Paul and Jess Go Global

Paul:

this is my first blog entry. Jess has been hassling me to do some and I've even had suggestions from friends that I put finger to keyboard so here goes....

Well, we have been in Tibet for four days now. It is a very different place to China. The scenery is spectacular with snow capped mountains and wonderful old Buddhist monestaries. Lhasa is a town which is kind of divided with a Chinese half and a Tibetan half with the Potala Palace, which is the palace of the Dalai Lama, in the middle of the two. We have spent our time in the Tibetan part of town.

The altitude makes a big difference to how you are. It makes me a bit more lazy than normal (if that is possible). It definately affected us both for the first day or so. We arrived from the airport by bus which dropped us in the middle of town. As we got off I was trying to work out where our hotel was using the little map in the lonely planet. I reckoned it was about 2km away. All the time I had a couple of rickshaw drivers 'helping' me over my shoulder and making sure I was aware that they were very capable of taking us to where we needed to go. I was feeling a little tired and hassled and kept saying no, no, no, NO! So they left us alone and picked on someone else. I regretted this action soon afterwards as we ended up hiking the 2km to the hotel with our full backpacks (Jess was less than impressed, with good cause, but soon got over it). We did find the hotel in the end after about an hour of exhausting yomping and struggling to breathe.

Lhasa is an interesting place. There are hundreds of little shops and stalls keen to sell you Tibetan 'antiques', tshirts etc. 'Hello, looky looky' is a constant sound you hear as you walk the streets. The stall holders are, however, very polite and friendly and shopping here is actually quite an interesting and pleasant pasttime (I don't believe I just said that).

On the first full day, we went to a Buddhist temple in the centre of Lhasa. It was very interesting and full of different gold buddhist statues. There is a constant line of locals queuing up to visit each chapel in the temple. A massive line of hundreds of people. The whole place was charged with emotion and feeling. It was an amazing experience to be amongst this. Outside the temple there are hundreds of locals prostrating themselves in front of the temple. This involves kneeling then sliding their hands along the ground untill they are lying flat on the floor with their hands in a prayer position above their heads, then standing and repeating the whole process. They can go on for hours! Half of them are 60 plus. It looks knackering to me. There is a walk around the outside of the temple (called a Kora) which is about 2km long. We've seen a dude doing this prostrating thing around the Kora all day!

The lonely planet is an invaluable help on our travels but obviously it can never be completely up to date. It told us that to get tickets to visit the Potala Palace (the dalai Lama's palace), you need to queue up at 5pm on the day before you want to visit. After we eventually found the ticket office which was at the far end of the palace, we found the ticket office closed. Fortunately, there was someone there who spoke English and Tibetan who told us that tickets go on sale at 9:30am and queues start at 7:30am for tickets for the following day. Damn! An early start for us the next day. We got to the ticket queue at 8am and the queue was already all the way down the side and looping back on itself. I held our place in line whilst Jess went off to find brekky (coffee and jammy biscuits...Yummy!). The shop near the ticket office was playing a nice Tibetan pop song. Quite catchy I thought. However, after about 10 minutes I realised they has the same song on a constant loop. We were in the queue for 2 1/2 hours! That song is now indelibly etched onto my brain (I'm singing it to myself whilst typing this. ooh yahy yay ooh yay yay...Ahhhh). Still, we got the tickets and the palace was interesting and definately worth the visit if not quite as spectacular as we expected. They are very strict on not allowing photos in the palace. Jess did sneak one, as she was lining it up, I reminded her to turn the flash off. Too late. FLASH. The flash went off and we legged it to the next room feeling a bit sheepish. Later on in another chapel, the guards went on red alert shouting and running. The target was a guy who they'd caught taking piccies. They held him there whilst they watched him delete every single picture he'd taken which seemed to be a lot as he was there for about 10 minutes.

The food in Tibet is, how can I put this, interesting. They say that being at high altitude means that you have less of an appetite. Maybe, but I reckon it's more to do with the local food. Everything seems to have Yak in it. Yak steaks, yak stirfry, yak curry, yak milk, yak butter, yak yogurt (yakgurt?), yak yak yak. There are lots of little shops by the side of the road selling yak meat. They get massive carcasses delivered at night, which they lay out on the pavement (bearing in mind that the Chinese and Tibetans spend all day it seems hacking their lungs up and spitting it onto the pavement!), then drag them into the shops and start attacking them with massive axes and cleavers until they have huge chunks of yak meat which they hang out for the next day. The smell is also 'interesting'. They season the meat with rosemary and burn incense in the shops but you definately know when you are approaching a yak meat shop. Time to close the nose off and breath through the mouth! near our hotel there is a row of about 6 or 7 yak meat shops in a row. It takes a minute or so to mentally prepare yourself for the closed nose dash past them. In the middle of this row of shops is a little bakery which appears to sell some nice cakes and stuff, but there is no chance that i'd be able to stop and buy anything from there. (the cake probably has yak in it anyway???)

