started today at the Hutongs in Beijing. This is an area filled with traditional small houses and small alleyways. The living areas are interspersed with communal toilet and shower/wash areas. It was slightly odd at 2pm to see people in pajamas walking past on their way home from the shower. I had an explanation by a local guide as to some of the local history and the meanings of some of the features of the home gateways.

I was then transported by trishaw to the house of some locals who welcomed me in, sat me down and poured me copious amounts of tea. I was free to ask questions about the housing and the area but could not think of much to say. Instead I asked about the legacy of the Olympics to the people of Beijing. I was told that things had got better for them, from improved transport (the underground system is growing at a massive rate) to cleaner streets and air.

I have to say that I didn't see a single clear day in or around the city but this might be to do with the time of year. It has just finished winter here and everything is very dry. It has been growing increasingly warm over the last few weeks (22C today) but has yet to rain done winter ended. That might explain why there is so much dust in the air. On a side note, the dust is making it hard to photograph anything as the whole sky is a very diffuse light source, appearing washed out every time as that is what the eye actually sees.

After a while of talking to the lady and then her husband I returned to Stephen to be driven to the Summer Palace. We walked around the grounds for a while, him talking about the history of the palace and gardens, while I listened and took in the scenery. The palace was the summer residence of the Empress Dowager, who ruled over the last 3 (puppet, as she held the power) Emperors of the Qing dynasty. It has a huge lake, occupying three quarters of the park's size.

This evening I was taken to the train station for my overnight train to Xian. It is from on this train that you see the picture of Rolf, looking down over me, and me scribbling this entry into my phone.

I'm sure that this is the most disjointed blog post yet. I'll stop rambling now and try to get some rest...

Day 73: The day I forgot Rolf! (and saw the Great Wall of China)

Mood: Distraught
Music: Kings of Conveinience - Riot on an empty street

Well. Yes. I think the title says it all! Today I forgot Rolf. I left him sat in the combat pocket of the trousers I was wearing yesterday and for some reason just assumed he was in the pocket of the other trousers when I did my final checks for the day. I only realised when I got to a particularly good vantage point and then started tapping my pockets to find him!

It was from here that I took the above photo of Hachi, who will have to substitute for Rolf in today's excursion. I really don't think Rolf would be too happy with that but I could hardly leg it 45 minutes down the mountain and then demand a 3 hour round trip just to fetch him for a photo call... He does have a photo today, as ever, just peeking out of the pocket he spent the day in. This is below.

Anyway.... I was picked up today at 8:30am and we set off away from the nation's capital in the direction of the section of wall we were to visit (Jinshanling). A new expressway was built for the 2008 Olympics and as such the journey time has been cut significantly. Apparently it used to take almost 4 hours to do the 90minute journey. From a car park Stephen and I set out on foot up to a steeply stepped path that led from the northern side of the wall up to it. The Great Wall was built in its current state in the 14th century to keep out the Mongol raiders who were frequently attacking the local villages.

We joined the wall at a platform a short way from one end of this, the longest publically open section of wall. There were a couple of people at a number of the towers on the wall selling water, cola and beer at hugely inflated prices to the tourists en route. I had to make used of one of these on the way back, it being a hot day and me carrying my whole camera bag on my back. That and only setting out with 500ml of water, which was all gone before I had gone half way along the section of wall we walked, and we had yet to return the way we came. Obviously I gave my money to my guide and let him haggle the price down rather than paying 5 times the going rate.

From the high points, the wall streched for as far as the eye could see in both directions. Unfortunately the sky has been fairly dusty and that has made visibility more limited than one would like in such a place. I also makes photographing the area rather tricky as the whole sky appears as a very bright diffuse light source, washing out the sky in all but the most carefully framed photos.

The wall was much steeper than I'd imagined in places with sections of very steep steps. The section I walked was also uphill most of the way to the point where the continuing path in to the Simai wall area was closed for renovation.

On the way I met a British group who were walking to raise money for charity. I first passed them as they sat in one of the towers resting. They caught me up after a few minutes as I've stopped to take some photos of the wall in the distance with my telephoto lense. I did get a little confused when I heard them suggest that I might be papperazzi who had followed them out there. At this point Stephen caught up too and we continued in amongst the group for a little while. It turned out to be number of people raising money for various charities. After a minute or two I gleaned from other conversations going on that some of them came from Solihull and one of them was the wife of a Birmingham City player. It turns out that I met this group, from some googling after I got back to Beijing this evening. I left them after they stopped to rest again and met them, me going the other way, after walking another half mile or so and back. They were only a few hundred meters from where I'd left them.

