The Trip

The trip is now fully planned and booked. Looking at it written down in front of me, I now realise that it is far from a simple holday aboad. If you can bare with me, I will try to explain what we have planned -

• Leaving Shijiazhuang, we are travelling to the south of China - to Nanning. A 1600 mile journey, that takes 25hours by train. We then spend the night in Nanning.
• The next morning we have to catch a bus that leaves Nanning, travels to the border with Vietnam and then takes us all the way to Hanoi - taking approximately 8hours.
• After 6 nights in Hanoi, we fly to Bangkok, arriving midday and then staying the night. We depart the following evening on a train to Surat Thani in southern Thailand - a journey that takes 11 hours.
• In Surat Thani, we catch a ferry that takes us to Koh Phangan, our destination in Thailand. We are staying there for 6 nights. After which we return on the ferry and train back to Bangkok, staying overnight.
• We then fly from Bangkok back to Macau in China and take a ferry from Macau to Shenzhen where we are staying a night.
• The next day we catch a 1hour train to Guangzhou, then take another train on the evening that takes us completely back to Shijiazhuang, a further 1250 miles.

What started off with - 'hmm, I think I quite fancy the idea of visiting Vietnam and maybe Thailand', is now almost ready - I even have a propper backpack that I am beginning to pack (Cheers Charlie).

Yesterday it took me three attempts to try and get a one-way ticket from Shijiazhuang to Beijing on Friday so that I can pick up our visas, a task that was only completed after I dragged Sandy to the ticket agent in a taxi for her to buy it for me. If I somehow manage to return to Shijiazhuang on May 20th, with all my limbs in tact and I haven't slapped an inept local, I will be amazed!

Never try to get a visa on the weekend

With my trip to Vietnam and Thailand approaching rapidly, it was time to get our visas for Vietnam. Another trip to Beijing was needed, so Brock, Hilary and I met up with Wallace and Renae for a short stay this weekend.

We stayed in a different hostel for the first time, situated to the North of Houhai lake, my favourite part of Beijing without a doubt. The hostel was fine (The Sleepy Inn) , plus it gave us the chance to have a bar-crawl around the lake at night - the highlight for me being the Newcastle Brown Ale, bottled and ice cold that I got to enjoy.

As for the visa, who would have guessed that the Embassy would be closed for weekends, well I didn't. So Hilary and I had to stay another night, pay for another train that we so very nearly missed due to buying muffins for lunch, queue for quite some time to get the visa and the best part is I now have to return this Friday to pick the stupid thing back up (I complain as it means a 6hr round train journey, two subway journeys and two taxis!). Role on Sunday when I hopeully will be sat on the train to Nanning.

With going to Beijing so often, I no longer take much notice of the main attractions (The Forbidden City etc), its much more interesting to just to watch the everyday things going on (Im trying to sound as little as a 'pretentious, Lonely Planet reading traveller' as I can). Its great to just take pictures of random things for a change, rather than the millionth Chinese Temple or another picture of Mao!

(The first picture is of the Forbidden City, but from the taxi for a change, with more colour than I have seen before.)

Englishman number 3 goes to hospital

Unfortunately for Chris, he became the third Brit to have to visit the dreaded hospital in China, after getting what we believe to be 'a bug'. After having a fever, cough, cold, he then was unable to keep anything down - so to Mr Dong he went. Mr Dong said his English teacher friend would take him to the hospital. We presumed in a taxi, so I went along with him. To my suprise, his friend intended on taking him on his scooter. Oh the look on Chris' face was priceless.

As is the Chinese way, we were amused to find that he was only taking him the 100m down the road to the nearby pharmacy / mini-hospital. Two drips later and a vaccination somewhere he would rather I didn't mention, he is back on the road to recovery. Hopefully that will be the last time he is ill whilst he is in China!

Nearly done

As always planned, but never mentioned to the students, I have now handed in my notice and next week will be my last week teaching in China. This will then give me the opportunity to do some travelling around (places other than Beijing), something I haven't really done as much of as I would have liked. Then the folks arrive in Beijing at the end of May, a great chance for me to show off the wealth of Chinese language and culture I have picked up (I had to order eight pieces of bread recently as I had forgotten the number 6!!).

Anyhow, being in China one would think that I would have chosen to travel around this great Country, sampling all that it has to offer. But quite frankly, I cant face the Chinese transport system. Its as simple as that. So i'm off to Vietnam and Thailand instead for three weeks. Half the time spent in Vietnam, more of a 'museums and walks' trip, then half the time spent on Koh Pha Ngan, a 'sunbathing and swimming' trip. Thats the plan anyway. Everything is booked and i'm reading the... gasp.... Lonely Planet to try to get an idea of where im going to go. Departure date is set at April 29th, nine days to go - not that i'm counting.

The trip involves travelling by bus, car, over- night train, plane and ferry plus staying in hotels, hostels and resorts. So there is ample oppotunity for things to go wrong, therefore the blog should make for an amusing read in the coming weeks.

Jinan Rollercoaster

We were at Daming Lake Park, not far from Jinan East train station, filling time on the Saturday prior to our ride home. Too short a ride and made deaf by Meredith's screaming. Still, made for a rather amusing video (yes, another video I hear you say).

