.... and we've had a warm welcome!
Apologies for not updating this for the last few weeks but we've been very busy being spoilt by loads of folk here. It has been great travelling half way round the world only to arrive here feeling like we have just returned home even though neither of us has been here before.
So before we tell you what we've been up to we must say a special thanks to:-
* Susan & Paul for treating us to a tasty takeaway and nice wine on our first night here (and for letting us dry our washing at their house! - we are still backpackers after all!);
* Rebecca for showing us the sights in Sydney, treating us to cocktails at the Shangri-La and putting us up for the night;
* Stevie, Sandra, Mylo & Ella for having us to stay in Melbourne and treating us to our first Aussie barbie (and for having really cute kids who kept us amused);
* Mark for his amazing tour of Canberra, his beer, his poker skills and not least the largest television in the southern hemisphere which Graham enjoyed immensely.
* Cath, Paul, Emily, Nicholas & Sophie (my ozzy cousins) who have looked after us so well for the last week in Canberra. What can we say - lovely food, great company and very polite children! But most of all we loved having the opportunity to spend some time with them (and Graham enjoyed introducing them to Haggis and addressing it too!). Will miss you x
Sunday 20 September 2009
Thursday 3 September 2009
Bye Bye Asia!
Well, that was a fab 5months in Asia - we never thought we would get the chance to spend so long here (we still have to pinch ourselves most days to remember where we are!!).
It has been amazing - we’ve seen and done so many new things and met so many people - here are a few of the highlights which come to mind:-
* Trekking to Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal (No.1);
* Spending the night in the desert in India;
* Going to Darjeeling after hearing so much about it;
* Seeing the Taj Mahal;
* Spotting Rhinos’ on safari;
* Having a bath with an elephant;
* Taking a dawn boat trip on the Ganges in Varanasi;
* Having a tropical Thai island all to ourselves;
* “Tubing” in Laos
* Taking a speedboat up the Mekong;
* Relaxing at the 5* Tokyo Park Hotel;
* Trying Caviar for the first time;
* Geisha “spotting” in Kyoto;
* Climbing the Great Wall of China;
* Seeing the Terracotta Warriors;
* Going to a Baseball match;
* Peering into a live volcano (only Graham on this one);
* Watching Thai boxing;
* Admiring the breath taking scenery at Guliogcun….and I’m sure there’s more….
But we are now very much ready for the next part of our trip - bring on 3 months in Australia and New Zealand (we’re counting the days!) and we're really looking forward to some western home comforts, such as:-
* toilets that flush;
* staying in a house;
* driving a car (and no doubt arguing over maps);
* using forks and knifes (that'll be weird);
* wearing make up (only I am looking forward to this);
* using English grammar and full sentences;
* eating ice lollies that don't have sweetcorn in them??;
* decent chocolate;
* fatty western comfort food (I would die for a plate of mince and tatties);
* decent TV (in English) - to name but a few.
And of course there are a few things we will be glad to have a break from for a while too:-
* squat toilets;
* spitting;
* karaoke;
* being stared at (all day);
* car horns;
* being stared at all day;
* bed bugs (we won‘t miss those itchy little blighters);
* being lunch for 100’s of Mossies (although think there are plenty of other things ready to eat us in Oz);
* one too many temples…….
But we do hope to get a chance to come back to Asia again one day - there’s still so much to see - we could easily spend another 6 months in India, 6 months in Japan, 6 months in China, visit Tibet & Mongolia….…think that probably comes to another 2 years!!….if only……
It has been amazing - we’ve seen and done so many new things and met so many people - here are a few of the highlights which come to mind:-
* Trekking to Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal (No.1);
* Spending the night in the desert in India;
* Going to Darjeeling after hearing so much about it;
* Seeing the Taj Mahal;
* Spotting Rhinos’ on safari;
* Having a bath with an elephant;
* Taking a dawn boat trip on the Ganges in Varanasi;
* Having a tropical Thai island all to ourselves;
* “Tubing” in Laos
* Taking a speedboat up the Mekong;
* Relaxing at the 5* Tokyo Park Hotel;
* Trying Caviar for the first time;
* Geisha “spotting” in Kyoto;
* Climbing the Great Wall of China;
* Seeing the Terracotta Warriors;
* Going to a Baseball match;
* Peering into a live volcano (only Graham on this one);
* Watching Thai boxing;
* Admiring the breath taking scenery at Guliogcun….and I’m sure there’s more….
