Flashing scenery

Sunday 1^st May 2011 (White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits)

30 days left traveling the world.

MP3 track of the day: Moonriver - Andy Williams

Weather: Thunder and lighting filled the skies of Chengdu with, strangely, little rain. As the train traveled further south the storms subsided but the weather looked cool.

I awoke to the sound of thunder outside my dorm window; it was only 8:30am and I had four and a half hours until my train departed. Knowing how bad Chengdu's traffic can be I decided to leave my hostel by 10am, at the latest, giving me two hours to reach my destination (it had taken one hour, by car, to get from the station to my hostel four days ago). This would still allow for an early lunch.

Impatient as I am I couldn't wait any longer; at 9:30am I'd decided that it was better to wait at the station than at the hostel. I left and walked to the bus stop, just to the right of the hostel, to catch bus fifty-seven. One 'fifty-seven' was departing as I approached; I let it go as, firstly, it was packed with people, secondly I wasn't in a rush and thirdly another would be along shortly. Just as I predicted another came within ten minutes; after showing the driver my desired destination, written in Chinese on a piece of paper, I boarded the bus.

I'd forgotten that today was a Sunday and so I found the traffic to be light; unfortunately the same couldn't be said for the amount of people on the bus. It was packed and quite a few times, I think, I annoyed the driver with my massive bulk and my inability to move down the jam-packed isle. I stood, holding onto a hand rail above me, presenting my sweaty armpit to some other poor passenger … at least they had a seat. People were leaving the bus, from a set of doors located in the middle of the vehicle, but the people in front of me were reluctant to move down. After repeated cries from the driver people gave way and, once we got moving, I could see why they were holding their ground; two windows, behind me, were open creating a perfect through draft which dried my sweaty shirt.

All of a sudden it seemed everyone alighted at the same time; just before this I'd found myself a metal railing to balance my bag on which, until the middle doors opened, was a great relief. Once the bus had stopped the middle doors, as usual, opened inwards. This action pressed my bag between the door and a metal pole; I pulled, and I pulled eventually breaking free from the buses grasp until I could walk freely to where the driver was located; he took one look at me and stopped the bus, indicating that he had forgotten to tell me that I had reached my stop. Once off I was hungry; with all my baggage the last thing I wanted was a busy fast food joint. The thought of having to queue up, with millions of orientals, before trying to find a space which had the capacity for me, and my luggage, was one I dreaded and I wondered if the food was worth the hassle. What I really wanted was a coffee shop; a Starbucks where the food was a little expensive therefore the crowds would be minimal.

It would appear that Chengdu's train station is the only transport complex, within China, that hasn't got a coffee shop. Resultantly I went to one of the three KFC's present; the queues were too bad and neither was finding a seat. It felt strange tucking into a meal at 10:30am.

The journey into town hadn't taken as long as I expected; I dragged my meal out as long as possible to take up some time. At 11am I couldn't draw my meal out any longer; I took the last sips of Pepsi before putting my rubbish within the bins provided and heading to Chengdu's 'soft sleeper' lounge.

I had forgotten that today marked the start of the Chinese holiday; the station was packed and I wondered if more people than usual would be assigned to my cabin. Once through security I moved to my gate where the seats in front had just become vacant, due to another service announcing it's departure. Due to the disgusting Chinese habit of spitting on the floor (yes even in buildings) I was reluctant to put my luggage onto the floor; I felt little guilt as seats became full and people had to stand. If they didn't practice such a vulgar act then I would have gladly taken my bags off the seat next to me. I had an hour or so before my train departed; I couldn't think of no better way to spend it than reading my book about Julius.

My service was running on time and, half an hour before departure, I was allowed to board. The crowds, swarming around the entrance gate, were huge and I wondered just how big the train was. Gladly, as I entered my cabin, I noticed that only three other people were allocated to it. As I looked at my other three companions I noticed that they were all women; this wasn't as great as it sounded due to one being pregnant (well I think she was … she could be fat … better not ask encase of upsetting her), her rather older friend looking very much like an old school matron and the third being asleep. I sat down and opened my book to where I had got to before boarding.

