Alone again, again.  Or perhaps for the first time, who knows?

I must say I'm relieved as well (to be alone, that is) - the problem I've found so far with the random people I meet travelling is that you often have common interests when it comes to talking about future plans and swapping a few yarns over a drink, but in essence they are people I would never develop a friendship with, basically it's like going to a party and talking to random individuals.. and then meeting them for 3 days in a row, very much rinse and repeat.

And so today I'm back by myself as Anna, Allan and Kerryn are all off on the slow boat to Laos (which I'm also doing, but not till the 19th, I still need to pack a day or two of Thai cooking school in and maybe some sight seeing :) - I must say it's a relief, as I dont really feel like I've been by myself for more then a day or two in the last month and half since I started travelling, and well it's been fucking me off to put it bluntly - I may live in a flat, but my work, the job at the council (where their aren't too many young people) and my hour's meander too and from work on public transport offer me a lot of time to just mull things over by myself, I dont think I've been getting enough of that time so far while travelling - like a cat needs sleep, I need time alone.

Good songkran...

Anyway, Songrkan just got better and better, the second day was great - had loads of fun, and the expressions on some of the kids faces were priceless, indellible memories (but alas no photographs, too much water to take me camera out) though as the sun goes down you get a little bitter about being hit with a high pressure blast of freezing cold water (they love filling 44 gallon drums with big blocks of ice, and topping it up with water.... brrrr!) - that night we settled in with a bit of a meal then headed out to the roof top bar, which is close to the city gate on Chongklan road - full of idiots, but amusing.. I left here with Anna however when a band started up down on the stage by the gate, "silly fool", who are apparently very well known (i.e. big!) in Thailand.. they seemed like a linkin park crossed with creed type combination, but it wasn't that bad ;o) watching the Thai teenagers getting right into it was highly amsing, though they dont seem to do encores.. maybe it was just because it was a festival thing.

After that I headed back up to the roof top bar, had a rather pointless coversation with a drunken air brush artist hippy who just imigrated from Perth, Australia - though he was particularly harmless, at one point he seemed like he was about to burst into tears - It just reminded me of too many conversations I'd had with drunk people back when I lived in the Tomarata with my parents... heh

...and um.. oh yes, then another longer conversation with a girl from Brazil, who had been travelling for over a year and couldn't wait to get home and see her maid... interesting, I couldn't quite figure out if her maid was her best friend, or just a mother substitue - probably both, she was an only child with both parents being rather busy private doctors - having the financial hardships of Brazillian locals explained was a rather sobering experience, much like learning the details of China's working class - it generally just makes me bitter when you're sitting in some stupid tourist bar full of idiotic twenty somethings trying to give their end away, alot of people come away to see "Thailand" and then go out of their way to avoid it at every turn... What I really dont like about tourist bars though is that they seem inherantly unsafe, I really dont trust young white people drinking to excess... I'd far rather sit down and have a few beers with the locals.

On the third day we headed out a bit later, there were less people (I suspect alot of the domestic tourists head home to get back to work after the second day) but every was really into the swing of things.. lots of people drinking, dancing in the streets.. and a massive parade that took about 3 hours to go past through the town gates - loads of fun, and I spent quite a bit of time perusing the various food stalls and trying different random things.. most good but not great (all the fruit juices are too sweet that I've tried so far)

Bad Songkran...

We did see some strange (bad) things happen during Songkran too though, and it offered a little insight into something you dont see very often - Thai people getting angry.  The main incident happened on the second day, wandering around the square.. then suddenly there's yelling and running, then somebody throwing a bottle (which instead of hitting the person in question went through a ute window and hit a little girl on the noggin, she was alright but did have a bit of a lump and graze on her head...  and then a guy legging it off up the road through all the traffic... persued by 5 or 6 young Thai guys (from 2 different utes)... at which point you get an appreciation for just how fit these little guys are, in jandals they were sprinting after eachother through a foot of water at break neck speed (faster then I could probably run down a hill, but that's not saying much hehe!) - deadly serious looks on their faces... we were walking in the opposite direction and after a couple of minutes everything resumed as per usual... but I would imagine they metered out justice in a fairly "practical" way on this guy once they got him, I certainly wasn't going to hang around and watch.

Though I didn't see it on the 3rd night, some western guy who Kerryn (the Aussie we were travelling with on the Trek) bumped into, fell down the stairs from the rooftop bar and hit against a door in hallway, which was the entrance to someones room we suspect.. the guy came out really angry and started squabling, then another guy (I may be getting the story wrong..?) turned up and pulled a knife... all a bit scary, Kerryn managed to calm them down and walk the drunk out of the bar... but then when on the street the drunk guy was set on by another Thai guy who punched him right across the cheek, laying him out for 6 - some other Thai people came over and appologised and Kerryn left it at that, the guy was too drunk to know where he was staying, and had lost his keys and wallet... There really isn't much you can do for some people, apparently he'd lost his keys the night before as well too... he's probably been doing similar things everywhere he's travelled.

Really it's no worse then any other new years at home, I'm sure my brothers seen worse up the mount ;o) it's just we don't normally mix kids, teenagers, parents and grandparents into the same spaces - so it just seems worse.

At any rate, I can't say enough good things about this holiday, bad things included, I'm really glad I came here when I did, but I'll also be just as glad to get away and move onto a new place.