We have not had a great deal of luck with restaurants here. There is a different attitude to service here. It is common for one or two dishes you order to not turn up until you go and ask for them again. Some of the stuff that does arrive is, err, not quite what you expected. Still, it is all part of the experience of new places and we do have a bit of a giggle about the whole thing.

When we arrived in Lhasa, we did not have a flight organised back out and weren't even sure how long we were staying. Once we had decided we were going to fly to Chengdu (our next destination) on 26th, we went to ask about flights. 'no flights untill 29th' we were told. Eeek. An extra 3 days in Yak paradise. I hurried straight to a computer and desperately seached for flights earlier. We had to book 1st class tickets (oooh hoighty toighty I hear you say) which cost us an extra au$100 per ticket (about 40 pounds). Oh well, another travel lesson learnt. Always make sure you can get away from somewhere when you need to.

Anyway, we've got another day in Lhasa before we head off to Chengdu and more edible food?

I love people watching, apart from shopping it is one of my most favourite things to do. The people here are so interesting. So what can I tell you? Well firstly it is SOO busy. Not surprisingly really. The air is pretty polluted and we are having trouble breathing. Paul especially has had a bad cough. I have had ears that squeak every time I blow my nose and really itchy eyes. My neti pot has been my saviour and it has really helped to flush out my sinuses. anyway, back to the streets of China. The kids here are so cute, Paul has even said so (aye, aye, is that man getting broody???) It is wierd to see that kids don't wear nappies here, they were these cute little trousers that have slits it them and when they need to go I guess they go, not the most hygienic of things but I guess it works?? The older people here have such interesting faces, deep creases that I am sure tell a lifetime of stories. Men just sit crouched in the middle of the street. Doing what? nothing!! Just hanging out with there arms resting on there knees, looking like the most compacting being on the planet, just watching the world go by. People sleep in the streets. Not homeless people, just people having a rest. They sit propped up against buildings, steps and in the back of their little trikes. Trikes and bikes, Oh my god! There are just so many of them and sometimes it seems like there is a competition so see which family can fit the most members on their bike - hilarious. There are many people sweeping the streets with home made brooms. The brooms have hundreds of pieces of tied plastic to them so are colourful as well as practical.

The traffic is chaotic, in an organised way if that makes sense?? There seem to be not very many rules and crossing the road is like taking your life into your own hands each time. It is like a game of chicken with the hundreds of bikes that always seem to have right of way - who dares wins. It doesn't even matter if you stare them in the eye or if you have the green man showing on the crossing or if the traffic guard has his red flag waving.

The road side street vendors are hilarious. Some are just straight forward selling melon on kebab sticks but others have ingeniously engineered troughs attached to the side of their bikes that they fill with hot coals and bbq meat - not that I am game I have to admit.

Paul and I are getting used to being a freak show. Parents often point at us at their children which usually causes a few giggles from the kids, the more adventurous children often call out "hillloooo" and then shy away when we reply. I do get stared at a lot and I don't mind. I know there is no harm in it and I look so different from them and I know they are just inquisitive. I have been told that India is worse, so I guess it is just practice - for us to get used to it.

I love people and I love the streets of China.

The Terracotta Warriors are amazing. I am so glad that we followed the Lonely Planet (LP) advice and saw the short film then viewed the Pits from 3 - 1. Pit 3 gave us a small taster of what to expect. It was the smallest of the pits and contained about 70 warriors and horses, most warriors were without heads though. Pit 3 contained most of the senior ranking officers. Pit 2 was huge but most of it is still being excavated. You could see the structure of the pits and the roof beams, They approximated that there are about 1500 warriors and horses in this area. Pit 1 is humongous!!! It is 11 rows of soldiers about 6000 of them and horses all facing in one direction except for the outside row that face outwards to protect the rest of the troops. Each warrior is life size and was built to protect an Emperor in his afterlife. The whole thing took nearly 40 years to make and is 56 square km big including the Emperors tomb. Wow! That is one big Mausoleum and one big ego!! Each soldier was made from a cast out of clay, baked and then painted. Each one is completely individual and it is just fascinating. We took binoculars which was great and we were able to see the details, the expressions on their faces, the way the hair was plaited the folds in their armor - just incredible. We spent most of the day there and it just did not feel like it at all.

