Arrive Guilin about 12 so had a super nice sleep in and feeling pretty good! Some locals help us onto the city bus and a nice lady shows us the bus station. Its weird, sometimes they are SOO nice and helpful...real extremities. Anyways on the bus which was easy cos i slept most of the way...i never really sleep well on those trains....no idea why!
Yangshuo is surrounded by tall karst hill/rock/mound things which is really why we're visiting. Have a hostel in the tourist part...basically there is a western tourist part (complete with dodgy old americans finding local younger “girlfriends” YUCK) and a chinese tourist part, so we decided to avoid the chinese tour group and their walkie talkies and umbrellas and head for hamburger town! Nice lil place, only a few cobbled streets for us to get lost in, but lots of western food and we eye it up..only then i go have beef fried noodle...hard to break habits! quite a few touts here but nothing compared to India and we find it pretty easy really! have an easy afternoon chilling and wandering around. nice place, i like it here! strange to see so many white folk again!
Sunday 27 April 2008
20th April - Kunming – Guilin
Whole day today before we head on the train so we headed up to the funky uni part of town and shopped and chilled out there for a bit. Off to the train station and once again its all pretty easy. top bunk...well you can't even sit cos you're so close to the ceiling! and dennis has a good time watcing arn trying to navigate the ladder up and down! its hard to get down where youve only got 3 feet to maneuver yourself in! but i snuggled down at lights out and even managed to do a late night pee without falling on the bloke below me...
19th April – Shangri-la – Kunming
UP early and to the airport which is some more chinese chaos and disorganised organisation. Have an argument with customs women who after she went through ALL my things and even sniffed the lip gloss on my phone, insisted i go back an check it in....GRRR. more waiting behind queue hopping chinese but finally get through and walk to the plane in sunshine with those beautiful mountains against a blue sky backdrop. Funny to watch the chinese on airplanes, they are SOOOO bad at following instructions and there is always (ALWAYS) someone who unbuckles themselves STRAIGHT after landing...EVERY SINGLE TIME! same thing during take off, they will often go to the toilet while the seat belt sign is on, so strange. the instructions are in chinese!! oh and its weird, they always have trouble getting their seat right, so you're always waiting for people to change. I'm not sure what it is about them, it happens everytime too! Think there are ways and means here that i am struggling with sometimes...well not struggling but it seems there is very little respect soemtimes (not always) for want of a better word, the common man. it really feels like everyman for themselves and soemtimes there are little manners or respect. Like queue jumping and playing their phone music out loud, smoking in public places even when it says not to, pushing and shoving their way down the street, YELLING into their cellphones everywhere (or just yelling in general), spitting and children tolieting everywhere (ON CARPET!). Perhaps sometimes the language means i am missing certain other customaries but i find myself getting really frustrated at the lack of consideration. The book i am reading atm, wild swans, is about the period under Chairman Mao and he did encourage people to NOT be courteous to each other, it was considered bourgeois. so perhaps this is a remnant of that. im not sure. other times they are surprising and respectful, and i am sure miss a lot...perhaps it is just my “western” standards.
Arrive Kunming and another battle to get train tickets...but we get there...18 hour train jounrey tomoro...on the top bunk! should be interesting!
Find a hostel, shared bathroom, meh. showers a bit pants but gooooood pressure and hot hot hot water, yummy! We have a look around kunming til we are compltely knackered but we have a good shop and its a nice city with good shops! Find the the funky uni part of town, will come back here tomoro, but get some english books...LOVELY! arn in heaven.
Dinner at Mama Fu's (like the name) warm warm beer (den had to get ice) but the food is good!
Arrive Kunming and another battle to get train tickets...but we get there...18 hour train jounrey tomoro...on the top bunk! should be interesting!
Find a hostel, shared bathroom, meh. showers a bit pants but gooooood pressure and hot hot hot water, yummy! We have a look around kunming til we are compltely knackered but we have a good shop and its a nice city with good shops! Find the the funky uni part of town, will come back here tomoro, but get some english books...LOVELY! arn in heaven.
Dinner at Mama Fu's (like the name) warm warm beer (den had to get ice) but the food is good!
18th April – Shangri-la
Better sleep tonight and wake feeling really good! we got a name of a small nepalese village about 7km from roses yesterday and so after 4 attempts we find a driver who actually knows the place (apparently taxi drivers don't get outta town much) and after a bumpy ride on a metal road we arrive. no idea how we're getting back cos its a full on farming village, not even a general store it seems. The women are all dressed in traditional dress tho the guys are in jeans. we met a couple of kids, they all have big wide faces with red windswept cheeks and snotty noses but they're super cute and the little girl thinks dennis is very funny, they can only say hello and giggle whenever we say it back to them. Have a walk around, all the houses are big cream 2 storied jobs but they have the most colourful window sills and shutters. Theres a lot of the drying racks everywhere and we find lots of chickens and some very big bulls. Everyone we pass (its not much on this dirt road) looks at us like what on earth are we doing there but we get big smiles and hellos from everyone and they don't seem to mind us. one old farmer on a tractor tray just stared at us with his mouth open after we said hello. start a longish walk back to town but end up hitching a ride with a rich bloke in his nice SUV. Spend the afternoon chilling out and catching up on blogs etc in warm cafe. Couple of yaks kebabs and feel like normal food tonight so find somewhere “western” looking, its sooooo toasty and have a gooood burger. we had a chat to the singaporean ownder, he said its been soooo slow there since the tibetan trouble...most people head onto tibet after shangri-la. He also interestingly thinks that the government are watching the chinese muslim communities as well...thought it apparently if one minority group can do it, so can others and they haven;t always been treated well...also worried that they could have a lot of help from neighbouring islamic countries. Who knows.
17th April - Shangri-la
Another bed hard to get out of but we'd been warned by the people we hd met the last night that it was bloody hard to get up and they reckoned (hoped) the cause was the altitude. Went for a walk to a monastry in the town. They have this massive prayer wheel there which we can see turning from our bedroom window. you have to walk it around 3 times clockwise and it DEF helps having a lot of people to do it! just a walk up the steps to the monastry leaves me completly gasping for breath. Inside the monastry the rooms where they pray are so colourful and full to the brim of colour with flags and paintins and gold everywhere, its really pretty and feels happy. the pictures of hell on the outside are not so happy...it doesnt look good!
