Entering Viet Nam (as the Vietnamese call it), was a sheer joy. I paid a lot of money to get onto a VIP bus, which supposedly made going through customs hassle-free, this isn't the reason I hasten to add, it was because the cheaper buses were all fully booked. The landscape of Vietnam is lushiously green and seems far more developed and organised.
I started in Saigon, bagged myself a really nice hotel room (which turned out not to be as cheap as I thought it was going to be) in the backpacker district. Location was fantastic, really close to all the things I wanted to see and reminded me of a classier Khao San Rd. The city is very colonial and as it is Tet, the streets were all decorated and people were running around in their posh frocks. I headed to the American Wars Crimes Museum (it's not actually called that anymore), which is totally horrific, although looking around you wouldn't know that twice the amount of bombs were dropped here then during the whole of WWII.
Went to the Mekong Delta, it ended up being more of shopping trip then the tour of the delta we were expecting. It was lots of fun though and managed to avoid the snake wine! The tour guide was called Duc (pronounced weird, I called him Doug), he was the highlight, he kept making jokes about the natives kidnapping blondes, so fair people should buy a hat and talking about Stiffler from American Pie?!
I think I nearly had my bag snatched about 3 doors down from the hotel. You get used to gambling with your life every time you cross a road and motorcyclist scooting really close past you. This happened and I felt a grab on my shoulder, I turned around and the cyclist was looking at me...hmmm. He'd be lucky, there are about 4 books in there, even Geoff Capes would have problems!!
They do open tours here, basically you book your destinations and 24 hours before you want to leave, you reserve your seat on the bus. My first stop was Nha Trang. This is their sea-side resort and is really nice, lots of expensive hotels and lovely beach, although the sea is really choppy. Had a bit of a panic when I arrived, as all the hotels and guesthouses were full, so ended up paying a whopping $26/night.
Hoi An is a lovely little town, lots of really old buildings and little shops full of arts and crafts. They have these little wooden townhouses that belonged to the merchants which were really cute. The hotel is fantastic, I have my own bathtub and there is a swimming pool. Although it's starting to get colder the further north I go. I had my first experience of a sleeper bus, it was hideous. I had to sit next to an old Vietnamese dude, when he wasn't yawning loudly, he was snoring loudly!! Men have to make such a song and dance about everything?!
Hue wasn't what I expected. It has the citadel, which is like a mini Forbidden City. Other then that, there is nothing here. Other then a cool bar called DMZ, named after the Demilitarized Zone, which was the buffer zone between north and south Vietnam during the American war. Got a bus to Hanoi, thinking about my last couple of towns in this fantastic country when I realised that the hotel didn't give me back my passport when I checked-out, doh! My head started racing of all the things that could go wrong, maybe they sold it on the blackmarket, maybe they've lost it, maybe they can't get it too me...I got it back, after paying the delivery boy 100,000dong or 4 pounds for travelling 17 hours on a moped to get it to me.
Checked in to this really nice hotel in Hanoi old quarter. I've prided myself on never getting lost and having a good sense of direction, but the old quarter does my head in! It's a maze of little narrow roads, packed to the rafters with little shops selling everything imaginable, you end up walking round in circles, you can't find anything even stationary objects and you have to deal with a million mopeds aiming straight for you! I expected David Bowie and his tight lycras to show up, how I manage to find my way to the hotel, I will never know?! For example, I booked plane tickets to Laos (to save myself a 24 hour bus journey) and had to go back to collect the tickets (remember those), made a mental note "it's on Ta Hien Street, next to Dragonfly bar', I walked past said bar about 4 times with no sight of the travel agent and behold suddenly it was there. The French quarter is where I should be staying, but I still haven't found that Russian billionaire. It is like a little piece of Paris has emigrated here.
The climax of the trip is Ha Long Bay, a site that attracts many visitors and is the must-do for any trip to Vietnam. The day was spoilt by a mass of tourist all of the same thought. Apart from the Japanese, who make the worst tourists, the bay was incredibly beautiful. It's absolutely amazing, all this massive limestone formations dotted around the sea.