The trip was pleasantly quite; all three ladies, mesmerised by my presence, were asleep and I was reading my book as I ate a tube of inferior 'fruit pastels'. The view was, well, annoying to say the least; once out of Chengdu the mountain should have come into view however, with the Chinese choosing practically over pleasure, they'd decided to travel through the mountains instead of around, or even over them. This meant that 'teeth looking' limestone mountains, with green vegetation pouring over them, would appear and then, in a flash, disappear as I travelled through another tunnel. After a while I gave up trying to look at China and concentrated on my book.

The time was 5pm and a Chinese woman could be herd, wailing, from six carriages away. Even though I could hear her it took her an age to appear at my cabin door; she was pushing a rather old looking metal container on two wheels. This, apparently, was the food trolley and two, of the women within my cabin, purchased a meal of rice and … err … something else. I declined the offer as there was no way that I could work out what the food was. As the women ate - noisily with their mouths open - I switched my MP3 player up to loud and concentrated on my book conscious that, already, I was one third of the way through.

The skies had darkened and the curtains had been drawn. I continued to read, more engrossed with Julius trying to reclaim Rome as a republic than I was in China. I decided to opt for an early night which my fellow cabin members, having slept during the day, decided not to follow. I arrive in Kumming at 11am tomorrow; I hope it's nice as I have to spend a while there as I wait for my Chinese visa to be extended.

Toodle Pip!

Tea Sir?

Saturday 30^th April 2011

MP3 track of the day: Dirty – Christine Aguilera

Weather: Still very polluted … still very hot.

In one months time - 30^th May 2011 – I shall be boarding British Airways flight BA0038 bound for London. Now a month may seem like a long time but, considering that I've been travelling for around a year, I only have one twelfth of my travels left to go (to put it another way, if you had a twelve day holiday it would be like having one day left); I'm starting to see the end of my great adventure and, even though in some ways I'm ready to come home, there's still so much of the world that I want to see … as you will see later within this blog.

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Finally a decent lie-in. I was still awoken to the sound of some Chinese bod shouting at their phone but at least it was 9:30am; I got up and I was ready to hit town by 10am. The plan today was a simple one; head towards the Chinese Traditional Medicine Hospital, for a guided tour, before visiting one of Chengdu's many parks for tea. As neither of these attractions required me to visit the city centre I decided that I would stay clear; unfortunately, as I read my hostels menu, it soon became apparent that I would have to nip into the centre, for food, as my hostel's 'breakfast sets' all consisted of egg. This was okay as it would allow me to take a few photos of the city, especially the smog, before finding the hospital.

It took an hour to reach the centre of town and, as the time was 11am, I abandoned the idea of breakfast in favour of an early lunch. With an hour until noon I decided to photo some of Chengdu's smoggy skyscrapers and visit 'Tianfu Square'. The heart of Chengdu, Tianfu Square – which is actually a circle – is a large, smog ridden, pedestrian area; at it's north end stands the Sichuan Museum of Science and Technology with a statue of Mao in front. Even though there was a water show happening it still wasn't very pleasant; skyscrapers, cranes and smog surrounded the 'square' making it feel quite claustrophobic. I moved on and headed west into the main shopping area of the city; to waste time, until lunch, I went into a shopping centre and, luckily, found an expensive chocolate shop. Torro was it's name and I purchased five chocolates, for just under £5. Like Ho Chi Minh City the weather was hot and so, to prevent melting, the chocolates had to be consumed quickly. Unlike Ho Chi Minh City the chocolates weren't that great; the design, texture and presentation of each chocolate could rival any country in the world, however it was the content that just didn't work. The chocolate either didn't taste of what it was supposed to taste of, or the content was too powerful or not powerful enough; either way there was something not quite right and I left disappointed.

After lunch I walked to the east side of the city stopping on the way for copious amounts of liquids, and ice cream, to cool myself down; the day was extremely humid and it didn't help not being able to find the 'Chinese Traditional Medical Hospital'. I spent ages walking around the area where my map, and my guidebook, stated the hospital should have been. After half an hour I gave up and headed south, a little annoyed as I was looking forward to finding out about ancient Chinese medicine.