Of course I managed to get myself into a situation - again! What is it with me? Do I have a sign on my forehead saying "Hey you over there, yes you, I'm over here, I'm a tourist and I am looking for trouble - come and get me...."? Everywhere you go there are people trying to sell you their wares; postcards, nicknacks and statues. This one kid could speak quite good English and was trying to sell me a set of Terracotta Warriors. I kept telling him that I wasn't interested but he kept showing them to me and telling me that they were good quality and banging them together. There were about 5 little statues, cheap and cheerful but I did want to get something like that so I made the fatal mistake and hesitated and asked him again how much for them. His price kept getting lower and lower until it was ridiculous so I agreed. I gave him the money and as I went to take the box he said, "Which one do you want?" Hang on a minute this is a bit cheeky - I have a feeling I have been had. I said "No, price paid for all" again he said "Which one? Horse, archer, general?" so I again told him "No, for all" I had hold of the box so took it and started walking away. This kid was really starting to get in my face now - what a cheeky little bugger, I wasn't having any of his scam. I asked him to go away but he started to shout at me and the situation was getting ugly, and to be honest I was getting a bit scared so I started to shout "NO, NO, BAD, BAD!!!" still he was right in my face so I stated to run away, he was running after me waving money. I actually ran up to this guard and pointed at the kid and said "Can you stop him?" I have no idea if the guard understood but I am sure by all of the commotion he knew something was going on. Thank goodness he was stopped. Paul, Frederik and Eline were in stitches, laughing at how I always manage to get myself into situations. I spent the rest of the day hiding my face and expected the guy to be waiting for me at the Exit. In hindsight I should have just given him some more money at we are not talking about big bucks here but it was more about the principle and I wasn't going to let him get away with that scam - cheeky little bugger!!!

The next day we had the intention to walk the city wall, do half of it round to the Bell Tower where the international post office is and then to do the rest of the wall and get off at the Mosque. We got to the wall and found out that you have to pay (obviously!! we ARE in China) and not only that but we would need to pay twice. Sod that!! So we went to the Post Office anyway and watched this guy make boxes for our stuff which was quite interesting actually and then we go to another counter and get the forms to fill in and then to another to be weighed and sent. The bloody stuff we bought cost no money at all and the postage about 3 times the value of what was inside the boxes and that is even with them being sent by boat!!! That's it, we are not buying any more crap!! Yeah right. Once that was done we were off to the mosque. It took us about 3 hours to get there through winding alleys filled with market stalls. The stalls were awesome. Think of any designer or named brand item and you can get it here. This one stall had a couple of wallets that I was looking at and the woman said "Ah, what brand you like? Chanel, Louis Vuitton...?" "Gucci?" "Gucci! Come here!" and she pulls me into this room behind a curtain and it is stuffed from wall to ceiling with designer handbags and fake watches, blimey. I had a good look but the trouble is they look well made enough bu I am not rich enough to have a real Gucci and have no idea if the copies are that good. Cough, cough, not that I am condoning that sort of thing of course :0)

As you know our family LUUUURRRVVEESSSSS a bargain (don't worry mum I wont mention the red stickers or the charity shops) and I tend to get caught up in the whole game of the bargain. Sometimes I wish you could just say, how much is that? and have a fixed price and know that you are not getting ripped off. The trouble is even after you have spent a while haggling over something and agreeing on a price you are still probably getting ripped off. The question you have to ask yourself is "Am I happy to pay that price?" If yes buy it. If no, you have to walk away. They can get a bit feisty though. Usually I ask how much and if it is ridiculously priced I wont even go into a haggle as you can usually get the item for half the starting price (and they are still probably getting a good profit). If you offer and then they counter offer but don't budge much then I will not get into the bartering. If however you really get into the bartering then you need to follow through with the purchase. You cant haggle for 5 mins and then walk away, bad haggling etiquette I did come away with a good jacket, I was looking for a rain coat and I got one with an added fleece. It is quite light but a bit bulky. I have with great effort squashed it into the compression bag that we had (which Paul is carrying - good man). The woman I was haggling with was a good seller, and it really is a game. She compliments me on how clever I am, I complement her on what a good seller she is and so the game continues. She said Paul is like a Buddha (and to be honest that is not the first time I have heard that) she said that he is always happy and loves me a lot. Sweet, and he is my lovely little Buddha :0) We didn't make it to the mosque in the end either.

