Hong Kong to London by train

Rome, Italy

2007-11-25T09:09:00.001+11:00

On my days off from Anna Villa, I went to Rome. On the first of these visits I went to the Colosseum, the Forum and the Palatine Hill. While waiting in the very long line for the Colosseum an man came up and offered a tour of the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill for 20 Euro including the entrance, which meant to tour only cost 10 euros and I did not have to stand in the line.
It was the best tour I have done so far on my travels. The tour guide was very vocal and got you really involved in the tour. It was great to hear the history of the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill while looking around it. It was especially helpful for the Palatine hill as there is not much left of the ruins. Palatine Hill...what remains.

After the wonderful tour I went down and explored the Forum in the heat of the day. It is so amazing to be standing in the old centre of Rome. This was centre of the world in the past. I’m amazed at how much the Roman Empire achieved and then how the super power came to an end. It makes me wonder if I will see the end of a super power this lifetime and if so will one of the countries I visited so far become the new super power.

After looking around the form heart of Rome I walked over to the Pantheon. On the way I could not believe how many ruins make up the city. There are all the tour sites but then as you walk around the town you just stumble upon amazing old ruins with no idea what they once were and no sign or big crowd of tourist. The place is just so full of history. After about a 20 min walk I reached the Pantheon. It is amazing, so perfectly round and so big. I could not fit it into a photo. The hole in the ceiling is apparently 9.1 metres (30 ft) in diameter however when you look up at it from inside it looks a lot smaller due to the light.

After the Pantheon and I bit more exploring through the city I reached the Saint Peter's Basilica. It is a very impressive site to see at the end of the road. I was absolutely exhausted by the time I reached St Peter's but decided that I had to climb up the tower because I might not get another chance. So I walked all the way up the 330 plus stair to the top of the tower. It was hard work and very hot but the view made it all worthwhile.

After the amazing view of Rome from St Peter's I walked back to the train station via a gelato shop near the Spanish steps. I was exhausted but was looking forward to my next trip to Rome where I would be visiting the Vatican City.

Anna Villa , Rome

2007-11-24T22:05:00.000+11:00

My new work was at a farm and B and B called Villa Anna about 40km outside Rome. It was owned and run by an English couple called Mick & Angela Brown. Mike had been in the air force and after leaving the service they had opened up B and B's around England in area like the Lake District. They had finally got sick of the English weather and had moved to Italy to start up Anna Villa and some farming. They grew all their own vegetables and grapes for wine. It was so lovely.

Mike and Angela are really nice people and a pleasure to work for. When I arrived they made me a cup of tea and we waited for the other worker Sharon to arrive. Sharon was a blast. She was in her thirties and had just packed up and sold her life at home for a one-way ticket to Italy and the world. She did not have any really plans expect she wanted to go to India and China and Tibet. We spent hours swapping ideas on where to travel to. I loved it.

Working at Anna Villa was great. We would work for one day and then have the next day off to explore Rome. The work involved gardening and general farming. Both Sharon and I liked manual labour so it did not take us long to get through most of the days jobs. In the evening we would have dinner with Mike and Angela, which was always amazing, and get to sample some of the farms wine. Yummy! I could have stayed there forever. The weather was really hot around 35 everyday but the we had a pool to swim in so Sharon and I spent our lunchtimes relaxing in the pool. After a week however I had to say goodbye to Mike and Angela and start the train trip up to Sweden!

Rome, Camping

2007-11-24T21:52:00.001+11:00

I arrived in Rome in the afternoon and booked into a campsite outside of the city centre. I was exhausted both mentally and physically. I had no idea how much working at La casa sul lago had taken out of me. So I spent the next two-day just sitting by the pool in the sun and reading a book. It was great. I felt I had heaps of time to see Rome as I would be living near by on a farm so sight seeing could wait.

While staying at the campsite I got a new camera for 70 Euro! Yeah! It was great. I think the only photo I took at the campsite was this one of me. Sorry guys but it was a great place to stay.
While in the campsite I got an email from Emma (a friend from Sweden who I met in Singapore in 2006). She said I had to come up and visit her in Malmo, Sweden for her birthday on the 6th September. I really wanted to see her and Pelle (her husband) and her birthday sounded like a great date to aim for. So I told my new work in Rome that I would have to leave on the 1st of September instead of the 4th like I had originally planned. They were fine with it so I started working out ways to Sweden using my trusty Eu-rail guide.

Torricella the final days

2007-11-24T20:56:00.000+11:00

While getting off the train in Torricella I saw a woman who looked very lost. Torricella being a small town and as she did not looking like a local I assumed she was coming to stay at the hostel. So I introduced myself and took her to the hostel. She was really nice and I spend the next few days hang out with her and showing her the sites. She had come to Italy to work as an Au pair and had a few spare days before she started work.

After two days she was off and I was sad to see her go and really upset at how much my boss charged her for everything (something like 70 euros a day for a bed and 2 meals). At the hostel they just acted like it was really free and easy but they kept a tab on everything you did and then gave a you a huge bill at the end of your stay. I understand they need to make money but they should tell people the costs of things instead of acting like it all comes with the service. They do not even have an official price list for anything. I was also upset she got charged so much because they did not have enough dorm rooms due to the Beglium kids staying there, so she had to sleep on the floor with the workers and me. It was really crap living conditions with 6 of us sleeping on the floor of a dorm room and a broken toilet in the room that smelt. I would not have paid for it myself.

The next people to leave was Lara and Emma and then Stephie and Eggy would leave a day after that which would leave just me. I did not check with my boss that he had understood my email about me I wanting to stay an extra night but assumed that it would be fine since all their staff was about to leave.

Lara and Emma left and the money situation got revealed. I am use to people talking about weekly wages or hourly rates not monthly especially if you are only going to be working somewhere for 2 weeks.. but it turned out instead of being paid 300 Euro a week it was 300 Euro a month. Ohh well I was not too stressed about it as I was doing it for the experience and not the cash and these things happy with cultural differences. So Lara and Emma left and some how got paid 100Euro each for their 1 week of work. As I said before they were way more into the holiday part of the working holiday so it all seemed good.

The next day my favourite Estonian girls left, Stephie and Eggy. Eggy was in tears and it was so sad to say good bye to them. So then it was just me in the room by myself. It felt really weird but it was only going to be for two nights cos I had organised my next job in Rome. Just when I was getting use to the idea of having the room to myself a lovely girl called Pamela arrived to work. Pamela is from Mexico and one of the nicest people I have met. She arrive at 5pm and had not eaten so I took her down to the kitchen and re heated some of the lunch for her. While we were sitting in the kitchen my Boss came in and stayed yelling continuously at us. He said we had no right to go to the kitchen and that we were stealing from him etc. I tried to explain that I was just trying to help out and that I had never been told that I could not go into the kitchen before. He would not listen so Pamela and I just sat out side and stayed out of his way. Pamela looked so shocked and was ready to leave. I tried to tell her that it was actually an ok place to work at but was being to have my doubts about it too.

While hiding outside we meet two of the Belgium camp leaders called Griet and Thomas. They were both really nice and invited me to come stay with them in Gent,Belgium. Never to be one to tour down an offer I took their details and promised to see them sometime in September.

That evening when I came down for dinner Laura (my bosses girlfriend) came up and asked me why I was still there. I was really confused so went to talk to my Boss. I apologised for upsetting him earlier and he said he did not care. He only said he had hired Pamela to take my place and that I should leave. It was all so confusing and 10.30 at night. It turned out he had never read my email about the fact I wanted to stay an extra night so had expected me to leave a day earlier. But it was so odd that he had not said anything all day about it.

I told him I could not leave that night cos there were no trains at that hour so could I stay and work in the morning to pay it off. He then went on a rant what I too poor to leave and why did I want to stay because no one there liked me, etc. I was so upset but had no choice but to stay there another night. The next day I worked from 6 am until 2pm straight and then packed up my stuff. I did not want to be told I had not worked enough.

As I was leaving I asked for my pay to which my Boss answered that had given it to Lara and Emma and I should have go it off them.. I was so pissed off! So I explained that he had not paid me and I never got any money of Lara and Emma and why would he give them my pay anyway. He was obviously lying cos within seconds he gave me my money and then told me how he really liked working with me and was sad to see me go. I swear he was so nuts, his moods changed so often.
So i put on my pack and walked out into the pouring train to wait for my train. I felt the rain was fitting for the situation and I felt free again. Next stop Rome!

Venice, Italy

2007-10-02T01:03:00.000+10:00

Venice was wonderful! I loved the city and spent my two days off roaming around and taking in the sites. Unfortunately my camera broke and I was unable to take any photos! Which is a really shame as it is such a wonderful city.

I spent my first day walking around the Canal Grande from the train station end to the Piazza San Marco.

I stayed in a camping site just outside of Venice for one night. It was like a holiday resort with a swimming pool, games rooms and bars. The night I arrived was toga party night and it all felt a bit like a first year uni party. I have to admit I was not really up for running around in a sheet.
The next day I explored the city further and then took a night train back to Torricella and work. While in Venice I worked out the dates I would start at my new help exchange job (that was on a farm in Rome) and emailed my boss at torricella to ask to finish a day later then I had originally said so I could avoid paying for accommodation. It did not work out like that.

La Casa sul Lago

2007-09-12T15:52:00.000+10:00

The front gate of the hostel.

So after arriving at la Casa sul lago I learnt that the hostel was actually more like a summer camp for 80+ Belgium teenagers (aged between 15-17).So work was going to be very very busy. The next morning I started work and meet Valentino. She is the boss, giangiocomo..( or gg for shorts) sister. I knew that I really did not want to upset her as the Estonian girls had warned that anything she said regardless of how true was accepted by her brother (the boss). So I worked hard and put up with her bitchy comments without say anything.

The hostel front garden

That afternoon I went for a bike ride around the local area with Alex. Alex is from Romania and worked at the hostel washed dishes. The hostel was located on a lake so we rode the bike around the lake to the ferry terminal. The country side was lovely! It was just like all the movies you have seen on Tuscany with rolling hills covered in olive trees and small old stone villas. I loved it. Alex explained to me that at work we are the once who have to work and the local Italian employees will sit around smoking and drinking coffee and telling you off. He seemed like he had been working there too long and was ready to go home.

The next few days went well. In the morning I worked with Valentino and just ignored her bad mood swings and at lunch I worked with the Estonian girls. They were lovely and made everything so much fun. In the afternoons I had free time to do whatever I wanted. It was a nice deal and I did not mind working 6 hours straight cos I spent the afternoon relaxing.

My boss Giangiocomo ran the business with his 'girlfriend' Laura but was always making moves on everyone. I really disliked it and would not put up with any of his comments which I made clear to him right away. After I made it was clear, he left me alone. Actually he almost stopped talking to me all together. He had weird mood swings like that where he would just stop talking to everyone. I did not care, I was just there to work and get free food, accommodation and a little bit of money in return.

After about 3 days or something 2 new girls started called Emma (from London) and Lara (from Ireland). They were both more up for a holiday than a working holiday but were really fun to hang out with.

I got 2 days off a week so on my first break I went to Venice.

Florence, Italy

2007-08-22T04:26:00.000+10:00

I was so excited about going to Italy and could not wait to eat some really Italian food. I felt it would be a good country to work in to as it would give me a chance to really get into the culture and the Italy way of life.

My first stop was at Florence before heading to Torricella to start work. Florence or Firenze, as it is called in Italian, is the home of Renaissance art and Michelangelo's David. I really wanted to see David so when my train arrived at Florence at 7 am I went straight to the Accademia to wait for it to open. At 8.15am they opened and I rushed inside. David is by far the best sculpture I have ever seen and I think will ever see. It is huge and so detailed. I can not explain how prefect it is . Not the real thing but still a great looking peice of art.

After looking at the other art at the Accademia I went to the Galleria degli Uffizi. When I had seen Haley in Paris she had given me her card to the Uffizi which was meant to get me in for free and jump the line. I could not wait to use it. Haley said she was never ID when she used it so I should be fine. Hahaha! As you can imagine this one time I am asked for ID and then told I am a theft and have to run out of the Uffizi. Not how I imagined it working but that is the way it goes sometimes. haha!

So instead of joining the line which was 3 hours long I walked around Florence until 8pm when my train left for Torricella. Florence is so lovely and ever building in it is stunning. I could not believe how many Piazza, or town squares the place had. Florence is not very big and you can walk from one side to the other in about 30 mins.

While on my walks I went to the Cappelle Brancacci. The church is the home of some of the best restored frescoes by Masaccio. Luck for me they had a free information video on before you enter the chapel to explain about all the works of art and how some of the works actually contain three scenes in the one piece inorder to tell a story. It was really interesting and the best piece was the Expulsion of Adam and Eve.

Finally after walking all day I took the train to Torricella. I arrived at this small station which did not even have a full length platform at 10pm. I was so scared and had no idea what I was about to do. Lucky when the train departed from Torricella station it revealed La Casa sul Lago on the opposite side of the tracks and a smiling girl called Sese greeting me. She took me inside and two Estonian girls called Ege and Stefani, who showed me to my room which I was sharing with them. I instantly liked both of them. They were 17 and had been working at the hostel for the past 2 months in their summer holidays. After getting settled in they took me down stairs to join the others for dinner. Wow! Everyone was so nice and I was really excited to start work.

Budapest, Hungary

2007-08-21T04:47:00.000+10:00

I had heard so many great things about Budapest and was really excited to see it. When I arrived I had not booked any accommodation and hoped it would be easy to find it. Little did I know that it was actually the biggest music festival of the year on called sziget. Luck for me I got a bed at the local university dorms through the information centre at the train station.

After reaching the dormitories it took me 3 hours to check in. The place was just packed with people. It was insane! After finally checking in I went out to look around the city. Budapest is actually made up of two parts Buda and Pest divided by the Danube river. Buda, which was where I was staying, is home to castle hill and the very impressive Buda Palace. While Pest on the other hand is flat and is where everything happens. It has all the shops, nightclubs and even the Parliament.

The Buda Palace

The Parliament

The next morning I decide to look around the Buda side of the city and then go to the communist statue park, which is a must see according to my travel guide. I started off walking up the hill to the Citadella and the Liberation Monument. The Liberation Monument was one of the few Soviet monuments to have survived the fall of the iron curtain. The Citadella was a low fortress but today contains nothing much but over priced restaurants and was not worth the climb.

Afterward I went to the Buda palace. The palace was just as impressive up close as it was from the river on its hill looking over the city. And the view from the Palace of the city was very great.

After looking around the Palace I went to the Matyas Church. The church is a reconstruction using the structure of an original church from the 13th century that had survived 150 years of Ottoman rule. During which the church was converted into a mosque. I really liked the detail on the roof of the church and the inside was amazing.

After looking around the church I walked along the river to have a closer look at the Parilament. I think it is the most impressive building in the city and at night it looks even better light up in flood lights.

I then took a tram and a bus to the Communist Statue museum. The weather was so hot. It was about 45 degrees in the Communist Statue park. The Statue park was great and I was even worth standing in the heat to see it. It had a collection of the best communist statues from Budapest. The statues were so big. These photos do not do them justice. Here are a few of the best...

After the extreme heat and exhaustion from walking around the park I went to the Gellert Baths on the way home for a relaxing dip in a thermal pool. These are the best publicized baths in the city and were built in 1913. The baths are so grand that I had to take some pictures of them. I could have got a cheaper ticket to just lie in the thermal pools but I wanted to see the whole complex and it was worth it. The Hungarians takes their baths serious and they have a range of pools for different purposes. I spent most of my time in the inside pool partly because I did not wanting to get sun burnt and partly because the indoor pool was so glamours.

The indoor pool

The next day I felt a bit average so just went to the Hungarian National Museum to learn about the history of this once great empire. It was really interesting and I learnt heaps. That afternoon I logged on to the 'help exchange' website to find some work. Help exchange is a website that helps travelers find work at farms or hostels where they work in exchange for free food and a bed. Sometimes if you are luck they might pay you a little bit on top of that. I found a job at a hostel called La Casa sul Lago in Torricella near Mangione and Perugia in Itlay so I made plans that afternoon to travel to Italy.

The next day before my train left for Florence I went to the Szechenyi Baths. This is one of largest spa complex in Europe and a must see in my option! I could have spent all day there. It had so many different pools. At a guess I would say it had 20 pools, 3 steam rooms and 3 saunas. It was amazing. My favourite pool was the outdoor whirl pool. I could have spent all day being moved around by the water in the whirl pool. All you needed to do was float and the movement of the water did the rest. It was so much fun. I was the oldest person in there by 10 years but did not care. I finally left the pool after 3 hours and took the train to Vienna and then the night train to Florence.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2007-08-21T04:01:00.001+10:00

When people think of Amsterdam the first things that comes to mind is liable drug laws, red light district and the best established gay scene in Europe. I was there for none of this reasons so was not sure what I would get out of the experience. I had always wanted to see Holland and see what a country looks like when around half of it lies below sea level.