Thursday 29 January 2009
Thursday 22 January 2009
Cambodia
Headed on a gruelling 12 hours bus journey from Bangkok to Siem Reap. You meet so many great people out here and trust me to sit next to most irritating couple on the planet...thank the lord of MP3 players!!!
As we pulled up to the Friendship Bridge, the man in charge stated that we should be weary, as when we cross the border we will be approached by lots of children who will pick our pockets and are on drugs (I always knew children were the root of all evil). Passed through Thai immigration with no problems, lovely air-conditioned building. Crossed the Friendship Bridge which seemed to be over a landfill site, as oppose to a river into Poipet. Entered this little shack with a tiny little opening where your passport was taken off you, stamped, looked at, stamped, looked at...eventually, we got our passports back and sat outside while we waited for an Iraqi guy who was in our group to pass through immigration.
Poipet felt like a post-apocalyptic hell. There was a steady stream of solemn looking people pulling wooden carts across the border. The place was a complete mess of mangled concrete and dust. People maimed by I assume landmines shuffling along, children walking around with their eyes rolling into the backs of their heads and a huge fade sign stating, "Please protect our children from sex tourism, report all cases of child abuse." I was so close to turning back around.
Once we left Poipet, it was a totally different story. Miles of green paddy fields, dotted with little wooden houses built on stilts, each with an enormous bale of hay, pond, chickens, cows and children running around. I can totally understand why Anglina Jolie adopted one, they are the cutest kids!
Siem Reap was the first port-of-call, we were offered a free tuk-tuk into the centre of town, provided we looked at the some guesthouse, I shared one with a couple of guys. The driver took a bit of a detour and as we were marvelling at the amount of posh hotels, a moped came screeching up besides us and tried to grab the guys bag. Luckily they didn't succeed, but shook us all up. The guesthouse ended up being great, got a massive room and en-suite in the centre of town for $4 a night...apart from a dreadlocked Italian dude who insisted on playing his guitar and singing constantly?!
Angkor is absolutely majestic, the site is huge! Despite is being ransacked by war, abandoned for centuries and ravaged by the Khmer Rouge, it's very well preserved. All of the tourists and hawkers, didn't really take away from the peace and tranquility of the place. I don't know enough about Hinduism to fully understand the meaning of the place, but in the middle of the jungle these monuments to Khmer architecture and empire looked very much at home. So much so, that one of the temple had tress growing on top of it, the roots straggling the structure - man and nature as one. Ended up watching a rather unimpressive sunset from the top of Bakheng Hill. It was cool, loads of people congregated, but getting back down really steep narrow steeps with hundreds of other people was a bit scary! The most annoying thing about Angkor are the hoards of children that run up to you as soon as you arrive at a temple. One girl introduced herself to me as Spidergirl, I fobbed her off but she remembered when I came back and called me a 'fucking liar', another 6 year old girl went to the extremes of telling me that Pol Pot killed her father...hmmm, didn't Pol Pot's regime get over-thrown 30-year-ago? It's a miracle!!
The bus ride to Sihanoukville was a bit scary, at Phnom Penh bus station the inspector looked at my ticket and flapped about a little bit, finally putting me on the bus, sitting on plastic stool in the middle of the aisle. Half way into the journey, we stopped for comfort break only to have our tickets checked by a very scary woman. She stopped the bus from moving, saying that I didn't have a ticket; 'that's what the tickets inspector at Phnom Penh gave back to me' I told her. The driver and his assistant got off the bus, argued with her a bit. Meanwhile I was munching on some fruit that a Cambodian man offered me. Finally she stomps off and we get on our way. Once I settled into guesthouse, I found the correct ticket in my back pocket, oops!