We mish into the new town to pick up a present for dad – saw someone with something last night (obviosuly i can't mention it cos then he'd know what it is!!) and it cracked us up...the finnish guy had brought one too. So after this big walk around den's not feeling so hot and we're both completely knackered. You feel so stupid and lazy and putz but its so hard walking and talking that we're both silent and the small hill and stairs to our room requires a good 5 minutes sit down to catch our breath! We have a rest and then head out to the big monastry which is a couple miles outta town. Catch an old ricktety bus, th driver looks like he slept in his clothes and just rolled outta bed, this is completed by fag hanging out of his mouth. we add our 2 yuan to the literal cardboard box of other 1 yuan notes and do actually end up at our destination! The monastry is surrounded by a town with traditonal houses nd once again there is a lot of colour inside and gold paint. Its not opulant but just rich with colour. The walls on the outside are painted a shade of orange to look almost gold. The scenary is beautiful, all round are tall tall peaks, snow capped and you can see small prayer flag areas, like you always see on documentaries, dotted aorund the hills. Theres a few in town too. The monks are hanging around and seems to be a pretty peaceful life to be a monk! dennis checked out the kitchen, it was men only! he said it was nice and warm and smelt good! its pretty cold!
Head back to town den has discovered the Yak kebabs in the square. We sit and grb a couple of these and they are GOOD! nice and spicy yak ment intertwined with peppers. Yak meat is pretty good...mostly like beef but slightly different taste. and we headed to rose's cafe where apparently they have the best hot chocolate...and they do! YUM, its chocolate melted and milk! well good. We went to the square and at7:30 every night all the women of the town and quite a few of the men danced tradtional dances, in a big circle..music is played from speakers nearby. its nice and more and more women finished whatever they are doing and come to dance. Even the guys, unsually bit older are having a good time. Has a good community feel. Dinner we found a cosy place and i got Fried beef dumplings....they were sooooo good. They taste just like the sausage rolls you could order at primary school, i have a gooooood time eating again! dancing in the square is almost over, it goes for 2 hours and by this time the circle of people is taking up the whole square! we go back to our room and put on our electric blanket and get all warm and cosy. Even lying down you find your breathing is slightly funny!
We mish into the new town to pick up a present for dad – saw someone with something last night (obviosuly i can't mention it cos then he'd know what it is!!) and it cracked us up...the finnish guy had brought one too. So after this big walk around den's not feeling so hot and we're both completely knackered. You feel so stupid and lazy and putz but its so hard walking and talking that we're both silent and the small hill and stairs to our room requires a good 5 minutes sit down to catch our breath! We have a rest and then head out to the big monastry which is a couple miles outta town. Catch an old ricktety bus, th driver looks like he slept in his clothes and just rolled outta bed, this is completed by fag hanging out of his mouth. we add our 2 yuan to the literal cardboard box of other 1 yuan notes and do actually end up at our destination! The monastry is surrounded by a town with traditonal houses nd once again there is a lot of colour inside and gold paint. Its not opulant but just rich with colour. The walls on the outside are painted a shade of orange to look almost gold. The scenary is beautiful, all round are tall tall peaks, snow capped and you can see small prayer flag areas, like you always see on documentaries, dotted aorund the hills. Theres a few in town too. The monks are hanging around and seems to be a pretty peaceful life to be a monk! dennis checked out the kitchen, it was men only! he said it was nice and warm and smelt good! its pretty cold!
Head back to town den has discovered the Yak kebabs in the square. We sit and grb a couple of these and they are GOOD! nice and spicy yak ment intertwined with peppers. Yak meat is pretty good...mostly like beef but slightly different taste. and we headed to rose's cafe where apparently they have the best hot chocolate...and they do! YUM, its chocolate melted and milk! well good. We went to the square and at7:30 every night all the women of the town and quite a few of the men danced tradtional dances, in a big circle..music is played from speakers nearby. its nice and more and more women finished whatever they are doing and come to dance. Even the guys, unsually bit older are having a good time. Has a good community feel. Dinner we found a cosy place and i got Fried beef dumplings....they were sooooo good. They taste just like the sausage rolls you could order at primary school, i have a gooooood time eating again! dancing in the square is almost over, it goes for 2 hours and by this time the circle of people is taking up the whole square! we go back to our room and put on our electric blanket and get all warm and cosy. Even lying down you find your breathing is slightly funny!
Wednesday 23 April 2008
16th April – Lijiang -Quaitou (Tiger leaping gorge)– Shangri-la (Zhongdian)
We took a bus today to tiger leaping gorge which was on our way to shangri-la. Since we are not trekkers (or me rather) we decided for a quick squis rather than a 2-3 day hike, tho apparently its quite easy. The bus ride there is slow and windy, feeling not SOO good at the end, but negotiate a ride to the gorge via a cellphone with very good english who then relayed back to a taxi driver...good system! went to lookout and got good views and photos of the gorge, its really beautiful, but was stinking hot so glad i am not spending long out here!
Bus to shangri-la (after a stressful (me) wait for one!) was amazing as we climbed through the mountains and passed villages of wooden houses, yaks and very woolley cows and the big drying racks that scatter the countryside. it looks very harsh and barren, you can tell there is snow here for a lot of the year and smoke trickles from the chimneys. Massive drops on one side down to big gorges..looks like they are building some dams for electricity. Guess you can criticise the gov for this but with the climate out here, these peopl ereally need electricity! pass people herding goats and woman sitting and talking. All the women are in traditional dress like in lijiang, but with big turban like pink scarfs on their head, to protect from the sun and wind and keep them warm i suppose!
Arrive Shangri-la and traipse around and find our hostel. Thankfully the town is not very big cos i'm getting breathless! Find a small place for dinner and i have a excellent meal of beef and potatoes cooked with garlic, ginger and not-too-spicy chillies! Then spread with pita type steamed bread on top...was fab and perfect for the cold weather! Get chatting to this finnish couple and trade advice and several beers. a good night and great to chat to people who are thinking and experiencing similar things!
Bus to shangri-la (after a stressful (me) wait for one!) was amazing as we climbed through the mountains and passed villages of wooden houses, yaks and very woolley cows and the big drying racks that scatter the countryside. it looks very harsh and barren, you can tell there is snow here for a lot of the year and smoke trickles from the chimneys. Massive drops on one side down to big gorges..looks like they are building some dams for electricity. Guess you can criticise the gov for this but with the climate out here, these peopl ereally need electricity! pass people herding goats and woman sitting and talking. All the women are in traditional dress like in lijiang, but with big turban like pink scarfs on their head, to protect from the sun and wind and keep them warm i suppose!
Arrive Shangri-la and traipse around and find our hostel. Thankfully the town is not very big cos i'm getting breathless! Find a small place for dinner and i have a excellent meal of beef and potatoes cooked with garlic, ginger and not-too-spicy chillies! Then spread with pita type steamed bread on top...was fab and perfect for the cold weather! Get chatting to this finnish couple and trade advice and several beers. a good night and great to chat to people who are thinking and experiencing similar things!