Amsterdam is a lovely looking city with all its canals and cute little houses. It is also the home of the best Indonesian food outside of Indonesia. I spent the first day just walking around the city and looking at the canals. And of course eating Indonesian food!! I really miss Asian food. Unlike at home Asian food is seen as being really exotic in most places in Europe and costs a fortune.

By day I really liked the feeling of the city with everyone ride bikes. At night however I found it no where near as fun. Because most people come to Amsterdam to try the 'Coffeeshops' there are heaps of people just sitting around stoned or falling asleep. Unlike drinking, smoking tends to make people less sociable and I found it difficult to meet people that wanted to just hang out.

I made a few friends at my hostel who were really nice but due to smoking too much they were in bed by 9pm that night. After walking around the streets and decided I should leave the next day to see the other cities of Holland I came across a nightclub. The club was really classy and had a door list but they let me in because I was by myself. Everyone inside was local. The locals unlike the tourist are not so excited by the liable drug laws so were much more fun to hang out with. So I danced the night away.

The next morning I got a message from Max who was arriving that afternoon with his mum. I was so excited to see him and to have someone to hang out with in Amsterdam. I meet them at train station. After Max and his mum Janet got settled into their hotel we went to Anne Franks house.

I had read the book in high school and was so interested to see the actually house. We had to line up for around an hour but it was worth it! The rooms that Anne and her family lived in where so small and I could not believe that survived for so long in there. Afterwards Max and I went out for a few drinks at a jazz bar near Leidseplein. The music was good but nowhere near as good as Prague jazz.

The next day we went to the Museum quarter of Amsterdam to see the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. Janet (Max's mum) is an artist and an art teacher so it was wonderful to visit these museums with her. It was like having your own guided tour of the museums.

The Rijksmuseum was under renovations so the whole collection was not on display but there was enough Rembrandt and his pupils on display to keep me happy. My favourite piece in the museum was Vermeers, The Milkmaid.

Afterwards we went to the Van Gogh Museum. I was really excited to see this museum as I had loved all the Van Gogh work I had seen at the Hermitage in St Petersburg. The museum did not disappoint. It was amazing. It was set out in chronological order so you could see how his art work changed through his life. I had always assumed that his darker looking art work was towards the end of life before he killed himself but in fact his most colourful and best art work was just before his death. It was such a lovely collection and Janet's insight made it even better.

That afternoon I left Max and Janet and took a train to Vienna (Wein) and then Budapest.

Palace of Versailles and final days in Paris

2007-08-21T03:04:00.000+10:00

One of the days we made a day trip out to the Palace of Versailles. I was really wanting to see Versailles as I had seen a copy of the palace, called Herrenchiemsee, built by mad king Ludwig in Germany. The copy was meant to be larger than Versailles but the country went broke before Ludwigs dream could be finished. So as you image I had high expectations of this palace.

The art work in the Palace was great and it gave me a chance to learn more about the French royal family history. And I think that perhaps as kid I could have passed as one of the members of the royal family, what do you think?

The palace from the outside is very grand and the gardens are incredible. You could spend hours walking through the gardens. But my favourite room by far was the Hall of Mirrors. The Hall of Mirrors at the copy in Germany was no where near as good as the really one. The mirrors made the hall look double the side and the chandeliers where just amazing!

The next day Haley and Pia left. I was going to leave too but discovered that I could save 45 Euros if I left the next day so stayed the night at a hostel down the street from the other hotel. When I reached the hostel to check in I saw Anna from uni. I know she was also travelling around Europe but did not know she was in France. We went out for lunch and catch up each others travels. She had been travelling for over 5 months and was towards the end of her trip. It was great to see her and it made me feel like I was at home again.

After lunch I went to the Musee Picasso. I was really glad to have an extra day and get to see Picasso as he is one of my favourite artist. The museum was better than I expected, not only did it have all his paintings but it also had some of his sculptures. I loved it and it was great to see some of his earlier work before it became abstract.

That evening I went back to the hostel to see Anna but she was not around so instead I went to the Moulin Rouge. I did not see a show as they started at 100Euro so instead I sat a near by bar and had a glass of red and watched everyone go in for the show. It was great people watching.

The next day I took a train to Amsterdam, Holland with the hope to catch up with a friend from Melbourne called Max!

The Louvre, Paris

2007-08-20T05:24:00.001+10:00

I was so excited when we went to the Louvre. I could not wait to see the home of the Mona Lisa and many other fabulous works of art. I also was looking forward to comparing it to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

The Louvre is huge and you have no chance at ever seeing everything in one day. So we decide it was important to see the 'must see thing' first before getting too tried and not being able to take in any more art. We went to see Venus De Milo first followed by the Mona Lisa. Both works of arts had huge crowds of people around them as you could expect. The Mona Lisa was behind glass so we could photograph her. I had heard so much about the Mona Lisa but it could not prepare me for how amazing the painting was. It felt like she was watching you from everywhere in the room. As if her eyes followed you. I was very impressed by it.

Me at the Venus de Milo
The Mona Lisa behind glass.Me and the Mona Lisa

After seeing the must see sights we then had a look at the rest of the art we were interested in. I did not really want to see the Eyptian Antiquities so instead we looked more at the sculptures and paintings. My favourite sculpture was the Roman Sleeping Hermaphrodite sculpture. From one side it is a woman

But then from the other side she is actually a he! I loved it. It was so funny.

After several hours of walking around the Louvre we were delirious and could not find our way out. It all became very funny and we were joking that we would become works of arts ourselves walking around the Louvre and never getting out. Finally we worked out where we were on the map and made it out.

That afternoon we just sat in the sun on the grass near the Louvre and looked at the amazing building.

Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle -- Paris

2007-08-20T04:52:00.000+10:00

In the morning we went to Notre Dames. It was such an amazing Gothic cathedral with stunning stained glass rose windows.

One of the rose window

To help us understand the importance of the cathedral (and because it was free), we went on a tour of Notre Dame. It was really interesting to learn about Gothic architecture and the reason behind the three levels in the church and the use of light and height to assist in explaining the religious message further. I was so surprised to learn that Notre Dame was the keeper of the crown of thorns that was worn by Jesus in the Crucifixion. Not being a very religious person this whole tour was very eye opening to me and I really enjoyed learning more about the architecture .

After Notre Dame we walked over to Sainte Chapelle which was produced for Louis XI to hold his collection of holy relics including the crown of thorns. The first thing that you notice about Sainte Chapelle is that it is so light due to the huge stain glass windows. Most of the windows are the original from 1248. It was amazing.

The high ceilings and stain glass windows in Sainte Chapelle makes it feel better than it is.

Paris, France-- Haley's birthday!

2007-08-16T05:04:00.001+10:00

I arrived in Paris at the North train station at 9am. Haley's and Pia's flight did not arrive until 12. I had not work out any accommodation and decided I would just crash on the floor of Haley and Pia's hotel room for the night. So I had some time to kill until they arrived. I decided to walk from the North Station to their hotel via the Lourve and Jadin du Luxembourg. It was a long walk but I was so excited to be in Paris that I did not even notice how heavy my bag was or anything.

Me at the Louvre

After reaching the hotel and having some lunch I waited for Haley and Pia in the foyer. Their bags were delayed to they were a bit later than expected. It was so exciting when they arrived!! Haley had been studying in Italy for the past 3 months and Pia just came over for a break from work and to see Europe.

Pia and Haley in Paris

The three of us at the Eiffel tower

After our initial catch up we had lunch in a very French looking restaurant watching everyone walk past on the street. We decided as it was Haley's birthday we should go to the Eiffel tower to celebrate so we slowly we made our way there.

The Eiffel tower by day

Everything in Paris looked so lovely. The building where just like I had imagined them. Also unlike everyone had warned me, the people were so friendly and no one cared that I could only say Bonjour and Parlez-vous anglais? in French.

That night we had champagne on the grass in front of the Eiffel tower and at 9pm we joined the line for the lift to the top. The view from the top was really impressive and I could have spent all night there but it was really cold and we were not dressed for the weather so instead we took a cab back to the hostel.

The Eiffel tower by night

Us up the tower

The cab ride home

Notre Dame by night

That night we had a really hard time finding dinner at 11pm. Everywhere we asked stopped serving dinner hours before. This was a shock to Haley and Pia who had just come from Spain and Italy when food is available at all hours of the day. Finally we found a place and I had a great steak! Yum!

Berlin, Germany

2007-08-16T04:27:00.000+10:00

I arrived in Germany at around 7pm and took the train to the main train station, Hauptbahnhof. It was really weird coming to Germany after being here back in 2000 on a high school exchange. On my exchange I was is Wurzburg which is down south near Frankfurt so i never made it to Berlin and was so excited to finally see it.

The new and very impressive Hauptbahnhof

I have not spoken German since high school but was really surprised how much I could still understand. Once at the train station I booked a train ticket to Paris using my Eurail pass. Because I wanted to leave the next night I had to upgrade to first class as the train was full. But I needed to get to Paris to Meet Haley and Pia (from High school) for Haley's birthday on the 31st July. After organising my ticket all in German might I add I went to the information desk to work out some accommodation for the night.

It is amazing how things can just fall in to place. The information woman had one place in this hostel sightly out of the city for 10 Euro a night. Which is really cheap for Western Europe! I headed out to the hostel and was meet by the lovely Canadian hostel owner. She had just moved to Berlin with her new husband to start up this hostel business. She was really friendly.

That night I had dinner with a few of the others from the hostel and then had an early one. I was exhausted after all the partying in Tallinn.

The next day I got up early and checked out and went to the train station to leave my bags for the day in a locker while I went sightseeing.

Berlin was just as I had imagined it. I went to the Bundestag, the Brandenburg Tor and Check point Charlie just to name a few sights. While at Check point Charlie I called my Dad and sister for the first time this trip. It was great to talk to them!

The Bundestag with its glass cupola, which would have had a nice view if the weather was better.

The Brandenburg Gate built as the cities gate-cum-triumphal arch but now stands at the fulcrum between the form East and West Berlin.
The very contentious Jewish Memorial.

The notorious Check point Charlie, the most infamous crossing point from West to East

After our chat it started raining and did not stop for the rest of the day. I tried to keep sight seeing and followed the path of the course of the form wall but ended up to wet and cold so called it a day early.

Some of the remaining wall

That evening I catch my train to Paris. Being First class was great!!! I shared the cabin with one other girl and slept the whole way in my comfortable bed. In the morning I was woken with a free breakfast! Yeah what service!

Tallinn, Estonia

2007-08-16T03:13:00.001+10:00

The Medieval town wall

Welcome to the most visited Baltic cities, Tallinn Estonia. According to the poster at the International Pier this city, with a local population 400,200 people, has 7 million tourist every year!! And I can understand why. It is one of the nicest looking cities I have seen with a medieval walls enclosing most of the old Town.

Treas and I arrived in Tallinn at 11pm and got a lift to our hostel from this really nice girl from the bus. We were exhausted so went straight to bed. The next morning we went to explore the city. First we headed to Raekoja Plats, the historic centre with a lovely market place. All the girls working in Tallinn dress up as peasants clothing. And I have to say they are the most attractive woman I have ever seen. There was a running joke at our hostel that there was a machine out the back somewhere producing these prefect women.

After looking around the square, we went up the hill to see the castle and the view of the city. We did not last long as there was just too many tourist. Three of the huge cruise ships were in for the day and all their tourist were out following their tour guide around. It was amusing to watch them all following a tour guide with a flag, but I could not hanged it for long. So we went down to the Pier to look at the boats.

Treas and I walked around the Medieval wall.

Tallinn from the top of the castle hill.

From the Pier we walked over to the Kadriong Park, which is a heavily wooded area just 2km from the old town. It was so nice to find yourself in the middle of wildness right next to the city. After walking in the wooded we stumbled out to find our selves on a beach and the Baltic sea!!

On the beach watching the huge boats

The beach was a really beach like home; with white sand and everything. However the weather was not like home, it was cold and windily. Despite the weather we sat on the beach for ages watching the cruise ships and ferries take people to Helsinki and Stockholm.

That night was Treas and my last night together as Treas was flying back to London the next morning, so we decide to go on a pub crawl. And Tallinn is just the place for pub crawls.

We started the night at the Kompressor bar which has the best pancakes I have ever eaten. I had a cheese and bacon pancake. yum!!! They were so filling that I had trouble finishing it. After a wonderful meal we went to another few bars one of them was this communist bar which has not changed since the old days. It was really funny.

We also went to this bar that was modelled after Mac computers. Everything inside was white and futuristic. It really felt like you were in a Mac book or something. We tried to finish the night off with another pancake but Kompressor bar closes at 1am. Boo!

The Mac bar

The next morning we got up early, hoping for another pancake hit before Treas had to catch the bus to the airport at 9am but once again we were disappointed as Kompressor was closed. Treas and I said our final farewells and he left on the bus.

I then went back to the hostel and hung out in the common room with some Aussies and kiwi's guys . One of the Aussie guys use to live in North Fitzroy just down the street from me. How small world is that!

For lunch we went to this Estonia restaurant where one of the Aussies guys knew the waitress. She gave us the lunch special which is normally only available to locals and is heaps cheaper than the tourist menu. So we ate really well.

That night we had some more pancakes at Kompressor bar again. Then we hit the bars of Tallinn again. It was a Friday night so there were heaps of English guys out on their Bucks nights. They were all so drunk and rather disgusting.

The next morning I had a final look around town and then caught a flight in the afternoon to Berlin, Germany.

Riga and Sigulda , Latvia

2007-08-15T03:54:00.000+10:00

We arrived in Riga really early in the morning because the bus ride from Vilnius to Riga is only 5 hours. We stayed at this really fun hostel. When you enter the hostel you are first in a bar and then you can open the bookshelf to reveal a staircase which leads to the dorm rooms. Really cute! As we were so early they let us have a nap on the floor of the kitchen. Yeah I know I am all class!

After a nap we had a look around town. When we were in Vilnius we meet this Aussie guy who told us that the exchange rate between Australian dollars and Lats was divide by 3. However we did not check which way he meant to divide by. So I was a bit shocked when I withdrew 200LS from the ATM and they came in 20LS bills. After a bit of shopping at the supermarket the penny dropped! LATS are equal to the pound! Silly of us for not checking. Needless to say i did not plan on spending all that cash in our 3 days in Latvia!

After looking around the town we went to the Occupation Museum to learn more about the history of Latvia and the other Baltic states. I could not believe how long they had been occupied for and that they only became independent 16 years ago. The Museum was really interesting and I would recommended it to everyone!

This house is next to the Guild Hall. When the owner of the house was not allowed to join the Guild Hall he turned the cats around so that their butts faced the Hall. It is now one of the big jokes of Latvia.

The Freedom Monument!

That night we went on a boat cruise down the Daugava river. Treas was conceived that the bridges over the river were used as example in our textbooks in first year uni. I have to admit my memory is not that good.

Treas and one of the bridges.

The next day wee took a bus to Sigulda to see the national park and go canoeing. The town of Sigulda is really cute and we stayed with this family in their spare granny flat. Sorry I didn't take any phones of canoeing cos I was worried about my camera getting wet.

Canoeing was great fun but it was very cold and wet. After canoeing we took a bus back to Riga and then got another one to Tallinn, Estonia. This time Treas convinced me not to take a night bus. He just wanted a really nights sleep for once. Fair enough! So we got to Tallinn at 11pm. We meet these really nice people on the bus who were coming back from some European Union teenage conference. One of them got her dad to give us a lift to the hostel! How nice is that!

Vilnius, Lithuania

2007-08-15T03:16:00.000+10:00

Treas and Me in Vilnius

What is there not to love about Lithuania and in particular Vilnius. It has a lovely old town with cobble streets and is nicknamed the Northern Jerusalem. It also has a monument to Frank Zappa!

It also has some really weird art!

We started our day in Vilnius by seeing Frank and then visiting The Cathedral which had been rebuilt after the war and I did not like it as much as St Anne's Church. However it does have a very special tile near it. Next to the Cathedral there is a small coloured tile that say 'stebukla' (miracle). This title marks the spot where in 1989 2 million people from the Baltic states formed a human chain that stretched from this tile to Tallinn, Estonia to protest against the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States! How amazing is that! A human chain that covers three countries! The protest did not work as the Baltic states were not granted there freedom until 1991.

The Cathedral, everyone in the right corner is standing around the stebuklas tile.

St Anne's church!

I am not the only one who likes St Anne's, apparently Napoleon wanted to take this little church with him back to Paris. It is made out of something like 30 different types of brick! That means the pretty little patterns on it where not cut into the brick after it was built but the bricks were made like that. WOW!

After looking at churches we went to the Upper castle for a view of the city. It took us a while to find a way up the hill but the view was wroth it.

