China - Yang Shuo

After a 5am start to catch our flight, we arrived at Yang Shuo bright and early so we had the whole day to enjoy.  The scenery here is spectacular, so serene, beautiful limestone Karsts rising out from the ground everywhere, a bit like I would imagine Halong bay in Vietnam to be.  There is a lot of farming done here and it is truly idyllic everywhere you look.  We checked into our hotel and then Andy organised to take us bamboo rafting along the river.

We set off and spent a couple of hours drifting along enjoying the surrounding countryside and generally just chilling out as we were all pretty tired after our early start.  We also enjoyed the local cuisine here which consisted of beer fish, a fish soaked in beer which makes it really tender, and it is steamed and served in a light sauce, it was delicious just as all the food we have tried has been, with the exception of dinner tonight which was a disappointment, but only because we tried western food as some people wanted this.  It was a sign it was going to be bad when Andy our guide would not eat there and left.  I wish I had gone with him!!  I consoled myself with a cake from the bakery and headed back to the hotel as we had a full on day tomorrow!

I had the best nights sleep here in a long time!!  Felt great and woke up ready for anything!  Grabbed some breakfast at the bakery and met up with the others ready for our day of cycling around the local area to explore the countryside.  I am getting used to riding a bike again now, although I can still be a bit wobbly at times, and this bike had gears, so that threw me, but all the people on our tour are great and help out when you need it which is nice. They gave me the confidence I needed to do this!  The only thing I did struggle with was a sore butt from the last ride a few days ago!!

We started our ride from the town just by the hotel and were soon crossing the river over a bridge and into farming country.  I don't even think I can find the words to describe how beautiful and peaceful this place is.  Riding through the fields, rice paddies, orchards and local villages, along the riverside with dragonflies, butterflies and birds fluttering by, with the backdrop of the huge limestone karsts all around us, rising into the sky.  The sun is shining and it is a gorgeous day and basically life really does not get much better then this!  Everyone is happy just to be here and enjoying their own unique experience!  I don't want this day to end!  It is truly a magical place!!

The farmer who was our guide also for this bike ride took us to a place called Moon mountain.  This consisted of a hike for about 20 minutes up hundreds of steps to the top of a hill where we got great views of the surrounding area.  It is shaped like a moon, hence the name.  We were definitely getting our exercise for the day that is for sure.  At the bottom there was a cafe which sold snake wine which looked pretty gross and was just a cask of wine with a snake in it!  They really do eat absolutely everything and anything here!!  There is no part of the animal which is not used or eaten in some way!  By now we had all worked up an apetite and were ready for lunch.  The farmer/tour guide took us to his family home, where his wife cooked us the best food I have eaten in a long time.  Everything must be grown here because it was all so fresh and full of flavour.  We then finished our cycle ride off road over some bumpy terrain and by the end much as i wanted to carry on my butt did not, no wonder cyclists wear padded shorts!!  This was gonna hurt, but was definitely worth it!!!

That evening we celebrated with a few drinks and some karaoke, which they go crazy for  here in China.  You even have to pay to sing!!!  They should pay us, we had to listen to it ha ha!

The next day we had a lie in and in the afternoon a few of us visited some local caves while the others in the group took a cooking class.  The caves were huge and it took us about an hour to walk around.  It was really hot and humid in there, which I found strange as I thought it would be cold and damp!  We headed back after this to meet with the rest of the group and board our overnight train to Hong Kong!

China - Xian

We arrived early into the station to be greeted with rain, it was slightly warmer then Beijing though.  The plan today was to visit the Terracotta Army, which thankfully was undercover.  The army was created about 2000 years ago by the emperor to protect him after he died and was buried.  Initially he was going to bury his real army with him, nice!!!  However one of his advisors suggested if he did this there would be no army to protect his son who would rule after him, so he had the terracotta army built.

This consisted of thousands of soldiers, archers and horses all buried around him to watch over him.  The detail is amazing, each facial expression has been captured and preserved for thousands of years, as the potters who made these studied the real soldiers and copied their features, unbeknown to them, as they would not want to be preserved like this as they would believe their souls would become trapped here after they died.