15th April – Lijiang
Today OMG we did a bike ride to a village called Baisha. lonely planet said it was an easy 20-30 min ride, so 40 mins in and with the sorest arse on THE smallest seat EVER i am cursing lonely planet. Ride back was easier, turns out it was slightly uphill the whole way there. Easy my (sore) arse. Anyways we get there and have a good feed (of course) and a look around. they are quite geared up for the tourists as there were some shop stalls, but selling very different stuff than Lijiang! Den got a Mao Quote book...the famous little red book. Its been translated to english so i assume its possibly not the exact words violence-hungry Mao used..
We walked through the rural part of the town for a bit, big high snow capped peak in the background, so beautiful. Local seem slightly resentful of tourist, not so warm.
Bike ride back much easier with coasting most of the way, bum is SO SO SO sore.
We pyke out tonight and head to a pizza place...AWESOME food, they know how to make GOOOOOOD pizzas!
We walked through the rural part of the town for a bit, big high snow capped peak in the background, so beautiful. Local seem slightly resentful of tourist, not so warm.
Bike ride back much easier with coasting most of the way, bum is SO SO SO sore.
We pyke out tonight and head to a pizza place...AWESOME food, they know how to make GOOOOOOD pizzas!
14th April – Lijiang
Bed like heaven and struggle to gt up but of course the thought of breakfast pulls me through...we eat at a cafe alongside the river and watch hundreds of goldfish fight against the current and each other for bits of stale bread we drop in. watch stupid chinese tourists trying to walk on the cobblestones in high heals...duh! We spend the day walking round the lovely old town...it IS completely taken over by chinese tourist and tour groups... and at times you have to fight against the throngs to get anywhere. I also get my photo taken quite a bit which is always a bit disconcerting but den is usually pretty quick to photo the perpetrator which doesn't put them off but at least they look a bit sheepish. shame it is so busy, not den's favourite. We catch, by chance some old women dancing at the square...they're all in traditional dress of blue skirt and apron with this thing on their back that protects and pad them when they carry their baskets. quite a few have their grandchildren tied to their backs while they dance! (its not very rigourous) Old men watch all of this, i suppose its their wives up there. A couple have a bit of a chuckle with den, they seem really friendly. One old boy walks past in full communism dress; the navy big coat with matching navy trousers, belt and brass buttons and finally the typical cap.
dinner is good and we go to MAMA NAXI's which is crazy busy and typical chinese in that there is a busker inside with his amp on FULL so you have to yell at eat other but the food was good...simple sweet and sour chicken.
dinner is good and we go to MAMA NAXI's which is crazy busy and typical chinese in that there is a busker inside with his amp on FULL so you have to yell at eat other but the food was good...simple sweet and sour chicken.
13th April – Chengdu – Lijiang
Drag ourselves out of our comfy bed early to head to the panda park...the whole reason we decided to stop over in Chengdu...basically what this big city is famous for!
The adult pandas have just been served breaky when we arrive and one is enjoying it SOOO much, lying on his back right in front of us, happily chewing away. you can tell he is soooo happy eating! While he is munching away this other panda, in prolly what is a real energetic move for a panda, climbs a tree...unfortunately it becomes reeeeaalllly obvious that the tree is way to small for the weigh of this fat animal and about 2/3rds of the way up the tree starts to break and there is this massive cracking of breaking wood and like in a cartoon the branch bends til it breaks and the panda falls about 2 feet. SO funny.
after the adults were the “toddlers” which are aout 6 months to a year old. They were so much whiter and one keeper was playing with them, they were having such a good time rolling over and playing rough and tumble! They then got fed, looked like softened bamboo sticks...like what we put in green thai curry, which they seemed to enjoy and one was WAY more greedier than the others, jumping up to the keeper for more.
So cute, i want one!!
Hung round at the hostel, had a FAB BLT and then took our flight to Lijiang. All very normal and we arrive at our hostel about 8...its more of a nice guesthouse, big rooms and a massive bed! Lovely. We're in the old town too, but away from the madness which is nice. We head out for a meal and a look around, looks like a fairy town (apart from the chinese tourists and souvenir shops..) with all the red lanterns lit and the streams passing under old old wooden bridges. the stones of the street as SOO worn they are all slippery. Look forward to exploring here tomoro!
The adult pandas have just been served breaky when we arrive and one is enjoying it SOOO much, lying on his back right in front of us, happily chewing away. you can tell he is soooo happy eating! While he is munching away this other panda, in prolly what is a real energetic move for a panda, climbs a tree...unfortunately it becomes reeeeaalllly obvious that the tree is way to small for the weigh of this fat animal and about 2/3rds of the way up the tree starts to break and there is this massive cracking of breaking wood and like in a cartoon the branch bends til it breaks and the panda falls about 2 feet. SO funny.
after the adults were the “toddlers” which are aout 6 months to a year old. They were so much whiter and one keeper was playing with them, they were having such a good time rolling over and playing rough and tumble! They then got fed, looked like softened bamboo sticks...like what we put in green thai curry, which they seemed to enjoy and one was WAY more greedier than the others, jumping up to the keeper for more.
So cute, i want one!!
Hung round at the hostel, had a FAB BLT and then took our flight to Lijiang. All very normal and we arrive at our hostel about 8...its more of a nice guesthouse, big rooms and a massive bed! Lovely. We're in the old town too, but away from the madness which is nice. We head out for a meal and a look around, looks like a fairy town (apart from the chinese tourists and souvenir shops..) with all the red lanterns lit and the streams passing under old old wooden bridges. the stones of the street as SOO worn they are all slippery. Look forward to exploring here tomoro!
12th April – Chengdu
The morning of our train journey is pretty uneventful, tho i enjoy the “just-add-boiling-water” hot chocolate we have discovered. nice breakfast. we get picked up in Chengdu train station but not before we have had a chance to witness a screaming match between civilian woman and shop owner. By the looks of the other few locals we were not the only bemused onlookers. She looked quite normal but den had seen her hitting her own head 5 minutes previously...