Today is my birthday and it has been a bit of a strange one. While we were at the markets we came across a dress making shop and this one dress caught my eye. Paul was looking for something to buy me for my birthday (even though we had agreed no presents this year) so after again haggling a good price I was measured up and said I could pick up my dress at 4pm today. I went to pick it up and they don't have the material that I chose. I was going to wear the dress out to dinner tonight and we even picked up a cheapy shirt for Paul. I was a bit disappointed but we did agree on different material and they said they would drop it off by 10pm tonight!! I hope so, I don't know what we will do if they don't, we have to leave at 6am so don't really have time to work it out - lets not get into another situation before it has happened - I am sure everything will be fine. Anyway dinner is postponed until Lhasa and to be honest I quite like the sound of celebrating my birthday in Tibet :0)

The hostel today has been great - free internet for the day (thats why I am catching up on the blog) AND they bought me a bunch of flowers. 24 red roses and an oriental lily in the top to be exact. I did not expect that at all. Amazing. They have been really lovely and I would definitely recommend anyone that is saying in Xian to stay at the 7 sages hostel - its brill.

Oh my God!!! Not a good start to Xian... I rang the hostel I had booked as they said they were happy to pick us up fom the bus station, they said that they were busy but to get a cab and that they would pay for it. It was only about 2km and I guess we could have walked but if they were going to pay it would save us lugging our backpacks - easy right?? Wrong!!!

We were travelling with friends that we met in Beijing and we had difficulty flagging down a taxi to begin with so when one stopped we jumped at the chance to get in. The taxi driver started shouting at us and someone in the street said he was shouting "quickly!" The traffic started beeping and we tried to put out backpacks in the boot but they were too big, the taxi driver jumped out of the car screaming at us and stuffing our bags in the boot, they wouldn't fit, the boot wouldn't close but he was waving us into the car so we leapt in with the boot still open. I was really worried that our bags would fall out. I gave the driver the flyer we had for the hotel and he made a call to find out where it was. We had already looked on the map in the Lonely Planet so knew it was not far. Eline and Frederik were following in a taxi behind and the two taxi drivers pulled up together and had a chat then ours pulled over. I lept out and grabbed one of our backpacks and put it in the back with Paul and I jumped into the front. Then the taxi driver started to drive and saying that we should pay, he held out 5 fingers and I said OK, 5 Yuan seemed a good price, then he got out his money and waved 50 at us and started shouting. 50 Yuan!! He was having a laugh, I told him no and he started screaming at me and waving the money, it was really scary. I told Paul that we should get out and pointed the taxi driver to stop, he wouldn't stop so I opened the door, the taxi driver was still shouting at us I got out and told Paul to stay in the car to make sure the driver would not drive off with our bags, I grabbed the bags and then Paul got out. The guys following us pulled over to find out what was going on and I said that I was scared and we will try and get another taxi. Our taxi driver then got out of his car and started shouting at the other taxi driver!! He was CRAZY!!! We gestured for him to go and after more shouting he did, thank goodness. We got another cab straight after and can you believe he drove us about 500m up the road and we were there. Phew!!!

I am so glad we left that scary driver - he was seriously trying to rip us off. The moral of the story, listen to your instincts and if you are not happy take control of the situation and change the situation.

We are OK....and have a story to tell :0)

We walked along The Great Wall of China!!! It was amazing. We did a tour as it worked out to be just a little more than if you did it yourself on a public bus and you got lunch included and the ease of being picked up at the hotel and not getting lost. Unbelievably it took 4 hours to get there and it is only 90km outside of Beijing!! Something that we are still getting used to is the fact that it just takes forever to get anywhere in China. We got to Jinshanling about midday - just in time for the searing heat of the day. And I have to tuck my tail between my legs and admit that we did get the cable car BUT I would just like to clarify it was a cable car to the wall, not instead of doing the walk :0) We were told that we could walk to the wall but it was very steep and that it would take an hour and the best views of the wall are from the cable car, so how could we refuse? What we have since found out is that you come across a lot of tall stories in China and we later found out that it only took 30 mins. I was starting to get worried as we were ascending the hills that if this was the best view then I would be a little disapointed. The view was not that great from the cable car actually but as soon as we hiked the rest of the way to the wall we were not to be disappointed. How they built this wall is astounding. The hills are steep and go on for miles around. The wall is actually filled with dirt and the "shell" is made from stone. Dotted along it are towers which are a wonderful relief from the heat of the day as you walk along it. The first section was particularly tough. In some parts it was like climbing a stone ladder!!! How they used to use the wall to transport food and goods or relay messages along it easily I will not understand. We did the less touristy excursion to the wall from Jinshanling to Simatai and I am so glad that we did. One guy on the same bus as us had done 3 different trips to the wall and although he was not disappointed with any he said that the one that we were on was the best. I was very pleased to hear that. I had heard that there are hawkers on the wall selling water, coke and can you believe beer. These little Mongolian people are like mountain goats and are very persistant. You get to learn the phrase "Booyar" very quickly (I dont want) we had one woman follow us for nearly 20 mins. They are naturally very inquisitve people and you have to remember that they are very poor and only trying to earn some money but it can be a little frustrating. I am surprisingly OK with it but it is the only time I have ever seen Paul get a little worked up - Patience it the theme of this trip let me tell you.