Sihanoukville is more laid-back with a beautiful beach and cool cafe-bars, mostly run by ex-pats. Got to top up the tan and drink lots of Cambodian coffee, which is good. Met lots of cool people, including this crazy artist guys who chatted to me hours about life, science, religion, etc.
Headed to Phnom Penh and the Happy guesthouse which backs onto the Boeng Kak lake, which is extremely polluted. The room isn't the nicest, but it'll do, it has a steady stream of travellers and great communal area. Went to see the Killing Fields and S21 prison, the fields were a series of shallow ditches where the Khmer Rouge buried the people they executed. A tree that was used to kill children was pointed out. Then headed to S21 prison, just to add to the misery, which is converted school, chopped into cells that was used to detain and torture people. It was horrible, the steel beds and medieval instruments were still there. It made me feel sick thinking about all the pain and suffering that was inflicted in those cells. People really are cruel. What made me more sick was bring ripped off by the tuk-tuk driver. I should have been more forthright and told him to fuck off, but after seeing the Khmer Rouge's legacy, didn't really want to mess with any Cambodians!
So, New Lunar Year is the last day I spend in Cambodia. It is a fantastic country, so interesting and friendly. If you can get over the pollution and dust and the fact that Cambodian ladies wearing pyjamas as day-wear?!
As we pulled up to the Friendship Bridge, the man in charge stated that we should be weary, as when we cross the border we will be approached by lots of children who will pick our pockets and are on drugs (I always knew children were the root of all evil). Passed through Thai immigration with no problems, lovely air-conditioned building. Crossed the Friendship Bridge which seemed to be over a landfill site, as oppose to a river into Poipet. Entered this little shack with a tiny little opening where your passport was taken off you, stamped, looked at, stamped, looked at...eventually, we got our passports back and sat outside while we waited for an Iraqi guy who was in our group to pass through immigration.
Poipet felt like a post-apocalyptic hell. There was a steady stream of solemn looking people pulling wooden carts across the border. The place was a complete mess of mangled concrete and dust. People maimed by I assume landmines shuffling along, children walking around with their eyes rolling into the backs of their heads and a huge fade sign stating, "Please protect our children from sex tourism, report all cases of child abuse." I was so close to turning back around.
Once we left Poipet, it was a totally different story. Miles of green paddy fields, dotted with little wooden houses built on stilts, each with an enormous bale of hay, pond, chickens, cows and children running around. I can totally understand why Anglina Jolie adopted one, they are the cutest kids!
Siem Reap was the first port-of-call, we were offered a free tuk-tuk into the centre of town, provided we looked at the some guesthouse, I shared one with a couple of guys. The driver took a bit of a detour and as we were marvelling at the amount of posh hotels, a moped came screeching up besides us and tried to grab the guys bag. Luckily they didn't succeed, but shook us all up. The guesthouse ended up being great, got a massive room and en-suite in the centre of town for $4 a night...apart from a dreadlocked Italian dude who insisted on playing his guitar and singing constantly?!
Angkor is absolutely majestic, the site is huge! Despite is being ransacked by war, abandoned for centuries and ravaged by the Khmer Rouge, it's very well preserved. All of the tourists and hawkers, didn't really take away from the peace and tranquility of the place. I don't know enough about Hinduism to fully understand the meaning of the place, but in the middle of the jungle these monuments to Khmer architecture and empire looked very much at home. So much so, that one of the temple had tress growing on top of it, the roots straggling the structure - man and nature as one. Ended up watching a rather unimpressive sunset from the top of Bakheng Hill. It was cool, loads of people congregated, but getting back down really steep narrow steeps with hundreds of other people was a bit scary! The most annoying thing about Angkor are the hoards of children that run up to you as soon as you arrive at a temple. One girl introduced herself to me as Spidergirl, I fobbed her off but she remembered when I came back and called me a 'fucking liar', another 6 year old girl went to the extremes of telling me that Pol Pot killed her father...hmmm, didn't Pol Pot's regime get over-thrown 30-year-ago? It's a miracle!!