Well what can I say... this place is amazing (at this time of year), Songkran, is without a doubt, the most friendly and pleasant festival ever -... I'm absoloutely soaked from head to foot and just sat my big black 45 baht bucket-with-string next to me in the internet cafe - brilliant, I cant really describe the atmosphere here, but I wish we had anywhere near as much fun and energy on a public holiday at home.

At any rate, lets cover what I've been up to... My trek for 3 days was really fun - my first night in Chiang Mai I met 2 of my fellow trekers, A girl from Finland (Anna) and a guy from England (Paul) - Paul is great, a very very interesting fellow who in his 30 years has a great deal of life experiences to share, not all of them pleasant, but all the more interesting... Anna has a wonderful command of the english language, and has studied psychology and is a transient..and vid people watcher (like myself) - so we get on quite well, we even got up to a bit of drunken urban exploration as we wandered home last night.

First night of the trek we headed out and stayed a night with a Karren (sp?) hill tribe - they dont speak standard Thai in these regions, and as part of the "eco" tourism push they have been oddly converted (no feed lines, but the tribes have solar panels, T.V. aerials and catholic churches - catholicism in Thailand is very interesting, I still haven't quite got the "measure" of it, as they still celebrate budhist events such as Songkran and generally are a little.. umm.. Odd.  Missionaries have a bit of answer for ;o)

Second night we headed to a little village that had a waterfall, very scenic... just kicking back and having a few drinks with our trainee guide, Mr Bad Boy.. who's birthday apparently it was, but wether it was true we're not quite sure.  Mr Ken (our main guide), was hungover (among other things... hehe) from the night before and let us be.

The last day we went bamboo rafting (and it was the first proper day of Songkran) so we got very wet.. and then went for a half hour ride on elephants at the elephant camp, which was definitely an experience.. riding on an elephant is really quite something, especially when they start scrambling up an eighty degree incline..

My Trek was great, but the variety and amusement derived from the people I met on the trek was even better - the social dynamics are hilarious (the group consisted of a bunch of british girls ranging from 18 through 22 and one english lad (Tom) who had been teaching english in Thailand for the last 3 months, 2 Australians (both pretty cool), Paul, Anna and Myself being the solo travellers.  I can't really be bother putting it down into words right now, but it's been a lot of fun, and the food was great.

Today I had a lazy start, as we went out to the riverside bar and grill for drinks and food last night and I was felling a little run down (Honey coated pork spare ribs with spicey papaya salad with prawns and a 2 litre pitcher of chang beer, so good!) - so I had breakfast at 10:30 then read a book till 12 (Trigger by Arthur.C.Clarke, which isn't a bad load of bollix) - and went wandering with Paul.

Since then I've just been getting sprayed with water by kids and old people alike (it's good luck to wet westerners :) almost continually... there are people everywhere, and they're all smiling... it's just amazing - you really have to be here to understand, but you're very greatful for your Typhoid shot!!  Everything is covered in the local water out of the ping river and surrounding areas, deli belly central I'm sure...

Tonight I'm meeting up for drinks with the Trek'ing gang again at 8pm, which should be fun - I have the advantage of not really having plans till after Songkran, so I can have a bit of a fun without worrying about needing to move again the next day.

Once Songkran is over I'll book a thai cooking class for a couple of days and arrange my slow boat to Luang Prabang in Laos (I've already got my Visa being processed now) - and I take back what I said about Chiang Mai weather, it's miles better then Bangkok because the nights are a lovely 20 degrees.. just dont get out of bed till lunch time and you have a 5 hours heat and then the temperature eases off, I actually wore a pair of jeans last night comfortably.. first time in Thailand.

Hope everyones doing swell, whats the weather back home like :?

 - Alex

Well my hope that Chiang Mai would be any cooler then Bangkok were perhaps a little overzealous.. a couple of degrees less heat in the shade makes no difference, I'm still dying... and it seems even more humid here, but at least the polution is a little less (to be honest, it's non-existent on my scale, China really prepares you for dirty air... My throat seems to be better today as well, which is probably directly related, I've had a sore throat and phlegm since I got sick in China - which Ian, our resident doctor suspected might just be a bad reaction to Air pollution.

I got my train from Hualonpong station (I was a bit stressed about the whole affair.. as you're never too sure if your TAT office is reputable, even with a valid license, as they all have dodgy looking business cards with yahoo and hotmail addresses...

My ticket was a second class sleeper with air conditioning - lower bunk.  It was very comfy and clean, you're oriented the other way to sleeper trains in China, as your head/feet are paralell with the train, and the top bunk folds down and the bottom two sets become the lower bunk.  Really nice, though I couldn't see much out of my window (they cover them with a semi-transparent black mesh print to cut down the sun pouring in from outside) - took my sleep in 1 hour portions, and dont feel too bad today - like a couple of trips in China I've been on, it's quite hard to sleep when their pulling into stations every half hour to hour during the night.

After I got off the train, the guesthouse that I booked the Trek with picked me up... because It was early morning (about 10 by the time I got to the guesthouse) - my room wasn't empty, so I dumped my pack in a locker room and went for an "orientation" walk - first away from town, till the dogs looked like they would bit me, and then into town - at the same time I arranged for them to do my Laos 30 day visa - though it always makes me nervous when people need my passport... however it's a necessary evil, and better then pissing about at the border - Laos being my next planned port of call (I've heard of a slow boat you can take to Luang Prabang? sounds fun...) 

