Hi Holly Hou

Our hotel in Qinhuangdao is outstanding. Made even better by the superb Holly Hou. No query goes unanswered, no request goes unsatisfied and she makes a mean Gin & Tonic. Well my Dad insisted I have a photo taken with her, so here she is -

While we're at it - this is the Executive Club room - all the snacks you can eat. And trust me, where testing that to the limit.

If you ever get to a point in your life where your mam feels inclined to take a photograph of you in McDonalds, surrounded by a miriad of Chinese people - who are all blatantly thinking 'idiots', then you will understand why I could not stop shaking my head or laughing.

No updates

Blog? What blog? Oh yes, I remember. The lack of updates recently is due to the fact that in the past 6 weeks I haven't been in one place for longer than 6 nights and that was only once. I've moved from Hotel, to hostel, to appartment - so thats my excuse anyway. Where now? I'm in Qinghuangdao, two hours east of Beijing, on the coast - with Mummy and Daddy. Leaching off them as much as I can. I have been showing them the sights, with The Forbidden City, The Wall (it was great), The Summer Palace, the other Palace - a.k.a the Silk Market, to name but a few. With Beijing offering more restaurants than one could shake a stick at, it will amuse those of you who have been to know that my Dad has made us eat twice at the Chinese restaurant next to the Jade Youth Hostel because he likes it so much. Ah well.

We're at the coast as I thought it would be a nice change of scenery, a rest from the hustle bustle of central Beijing. The sun is shining and the sea looks alluring - but im viewing this from by bedroom window with little intention of leaving today. The reason - the room is amazing and is equipped with a 50inch TV that comes with one of those built in internet thingys. I can sit on the couch and read The Times or emails (honestly what I am doing) on the massive TV. Sorry, but the beach can wait.

Sunday was the last time I will see the Americans (other than Hilary who is joining me in Beijing, more for the free breafasts than for my company). After cocktails at our hotel, we went to Fuku for dinner. I have faith in Chris' abilities not to turn American, being the only Englishman left there now.

Photos?

Time for some photos of the trip. First off Hanoi -

• Typical street in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. This is the little junction where they sell great - ice-cold beer for 2,000Dong a glass (7p).

• This is one of the buildings next to our Hotel. I didn't know this, but im sure it is common knowledge, but the reason the buildings are narrow but tall - an old tax that increased with the width of the house. See, you learnt something everyday, or at least I do!
  

• Taken at the Army museum - a big mound of plane wreckages shot down by those friendly Vietnamese. I never realised what a delightfully pleasant, whiter than white bunch of people the Vietnamese are - the Americans being barbarians, cut throat and rutheless. That is, until I went to the ridiculously one-sided museum.
  

  
  (I may be wrong, but I think the planes actually fell, conveniently - into this nice little pile.)
  

• St Joseph's Cathedral I believe. And yes, I know, its a really good photo.

• This is the bridge that leads over to the island that sits in the middle of Hoh Kiem Lake, in the centre of the Old Quarter.

Oh China!

I must have walked into the hostel in Shenzhen with a sign round my neck saying 'Mug'. 'How about we upgrade to the Japanese styled room for one extra pound?' I thought and asked. 'Yeah, why not?' I decided. If you've ever wanted to create an authentic, Japanese style room in your own home, here is how - remove the matress, that wont be needed and only adds wasted comfort. Remove the bathroom door, privacy isnt needed after all. And to top it off, take away the duvet cover, a sheet is all that is needed for that authentic look. Don't get me wrong, it looks like it has been taken straight out of an Ikea showroom, but somehow I get the feeling we are the only ones who opt for this upgrade!

So, yes, I'm back in China. The Country that never fails to amuse me. The trip is so far going to plan and as long as two more train journeys go as planned then fingers crossed, everything will have gone perfectly.

Had a slight episode in Bangkok. Went to KFC for lunch in a huge air-conditioned mall (I was hotter than Pavarotti in a pastry shop in Bangkok). After finishing, we left and headed back to our hostel. It was only after about 10minutes that I realised I had forgotten my wallet somewhere (as I very often do). I stormed back, sweating like never before (all my money was in it) and looking like a fool. Anyway, would you believe it, there it was, on the floor next to my chair. In open view. Untouched. The Manager had even come and cleaned the table, surely seeing it, but nevertheless leaving it be. I smoothly checked the contents and walked off as cooly as I could. Now I may be over exaggerating a bit, but I reckon that had that been in Hartlepool, the second the outside of my wallet had touched the floor, some little tinker would have swiped it with his trotters - never to have been seen again. I imagine had I been in Middlesboro it wouldn't have even touched the floor. But here, in Bangkok, where I cannot believe nobody saw it, nobody touched it. 'If we just leave it where it is, the owner will surely return'. Yup. I did.

I must just mention Macau. Being as culturally inept as I am, I had no idea that Macau used to be ran by a bunch of Portugese. We had the day to spend pottering about, waiting for the 18:00pm ferry to Shenzhen. We had driven in the taxi past the huge Casinos which I knew to be there, a brand new MGM Grand being built that looks fantastic. But it was the City centre I wasn't expecting. Thanks to the Portugese, the streets have what I would have called a Spanish look to them had I not known any differently. Yellow buildings, white balconies, fountains and even McDonalds was blended into the architecture so not to stand out. Where I had been expecting to spend the day eating rice and noodles, bored out of my mind, turned out to be one of the more relaxing days of the trip. I'll have to show you the pictures, which will be uploaded once I remember to bring my camera with me to the computer to show you what I mean.

Traditional Thai massage

Whilst Hilary talks to her Mam on Skype - ah the wonders of technology, I thought I would just let you know of my experience getting a traditional Thai massage in Bangkok. Before I go any further, I will let you know now, this is entirely PG Rated.