The bus ride to Sihanoukville was a bit scary, at Phnom Penh bus station the inspector looked at my ticket and flapped about a little bit, finally putting me on the bus, sitting on plastic stool in the middle of the aisle. Half way into the journey, we stopped for comfort break only to have our tickets checked by a very scary woman. She stopped the bus from moving, saying that I didn't have a ticket; 'that's what the tickets inspector at Phnom Penh gave back to me' I told her. The driver and his assistant got off the bus, argued with her a bit. Meanwhile I was munching on some fruit that a Cambodian man offered me. Finally she stomps off and we get on our way. Once I settled into guesthouse, I found the correct ticket in my back pocket, oops!
Sihanoukville is more laid-back with a beautiful beach and cool cafe-bars, mostly run by ex-pats. Got to top up the tan and drink lots of Cambodian coffee, which is good. Met lots of cool people, including this crazy artist guys who chatted to me hours about life, science, religion, etc.
Headed to Phnom Penh and the Happy guesthouse which backs onto the Boeng Kak lake, which is extremely polluted. The room isn't the nicest, but it'll do, it has a steady stream of travellers and great communal area. Went to see the Killing Fields and S21 prison, the fields were a series of shallow ditches where the Khmer Rouge buried the people they executed. A tree that was used to kill children was pointed out. Then headed to S21 prison, just to add to the misery, which is converted school, chopped into cells that was used to detain and torture people. It was horrible, the steel beds and medieval instruments were still there. It made me feel sick thinking about all the pain and suffering that was inflicted in those cells. People really are cruel. What made me more sick was bring ripped off by the tuk-tuk driver. I should have been more forthright and told him to fuck off, but after seeing the Khmer Rouge's legacy, didn't really want to mess with any Cambodians!
So, New Lunar Year is the last day I spend in Cambodia. It is a fantastic country, so interesting and friendly. If you can get over the pollution and dust and the fact that Cambodian ladies wearing pyjamas as day-wear?!
Friday 16 January 2009
Bangkok
Had a bit of a drama on the plane, my EpiPen was confiscated by the air steward, as it was a sharp object; "will you need it during the flight?" he asked with the biggest smile on his face, "not unless you're planning on giving out little bags of nuts?!" It was quite embarrassing being pulled out the queue and ushered to one side, I started thinking about Nicole Kidman in Bangkok Hilton, eek!
Got to Khao San Road, and it's amazing. Such a cool vibe, surrounded by loads of travellers and holiday makers. I want to buy everything - but need to remind myself that whatever I buy I have to carry around and I hate carry bags from Tesco! Also, I know I'd probably get it home and hate it. I ended up in this great little hotel on Rambuttri Road, which runs parallel to Khao San and has everything, including an English cafe (yes, I had a full English) and curry house. I've also found this cool reggae bar down an alley off the Khao San, they have a loud music-off with the Harley bar next door, so you can't hear a flippin' thing, but it's great.
Been swapping books and exploring the city. Wednesday is a Buddhist day and all the tuk-tuks get government subsidises to take tourists around all the temples. So I hoped onto a tuk-tuk and went to the 'big Buddha', which is about 45 feet tall and then 'lucky Buddha' which is a 300 year old statue. Met this Thai English teacher, who took pity on me looking lost and bewildered about what to do in a temple. He showed my how to pray to Buddha, which I did. He went on to about a tailors that make suits for Armani, Hugo Boss... Without me or this dude mentioning it to driver, he took me to a tailors, they showed me all their brochures, got out rolls of fabric to choose from, all I could say is "don't wear suits, look at me do I look like someone who wears suits?" So, off I went to the marble temple, where I bumped into a Filipino lady who was going on about buying jewellery in Thailand and selling it on for profit in England. No surprise that I ended up in said jewellery shop...I was starting to feel like I was in the Truman Show. After this, the driver asked to take me to another 'factory' for 'special promotion for tourists'...when I said no, he said just so I can get the coupons (to pay for fuel). He was old and I thought I would get some karma points, so I agreed. By this point, I had no patience for sales pitch.