I kept walking south until I stopped at Baihuatan Park; located to the north of my hostel I had come here for one reason and that was to experience what a Chinese tea house was like. As soon as I went through the parks gates a tea house loomed behind a high hedge to my right. Even though I couldn't see said tea house the sound of Chinese voices, and the rattle of Chinese domino pieces, was unmistakable. As I made my way around the hedge I was confronted with many tables positioned under huge trees for shade; to my left stood an old Chinese building which I decided to head to. As I walked voices were lowered and strategic domino plays were missed as the Chinese people stared at me. Due to all the staring I walked straight past the tea house and headed to the exit; I stopped, only a few footsteps from the entrance. I wanted to try this Chinese pastime and no amount of staring was going to stop me; I went back to the tea house where a lady came out to see me. 'Tea' she said and I nodded in reply. She found me a seat and I asked 'how much'; 'ten Yuan' (£1) was her reply which, for an unlimited amount of tea, I thought was a rather good deal. I sat down and the lady brought me a three piece Sichuanese gaiwancha, which consisted of a saucer, a handless cup and a lid. Down to the left of me she placed a large flask, with a wooden bung, full of boiling water. At this point most of the people got back to what they were doing before I'd arrived; I took the lid off my cup thinking that, once again, I'd ordered something different to what I had come in for. At the bottom of this steaming cup of water sat, what can only be described as, an aquatic forest; you couldn't make out the bottom of the cup and, with said forest, the cup only held enough water for five mouthfuls. As I waited for 'me cup of cha' to cool a little I looked around me; finally it was nice to see the Chinese being civilised. To my left were a small group rehearsing a Chinese song, in front was a group playing dominoes and to my right an oldish couple were setting the world to rights. It was extremely pleasant and I sat down with the only activity open to me ... I read my guidebook.

The tea had cooled as I read about Tibet; I drank a few mouthful's of the hot liquid, by-passing parts of the aquatic forest trying to enter my mouth, whilst planning my next round-the-world trip. Now I'm not planning on doing this any time soon – I'm too shattered to start again – but I reckon the below would make a rather good trip:

• Flying from London, to Beijing, and transferring to Lhasa (Tibet).


• Spend six weeks in Tibet, visiting Mount Everest and Mount Kailash, before heading north.


• Spend six weeks in northern China and into Mongolia.


• Spend four weeks in Russia heading west into Europe.

It was at this point that a lady came up to me and 'twanged' a metal object in my ear; I turned and she started to speak Chinese. I flicked, through my guidebook, to the page that translated 'I haven't got a clue what you're talking about' into Chinese to which she showed, what looked like, a weapon of torture. She moved closer to my ear and then I realised that she wanted to clean them … for a fee of course. Now, within South East Asia, a firm 'no' would make the 'service provider' move onto another tourist; in this case she wouldn't move and she kept coming closer, and closer, to my ear. Only after looking sternly, and becoming quite angry, did she leave; this had annoyed me as it had spoilt my 'tea in the park' experience. I re-filled my cup and took another mouthful – the tea by the way tasted like hot water … it wasn't great – before returning to my 'round-the-world trip', where was I:

• Spend two weeks in Finland before moving onto Sweden.


• Spend two weeks in Sweden before moving onto Norway.


• Spend two weeks in Norway before moving onto Denmark.


• Spend two weeks in Denmark before moving onto Germany.


• Spend four weeks in Germany before moving onto Belgium.


• Spend three weeks in Belgium, and Luxembourg, before going home.

Almost eight months of travelling and the best bit is that, if out of money, I could skip Europe and get home quickly.

The 'ear cleaning' woman had put me on guard for others touting for business, therefore I couldn't chill out. I'd witnessed Chinese people relaxing and, even with the smog and the sounds of heavy traffic all around, I'd liked it. I got up from my seat and walked the short distance back to my hostel, stopping to pick up supplies for my twenty-one hour train ride tomorrow. The evening didn't produce anything spectacular; I spent most of it relaxing before taking a long shower.

As I lay in bed I was glad that I was off to Kumming tomorrow; the pollution here is vial and it's making my throat sore. I hope Kumming's going to be different; I have five nights booked as I need to extent my Chinese Visa (It runs out next Friday) and, with it being the Chinese holiday, I don't fancy being anywhere too touristy.

Kumming here I come!

Toodle Pip!

If you go down to the woods today

Friday 29^th April 2011

MP3 track of the day: Teddy bears picnic -

Weather: I've not seen pollution like it; dense smog filling the air reducing visibility considerably. I knew that China was very polluted but, until now, I hadn't seen it quite as clear as today.