On my way back I picked up Stephen at the tower I'd left him at. He'd been struggling most of the way as he has a cold at the moment. As such I left him there and walked the last few tower sections by myself. We made our way back down the wall and then down the hill to a restaurant for a late lunch.

The return to Beijing was only notable as we arrived back in time for rush hour. This extended the time taken considerably. I would note that Beijing is the craziest place for traffic that I've seen so far. With cars driving all over the place mixed with bikes going in all directions and people walking out fearlessly infront of streams of traffic. Even the green walking man on crossroads doesn't really cut it here. I've mostly ensured there was at least two people between me and cars coming from any direction while I've been crossing the road...

Enough for now. I'll not be posting tomorrow, most likely, as I've an overnight train to my next city.

Night all!

 

Day 72: Tian' Anman

Mood: Awestruck
Music: Greenday - Nimrod

I woke up earlier than I really needed to today, but set about finishing the work around for the connectivity issues and posting yesterday's blog.

After an amount of unnessesary farting about I realised I'd no time left for breakfast so headed out to meet Stephen to start the tour for today. The first destination on our trip was Tianaman square. The square is huge. It is longer than Red Square in Moscow and at least twice as wide. The square was built in the 1960s apparently and the building on it that most people recognise (with the portrait of Mao on the front) is called Tian' Anman, after which the square is now known.

From the square we walked through Tian' Anman and into the Forbidden City. So called because it was the home of the Emporor for the last two Chinese dynasties and as such only the very highest members of society were ever allowed to set foot inside.

The Forbidden City comprises of a series of coutyards with gates and large buildings with set purposes between each section. The last three are a banquet hall, followed by the Emporer's office and sleeping quarters and then the Empresses living and sleeping quarters. At the far end is a garden used by the royal family to relax and entertain themselves. Feng shui of the palace is obtained by a stream that connects the mote, through the inner courtyard and the artificial hill behind, created from the earth excavated to form the moat.

On exiting the North Gate of the Forbidden City we walked a short distance to where our driver was waiting to pick us up and take us to the restaurant next to the Temple of Heaven. After a rather tasty lunch we entered the park surrounding the temple. Local people have free access to the park and a number were in an area next to the main walkway where a large stereo was playing slow music. In ones and twos they were waltzing around in the park in the middle of the day. I was rather nice to watch but I decided not to take any photographs, lest I make anyone self concious and thus less enjoy dancing their day away.

The main building of the Temple for good Harvest was renovated in time for the Olympics and the marathon's blue line still passes the outer walls of the building. It is an impressive three story circular building (the ancient chinese believed that the heavens were circular and the earth square) with a blue roof glaze, symbolizing the heavens.

From here it is a short walk along a long raised terrace that divides the park in two even halves, up to the alter of the heavens. It was here that the Emporor performed an annual ceremony asking for good fortune from the various heavenly deities.

Following this I was dropped back at my hotel. As I had yet managed to get a photo of a national flag I decided to set out on foot back to Tiananman square to photo the large flag there. There are surprisingly few state flags flying in the city. The only fly outside the main government buildings.

After this I headed back to my room and managed to get the hotel to bring some food to my room for dinner.

Tomorrow I start at 8:30am and head out to some little garden rockery thing... it looks a bit more like a wall maybe, I guess...

Day 71: The Great Firewall of China

Mood: Woohoo!
Music: CD 1 Mix Tape - Various

Not much happened today... I got up early to get to the bus to the airport. I got to the airport a little early as my local itinerary had my flight listed at 9:30am but my itinerary from Audley had it as 10:15am. No problems there, just a bit of sitting around. As I planned to get to the airport 2hrs ahead of the flight all would have been fine even if it was the other way around.

After an uneventful flight to Hong Kong I rushed to my new departure gate, only to remember that my watch was now an hour out so I had plenty of time to eat some lunch before the onward flight. Rolf is pictured with my pre-flight/lunchtime beer.

The onward flight was similarly painless and I got to Beijing around sunset. The terminal I landed at was built for the Olympics and is, quite simply, massive. I also has a lovely deep red roof, curved to look like a dragon, with triangular skylights which look like scales.