Chiang Mai has a biggish river running down one side, and an inner square of city surrounded by walls and gates next to it, not to Chinas standard - more like something you'd see created in a medium sized New Zealand town to "beautify" a city... it even has fountains, no doubt it will be a focal point during Sohkran (sp?).  All the buildings aren't particularly tall, from 1 to 3 or 4 stories.  When you first arrive you hardly notice it, but when looking away from Town there's a great sodding green mountain range rearing up high above the city - I imagine that's where I'm off too tomorrow on my Trek - assuming they steer clear of the bandits (all the TAT licensed operators are pretty cautious) everything should be peachy keen, though It'll probably be a bit strenuous in places... I think I ride an elephant too, which will be a novelty... heh

At any rate thats all for now - my next 3 days will be fairly busy (and strenuous, I'll probably regret the beers I've had in bangkok - though I'm sure they just get sweated out ;o) - after that I plan to do not very much as I'll be around for the last 2/3 days of Sohkran.. which, from what I've been reading thismornin' has such grand hilights as the "beautiful girl on bicycle" competition... and of course water fights.

First impressions of Chiang Mai?  Pretty nice.. but I still find the heat brutal, it really does slow you down - though I might tire of it before long, so I may try and only do a few days of cooking school before I'm off toward Laos.

Well I'm all by Myself now.. lets see what I've been up to since my last post.

• Met up with Ed & Scarlets friends, Lorna & Tim, who have been travelling through India for the last 2 months by themselves - pretty keen for a couple of 19 year old people, but they seemed to do really well.
• Sweating.. this 38 degrees in the shade business is complete bollix, and to make matters worse the beer is double the strength of China (Chang beer is 6.3%, Leo is undrinkable rubbish, Thai Beer is 6.4% and Tiger is too expensive quite often - most beer in China is between and 3 & 3.5%) - so you have to keep your wits about you, unless in the company of people I trust I can't see myself drinking a great deal as you just feel dazed and confused, not a particularly wise idea in the middle of Bangkok.
• Visited the Emerald Buddah, which is in fact made of Jade, and rather small.. (but on a huge gold pedestal) .. Thai temples and architecture is quite a departure from Chinese Budhism with it's Taoist and ancestor worship ties.  The Thai have a lot of Demons and Serpents, everything is "spangly" and pretty Garish.  Best viewed from afar :) The temple surrounding the Emerald Buddah is amazing - truely huge, and in immaculate condition - the endless murals that flow continuously around hall ways and walls are amazing to look at.  Getting used to no pointing your feet in temples is another interesting challenge, though there is no "wrong" or "right" leg to cross into a temple on (In china I think it was left leg first for males, right leg first for females).
• Went for a few rides on a river Taxi, had some nice pork & ginger - also had my first green coconut to drink (what a noob) - had some durian (?) fruit, basically yellow mushy stuff that comes from the centre of the spikey big fruit.  Quite a mild taste, and no detectable odur.  The river taxi is confusing, as it doesn't give or expect exact change... you give here 20 baht, it'll cost 20 baht.. give them 8, it costs 8.  Your screwed without small change :)
• Had some drinks and good food to Celebrate Scarlets 19th birthday.. all these young whiper schnappers I dont know.  I'm impressed by their confidence at times, at 19 I was pretty different to any of them - interesting times.
• Upgraded to a double bed and own bathroom for 240 (or was it 280? I forget) baht a day.. small comforts.

Tonight I'm off to Qualompong (sp?) Train station to head up to Chiang Mai.. Should be good, second class sleepers sound a little classier then what I was used to in China, but I forgot to insist on AirCon so I may end up with Fan - guess we'll see, I cant imagine I'll sleep a great deal at any rate.  My room in Chiang Mai for the first week is a little extra because it has AirCon.. luxuary :)

In the mean time I have to check out in half an hour, find a locker to stash my backpack and then go and get some brunch.

I'll be so greatful to be shot of Khao San road and the surrounding area... I dont care about it being a dive, but it's just dripping with Trendy weirdos - I'd far rather watch locals, then tourists spending silly money on crap - and even worse the vendors in and around Khao San road dont actully Barter.. so you ask how much, they tell you the price.. knowing full well what the end price will be, and it's only ever 20% less... The "walk away" tactic so useful in China & India doesn't wash in this little pocket of Madness.. hopefully the rest of Thailand is a little better in that respect - one store was charging 450 baht for a crappy little pair of battery amplified computer speakers.. $16 NZ, which is insane, you'd pay 5 or 10 Yuan in China (like $1 to $2).. a Train ticket costs about 500 baht!... but the problem is there's always another silly tourist who'll pay the price, hell I'm one of them half the time because you just dont know any better at the start.

Nobody seems too concerned about the Hat Yai bombing last week here either, which is interesting - I guess it's so far south as to only be a mild concern for people doing a Malaysian border run, the TAT office was desperate to try and sell me some Southern Thailand packages as their is such a downturn in visitors (I guess a mass grave 15 minutes walk away from your hotel can be off putting?) and bombing and continuing Insurgence problems can't be helping either, even if the hot spot is far away from Phuket and surrounding Islands.

Till next time...

 - Alex

Well I made it to Bangkok from Beijing... And I'm now sitting in a dodgy guesthouse (Wally's guesthouse no less) on Koh San road typing up this entry... it's so stinking hot, that I'm actually wearing shorts and jandals, the later for the first time in my life.

At any rate, before I talk about what I've been up to over the last few days... I'll cover the week before then, which has been phenomenal, and brought my trip through China to an end.