The next day we took a bus to Trakai. It was the former capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and wroth a visit. It is located on a peninsula between two lakes. It is home to two castles the better of the two being the Island Castle. It was great. We spent the day looking around Trakai and the island castle and timed it perfectly to get our bus back!However everyone else also decided to take that same bus so we could not get on.

The Island Castle

I swear I didn't do it

Both Treas and I had been talking about how much we wanted to go hitching and how eastern Europe seems like a good place for it so we hitched a ride with these two guys in a five seater Ute. The younger one spoke a bit of English and we chatted to him for most of the ride. They then dropped us off in the city and told us the best places to go and see in Vilnius. They were so nice!

After our ride back to town we went to see the old Russian church. I still love the look of Onion domes.

That night we took another night bus this time to Riga, Latvia!!

Warsaw, Poland

2007-08-15T02:54:00.000+10:00

I was so excited when I got to my hostel that I would be meeting Treasure (Paul Treasure a friend from uni) soon! I was standing out the front of my hostel sending him a message to see where he was and then just as I pressed send I hear someone yelling. It was Treas! Yeah!

Treasure had booked himself in to a different hostel as he was not sure this crazy plan would work out. So we spent the day together sightseeing in Krakow and I told him about my amazing train ride and meeting the girl who knew Dr Krodkiewski. He filled me in on his travels for the past 9 months and I told him about all the gossip at Connell Wagner. Treas worked at CW before me.

Everyone had told me that Warsaw was ugly but I really liked it. The city has its communist block housing but with a bit of exploring you can look around the stunning old town and climb up to the green roof on top of the University Library. And like every city in Europe it has a Castle! Unfortunately this castle is used as the now so you can not walk around everywhere.

Treas at the Castle

The University Library

The green roof at the University Library. It is the best Green roof I have seen. I would have hung out here heaps if I went to uni in Poland.

My favourite building in Krakow. I just love the bubble look! If you see it up close you can see that the glass colour changes with the bubbles adding to the effect!

The next day we had a culture day with a capital K! Well that was the name Treas came up with. We went to the Nozyk Synagogue. I had never been inside a synagogue so jumped at the chance. The Nozyk Synagogue was the only Synagogue in Warsaw to survive the war. They had a small museum which showed how everything else in Warsaw was flattened during the war. It was really interesting. After visiting the Synagogue we had lunch at the Kosher restaurant next door. There we meet this really nice couple from Paris David and Sarah. They invited us both to visit them in Paris anytime. They were so friendly.

That evening we took a night bus to Vilnius Lithuania! Poor Treas had to put up with my obsession with using night public transport to save money on accommodation.

Krakow, Poland

2007-08-15T02:04:00.000+10:00

The train from Bratislava to Krakow has to go through Czech so it I did not make my trip easier by going to Slovakia but I was glad I got to see the other half of the previous Czechoslovakia. The train took 10 hours and I had to chance trains 3 times but eventually I made it to Krakow! On the last train to Krakow I made friends with this English guy and Canadian guy. We were all staying at different places but said we would try to meet up at the Information centre in the town square. There appeared to be only one on our map so should not be a problem.

One of the trains I took!

I stayed at a hostel called Bling Bling which was a nice relief after Orange Hostel! I put my stuff away and then made it down to the town square to meet the others. Unfortunately there was several information offices and I never found them. Instead I went sightseeing. As I was getting further north and it was summer it stayed light for ages so sightseeing was possible.

The streets of Krakow

Wawel Castle

Mariacki Church. Legend has it that during one of the Tatar raids a guard watching from the tower saw invaders approaching and took up this trumpet to warn the others however his alarm was cut short by an arrow through his throat. Since then every hour a trumpeter will play from one of the towers and stops suddenly in the song where the original trumpeter was apparently shot.

Sukiennice or Cloth hall in the centre of the town square.

Some of the lovely churches in Krakow

The next day I went to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I went with the tour at the hostel because the woman there told me it was good and would work out the same price otherwise. It took 1.5 hours to reach Auschwitz from Krakow. Once there I felt really ill. It was just one of those places everyone has to see for themselves. I had learnt so much about Auschwitz at school but nothing can really prepare you for the really thing. It was just such a huge factory of death. I almost cried when we went into the crematorium. The whole thing was just so depressing. The guide was really good and really passionate about the camp so it added to the experience.

That night when I got back to the hostel I could not do anything. I was just shocked! While sitting on the couch looking exhausted I made friends with this guy called Richard from England. Richard informed me that he went to Auschwitz-Birkenau but only paid $14 compared to my $50 by doing it himself. That was a huge saving but I did like having a guide.

That night I was booked onto a train to Warsaw and felt like some home cook food for a change so I cooked some spaghetti for Richard, who was broke, myself and some others at the hostel. Finally after chatting with everyone in the hostel for several hours I left for my train at 1am.

Just before I left for my train some people at the hostel had been telling me horror stories about night trains. Just what I needed. thanks guys!! Anyway for the first time in ages I was a bit nervous about the train. But these nerves were all gone when I meet this girl from Warsaw. We started talking and it ended up she had just had a meeting with Dr Janusz Krodkiewski, who was a lecture from Melbourne Uni and had taught me for 4 years at university. What a small world!!! So we spent most of the ride talking about Engineering and Janusz. it was soon funny!

As the train pulled up in Warsaw I turned my mobile on. Then I got a message from Paul Treasure (a friend from uni who I did my final year project with), who I had told to meet me in Warsaw and then travel with me to the Baltic states but never thought he would come. The message said he would be arriving in Warsaw at 10am and where should we meet!!!How exciting!!

Bratislava, Slovakia

2007-08-15T01:20:00.000+10:00

I took the night train to Bratislava from Prague. It took around 7 hours and I planned on sleeping all of it. When I got on I got a room to myself. By the way gone are the days of comfortable beds on trains I can only afford to ride seat class in Europe, so have learnt to sleep while seated these days.

Anyway i had my room to myself which contains 6 seats. However at the next stop my dream of getting a good night sleep was lost. The cabin was packed. There was two woman and their two children and a man from Bratislava. I started talking to the guy from Bratislava and it turned out he was on his way home after just completing the Trans Siberian, the other way!! What are the odds. So we talked for a bit about how great Mongolia was and our favourite places in each town. Finally the women and their kids got off and I got some sleep.

The blue Church near my hostel.

When we reached Bratislava I had to find my hostel called 'Orange Hostel'. The guy from the train helped me and then offered to show me around his town. He said that he did not want his holiday to end and by showing me around the town he could feel like a tourist even at home. So I got my own guided tour to Bratislava. Which was very helpful as it was a Sunday and nothing as open including the information centre.

A statue of Napoleon who came here too!

The Old Town Hall

I just like this building!

Cathedral of St Martin. The top of this steeple has a gold crown on it which is so heavy it is causing it to tip.

The Bratislava Castle

After touring the town We took a bus to a near by Castle ruin at Devin. It was lovely

That night I said farewell to my new found friend and went back to my hostel. If you ever go to Bratislava do not stay at Orange Hostel. It was the worst place I have ever stayed and that includes the night Taz, Nick and I slept in the common room of a hostel.

It looked like an old psychiatric hospital. With levels and levels of floors that looked the same. Each room had four 'beds'. The beds consisted of three cushions as a mattress over a blank of wood. The rooms had no fan or air conditioning and it was 38 degrees that day so we had to sleep with the windows open. I woke up several time to find cockroach crawling over me. It was really bad and I had booked to stay there for two nights!!! The photos below do not do it justice. Trust me do not stay there!

The beds

The long corridors or Orange Hostel

The next day I just looked around town, updated my blog and got my train ticket to Krakow, Poland!

Prague, Czech Republic

2007-08-15T00:52:00.000+10:00

After Taz and Nick left I went and found a new hostel to stay in called 'Apple'. It was in the heart of the city so I did a bit more sightseeing around Prague.

The next day Apple hostel was full so I needed to find somewhere else to stay. I decided to take this as a sight to leave so booked a night train to Bratislava, Slovakia.

That night before I left I went to a jazz bar. My Dad had raved about how great the jazz was in Prague so I had to see it for myself. I went to a small jazz bar, which was downstairs just off the main square. It was great! It was a really small venue with only about 20 people in the audience and 4 people in the band. I loved it! Unfortunately I had to leave early for my train so did not get to see the whole show. Boo! But I had a great time while I was there.

The Jazz bar

Cesky Krumlov and Telc, Czech Republic

2007-08-10T22:28:00.000+10:00

The next morning I had a fight with the hostel staff about the price of my bill and we rushed off to catch the bus. It was looking like we had no chance of making it and then everything went our way and we made it to the ticket office with a few minutes to spare. However we were shocked to discover the bus was sold out and we had to wait 4 hours for the next one.

While in the line for the tickets we meet this guy called Garry from New York. He had also missed his bus so we invited him to join us for breakfast while we wait for the next one. We then went to a cafe down the street with free Wifi and sat on Nick and Taz's computers for the next 4 hours.

Finally to the relief of of the cafe staff we left for our bus. The bus ride was about 3 hours and I naturally fell asleep. Unfortunately for Garry who we just meet I fell asleep on his shoulder and Taz and Nick took great joy photographing the event.

We finally reached Cesky Krumlov and followed Garry to his hostel which we also booked into after his recommendation. That day we looked around the town and had a look at the castle from the outside. Cesky Krumlov is so cute. It is a little medieval village.

The castle at Cesky Krumlov

The town of Cesky Krumlov

The next day it was raining so we had another look around town and went to the castle and saw the bears. They were so cute!

That afternoon the hostel had free beer so Nick and I did our best for the team. We then went for a walk down to the Eggenberg Beer Brewery and Nick and I were over joyed!

One day this stuff will be beer..Yum!

The next morning we had to leave really early. So we slipped out and walked to the bus stop. Garry left before us but got lost on the way so ended up taking the bus with us part of the way to Telc. He needed to catch a connecting train but because he missed his first bus it looked like he had no chance of making the train. Taz sat next to Garry on the bus ride and was chatting to him. She asked him if he had a tongue ring because the other night at dinner it looked like he did. He said he did not and acted like it was a weird question to ask. Later Taz told Nick and I and we check our photos from the other night as low and behold he does have a tongue ring! Who lies about this kind of stuff! it was really odd. Nick claimed the only conclusion was Garry was a serial killer. hahaha!

So after a long bus ride we reached Telc and it was great! A very small village in the S-bend of a river. It was great!

While in Telc we stopped off at a cafe for a hot chocolate. Taz asked the waitress what they put in a Frappe. Unfortunately for Taz the woman miss understood her and thought she was ordering one. Look at Taz's disappointment!

Finally it came time for us to get a bus back to Prague. Nick and I had worked it all out on the Internet or so we thought! We waited at the bus stop for hours and made friends with this local guy called Matej. He was also travelling to Prague and was not sure what was wrong with the buses that day. So we went with Matej to another town where the buses run more often! Apparently!

We then sat there waiting until 7.30 waiting for our bus. We started waiting at 4pm. The bus ride was great despite the wait. It was with a bus company called Student Buses or something and it had free coffee and newspapers to read and they even played us a move! So it all ended well.

That night we went out with Matej for dinner to have some typical Czech food. It was consisted of a kind of goulash and tasted great. After dinner we went back to our hostel to find out it was full and we had no beds. So we went out to the Cross bar for a while and then slept in the common room of the hostel. It was not very comfortable but it was better than nothing. The next morning Taz and Nick left for Spain! It was so sad to say good bye but it was great seeing them.

Helsinki, Finland and Prague, Czech Republic

2007-08-10T21:59:00.000+10:00

After leaving St. Petersburg early in the morning I took the train to Helsinki. It was weird to be back on my own again but it would not last for long. On the train I made friends with this woman from Finland who was working in Russia. She gave me a bit of a run down on the history of Finland and its relationship with Russia. Basically Finland has only been independent since 1917 after being ruled by first the Swedes and then the Russians.

The woman has been working in Russia for several years but said due to the current political situations and the increased taxes Russia is placing on foreigner she will be moving home next year.

The Helsinki Train Station

On the train I got a free breakfast so was really happy as I had not even thought about food at 5am when I was leaving. Once in Helsinki I had 5 hours to look around before I had to catch a flight to Prague to meet Taz! I tried to see as much as I could in my short time and managed to see the following.

The town square

It was great to see free food and had to get some of these berries! yum!

The main church called 'Church in the Rocks'

The Harbour

And of course the home of Nokia

After my mad rush sightseeing I took my flight to Prague. From the airport I took a bus out to Holesovice to be meet by Taz, Nick and Lee. Very exciting. Lee's presents was meant to be a surprise but I had a feeling she would be there so wasn't to shocked to see her. That night we all had dinner with Paul. Who is a friend from Melbourne who is now living in Prague, teaching English. It was great to see Taz again as I had not seen her since January when she left for Spain to study for 6 months.

Nick and Taz in Prague!

That night we went for a few drinks at the Cross Club. Which is the coolest bar I have ever been to. It is made out of old car part and scape metal and looks amazing. Nick took a few good pics that night which I will have to add later. After staying awake for over 24 hours we went back to the hostel. Taz and Nick kindly organised me a bed in their room at the hostel and we made plans to do a walking tour in the morning.

The next day I did not wake up until noon. Which I think is the biggest sleep in I have ever done! The walking tour was not going to happen so instead we went to Tesco and got some ingredients to cook a meat pie for Paul and his housemates to say thanks for letting Lee stay with them and showing us around town.

We started cooking at 7 and the food was not ready until 11. But I wasn't our fault. The oven was really weird at Paul's place. Anyway the food tasted great even though it took ages and we had chocolate muffins for dessert. YUM!!

The next day I made Taz and Nick get up early and do a walking tour with me. It did not work too well as part way through it started pouring rain, so we stopped into a coffee shop for a hot chocolate. It must have been the most expensive cafe around. So after our overpriced hot chocolates and a fight with the waiter about whether we have to tip or not. (Naturally Taz and I informed the waiter that it was wrong for him to expect a tip and we should only tip if the serve is good.)

Ohh the rain is so much fun. Taz and Nick trying to keep dry

We went to Paul's place to say good bye to Lee who was off to Poland with some English guys she meet. That night Nick, Taz and I made plans to go to Cesky Krumlov on the first bus in the morning. We had a big of a task ahead of us as our room was not looking great.

St Petersburg

2007-07-30T04:53:00.000+10:00

The train to St. Petersburg left at 11.30pm and I was so sleepy when we got on that I could hardly walk. I slept well on the train and woke up to find that we were in St. Petersburg. That morning everything was very disorganised and we did not get into our hotel until 1pm despite arriving in the early morning.

Jenny and I spent the afternoon looking at the Peter and Paul's fortress, however due to reconstructions most of the place was closed. On the way to the fortress we saw this Mosque, which I really like and was a change to the churches we had just seen.

At the fortress we were able to see the impressive Peter and Paul Cathedral. The Cathedral has a huge spire that is 404 feet tall, which has a golden angel holding a cross on the top. We also were able to walk on top of the wall of fortress and see the city.

Outside Peter and Paul Cathedral

Inside Peter and Paul Cathedral

Jenny and I then tried to do a walking tour of the city, we saw the outside of the 'Church Our Saviour on the spilled blood',the Admiradlity and the bronze horseman.

Me at 'Church Our Saviour on the spilled blood' kind of looks a look like St Basil's

The bronze horseman

The Admiradlity

The weather was really hot and walking around after the big day before was really hard. That evening we went on a boat cruise around the canals that make up st Petersburg. Note to everyone:I got my tickets as student prices by showing my drivers licence because they could not read English and assumed it was a student card. Very helpful!

The canals of St Petersburg.

St Petersburg is such an amazing place. It felt really weird to be in such a European city after being in Asia for so long. Moscow was great and has a huge WOW factor with the Kremlin and the red square but St Petersburg is stunning and every building looks good. I could not believe how nice it was. Everyone else had seen more of Europe than me and Jenny even declared it nicer than Paris!!

At night it never really got dark as it was during the White Night period when the sky always remains light. This made drinking at the pub a problem because you kept saying you would go home when it got dark.

Speaking of drinking at a pub we were at a beer garden and this guy ordered his beer then asked the waitress to heat it up in the microwave until it was hot like a cup of tea temperature. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen. I could not stop laughing. He then drank it and ordered another one. I know we give the English crap about warm beer but this was just crazy.

The next day we got up early and went to the Hermitage. It was free because it was the first Thursday of the month or something like that. The rush to get in was crazy. The Hermitage has a revolving glass door at the entrance and people were being crushed trying to get in. It was insane. I just laughed at all the chaos.

Jenny and I got an Auto guide to share and walked around the Hermitage for around 6 hours and still didn't see everything! It is just so big and the art work is amazing that you need a week to see it all. I had no idea how much art work was there and how much well know work at that.They have work from Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael,Picasso, and Matisse. It is going to be hard to top this collection but we will have to wait for France!