So nice pick up and they pay the taxi ride to the hostel! pretty cool! End up SOOO pleased with our room and discover to my TOTAL delight the shower is good pressure with hot hot hot water. HEAVEN and i go all pruny :P they even give us a fruit basket! awesome. we head out on a mish to find some western food...sorry but sometimes you really need some. anyways find a DICOS which seems to be a chinese version of KFC, its packed and with lots of kids so seems to be a good bet. and its also spotless...i can see i like chengdu for all the wrong western reasons! gt a chicken burger and almost choke to death in my haste to eat it, but damn ITS GOOD. happy to provide good entertainment for the locals too. Spend the rest of the day wandering round the clothes shops which range from ridiculous to plain awful but its good fun to look at and i got a sweater for £1! woohoo. Our hostel is so fab we can rent DVDs for free and when i book our panda trip for the next morning, we get a free mini breaky of biscuits and waters! how nice is that! Watch a DVD and head out for Sichuan hotpot which is the local food. We end up getting the tourist version which is a pot of soup surrounded by the hotpot...good choice cos the chillies in the oil the hotpot uses are SO incredibly hot and have a funny aftertaste. Its good fun cooking our meat and veg and you dip it in a peanut oil/garlic/corriander mix afterwards. Its good but i find all the oil a bit much. den is loving the heavy tastes after food that he describes as too bland!
So nice pick up and they pay the taxi ride to the hostel! pretty cool! End up SOOO pleased with our room and discover to my TOTAL delight the shower is good pressure with hot hot hot water. HEAVEN and i go all pruny :P they even give us a fruit basket! awesome. we head out on a mish to find some western food...sorry but sometimes you really need some. anyways find a DICOS which seems to be a chinese version of KFC, its packed and with lots of kids so seems to be a good bet. and its also spotless...i can see i like chengdu for all the wrong western reasons! gt a chicken burger and almost choke to death in my haste to eat it, but damn ITS GOOD. happy to provide good entertainment for the locals too. Spend the rest of the day wandering round the clothes shops which range from ridiculous to plain awful but its good fun to look at and i got a sweater for £1! woohoo. Our hostel is so fab we can rent DVDs for free and when i book our panda trip for the next morning, we get a free mini breaky of biscuits and waters! how nice is that! Watch a DVD and head out for Sichuan hotpot which is the local food. We end up getting the tourist version which is a pot of soup surrounded by the hotpot...good choice cos the chillies in the oil the hotpot uses are SO incredibly hot and have a funny aftertaste. Its good fun cooking our meat and veg and you dip it in a peanut oil/garlic/corriander mix afterwards. Its good but i find all the oil a bit much. den is loving the heavy tastes after food that he describes as too bland!
11th April – Wudangshan to chengdu
Not much else to do in this sleepy town so we sleep in and pack up. Leave our bags with the lovely woman owner and sort of aimlessly walk around. end up spending a reasonable amount of time in internet cafe surrounded by people playing games and somtiemes watching porn. Nice. at least its warm!
Sleeper train to chengdu is nice. we Play a lot of bastard (and have our noodles of coruse!) and just as i'm about to take den on for the last championships, lights go out! 30 mins early. oh well. Bed HAS been slept in but since i'm in my clothes i;m not tooooo phased and i put my sarong over the pillow and im sussed. weird having some other bloke sleeping in his long johns on the bottom bunk about 1.5 feet away but oh well. Sleep better than on last sleeper train and its cosy and warm...and no cigarette smoke! yay!
Sleeper train to chengdu is nice. we Play a lot of bastard (and have our noodles of coruse!) and just as i'm about to take den on for the last championships, lights go out! 30 mins early. oh well. Bed HAS been slept in but since i'm in my clothes i;m not tooooo phased and i put my sarong over the pillow and im sussed. weird having some other bloke sleeping in his long johns on the bottom bunk about 1.5 feet away but oh well. Sleep better than on last sleeper train and its cosy and warm...and no cigarette smoke! yay!
10th April – Wudangshan
So another sleep in and now the toilet smells like festering pee which is weird cos i haven;t gone that much and i have good aim now. glad i showered last night but den gets a touch of warm water so not sure who is better off.
I copy some chinese characters cos we need to book our sleeper train to Chengdu and since this place is so small i wonder at how much english...there is no english anywhere else! But she had good english and luckily got us sleeping tickets, and now we now know the symbols for top, middle and bottom bunks and find ourselves in different cabins but same section so not a bad effort. The weather is looking decidely shite so we (much to my relief) decide to forgo the trek to the top and make like a rich chinese and take the tourist bus and cable car. Turns out to be a freaking HUGE way (and fair amount of money too!) but even on the bus there are great views and we really do steadily climb into the clouds. WE then take the cable car up which is really rthe steepest form of transpot i have EVER seen and that realllllly takes us into and then above the next layer of clouds. At one point it gets hard to see the car infront. Its up super high and the chinese bush is really beautiful, their trees are so different, often bent and twisted in funny shapes and sometimes the leaves are so fine, and then there are quite a lot of blossom trees too so you get this plot of pink amongst the green. At the top is this ancient monastry, its about 500 years old. its FREEZING here and were are right in the thick of clouds but you can see parts of the mountian and the lowr clouds in the gaps and its so beautiful. We pay (even more, SIGH) to get to the actual summit but its worth it as we're about the NEXT layer of clouds and can see the mist/clouds RUNNING over the ancient chinese buildings below. Smehow its how i imagine china to be so depsite the fact i'm compltely out of breath and it only 6 degrees its really amazing and almost satisfying to know you have found something out of a photo.
Have a strange dinner ...the tofu tastes like soap, but i brought some flat bread off the street and its hot and beautiful for dipping (in the other dish...not the soapy one!)
I copy some chinese characters cos we need to book our sleeper train to Chengdu and since this place is so small i wonder at how much english...there is no english anywhere else! But she had good english and luckily got us sleeping tickets, and now we now know the symbols for top, middle and bottom bunks and find ourselves in different cabins but same section so not a bad effort. The weather is looking decidely shite so we (much to my relief) decide to forgo the trek to the top and make like a rich chinese and take the tourist bus and cable car. Turns out to be a freaking HUGE way (and fair amount of money too!) but even on the bus there are great views and we really do steadily climb into the clouds. WE then take the cable car up which is really rthe steepest form of transpot i have EVER seen and that realllllly takes us into and then above the next layer of clouds. At one point it gets hard to see the car infront. Its up super high and the chinese bush is really beautiful, their trees are so different, often bent and twisted in funny shapes and sometimes the leaves are so fine, and then there are quite a lot of blossom trees too so you get this plot of pink amongst the green. At the top is this ancient monastry, its about 500 years old. its FREEZING here and were are right in the thick of clouds but you can see parts of the mountian and the lowr clouds in the gaps and its so beautiful. We pay (even more, SIGH) to get to the actual summit but its worth it as we're about the NEXT layer of clouds and can see the mist/clouds RUNNING over the ancient chinese buildings below. Smehow its how i imagine china to be so depsite the fact i'm compltely out of breath and it only 6 degrees its really amazing and almost satisfying to know you have found something out of a photo.
Have a strange dinner ...the tofu tastes like soap, but i brought some flat bread off the street and its hot and beautiful for dipping (in the other dish...not the soapy one!)