Goodbye Beijing

So... right, Friday last week was our groups big trip to the wall.. We went to the Simatai region, which is quite a drive (3 hours) from Beijing... but wow, the view was amazing.. and the wall 70 degrees or steeper in places... it's hard to comprehend the amount of man effort in this ancient structure, considering I first saw it when leaving Xi'an (and that was a long way away) - the only really problem is that when taking pictures, your camera only captures about a third of what you can encompass - really quite humbling.

After that we wall went our for Beijing duck.. as per usual we ended up with too much food, but it was all good.. After that Tony Chen our guide took the younger team (Charlotte, Ed, Scarlet, Myself and Jarrad) out for drinks at the Poachers Inn... much like other bars we've been in, the place starts out sleep and ends up pumping after midnight... I did drink a fair bit, and I did end up dancing on tables with random Chinese girls (and guys, but thats hard to avoid.. well dodgy) .. really fun though, the good thing in China is that if you stick to beer, it's rarely above 3.5%, and so you have to work pretty hard to get over-shickered.  Geoff (another Intrepid guide, who's been along on our trip doing a annual safety review and Stacey, regional manager for Intrepid in Northern and Central China also popped in.

The day after that I was a little hangover... so we had a late start.. eventually hooked up with Jarrad & Charlotte and headed to the Summer palace (which is far far away... like a 60 Yuan taxi ride... which is a lot in Beijing) .. The summer palace is where the Emperor would holiday in summer to get away from the Forbidden city for a bit - absolutely stunning, the long corridor (look it up on google if you dont know what I'm talking about) is really cool, it just keeps going and going.. and every rafter has a different scene painted on it, which, if your mandarin and chinese history is good, or your reading a guide, tells a story.

After wandering around for a bit.. eating some fried chicken (Fried chicken is staple temple snack... as is pop corn, awful tasting sausages on sticks, very dusty dirty cans of coke and skewers of fresh fruit coated in caramalised sugar) we foolishly decided to get a paddle boat and go around the rather large lake that sits in the middle of the summer palace.  Absoloutely magic for the first half hour... paddled out (which is hard work, as it's built for short chinese... your knees ache with only a few minutes effort) .. ate an orange, watched all the chinese couples out for a romantic time... read the China Daily (which is a little depressing, lots of coverage on the Chlorine truck crash on the shanghai/Beijing expressway).

At which point Charlotte suggested paddling round the island and heading back (most Chinese man made lakes feature an island in the middle with large marble bridges joining it to the shore).. all good in theory, accept that after a few minutes it rained, then got really windy... suddenly the hard top roof of the paddle boat turned into a sail.. pulling us sideways.. with the chop coming hard on one corner... no amount of paddling could stop us :) ... thankfully the weather died down a bit and normal service was resumed, but most of the Chinese couples had resorted to flagging down a fizz boat which dragged them to shore.

That night we had a wee dinner to say goodbye to everyone.. quite nice, though as it turns out this wasn't the last time I would see Tony.  Popped to a net cafe briefly, and on our way out we met a British couple for London... who.. *ahem* though Chairman Mao was still alive... but wait, that’s not all... they thought his Mausoleum was where you went to visit him... it really does defy all belief - and they've never traveled before, dont know any Mandarin, and are going to attempt to make there way south to Xi'an, the 3 gorges and Yangshou... they're so screwed :)

The day after that, on the 3rd, only a few of us stragglers were left (and the tour was over) - so myself, Jarred and Colin (the 3 NZ'rs) decided to visit one last temple, The Lama Temple, after shifting Jarred to his new hotel (he's off on the Tran Mongolian)... At this point I was pretty templed out, but wow... well worth the effort to see just one Buddha... In fact the biggest wooden Buddha in the world, at 55 foot high, and made from just 1 Sandalwood tree - bloody impressive - but we were prohibited from taking pictures (though I'm sure there are some good ones on the net).

We planned that night to do dinner with the left over people at 6:30, however there was a small (and fantastic!) change of plans when Tony turned up at 5 and invited myself, Colin, Ed and Scarlet out to dinner with his friend (Hugo, Derek, Lorna, and some other girl I forget the name of... adopted western names of course) .. so we hopped a local bus (something that must be seen to be believed, as the attendant struggles to pull the doors shut around the smiling faces of Chinese people squished in everywhere) out to a Beijing suburb, and had hotpot.... The best hotpot I've had in China (which isn't saying much, it was my first time in this "style").  Basically it's a big coal boiler they sit on the table, filled with water in a donut shape around the centre chimney... they then dump a bunch of random things into the water to create a stock (crab legs, herbs, spices and vegetables) and let it go.  After this you get piles of thinly sliced rolled beef stuck on a plate, which you pick up and drop in the water briefly... pull it out, then dunk the just cooked meat into a bowl of sesame paste, leak juice, fresh coriander and onion... so good, wash it down with some Beijing finest (Yanjing beer), some raw chinese radish and some cabbage leaves (which you also boil) and you get a fantastic and very social meal.

After the meal was over we went for a short wander to the Black Sun Inn, a cool little pub with free pool and Foosball and cheap beer... all very nice, and it really was the best way to say goodbye to Tony and it was really local (at least for now, as he's heading to New Zealand to study tourism in Christchurch for 6 months in July).

The day after that I flew out (the 4th) – I decided to keep my jacket (which has served me well since I got in Hong Kong, so I think it’ll go well in NZ) – but to ditch my sheets and jersey, so I dumped them in a bag and went wandering the Huantong (not sure if I spelt that right, but basically the narrow alleyways and streets of the original Beijing) for a worth candidate, found a lady sleeping in rags under a piece of Iron down one street and just left it at her feet.  