But we are now very much ready for the next part of our trip - bring on 3 months in Australia and New Zealand (we’re counting the days!) and we're really looking forward to some western home comforts, such as:-
* toilets that flush;
* staying in a house;
* driving a car (and no doubt arguing over maps);
* using forks and knifes (that'll be weird);
* wearing make up (only I am looking forward to this);
* using English grammar and full sentences;
* eating ice lollies that don't have sweetcorn in them??;
* decent chocolate;
* fatty western comfort food (I would die for a plate of mince and tatties);
* decent TV (in English) - to name but a few.
And of course there are a few things we will be glad to have a break from for a while too:-
* squat toilets;
* spitting;
* karaoke;
* being stared at (all day);
* car horns;
* being stared at all day;
* bed bugs (we won‘t miss those itchy little blighters);
* being lunch for 100’s of Mossies (although think there are plenty of other things ready to eat us in Oz);
* one too many temples…….
But we do hope to get a chance to come back to Asia again one day - there’s still so much to see - we could easily spend another 6 months in India, 6 months in Japan, 6 months in China, visit Tibet & Mongolia….…think that probably comes to another 2 years!!….if only……
29/08/09-02/09/09, Hong Kong
This was a wee added extra we managed to squeeze into our trip - and we're pretty glad we did. If you aren't able to get 5 months off work to tour Asia, don't worry, 5 days in Hong Kong will give you the chance to see the best bits of Asia rolled into one - good food, amazing skyscrapers, lovely countryside, some shopping and 7 million Hong Kongites to share it with!! If you get the chance - make it a stopover!! It's a bit like China 'light', although in a lot of ways it's really more like Japan.
04/08/09 - 29/08/09, China
To be honest we didn’t really have the time, money or energy to do China justice, which was a shame as it is another fascinating country with lots to see and loads of history, although that’s not to say we didn’t see a few of the big sights:-
* The Great Wall (of course);
* The Forbidden City;
* Tiananmen Square;
* Pingyao (ancient Chinese city);
* The Terracotta Warriors (amazing);
* Guliogcan (most stunning scenery we’ve seen in Asia);
* Peking Duck (so tasty);
* The Bird‘s Nest;
* and Giant Pandas (so so cute).
But there’s a lot more to China than just the tourist attractions - for a start, we’re pretty sure it doubles as the largest building site on earth!! Everywhere…and we mean everywhere, things are being built. Apparently China uses 46% of the world’s supply of concrete, we well believe it (the tram roadworks in Edinburgh don’t even compare!). So in 5/10 years time China is going to be a very different place - but perhaps not the prettiest - their architecture isn’t that pleasing on the eye, but they are definitely building a country for a super power (and building it fast).
Unfortunately for us backpackers though they’re more concerned with building things than learning English (we have tried to learn a little Mandarin but that‘s another story), and they are quite partial to “Chinglish” (which you may have seen on BBC News recently). For example - “the egg hangs off the noodles” or “the bull’s penis with chef cooks the broth clear!!” (no thanks) - we saw these on the same menu!! Or perhaps “sitting on the bedpan” is a good way to describe a western toilet??