To waste the day we had in Bangkok, Hilary went to get 'girly' things done at the massage place. With 30 minutes of time on my hands - I decided a Thai massage was what the Doctor ordered. In my mind, what could be better - a nice young Thai girl sensually massaging me whilst Hilary goes through hell. Excellent.

Everything went to plan, up to a little room I went, into the loose fitting outfit I got and then the door opened.... and in came a nasty looking old woman. 'Lay down' she ordered. Uh oh. The best way to describe the next 30 minutes would be a series of differing amounts of pain. Slowly working me up to it, eventually I was lying flat over her knees, balanced in mid air. My head next to hers and my feet dangling near hers somewhere. The agony of my entire body resting on one small part of her knees is something I will struggle to forget. After 30 minutes of being too ashamed to say 'please for the love of God stop', the times was up. I went and sat down stairs, feeling like I had been drinking for twelve hours then mountain climbed all day. As Hilary came and joined me, I looked up at the price board. Right below Traditional Thai Massage, for the same price, was 'Thai Oil massage'. I could have cried.

Koh Phangan

The highlight of the planned trip - Id hoped for white sandy beaches, clear water and hot hot sunshine. Well this place is exactly that. We paid a bit extra than most for a beachfront bungalow and it was definately worth it. Step off our bungalow and we are literally on the beach, no need even for a pathway etc.

There is a hammock on our porch area, where I dozed this morning, reading a book in the sweltering heat. It is as perfect as I could have hoped for. So far the weather is superb, something I was worried about given that it is out of season, though if this keeps up, we will have timed it to perfection.

The island is known for its Full Moon parties. Where like minded folk gather together for tea and scones, enjoying the atmosphere and singing hymns. This however takes place on the first of every month, so we missed that. They do organise a Half Moon Party, to cater for those that msised the big event, takes place on the 16th, which just so happens to be the day we leave. The Black Moon party, to cater for any who missed both of the above, takes place just before we arrived. So somehow, I have booked the resort at the only 5 nights in the entire month where we are unable to go to a Moon party of any description. Great. I couldn't have done that on purpose even if I had tried!!

Bangkok

Our flight to Bangkok was fine, 1hr 40 mins. First thing that hit me, the heat and humidity! Even though it had been raining, it was still hotter than anywhere else I had been. Our hostel specialises in Meat Pies. Twenty mins after checking in I was tucking into a Beef and Onion pie - delicious.

That night we met up with Will, a friend from Law School. Four bottles of Chang beer and some food left us both with bad heads the next morning (it is 6per cent!). We pottered about the next day to waste time, doing a bit of shopping etc, before getting on the train for the overnight journey south. We are staying another day or so there on our way back home, so ill do more 'touristy' stuff then.

The train was fine, though the fact that the air-con broke made it impossible to sleep. A 2 hour bus journey followed by a 3 hour ferry took us to Koh Phangan.

Halong Bay

We're back and the good news is i'm sunburnt. What can I say about Halong Bay - it really was as good as I had been told. Even though on Saturday the weather was still English like (I mean English like when i'm home, not the tropical weather its getting now!), the junk boat we had more than made up for it. The boat, we were told, was brand new and looked it. We had a very nice fish meal whilst the boat sailed towards the islands.

The first day was spent looking in caves, climbing to the top of one of the islands and sitting on deck in a gazeebo type of thing. Beers were 30,000 dong a go, thats just less than $2 (no pound key on keyboard) and yet that is still ridiculously expensive given the normal price in Hanoi. So I opted for 6 bottles of the local brew for half the price, bought from a tiny little boat shop that sails from Junk to Junk selling cheap goods. Like a floating Spar.

The night was great, never again will I be able to say I watched West Ham v Bolton play live on TV, in Halong Bay on a Junk Boat, not that I necesarrily would want to!

Sunday gave us the chance, thanks to the scorching weather, to kayak around the islands. Undoubtedly the most amazing scenery i've seen since leaving Hartlepool 8 months ago. If you can imagine that beach on the film The Beach, we went under a tunnel in the side of one of the islands and found ourselves in a mini-bay, complete with bay, completely still water and not another person in sight. Had we actually been allowed to take cameras with us, I would have taken photos to show you.

Well the sun is shining, my legs look like beetroot and i'm off for our last full day in Hanoi. We fly to Bangkok at 12:00pm tomorrow.

Hanoi

Hello all from our hotel in Hanoi - the Mahn Dung Guesthouse.

Arrived about 5pm Tuesday evening, with a journey that was a lot more straight forward that we had hoped for - due to meeting up with an English couple on the bus across the border. First night was spent in another Hotel, but as they didnt have the room we had booked (only had a more expensive room) we moved two buildings down to this hotel on Wednesday.

So far so good. Weather is great, easily well into the 30's and only this afternoon has it got a little cloudy as thunderstorms look set to hit. We spent Wednesday browsing the Old Quarter, trying to get our barings and drinking lots of tea and ice drinks. Today we got round to some 'propper' site seeing, going to the Army Museum first (nothing like some good old propaganda to get the morning started) and then on to the Temple of Literature in the afternoon.

Havent really had any real Vietnamese food as of yet, most of the places around here are western cafes and restaurants. But we have a few that were going to try, quite looking forward to something other than French sandwiches.

Our trip to Halong Bay is booked for this weekend, two days and one night spent on a resort in the middle of the Bay. Looks too good to be true on the photos and as ever probably will be! Im off for some of the local brew, found a great area where they sell it for 2000 Dong (6p) a glass, ice cold, tastes like cats urine. Just how I like it.

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.