I haven’t talked much about the social climate in China in my entries, but basically it’s a bit of everything – there is absolute dire poverty (just before I left there was an article on the news about some factory workers only being paid 50 to 60 Yuan a month, basically less then $20 NZ dollars) and great wealth (heaps and heaps of flash cars, big apartments and wealthy businessman) – I may be wrong, but from what I’ve heard unemployment here is at about 18%... that’s a lot when your talking more then a billion total population.

Before flying out I stocked up on Buffrin (basically night & day medicine) and Golden Throat (cough lozenges, pretty good) as Pharmacys are dead cheap in China (though they don’t stock Malaria medication, so if your visiting the south, bring your own).

I grabbed a taxi to the airport, which was a great way to see… smog, which I’m pretty used to now.  The smog in China is quite different to what I’ve found in Bangkok, as it’s very white (which I assume is a mix of all the industrial and chemical processing and coal they burn) – Bangkok seems to mostly be from combustion motors, and is distinctly yellow.  They’ve got some work to do if they want to offer a good impression to travelers arriving in 2008 for the Olympics.

While waiting in the Beijing airport I got a call from Mark, which was cool (though it’s hard hearing anything when you’re in the Beijing airport because Mandarin speaking people are really loud).

Hello Bangkok

After my flight, I got into Bangkok and grabbed the A2 airport bus to the Asia hotel, where I had booked my first night.  The bus trip was interesting, I had a talk to a Sweedish guy who’s just spent 2 weeks in southern china and is finish up with a week in Bangkok before going home.  Another guy, a bit younger, from Vancouver (Canada) who was a primary school teacher and had just been down to Phi Phi (and said that it was still pretty rooted, post Tsunami). And lastly a New Zealander from Queenstown (well a Pom.. on in NZ for the last 5 years) who’s going to move permanently to Phu ket. Finally got into bed around 1am.

Which brings me to this’mornin – I got up about 9, took advantage of my free breakfast (loads of fresh fruit, such a change from China where you end up being quite paranoid about eating certain things) and then checked out.. The Asia hotel is pretty good, I managed to get a ride to the TAT (Thailand authorized travel, associated with STA) and book a train ride to Chiang Mai on the 8^th, a Hill tribe trek for a few days after that (I wasn’t that interested in this, but it’s the only way to get accommodation so close to the water festival – which I’m looking forward too, happening from the 13^th to the 15^th) and then went to Kho San road where I met Ed & Scarlet (who have been on the China trip with me) and we went guest house hunting – end result was a 120 baht/night room for myself at Wallys Inn – I think that’s about 4 or 5 dollars a night NZ, they grabbed a double bed down stairs with own bathroom (I’ve got shared facilities)… it’s dodgy, but it’s cheap and I’ve got a pretty good sense of humor after some of the accommodation in China – one of my bed legs has fallen off at some point and they’ve replaced it with a folded up Tin Can.. I’ll have to be careful of that, thank god for my Tetanus shot!  I spose the fun thing is that I know I can afford somewhere nicer, but it’s really unnecessary, I doubt I could ever sleep in this heat without some alcohol!

Lunch consisted of a Thai green curry, sticky rice and a beer… they frost the glasses here, so good when your dying in the heat.  After that we all jumped in a Tuk Tuk, for a race to the Canal ferry… climbed up the golden mount (but didn’t bother going in, my interest in temples being completely depleted) and then took the Canal ferry down the river – this is good fun, and cheap (15 baht return.. don’t throw your ticket away, nowhere does it actually say “return”) – and eases the brain a little, as you actually see quite a bit of green (the pink and red Boganvillias are in full force at the moment, it’s really quite beautiful – you would love it Mum, baring the pollution and annoying sales people). After that we got another Tuk Tuk back to Koh San road, this guy had a gruntier machine, cornering in busy traffic was brilliant – I daren’t think what happens if you crash, it cost 50 baht for the ride.. not sure if that’s good or bad.

After that it gets a bit boring, I bought a couple of T-shirts (140 baht each, greedy beggars!), a pair of Jandals (70 baht) and some anti-perspirant (109 baht!), had a cold shower (no hot water here... but who needs it?) ... and kitted myself out for the weather.

Tonight is some more food and beer.

I’m really looking forward to Chiang Mai… and taking the train there should be fun. It’s been compared to the Guilin/Yangshou area of China in the south, which I adored - so it should be all good – though I’m still having trouble shaking off my “China” mindset… I really loved China, especially the North…I must go back at some point for a further explore.

Take care one and all, and I’ll keep you posted.

 - Alex

Evening crew...

Well I’m in Beijing now… last stop, that’s it.. no more China for me – but what a place to finish up, I can’t believe it’s almost been a month – it really has flown by.

Today I’ve been to Tiananmen square, the Forbidden City, visited a school for the education of mentally handicapped Chinese men and woman (ranging between 20 and 40 years of age) and been for a Rickshaw ride.. tonight I’m off to see some Chinese acrobats… busy busy, but I’ve still managed to find some time to post an update.