9th April - Xian - WudangShan
So my booking of tickets hadn't gone QUITE as well as i thought and it turns out instead of a nice normal train seat for 8 hours we were crammed in with the locals, in a smoking area, near the toilets on HARD seats. Yes they are padded but nly just. I can tell you my arse did suffer that day and no i did NOT use the toilet for 8 hours. Also think all the smoke possibly shaved a good year off my life. But wasn't totally unbearable once i accepted this and we had our noodles and snacks and played some last card. And arrived 8 hours later! Will be finding out the chinese characters for soft seat next time!!!
Nothing booked for wudangshan but all seems pretty close to the train station so we start looking for our place we had decided on...complete with backpacks, of coruse looking every much the western tourist. We apparently caught the eye of 3 american blokes who were training for kung fu which this area is famous for and possibly the birth place of, tho not being interested in ourselves we didn't really have much idea (tho we did have some good hongkong fuey jokes to ourselves) . So although we made it clear we were not on a spiritual journey to becoming a kung fu master they heplpfully took us to a hotel (all in chinese so we had not idea it was accommodation) and in chinese negotiated a price for us...which was pretty cool! They then went for a foot massge.
So the accomdation is v cheap and clean but very concerned about the shower which is basically OVER the squat toilet..i guess they tried to save on drainage but still...that and the cold water means i will be having very quick showers. (in my jandels). Headed out for tea and met our kung fu friends in place so had a nice chat to them about china and america etc. one of them has married a chinese girl training to be a nurse, they can't go back to america until they have been married 2 years, pretty harsh.
So found this chinese movie, old and weird but with english subtitles, which was odd but good! So quote of the day: “Step off my intestines, bitch”.
a lot of the words had us in a good fits of laughter. Found anoher channel playing pirated dvds! So watched the golden compass in english until we could;t stay awake...
Nothing booked for wudangshan but all seems pretty close to the train station so we start looking for our place we had decided on...complete with backpacks, of coruse looking every much the western tourist. We apparently caught the eye of 3 american blokes who were training for kung fu which this area is famous for and possibly the birth place of, tho not being interested in ourselves we didn't really have much idea (tho we did have some good hongkong fuey jokes to ourselves) . So although we made it clear we were not on a spiritual journey to becoming a kung fu master they heplpfully took us to a hotel (all in chinese so we had not idea it was accommodation) and in chinese negotiated a price for us...which was pretty cool! They then went for a foot massge.
So the accomdation is v cheap and clean but very concerned about the shower which is basically OVER the squat toilet..i guess they tried to save on drainage but still...that and the cold water means i will be having very quick showers. (in my jandels). Headed out for tea and met our kung fu friends in place so had a nice chat to them about china and america etc. one of them has married a chinese girl training to be a nurse, they can't go back to america until they have been married 2 years, pretty harsh.
So found this chinese movie, old and weird but with english subtitles, which was odd but good! So quote of the day: “Step off my intestines, bitch”.
a lot of the words had us in a good fits of laughter. Found anoher channel playing pirated dvds! So watched the golden compass in english until we could;t stay awake...
8th April – Xian
So today we went to the terracotta warriors, which was basically the whole reason for our trip here. We were good and caught the local bus...in the wrong way but soon realised and changed. From there it was pretty easy to get to the warrior but started pissing down which was particulary traumatic for me as i'd spent 10 minutes deliberating whether or not to take my brolly and decided against it. ARGH. But ended up buying 2 off some entrepreneurial bloke for a quid. Were lazy (and it was raining!) and took the electronic car to the site from the carpark...don't want to walk 1km in the rain thanks. Dutifully watched the movie which was kinda random cos you stand in this cylinder room with the movie all around you and it all joins up...made me feel carsick if it moved to fast! Went to the biggest pit first which is where they all line up. its pretty cool and they all noticibly different, some are even kinda fierce and some are almost happy, sme have facial hair, some have side burns!. You can see lots that have been destroyed after the qing empire collpased which was only a short time after the emporer had been buried with his army. Theres horses too.. Hard to believe this is all like 2000 years old, amazing. Pit 2 and 3 were not quite as spectacular but 2 contained horses set up in order and 3 had some generals and a bowman and a horse with his leader all on display and they were really in great condition. the horseman even has the reins in his hands and you can see the bowmans feet...the shoes have a sole pattern on them, so so intricate and so much thought gone into it. Shame the emporer was obviously a nutjob. Head back to our hostel and had a lazy dinner in the cafe there trying to decide our movements after Wudangshan. Enjoying the wireless!
7th April – Arrive Xian
Arrive Xian and our hostel comes to pick us up from the train station which was fab cos both feeling half asleep after not much train sleep. So we check in, they show us to our room (its only about 7:30) nd say have a good rest...so id say we looked pretty shot. Den still not great but hostel beds are comfy as...white duvets seem to be the norm here which is nice change from random indian blankets. the linen always seems super clean. Funny smelling toliet again and dodge shower but a funky hostel and nice cafe to hang out at. with coffee and toast! yum. den still not great today so spent the day catchin up on sleep and chilling out. Did vetnure out and buy our 8 hour train tickets to Wudangshan...dens pick, i have no idea what is there, but he can never remember the name. Hopefully the tickets are ok. Find the supermarket, very nice and i finally get some hand cream, YAY!! full of jackie chan endorsed green tea in bottles and chips displayed between the escalators.
Dinner tonight, well we got a tad lost , den still not got his internal compass right and ended up for an unintended long walk. ut found a dumpling restaurant which apparently Xian is somewhat a bit famous for. I've never ave dumpling befores...cept these duck things you get at Wagamamas and these chinese ones are all steamed so they're all pale nd you have NO idea whats in them. NO english and we had no idea what the woman was saying so randomly picked 2 lots from the menu and hoped for the best. the beer was right and cold. A chinese man across from us was laughing at us struggling and we all had a good laugh about it. dumplings turned out to be great and i pesonally really enjoyed them. Kind of like ravioli...its kinda of pasta with stuff. one had pork and spring onions and then the other was chicken with garlic and ginger..YUM! you dip them in this sauce with is chilli, vinegar and soy sauce. anyways i loved them but den wasn't entirely convinced. Feel really good we had some local food and the place was filled with chinese.
Dinner tonight, well we got a tad lost , den still not got his internal compass right and ended up for an unintended long walk. ut found a dumpling restaurant which apparently Xian is somewhat a bit famous for. I've never ave dumpling befores...cept these duck things you get at Wagamamas and these chinese ones are all steamed so they're all pale nd you have NO idea whats in them. NO english and we had no idea what the woman was saying so randomly picked 2 lots from the menu and hoped for the best. the beer was right and cold. A chinese man across from us was laughing at us struggling and we all had a good laugh about it. dumplings turned out to be great and i pesonally really enjoyed them. Kind of like ravioli...its kinda of pasta with stuff. one had pork and spring onions and then the other was chicken with garlic and ginger..YUM! you dip them in this sauce with is chilli, vinegar and soy sauce. anyways i loved them but den wasn't entirely convinced. Feel really good we had some local food and the place was filled with chinese.