It's so warm and sunny, although people say that it's cold for this time of year. I think it's blowing in from the chilly northern hemisphere. I'm loving it, having been wrapped up for the best part of 12 months. Hanging out at the hotel pool (it's on the roof), trying to get some colour and because of all the gorgeous French men ;)
I'm really enjoying playing games like 'real monk/fake monk' and 'real lady/lady boy', it's great because no-one argues with me, so I'm always right! I love Thailand and would love to spend more time in Bangkok hanging around with all the travellers and exploring the country, like Chang Mai, Attayutha, Koh Chang and down south. I'm definitely going to come back here soon...once I've cleared my credit cards...and bring a big suitcase!
All my visas for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are now sorted and getting a bus to Siem Reap. Next stop Cambodia!!
Got to Khao San Road, and it's amazing. Such a cool vibe, surrounded by loads of travellers and holiday makers. I want to buy everything - but need to remind myself that whatever I buy I have to carry around and I hate carry bags from Tesco! Also, I know I'd probably get it home and hate it. I ended up in this great little hotel on Rambuttri Road, which runs parallel to Khao San and has everything, including an English cafe (yes, I had a full English) and curry house. I've also found this cool reggae bar down an alley off the Khao San, they have a loud music-off with the Harley bar next door, so you can't hear a flippin' thing, but it's great.
Been swapping books and exploring the city. Wednesday is a Buddhist day and all the tuk-tuks get government subsidises to take tourists around all the temples. So I hoped onto a tuk-tuk and went to the 'big Buddha', which is about 45 feet tall and then 'lucky Buddha' which is a 300 year old statue. Met this Thai English teacher, who took pity on me looking lost and bewildered about what to do in a temple. He showed my how to pray to Buddha, which I did. He went on to about a tailors that make suits for Armani, Hugo Boss... Without me or this dude mentioning it to driver, he took me to a tailors, they showed me all their brochures, got out rolls of fabric to choose from, all I could say is "don't wear suits, look at me do I look like someone who wears suits?" So, off I went to the marble temple, where I bumped into a Filipino lady who was going on about buying jewellery in Thailand and selling it on for profit in England. No surprise that I ended up in said jewellery shop...I was starting to feel like I was in the Truman Show. After this, the driver asked to take me to another 'factory' for 'special promotion for tourists'...when I said no, he said just so I can get the coupons (to pay for fuel). He was old and I thought I would get some karma points, so I agreed. By this point, I had no patience for sales pitch.
It's so warm and sunny, although people say that it's cold for this time of year. I think it's blowing in from the chilly northern hemisphere. I'm loving it, having been wrapped up for the best part of 12 months. Hanging out at the hotel pool (it's on the roof), trying to get some colour and because of all the gorgeous French men ;)
I'm really enjoying playing games like 'real monk/fake monk' and 'real lady/lady boy', it's great because no-one argues with me, so I'm always right! I love Thailand and would love to spend more time in Bangkok hanging around with all the travellers and exploring the country, like Chang Mai, Attayutha, Koh Chang and down south. I'm definitely going to come back here soon...once I've cleared my credit cards...and bring a big suitcase!
All my visas for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are now sorted and getting a bus to Siem Reap. Next stop Cambodia!!
Wednesday 14 January 2009
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is like the love-child of a Moroccan Souq and New York. It's all skyscrapers and every crevice has a shop to selling their wares. It is far more cosmopolitan then China and as a city, a lot greener then Chinese cities.
Finally made it after a mad-panic trying to get out of Xian, as no bugger can speak a word of English, including travel agents. Got onto the plane where I was served what looked like a kinder egg, I open it with a knife and inside it look like fudge, after a bite I realised that it was an egg...? The flight was a bit scary as the engines were making funny noises and I swear I could smell smoke half way through the flight, I held onto my St Christopher so tight I drew blood.
