Our Trip...

Hello to everyone,well Roisin has finally got me to put something on the travel blog so i decided it should be my birthday (Thanks Nana for the text by the way). Just to let all you fans of Roisins writing style know you should expect a different style from me,so watch out for swearing and plenty of football references! Firstly id like to say thanks to all for commenting (Colette, Jen, Rachel,Carmel, Sorcha and even Luke with his many words of wishdom).Luke (and Morgan) just to let you know i forgot to do the feckin Father Ted joke at the Great Wall,we headed off at 5.30 in the morning and i think i was still asleep.Was gutted when i realised the opportunity id missed,so i tried to reinact it with the tour guide on the night train but she didnt get what i was trying to do,dont think she'd seen Father Ted!,id had bout 6 huge bottles of beer too so that didnt help!

Anyway, we were up at 8.30 to leave at 9 for my first birthday treat,which i thought would be my only birthday treat which was the Terracotta Warriors. We were collected by a private bus and had an hour long journey to the site. When we got there,the usual hoards of Chinese people were waiting to see if they could sell us anything.So we got our tour guide and off we went. Suppose better put in some technical details for people you dont know what the Terracotta Warriors are.There are 3 sites where the warriors are located in total,and there are around 7000 of them in total. They are basically life sized (Roisin says there bigger than lifesized) terracotta figures of warriors and horses arranged in battle formations which were discovered by a local farmer in 1974, the farmer now signs copies of a book in the souvenir shop.You can buy lifesize warriors now and have them shipped home. Originally they had colour however when they were excavated the paint reacted with the air and the colour faded away, this is the reason why they have left some areas un- excavated. When they have the technology to stop this happeneing they will uncover the remaining areas. Even though the warriors are very impressive we started to think of the reason they were built. They were basically the idea of a 13 year old emperor called Qin Shi Huang. Chinese history says they were built to protect the emperor/region against enemies but we reckon the kid was just having a laugh!And there we are all in awe of this kids toys. Anyway thats the end of that. (got attacked by more Chinese trying to sell stuff on the way out the gate by the way,Roisin didnt like it but i thought it was great,felt like a celebrity,sure i was only laughing at them anyway)

This is probably gonna be a long blog as i havent got a fuckin clue when to stop but sure ill just carry on,the fun bit of my bday is too come.

So we got back to the hotel,and Roisin told me to go out with the group to the Muslim Quarter (big market). I knew she was up to something as why would she not want to go shopping!So i headed off but only after having my Birthday Chicken on a stick (basically KFC chicken on a stick).Then myself Nick and Jamie went for a pancake with eggs and ham,nice one lads,could really go for one of them right now actually. The Muslim Quarter was great fun as even though i wasnt buying anything i went around with everyone else and got involved in all the price bargaining that was going on. They had all these stalls with scrolls of Chinese writing with English meanings on them, me and Kate were passing one when she noticed that one of them said You'll Never Walk Alone, she said i should buy it but i was getting tired and couldnt be bothered bargaining so i said i may get it later.

Got back to hotel and had a bday beer with Jamie,then Roisin arrived back round 6.All group arrived back to the hotel one after the other and everytime someone wanted a drink Roisin made me go up to the bar,noticed her whispering to them.I knew i had to be downstairs for 7. Got changed and the ten of us headed off,i knew we were goin for something to eat.Everytime i was walking in front, they all made me go to the back. We eventually arrived in this really swanky Japanese Restaurant, went inside and they had a whole room covered in balloons for me. So we all sat down and ordered cocktails and then the food started to arrive out,Roisin had ordered all the dishes earlier. All sorts came out, different salads, clams, rices, fish and meat dishes. The weirdest thing we had was squid which i cant believe i ate as it was cold and red! The meal was fantastic and it was a great birthday dinner so thanks Baby.

Just when i thought all the excitement was over they closed all the doors to the room we were in and turned off all the lights and the staff brought in a huge birthday cake and everyone sang happy birthday,the staff also put a hat on me and they had happy birthday playing on cd over the whole restuarant. It was great,Roisin then handed me a scroll, i knew what it was straight away, so lads i now know what Youll never walk alone is in Chinese so if we wanna start a new chant we can! After the meal,we were all a bit tipsy after beers and cocktails so took all the ballons off the wall and everyone took some,we all started running and jumping around the underground on the way back to the hotel,the chinese didnt know what to think. A few of us also tryed to sell the balloons to the locals to get our own back. Kate even managed to get a price off someone!They'll fuckin buy and sell anything here. We got back to the hotel and the whiskey and vodka came out,which between me, Roisin and Kate we somehow managed to finish. The night finished round 3 in the morning.

I had a great birthday, thanks everyone, especially Roisin.

Hopefully Liverpool can give me another birthday present and kick Chelsea's ass.

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