It is only now, after searching in the internet, that I realise we were actually at Daming Lake Park. Yes, I knew it was a lake, but as we didn't have a copy of the Lonely Planet with us, nor had I read up on what there was to do in Jinan - I simply presumed it was a small lake in the middle of the City. I certainly didn't realise it was 'one of the three must-see tourist spots in Jinan'. Ah well, we stumbled accross it by luck then. It did suprise me yet again how in the very middle of what is essentially a boring, bustling City filled with endless Taxi's and busses, there could be a nice quiet retreat such as this.

Mount Taishan

I used to lave the more detailed blog entries to Charlie, so I will try my best to paint the complete picture for a change. Taishan - a long weeknd thats for sure. The first step, the jouney, wasn't as easy as I would have hoped. The five hour train journey to Jinan was fine, mostly due to the 18 bottles of Shijiazhuang's finest that we knocked back. When we arrived at Jinan, we tried to purchase our return tickets their and then, but found that they only had standing available (something that took 30mins to determine with the aid of Nancy - the Chinese teacher back in Shijiazhuang). Then we tried to buy our tickets from Jinan to Tai'an, where we were staying, but found we couldn't. Why? There are two train stations in Jinan and of course we arrived at the one that we wouldnt be departing from. Great. Problem averted however thanks to a six seater minibus that bombed along and dropped us off at Jinan Central station. 50 minutes spent in the food carriage of that train, plus a short taxi drive from the train station in Taishan, we found ourselves finally at the hotel. Phew.

Thursday was going to be our lazy day, not quite ready to hit the mountain. It turned out not to be quite as relaxing as we had hoped when we discovered that the hotel had neither the swimming pool or Italian restaurant as advertised on the internet. So crazy golf, a walk round a mini forbidden City and a tuna salad for tea before an early night were all that we got round to doing (tuna salad = apple salad, covered in sweet mayonnaise and sugar sprinkles, with a dash of tinned tuna over the top - yum!).



Friday, 8.10am and fuelled by a McDonalds breakfast and coffee, we left for the foot of the mountain. At 1545meters, we knew we had a hard day ahead of us. It started out overcast, but warm and after a short while we bought our tickets onto the mountain. We climbed as a group from the bottom to the Midway to Heaven Gate (half way up). Literally just a series of staircases, one after the other, covering more distance vertically than horizontally. It was fairly hard work. I think it took a couple of hours till we reached the sign that said 'Americans and Disabled this way ->' - the Cable Car. A joke stolen from Brock, so i'm not to blame for that one!



Brock, Meredith and Becky took the Cable Car (Hilary was unable to get the long weekend break as her students didnt have exams), and Chris and I drove on up the mountain. This second part of the climb, up to the South Gate to Heaven (the top) was a real killer. About 600meters height gain, in pretty much constant steps. Over a short space of time this was definately much more difficult that the 11k walk along the Great Wall. But we made it to the top, where we all enjoyed a celebratory doughnut together.


Following a period of trigger-happy photo taking, the others set off back for the hotel and Chris and I continued our walk to the other side of the mountain. Clearly this side is not as holy or as importnant to the Chinese as the main area, as we were literally the only people on that entire side of the mountain. It was quite unbelievable really. From thousands of people on the one side, to a completely empty mountain on the other, we were left to moochy around by ourselves. This was possibly the most enjoyable thing I have done to date in China, obviously other than breaking my toe. Climbing to the other peak required some brave scrambling under and over some boulders, placed their I imagine by some seriously under-qualified Chinese workman. The peak itself was incredible, obviously not very visited as the Lonely Planet nor the internet never mentioned even once what was to be found there (a giant Ying Yang symbol made out of marble on the floor). It was apparetly the area of the mountain where Emperors of days gone by where sacrificed, some 75 I seem to remember reading.

The walk to the bottom and journey on the Cable Car were uneventful, and we met up with the others back in the hotel ready for pizza for tea. After checking out on Saturday, we found that we only had to pay for two nights stay, as they had counted our 01:00am check-in as a Thursday evening for some reason. That meant a bit more cash for our day in Jinan. We spent it riding a roller coaster that was definately too short, as Brock points out, shopping for gifts and consuming some alcoholic beverages in the Crowne Plaza hotel lounge as if we were guests. A delicious buffet dinner rounded off a decent weekend.

The train journey back needs a mention. The three tickets we bought turned out to be three seats and two standing. The two standing were left to crouch into the smokey doorway of the carriage, so we took it in turns for the 4 hour journey, rotating beteen the seats and the doorway (used by the Chinese as a smoking room). Virgin Rail may have its drawbacks, but it seemed a mile away from what we had to go through on that train thats for sure!

The pictures are all on Flickr, ill put some on here shortly.

To the top of Mt Tai

The students are having exams this week, so as ever us lazy foreign teachers don't have to teach on Thursday or Friday. We are therefore jumping at the opportunity to again visit somewhere new in China. This time we decided on Tai'an, due to the fact that it is right next to Mt Taishan - the leader of the 'Five Sacred Mountains' - so I am lead to believe. A five hour train jounrey should get us to Jinan, where we then have another short train ride South to the town of Tai'an.