Hong Kong has become a journey of firsts. It's the first hostel I've stayed in that isn't the best (felt like I was sleeping in a prison cell and I could hear rats scurrying around outside at night time), had my first cold shower, my first English tea, first MacDonald's and first casualty...I lost my Kafka book I was reading that had a postcard of all the places I should visit in Japan. I'm really pissed off about it as I was enjoying the book :( I'm now reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, which is about a boy with asperger's. It started making me think that maybe I had aspergers (stop sniggering).
The hostel was called Lily Garden in Kowloon and in the heart of the tailoring district. The place was surrounded by clothes-making factories. Being the daughter of a dress-maker, it made me feel very at home with all the Singers and pins. There were an awful lot of curry stalls too, which served the most fantastic curry and samosas that nearly blew my head off.
The view from Victoria Harbour is superb and the weather was sunny and luke-warm, not warm enough to permanently ditch my horrid coat though. Looking out onto Hong Kong Island and watching the world go by, I was there for about 15 minutes and then I noticed that I had a tanline left by my t-shirt. So now I look like a Brit abroad with a builders tanline.
I love Hong Kong, so bright and vibrant. I'm a city girl, so I guess it's places like this that I feel most at home. Although, I felt slightly out of place against the well-dressed locals, who were all queuing to get into Louis Vitton and Chanel. Oh well, when I marry that Russian billionaire I won't have to queue, they will open the shop especially for me!
Finally made it after a mad-panic trying to get out of Xian, as no bugger can speak a word of English, including travel agents. Got onto the plane where I was served what looked like a kinder egg, I open it with a knife and inside it look like fudge, after a bite I realised that it was an egg...? The flight was a bit scary as the engines were making funny noises and I swear I could smell smoke half way through the flight, I held onto my St Christopher so tight I drew blood.
Hong Kong has become a journey of firsts. It's the first hostel I've stayed in that isn't the best (felt like I was sleeping in a prison cell and I could hear rats scurrying around outside at night time), had my first cold shower, my first English tea, first MacDonald's and first casualty...I lost my Kafka book I was reading that had a postcard of all the places I should visit in Japan. I'm really pissed off about it as I was enjoying the book :( I'm now reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, which is about a boy with asperger's. It started making me think that maybe I had aspergers (stop sniggering).
The hostel was called Lily Garden in Kowloon and in the heart of the tailoring district. The place was surrounded by clothes-making factories. Being the daughter of a dress-maker, it made me feel very at home with all the Singers and pins. There were an awful lot of curry stalls too, which served the most fantastic curry and samosas that nearly blew my head off.
The view from Victoria Harbour is superb and the weather was sunny and luke-warm, not warm enough to permanently ditch my horrid coat though. Looking out onto Hong Kong Island and watching the world go by, I was there for about 15 minutes and then I noticed that I had a tanline left by my t-shirt. So now I look like a Brit abroad with a builders tanline.
I love Hong Kong, so bright and vibrant. I'm a city girl, so I guess it's places like this that I feel most at home. Although, I felt slightly out of place against the well-dressed locals, who were all queuing to get into Louis Vitton and Chanel. Oh well, when I marry that Russian billionaire I won't have to queue, they will open the shop especially for me!
Friday 9 January 2009
China
Best place to start is always at the beginning; Terminal 5 is not so much Space Odyssey 2001's 60s vision of the future, more Total Recall's 80's vision. Very slick and my luggage made it, yay!
Didn't sleep a wink on the flight, but the food was alright...good ole BA. I watched I'm Not There and The Duchess, both passed the 20 minute boredom threshold. As we prepare to land, I look out at the window to the rugged blue mountains poking up from a blanket of cloud, 'This isn't a city, it's virtually uninhabitable', I thought to myself. Then the plane tilted, hoorah signs of life, big factories bellowing out smoke from huge chimneys. Beijing airport is ridiculously clean, you can eat dumplings off the floor and it's run like a military exercise. Got a cab to the Far East International hostel with a driver who felt the need to clear his throat every two seconds. The room was basic, but hostel had loads of facilities, English-speaking friendly staff and it was clean.