After the Hermitage we were exhausted and had a rest before looking inside the 'Church Our Saviour on the spilled blood'. The church was amazing and I recommended everyone to have a look inside it. It is worth the money. The Church has such an unusual name as it was built on the site where Alexander the Great (II) was killed. The whole inside of the church is a mosaic! It must have taken years to make and during Communism it was used as a storage shed. It is hard to believe such a lovely place could be used to store food and even dead bodies during the war.

That night was our last night with everyone so we had a fear well dinner at the place down the street. The next day Jenny and I went to the Russian Art Museum. Well we tried to but ended up in a Russian history museum. The history museum was great and we were able to see the history of Russia and Siberia. It was the prefect end to the trans Siberian railway. I was glad that we found it instead of the art museum. I was a bit over art after the hermitage.

St Isacc's Cathedral

Afterwards we went up St Isacc's Cathedral to have a final view of the city. The next morning I left for Helsinki at 7am.

Moscow

2007-07-30T04:00:00.000+10:00

We only had limited time so Chris, Emma, Jenny and I had spent the train ride working out when and how we could fit everything in to our 2 days. We arrived in Moscow in the late afternoon so walked down to the Red square, and had a look around town. In hindsight this was the best time to see the Red square and St. Basil's Cathedral as the light was good for photos and there was not many tourist around. I could believe I was actually at the Red Square. It was just like every Jame Bond movie I have seen.

The next day was Monday which was going to be our day to see St. Basil's Cathedral but due to renovations our plans were changed. Emma had managed to convice Chris that he had to see a ballet with her in Moscow and both Jenny and I decided to join them. I had never seen a ballet and thought that Moscow must be the perfect place to see one. That morning the four of us got tickets to 'Romeo and Juliet' for that nights show.

We then spent the day looking at the Moscow's Metro. The metro stations in Moscow are one of the big tourist attactions with each metro station having it's own stunning architecture filled with Soviet art and large chandeliers. The escalators down to the metro made the Parliment station in melbourne's escalators look short.

After looking around the Metro. We had a look at the main shopping street called Arbat. The street was full of shops selling everything Russian from hats to dolls and ex army gear. I didn't get anything but did try on a few hats. what do you think.....

Afterwards we went to Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. It was so big and now dominates the skyline in Moscow. The church was destoryed during Stalin's time and for 50 years was the site of the world's largest swimming pool.

That night we went to the ballet. It was really great. The dancers are so fit. After the second act all the preformers came out as if the show was over. I was very confused as both Romeo and Juilet weres still alive. Very odd! Then everyone left the hall. We were all shocked. we soon discovered that it was just another intermission. After 20 mins the show continued.

The next day we got up really early and made plans to do the Kremlin and Lenin before lunch. The Kremlin opened at 10.30 but we were in the line by 8.30. When the ticket office was about to open a man came up and told us that due to the bomb scares in London the Kremlin would be closed. We had waited all that time and we happy to wait another 5 mins to hear the thruth from the ticket box ourselves. In the end the man was lying in an attempt to get us to go to the Diamond mesuem or something. So at 10.30 we entered the Kremlin, second in line. We had to have an Autotour because they said they were not selling other tickets. It was all really just a money making operation but I didn't care cos I really wanted to see the Kremlin and it was worth it. Check out these pictures.

Putin, the man himself was in America so we couldn't get to see him though we did see this look alike outside.

After the Kremlin, Jenny, Daniel and I went to see Lenin. The line for Lenin was 2 hours long and he was only going to be open for another hour so things were not looking good. We went to the back of the line and were shortly apporached by a man offering to get us and people next to us in now if we aid him 150 roubles. Lenin is normally free but to get out of the line I was willing to pay. So with his help we bribed the guards to let us in. It was great fun.

Lenin was looking good compared to Mao and Ho Chi Minh who I have seen before. Then we got to see the tombs of other past leaders like Starlin. Boris wasn't there as he was burried somewhere else.

That night we took a boat cruise down the Moscow river. It was a lovely way to see the city and say farewell to Moscow for now.

Apologies

2007-07-19T16:11:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone,
Really sorryfor how rushed the past posts have been. I am planning on proof read and spell check them etc asap. Sorry in the meantime for the hopeless grammar and spelling.
Cheers
Ness

The train from Irkutsk to Moscow

2007-07-17T04:10:00.000+10:00

This train lasted for 3,5 days and covered 5189 km! I was sharing a cabin with Chris, Emma and Jenny for this train ride and we decided that we needed to stop eat every 30mins like normal train rides and instead have meals at normal times.

The train team- from the front left Emma, Jenny, me and Chris {Emma´s husband}

We turned our watches to Moscow time we were got on the train and tried to get use to the five hour time difference straight away. Peter on the other hand said it was better to work on local time and spent the whole train ride up dating his watch with every time the train travelled through a time change. It became a running joke to wish peter a good morning when it was his lunch time etc.

The train was the nicest one we had been on yet. On Russian trains each carriage has two provodnik or provodnitsa. According to the LP if you butter the provodnitsa up the right way they can make your journey much more pleasant. We had two provodnitsa {female attendants} called Anna and I can not remember the other ones name. The woman who's name I have forgotten was really nice to us and we helped her out by explaining everything she told us to the other so she did not have to repeat herself. Anna on the other hand was lovely looking but always looked like she hated her job and wanted to cry.

The whole train journey was very long so I will just tell you about some of the highlights:

While travelling through a small town we watched three guy scull a bottle vodka straight. They were typical Siberian man with no tops on and were drunk at 2pm. One of them sat up and then proceeded to threw up all over the train track. I have never seen anyone vomit that much before. After he threw up he sat back down and continued to scull the bottle of vodka. All class!!

In most train stations in Siberia you where glad you did not have to stay in the towns. The people were generally drunk, no matter what time of the day and look very unhappy with everything.

One of the highlight stops on the first day was at 3NMA which we declared to be Emma stop. We got off here and tried local food and looked around for 20mins before the train took off.

Russian trains have a remarkable record of being punctual and as we discovered if you arrive at a stop late you must leave at the correct time regardless of if the timetable says you have a 30 min stop or not. One time we walked over to the babushka for some food only to have to sprint back to the train as it began to take off 5 mins later. I have never run so fast in my life.

Lake Baikal night 2 and Irkutsk

2007-07-17T03:47:00.000+10:00

The next day it was raining and overcast all day. We had planned to go on a boat trip and hike up a hill but all this went by the way side. Instead I played Mahjong most of the morning with Emma and Chris. We then went for a walk down to the deck restaurant again with Maryanne and Jenny for lunch. Daniel came and joined us after he had tried fishing in the lake all morning with no success. He was dripping wet!

After lunch we watched a DVD and meet another Vodka train group who were traveling the other way. That night we had a "picnic" dinner inside which involved a very over price smoked fish. After dinner we played some drinking games and talked to the other group for a bit.

In the morning we were leaving for Irkutsk at 11am so I went for a quick walk around town before we left. Lake Baikal reminded me of early 1980 Country Australia. There are lots of kids riding around on bikes too big for them. Everyone is wearing really bad 80s clothing and has 80s hair cuts. It was a really cute little town!

The bus ride how was crazy. The bus driver took every corner at 120km and would change sides of the road without warning. I thought that after china I would not have to worry about being in a car again but I was wrong! After an hour of thinking we were all going to die we reached Irkutsk. Alex revealed that we no longer had a day in Irkutsk but instead 1,5 hours. Jenny, Chris, Emma, Daniel and I set off on our walking tour of Irkutsk.

Raising of the cross church
Saviours Church
Saviours Church- from the other side
Bogoyavlensky church

After our walking tour and a 5 min look at the web for the first time in ages. So sorry to everyone for not being in contact of updating this blog for so long!!! We then went to the supermarket and got our supplies for our 3,5 day train trip to Moscow!

Irkutsk and Lake Baikal

2007-07-17T03:18:00.000+10:00

We arrived in Irkutsk to meet our guide Alex. He wanted to take us to a bank and then straight to lake Baikal. This was a nice idea but we had not eaten really food for two day and where all going crazy after the train ride with the border crossing from hell. i had eaten too much sugar and was losing the plot.

Alex could not be convinced so after watching for the money exchange office to open for 1,5 hours we started the bus ride to Lake Baikal. Our bus driver looked like the late Boris Yeltsin. I slept the whole way and woke to find us pulling up out the front of a very cute little wooden house.

After some more discussion we finally convinced Alex to let us eat some breakfast. We ate down on a deck by the lake. The lake was so big!

After lunch we went for a walk around the area. We were staying in Listvyanka which is lake Baikals most visited spot. We walked to the wooden cottage villages called krestovka and the Svyato Nikolskaza Church which was named after the apparition st Nicholas who saved the maker from a ship wreck in the lake.

After our walk we headed back to the hotel for some lunch. Lunch that day was a lovely 3 course meal cooked by the ladies at the hotel. It was great. We actually ate vegetables for the first time in ages and I began to feel better in no time. The food in Mongolia was very average! After lunch I went to bed as I did not get much sleep on the train as our cabin was the party cabin and no one would go back to their cabins when we got sleepy.

After a good night sleep and writing in my journal we had dinner. My life in Lake Baikal was all about food. That night we watched a DVD called "the Matador". The DVD player was really crap the movie kept stopping. After dinner I sat up and talked to Jenny for a few hours.

The Train from Mongolia to Irkutsk, Russia

2007-07-17T02:31:00.000+10:00

The train had no dining cart like predicted. We were also told that we would reach the border at 3,30am and the toilet would then be locked until we finished crossing the border which was predicted to take anywhere between 5 to 10 hours. We set our alarms and got up at 3am to go to the toilet.

In woke in the morning to find that we were still sitting in the same place and everyone was out side yelling that the train was gone. It was all very weird. Chris wrote this in my diary to explain the situation:

10,16am 25-06-2007

7 hours and counting, our friends on the 9 other carriages have disappeared and only us and one other carriage of westerners have survived. Savage dogs are circling outside preying on the caged strangers as we go quietly stir crazy inside.

We ponder our fate every minute for those who have watches. Others lay idly reading books they would never normally read and listen to music they would never normally listen to.

Hopefully we will move soon. Some passengers have reported seeing a camouflaged mad man carrying a knife and the paranoia is festering internally. Nobody knows if everyone is still accounted for as supposed official guards have stated burning documentation and strong rumours exist of them being relayed to organ trafficking circles.

We will leave soon, only hope and the glimmer of life we love so much may get us through this.

Only time will tell

ANON.

It was not quiet that bad but the dogs and man with a knife are all true and we did have no idea when we would move again. We also had to pay to go to the toilet and get past the dogs to do so.

Finally at 9am the Customs offices started work and collected our passports. It was another 2 hours until we started moving across the Nomans land towards the Russian border. We had to fill out the Russian custom forms in duplicate and there was 3 forms. The female Russian guards were really scary and they made us move our bags out of our room while the searched the room. The man Russian guards were much friendlier. After the customs had finished we were off again. The border crossing took 10 hours in total!! It was crazy!!

I was sharing a cabin with Tracy, Yeresa and Jenny again and we found ourselves the party cabin which was really crap when we wanted to go to sleep and just be left alone for a bit. At one point we had 8 people in our cabin. It was all a bit too much for me and I found myself locking the door so we could get some peace.

Before we went to bed there was a lot of confusion about time zones and what time we would arrive in Irkutsk. The train was travelling on Moscow time but operating on local time. Whatever that means! The problem was occurring because no one knew who was on day light savings and who was on normal time. There was another group of traveller who had a guide with them from Australia but he was the most useless person ever and the general rule was whatever he said was wrong!

Finally we reached Irkutsk at 7 am local time or 2 am Moscow time!

Hiking in Gorkhi Terelj National Park

2007-07-17T02:10:00.000+10:00

The next morning we got up early and went for a hike to Turtle rock. The rock I think really looks like a turtle.
We then climbed around the rock and Daniel naturally ended up being a mountain goat and climbing everything he could find.

After we walked to the temple. The view from the temple was great but we did not pay to see inside the temple as it was really small and we could see everything we wanted to see from the front door. We ate lunch at the temple and then walked back to camp.

The temple

On the way back to camp we saw some work men putting up a Ger tent. Maryanne, Dean and I stayed and tried to help. It was great to see how the tent was created. They did the whole job in around 30mins.

That night back at the ger camp we had a "supermarket clearance" party: where we ate all the left over food from our train trip and the snacks we brought to the Ger camp with us. I ate way too many sweets and felt ill.

The next day we took a bus back to Ulaanbaatar and rented a hotel room for the day to keep our gear in. I did some washing and had a look around town.

We then stopped off at the supermarket to get some food for the train ride as no one knew if we would have a dining cart on this train. All the food in the supermarket was either German, Russian or Chinese. I found it really weird that there was so much German food and assumed it was to do with the old communist days and east Germany.
After shopping we got on to the train and left for Russia!

Ger Camp and horse riding

2007-07-17T01:15:00.000+10:00

The next day I felt average after drinking too much the night before and spent the morning writing postcards and talking to Jenny about life in London and what to see there. Just before lunch Jenny, peter and I climbed up another one of the hills near by. The views were amazing. The landscape was similar to home and the weather equally as hot.

In the afternoon we went for a horse ride to a local Nomadic family to hear about their lives. I was given the big horse while everyone easy was given the small Mongolian native horses.

We were not given any helmet and I was a bit concerned about falling off. Our horse riding guide also did not speak any English which added to the fear. In the first few minutes of the ride my horse took off towards the main road. I tried to pull back on the reigns like you normally do to stop a horse but this only made the horse speed up. I was a little freaked out and now of the guides seemed to care when I yelled out for help. Finally I got the horse to stop just before the road. The rest of the ride was fine though he did try to speed up a few times again.

The ride was great fun and it was a wonderful way to see Mongolia. After around 30 mins we reached the nomadic family and got off our horse and went inside. Toya was there to help translate all of our questions to the family and to help us follow the correct etiquette in the ger. We entered the ger and had to walk in a clockwise direction. The ger belonged to a woman and her husband. They lived their with their youngest son who was still not married. Because it was school holidays the family´s grandchildren were visiting. This meant there was around 9 children also sleeping in the ger.

The ger was similar to the ones we stayed in but instead of western beds they had small traditional Mongolian beds. We ate some traditional food which the family had prepared which consisted of yoghurt, cheese, milk tea and biscuits with butter. I really liked the tea and the yoghurt. We asked the woman as many questions as we could think of. I wished I had thought of a few more during the horse ride.

We learnt that Nomadic families spend most of their time just with their families and meet up with other nomadic tribes at naadam festival. They farm all their own food and occasionally ride into town to barter for supply that they can not create themselves. The family moves four times a year and has a regular camp site at each location. They owned the camp site that they stayed at in summer. Toya told me that land ownership had only been introduced to Mongolia in the past 3 years.

After a lovely chat to the Nomadic woman we rode back to camp. I took a different horse because Peterś horse was really small and he looked like he could touch the ground while riding it. His horse was really slow so I made my way home a few km behind the pack. Peter on the other hand had a few issues with my horse and was lead by one of the guides all the way back to camp.

Me on the smaller Mongolian horse

Back at camp no one was up for drink games again so we had hot chocolate in Jenny and my ger with roasted marshmallows over our little pot belly stove.

Gandtegchinlen Khid and the Ger camp

2007-07-17T00:35:00.000+10:00

In the morning we took a local bus to the Gandtegchinlen Khid or Gandan temple. The temple is the largest one in Mongolia and managed to survive the communist purge in 1930s. I had read a bit about how Buddism came to Mongolia in the book Trish gave me on Tibet. It appears that the Tibetian were afraid of the Mongolian empire so in an attempt to have them on side they told Chinggis that he was a reincarnation of a holy person. The Tibetians were then included in the empire as spiritual advisers. The temple was really but after Tibet it is hard for anything to compare.

Toya then suggested that we could a horse show as we were going to miss the Naadam Festival. The horse show was around 70km out of town in the Gorkhi Terelj national park close to the Ger camps we were going to stay at. The horse show was a bit of a joke and it felt like the locals had just gotten together to make a bit of money. However I was still happy cos I got to see The archery, wrestling and some horse acrobatics. There was also a throat singer, who made the weirdest noises I have ever heard.

The throat singer

horse archery
archery

Me being Mongolian!
Mongolian wrestlingThe winner

After the show we went to our Ger Camp. I was really excited to be staying in the camp and was glad it wasn't really touristy. It was about 300m over a hill from the tourist camp so we were alone but close to really toilets and the restaurant. Jenny and I got a Ger to ourselves.
Dan, Chris, Dean and I hiked up the near by hills. Some of the climb was really hard and Daniel is like a mountain goat and left the rest of us in his dust.

While hiking the boys managed to scare the hell out of me by talking about bears and wolfs which are often in the area. I kept hearing things are was convinced it was a bear. I had no idea what I would do if i saw a bear or what you were meant to do. Everyone talks about how dangerous Australia is but I would rather a deadly spider over a bear any day. Naturally we didn't see any and made it back to the gers alive. After dinner we played a few drinks games one of the gers.