So, as I intimated in an earlier blog the language barrier can make getting around extremely difficult. One day we tried to buy a train ticket (in a town where there were no other tourists) for our onward journey but to say we were out of our depth was an understatement as it didn’t prove so easy:-
* we went from the bus station to the train station;
* queued for tickets for the wrong train;
* realised the refund process wasn’t worth further pain;
* walked back to the bus station;
* spoke with the non-English speaking information desk;
* queued at the wrong place for a bus ticket;
* spoke with information again;
* were taken to the right ticket office (which was back at the train station!).
We then waited 2.5 hours for the next bus, arrived at 8.30pm in a city of 1.96 million people (which we hadn’t planned to go to), and with no accommodation booked! But it worked out fine and we didn’t kill each other!! So we must be getting the hang of dealing with the “downs” of travel a little better -“stay calm and don’t expect an instant remedy!”
However, China’s the only country where I think someone would leave their job and walk tourists round to another part of town so they could get tickets - good on you China!! It’s also the only place so far where we have dined out on complete strangers’ genuine hospitality - twice! (with the exception of the night not to be mentioned of “topless” drinking in Tokyo). The first time was at the Great Wall where our hosts, (Mr Doh and his good lady) invited us to dinner with them and their family, got us drunk, then opened THEIR karaoke bar so we could all have a sing song (this as you can imagine was probably unwise on their part!) And again, at Guoliangcun when 2 doctors treated us to dinner and Bijiou (Chinese whisky). Guoliagcun was also where we were in nearly everyone’s holiday snaps as we were the only “Westerners in the Village” - which was just wrong when we were next to the most stunning scenery!
We’ve had other little mishaps along the way too. In Xian we arrived after a day on the bus, checked in, found our room, unpacked a little, went to the loo, then went in search of the bar for our free beer (wasn’t going to waste that). We then realised we had forgotten something and I popped back down to the room….mmmmm…but strange the key wouldn’t work…..however, on closer inspection I realised that the door said 303 and our key said 302!! Oooops…seems we’d checked into the wrong room….I let Graham go down to reception and explain that one!! (but again it turned out okay as 302 was actually a bit nicer).
We were also taking China a lot slower than we have done with other countries so we had time to read the odd newspaper or too - but that in itself was bizarre and enlightening at the same time!! For example, here were the stories in the “Global News” on the 11th of August:-
“China to Regulate Executions” (front page) - and they’re going to try their best to prohibit confessions by torture (that’s good of them??);
“Nepalese women protest at Government plans to pay men to marry widows” (not surprised!);
“500 children abducted from UK” - if you haven’t heard about this in the UK, don’t worry, they have been taken by one of their parents;
”Party calls time on risqué text messages (at work)” - you can now be punished for sending dirty jokes, porn, and gossip about staff changes or office romances!
“Rehab for web addicts to be shutdown” - this was a training camp for internet addicted teenagers which was closed after a 16 year old was beaten to death;
“Face saving measures for Chairman Mao” - quality control is to be introduced on souvenirs, as apparently his face is getting squashed;
“Brad Pitt is not getting married” - always worth knowing!;
“Stinking foreigners and the unwashed masses” - pointing out that foreigners wash in the morning because we’re more smelly!!!! (Chinese wash at night);
Whisky cure recommended for Russian football fans visiting the UK in light of swine flu!
And “Roger Federer’s wife had twins” - that twat gets everywhere!!
An eclectic mix shall we say! It must have been a good day for news as they seem to have covered the main “global” stories - I think the BBC could learn a thing or two from them!
And the TV was no better - I spent half an hour watching a programme one day which looked like it was supposed to be a debate about a film which had just been released called “Invisible Killer”, which is apparently about the internet and I presumed from the title it was against the use of the internet, but after watching for 30 minutes I can’t honestly say whether it was or not??!! It was so confusing, a debate which didn’t actually discuss or put any opinions forward on the issue! You really do feel cut off from the rest off the world here - thankfully we could access BBC, but if you’re Chinese you no doubt can’t.
