Jan 2007

So it was time for the overnight train,something we were dreading. 12 hours on fuckin train,who wouldnt dread that. We were in 6-berth sleepers which is three tiers of Bunkbeds,me and Roisin got the middle bunks. Anyway me Nick and Jamie had decided when getting onto to the train we should maybe have a couple of beers to help us sleep, just one or two. We hadnt bought any before we got on,but when we sat on the bed we realised we were not gonna get through 12 hours of this without beer,conveniently there was a guy outside our window with a stall selling drinks,we decided to see what he had.We got back off the train,and asked him how much the beer was, the bottles were 660ml,which is a fair size bottle. The cost was 10 yuan each,which is only a euro.So he had bout 8 beers on top of his stall,we said we'd take the lot and started loading them into bags,then he opened up an area underneath the cart and he had a whole crate with 24 of these large bottles in it. The 3 of us looked at each other and decided that we would easily get threw all the beer over the 12 hours so we boguth the crate,the guy got on th etrain with us and we unloaded the crate onto one of the tables.24 bottles,great stuff,so the train set off and the beers began to go down one by one. On the night train our tour guide told us they turn off all the lights by 10 o clock so we had to drink all the beer by then,at about 9.20 there was still 5 or 6 beers left,so thinking we had to drink them all in 40 minutes we started chugging them back. Then the lights went off at ten but you still see so it was a bit of waste of beer.Jamie set off to get some more, and came back with 5 bottles from the dining area,we opened them up and they tasted like piss!and its something when after drinking bout 6 bottles already you still have taste buds so must have really been shit. We got to bed round midnight and slept all the way through till we arrived in Xian. The plan worked perfectly.

When we got to Xian at 7am we had to get a taxi to our hotel,unfortunatley the taxi drivers are maniacs and we were nearly in an accident about 3 times over a 5 minute drive.

We stayed in the YMCA, which wasnt as bad as it sounds,just like a normal 3 star hotel really. We went for a nap and woke bout 12. It was a day free from group activities so me and roisin headed off to explore ourselves. Xian is a city surrounded by walls which you can walk around,they span 14km. We started our walk and managed to do 7km of the city walls. Was amazing as it was more or less desserted and we were the only people on the walls for most of it. When we got off the wall, we headed into the city.

We much prefer this city to Beijing,we didnt have anyone annoying as we walked down the streets,the most interest in us was from a little kid who probably hadnt seen a Westerner before. We took a stroll through the stalls of the Muslim Quarter and headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

Tommorrow is a big day as its my Birthday,fuckin 25,im getting old.

Team Domro

Another early start 8.30am (not so bad) to the Forbidden City. We had previously walked around Tiamen Square but not got inside the actual forbidden city. Tiamen Square did as much wowing this time as it did the last, it is after all an empty square. As usual, people were trying to sell us postcards ad books so you can only imagine my delight when one of the sellers was escorted away by the police in a van, the next person who tried to sell me something I threatened to shout over to the police...evil!! Apparently they have very strict rules on Tiamen Square and within the Forbidden city about selling, spitting, air blowing (which I encountered this morning while eating my breakfast) and anything of a rotten nature, and enforce fines on anyone breaking those rules.

The Forbidden City as actually very impressive, it is made up of a few temples and has in total over 9000 rooms! The culture that existed within the F.C. when it wasn't a tourist attraction is quite a shock, it was based around honour, basically if you were invited into the city, it was an honour for your family, it meant that you were smart, beautiful, potentially great..blah blah, unfortunately, it meant you had to sacrifice yourself. All the women inside the walls belonged to the emperor and all the men were castrated, once you had gone in, you probably wouldnt come out, and if you were really lucky, you could be buried with the emperor - this would be when the emperor died, it didnt matter if you were not dead, if he wanted you with him, you would be buried anyway.

Thankfully, the local guide had a sense of humour and didn't get offended when we questioned this culture and its reasonings otherwise it could have gotten ugly im sure. It wasn't that we were trying to offend, just more trying to understand.

So that brings me up to date, we have a 12 hour train journey tonight to look forward too which im sure is going to be dire...hopefully we will arrive in Xian in one piece.

Fingers crossed!

Team Domro

Hello Hello!

What an exhilerating day! We had a 5.30am wake up call ready for 6.30am to start a three hour bus journey. I actually can't remember the name of the place where we climbed the wall, if it truely matters to anyone please leave me a comment and I'll go out of my way to provide the info! (Except Luke...it doesn't matter to you, you are just going to pretend it does).