Walk around Beijing and the first thing I noticed is that all the Chinese men smoke and hook up greenies that they then spit on the street. Poor Chinese women, no wonder they prefer Western men. A good thing to take to Dragon's Den would be a street spittoon for China, after all they've been selling us their tat for years!
Tianamen Square is just a massive expanse of space, it's huge and the police run bags through metal detectors every time you use a subway, even if its just to cross the street. Saw loads of soldiers parading and yelling through the city, there is a high police presence. Forbidden City is nothing short of magnificent. The rest of Beijing is just huge, the width of their roads is the length of my road. There is a bit of a funny feel to it and very underwhelming.
Also visited the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall. The wall is a huge engineering feat, but not sure how useful a wall on top of a mountain would be at keep out the Mongol's. The Ming Tombs were really dull, as it's just a pagoda, the tomb hasn't even been excavated! The tour guide was called Magic and he was really cool, I grilled him about the Chinese regime, seems that communism in China is all about making money and controlling everything...sounds more like capitalism to me?! Part of the tour was dealing with been taken to all sorts of shops disguised as factories on making traditional Chinese crafts.
Watched Team America back in the hostel, the subtitles were hysterical; 'bastard/asshole/douchbag', etc. were translated to 'bad egg' and 'suck my cock' was translated to 'dive a muff'.
During the Chinese revolution, Chairman Mao ordered that imperialistic/colonial Chinese history should be destroyed. As a lover of antiques, history and architecture this is a real shame and I think Beijing has lost something as a result of it. It supports tourism through replicas and half-arsed historical sights. I guess its not deemed as important as the Olympics (the stadiums are incredible by the way).
Xian is a city that feels more European, more bustling and loads of shopping centres and KFC's. Staying at the Nan Fang hotel, not far from the Goose Pagoda. Got watch some Chinese TV, still traumatised by an infomerical advertising a sanitary towel that sucks it all out, alivates pains and smells of flowers...there was maths equation, a used pad and a doctor raving about it!
I began my search to find internet, this was a tough job as no-one seemed to know what the words 'computer' or 'internet' were. The Chinese are very friendly and always want to help, however they can never say no. They sent me on this goose-chase that kind of had me circulating a computer emporium for gamers. Spoke to so many people and trekked around the city, saw all the sights including a strip devoted entirely to coffee houses and another for art galleries displaying traditional Chinese art. Spoke to this little girl in English, who beamed with pride when I told her that her English was very good. Xian isn't geared up for tourists at all, all the signs are in Chinese apart from fancy boutiques call New York or Dreams. I find it especially annoying when no-one in the hotel can speak English.
Saw the Terracotta Warriors, something that should have taken a couple of hours took a whole day, taking us round replaces of Emperor Qin's tomb, lunch, a couple of shops and Banpo (preserved 6000 year old village). The warriors are in massive pits and the Chinese have built a massive resort around it.
China is very Westernised in every way, but is so insular. The Chinese TV doesn't show anything other then Chinese programming and you don't have access to anything isn't Chinese. Yet everything basically emulates what the rest of the world is doing. Naturally China isn't very cosmopolitan and it's people are extremely educated, but there is something totalitarian about this country that is a bit scary, from the chants that bellow through Beijing streets and the billboards depicting Chinese ideals. Also everything in China is huge, they don't do anything by halves, maybe it's small man syndrome. On the whole, China reminds me a lot of another superpower, just across the Pacific.