At any rate, the last week of travel has had quite an impact on me, the scenery and surrounding country side I’ve seen as we’ve weaved from Pingyao (an arid and well preserved old town with fully intact ancient city wall, we stayed in a lovely sorta guesthouse come hotel) to Datong (amazingly smoggy coal producing city well deserving of the name “shithole”) and finally Beijing has been phenomenal - it truely embodied the difficulty of describing China as you see coal mines, sections of the great wall winding over almost desert like hills, piles of waste, farmers hand plowing what looks to be just dust, farmers sorting grain on the ashphault roads as their mules and soot covered sheep mill about, sheets of ice lazing in riverbeds as if they've just forgotten to thaw out with the rest of the dry arid landscape and factories pooring smoke into a hazy sky as the sun sets the colour of an aniseed wheel. 

It's beautiful, but no single component would be worthy of the title... I wish I could spend more time in the north, I'm definitely coming back at some point.

So since my last update I’ve done some touristy things (as well as just travelleing):

• Terracotta warriors (which was interesting, they have so much work to do yet as they uncover and reconstruct the various relics from the tiny bits and pieces, but the scale of the sight is impressive – another great example of Chinese tourism gone mad)

• The hanging monestary (quite fun, no way would a site like this be open to the public in New Zealand – OSH would surely close it down…)

• The Yungang Grottoes, Near Datong, containing 51,000 buddahs… approximately 40 caves, containing about 35 very big Buddahs, and heaps and heaps of little Buddahs etched on almost every available surface (including the Big Buddahs themselves) – it’s quite a sight, but I found staring back at the great coal mine on the other side of the road just as enjoyable funnily enough, I’m Completely Buddahed out at the moment, I ended up leaving a little early to go play soccer in the car park, which was highly entertaining (though my cold is still slowing me down)

• Wandered along the Pingyao city wall, and watched hoards of obnoxious French tourists marauding the streets at night… Got to try my first big Jujube (there sort of red things, which taste almost like dates but better – they make a sweet fruity soup with the little ones) and caused a road accident (van vs. motorbike collision) which was pretty funny, but you had to be there.

• Visited the courtyard, an amazing multi-generation personal residence of a chinese family.. a truely amazing site, on a hillside that was basically a giant dust bowl, of course I would leave my camera in the hotel at Pingyao! gah.. the local houses outside the giant residence are basically holes carved into the side of cliffs.. not a piece of green in site, I really wish I could've got some pictures of this area.. it wasn't beautiful, but it was striking - like much of China really.

It's quite strange, spending so long with complete strangers - it surprising how well the group has worked out, I can only hope my group is anywhere near as good in vietnam when I eventually get there - next stop is Thailand, smoggy rotten old Bangkok - though I might post another update before then, if time permits to tell tales of our planned "big night out" in Beijing... heh

Oh, and I'm off to see the great wall properly tomorrow.. which should be a spot of fun, even if it is sorta clapping out (and still being raided for bricks by farmers in some places ;o)

It's definitely going to be weird leaving China, you develop some interesting skills while you stay here.. such as queue blocking (elbowing grandmas out of the way and bunching in groups to stop people jumping the line), very interesting China traffic negotiating skills (that will get me run over in New Zealand) and an inate ability to dodge spit, which is, of course, everywhere.

What I may well miss though is 1.5 Yuan beers (Piejaiu, which I probably spelt wrong, pronounced pee-jow), about $0.30 for a 650ml bottle, which is perfectly ok to drink in the streets as you walk around..oh and chinese foot massages, which are just great.

What I wont miss is sugar... I'm so tired of sweet bread, hopefully Thailands a little different in that respect!

Hi Guys,

Well I'm in Xi'an, at a "Redwoods Network" internet cafe - which isn't far from the hotel, it's actually pretty good (not too smokey, which is a miracle).

Last night through to this morning I was travelling on the hard sleeper train (basically groups of 6 bunks (3 high per side) facing each other, and no real seats or doors.  It's not a bad way to travel, you generally just end up drinking a little.. playing some cards and doing bugger all else (once it's dark you don't see alot, and the trips are generally always at night).

However this'morning there was some fantastic sites as we headed into the city, cooling towers, coal burners, chemical plants... All with classic chinese-soviet chiq... ignoring the rather "the worlds going to shit" aspect, it's truely imposing to see the rolling expanse of never ending factories and power lines scoring the landscape with the odd local farmers terraced plot in between.

Xi'an is a pretty amazing place, smoggy and thrumbing (like every city we've visited) but with it's own character - it has the most impressive city wall that I've seen in China, the thing is huge and in good condition... we hired bikes and travelleed on top of it today, about 14 kilometres (apparently) - it's amazing how wide it is....

Tonight me and a few of the other people in the group are going to head out to the Muslim quarter to explore the markets (the Muslim quarter is quite confined, with a number of big mosques and ...somehow they squeeze 25,000 people into it).  It should be a good opportunity to find some spicy lamb and do some haggling for crappy tat.

Tomorrow we're off to see the Terracotta warriors and then that evening we're on another train and heading off again...

I'm feeling pretty good now, just a bit of a cough/sore throat.. but otherwise not so bad, still haven't got my appetite back - but then that's not necessarily a tragedy ;o)

It's hard to believe that my trip through China is almost at an end - other then a couple of days in Datong and Pingyao, we're going to hit Beijing and that's pretty much it... A month is no where near long enough!

...but at the same time I dont think I would want more at this point - not without a break at least, China can be quite challenging, especially if you're not used to smoggy frenetic cities... it's well deserving of a culture shock rating :) as a country goes.

The week from hell.