Even though I got awoken by a group of Chinese, at 1am, I still managed to get a good nights sleep. Hitting the sack at 9:30pm last night helped, and the fact that I'd managed to attach myself onto a tour today meant that I could sleep in until 6:45am. Whilst having breakfast I did something for the final time; as I popped my daily malaria tablet, out of it's foil case, I realised that it was my last one. I was supposed to take these doxycycline tablets for twenty-eight days after leaving a malaria zone (i.e. South East Asia) however, due to staying in Hanoi longer than I'd planned, after twenty-four days within China my tablets have run out ... I think I'll live. This topic may seem mundane and boring however the tablet I've been taken, not only counters malaria (hopefully), but it's also a strong antibiotic; I'm adamant that my lack of sickness – touch wood – on this trip has, in some way, been down to this little pill helping to fight any illness I may have contracted without it. Many people opt not to take malaria tablets, out of fear from the side affects, however I would advise against it; if people are unsure then take a few before travelling, see how you feel, and then decide to travel with them or not.

Anyway at 7:00am I was downstairs eating breakfast and taking my last malaria tablet. My tour of the 'Chengdu Panda research facility' was suppose to start at 7:30am but, alas, we didn't leave until 7:45am. Being a Friday the traffic was heavy, the space within the mini-van was minimal and I, once again, found my legs around my ears. The day was hot but luckily the air-conditioning worked; after some scary driving we made one stop, to pick up a Dutch lady, before heading onto one of Chengdu's many flyovers and towards the park. From the flyover the smog was unbelievable; the buildings were hidden by, what seemed like, a dirty mist and you could almost see the pollution, within the air, pass by the mini-van. I'd been told that China's very polluted but, until now, I hadn't seen it on this scale before.

Due to the traffic it took over an hour to reach the park. I was a little anxious as Pandas are only worth seeing early in the morning; after they have fed – from 10am until midday – they return to sleeping and any movement, of any kind, is too much effort. Our driver asked the Dutch lady, and I, if we wanted an English speaking guide; a quick 'no' from both of us was the reply before we picked up a free map and headed up the hill to the closest pens. We had stopped at a giant golden Panda statue when our driver, quite out of breathe, meet us. What we didn't realise was that, as our Chinese passengers had joined a Chinese tour, he would show us around for free. We moved from pen to pen seeing many Panda's; the animal seemed almost unbelievable and, with it's big fluffy head, you could almost be forgiven for thinking that you were viewing people inside large Panda costumes. After an hour of moving from pen to pen I had to admit that the park became a little boring; my biggest concern was the size of the pens allocated to four, or five, adult Pandas. Panda's are solitary animals with a territory around 15km squared – or so some information stated – however there were five Panda's in an area no larger than 10km squared. As I saw one Panda run up and down his pen boundary, many times, I did wondered if this was normal.

After viewing the Giant Panda we went to see a the Red Panda; these creatures, due to their size and natural camouflage, seemed to be a more believable creature. One very kindly posed for me and, as we could see a flag of a tour group approaching, we left quickly to see more Giant Pandas and a film about the Panda and this facility. The film was held within a restaurant; a waiter tried to get me to order something but I resisted, knowing that the film wouldn't last long. Once over I realised just how stupid this adorable animal is:

· Firstly, Pandas wears a white and black fur coat when it's surroundings are mainly green … hardly 'blending in with the crowd' is it.

· Secondly, the Panda eats bamboo, however it only eats one type of bamboo grown in very remote areas; if it cannot get this type of food then it will either starve or eat leaves.

· Thirdly, the food it has chosen has few nutritious properties and so it has to eat a lot of it to survive, let alone be active.

· Fourthly, due to the lack of energy, the Giant Panda can't be bothered to breed and Panda's have to be shown 'Panda porn' to get them in the mood.

· Fifthly, even before this stage the Giant Panda's breeding time is only one month long (April) and finding a mate isn't easy; Giant Panda's are fussy and just any old Panda won't do.

· Sixthly, okay so lets say a female Panda has eaten enough bamboo to feel active, become sexually motivated and found a mate then, once given birth, the mother could kill the infant – due to the fact that the infant is only 1000^th of the mothers weight – by being too aggressive. If the infant survives the mothers 'hand-fisted' mothering methods its unable to do anything, including walking and seeing, for the first six months. Finally, after six months, the infant can move and feed itself though it will stick to it's mother for a while yet.