6th April – Beijing to Xian
So today was our first sleeper train. As they always left lateish at night and check out is always 12pm you always have this time to kill, annoyingly. And not fab when you're not feeling 100%(den). So we went back to the funky hutong area and drank lots of coffee, tea and hot chocolate til it was time to mish back to grab our bags and go to the station.
Sleeper trains here are pretty good, cleaner than the indian trains, but since they're all bloody chimmneys here there was a smoking section...in the part between cars...and we were in the 1st cabin so spent a good 20 mins once i was in bed cursing smokers with my head under the duvet. But was actaully pretty comfortable, and there is a bottom sheet all tucked in in and a duvet which is great for me cos i used to get all tangled up in the indian blankets and loose sheets. Didn;t sleep great but no real reason...seems the chinese (despite the smoking) aren't really big snorers so one less thing to annoy me :)
Sleeper trains here are pretty good, cleaner than the indian trains, but since they're all bloody chimmneys here there was a smoking section...in the part between cars...and we were in the 1st cabin so spent a good 20 mins once i was in bed cursing smokers with my head under the duvet. But was actaully pretty comfortable, and there is a bottom sheet all tucked in in and a duvet which is great for me cos i used to get all tangled up in the indian blankets and loose sheets. Didn;t sleep great but no real reason...seems the chinese (despite the smoking) aren't really big snorers so one less thing to annoy me :)
Sunday 13 April 2008
5th April - Beijing
today was our great wall day but first we had to mish to the west train station to book our sleeper tickets for the next night (to XIAN). and it WAS such a mish. the tube is not fantastically plannd and its like at least 1km from the tube to the train station (west) so you have to walk for ages to get there. annoying. chaos when we got there but found an english speaking window and got our tickets...score! anyways some reason to celebrate when youre expecting it to be shit and really difficult.
So we found our great wall bus to a town and then had to find a taxi to th part of the wall we wanted to see. There quite a few parts of the wall to choose but we wanted a part that wasn't really restored and wasnt so touristy. SO our completely non-english speaking driver took us out there and well it was getting pretty late by now so arn (as i do) was getting stressed cos supposedly the wall “shuts” at 5. SO we hooned as fast as you can go in a cable car and THEN took a finicular even further up which was lucky cos the next 17 flights of old stairs were a freakin killer. But reached the top and there i was...standing on the wall!!! and it was amazing, hardly any people (but enough to know we weren;t getting kicked off) and after a while the mist cleared slightly and ou could see the wall twisting off up the net lot of ranges, JUST like in pictures and it really was perfect. Walked down it for about 1-2 kms, LOTS of steep steps (down mostly) and it was pretty unrestored. walked through the turrets, some are in better condition that others. Leisurely made our way down, took an over the top amount of misty photos and found ourselves back on the path to the carpark...past THE biggest flying fox ever. was even too much for den, just mental.
So we found our great wall bus to a town and then had to find a taxi to th part of the wall we wanted to see. There quite a few parts of the wall to choose but we wanted a part that wasn't really restored and wasnt so touristy. SO our completely non-english speaking driver took us out there and well it was getting pretty late by now so arn (as i do) was getting stressed cos supposedly the wall “shuts” at 5. SO we hooned as fast as you can go in a cable car and THEN took a finicular even further up which was lucky cos the next 17 flights of old stairs were a freakin killer. But reached the top and there i was...standing on the wall!!! and it was amazing, hardly any people (but enough to know we weren;t getting kicked off) and after a while the mist cleared slightly and ou could see the wall twisting off up the net lot of ranges, JUST like in pictures and it really was perfect. Walked down it for about 1-2 kms, LOTS of steep steps (down mostly) and it was pretty unrestored. walked through the turrets, some are in better condition that others. Leisurely made our way down, took an over the top amount of misty photos and found ourselves back on the path to the carpark...past THE biggest flying fox ever. was even too much for den, just mental.
4th April – Beijing
Feeling better today and after our mammoth rest yesterday decided to take on the summer palace. Its not too far from the city and we took cab out there. Its got this massive man made lake that the emperor decided he wanted, we ended up walking around it, which was lovely, as the sun was out, blossoms and trees were beautiful and it was busy but not mental! the grounds of the palace were amazing, the palace buildings were pretty similar to the forbidden city but we saw the palace stage and caught a performance of some acrobats then some girl dancers and finally a traditional orchestra, so that was pretty cool. some of the empress Dowager's robes were on display, the most beautiful one with butterflies all over its.
Caught a cab back home and it drove past the new olmpic stadium which was VERY cool and VERY impressive. The city really is gearing up for th games, new trees and roads are everywhere, builders aree working through the night to complete buildings and there is sort of a decided determination to get the city ready..perhaps at any cost, i'm not sure. lots of buildboards up saying “we are ready”. i hope they do it tho not sure about the pollution really.Headed to a funky part of town for dinner, tried to find some good chinese dinner but everywhere was so busy! ended up in a place that looked good (and chinese what with all the unreadable writing...) and turned out to be japanese! But oh well cos we had a damn good feed, was another jap cook-your-own and we BBQ'd our own strips of beek then you dunk them generously in this sauce stuff and OMG the beef was awesome. Really thin strips and SUCH good meat! den was in heaven and we ordered an extra plate of beef. left feeling FULL.
Caught a cab back home and it drove past the new olmpic stadium which was VERY cool and VERY impressive. The city really is gearing up for th games, new trees and roads are everywhere, builders aree working through the night to complete buildings and there is sort of a decided determination to get the city ready..perhaps at any cost, i'm not sure. lots of buildboards up saying “we are ready”. i hope they do it tho not sure about the pollution really.Headed to a funky part of town for dinner, tried to find some good chinese dinner but everywhere was so busy! ended up in a place that looked good (and chinese what with all the unreadable writing...) and turned out to be japanese! But oh well cos we had a damn good feed, was another jap cook-your-own and we BBQ'd our own strips of beek then you dunk them generously in this sauce stuff and OMG the beef was awesome. Really thin strips and SUCH good meat! den was in heaven and we ordered an extra plate of beef. left feeling FULL.