Didn't sleep a wink on the flight, but the food was alright...good ole BA. I watched I'm Not There and The Duchess, both passed the 20 minute boredom threshold. As we prepare to land, I look out at the window to the rugged blue mountains poking up from a blanket of cloud, 'This isn't a city, it's virtually uninhabitable', I thought to myself. Then the plane tilted, hoorah signs of life, big factories bellowing out smoke from huge chimneys. Beijing airport is ridiculously clean, you can eat dumplings off the floor and it's run like a military exercise. Got a cab to the Far East International hostel with a driver who felt the need to clear his throat every two seconds. The room was basic, but hostel had loads of facilities, English-speaking friendly staff and it was clean.
Walk around Beijing and the first thing I noticed is that all the Chinese men smoke and hook up greenies that they then spit on the street. Poor Chinese women, no wonder they prefer Western men. A good thing to take to Dragon's Den would be a street spittoon for China, after all they've been selling us their tat for years!
Tianamen Square is just a massive expanse of space, it's huge and the police run bags through metal detectors every time you use a subway, even if its just to cross the street. Saw loads of soldiers parading and yelling through the city, there is a high police presence. Forbidden City is nothing short of magnificent. The rest of Beijing is just huge, the width of their roads is the length of my road. There is a bit of a funny feel to it and very underwhelming.
Also visited the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall. The wall is a huge engineering feat, but not sure how useful a wall on top of a mountain would be at keep out the Mongol's. The Ming Tombs were really dull, as it's just a pagoda, the tomb hasn't even been excavated! The tour guide was called Magic and he was really cool, I grilled him about the Chinese regime, seems that communism in China is all about making money and controlling everything...sounds more like capitalism to me?! Part of the tour was dealing with been taken to all sorts of shops disguised as factories on making traditional Chinese crafts.
Watched Team America back in the hostel, the subtitles were hysterical; 'bastard/asshole/douchbag', etc. were translated to 'bad egg' and 'suck my cock' was translated to 'dive a muff'.
During the Chinese revolution, Chairman Mao ordered that imperialistic/colonial Chinese history should be destroyed. As a lover of antiques, history and architecture this is a real shame and I think Beijing has lost something as a result of it. It supports tourism through replicas and half-arsed historical sights. I guess its not deemed as important as the Olympics (the stadiums are incredible by the way).
Xian is a city that feels more European, more bustling and loads of shopping centres and KFC's. Staying at the Nan Fang hotel, not far from the Goose Pagoda. Got watch some Chinese TV, still traumatised by an infomerical advertising a sanitary towel that sucks it all out, alivates pains and smells of flowers...there was maths equation, a used pad and a doctor raving about it!
I began my search to find internet, this was a tough job as no-one seemed to know what the words 'computer' or 'internet' were. The Chinese are very friendly and always want to help, however they can never say no. They sent me on this goose-chase that kind of had me circulating a computer emporium for gamers. Spoke to so many people and trekked around the city, saw all the sights including a strip devoted entirely to coffee houses and another for art galleries displaying traditional Chinese art. Spoke to this little girl in English, who beamed with pride when I told her that her English was very good. Xian isn't geared up for tourists at all, all the signs are in Chinese apart from fancy boutiques call New York or Dreams. I find it especially annoying when no-one in the hotel can speak English.
Saw the Terracotta Warriors, something that should have taken a couple of hours took a whole day, taking us round replaces of Emperor Qin's tomb, lunch, a couple of shops and Banpo (preserved 6000 year old village). The warriors are in massive pits and the Chinese have built a massive resort around it.
China is very Westernised in every way, but is so insular. The Chinese TV doesn't show anything other then Chinese programming and you don't have access to anything isn't Chinese. Yet everything basically emulates what the rest of the world is doing. Naturally China isn't very cosmopolitan and it's people are extremely educated, but there is something totalitarian about this country that is a bit scary, from the chants that bellow through Beijing streets and the billboards depicting Chinese ideals. Also everything in China is huge, they don't do anything by halves, maybe it's small man syndrome. On the whole, China reminds me a lot of another superpower, just across the Pacific.
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