HOW IS THIS ANIMAL STILL ALIVE! As I continued to watch the film I asked myself if humans should be interfering with nature; without our intervention the Giant Panda would have died out ages ago and I wondered what effect our actions were having on the natural food chain. On the other hand, with the Panda only eating one type of Bamboo I suppose it's impact on the food chain is minimal and, if humans hadn't 'urbanised' the Pandas old habitats, the Giant Panda numbers might be higher. My only concern was that this animal was being saved because it's cute, whereas there are more, shall we say practical, animals fighting for there existence.

Once the film had finished our driver directed us to a museum, which was rubbish. Being midday it was pointless revisiting the Panda pens as they would have eaten by now and would be preparing to sleep. We met up with the Chinese members of our group and headed back to the, red hot, mini-van. I squeezed myself into a seat and waited for the off; for some reason the air-conditioning wasn't working so the windows were open fully and I hoped that we would continue moving to generate the breeze that I required. Once more the smog was still lingering heavily in the air making everything seem dirty. There was just as much traffic on the way back to our hostel as there was coming.

Once back at my hostel I met a traveller (from Canada … the first other traveller I've met in China!) that I'd first spoken to in Xi'an; she didn't like China at all and was flying to Vietnam in two days time. I told her all the best spots within Vietnam before I headed out. After an hours walk I'd arrived at Chengdu's electrical store street; as I have finished another camera memory card I needed to purchase a new one, and I was surprised to find them as cheap as £6.50. I purchased one and hurried back to my hostel where I had a chilled out before going to bed early, reading a couple of chapters of my new book.

Tomorrow is my last day within Chengdu and I'm glad; Even though I haven't seen much of the city the parts I have seen haven't been that nice; with the levels of pollution I'm looking forward to moving to the mountain city of Kumming where I hope it to be a little different. Tomorrow I plan to visit a tea house, and a Chinese herbal hospital, where English guided tours show you all the different Chinese medicines … or so my guidebook states. Investigating into Chinese medicine isn't something that I thought I would end up doing but I reckon it should be very interesting however, first of all, a lie-in is needed … no alarm for me tomorrow!

Toodle Pip!

P.S. Our hostel has the royal wedding on it's TV; even though it's dumbed in Chinese it's making me proud and, if I'm honest, a little homesick … all the Chinese are watching it. The weather looks good!

Chenghu

Wednesday 27^th April 2011

MP3 track of the day: Big big world – Emilia

Weather: Even hotter than Xi'an; the humidity has risen too and I feel like that I'm back in Cambodia.

I can't quite remember the time but it was dark; the birth opposite me had exchanged occupants and, instead of a middle-aged man, I saw a young lady. It took a few moments to realise that there was another person with her; I cringed knowing that my lie-in was now in jeopardy as the lady had a young child. I rolled within my birth to face the other way.

*********

It wasn't the child that awoke me but the scruffy looking Chinese man in the bunk above. He was shouting down his phone at 6am; as China's within one time zone I asked myself why he needed to make a call now (and why he was using a phone; surely the person could hear him, no matter where they were, without it). Luckily his conversation didn't last too long and, as I was shattered, I fell back to sleep.

**********

I was planning on sleeping in longer than 8am however, I suppose, this wasn't a bad time to get awoken. Once again it wasn't the child that awoken me (The child had been as good as gold) but a group of middle-aged men, just outside my compartment, shouting at each other. I awoke to see a very young face staring at me with a blank expression; I couldn't work out the sex of the child however I did find it amusing that the expression on the child was the same as every other Chinese person, no matter how old, used to stare at me. I stretched a little and looked around at my surroundings; it was a shame that the woman had a child, plus didn't speak a word of English, as she wasn't bad looking. She offered me a tub of, what looked like, baby sick for breakfast; I politely refused and got on with my biscuits as she was forcing a tub of this stuff down her child's mouth. Even the child didn't want it and he/she was Chinese!

I sat within my compartment looking out at the view; China had certainly become a lot greener with huge hills coming ever closer. China also looked hotter than before and I was contemplating whether a return to shorts was needed. I then concentrated on the view even harder than before as I noticed a pungent smell starting to fill the carriage; why she couldn't change the child in the bathroom I do not know.