The following day was bright and sunny as we headed to the city wall to do a cycle tour of 14 km along the top of it.  I have not ridden a cycle for about 25 years so was interested to see how I would get on, and slightly apprehensive too.  All was well, it was just like riding a bike!  We cycled along taking in the morning views of Tai chi by the river, with the chinese music playing from speakers all around us, it was such a chilled out vibe!  I love this city, more than Beijing as I feel it is more like the traditional China but still modern at the same time, like Beijing but not, same, same, but different!  It is more relaxed and friendly then Beijing, and really a beautiful city, at night it comes alive and is buzzing, but you can feel the warmth and excitement all around, it has a wonderful atmosphere!  We tried some of the local speciality, noodles and had an early night!

In the evening we went to the Muslim Quarter where we wandered the streets and markets and tried some street food!!  People here are so friendly and the place was alive, but still not much english was widely spoken so was always fun trying to find out what things were and order them :)

The following morning we were up at 4.50am to get our flight to Yang Shuo!

China - Beijing

After 20 hours of travelling from Mumbai via Delhi and Shanghai, we finally arrived in Beijing to a cooler climate of 10 degrees celcius!!!  The scenery that greeted us as we travelled from the airport to the hotel was not what I expected, I am not really sure what I expected, but it looked just like England in the autumn!!  It reminded me of driving along the motorway and heading into London, going from the countryside views with the trees at the side of the road, their leaves changing colour and dropping all around them, covering the ground with shades of brown and yellow.  Then heading into the city, tall buildings, big buildings, modern buildings, neon signs, a concrete jungle, a modern metropolis, basically a step back into modern living for us and that is reflected in the prices here, which are similar to the UK, just like the brands.  We could not resist a bit of shopping in H&M, even though we really should not be trying to squeeze anything else in our backpacks!  This is definitely the place to shop, everything you could possibly desire is here, and I have to say I have missed this a bit!  With christmas just a month away, there is definitely a theme going on here, and what with the cold, lights, decorations, we are starting to feel a bit christmassy, sitting in starbucks drinking the seasonal toffee nut latte and eating cherry chocolate muffins!!!

The main difficulty we are finding is the language barrier as NO ONE really speaks english!!  So glad we are doing a tour and not trying to navigate around here ourselves.  Nicola's friend Carmel arrived today and we also met another girl Chantelle from Canada, who is also on the same tour as us. We all met for dinner and plan to do a tour together tomorrow of the Summer Palace.

We woke the following morning to a beautiful sunny day and took the subway to the Summer Palace, which is an experience in itself. so modern and clean and very easy to navigate.  The palace did not disappoint either, it was set in beautiful grounds with traditional chinese buildings, more the China I was expecting to see.  We strolled around the grounds for a while taking in the scenic views all around us, a mix of the old with the new, the lakes, fish, trees and birds with the city of Beijing all around us.  We enjoyed some lunch and took the subway to Beijing Zoo because we wanted to see the giant pandas, while we still have the chance to view these magnificent creatures before they become extinct.  The zoo itself was very depressing and a lot of the animals were in small concrete cages and looked unhappy and stressed, so we saw the pandas, which were better placed and seemed ok, and left as we had to get back for our welcome meeting and were looking forward to meeting the members of our tour who would be joining us.

Andy is going to be our guide for the next 10 days, and explained everything about the tour to us in the meeting.  We all did our introductions, there is 15 of us plus Andy, so the tour is full.  There is a couple from Russia, a couple from Scotland, who are expecting twins!  A couple from Holland, 3 Canadians, 2 Americans, 2 Australians and an englishman, quite a mixed bag, but everyone seems nice and we have our little foursome to include the new recruit Carmel who will be staying with Nicola and I until we leave for South America in February and Chantelle who will just be joining us until Hong Kong!

After the meeting the four of us went to a restaurant nearby to try the famous Peking Duck!  It was amazing and we stuffed ourselves until we were full, although no one was adventurous enough to eat the head which was served to us, obviously a delicacy!  Then off to bed as we have a big day tomorrow at the Great Wall!