Hi guys, well I'm in Suzhou today - arrived about 5 hours ago, since my last update I've been up to a few things.. however it's all been tainted by sickness :(

So lets see... first of all I visited Putuoshan island, which is very small ... picturesque, and though renowned for it's seafood I didn't really enjoy it much (expensive, tasteless).. I've had better luck with the farmed fish from further inland.

On Putuoshan I got really sick - had a temperature, which turned into a fever - didn't break till my last day on the island. At this point I started counting how many days I'd gone without sleep (2).

Putuoshan Island did provide some priceless moments, such as monks with cellphones... angry monks getting anoyed with our copious luggage, old lady tourists pushing monks out of the way... the insanity of people pushing and shoving to get to their allocated seats.

After the island we headed to Shanghai - sickness and lack of sleep still reigning supreme... I felt exhausted all the time - getting sick when your on the move far far away from home really is the pits - and going into a chinese dispensary just makes it worse... buying unknown drugs with sign language *cough cough - points at throat, screw up eyes*

That night, despite my sickness I managed to get enough beers into me for a "second win" (a very bad idea in retrospect ;o) and went out to bar/club called "windows" that's a bit of a student hangout, partly to see desmond (my roomy) off - as he's leaving us in shanghai to stay with his sister for a couple of weeks.

With the cheapest drinks in all of shanghai I suspect (50 Yuan cover charge, then 5 yuan beers/10 yuan spirits) - most beers in Shanghai top out at around 25 to 35 yuan, all a bit painfull on the travellers wallet... we didn't leave till around 1:30am, then got a taxi back to the hotel (we'd taken the MTR there, but the trains shut down around midnight) - we stopped in at a bbq kebab place and had a bit of a nibble before crashing.

Desmond got up way to early the next day, and I still hadn't managed to get any sleep (3 days) so I was feeling like absoloute death... wandered round Shanghai with a couple of my fellow travellers, but was pretty much just a sheep - my throat started to get really sore that day (and still hasn't got any better).

Today we also met the 3 new additions to our intrepid group for the rest of the trip, and older couple from Aussie (Ian & Judith) and a old'ish lady (Also from aussie) called Daniella.  Ian is a doctor, which is a good thing :)

That night I went and saw a movie, in an effort to not expend much energy... the only english movie on though was "National Treasure" ... it wasn't good, but it was mindless.  I got a mountain dew at the theatre only to discover that in China it tastes a lot like green tea.

(Incidentally, almost every bottled drink in China is sickly sweet, it's fairly rare to actually find a natural juice drink that hasn't got half a tonne of added sugar).

That night I also got no sleep... the day after that we visited The shanghai museum and some rock gardens, which wasn't too bad - though I was pretty much a zombie for the entire experience.

I sat in a bath for an hour and finally managed to get about 6 hours sleep when I went to bed... I still felt exhausted, but at least my constant headache is subsiding...

Then we left Shanghai, and travelled by Bus to Zhouzhang - quite a quaint little village, where we stayed in a traditional chinese guesthouse... which was awesome, my room had an adjoining study full of 100+ year old furniture, which was pretty funky - though the old buildings are fairly cold, without the air conditioning cranked right up the room just ends up like a giant fridge.

And that leads us to today... where we took an hours ride on a boat from Zhouzhang to Tong Li, and from there we drove to Suzhou.. I've almst lost my voice, however I'm now armed with a fresh supply of drugs including some anti biotics that Ian helped me pick out - drugs are cheap and handed out without prescription in China, I think it cost me 9 Yuan for a course of 24 amoxycillin pills.  Ian is unsure it'll help me (what I have is probably viral) but he recons it can't hurt to try, in case I have some kind of secondary infection to clear up.

At any rate, I'm feeling a bit better now then I was a week ago - but it hasn't been particularly fun, which is a real shame - there was a lot I could've seen and done in shanghai if I'd had the energy.

Tomorrow night we're doing another overnight train trip, ending up in Xi'an, the furthest west I'll end up travelling in China, which should be interesting.  The train trips are always a bit of fun, if a little chaotic to get on/off.

Ciao!

 - Alex

We arrived at Hangzhou the day before yesterday (Monday the 14^th) after having flown from Wuhan (2 flights, plus some bus rides) and having got up at 5am! All pretty tiring, this being the 3^rd domestic flight I’ve taken since arriving in China – no crashes so far, so it’s pretty positive *ugh*

Hangzhou is beautiful, it’s a very picturesque city surrounding a large lake with a number of man made islands in the middle – it’s definitely the most beautiful city I have visited since arriving in the mainland - it seems since about 1999 the entire city has been undergoing a massive rebuilding program to make it a prime destination for internal chinese tourists, it really is a great place.