We did persevere though and watched the news every day (mainly as there were no other English channels out of 60 others - they had Chinese soap operas on each!). However, when we were in Beijing we would have expected the news to mention the practice marches that would be taking place for the 60th anniversary of the forming of the People’s Republic of China on the 1st October. Not so - we just saw notes pinned to the lift and our bathroom mirror in the hostel telling us not to go outside for 36 hours!! This caused us a bit of alarm as we were leaving to go to the airport the next day and that definitely required us to leave the building! But the Chinese are so used to this and told us it would be okay to go out the next day - we’re not used to being told what we can’t do! It’s at times like this you realise you are in a very different country.
And it is also the only country where we have resorted to pointing at the menu in a fast food restaurant and mooing, baahing and clucking!! And all credit to the waiter who confirmed by mooing back that our selection was beef! We have to say that the food here has not been the best - it is nothing like Chinese at home - but looking forward to some Cantonese food in Hong Kong (that’s more what we get in the UK).
Although, we’re hoping Graham doesn’t get stopped by immigration when we’re leaving. It took 3x immigrations officers and a lot of squinting and staring to get Graham in here - he’s lost a stone and a half and grown a beard since he had his passport photo taken, so they took a bit off convincing that it was really him!! But should be easier now as he’s treated himself to a new pair of “the Hoff” shades so that should help with the disguise!!!
* The Great Wall (of course);
* The Forbidden City;
* Tiananmen Square;
* Pingyao (ancient Chinese city);
* The Terracotta Warriors (amazing);
* Guliogcan (most stunning scenery we’ve seen in Asia);
* Peking Duck (so tasty);
* The Bird‘s Nest;
* and Giant Pandas (so so cute).
But there’s a lot more to China than just the tourist attractions - for a start, we’re pretty sure it doubles as the largest building site on earth!! Everywhere…and we mean everywhere, things are being built. Apparently China uses 46% of the world’s supply of concrete, we well believe it (the tram roadworks in Edinburgh don’t even compare!). So in 5/10 years time China is going to be a very different place - but perhaps not the prettiest - their architecture isn’t that pleasing on the eye, but they are definitely building a country for a super power (and building it fast).
Unfortunately for us backpackers though they’re more concerned with building things than learning English (we have tried to learn a little Mandarin but that‘s another story), and they are quite partial to “Chinglish” (which you may have seen on BBC News recently). For example - “the egg hangs off the noodles” or “the bull’s penis with chef cooks the broth clear!!” (no thanks) - we saw these on the same menu!! Or perhaps “sitting on the bedpan” is a good way to describe a western toilet??
So, as I intimated in an earlier blog the language barrier can make getting around extremely difficult. One day we tried to buy a train ticket (in a town where there were no other tourists) for our onward journey but to say we were out of our depth was an understatement as it didn’t prove so easy:-
* we went from the bus station to the train station;
* queued for tickets for the wrong train;
* realised the refund process wasn’t worth further pain;
* walked back to the bus station;
* spoke with the non-English speaking information desk;
* queued at the wrong place for a bus ticket;
* spoke with information again;
* were taken to the right ticket office (which was back at the train station!).
We then waited 2.5 hours for the next bus, arrived at 8.30pm in a city of 1.96 million people (which we hadn’t planned to go to), and with no accommodation booked! But it worked out fine and we didn’t kill each other!! So we must be getting the hang of dealing with the “downs” of travel a little better -“stay calm and don’t expect an instant remedy!”
However, China’s the only country where I think someone would leave their job and walk tourists round to another part of town so they could get tickets - good on you China!! It’s also the only place so far where we have dined out on complete strangers’ genuine hospitality - twice! (with the exception of the night not to be mentioned of “topless” drinking in Tokyo). The first time was at the Great Wall where our hosts, (Mr Doh and his good lady) invited us to dinner with them and their family, got us drunk, then opened THEIR karaoke bar so we could all have a sing song (this as you can imagine was probably unwise on their part!) And again, at Guoliangcun when 2 doctors treated us to dinner and Bijiou (Chinese whisky). Guoliagcun was also where we were in nearly everyone’s holiday snaps as we were the only “Westerners in the Village” - which was just wrong when we were next to the most stunning scenery!