The idea being that we try to climb to the top of the mountain, 'the most climbed mountain in the world', on Friday. Whether we are successful at this will wholly depend upon, as ever, how much alcohol is consumed the night before. Returning on Saturday evening, ill let you know on Sunday if we made it or not!

Day in the Mountains

On Saturday, Brock, Hilary and I went along with some of the teachers from our school for a day in the mountains. Told to meet at 7am in the City Centre, we stopped at McDonalds first for a breakfast and a coffee. One of six busses, we set off for what was supposed to be a 2 1/2hr journey, but actually ended up being closer to 4 1/2hr due to traffic jams and town markets being held along the way. Although not exactly picturesque, the scenery outside our City is nevertheless better than what we find inside the City itself and with the sun shining, it was quite a nice journey.

When we arrived, I quickly jumped into my shorts, any excuse to get my milky white legs out. We started off in some small village at the base of the mountains. It was a perfectly clear day, with a little bit of a breeze to keep the heat off. We had to walk for about 30minutes, to a spot were we could stop for lunch. Lunch was fairly decent, but we realised that there was nowhere that sold water or drinks. Expecting drink vendors to be everywhere, we had only brought two little bottles between the three of us (yes, I brought none), of which we had drank half of and had to last the rest of the day with.

Next, the tour operator had organised a kind of treasure hunt. Part of the valley was cornered off with red flags, quite a large area and we had to hunt around for little red envelopes containing prizes. I obviously found none. But Brock quickly found one with second prize inside, and he now has an electric top plate cooker sat nicely next to the mocrowave in his kitchen (should come in handy for the culinary delights he often knocks up - Instant Soup).

The last few hours of the day were spent walking just past half way up the mountain, which, fuelled only by a few drops of water was a difficult task. It was great to actually breathe some fresh air for a change and get out of the City. The bus finally dropped us off at around 7pm, enough time for us to get showered, changed, and off out for the Saturday night quiz. I was that hungry, I can honestly say that I must have set a new record for time taken to eat a large pizza and cobb salad. All in all a good day was had.

Photos Uploaded

The pictures I took from the Beijing visit on my return from England are now uploaded. Now i'm armed with my camera again i'll try to take more photos than I have been lately.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidstokes/

I always find the keys that you get to open hotel room doors to be a cause for anger. I am certainly not alone with this, I have never seen my Dad use one successfully either. Just slowly insert card, correct way round, then slowly remove. The green light flashes and in you go. No. They just don't work. Which way up? Which is the front and which is the back? How slow is slow? Do I pause when the card is fully inserted? Anyway, this is what happens when I try -

Just a few more pictures of the rain that came when Chris arrived -

Fireworks Video

I think I mentioned in an earlier post about the video I took of the fireworks. To refresh your memory, they are very loud and go off round the clock. Like a scene from Beirut, or how I imagine it to be there. Anyhow, my camera is now fully operational so I have uploaded the video, it speaks for itself -

All videos so far

Just incase you want to watch any of the videos we've taken so far:

http://youtube.com/profile?user=davidpstokes

Drunken madness

Meredth and I have a love/hate relationship, in that we both love to hate each other. Last term, for rasons unknown to me, it was decided that we would have a drunken fight, during one of our numerous evenings of drink at the appartment. Charlie filmed it, fun was had, especially since we both got a chance to vent some of our anger for one another. Trying not to lose any pride or dignity I may have remaining and trying to control my inner rage is a tricky thing after a belly full of the local brew. Anyhow, last weekend, drink was yet again consumed. Yep, Round 2 took place, again recorded on camera.

I wouldn't like to call the fight, I think I lose regardless. For the sake of any shame I may have remaining, I must add that Meredith can pack a punch! For your added amusement, I point you in the direction of Brock, before the fight begins. I think this was filmed around about 11pm, maybe even earlier. You can clearly see Brock swaying, lots! Not long before this, he had cycled round the sports track and barged into our boss' office (admittedly due to being pushed by Meredith) and blurted out 'I need a water' to a bemused boss (Who was there with friends working apparently).

A Day at the fair

After last weeks fun on the quads, this Saturday we all decided to go back and have a go at the go-karts. Seven of us in total went over, the sun was shining and we were all hungover. Yet again our participation was an event in itself for the locals, who flocked to watch 7 Westerners fly round the track with disregard for their safety. Chris in particular was driving like he had been drinking a gallon of Red Bull before hand and wanted a fight. Spinning at the first corner and causing a head on collision - with me. Meredith was the main concern for everyone, known for her feisty temper, we were worried that would carry over onto the track. It didn't - she was easily lapped by all but Hilary.

Following our fun on the go-karts, we had a wonder around the rest of the park. To our suprise, we found some other rides that were actually fairly good. Although the mixture of heavy drinking the night before and rides that spin you round / upside down was not a good combination! Considering we live literally five minutes walk away from this park, the fact this was our first time on the rides is a shame to say the least!