Ulaanbaatar

2007-07-16T22:25:00.000+10:00

We arrived in Ulaanbaatar to be greeted by our guide Toya and her friend Mirror, who was training to be a guide. They took us to a bank to get our money exchanged. You can not get money out in Ulaanbaatar without a VISA card. so lucky I had read ahead in my LP and brought enough Chinese yuan with me cos I don't have a visa card.

After that we went to our hotel. I was really looking forward to a nice hot shower but was very disappointed when I turned on the taps. Mongolia has centre hot water for every suburb. Unfortunately our suburbs hot water was under repairs for the next ý days so I had to have a cold shower. And cold in an understatement. In the words of Jenny," You get an ice cream headache from just washing your hair". It felt like the water had come straight from the north pole! and I could not stand under the shower for any long period of time with out going numb.

After our showers we headed out for lunch and then a look around the town. We had lunch at Nomad cafe which was some of the best food I have eaten this trip. After getting sick of Chinese food it was great to have a veggie soup and real bread. In china you can only get sweet bread.

We went for a walk to the main square and saw the statue of the man himself: Genghis Khan or Chinggis according to the Mongolians.

The main city square in Ulaanbaatar

Genghis Khan looking likt the giant man he was

One of the first things you notice in Ulaanbaatar other than the city looking like a war zone, is that all the signs are written in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. Our guide Toya told us that the Mongolian language was originally written in sand script but with the introduction of Communism in1924 and the influence from Russia the language was written in Cyrillic. The Mongolian language is a Turkic and sounds very different from Chinese.
Ulaanbaatar looking like a war zone

Ulaanbaatar looking like a war zone
The mixmash of buildings that you find in Ulaanbaatar

The Mongolian people are much larger and healthier looking than the average Chinese person, as their diet consists of meat and dairy. While on the train to Mongolia a local girl told us not to eat any of the vegetable because they come from China and the Chinese poison them. I am not sure if the Chinese really try to poison them but a lack of knowledge about food handling might lead to them making you ill.

Any back to our the tour of Ulaanbaatar. In the main square there is a statue of Damdin Sukhbaatar, who in 1911 with the help of the Soviet Red Army declared Mongolia independent of China.

Sukhbaatar and an old Soviet truck

After look around the square we made our way to a place for dinner which served all you can eat stir fries. I was still full from lunch so could not take fun advantage of the situation. I did notice that Mongolia was a lot more expensive than China.

After dinner we went out for a few drinks at the "tiger beer" beer garden which had live music and felt very westernized. The walk home after drinks was a bit intense. We were followed the whole way by street kids asking for money. It felt a bit like Phenom Penh, Cambodia with this uneasy feeling. The side walk had massive holes in it everywhere and the streets were not well light. I felt like I was going to fall into one of the holes and never be able to get out.

The gang at the beer garden

I had a chat to Toya, our guide about it and she said the city was now very unsafe at night. She had to take a taxi home after dropping us off and said there was a chance she would get robbed. didn't like the idea that everyone was at risk of being robbed.

That night Jenny and I went to bed while the others went out for a few more drinks. Daniel couldn't sleep so went out again at 2am. He tried to get into the club across the road but the door was lock. He was then approached by a large Mongolian man who told Dan to give him lots of money and he would take him to some prostitutes. Daniel kindly declined and ran back to the hotel.

The train from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar

2007-07-16T21:34:00.000+10:00

The train to Ulaanbaatar left Beijing at 7,30am. I was in a room of 4 with Jenny, and the two Aussie nurses Tracy and Yeresa.

The train crew Tracy, in red, Jenny and the back across from me and Yeresa front right.

The train ride lasted for around 1 and half days with a five hour border crossing. The ride mainly consisted of eating and hangout in someones cabin.

From the front left Peter, Daniel, Maryanne, Jenny, Tracy, Chris and Yeresa

Daniel, Maryanne and Dean where in a cabin with a random guy called Mathew who was from London and was going to Mongolia to meet his Professor and study rock formations. He was going to spend the next 6 weeks travelling around Mongolia and sleeping in tents. It sounded great fun. I was so jealous!

At the China Mongolia border crossing the bogie have to be changed. In Russia and Mongolia the train runs on 5ft gauge which is slightly larger than the standard gauge used by the rest of the world. I really wanted to see the bogie's be changed so I made everyone stay in the train at the border crossing. It was great to watch. The train was taken in to a shed and each carriage was disconnected.

The wheels and the machine used to lift the train

The carriages were then lifted off the bogie or wheels and all the wheels were removed. Then new bogies were wheeled in by some pulley system and the carriages were re lowered and reattached. It was so much fun to watch and we were all taking photos out the windows.

The train lifted and the wheels removed

The wheels being moved into place

After the excitement of the bogies I had a few drinks with Maryanne, Dean, Daniel and Mathew.I woke up early the next morning after getting to bed at around 5 to find that we were travelling through the Gobi desert. It was great to see blue sky after so much pollution in China. The Mongolian landscape was amazing with small ger tents dotted in the most isolated places.

Ger tents in the middle of no where

Slowly we got closer to Ulaanbaatar small towns appeared which where a combination of ger tents and wooden houses. Finally we reached the city of Ulaanbaatar. A home for around 1 million people. Even though it is the capital it still is a mixture of ger tents, soviet concrete buildings and wooden houses.

The city with a mix mash of buildings

Meeting the Vodka train team

2007-07-16T20:48:00.000+10:00

The next day I slept in heaps. I went down to the expat hutong area for breakfast and then went shopping for the finally things I needed before I left for my big train ride. I went back to the hostel to check out of my room and check in to the room which was booked for me via the Vodka train tour. It took me around 1 hour to get the receptionist to understand what I was talking about. It seemed very odd if Vodka train normally used this hostel that she had no idea about the tour or a pre booked room!!

After becoming rather frustrated I went for lunch with an English girl, called Mini, who was on her gap year. She was waiting for her friend who was meant to have arrived the day before from south America. She was a bit stressed where he was and was getting sick of waiting around without any news. After an extremely long lunch we returned to find her friend waiting at the hotel.

I went up to my room and meet my new travel buddy for the Vodka train. Her name was Jenny and she was a journalist from London who had been travelling for the past 5 months through New Zealand, Australia and south east Asia. She had just been really ill for the past few days in China and was really ready to move on to a new place. After chatting for a while we headed down stair for our information session and to meet the others.

I decided to do the Vodka train tour as my Dad was not very keen on me travelling through Russia alone. The vodka train claimed to be for young independent travellers who did not want to feel like they where on a tour. In each tour you were meet by a guide who would take you to your hotel and tell you about what there is to do and see in the city, then it is up to you to work out your own plan.

The team consisted of two Germany guys called Peter and Bjorn, 5 people from New Zealand, Maryanne, Dean, Chris, Emma and Daniel and two other Aussie girls, Tracy and Yeresa and Jenny and I. Mark was our guide in Beijing and spoke very little English and recommended if we wanted to eat breakfast that we should go to McDonalds. At the initial meeting he was meant to tell us about the trip and important information like could we really not get money out in Mongolia. The whole meeting was a waste of time expect we learnt that we left for Mongolia in two days time at 6,30am.

After the meeting Peter, Bjorn, Tracy, Yeresa, Daniel and I went out for a drink at the guitar bar that I went to the other night with Dad and Steph. Everyone seemed really nice and we got to know each other better.

The next day I rented a bicycle and rode around Beijing. First I went to the Lama Temple and chatted with a monk from Tibet. He was really sad and told me that he had been sent to Beijing to work at the Lama temple and could not return to Tibet. I took him at I had been in Tibet and we talked about how it was changing. It was really nice and the temple was interesting even if it did not contain anything that was from Tibetan Buddhists.

The Lama Temple

After the temple I rode to the temple of heaven park and the shopping centre and got some last minute things for my trip.

The temple of heaven park

That night I had dinner with the Germans, Jenny and Daniel at the peaking duck restaurant and then went out to a roof top bars for a few drinks. The Germans where both Chemist and studying their PhD in Heidelberg Germany. Daniel was a carpenter from, Nelson NZ, who was moving to England at the end of the trip to try and find some work.

The next day I did not do much and went out for a few drinks with the others. The next morning we left for Mongolia.

Summer Palace and more fun in Beijing

2007-07-16T20:24:00.000+10:00

We took a local bus to the Summer palace in the morning. The last time we were their the lakes and rivers were frozen over and the place was in need of a new paint job. I felt it was fitting to see the summer palace in summer.

The whole palace has been restored since the last time I saw it. It looked fanastic and I was really happy to see China putting in effort to restore such amzing sights for the Olympics. We could not see all the temples due to restoration which for fine cos we needed most of the day to see everything that was open.

After a long bus ride back to the hostel we sent to the acrobatics. It was held at what looked like the local school hall. Most of the people in the performance looked around high school age. The show was great but very amateur. I liked the contortionist but it looked so wrong to see them turn themselves upside down and bend the wrong ways.

After the acrobatics we went to dinner in the expat hutong street. We had the best Indian that I have ever eatten . It was really well presented and tasted amazing. After dinner we went to the guitar bar and watch two guitarist play.

The next day we went shopping on of the big shopping centres in Beijing. They sold copies of everything. I did not need to buy anything so helpped Dad and Steph bargin with the shop attendents. Dad had a bit a of trouble getting the prices that he had paid last time in China so went to another market to try his luck. While he was gone I sat and talked to some local girls who owned a shoe store and helpped them sell their shoes. It was amazing how many people did not even notice that I was not Chinese.

After shopping we had peaking duck for dinner and I took the bus with Dad and Steph to the train station. It was really hard to say good bye as I had really enjoyed travelling with them and was not going to see them again for a while.

After farewells I tried to take the bus back to the hostel but all the buses on that line were cancelled. So after waiting for 45mins I took a taxi back. As I knew the way back the taxi driver gave me a discount on my fare! How nice is that!

The Great Wall

2007-07-16T19:51:00.000+10:00

Early in the morning we took a tour bus to the Great Wall. The bus took us to Jinshanling and we were to walk along the wall to Simatai. The walk was mean to be only 10km but we were told it would take at least 4 hours to walk it. The last time I was at the great Wall it was freezing cold and I was sick this time I was hoping to walk more than 20m.

We had the choice of walking for 30mins up to the wall or taking the cable cart up. As my Dad wanted to save himself for walking up the wall, he took the cable cart and Steph and I walked. The plan was to meet at the top, however the cable cart ended about 6 watch tower behind where the walk started. This meant Dad had to walk an extra 6 watch towers. I tried to wait for him but gave up and sent him a message that I was walking slowing with an Aussie guy we met on the bus called Mike. Dad on the other hand had made friends with a local who took him on a short cut and was now ahead of us. In the end we found each other and walked with Mike to Simatai. Steph on the other hand had power walked off and we were joking that she would be waiting for hours until we finally reached the end.

Walking up to the wall

The Wall was amazing. I still can not comprehend how they made this massive wall so many years ago. It stretches out as far as the eye can see, balancing along the peaks of mountains. Some of the walking was really hard with steep plunges and scrambling ascents. Also the Jinshanling part of the wall had not be restored so was falling apart below your feet and in area if you were not careful could have easily fallen off the side of the wall.

When the end was finally in sight, Dad was not the only one who was sick of walking. Dad, Mike and I took the flying fox down off the wall. I was a bit scared at first of the thought of taking the flying fox but it was great fun in the end. We find Steph at the Restaurant at the end of the walk. That night we got back to the hostel at 8pm and I felt very average. I went to bed while Dad and Steph went out for dinner at a street cafe in the expat hutong area behind our hostel.

Time with Steph and My Dad {photos to be added later}

2007-07-16T02:34:00.000+10:00

When I arrived in Xian both my Dad and Steph had eaten dinner so we went in search of a place to eat. I tried to take them to the "food hall" place that Adam, Amy and I had eaten at last time I was in Xian. But do to a lack of sense of direction, I was unable to find the place. Instead we just ate at this little place near the main street.

The next day my Dad and Steph went on a tour to see the Terracotta warriors. I attempted to spend the day updating my blog but the Chinese government had blocked all blogspot sites. So I couldn't even see my blog let alone update it. Boo.. so instead I spent the day chatting to Pete in Qatar explaining how frustrated I was at the situation. Later my Dad and Steph returned from the warrior and we had a meal and caught a night train to Beijing. It was only a short 12 hour train so felt really easy for me.

When we arrived in Beijing we did not have an accommodation organised so we stayed at the hostel where my tour for the trans-Siberian was starting from. It was a clear hostel but the staff was not very helpful.

The first day was spent reliving my last trip to Beijing. I came to Beijing 3 years ago, in the middle of winter with my Dad and cousin Jess. It was really different to be back in Beijing in warm weather. When we were in Beijing in winter there were not many tourist and it was so cold that Jess and I brought hot water bottles with us sightseeing. This time the city was full of tourist and the weather was hot.

Dad and I showed Steph around the Hutongs and searched for a cafe that Dad, Jess and I had visited last time we were there. The Hutongs had been improve heaps from the last time. there was now public toilets every where and most hutongs had been restored or rebuilt. The streets had been resurface and the place no longer smelt like a sewer. It was a great change and the place looked ready for the Olympics.

We then walked from the hutongs down to the forbidden City. My Dad was tried of walking so I took a rickshaw with him to Tiananmen square while Steph walked. None of the rickshaw drivers wanted to take us or wanted way too much money to take us. Finally after asking people for around 30mins, one guy agreed. We jumped in the very small rickshaw and he rode us down towards Tiananmen square. He kept taking the back streets and giving us a bit of a tour of the hutongs. Dad and I thought he was just doing this to make more money and asked to be take straight there. All of a sudden we turned a small hutong alley to be confronted by a police van. about ť police jumped out of the van and grabbed the man and his rickshaw. Dad and I asked the police what was going on and they said he was driving without a licence. We paid him for the trip and walked the rest of the way to tiananmen square. Steph in the mean time had been waiting at the square for the past hour. We then headed off to find a shopping centre that Dad went to last time in China but with no success.

We then headed back to the hostel for a meal. We looked up in the Lonely Planet where to eat and went to a Sichuan Restaurant that the author recommended. Sichaun food is very spicy Chinese food and one of my favourites. Dad ordered spicy chicken, which consists of chicken, chili and pepper corns. It is amazing and soo spicy. Even Steph, who can take heaps more spicy than me, admitted that it was tough. That night we walked though a small hutong street behind our hostel. It was full of western cafes and looked like the latest expat hang out.

Train from Lhasa to Xian

2007-07-15T00:48:00.000+10:00

I shared a room with a Chinese girl who had been studying Engineering in Singapore. I tried to discuss issues about the Freedom of Tibet cos the night before was still running through my mind but the whole thing did not go down very well and I felt bad cos it wasn't these peoples fault.

While in the dining cart one of the guys gave me his email and asked me to help him with English. I was more than happy to try and give him a hand. Later that night I made friends with this Russian guy called Sergy. He was really nice and spoke great English. He filled me with hope that Russia would be no where near as scary as I first thought.

When I went to the dining cart with Sergy for dinner the guy who gave me his email got upset and I was banned from the dining cart. Which is really crap when you are on a 35 hour train ride!!!The whole thing was really weird. I didn't know getting someones email was meant to mean anything other than you will email them!
The gang on the train.

I arrived at Xian at 8pm to be greeted by my dad and sister!! It was very exciting!!

Ganden Monastery and meeting Natalie Portman

2007-07-14T23:46:00.001+10:00

The next day Lee and I went to Ganden Monastery on the bus. We had to get up at 6.15 to get the bus. Boo!! The Monastery is at 4700m above sea level so around 1000m above Lhasa but i thought I could handle it. We got on to the very full local bus with two Israeli girls, who were off on a 5 day hike. I was so jealous! If I had more time I would have loved to have joined them.

The view from the Monastery

On the bus Lee and I sat with 4 monks on the raised section at the front of the bus next to the driver. It was a very tight fit and the monk next to me kept falling asleep on my shoulder. Haha!The bus ride took about 1.5 hours.

The monk asleep on my shoulder. He looks like ET in this photo.

We had a look around the monastery for about 2 hours and then sat around talking to the locals who worked at the tourist stalls.

Photos from the Monastery:

While we were chatting to the locals a huge bus pulled up and only 6 people got off. One of them was Natalie Portman. Lee was so excited walked up and introduced himself.

We then sat around chatting to the locals again waiting for our bus back to Lhasa which was due to arrive in 3 hours.

Me dressed like a local Me and one of the locals

Natalie and her team finished looking around the Monastery and returned to their bus. Lee asked if we could get a lift back to town. She said that it was fine so we went home in style.

On the bus ride home no one talked to us. They didn't even ask where we were from or anything. Lee declared he no longer had a crush on Natalie and was glad that he had closure. The whole bus ride was so surreal.