Another beautiful crisp sunny day, however feels about 0 degrees outside!!!  It is freezing!!!  And it will be even colder at the Great Wall!  We layered up and arrived at Mutianyu by bus 2 hours later.  Andy was telling us if they made a road with all the stones from the great wall it would go round the world 4 times!!!  Can not believe we are really here!!  It is so surreal, and such a magnificent structure, to think it was built all those years ago by sheer manpower alone is a feat in itself.  I feel so privileged that I have got this chance to see it and it still has not really sunk in.  China is an amazing place, and is living up to everything I imagined and more.  The climate is so cold here today that there is ice on the wall and people are slipping up around us, including one of the ladies on our tour who hit her head, it is pretty dangerous.  In the end Chantelle and I decided it was best to just sit down on the floor and slide down on our rear as that was probably where we would end up sooner or later.  The chinese people around us thought this was hilarious, so at least we provided some entertainment, and I have to admit it was fun!!!

After lunch at Subway, yes a subway sandwich bar at the wall, bizarre!!  We did a bit of shopping in the market and went to the Temple of Heaven, which is where the prayers are made for a good harvest!  We were so cold by now we had a quick look round and headed back for dinner and a show. We had decided to see the Chinese Acrobats and they were awesome!!  How anyone can contort their body like these people I will never know, but it was spectacular!  Absolutely exhausted now, we went straight to the hotel for a hot bath and get packed and ready for bed as we leave for Xian tomorrow night.

Our last day in Beijing!  We visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  It was really getting cold here now and we were looking forward to heading south for some warmer weather!  `In the afternoon we took a rickshaw ride around the old city which was much more traditional and visited some houses of some of the local families to see how they live, it is an interesting culture!

I have really enjoyed Beijing and am looking forward to Xian and a chinese version of a sleeper train, which I am sure is 10 times better then the Indian ones we are used to.  I was not disappointed.  Comfortable beds, fully made up and windows, I had the top bunk and slept like a baby until the morning.  We arrived in Xian at 7am!

 

 

Goa & Mumbai

As we are nearing the end of our tour of India, it is a relief to find some more time to chill out in Goa!!  A whole week in fact, which is nice as I also get to spend some time with my mum who now lives here and is putting us up, or more to the point putting up with us :)

I am sick again with a sore throat, suspected tonsillitis and nicola cannot shift her cold, we are a right pair, so a good job we are not moving around anywhere for a while, to give us time to recuperate.  One lesson we have definitely learned already is we need to slow down a bit, but is is so hard trying to fit everything we want to do in such a small space of time, but when I look back on the time we have spent here in just 8 weeks we have circumnavigated the whole of India, practically!!  It certainly feels like it!!

The week in Goa was spent catching up with old friends and family and mainly relaxing on the beach, and enjoying the restaurants and bars in the evenings, which were mostly filled with Russians who could not really speak much english, but were happy to buy the drinks, and after a few more cocktails, we danced the night away and it did not matter anyway as it got too loud to talk much.  We also met an Indian guy from Mumbai who was there with his friends and Australian girlfriend, who was a Bollywood movie star, or so they said, and we hung out with them for the rest of the night as they were much more fun then the Russians and could speak english, and were also very happy to ply us with booze all night, but unlike the Russians were quite happy just to hang out and dance with us because we were having so much fun, especially after a few more jaeger bombs!!!

It feels like a second home here to me now as this is my seventh visit in as many years, and I am looking forward to many more to come!! We whiled away the days sun worshipping at Cafe Del Mar, making friends with all the kids trying to sell us stuff we did not really want to buy but we were suckered in a few times.

Mainly we just bought them drinks and chatted about their families and life here.  Most of them are from Karnataka and come to Goa with their families to earn money during the tourist season.  The parents will send them out to the beach to sell trinkets as kids have a better chance of getting people to buy, especially as they are such characters and so much fun to hang out with, and so bright and polite, always thanking us for the drinks and everything.  I would often find myself wondering what they could achieve if given an education and the chances in life we have.  I remember one boy telling me he wanted to be a policeman when he grows up and his friend a doctor, I hope it works out for them!  The girls are all so pretty but just don't know it, hey have it drummed into them that if their skin is too dark then they are ugly and no man will want them.  I tell them that in England a lot of girls try and get brown and here they all want to be white!!  It just goes to show that no matter where you are in the world people always want what they have not got, as a race we are just never happy!