Passing through the airport was easier than I expected. On the far side I met Steven, who will be my guide for the next couple of days in Beijing. After that we drove to my hotel. It is a single story courtyard building, very traditional but very comfortable. It seems to be located a stone's throw from the main shopping areas but I'll find out more when I look around more tomorrow.

I have discovered that access to my blog and also to facebook are blocked by the Chinese government and as such I'm having to bounce encrypted connections off a server to in the UK to bypass this. For some reason the static content on facebook seems not to like this but I can use the m.facebook.com site to keep tabs on everything.

Tomorrow my exploration of Beijing starts! I have to admit I'm rather excited.

Day 70: And on the 70th day...

Mood: Sleepy
Music: Bluetones - Expecting to fly

I had to be up fairly early this morning in order to get on the flight back to Seoul. As it happened I arived at the bus stop just as a bus was about to leave. It was only after arriving at the airport that I realised that I'd not actually confirmed which airline I was flying with, I only knew my flight was at 10:25am! There were so many flights leaving between 8:30am and 10am that my flight wasn't shown on any of the boards either. A quick call to Victor later and I was checked in and ready to go.

After an uneventful flight I was in and out of Gimpo domestic airport in less than 10 minutes flat, bags now in hand. This afternoon, after returning to my hotel, I've had a good go at fixing my laptop, but to no avail. I think it might be consigned to the computer shop in the sky on my return to the UK...

This evening I went ot the bar over the road from the hotel to get some food and a quiet drink. I think it's just me but anything on a menu that says "very hot chicken" is like a red rag to a bull. It was pretty hot, and most definitely chicken meat today too (although a fair bit of skin with it). Before leaving I took a photo of Rolf in the open beer casket. This was full of ice the first time I visited the place (St Patrick's day) but I think as it is the end of the weekend they might have let it melt away. I also had a cheeky bottle of London Pride, just because I could.

I'm up early tomorrow and fly to China. My next post will be from there (all things being well)!

Day 69: "Grilled Chicken"

Mood: I ate what!?!
Music: Various (same playlist as last night for a chunk of this morning)

I woke this morning in plenty of time to actually make it down to breakfast before being met by my guide for the day. I opted for the Western breafast over the Korean on and was pleasantly surprised when it consisted of a bowl of huney nut cornflakes and a plate of scrambled eggs, fruit and two cold chips.

Once I had finished this I met Victor, my guide for the day and the person who'd put together my whole tour in Korea . Victor is a Russian from Vladivostok, who first moved to Korea to teach foreign languages in schools but after moving around a bit, settled in Jeju and now runs a small one man tourist company. His English is near perfect and this allowed me to converse in a little more detail about a few subjects and also discuss the state of Russia at the moment.

The first stop on our trip was a free standing and fairly tall rock formation on the coast, just out of the town where my hotel is. Next up was the Natural History museum. It's a fairly small museum detailing the lives of the local peoples and also some of the geography of the area. It was fairly pleasant as museums go but hardly something to write home about.

After that we went to the airport to pick up another couple, who would be joining us for the rest of the day. Micheal and Patricia are a German / Malay couple who happened to meet in Glasgow of all places and now live in Malaysia, just north of Singapore.

The next stop on the island tour was a rock formation said to look like a dragon's mouth. Rolf is photographed next to this formation.

After that we drove across the island to a folk village, where people live in the traditional thatched housing of the area. As it is normally very windy on the island, the thatch has a rope lattice covering the surface.

Apparently, the thatch is mostly paid for by the local government in order to maintain the area as a local tourist attraction. It works fairly well as the place is very scenic. We also stopped here for lunch.

Next was one of the largest and busiest tourist spots of the day. That of a large volcano on the coast that had formed underground and made a castle / crown shaped circular island, now joined onto the main part of the island by a small spit. It is a couple of hundred meters climb to the top but the views are quite impressive.

Penultimate on our tour was the end of an overground lava tube. This had worn much of a rock away in a long trench that leads down a few hundred meters to the sea. At the end of this was a black sand beach from which we skimmed stones for a while.

Last up was the other waterfall in the region of the town I'm staying in. It falls into a rock pool which leads directly into the ocean via a short stream and is really quite impressive.

As the other two are staying in the same hotel as I, we decided to go out for food this evening. After much wondering about, Patricia plumped with a place that said "grilled chicken" on the outside. The thinking was... at least we know what animal this comes from!