That afternoon my guts were really bad and I got some bread and honey from the supermarket and ate that for lunch. I had been sick for about 5 days and was over it. I went to bed and was meant to get up at 6pm and meet the dutch girls and Lee to see a local Tibetan who wanted to tell us his story. I really wanted to go but was too sick and slept too long.

Instead when I woke up I went to the Jokhang and hung out with a Monk and his family for a few hours. Back at the hostel I meet up with this woman who had been sick in bed for the past 4 days with Altitude sickness. Me and some other convinced her that she needed to go to the hospital. She was in Lhasa with 3 friends who had just left her at the hostel while they went sight seeing. I couldn't believe they had not tried to help her. We told them they should take her to the hospital and they agreed but I don't know if they meant it.

That night I had dinner with the English guys and Mel.We had yummy street food!! After dinner Mel, Will and I sat around and talked. A bit later Lee and the dutch girls returned from their meeting with the Tibetan guy. They were all very moved by his story and the problems in Tibet.

The man had told them about what life was really like in Tibet. At school the children had to say "The Dalia Lama is bad!" every Thursday. If they do not say it like they meant it the whole family was in trouble and could be jailed. The people of Tibet have no passports or ID and so can not leave China ever!

The government controls who and how many people are monks. The monks feels like they are performing in a Zoo for tourist. They are told which traditions they can perform and when they can do them with no consideration for the actual Tibetan traditions. Monk's rooms are searched regularly for images of the Dalia Lama.

The Tibetan man was from a nomadic tribe and had been studying Tibetan medicine at the local university but could not get his degree as he could not afford the fees. The cost of a degree in Tibet EURO 1400. They had no way of paying the fees and could not get a loan from a bank or anything. The dutch girls were so upset by it and wanted to give him money. Mel started debating all the reasons why this was not a good idea and things got a bit intense.

Mel had some good point. If they gave him the money then the government will know that he had told people about his problems and he would be jailed for talking. The Chinese government never expect him to be able to pay it so how can he ever pay it.

The debate continued for a while and finally everyone went to bed. In the morning i left for Xian to meet my Dad and Sister.

Lhasa part 3

2007-07-14T22:56:00.000+10:00

Sera Monastery

The Sera Monastery was small and nothing can compare to the Potala. It did have an area where children were blessed and given a dark mark on their nose to protect them from diseases. Locals on the steps of Sera Monastery

After the Monastery I got some of my photos developed to take to the Tibetan family I meet the day before.I meet up with my guide who told me how to go to the Ganden Monastery the next morning and wrote it down for me in Tibetan.

After I got my photos developed I headed off to see the family at the Drepung Monastery.On the walk up the hill i made friends with some more Tibetans which made the long, uphill walk easier. I still can not believe how friendly and helpful the local Tibetans where to me.

I reached the restaurant and was greeted by the girls yelling with excitement. I gave them the pictures and they were over joyed. I don't know if they have even had photos of themselves. The 13 year old had written me a letter in English. It said something a long the lines of " I am worried with more buses, jeeps and trains coming to Tibet that the songs of the village will change." I found it so insightful from someone so young. Tibet is changing and it will never be the same again. I think with the Olympic games in Beijing next year the government will not be able to control who can travel to Tibet like they do know and everything will change. The train alone has increased the tourism.

My photos on the family restaurant wall.

I spent the afternoon playing with the girls. When I had to leave they all started to cry and it was really hard to say good bye. I got the address of the local school {as they had no means to receive mail any other way.} so I could write to them but I am not sure if they will really get the letters. But all you can do is try.
My adopted Tibetan family

The 13 and 21 year old walked me down to the bus stop. And with hugs all round I left.

The girls before I left

Back at the hostel I meet up with a girl from Norway and we went to the Vegetarian House. The food was really nice and it was a great change to not have your food covered in oil. After dinner I meet up with Lee, the American journalist. He had just gotten back from interviewing the Canadian owner of the pub we went to the other night. He told me how the Chinese government were always making it hard for the pub by inventing new laws about the colour of window curtains and other silly things. It sounded like they were playing fine monthly.

Lee and the dutch girls had sent the afternoon at Sera Monastery. Lee had a massive crush on Natalie Portman and they had seen her at the Monastery. Lee was upset at himself for not talking to her. One of the Dutch girls said they didn't recognize her and thought she was a 12 year old girl.Hahaha!

That night Lee and I went out with his mates who had just arrived in Lhasa. Three of them were English {Will, Martyn and Xavier } and one was Israeli {Mel}. Lee and I went out to dinner with Mel and Will. Yes my second dinner for the night! The night was great fun, filled with discussions about politics and how to save the world.

Lhasa part 2

2007-06-24T15:15:00.000+10:00

The next day I meet my guide at 9 am and went to the Potala. It was amazing. When we arrived there was a group of Tibetan girls tamping the new concrete roof down on the potala. They sang these lovely songs while they worked.

The Potala

Local Tibetans singing as they work

We were not allowed to take photos inside the temple but I did take this one.

The Potala was a typical Buddhist temple with lots of gold Buddhas and candles with yak butter as wax. I soon discovered from my guide that Tibet was very rich in gold and other natural resources. One of the many reasons why the Chinese want to keep control of Tibet.

After the Potala I was meant to meet my guide at 3 pm to see the Jokhang but he cancelled on me. It was clear that you get what you pay for in guides and as I didn't pay very much for my guide I was not going to get much of a tour. So instead I worked out with my Dad and Sister, Steph, that they were not coming to Tibet as it was too expensive to organise from Australia and instead I would meet them in Xian on 10th of June.

That arvo i got my train ticket and went to the Jokhang with the Russian lady Galina. While walking around the Jokhang we got lost and ended up in the Muslim part of Lhasa. It felt a bit odd to be surrounded by Muslims in Lhasa, Tibet but everyone was really friendly and you saw monks and Muslims talking together.

On the way back to the hostel we looked for some tours for Galina to go on as she really wanted to go to Mt Everest. While looking at one of the local notice broads I found a flyer for the "Vegetarian house" restaurant which I had read about in the book Trish gave me. The restaurant claimed said it was ideal for people worried about cancer and many other illnesses.

The flyer for the restaurant.

Back at the hostel I meet up with 3 dutch girls {two of whom where a couple} and 2 American guys. I told them about the Vegetarian house and asked if they wanted to come. But it was the dutch girl and one of the American guys last night so we headed off to a yak dinner instead.

The dutch girls

One of the dutch girls and an American guy who have been living together in Beijing for the past year.

Lee, the American and Me

So we all went to this restaurant down Beijing road which served yak meals. After dinner we headed out for a few drinks. First at a bar owned by two Canadians which is the only bar owned by foreigners in Lhasa.

At the bar we meet up with a Tibetan guy who took us to a local Tibetan nightclub called Queen. We danced the night away with locals,who all seemed to enjoy our company. At one stage we had all the locals copying our dance moves. I didn't drink due to the altitude but the club must have had oxygen pumped in cos we were all dancing like normal and jumping around, while for the past few days in Lhasa I couldn't even walk up stairs without getting out of breath.

Us dancing in the nightclub

The locals dancing in the club

We made our way back home at 3am. I had to get up at 9.30am to go to Sera Monastery. The others were going in the afternoon to see the Monks debate but I had already seen it.

Lhasa

2007-06-17T21:08:00.000+10:00

In the morning I had the free Chinese breakfast at the hostel, which consisted of Cong (tasteless rice porridge) and some veggies that had been cooked in oil and coated in soy. Not exactly what I felt like. My guts were now not feeling the best. After breakfast i went to the snowland hotel to work out this 'tour' I was booked on. Foreigners can not travel to Lhasa without a permit and they can not get a permit without being on a tour. You are only meant to stay in Lhasa for the length of your tour but everyone stays longer. I was booked in to a 2 day city tour which cost me around $AUS100 with a $AUS170 deposit. I was a bit concern that I wouldn't see the deposit again but it all worked out fine in the end.

At the snowland hotel they told me to call my guide and I could start my tour tomorrow. At this stage I thought my Dad and sister were coming to meet me in Lhasa so tried to see if there was an trips to Everest I could fit in before they arrived. It didn't look likely and I was a bit scared of Altitude sickness and wanted to spend a few days in Lhasa before trying to go higher.

After catching to my guide on the phone I went to the Potala to organise my ticket to get in the next day. While in the line I meet this really nice Chinese- American family who were very concerned about me travelling alone. It was nice they were concerned but I had found China a really easy place to travel alone and felt reasonable safe the whole time.

After getting my ticket for the Potala I headed off on the local bus for the Drepung Monastery. The bus ride was great fun being the only foreigner on the bus. The Lonely Planet made it sound like the walk to the monastery was really easy but after 30min walking up hill in the heat I was stuffed.

Stuffed after my hike!

The monastery was not what I expected and looked like Middle eastern houses. The Tibetan writing is also sand script which added to this middle eastern feeling.

Drepung Monastery

While at the Monastery I was able to see the Monks debate. The noise was so loud. I walked into a court yard and saw a few hundred monks debating. In the debates one monk sits on the ground and answers with other standings monks questions. At the end of a question the standing monk claps. Each pairs of monks do this at their own pace so the sound is amazing loud. I sat on the ground between some monks for about an hour. It was just such an amazing sight. The Tibetan language is much softer on the ear than the Chinese.

After the Monastery I went to a small Tibetan restaurant down the hill which only had Tibetan writing so I assumed it would serve local food. I really wanted to try some local Tibetan food like yak butter tea. The restaurant was run by a local woman and her three girls. I instantly really liked the family. The three girls were aged 13, 19 and 21.

Mum and Me

The restaurant was mainly visited by monks and they didn't seem to have served many foreigners. There was a fancy place next door aimed at foreigners. The rest of the afternoon I sent talking to the girls and eating. The 13 year old got her English text book from school out and tried to talk to me. At school she had to learn Chinese and English but spoke only Tibetan at home. I took some photos of the family and promised to come back in a few days to given them some copies of it. Me and the 13 year old

At around 6pm I made the long walk back to my bus. Apparently it was technically illegal for me to take the local bus and the bus drivers could have be fined for carrying a foreigner but I had no trouble and no one seemed to mind. That night I didn't do much just took it easy.

Train from Xian to Lhasa

2007-06-17T18:48:00.000+10:00

At around 8.30am I boarded my train to Lhasa. The train trip was meant to take 32 hours. My longest trip yet. While on the platform getting on the train I meet this Russian woman called Galina. She could only speak Russian so with the help of my Trans- Siberian Lonely Planet (thanks Lee!!) I was able to work out her name and that she was heading to Lhasa too. After this initial conversation the language barrier became a bit too hard and I left her to read her book. Russian is a really really hard language to speak! I don't know what I am going to do in Russia as very few people in Russia over the age of 25 can speak any English.

I then went to my hard sleeper and tried to talk to my "room mates" but my Chinese seemed to only confuse them and one guy called his English teacher to find out what I was trying to say. I felt really bad as I just wanted to practise the things the Swiss couple had taught me the night before.

Finally I met Werner from Austria. He had assumed I was Russian due to my earlier attempt to talk to Galina. Haha too funny! Werner has been living in northern China with his wife and kids for the past 15 months. He is working for an automotive company and his wife is working as a teacher. We got along really well and I tried to speak a bit of German to him.

Werner on the train in the dining cart. The try to make the dining cart all romantic with the fake red rose. haha!

While we were drinking in the dining cart we meet this Father and son from the UK. They ran a backpacker company and were travelling to Lhasa to look at setting up a new hostel there. I have to admit I didn't like the thought of Lhasa and Tibet becoming really touristy but it was still interesting to learn about their company and setting up hostels all over the world. They also offered me accommodation in London and Edinburgh at their hostels, which was really nice.

On the train we reached 5000m above sea level. I felt OK but my guts started to get bad and remained bad for the who time in Lhasa.

The train trip was amazing. And I would recommended it to everyone. You get to watch the landscape change as you get higher and higher. None of the pictures I have taken can even began to show how incredible the landscape is. As we travelled towards Lhasa the scenery would change. Initially we had the planes of the Gobi desert with distant hills.

The desert soon become grassy and we would see the occasional yak and nomadic person. It was crazy to see this random person walking in the middle of nowhere with no housing or tent in sight. I would have loved to gotten off the train and just walked with them to see how they live and what they do.

Some yaks

Then slowly small "town" would appear and the distant mountains became snow capped.

A small town somewhere between Xian and Lhasa.

The mountains began to grow as we reached 5000m above sea level

We saw an army convoy of around 100 trucks travelling to Lhasa. This was not a surprise to me as in the book Trish gave me it talked about the army presents in Tibet and that they often have military training in the Tibet area.

One of the army trucks

As we got closer the Lhasa the number of yaks increased and snow appeared on the side of the train tracks. We past a few rivers which were solid ice. I was glad the train was heated!

Finally we descent into Lhasa ( 3700m above sea level). When we arrived in Lhasa it was around getting dark. The Russian woman I had meet before on the train asked me for help with accommodation. I had already organised accommodation and was getting a free lift to the hostel so Galina joined me. It started raining and my first impression of Lhasa was not what I expected. The city looked like most other cities in China.

That night was really cold so I bought a fake "north face" jacket for $AUS15. It was too wet and cold to bargaining too much on price. We ate some street food which was deep fried skewers of veggies and meat. Yum!! Then quickly off to bed. I was staying in a dorm of 6 but it was only Galina and myself in the room. That night I slept soo well!I think the cold helped.

Xian Day 2

2007-06-16T12:22:00.000+10:00

Early in the morning Amy. Adam and I set off on our tour of the Terra-cotta warriors. Adam and I were a bit tried due to the clubbing the night before but managed to make it on the bus by 9am.

The first stop of our tour was at this government factory which made models of the warriors for tourist. The made them from everything. You could get a terracotta one, a copper one a jade one. Their was no way we were going to buy anything but it was interesting to learning about the different types of warriors and their roles. The guide at the factory spoke great English with this strong American accent and kept saying 'you all'. I loved it.

The different Warriors

After the government factory we headed off to a museum to look at some of the relics from different dynasties. Did you know that the Chinese were the first to invent paper? well according to them. After the museum we went to the Huaqing Hot Springs. Emperor Xuanzong, with Yang Guifei, the Imperial Concubine spent every winter there. Our tour guide the whole bus ride and tour so far had told us about this fat concubine.When we looked around the springs it was revealed that the fat concubine was a normal sized woman with a good figure.

A statue of the so called 'fat' concubine.I think she looks great!

At the hot springs we got to learn more about the Chinese version of the history of Mao and Chiang Kai-Shek. According Amy, our history expert everything they said conflicted with what we had learnt on the history of China. Including somethings that are hard to argue like when Chiang Kai-Shek died. There was this Dutch guy on our tour who asked our guide why Mao ordered for all the trees to be cut down. The guide gave a few typical propaganda answers and then finally said that Mao was an old man at the time and had been given some bad advice from other people. It appears he can never be blamed for anything.

We then went to the warriors. The dutch guy suggested that we saw the smallest room first and then the largest one last, which is the opposite from the "normal way" but makes the larger rooms look more impressive. Our guide agreed so after watching a quality film about the first Emperor of china, which had some really bad acting, we headed to pit 3.

Pit 3 and some of the headless warriors.

The horse of pit 3

The warriors were amazing. They had been created 2000 years ago and every warrior had a different face because they had been based on really people. It is just mind blowing. They were first discovered when this farm tried to dig a well on his farm. Imagine discovering your farm was on top of an army of 2000 year old terracotta warriors. It is just insane.

The pits just got bigger. Pit 1 was so big but they had not done much excavating compared to the smaller pits but it was still very impressive!

Pit 1. it is just huge!!!

After the warriors we went to a museum to see the bronze four drawn horse carts and some art from Taiwan. Finally we climbed this hill which was the tomb of the one of the Emperor but they have not started excavating it yet. So we just walked to the top of the hill and looked around.

That night I was so tried. We got back to the hostel at around 7 and I got my permit for Tibet. I headed off to the station to book my ticket. for Lhasa. The train for 8am for the next day was full so I got a ticket for the day after (3rd June). Amy and Adam were leaving on the 2nd so we had a big breakfast fest together in the morning of the 2nd. We got a watermelon from down the street, so Singapore cereal and some weird Chinese dessert thing that I was given by that Chinese couple in Shanghai whose house I went to. The breakfast was yum and the best part was we ate it in a restaurant which we only order 3 coffees from and bought the food ourselves.Haha! The joys of being a foreigner.

That afternoon we walked through the Muslim markets and around Xian. We meet this Chinese guy who wanted to practise his English with us. We asked him all the normal politically sensitive questions about Taiwan and Tibet. This as normal didn't work very well and we only got a list of propaganda answers. Adam then confused the guy by telling him about books the Chinese government has banned. The guy must of thought we were nuts with this talk about government control over Internet and books. He did admit that China was not really communist anymore but now worship money instead.