It was an emotional time when I left as I will not see my mum again for at least another year as we commence with our travels, and I always find it hard to leave Goa as it has a special place in my heart.  It feels strange also knowing we are leaving India next week for China.  We have been here for what seems like ages now and it just seems normal to be here, we almost feel like natives!!

We boarded our final train in India for the 12 hour overnight journey to Mumbai to arrive at 6am the next morning!  As usual the train was hectic with excited children running riot and families feasting on dinner together and sharing food and chatting away as they always do together.  We had a very nice family sleeping with us so we were lucky and enjoyed a fairly good nights sleep for a change!

Arriving in Mumbai we picked a hotel from the lonely planet called India House, which is in Colaba near the Taj Palace hotel and the India gate, so a great central location, we also have a sea view and I think it is the cheapest hotel in mumbai, no luxuries here, cold water showers in shared bathrooms, but it is clean and comfortable if a little noisy as it is the backpacker haunt, but for 550 r per night we are not complaining, well that is not strictly true as I did complain about there being no hot water when they said there was, but hey that's India for you, tell you what you want to hear!!  At least until they get your money :)


After a few hours sleep we took a stroll around the area to take in the sights, along the seafront to India gate and then into Colaba's main streets, where we found Leopolds restaurant, made famous from the book 'Shantaram', the true story of an Australian escaped convict on the run in India who hides out in the slums for years, a great book and an amazing story!!  We enjoyed the buzz of the crowds in here and sat people watching and drinking iced teas, before having a wander around the shops.  We found a small shop in a mall that sold the outfits we have been looking for that we can wear to the carnival in Rio.  After some bargaining we agreed on a price and now just have to lose about 10lbs as there is not much to them, but they are bright and flamboyant in pink and blue with lots of beads and tassels hanging off.  The biggest mission though will be to get them there in 1 piece shoved in our already full backpacks!!

After catching up on more sleep, the following day we had lunch and headed to Chowpatty beach to spend the afternoon people watching and see the sunset over Mumbai.  We sampled some bhel puri, which is delicious and a cornetto, not very Indian but we were at the beach :)




As the day drew to an end the beach filled with families, courting couples, friends hanging out, and tourists all coming together to watch the sun go down and enjoy the fun of the beach away from the chaos of the city.  This is a great place to be.  I really like what I have seen of mumbai so far, it is not at all how I expected it to be.  People here are friendly and welcoming and there is generally a happy, excited buzz about the place!  We were even offered a part as extras in a bollywood movie but filming was cancelled today due to technical difficulties!  Shame, our chance of fame out the window then!

After another dinner at Leopolds restaurant we bargained for a ride on a horse and carriage, and not just any horse and carriage!!!  This was like something from Cinderella!!!  Big silver throne, lit up with lots of flashing coloured lights, we just had to have a ride, and feel like princesses just once in a lifetime!!  Our horse was called Raja and he was just 5 years old and well cared for by his owner.  We gave him some food to say thanks and headed back to the hotel to try on our Rio outfits and get some rest ready for last day tomorrow.

Our last day in India was finally upon us, I can't believe we are leaving this beautiful place after what seems such a long time here, I am full of mixed emotions, on one hand I am excited to be going to China and on the other I am so sad to be leaving and am going to miss this place so much!  I have found it always to be full of surprises and frustration, fun and crazy, happy and sad, rich and poor, chaotic and peaceful, the south very different to the North.  The most diverse place I have ever been!

We took a boat from the Gateway of India which is next to the famous Taj Palace hotel, as pictured above, to Elephanta Island to see the famous carvings in the caves which are thousands of years old and one of the best examples of this type of work in all of India.




The detail was amazing and every picture depicted a story mainly involving Lord Shiva including his marriage to Parvotti.  We wondered around for a couple of hours and headed back to the hotel to collect our bags and leave for the airport, The journey was a tour in itself as we headed along the coast road and into the city.  We saw a glimpse of some of the slum areas but not as much as we expected.  Mumbai seems a very modern city and the poor seem very segregated from the wealthy.  We eventually arrived at the airport and regrettably said our final farewells to India, until the next time!