It was a really hard climb, especially by the fact that we were being chased by a bunch of Chinese farmers. These people must just chase people up and down the wall all day every day. Half of me wants to say fair play to them, some were over 60 years old and they were able to keep up with all of us, however this was much to my annoyance at the same time because if we didn't want a postcard at the bottom of the wall, why on earth after climbing and walking for 2 hours would we want to buy one at the top? There was also the whole "thats my farm down there, its a bad season" & "you my friend, good friend" (yes their English was fine) but I think the most annoying aspect of it was that they weren't really poor as their clothes were nicer than mine they were obviously educated meaning they are begging just because they think they'll get money, not because they need it. Overall we walked about 5 towers with the wall between each one getting longer and steeper every time, after about 4 towers there was one woman left following us, she eventually stormed off screaming and shouting when one of the girls offered her an Oreo! We did have theories that the whole lot of them were going to reappear with rifles, luckily that didnt happen - we actually passed them on our way down trying to sell postcards to another group of people. We only walked a little bit down the wall before taking a cable car the rest of the way, was lovely and relaxing meaning we could take in more views. Thats one thing China I have found isn't short on, scenery, im not complaining it makes a wonderful change from looking out at the car park in work every day.

Anyway, we got back at about 4pm to be dropped off at the pearl market. Unfortunately, Dom and I never made it as far as the pearls as the first floor is entirely dedicated to electronics, and its all so cheap! Ended up buying a ipod player for the car for about 10 Euros!

Tonight, obviously we went out for dinner again, im starting to miss home-cooked meals, the item worth mentioning was the desert. I had the most delicious banana fritters in the world, the batter was really light and they were soaked in honey and toffee...I deserved it after the amount of hard work today! They were so good we took a picture, but...we can't figure out how to put pictures on the computer! As soon as we do, we shall.

Tommorrow, we are off to the Forbidden City (inside it this time). Followed by a 12 hour overnight train

As ever,

Team Domro

I say this day is the start of the tour but in actual fact its a 'free day', I think it is a ploy by tour companies to make their tour appear longer than it is. Also, I forgot to mention a good tip yesterday...make sure you receive the tour information prior to the tour starting, I spent hours on the internet trying to find out where the group was suppose to meet and at what time - its our own fault for not realising we hadn't been sent the information, but it didn't cross either of our minds! Doh! Luckily enough, my plea for help travelled half way across the world in seconds and we were helped out. This makes me think though, before we set out, my dad had said to me travelling isn't the way it used to be in that gone are the days you reach a country border, get refused entry and have to wait weeks before you hear from your home country, its so much easier nowadays with the internet. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly I think he said it is no longer 'real travelling'...to that I say god bless the internet...we don't want the hassle of telegrams, money wiring, stamps and bureau de changes...its easy sailing being able to rely on a computer as they are everywhere! Real travelling...give me strength!!

Enough ranting...back to the day at hand, I hate to say that it wasn't actually filled with adventures of late apart from meeting up with the other people on the tour group. Everyone is really 'nice' (such a horrible word), there is one other couple who are 'travelling', they have just arrived from Japan, everyone else is just doing the tour as a holiday, hopefully it will be happy rainbows and pots of gold for the next ten days - i have no idea what that means - i apologise.

The great wall tomorrow...the question on Doms lips will be, "Is it true you can see it from anywhere in the world?" If you don't get that reference, you don't watch enough Father Ted!

On that, I bid you farewell.

Team Domro

Today is my last day of sleeping in as our tour starts tomorrow, feeling slightly better with the jetlag although I still didn't manage getting up for breakfast - have to stop being so lazy!

We have switched hotels today, half the price of our first place, so it definately helps to shop around. One aspect that makes it so cheap is the rooms lack of windows - which isn't actually as bad as it sounds - especially as it is so cold, all the heat stays in the room.

Went to Tiatan Park to visit the Temple of Heaven today. It is a wonderful, traditional place filled with colourful decorative temples, and people playing card games, Hackey sack, singing, dancing - it is a real social meeting point and most definately worth a visit for the atmosphere alone. Between the temples there were wonderful parkways/walkways which you could spend days walking around and still not walk them all. The views over Beijing were phenonomenal from the temples, it is difficult to grasp actually how big this city is.

Afterwards, we headed to a hutong area (old markets) in Daizhanlu - It is the largest hutong area left in Beijing. It was hustle and bustle with neon lights, traditional style buildings, people buying, selling, screaming, shouting, and haggling. It is one of the most genuine areas in Beijing. Unfortunately, it is surrounded by boards with pictures of malls implying they are going to be built in this area - but there are too many malls in Beijing as it is. This is something that is happening all over the city, and I feel that there is not enough apparent heritage or traditional culture left unless you pay to see it.

A quick update on the chopstick situation - I managed to get through most of tonights dinner using them, Dom has decided the aim is more important than the means meaning eating dinner successfully is more important than how he does it; he uses a spoon.

Our tour is starting tommorrow, hopefully should be fun, no activities planned for then but we are going to the Great Wall the day after - can't wait!

Team Domro