After realising that they had no menu at all other than what was displayed on the walls we decided on a spicy dish that appeared to contain chunks of chicken, according to the photo. When it turned up it was actually grilled chicken intestines in a spicy sauce. We only discovered this a mouthful in each and then tried to communicate with the owner to find out what part of the chicken this came from. Needless to say that we did not make much headway into the meal before leaving!

After that we went to a bar and drank a couple of beers and also some of the soju (local rice wine). The bottle of soju costs the same as a bottle of beer but is the alcoholic equivalent to a bottle of wine!

I really ought to go to sleep now as I'm up early to catch my flight in the morning...

Day 68: The day I got offered a fork

Mood: So so, I guess.
Music: Various

Yes. Today was the day I got offered a fork. I'll get back to that shameful episode later though...

I was to meet Trueman at 9:30am again today to start our final trip together south towards the airport. As I had no details on the flight I was to take I had asked him yesterday when it was and he thought it was early afternoon about 2pm maybe. He told me this morning (as I rolled up 10 minutes late as I had every day so far!) that the flight was actually at 12:35pm and it was over an hour's drive away.

We were due to stop off on the way at Tongdosa, one of the largest and most important Buddhist temples in Korea. On the way we decided that we would still do so but would have to severely restrict the time we could spend there. In the end the time criticality was added to the motorway reports of traffic jams up ahead. When we got to the temple we nipped out and virtually legged it up to the far end of the site and back. The site consists of a number of gates and many prayer rooms. It is supposed to have been founded in the mid 7th centrury AD and houses what are said to be relics of Buddha himself, including bones.

I had been assured that arriving 30 minutes before a domestic flight in Korea would be fine, and although I was skeptical at the time, I now think he was spot on. Either way we arrived about 50 minutes before my flight and I quickly checked in. The boarding time was 10 minutes before the flight was due to leave and I'd barely sat down by the time the plane had started to taxi to the runway. I've not mentioned this before, but the national motto or Korea is "Hurry hurry". This seems to pervade everything they do, from driving to eating (you lucky ladies...). This does tend to mean that everything is done on time and everything is very punctual. The journey was only short but on the descent I worked out that they were having a raffle to win a number of prizes depending on the plane seat. I wasn't actually sitting in the seat I'd been assigned as I decided it wasn't worth the effort of turfing the lady in the seat out, so I sat on the isle seat one behind.

Lo and behold my original seat number was called out as the winner of the first prize to be given. The lady in my seat couldn't display the boarding card matching it and so when I showed the correct boarding card I became the proud winner of two boxed airline pens... As it happened, the seat I was actually sat in got drawn for another prize but nobody had that boarding card so they drew again.

On landing, I got onto the first bus leaving the plane and had to wait about a minute at the belt before the baggage started arriving. That is "hurry hurry" in action! I was then to take a bus to the south of the island and then a taxi to my hotel.

After a bit of faffing around trying to get a wifi signal in my hotel (it can only be achieved rammed up against the window) I set off to haev a look around town and to get some food. After a few minutes walking down hill towards the harbour in the small town (pop. 85k) I spotted signs for a waterfall which is one of the local tourist attractions. I umm'd and ahh'd about this for a while, not having a camera with me, but decided to have a look.

I then walked around the harbour and up into town to try to find somewhere to eat. Eventually I plumped with a Chinese place recommended by the Lonely Planet guide. As it was really cold out, by this time my hands were frozen and I'd mostly lost mobility in my fingers. After ordering (spicy crab noodle soup) I sat on my hands to try to warm them up but it didn't do much good. When the soup arrived I found myself faced with shelled arms and chunks of body of crab again but decided I'd give this one a better go that the last and picked bits up to try to rescue the meat from them. It was at this point I discovered that my frozen hands simply weren't able to control chopsticks yet and I must have looks so incompetent and helpless that the waitress brought over a pair of wooden chopsticks (rather than the aluminium ones on the table) and also a fork. I normally pride myself on my chopstick use but being offered a fork. I have to say I cried a little on the inside and blamed the cold. As my hands warmed up I changed back from the wooden chopsticks to the finer point nose metal ones again, just to prove to myself that I could.

After that I went to find a bar that the guide said attracted ex pats on qa weekend, just to find someone to talk to. After the first beer I got fed up of waiting and came back to my hotel.

Tomorrow I look around this place with a new guide for the day.

Until again.