We have just spent 3 consecutive nights on hard sleeper trains. For those that have not been in a hard sleeper carriage I will just briefly explain. Each "room" is about 2.5 metres wide (8ft for those that are old school) and on each side is 3 beds, each stacked on top of the other. The beds are only about 1m wide (3ft). There is just about enough space to sit upright on the bottom bunk and the space between them gets smaller until at the top you can only just rest up on your elbow. We were lucky on the trip to Datong, we had the bottom bunks. On the way back I had the lower bunk and Paul had the top and then on the way to Luoyang we both had the top bunks. Paul is right it doesn't make that much difference one you are settled in for the night but if you are like me and have a bladder the size of a peanut it can get a bit of a hassle clambering in and out of bed.

I was pleasantly surprised by Datong. The Lonely Planet paints it in a bit of a bad light and yes it is dirty but I have yet to see a part of China that isn't (I still have my fingers crossed). When we got there we desperately needed to freshen up but the first stop was to find the CITS office (Chinese International Tourist Office), they charge a bit of commission but it takes the hassles out of things which is a relief if you cant speak or read Mandarin. We thought it was going to be a pain finding the office but there was a guy waiting to the exit of the station CITS meeting office. We easily organised our trip to the Hanging Temple and Yungang Caves and our return train trip back. We were really happy abot this as we had to be back in Beijing for the next evening as we had already booked our hostel and train trip to Longman. Anyway, time to freshen up and this is where it all becomes all about Paul. The poor bugger needed to do his morning, what shall we call it???? "Routine"! and we didn't have a hotel room for the day so had to brave public toilet. Let me just tell you that when I went to the ladies I could smell the loos from the train waiting room which is about 20m away!! Wretchhhhhh!!!! Anyhoo, Paul comes back all red faced. His door wouldnt lock, and it was one of those doors that opens outwards, as he was squatting (Chineese toilets are holes in the floor) he lost his balance and went to put his hand out and flung the toilet door open and some poor chinese man got a smack in the face and was not only stunned by that but got an eyefull of Paul with his undies round his ankles!!!! Hee hee hee!! Poor bugger!!!

The Hanging Monastry was amazing. It is a Buddhist temple built 50m up the face of a cliff and is about 1500 years old. It was a bit scary going into it and made my somach lurch a few times. The Yunang Caves are again about 1500 years old. They are manmade caves, they would climb up the cliff and chissel a small tunnel and then continue to carve the cave from top to bottom, this enabled the light to come in so they could se what they were doing. The carving are phenominal, truely breathtaking.

We met a lovely couple in Datong after the tour and we had dinner with them before we had to get the train back. it was a real bonus that Max was born in China and could speak Mandarin so we left the ordering of the meal to him and feasted on the most amazing banquet to date. Lots of fresh veggies and beancurd and stewed fish - beautiful. The cab trip to their hotel was interesting though, Paul seems to fascintate the Chinese. Usually we get stares when we walk around and that is to be expected as we do look quite different but as Paul was sitting in the front and the lady taxi diver could not keep her eyes off of him. Paul as you know is very shy so he did blush quite a bit. Max was talking to her and we found out that she was mesmerised by his freckles!!! It hadn't even crossed my mind that they might find that interesting. Asians you see dont get freckles. Max reckons that if he hadn't told her that we were married that she would have tried to take him home!! Go Paulie!!!

Yesterday we went to Longman Grottoes. More cave carvings, later than Louyang and again very beautiful. There were many more caves but a lot of damage had been done during the Cultural Revolution and some vandalism and some removed for museums, which is a real shame. I would say that Yungang was more impressive Longman is definately more touristy - they even have golf buggies to take you from the entrance to the cave - we did not do this.

Anyway out of time again, love to everyone. Until next time Mwah, Mwah xxxxx Off to Xian today.......