Since arriving I have:

• Popped into the tea village, the tea here in Guangzhou is apparently the best in china – it nice, but I don’t think I’ve developed my taste buds enough to pick it from some of other stuff I’ve had.  Grabbed a small tin of the “A grade” which I’ll attempt to get home through customs – or maybe I’ll mail it off from shanghai.  Apparently counterfeit tea is quite common round here as well – which is a funny idea
• Attended a tragic “silk factory” tour, which included a very very bad fashion show, a brief look at the printing and unraveling machines they use on the silk worm cocoons and then another maze of a shop which forces you to pass every single item in the shop before exiting.  Another government run operation.
• Been out to a pub that was laying down some old school Chinese hip hop, if you ever wondered what happened to all the old drum machines in the 80’s… well you probably haven’t, but they’ve been exported here… however it really does rock, in a sorta kriss kross kinda way. 5 Yuan beers were a pleasant bonus, and Tony (our Chinese guide) introduced us to a Chinese dice based drinking game which was pretty fun. After finishing up there we grabbed Tibetan kebabs (made by Tibetans!) from just outside, which were phenomenal. The food is all just so good here, especially if you like chili – which I do – though everything is dodgy (a word we’ve taught Tony) – really the only rules are don’t drink cold water, don’t eat anything uncooked/cold (and if it’s fruit, always peel it… ) – I’m enjoying it, but some of my fellow travelers have been a bit off colour since there arrival.
• Visited the leaning temple/pagoda – what an amazing site, the 200 odd bronze statues depicting people who can never obtain the status of Buddah are fascinating – this is a huge spot for Chinese tourists, and there was soooo much incense being burnt by them, got some very cool pictures.  In fact all of china is full of Chinese tourists, seeing any other ethnicity is beyond rare. Chinese tour groups are easy to spot and provide wonderful entertainment, because they all get issued the same baseball cap and their leaders walk around with telescopic poles with a flag on top and are constantly yelling through a megaphone– it’s very funny to watch.
• Visited the Luhe bell, which I got to strike 3 times.. strangely satisifying.
• Been on a hour cruise around the lake in a boat… sun was shining, feet hanging over the side.. all very pleasant.  It looks deep, but apparently the maximum depth is only about 3 metres!

At any rate - today I did a walk around the lake by myself for a looksie, and too clear my head ;o) ..(no sun today, which is a bit of a shame) and then wandered through the botanical gardens.. pretty quiet, tomorrow we’re heading on our way to Ptuoshan (probably spelt that wrong) island, which is apparently quite stunning and after that we’re hitting shanghai – where me and a few fellow travelers including Geoff (another intrepid guide, who’s doing the annual safety review) are going to hit a hardcore Chinese disco :P

Traffic here is hilarious – you develop some really bad habits, basically there’s an order to things, based on size.. Trucks and busses can do anything it appears (run red lights for instance) – pedestrian crossings mean nothing – there are just horn noises all the time, as it’s used to warn people/cyclists of oncoming traffic… crossing the road is a true mission, especially at night, you see close shaves all the time. Oh, and road markings are merely a suggestion – a 2 lane road will often have 3 trucks or 4 cars abreast squeezing down it.   On the flip side, where there are lights they have a counter on them so you can see how long it will be till red goes green / green goes red - pretty cool.

At any rate, on the “me” side of things – I’m definitely forming a love/hate relationship with China, it’s such a huge and beautiful place – yet there is so much to drag you down as well, I’ve already been accosted by small children begging, the smog is so thick you think the clipping plane is wound down really low and I keep getting a sore throat every time we stay in a city for a couple of days…thank god for the amazing food and the good company to keep my spirits up.

Hope you guys are all doing well.

Cheers,

 - Alex

Hi guys, sorry about the lack of updates.. I've been on the road a lot since my last update and haven't been able to post an entry about the time I've spent over the last few days (or even shower... eww)

At some point I'll back track and say a little about Guilin and the outlying areas (where I was before now) - but for now I'm just going to talk about the 3 gorges where I've spent the last 3 days.

We arrived at the boat after a 2 hour bus ride from Guangzhou and a look at the 3 gorges damn project (which is an impressive structure, which once complete in 2009 will generate enough electricity for about 120 million people) to freezing cold weather and a quickly setting sun - at which point we climbed aboard the Chinese cruise ship that intrepid had arranged.. this is the kinda ship you might take your mistress away to if you wanted a "dirty" weekend in China..  It's a tub made of very rusty plate steel, 3 decks, water that was generally always near freezing, spittoons in all the hallways that defy description and in my "first class" cabin I shared with a fellow traveller there was stained sheets and the most foul smell... it was pretty funny :P - I was really greatfull to have brought my own sheet and pillowcase!

So we set off, and went through a couple of locks in the dark - only about 30 odd metres each.. the boat is chaotic, as it's not designed for western tourists but the Chinese tourists.  All well 'n good, the temperature seemed to keep dropping all night.

So we wake on the second day to see snow falling all over the first of the 3 gorges - the scenery is breath taking, apparently this is the first time anyone has seen it snow here - so it felt pretty special (though bloody cold, I've never heard Desmond (the english guy I share a room with) say "Jesus Wept!" so many times... very funny.. I hope the pictures I took convey just how amazing it looked.

The proposed height marks for the water (about 175 metres above sea level) on the hillsides everywhere just makes you realise how much housing and farm land will dissappear when the project comes on line - nothing in China is a on a small scale (accept for farming, but that must eventually change with the shift of the population towards the cities) and this project is a wonderful example of the chinese people exerting there will against nature (the projects main motivation is to stop the devastating 10 year floods which cost billions in damages in lost lives).  They're all very proud.

We ended getting on the turps and having a bit of a card playing and drinking sessions that night, and I had my first experience with Chinese spirits... god almighty they're awful, the one I had was "like" vodka, but made from sorgam and around 45% alcohol.. when drunken with "future cola" the coke equivalent in china, thats miles cheaper, it was a leathal combination...

And so I awoke today feel surprisingly good for all my drinking, the boat steemed back down the gorges and we've arrived back on land - tonight we're staying put then early tomorrow we begin to move towards the coast again, with the destination (eventually) being shanghai... it should be all fun, though I'm feeling pretty whacked.