We’ve had other little mishaps along the way too. In Xian we arrived after a day on the bus, checked in, found our room, unpacked a little, went to the loo, then went in search of the bar for our free beer (wasn’t going to waste that). We then realised we had forgotten something and I popped back down to the room….mmmmm…but strange the key wouldn’t work…..however, on closer inspection I realised that the door said 303 and our key said 302!! Oooops…seems we’d checked into the wrong room….I let Graham go down to reception and explain that one!! (but again it turned out okay as 302 was actually a bit nicer).
We were also taking China a lot slower than we have done with other countries so we had time to read the odd newspaper or too - but that in itself was bizarre and enlightening at the same time!! For example, here were the stories in the “Global News” on the 11th of August:-
“China to Regulate Executions” (front page) - and they’re going to try their best to prohibit confessions by torture (that’s good of them??);
“Nepalese women protest at Government plans to pay men to marry widows” (not surprised!);
“500 children abducted from UK” - if you haven’t heard about this in the UK, don’t worry, they have been taken by one of their parents;
”Party calls time on risqué text messages (at work)” - you can now be punished for sending dirty jokes, porn, and gossip about staff changes or office romances!
“Rehab for web addicts to be shutdown” - this was a training camp for internet addicted teenagers which was closed after a 16 year old was beaten to death;
“Face saving measures for Chairman Mao” - quality control is to be introduced on souvenirs, as apparently his face is getting squashed;
“Brad Pitt is not getting married” - always worth knowing!;
“Stinking foreigners and the unwashed masses” - pointing out that foreigners wash in the morning because we’re more smelly!!!! (Chinese wash at night);
Whisky cure recommended for Russian football fans visiting the UK in light of swine flu!
And “Roger Federer’s wife had twins” - that twat gets everywhere!!
An eclectic mix shall we say! It must have been a good day for news as they seem to have covered the main “global” stories - I think the BBC could learn a thing or two from them!
And the TV was no better - I spent half an hour watching a programme one day which looked like it was supposed to be a debate about a film which had just been released called “Invisible Killer”, which is apparently about the internet and I presumed from the title it was against the use of the internet, but after watching for 30 minutes I can’t honestly say whether it was or not??!! It was so confusing, a debate which didn’t actually discuss or put any opinions forward on the issue! You really do feel cut off from the rest off the world here - thankfully we could access BBC, but if you’re Chinese you no doubt can’t.
We did persevere though and watched the news every day (mainly as there were no other English channels out of 60 others - they had Chinese soap operas on each!). However, when we were in Beijing we would have expected the news to mention the practice marches that would be taking place for the 60th anniversary of the forming of the People’s Republic of China on the 1st October. Not so - we just saw notes pinned to the lift and our bathroom mirror in the hostel telling us not to go outside for 36 hours!! This caused us a bit of alarm as we were leaving to go to the airport the next day and that definitely required us to leave the building! But the Chinese are so used to this and told us it would be okay to go out the next day - we’re not used to being told what we can’t do! It’s at times like this you realise you are in a very different country.
And it is also the only country where we have resorted to pointing at the menu in a fast food restaurant and mooing, baahing and clucking!! And all credit to the waiter who confirmed by mooing back that our selection was beef! We have to say that the food here has not been the best - it is nothing like Chinese at home - but looking forward to some Cantonese food in Hong Kong (that’s more what we get in the UK).
Although, we’re hoping Graham doesn’t get stopped by immigration when we’re leaving. It took 3x immigrations officers and a lot of squinting and staring to get Graham in here - he’s lost a stone and a half and grown a beard since he had his passport photo taken, so they took a bit off convincing that it was really him!! But should be easier now as he’s treated himself to a new pair of “the Hoff” shades so that should help with the disguise!!!
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