Mongolia

Just o say I'm alive and well and have had the most awesome week. I've eaten dried yak for a week, slept in Gers and smell of goat, but it was a truely wonderful week.

I have to catch a train to Moscow tomorrow that will take 5 days, but more tales to follow..

Romance Found

Once again, China has flummoxed me.

I arrived on the Beijing sleeper train the only laowai in sight, and was immediate fussed over by the two women in my carriage. They lifted me and my backpack up onto the top bunk with much huffing and puffing, and satisfied smiles when I was safely installed. I'm not sure any middle aged women in the UK would pick up a 17 kilo backpack and a 9 stone white girl (seriously- hands lifted me like the scene in Labyrinth when she falls down the hole.)

Beijing is stunning right now- I spent yesterday wondering around the lakes and Hutongs and today exploring the summer palace with my room mate. They were both the stuff of Chinese poetry- cobbled pathways, cherry blossoms, little arched bridges and intricate gardens. How does such elegance fit with such coarseness in the country? I am vexed, and jealous once again that in Asia, something can be totally contradictory and still understood. Darn Descartes and Derrida.
blossoms
The views to the hills over the lake- the summer palace is only an hour from the centre of Beijing and yet very serene
the view over the lakes at dusk yesterday.

I had a wonderful dinner last night with a guy I knew from Hong Kong who lived here now. Having formally been someone that used to show up when I was drunk (and he was battered) we actually took some time to talk over yummy hot pot. It was a great evening.

I have also realised I've become an avid reader again since I left HK- around 15 books so far I think. I've been given a copy of The Brother Karamazov, which is apparently essential transiberian reading (although apparently no one ever has time to read on the train) by Tom, who has been no where near the train journey (ah, the travel gods...)

But my favourite is my current book, The Snow Leopard: 'Indicating his twisted legs without a trace of self pity or bitterness, as if they belonged to all of us, he [the lama] casts his arms wide to the sky and the snow mountains, the high sun and the dancing sheep and cries, 'Of course I am happy here! It's wonderful! Especially when I have no choice!''

The perfect passage, in a perfect novel, in the perfect place. Perfect.

China- the story so far...

As always, apologies for the lack of entries. I've had real trouble finding places that will actually let me see my blog! Ah, China..

Where to begin?I left HK after the Rugby 7's and Spencer's last night in town on a flight to Beijing. I will miss HK a lot- life there has been special, but no doubt one day I'll be back. Beijing was freezing, especially after leaving Thailand's scorching 35c and HK pleasant 25c; Beijing's 10c came as a bit of a shock! Sarah and I successfully found each other (after I journeyed over a 6 lane highway in my backpack! Ops) and Beijing exploration began. We spent a day in Tienanmen Sq and the Forbidden City, saw the acrobats (who were all under 16), hiked for three hours on the great wall and strolled around the Temple of Heaven. I also decided long hair was just way too cold (and Mongolia and Russia would only get colder) so had it all chopped off by a man in Beijing!
The Forbidden City
Sarah and I- the Italian guy totally missed out the background!
The Lama Temple

the Great Wall ( I can't flip the other one- it's all in Chinese!)
We left Beijing for Datong on the sleeper train. Datong was a cold, dirty coal mining city that I wouldn't recommend visiting (ever). However, the Buddhist caves and hanging temple nearby were awesome and made the long trek worthwhile. It was also interesting to see a town that wasn't totally geared towards tourism- Datong felt far more like the industrialised China I was expecting to see than anything I experienced before or after.

The hanging temple outside Datong
Inside the temple:

After Datong we managed to get various buses (the ticket counters had signs to hold up in English) to Pingyao- an ancient walled city. It was quaint- although being prepped for Olympic visitors (we would wake up in the morning to discover there was a new road outside our hostel! Quite amazing- in England they'd still be drinking tea at 10am: in China they had built whole new road.)The hostel in Pingyao was relaxed and warm (which made me happy) and keen to help. One morning a Canadian girl was playing Badminton in the street outside our hostel when a two year old ran into her. The family immediately caused a huge scene and demanded money (what a toddler was doing so far away from it's mother on a street heaving with people, stalls and bicycles was never questioned). The guy from the hostel was clearly upset and extremely embarrassed. This kind of exemplifies my experience of Chinese people: they have either been very polite, generous and gracious, or rude, pushy and money grabbing. Every time I feel I have misjudged them as a nation I experience the opposite extreme...

Pingyao city, and Sarah and I being stupid in a mirror...

From Pingyao we journeyed onto Xi'an. The first day we wondered around the Islamic quarter eating strange delicacies, followed by a night out withe the team from Pingyao. We saw the Terracotta Warriors, which were incredible due to the huge scale of the project (mum and I actually got closer to them in Barcelona?! How weird.) What was odd though was that the misspelling and appalling grammar continued throughout the displays even here. Large red banners had been erected- presumably because of the anticipated increase in visitors next year- and Terracotta was spelt wrong on all of them. It seems so strange that such a noticeable effort is being made to make these areas tourist friendly and to impress all the visitors to the Olympics, that they don't spell check anything.

Out in Xi'an with people from Pingyao...

Xi'an streets at dusk..

Them there warriors!

Spot the difference:

Being papped by local students (ok, well we were wearing traditional Chinese outfits!) Sarah's birthday party- thrown by the hostel in Xi'an! Tom proves to Sarah the same amount of tAquila is in the wine glass as was in the shot glass.. Sarah and Tom making dumplings..
We also went to an animal sanctuary and saw many mysterious beasts (including my new favourite animal). It was an odd experience- the place wasn't what we would expect from sanctuary in the West. And yet, in a country where everything qualifies as food, places like these are few and far between; these animals are lucky to be here. Panda's certainly would be extinct in a few years, partly due to humans and partly due to the fact they just haven't evolved to do anything useful, if they weren't here. But it felt like a cold hard concrete place to me. Another of China's paradoxes it seems..

Cruel or Kind?My new favourite animal (no idea what it is!)

I left Sarah and got on a sleeper train to Beijing, picking up some companions on the way. We all went on a Chinese Yangzte River cruise, which was as interesting for it's scenery as the experience of being on a boat with 500 Chinese people on an organised tour. We certainly have totally different expectations of fun to the Chinese! After being poked repeatedly by my Chinese roommates, one English speaking guide decided it would be better for everyone if I moved in with the two Danish girls. I am both happy and sad about this- while it was far more comfortable to be with my friends, it would've been interesting to try and communicate with my roommates. We visited the ghost city, which was a weird mix of temples and bad amusement arcade. The mini three gorges were lovely, and we got dropped on land for a meal together in the evening (again the travel gods were kind: no one could read the Chinese menu, and no one had any idea when the boat was leaving, but it all worked out ok!)

The ghost city?!

Becca, Ane and GryNo one was impressed with Paul's chick on a stick..

Last night we made it to Wuhan- just- and ate various BBQ-ed item and stinky tofu. China I love and hate- which seems appropriate considering the contradictions in China itslef. I'm off to Beijing on the sleeper tonight, and then mongolia on the 21st!

made it to china..

Hurrah!!

I am sleepy. Ben woke me EARLY! Gr. Off to bed la.. x