After our discussion with our new friend Adam and Amy left for the airport on the bus and I returned to the hostel for my last night in Xian. Back at the hostel I meet this Swiss couple (who were from the French part) who wanted to move to China. They had been travelling around China for 14 months and had learnt a fair bit of Chinese. The rest of the evening was spent teaching me Chinese. i finally got the basics down like how to count and order food.

I was really interested what made them want to move to China. They explained that even though you have more freedom in Switzerland, they do not make enough money to really enjoy the freedom. They would prefer to live in a country with less freedom but with more opportunities to make money and create your own freedom. I found this really interesting.

Xian- day 1

2007-06-05T01:25:00.000+10:00

I arrived at Xian and was met at the station by one of the guys from the hostel. Naturally Amy and Adam had organised this. They are too good to me! We walked the 200m from the station to the hostel and I saw Amy and Adam. They had planned to do heaps of sightseeing but it had not happened yet, it was 2pm. So we set off to look around the Town. Xian is famous for the Terra-cotta Warriors which was created by Qin Dynasty (211-206 BC). So Amy,Adam and I booked into a tour to see this 8th wonder of the world tomorrow.

The city of Xian is surrounded by a huge wall but it was too expensive for is walk around it and we were trying to save money after this tour so we instead headed off to the Muslim area of town. I was craving Lamb and I think with all my talk about was also making Amy and Adam want it. After searching for ages for this restaurant recommended by LP we finally got our lamb.

The excitement of eating lamb!!! Even if it was a really small plate of it.

After the lamb which did not really fill us up but stopped the craving we headed to Amy and Adam's new fav place which was a huge Chinese food court. I have to admit the food was great and well priced. After stuffing ourselves we headed back to the hostel. Amy wasn't up for a big night so Adam and I headed out to the club '1+1'. Once in the club we had only walked for a few meters before we had made some friends who wanted to get the foreigners drunk!! Yeah!

Adam dancing at the club. Looking more Chinese than English

They were all from Chengdu. Adam and I joined them for a few beers before they took us to a different part of the club. It was so much fun but i felt bad cos they would not let us pay. Like most Chinese drinking game the aim seemed to be to get us drunk while they stayed sober. It was rather successful. Before we got too drunk to walk we headed back to the hostel. I have no idea what time we went to bed.

Nanjing

2007-06-02T22:05:00.000+10:00

The next morning I got on a bus from the side of the road which claimed to be going to Nanjing. The bus ride went for 3.5 hours and when I got off the train I had no idea what I was doing. I knew I wanted to try and see Amy and Adam before they left for Xian in 6 hours but was not sure where they were. Then just as I exited the bus station Adam called me and told me to find a taxi driver and he would get someone at there hostel to give him direction in Chinese. I was so happy. I could not believe he was so nice. I had only spend one night drinking with him and Amy in Guangzhou and now they were my personal tour agent. How great!!!

The hostel was a really nice. I saw Amy and Adam and meet their new friend Brandan (who was from America but had been in China for the past 8 months teaching English and could speaka lot of Chinese, yeah!) The four of us headed out for a bit of a sightseeing tour of the town. Amy is going to study history at uni later this year so was so excited to be in home of the 'rape of nanjing' and we headed off to the monument to learn more about it. But it was closed and will not reopen until jan 2008!!! Boo!!

So we then went to the Nanjing Museum and the a temple. Both were really interesting but I forgot my camera so will update this latter with some pics from Amy and Adam.

Adam and Amy where off to Xian and told me that the Lonely Planet said there was a guy there who could do Tibet visa in a day. I thought I might as well join them so went to the train station with them and said my farewells and got a ticket for the same train as them but for the next day. I then took the bus back to the hostel and went out for dinner and a walk around the area.

Nanjing by night

After looking around the town and the night market I headed back to the hostel. As I arrived at the hostel Brandan was returning from his date so we went out to find sime local pubs. We were in search of a small pub but the first place we went was a large nightclub with all Chinese except two Russian prostitutes, whom Brandan wanted to chat to but i was not so keen. After getting two over priced drinks we headed off in search of a bar.

The next bar we went to had the same name as the nightclub but was great. I met four Austrian guys there who had been working in Nanjing for the past 3 months. I loved it cos I got to practise my German but Brandan was a bit bored so headed off home and left me chatting a mixture of Germany and English with these guys. Most of the guys were much older than me but one called Dominik was only 27. He invited to go skiing with him in Austria. Yeah skiing!

Well at around 3 am I finally made my way back to the hostel and slept in until 11am. Ohh it was so nice. Than Brandan and I went a looked at the Presidential Palace which was the home of Chiang Kai-shek.It was really interesting as normal the history was distorted but i still really enjoyed it.

The man himself, Chiang Kai-shek

The palace ground are lovely!!

Tourism Chinese style. You must have a matching hat and follow the lady with the flag and loud speaker.

After the Presidential Palace we went to the heavenly temple museum but had to be quick as I needed to catch my train to Xian and see Adam and Amy again. So at 5pm I headed off to take another train. Brandan at the heavenly temple museum

Haian

2007-06-02T20:54:00.000+10:00

On Monday morning I got up at 5.45am and took the subway to the bus station. It took me a while to find the bus station again even thou I was only there the day before. I finally found it and then played match the Chinese characters to find the bus going to Haian. No one at the bus station could speak English but I check with a few people if I was on the right bus and then off we went.

At the bus station. Once again the only foreigner

I slept most of the 4 hour bus ride to Haian. However about 1 hour away from Haian the bus was stopped by police. The Police officer wanted to see the bus driver's licence however it did not appear he had one. I normally base my level of concern on however one else reacts on around me. Once on the subway in Shanghai the train stopped in a tunnel no one even looked remotely concerned so i didn't even stress at all and the train started again 5 mins later. This time however everyone on the bus was freaking out and I assumed that this was not a normal event. I wasn't stressed as i was so stuffed if the bus driver didn't get back on the bus that it was just funny. I had no idea where I was and only a rough idea of where I wanted to be. Ha ha!

Lucky the driver gave some cash to the cop and we headed off again. I was greeted at the bus station in Haian by 3 guys from the factory. One of them could speak really good English. We went out for lunch with the company chairman and I managed to avoid most of the drinking contests.

After lunch I got to have a look around the factory. The factory was huge. It contained 6 workshops that where each 500m by 500m. They were still in the process of moving into the factory so not all the workshops were filled with machinery yet.

Inside the factory

After looking around the factory one of the guys took me to the local museum called 7 battles 7 victories. It was all about how fast Mao and his army over thrown the KTM in the area. It was really interesting and full of Chinese propaganda.

After the museum we headed to the old area of town. It was like the Hutongs. They were really great. I loved seeing how China once was.

My guide from the factory in the old part of town

We then went to textiles factory so my guide to see a friend. It was the biggest place I have ever seen. I was on the outer region of town and cos it was so big it even had it's own power station at the factory!!! Crazy! Inside i got to see how sweat shops in asia work. There were just so many machines the photos just can not show how big this place was. i estimate the factory was at least 1km wide and the same long. And there where 4 of them. Just nuts!!

I then headed by to my hotel for a rest until dinner. My hotel room had cigarette burns all over the carpet and smelt a bit like smoke but other then take it was fine. I was meet at the hotel by another one of the guys from the factory who then took me on his scooter to dinner.

Dinner was filled with important people from the factory including the chairman and a few government officials. I was already told by the guy who could speak English earlier that day that their company was trying to get on the government committee so they could have more influence over the running of China. He also told me that all Chinese school students and high class business men had to read these politically books produced by the government and even sit exams on them. The book outlines the aims for the future of China and talks about where the country is heading (the prefect "solicits society") and what they need to get there. I was surprise but not really shocked and exampled however one seems fine with having little rights.

Anyway back to dinner. It appeared my attendance at the dinner was going to help the company's relationship with the government. So for the next 3 hour we ate and drank. They first started me on really strong rice wine but a quickly got onto American beer (it does not taste great but at least i was going to be able to walk.) At dinner everyone wants to make you drink and you don't just get to take a sip you have to drink the whole glass. Being the only foreigner getting me drunk was everyone's aim. I was ok as the glasses are really small. After a few too many drinks I got a lift back to the hotel on the scooter.

The next morning I decide to take a bus to Nanjing to meet up with Amy and Adam my mate I meet in Guangzhou.

Train from Hong Kong to Shanghai

2007-05-30T13:54:00.000+10:00

After a few days of rest at Jess and Mike's place and a few last minute buys and I was back on the train for another 20 hour train ride. I left Hong Kong on Saturday and would arrive in Shanghai on Sunday. On the train ride I made friends with these 4 Indian guys.

Three of the Indian Guys

Me and two of the Indian guys I meet

They were really excited because I could speak English and the Chinese were having a lot of trouble with their accents.I can not blame then I found it hard sometimes. They were from Bangalore and were on a 1 month holiday in China. One of them kept telling me that in 200 years there will only be one race and one blood type. I can not see it happening. I got to ask them heaps of questions about the cast system in Indian and other social issues I have always wanted to know. It was really interesting.

Then that night I made my way to the dining cart for a drink and to make a few more friends. Before long I had befriended the chef and a few other guys who worked on the train. I then spent the rest of the trip eating and drinking for free. They did not speak much English but where really fun.

Me and the chef. He was so funny and did not speak a word of English

One of the guys who worked on the train who speak a bit of English

The next morning I meet these two people from Canada who were travelling about China. They said they wanted to go to Tibet. We thought we could try and work out a travel group together cos you can only go to Tibet in a tour group and it is cheaper the more people you have. I had been given a quote from one agent for $AUS2500 for 5 days so really wanted to find a cheaper option. They gave me the address of their hostel cos I had not worked out my accommodation yet.

Once I arrived in Shanghai I went to the bus station to work out a ticket to Haian, near Nantong. I was going there to see a factory for my Dad again. Buying the ticket was harder than I thought i would be cos was not clear where and what was the bus station. Finally this guy took me to the station which was a huge building around the corner from the train station. I felt really silly for not seeing it earlier and asking all these local city bus stations for a bus to a town 4 hours away.

After getting my ticket I headed off to find the hostel. The hostel was a bit out of town but very close to the subway system so it was fine. The hostel was really big and packed. I had a drink with a Germany guy called Leif who was living in a town about 2 hours away and working for Siemens. He had come to shanghai for the weekend and invited me to come to his town for a look around. I was really keen as it looked like I was going to have to stay in the shanghai area for a week waiting for my Tibet permit to come.

After the drink I headed into the city to finally meet up with Bernard's daughter Sophie.

Sophie and I at 'face' bar in Shanghai

Sophie was great fun and really interesting to talk to. I was so glad we got to meet up. She is working in Shanghai as a journalist and explained to me how the government must have a sensor that reads everything she writes. It sounded really amazing. After seeing Sophie's place and briefly meeting her partner Ben I went to a dumpling house for dinner.

While at the dumpling house I meet this couple called 'Simon' and Jin Wei who lived down the street from my hostel. They were so nice and asked me if I wanted a lift home. I wouldn't have normal said yes but they were really nice.

Simon and Jin Wei at their apartment

On the way back to the hostel they invited me to their house so i accepted the offer. They lived in a very nice apartment complex near the hostel. They had a pet dog which they were both obsessed with. He was really cute.

Simon and Jin Wei with their dog.

After about an hour of chatting their friend arrived with her dog for a walk. I was really sleepy and had to take my bus to Haian at 7am so I took this moment to head back to the hostel. Even though the hostel was only 500m away they insisted on driving me. I still can not believe how nice everyone in China is. I have really not meet anyone who was not nice here so far.

The next morning I was off to Haian by bus

Shanghai

2007-05-25T14:33:00.000+10:00

I woke on Friday morning to meet Robbie's wife Yvette in their kitchen. I felt really bad as I had just arrived with Robbie last night unannounced. Yvette is originally from Holland but left 8 years ago and has since worked all over Europe and moved to Shanghai a year ago. She now worked with Robbie for a company in Shanghai that helps Western companies have products produced in China and the exported around the world. Yvette in the kitchen of her apartment

Talk about a small world I mentioned to Yvette that I wanted to meet up with Bernard Loras (one of my bosses at CW) daughter, Sophie and she not only knew her but was close friends with her. It was Sophie's birthday that weekend so her and her partner had gone to Beijing to run in the Great Wall marathon. Crazy! Running a Marathon is nuts but to run one up the Great Wall of China, insane. Anyway it appeared that I would not get to see Sophie on this stay in Shanghai.

Shanghai from Robbie and Yvette's house

I booked a train back to Hong Kong with Wayne which left on Monday so I had three days to see Shanghai. Most of the days I spent on my own exploring the city and getting to know Shanghai. Shanghai is huge and has so many people it blow my mind. Just to give you an idea how big we are talking: they have a population close to that of Australia living in a city with a smaller area then Melbourne! Traffic in Shanghai

There are just so many people and high riser buildings. The average height of buildings in Shanghai is 33 stores.

The city however is not just high riser but has little pockets of old French buildings called the French Concession and other areas of older Chinese buildings. The city like Melbourne is build around a river and has a lovely river area called the Bund.

The Bund in Shanghai

Taking the subway in Shanghai. I think it is worse than Japan!

Ok enough of sounding like a Lonely Plant. (Which is banned in China due to comments about Mao and Taiwan)

Mao and his army.

On Friday night Steve took Wayne and me out to 'Aussie drinks' which are a networking night for Australian expats (but lots of different expats go). I meet a few really interesting people. One guy was running a gold mine in Mongolian Gold mines. It appears mining is huge in Mongolia right now. After making a few friends we went to a bar called 'Maxi'. Steve and Wayne played some pool but I was really tried so went to bed early.

On Saturday night I went to an Irish bar with Yvette and Robbie to watch the FA Cup final. I am not really into soccer but thought I should learn before arriving in England. Everyone in the pub was going for Man U so were naturally rather pissed off at the result. I couldn't carry less and was glad someone actually scored.

On Sunday night Yvette and Robbie were having a dinner party so I helped them cook. well actually i just made garlic bread which ended up too garlicky. Four friends joined us for the dinner party. There was a French couple and a guy from Switzerland and a girl from Australia (Melbourne, RMIT architect student- haha small world).

It was a lovely evening and I headed off to Hong Kong the next day with Wayne. We were in the soft sleeper. A lot classier than I had ridden before. I got a whole cabin to myself!

My Cabin on the train. All class!

Wanye introduced me to the dining cart. I never knew there was one! We just chatted for most of the trip. Wayne did the trans-Mongolian trip 3 years a go so I got all the inside gossip.He got me even more excited about the trip. I did not think it was possible. The 20 hour trip back to Hong Kong flew by and I was soon back at Jess and Mike's place to get the rest of my stuff and start my trip!

I had to leave and come back to mainland China like this cos my visa would only let me stay 30 days at a time and I thought I would get most of my work for my dad out of the way first.

Wenzhou- factory life in China

2007-05-25T01:06:00.000+10:00

Early Wednesday morning I left the Youth Hostel and went to the old train station in Guangzhou. There are at least two stations in most cities so it can get a bit tricky at times. I got to my waiting hall for my first 24 hour train in China to find the whole hall filled with only local. It looked like I was about to be the only foreigner on the whole train. There is a first for everything. The waiting hall at Guangzhou station

I was traveling Hard sleeper so would be sharing a semi-room (only a semi-room as there is no door) with 5 other people. I had asked for the middle bunk as I had heard the bottom bunk is a pain cos everyone sits on your bed and the top is too much climbing.
My bed is to the right with all the gear on it

The hard sleeper carriage

When I first got on the train I was pretty scared and didn’t know what to expect. The day before I was worried I would get hungry so I bought a truck load of food. They only sold things in bulk so I got a years supply of this weird Singaporean breakfast cereal which is like porridge but with egg. I didn’t care what it tasted like cos all it needed was hot water to become edible and that was all I had on the train. I also got some bread rolls (which were the crap really sweet Asian bread) and some 2 minute cup of noodle things. It was ridicules how much food I bought with me, you would have sworn I was leaving for 6 months. On the train they played continuoius music, most of it was 80s classics re-sung in Chinese but there was a few Chinese rock songs and even some Chinese metal. Max I will try and find you a CD of some Chinese metal, I think you will like it.

On the train the only person who could speak English was this Chinese guy..

The only guy who could speak english

He sold Heat pumps (water to water) for a living and was so excited to hear that I was an engineer. He then tried to engage me in a 8 hour conversation about heat pumps, the refrigeration cycles and the possible need for his product in the Australian market. His English was very good about his product and related matters but for everyday questions he really didn’t have much comprehension. I tried my Chinese on him but only got blank looks.

After excusing myself from the conversation which had shifted to my looks and wanting to take photos of me (slightly awkward) , I crawled into my bed and read some more of my book and did a bit of knitting. My self photograph needs a bit if work but there was not much room on the bed, i couldn't even sit up straight

Within a few hours this man came up to me with his baby and wanted me to hold it. Then this was soon followed by a woman with her child. After what I had seen in Guangzhou I wanted to make it clear I really was not in the market for a child. The kids were very cute and were freaked out by this weird western girl. I knitted the man’s baby a little scarf, which the father was much more impressed with than the kid.