3rd april – Beijing
Home sick today! woke up and i was a bit better and roll over and den is cooking up. nice. i DID mish out to get some food, including some pot noodles for dinner...roast beef flavour, VERY good, highly recommended. Spend the day sleeping and channeling surfing in the hope of finding something thats NOT in chinese and NOT propaganda news they use to convert english speakers..
2nd April - Beijing
So today we mished to THE imperial palace, the forbidden city. Was crawling with people and is such a big area but we had a decent look around. Lots of buildings with old furniture in it...its better than it sounds! just was SOO tired at the end of it. amazing how much these people spent on stuff, but spose if you were stuck within 4 walls you would do a lot of home shopping.Got home and had a nap, woke up with a temperature and den had to go get micky ds for dinner (it was across the road!). yuck, feeling completely pants. Get to sleep early
1 april – Beijing
Slept in today was SOOO tired. looked outside looks like a massive amount of mist and turns out to be a hugely smoggy day...nice. Found a local bakery and got some flash looking buns and bikkies, and for peanuts, so cheap! walked to the tube, all being kitted out with automatic ticket machines fo the games, but for now, all tickets ad checking tickets done by people. tedious! Discovered that there is a massively mad rush for any free seats and you gotta get in there quick. Middle aged men seem to be the worst for this...
Got out at tianamen square, really feeling the communism! red everywhere and a lovely pic of chairman Mao across the road. nice. Don't you think if you were a massive dictator and were going to have your photo done, you'd get rid of the massive wart on your chin?? i know this is pre-photoshop days but surely there were a couple of good painters close by? Anyways THE Mao is pickled in a masuoleum in the square too..We had peking duck for dinner in this “duck” restaurant, so ccripsy duck pancakes and WOOHOO were they good. you could also almost buy like every part of the duck to eat...duck tounges anyone??
Got out at tianamen square, really feeling the communism! red everywhere and a lovely pic of chairman Mao across the road. nice. Don't you think if you were a massive dictator and were going to have your photo done, you'd get rid of the massive wart on your chin?? i know this is pre-photoshop days but surely there were a couple of good painters close by? Anyways THE Mao is pickled in a masuoleum in the square too..We had peking duck for dinner in this “duck” restaurant, so ccripsy duck pancakes and WOOHOO were they good. you could also almost buy like every part of the duck to eat...duck tounges anyone??
31st March - Tokyo - Beijing
Uneventful day today other than we got up early outta our capsules and headed to the fish market. It was completely pissing down and freeeezing so by the time we got there we were numb, luckily it was undercover. was huge, you can relly see how muhc damn fish and of how many types the japanese are consuming! the biggest tuna steaks ever (den wondered perhaps if it was whale??), ocotpus, squid and lots of ink everywhere, prawns, shrimps, crayfish, lots of fish eggs! big red fish with huge blugging eyes! so many i had no idea what they were. lots of people, perhaps chefs buying their dily goods. there was so much fiish but hardly any smell, it was so fresh.
anyways only so much dead fish and guts you need to see, so headed for a warm cuppa and breakfast!
Flew out to China that afternoon. Arrived beijing and passed the taxi drive our address for our hotel and he was cracking up, we had no idea til we got to “our” road and it was miles long! but we found it and we had a good laugh. Nice place, funny smelling toilet and hardest bed ever!!! But ahh sleep!
anyways only so much dead fish and guts you need to see, so headed for a warm cuppa and breakfast!
Flew out to China that afternoon. Arrived beijing and passed the taxi drive our address for our hotel and he was cracking up, we had no idea til we got to “our” road and it was miles long! but we found it and we had a good laugh. Nice place, funny smelling toilet and hardest bed ever!!! But ahh sleep!
sunday 30h march - Tokyo
Hell of a day today, spent an age finding a capsule hotel but finally did. had left our big bags at the ryokan and so once we hd booked in, headed off to shinjuku and enjoyed taiten (i think) which is a sushi on a conveyor belt. they all greet you when you come in and then you just take plates and they tally it up with your plates at the end! different plates had different values. Beautful salmon, so fresh and they add the wasabi themselves so i think you get the right amount for the particular fish. was lovely.
Capsule hotel was pretty different! i was on the womens floor and so after utting my things in a locker i had a shower (dens were fully communual so he stayed unwashed..) and went to my capsule. I had a bottom row one and it comes with a tele and alarm clock and light. Theres not door to close, you just pull down the shade. luckily in a room full of women it was pretty quiet. apparenetly the mens room was full of snorers. strange night.
Capsule hotel was pretty different! i was on the womens floor and so after utting my things in a locker i had a shower (dens were fully communual so he stayed unwashed..) and went to my capsule. I had a bottom row one and it comes with a tele and alarm clock and light. Theres not door to close, you just pull down the shade. luckily in a room full of women it was pretty quiet. apparenetly the mens room was full of snorers. strange night.
Saturday 29th march – tokyo
headed out of the city today to...ummm forget now, will have to edit this post later...
Anyways took the train out to some place and joined lots of locals for a walk around some temples, including this massive buddha we got to go INTO. it wasn;t as exciting as youd think in a buddhas belly but hey, how many people can say they;ve done THAT then???
Came back to tokyo and found a local(ish) restaurant that specialises in YOU making “japanese pancakes”. you sit on the floor with a table that has a hot plate in it. You pick a batter (egg and cabbage and batter and tempura bits etc etc) and then mix it all up. Put in on the hot plate and enjoiy your beer while cooking...flip and cook some more and then add this special sauce...YUM. was damn good.
Anyways took the train out to some place and joined lots of locals for a walk around some temples, including this massive buddha we got to go INTO. it wasn;t as exciting as youd think in a buddhas belly but hey, how many people can say they;ve done THAT then???
Came back to tokyo and found a local(ish) restaurant that specialises in YOU making “japanese pancakes”. you sit on the floor with a table that has a hot plate in it. You pick a batter (egg and cabbage and batter and tempura bits etc etc) and then mix it all up. Put in on the hot plate and enjoiy your beer while cooking...flip and cook some more and then add this special sauce...YUM. was damn good.
28th march – tokyo
The most important day of the year...my birthday!!!!!!! so we headed to a mall where there is this massive rollar coaster. den went on it, it looked awful but was heaps of fun to watch him. turns out in the stadium next door was a big concert that night for a band called X...apparently these are pretty hardcore heavy metallers cos the square was filled with hundreds of goth-ly dressed individuals. spent an hour wandering around staring and taking photos. long coats, teased red hair, copious light foundation and eyeliner seem to be pretty standard! spent the rest of the day shopping in other areas and finished off at a funky italian underground restaurant. had writing all over the walls, very funky.