All was quiet for a while, as I finished my book; with the slave rebellion crushed I could sit back in my chair satisfied that Julius Caesar would live to fight another day. It was at this point that I put my novel back within my bag - knowing that I now had the job of seeking out another - and I took out my guidebook; as I flicked through the many pages I must have stumbled across the 'Chinese translation' section. The 'yummy mummy' perked up at this and she grabbed the book off me. She then used said translation pages to quiz me about my job status, marital status and where I was off to next; it was quite difficult to reply in some instances as the books translations were pretty limited, however it did seem to be drawing an interested crowd.

The train eventually stopped within Chengdu one hour late. I said goodbye to the 'yummy mummy' and was relieved to see my 'free pick-up' standing outside, waiting to take me to my hostel. The ride was the usual scary trip of almost being killed numerous times however I tried to not think about that, instead I peered out of the window and looked at Chengdu. My first impressions weren't that positive; it seemed to lack character and was a maze of skyscrapers, underground passes and fly-overs. What's more the traffic seemed horrendous meaning that it took over an hour to reach my hostel.

The hostels a little out of town however it seems nice enough; yet again there didn't seem to be to many travellers around. I had a busy afternoon in front of me; first of all I asked the receptionist how I would get to Dafo – the place with the worlds biggest Buddha statue – before asking how to get to see the Pandas near Chengdu. The receptionist helped me with both aspects, making me feel confident enough to go without booking onto a tour. Next up I wanted the Chinese translation for 'I would like to book a soft sleeper train to Kumming on the 1^st May' so that I could book my ticket today; the Chinese holidays are coming up and I need to make sure that my transport is sorted early. Finally I asked about mundane things like how does the laundry facility work and where is the closest bank and supermarket. Once all my questions were answered I thanked the lady, smiled, and then departed hurriedly into town.

Chengdu didn't improve whilst I walked around it's busy streets. The skyscrapers, underground passes and fly-overs were still there it's just, when walking, they seemed a little bigger. Actually walking was worse as I got the full effect of the blistering heat; I dived into any shade available as I moved through town to complete my jobs. The train ticket was a lot easier to complete than I imagined, so to was finding a bank. The next task was to find the 'English book' stores my 2008 guidebook had located for me; the thought of having another twenty hour train journey, and no adventures of Caesar to fill them, was unthinkable. Unbelievably the first book store my guidebook listed was where it was supposed to be; I went in, merrily as a school boy, and tried to located their English novel section.

The only problem was that they either didn't have an English novel section, or that I couldn't find it. I looked through the books on both floors but I couldn't find any book covers that I could read; when I inquired at reception their English was so bad that they thought I wanted a 'English translation' book. As I enquired, for the final time, an American girl with a Chinese friend came through the door; I stopped them to ask if they could translate my request, which they did so, only to tell me that this store didn't have any English novels. They did however circle two other places, on my map, where an English book store should be. Off I went to find the closest; this meant that I had to rush through crowds of hundreds of Chinese people, try to cross roads that were almost impossible to cross and work my way around heavy road improvement schemes. All-in-all it took forever and, after getting lost a number of times, I gave up. I checked my guidebook for the second book store it recommended. Happily it was just around the corner from where I was but, sadly, it had been closed down; there were signs saying where the store had moved to but they were in Chinese. There was one last hope however, as it was quite far out of town, I decided to abandon seeking it today; the sun was setting and so I hurried along to my hostel knowing that I still had plenty of jobs to do when I got back.

Before arriving at my hostel I purchased 4ltr's of water, two packet of biscuits and tube of Pringles for tomorrows trip to 'the great Buddha'. I burst through my hostels doors and went up to the fourth floor. After putting my washing on, to do a cycle, I went to have a shower; It seemed both I, and the washing machine, were working as one. After taking a shower I returned to the washing machine to find my cycle only had three minutes remaining; once complete I hung my clothes to dry before heading into the hostel to find, once again, that my laptop couldn't connect to the internet. Once again I found myself having to pay for a service I should be able to access freely; I needed to go online as I had to book accommodation within Kumming. Once this was complete I had a light tea before retiring to bed, without a tale of Julius Caesar to send me off to sleep. Tomorrow the Buddha … I need to be up by 6am!

Toodle Pip!