The man on the train and his kid.

Time past and I sat down for my cup of noodle dinner. By this time I had realized that they sold food on the train via a woman with a cart, so my kilos of food was not needed at all. While having dinner the man next to me spilt his beer on himself. Naturally I gave him a tissue to clean himself up with. He was very shocked by the gesture and thanked me by giving me some beef jerky. I am not a bit fan but accepted the gift and did my best to eat all of it.

I went to bed at around 12, when the music finally stopped playing and slept really well. I did not wake up until 8am. The train was due to arrive in Wenzhou at 10am so it was prefect. After a quick breakfast and a look out the window, we were almost there.

The view on the train

I was going to Wenzhou to look at a "parts washer" my dad was getting manufactured there. From his emails it sound like the washer was almost done and I might even get to see them test it and help out if needed.

There was a few issues about which station I was going to arrive at. Even though Wenzhou is very small city (with a population of around 1 million) it still has two train stations which were on the opposite sides of town.Eventually I was meet by a guy called Mathew from the factory and his driver. Mathew was from Hong Kong original and had moved to Wenzhou to live with his new wife and work for her father.

Once I arrived at the factory things got a bit weird. The machine was no where near finished and a guy who does a bit of contracted work for my dad (Wayne) was there. I was not expecting to see Wayne and took a while to click. I will not go into the details but it was very awkward. People kept telling me that it was so unexpected that I was there even though they had known for months I was coming. Anyway after an uncomfortable lunch, things got better and we sat down with the head of the factory to discuss matters further. It appeared that everyone was planning on testing the machine on Saturday and I was welcome to come to Shanghai with them tonight and return to Wenzhou on Saturday with them. I was really interested in seeing the machine finished and tested so I agreed and my flight was booked.

We then went down stairs to discuss the machine with the companies engineer with the help of Mathew translating. It become clear that they were not aware of some of the basics and hence were having difficulty building it. After Wayne an I explained what the machine did and how it was meant to work it all seemed clear. The engineer was very switched on and often didn’t need Mathew to translate as he understood from our actions what we were saying.

After the meeting we headed to the bar for a few drinks while we waited for our plane. We had a 4 hour wait until the flight. Wayne and Robbie (the Shanghai contact who helped us find this factory in Wenzhou and organize the machines construction) were both very friendly to me now and all the awkwardness of early had gone. Thank goodness! While having a few drinks we got a phone call telling us to come back to the factory cos the machine was finished. Wow! I could not believe it after seeing it only a few hours ago. When we got back to the factory the machine was working. After Wayne and I checked it over and made a few suggestions it was time to leave for the airport.

Wayne, the factory's engineer and myself infront of the finished parts washer.

A quick call to my dad to tell him what happened and we were off. Now that the machine was working I did not really need to go to shanghai but it was too late now as I had already paid for the ticket so just went with the follow.

We arrived in Shanghai at 11pm and I stayed at Robbie’s place. Within seconds of making it back I was asleep.

Guangzhou- Youth Hostel

2007-05-23T17:58:00.000+10:00

After checking in to my room at the youth hostel in Shamian Dao I went out to explore the city. I heard that there was a brand new part of the city which was a must see. Due to a sightly drunken night the night before I had lost my map but tried to find the area anyway. I ended up walking down these really cute lane ways and just hanging out with locals and testing my non-existing Chinese. Thanks Hayley for those key phases they really help!

Down one lane way I came across 4 women playing Manjong. I watched for a while and then was offered a sit at the table. I have played manjong before when I was in Singapore and Hayley and I hosted a manjong night at Holden Street earlier this year so I thought I would give it a go. The women I was playing with were very fast and played for money, so I had no chance in hell at ever getting a hand.

After a day of exploring I headed back to hostel to see what was happening. When I had first moved in there was only a Chinese guy in the dorm. When I returned an English couple (Adam and Amy) had just arrived. Adam and Amy are 18 and have been travelling around Asia for the past 3 months. Adam was wearing a “Cat Empire” T-shirt which I thought was awesome. We got chatting and a Germany guy also arrived called Michael (a different guy from the other night). After working out I had taken the wrong bed by accident the four of us headed out to see Guangzhou!

The place to go out according to Lonely Plant was at Fangcun Pier. After grabbing a few travellers from the 7eleven we walked over towards the Ferry to Fangcun Pier. On the way we chatted with the people at the local fish market. (Hayley and Bob I asked “if they have any older brother” but I think the one child policy has kind of ruin that pick up line.)

We then saw a boat moored near by and decided to see if we could get the owner to take us to Fangcun. There were three guys in front of the boat. Adam and Michael started asking them about the boat while I jumped on to look around. They were not overly impressed by decision to board the boat but soon came around. They could not speak any English and kept taking photos of us on the boat with their phones. Aware that this could potential get us into trouble I started taking photos of them. Not sure how that was going to help but hey! After about 15 minutes of us asking to be taken out for a ride we said our farewells and headed for the ferry.

two of the guys on the boat that kept photographing us on the boat

The ferry was filled with locals on bicycles which I naturally took for a ride around the boat. After about a 2 sec ride we arrived in Fangcun.

On the ferry to Fangcun

By this time we got there we were so hungry and in need of another beer, so we went to a dodgy little restaurant with a few locals inside. After establishing that no one could speak English we then ordered by pointing at other peoples meals in the restaurant. The food was great!! The chicken had more bones than meat but was still good.

After dinner we went to check out the bar scene. A lot of the bars appeared to double as brothels so we needed to choose carefully. We came to one bar which promised to have the WORLD famous singer “David” and his band playing at 9pm. None of us had heard of David but decided it was a must for the evening.

David the WORLD famous singer

To kill sometime we headed off to another bar which was completely empty. All the drinks were over priced for China so we ordered a ‘Singapore sling.’ When the drink arrived it appeared to be clear in colour and we started to have a few doubts about it. After a sip it appears a ‘gin and tonic’ is the same as a ‘Singapore sling’ here. Well they do drink G and T in Singapore so who can argue.

After the drink Michael called it a night and Adam, Amy and I headed off to see David. Amy and I could hardly handle the excitement of seeing David. Once inside we were greeted by the owner of the bar also called David, who was from Hong Kong originally and could speak English. David told me “that if you ever have any problems in China call me. I knew a lot of people.” Sounds great I said and took his card. After a few beers David (the singer) took his place behind the keyboard and stated singing Elton John’s “Can you feel the love tonight.” Not my favourite song but he was very good.

Adam and Amy getting into the song with David's backup singer.

We got to request a few songs but they had never heard of them. David (‘the owner’) made me have a dance with him to one of the songs. After that we were invited to join a group of 8 or so Chinese guys for some drinking game that involved dice.

Adam, Amy and local drinking buddies

The game involved everyone having two dices and one pair of group dices. If you got the same number as the group dice you had to take a shot... Well that was the rules for everyone else the rules for me appeared to be I had to drink every time anyone else did. We started with beer but progressed to tequila. At which point Adam, Amy and I thought it was best to leave. We took the ferry back to the hostel via a street market stall for a few munchies.

Yum market food munchies!

Guangzhou- How I ended up in a 5 star hotel

2007-05-23T01:08:00.000+10:00

Now when someone says they are going to China for a holiday, Guangzhou is not a common destination. Guangzhou is the capital of the Guangdong Province, previously known as Canton! It takes 2 hours to travel to Guangzhou from Hong Kong by train. I was going to Guangzhou to have a look at a factory which my Dad deals with in China. They design and manufacture very large multilevel automatic car parking systems, similar to the ones you see in Japan. (Japan is the company’s biggest customer). So being a semi-business trip, I was picked up at the train station by two employees of the company and driven, in a company car, to their offices. I then got a chance to look at the displays at the factory before heading out around the town to see some examples of the systems installed in Guangzhou. I shouldn’t go into too much detail considering it’s my Dad’s work to import these machines but they were really impressive.

After looking around the town we went out for a company lunch. Yum!! Being the home of Cantonese food, I was in heaven! I chatted with one of the guys from the company had lived in New Zealand for 6 months. We talked about the political situation in China, and how it affects his life. Even though most people at the restaurant and later in the car couldn’t understood what we were saying he still talked in a low whisper and was always checking who was listening. Through this chat it really made me realise despite the flash lights and commercialization of many aspects of Chinese life, it is still a very communist country.

Me and one of the employees at the business lunch

After lunch they took me to my hotel (which they had prearranged for me). To say the hotel was fancy would be an understatement. I thought I had just arrived at a temple for some sightseeing. It appears they wanted to impress me by booking me a 5 star hotel suite. That’s fine except I have to pay for it.

It looks like a temple but is actually my hotel.

They walked me up to the desk and I was asked to pay 1200RMB which is about $AUS200. WOW!!! Not wanting to cause too much trouble I paid for it on my credit card and asked to change the booking from two nights to only one. I was sure I could find a cheaper place by tomorrow night. I said farewell my hosts and went to check out the room.

Inside my hotel room

After checking out the room I headed off with a map in hand (But no camera, sorry guys!) to buy a train ticket to Wenzhou for Wednesday morning and have a look around the town. I had read that the Guangdong Province was a malaria zone so wanted to buy a light long sleeve top before the mosquitoes started biting. This was not an easy task as all the markets only sold short sleeve tops. After about 4 hours searching and exploring the town I found one. It turned out that in the city Malaria isn't an issue so it was a bit of a waste of time!

I also needed an ATM which accepted international cards. After having my card eaten in the China Post ATM for 15 minutes despite the signs saying they accepted international cards I headed for the tourist area of the town called Shamian Dao.

Shamian Dao is actually an island in the middle of the Pearl River. I finally found as HSBC ATM there and headed for 7eleven to buy a beer to celebrate. (You can beer at 7eleven here and it is really cheap!Imported Japanese beer is about 50cents a bottle). I sat down out the front of 7eleven with this Germany guy called Michael and had a drink. Michael’s girl friend was a flight attendant for Lufthansa and was off on a flight to Manila but would be back that night at 12pm. It was 6pm when we meet so we spent the next 6 hours talking, drinking and eating.

Michael pointed out to me the larger number of American tourist on the island with Chinese babies. He explained to me that the island had been set up for American tourist to come to China and adopt a child without having to leave the island. There was a medical centre where all required physical examinations were carried out, the US embassy and heap of baby clothing and toy stores. Even the local Internet café offered you a free stroller when you used the internet.

Finally after a few too many beers his girlfriend and the rest of the Lufthansa flight arrived. We then headed out to a new restaurant for more drinks and food. At 5am we called it a night and I took a cab back to the other side of town and my five star hotel (which I had to check out of at noon that day).

The next morning when I check out of the hotel it was explained to me that the $AUS200 was only a deposited and the room only cost me $AUS50 (thanks to some deal the company I visited had with the hotel). Yeah! I still catch the first cab to the Youth Hostel on Shamian Dao which was $AUS9 a night for a dorm room. Much more my style!

Lamma Island

2007-05-23T00:39:00.000+10:00

On Sunday 13th May, I decided to spend my last day in Hong Kong (for a while) at Lamma island. Lamma island is a small island in Hong Kong with not a lot of people and NO CARS!!(Except for a few go-cart like vehicles for carrying goods.) Sok Kwu Wan, Lamma Island

I took the ferry to Sok Kwu Wan and hiked for an hour over to Yung Shue Wan. I had hoped to escape to this quiet little island and avoid the crowds of Hong Kong however this was not to be the case. The moment I got off the ferry I found myself surrounded by a mainland Chinese tour ground following a woman with a megaphone and a little red flag. Not exactly what I had in mind. However with a bit of power walking I managed to get away from the tour group and do the rest of my walk in peace.

Lamma Island is lovely with heaps of natural vegetation and little beaches, however it also has a “wonderful” view of the local power station. The Chinese really know how to impress.
The view of the local power station

Once I reached Yung Shaw Wan bay I sent a few hours relaxing on the beach and swim. For lunch I went to this little restaurant on the bay that Mike recommended and had their famous pigeon. It was really nice despite being served the typical Chinese way with head and all.

The latest edition to the Lamma island power supply is a single wind turbine which I spent the afternoon hiking to find. But due to poor signage I never got very close to it and this is the best shot I got.Sorry Treasure!!

Lamma Island Wind turbine!

That evening I took the ferry back to Hong Kong and had dinner with Jess, Mike and Charlie at a steakhouse in Wan Chai. Then back to the apartment to pack my bags for my trip to Guangzhou and Wenzhou.

Junking it

2007-05-22T23:10:00.000+10:00

On Saturday 12th May I woke up to find that Mike had just arrived home from Frankfurt with a collection of Germany meats including bacon. Yum Bacon!!! Jess and I decide that a bacon and egg breakfast was in order. After eating a wonderful breakfast I headed off to the city for a quick walk around before we went out on the Junk that afternoon. A Junk is a traditional Chinese boat, similar to the ones below.

A typical Hong Kong Sailing Junk

A Junk like Jess and Mike's

Mike and I headed down to the Junk at around 2pm and waited for Jess, Charlie and a few of Jess and Mike’s friends to join use. Jess and Mike’s Junk is moored near Deep Water Bay, on the south side of Hong Kong island. We sent the day cruising around the island, through Repulse bay and into south bay. At south bay we jumped off and went for a bit of a swim. Mike took the kids and his mates out in the small dingy to explore the beach while Jess and I sat in inflatable lifesaving rings off the back of the Junk and had a few drinks until..... we found ourselves surrounded by huge jellyfish.

One of the evil Jellyfish
Apparently the jellyfish don’t hurt you but I was not so keen to test this theory. Marge tried to save us by fishing the jellyfish out with this crazy fishing hook. She managed to kind of catch one but we were not so keen on her bring it into the boat so it was released to live another day.

Marge fishing for Jellyfish

The rest of the afternoon was spent sitting on the Junk drinking and reading. Ohh what a prefect Saturday in Hong Kong.

Deep Water Bay, Hong Kong

2007-05-10T11:39:00.000+10:00

Just to settle some bets my luggage weighed 13.6 kg!

I am staying with my cousin Jess and her husband Mike (“the pilot”) and son Charlie (18 months) at their apartment on Bowen Road in Midlevels, Hong Kong Island. It is one of the older lower rise Hong Kong apartments with really high ceilings.

The View from the apartment of Hong Kong.

I spent Wednesday morning with Mike and Charlie at the beach at “deep water bay”. Charlie recently injured his finger in 'the escalator' so has not been able to swim until now. He was very excited to be at the beach again.

Deep Water Bay... need i say more.

Mike and Charlie on the beach

Charlie telling me about the trucks over there

That afternoon I went exploring Hong Kong. I ended up spending most of my time over at Soho and the escalator (near Jess and Mike’s old place).

Hong Kong escalator. The world longest at 800 metres. A perfect place for people watching.

While watching people ride the escalator I made friends with this Dutch guy, Ruben, who had been working in New Zealand for the past 4 months and was waiting for a flight home after KLM cancelled his flight the day before. We spent the afternoon together on a Hong Kong pub crawl and meet up with Jess for dinner in one of the small lane ways called "Rat Alley" in Lan Kwai Fong. Mike was flying to Frankfurt that night so Jess went home to say good bye and I hit the nightclubs of Wan Chai. Wasn’t a massive night but made a few new friends and was home in bed by 12.

Off to the Russian embassy this morning. Wish me luck!

Hong Kong

2007-05-08T22:55:00.000+10:00

Really early start this morning. Could not sleep last night cos I was so excited. Thanks to my dad, mum, sister, Trish, Danish, Jen and Charlee who came to the airport at the immoral hour of 5.30 am

The flight was great. Made a few friends on the plane and arrived in Hong Kong at 3.15pm. Took the train to my cousin Jess's place in Hong Kong Island and had a few beers. Have felt at home within seconds of arriving here and seeing Jess, Mike and Charlie. Will post some photos tomorrow. Must go to bed now, soo sleepy.

Farewell Drinks

2007-05-06T17:05:00.000+10:00

Farewell drinks last night at the Great Britain in Richmond. Really great to see everyone there and sorry I couldn't chat to everyone more! Thank you so much to everyone who came, I really appreciate it. Here is a taste of the trouble from last night. (The rest of the photos are on my facebook site, so check them out.) Two of CW's finest engineers

Franco trying to pick up my little sister again!!Sorry Frank it had to be said

Nick T. and Mr K.

Jess, Laura and Anthony all class!

Travel Plans in China

2007-05-06T08:33:00.000+10:00

This is my current plan for my time in China, but I am sure this will change once I get there. Only two more days to go!

2 weeks to go!

2007-04-22T11:25:00.000+10:00

I am leaving on May 8th, so in about two weeks. Wow! Thought I should start this thing before I go. So started….

Also my Parents and Family will be reading this so please keep it clean!