27th march – tokyo
Den suffering from post-disney-fatigue today so we took it easy with a mish round the city. walked through harajuku and tho we didnt see anyone massively weird looking, there were some definite camden rivals. changed from our hotel boxroom to a traditional japanese ryokan...which was awesome! fully kitted out with tatami mats and futons, we even got cotton kimonos to wear, so cool. Found some original pot noodles for dinner (yep we were that tired) and, took a punt on the flavour and had on e seriously tense situation after opening that perhaps we had seafood flavour...obvisouly the worst one. however seemed it was just the tiny freezedired prawns in it that gave it that apperance and tasted gooood. even better was the hagen das icecream. you can get green tea flavour (tho of coruse i didn't).
26th March 2008
Disneyland!!! complete chaos just a seething mass of people and queues. still was a fun day, and got on all the good rides...thunder mountain is still the best! was made to go on splash mountain RIIIGHT at the end of the day and almost panicked my way out but did it and survived. (yes i'm a chicken and i know it!)
Fell into bed near 11pm after an exhausting day
Fell into bed near 11pm after an exhausting day
25th march 2008
So turns out we are paying top dollar for our teensy room is because the blossom festival is on! randomly excellent and worth the extra millions of pennies cos its a REAL big deal here...den caught the “blossom report” on the news last night...looks liike they're all gonna be out in full on thursday. Everything is pink and floral and a real celebration of spring is happening.
So after our mecca of shopping and disoreintation yesterday we decided to have some CULTURE. Headed to our local shinto shrine in asukusa. den brought a fortune which was almost the worst one...small fortune! figured i could beat that, i got my own (you randomly pick bits of paper with them on it) and got the worse one! bugger. had to tie my up on a clothesline type thing to “allow the wind to take the bad luck”. heres hoping it worked..ended up at a sushi place in roppongi for dinner, eveyone yells and greats you when you walk in, its pretty cool. we had no idea what to get and wanted to have an “experience” so ordered an array of sushi. The tuna and salmon were good, the eel was ok but highlight of the night was when den (on a dare) ate the entire salmon roe sushi..thats salmon eggs. google a picture of them, they;'re big and orange! den has advise apparently they explode in you mouth...nice. anyways he couldn't finish it and i was crying with laughter. so never again. you'll be impressed to know he DID complete the herring roe one but wouldn;t recommend it
So after our mecca of shopping and disoreintation yesterday we decided to have some CULTURE. Headed to our local shinto shrine in asukusa. den brought a fortune which was almost the worst one...small fortune! figured i could beat that, i got my own (you randomly pick bits of paper with them on it) and got the worse one! bugger. had to tie my up on a clothesline type thing to “allow the wind to take the bad luck”. heres hoping it worked..ended up at a sushi place in roppongi for dinner, eveyone yells and greats you when you walk in, its pretty cool. we had no idea what to get and wanted to have an “experience” so ordered an array of sushi. The tuna and salmon were good, the eel was ok but highlight of the night was when den (on a dare) ate the entire salmon roe sushi..thats salmon eggs. google a picture of them, they;'re big and orange! den has advise apparently they explode in you mouth...nice. anyways he couldn't finish it and i was crying with laughter. so never again. you'll be impressed to know he DID complete the herring roe one but wouldn;t recommend it
24 March 2008
so being the good woman i am, first thing i have found are the shopping malls and the biggest stationary shop in tokyo. sweet. den is not as excited as me.
We head to breakfast and go for the “morningu settu” which wa strrrronnnng coffee and cream, thick white toast with butter and a hard boiled egg. excellent. plus they give you a moist towel after eating which is v considerate. The cafe seems real old school, all dark and cute and the chairs are really low.
so we scout round our local area, Asukasa and take the metro to Ginza. This turns out to be all expensive designer shops and malls we can't work out how to get into BUT find the fabulous stationary shop, itoya and spend a looong while drooling in there. brought cow shaped paperclips (couldnt help it!) plus quite a few stickers (of sushi..).
Poor den has had enough of paper and pens by now and we headed to shinjuku where the massive department stores are (who put me in charge of the lonely planet..) they are soooo big and also connect up with one of the biggest metro and rail stations in tokyo so we spent ages trying to fnd the food halls and somewhere to sit. Find the halls find with amazing food, but nowhre to rest our feet...argh. finally find a cafe...The department stores were too mental so we head off to shibuya which is home to the big famous crossing...which we crossed! and just sosososo many people and so chaotic. electric advertising everywhere. Checked out a Pachinko slot place...seems to be a gambling thing with metal balls...the rooms are smoky and music on full, its really a massive assault on all your senses!
We head to breakfast and go for the “morningu settu” which wa strrrronnnng coffee and cream, thick white toast with butter and a hard boiled egg. excellent. plus they give you a moist towel after eating which is v considerate. The cafe seems real old school, all dark and cute and the chairs are really low.
so we scout round our local area, Asukasa and take the metro to Ginza. This turns out to be all expensive designer shops and malls we can't work out how to get into BUT find the fabulous stationary shop, itoya and spend a looong while drooling in there. brought cow shaped paperclips (couldnt help it!) plus quite a few stickers (of sushi..).
Poor den has had enough of paper and pens by now and we headed to shinjuku where the massive department stores are (who put me in charge of the lonely planet..) they are soooo big and also connect up with one of the biggest metro and rail stations in tokyo so we spent ages trying to fnd the food halls and somewhere to sit. Find the halls find with amazing food, but nowhre to rest our feet...argh. finally find a cafe...The department stores were too mental so we head off to shibuya which is home to the big famous crossing...which we crossed! and just sosososo many people and so chaotic. electric advertising everywhere. Checked out a Pachinko slot place...seems to be a gambling thing with metal balls...the rooms are smoky and music on full, its really a massive assault on all your senses!
23 march 2008
So left NZ today, very sucky, hate goodbyes and havin g spent a wonderful month in NZ this was the hardest one so far i reckon. But onto the next thing!3 flights later, including 1 budget 9 hour flight WITHOUT personal TVs (shock horror!) we arrived in tokyo. metro to our hotel and yay they hve our boooking so arn can stop stressing as per normal. Find THE smallest room EVER but is so cute and dinky, i like it alot! has everything you need, including fridge, tv, wireless, jug, tea and coffee plus thngs like toothbrushes ans toothpastes. tho basically it seems we are paying like 4 pounds per sq centimetre its all good. bedtime and yay cant wait for tomoro!
New Zealand
beach, sun, family, wedding, beer, wine, driving! wendys, fish and chips, fresh snapper, black sand, hot weather, sunshine, french toast, breakfast outside, shopping, waiheke, taupo, tauranga, auckland, hamilton, raglan, smashing pumpkins!!, house, yogi, hot showers, washing machine! bacon and eggs and beans and toast, chartwell square and new market, house buying!!
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