Oooh, so close to home now!!

A couple of days ago we passed over the Russian border, and we are now in picturesque Tallinn, the capital of Estonia...

I can't really remember where my last journal entry ended, but I think it was somewhere in Moscow...

So we caught the overnight train to St. Petersburg (we had the grumpiest attendant on our carriage), and as it left at 12.30am, we went to sleep straight away, anly to wake in the suburbs of St Petersburg...so nothing really to report on that train journey...

We had a walking tour of St Petersburg on our first morning there, and it is a city so steeped in history and architecture and culture, that it's kina difficult to take it all in - in addition its all so spread out that again it's hard to make mental connections between places, people and events.  It is a beutiful city though, with churches, cathedrals, palaces, canals etc. And we had a fantastic homestay there too...

On our final day there we visited the winter palaces, on the banks of the neva river, home to the world class hermitage museum, and that was a nice change from wlking around the city gawping at buildings...

The next day we caught the bus to Tallinn, Estonia...we all breathed a sigh of releif when we passed over the Russian Border, into the EU.  It seemed that it was sunnier in the EU, everyone there was more relaxed, and we had entered the land of the pub  - within only a few km from the border, in a pretty non-descript town we saw an "Englisse Pubi", now my Estonian isn't great, but I figured that life could only get better from here.  Our hostel is in the old part of Tallinn, which is a beautiful cobbled, winding streeted, paradise of cafes and "pubi"s.

Tonight we are on the night bus to Eccentric Vilnius in Lithuania, and from there who knows where...

Three nights on the train, crossing five time zones, and we are in Moscow!

The train journey was great, helped along ably by our cabin companions, Kelly and John, who were far better company than any Mongolian smugglers family!  Basically, the three days consisted of eating (delicious Russian pastries called perushki, filled with either mashed potato, fish and rice, or mince and onion), reading, sleeping, looking out of the window at endless tracts of wild siberian forest (no bears or elk though, unfortunately), drinking vodka, drinking beer, playing cards, drinking, sleeping and eating... and of course having a great big drink as we passed the obelisk in the Urals which marks the boundary between Asia and Europe!

The scenery, while beatiful in all its autumnal yellow, red and green glory, was also monotonous (oh more forest!) - especially as my hunt for bears and elk remained fruitless!  The nights were hot on the train, because the attendants kept turning the heaters on too high, and the mornings were cold.  We passed through occaisional towns and cities, small villages of wooden Siberian houses, went over bridges and rivers (including the Volga), and passed more autumnal forest - there's only so much you can say about birch trees in the autumn!

Finally, we arrived in Moscow on Monday afternoon, and it was gloriously sunny as our driver took us to our homestay.  The first, and most surprising thing about Moscow, is that its not filled with looming grey concrete blocks, quite the opposite, the architecture is stunning and beautiful, the streets are wide and tree-lined, and there are parks and monuments all over the place.

(If I had more time, and wasn't so travel weary I'd wax lyrical about it all so much more!)

Our homestay is not far from the city centre, in some very nice apartments near Moscows 1812 Triumphal Arch (the route that President Putin uses on his way to work...), and we are staying with a nice and friendly old lady called Olga!

Yesterday we went for a walk to Red Square, and saw the Kremlin, Lenin's Mausoleum, St. Basils Cathedral, Gum State Department Store, Monument to the unknown soldier etc. etc. and it is all rather nice and relaxing hanging about in parks, eating pastries and watching Russians do there thing (which seems to be drink beer all day long, and then end the day on a vodka - so many people drink here all the time - not that it seems that Russia is a society of drunken yobs, it's just that everyone likes a drink...)

Last night we had a little treat, and went to see some local entertainment.  So after seeing throat singing in Mongolia (and the water-puppets in Vietnam last Christmas), do you think we went to see a.Cossock Dancers b.Balilaika Musicians c.Korn (playing in Red Square, apparently - we actually saw Kelly Osborn there too wandering around taking pictures...) or d.Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake at the Bollshoi ?  well, it wasn't Korn - we opted for a posh night at the ballet, and again it was stunning and spectacular (yes my adjectives are running out...)

Anyway, not much else to report really, have been souvenir shopping (matroushka dolls galore) today and eating more patries...

Of to Saint Petersburg tomorrow evening where more culture awaits...

So, once again, my time in this little Russian net cafe is limited, as I have to go and get some supplies for our 4 day train marathon to Moscow, which leaves this afternoon, so I will try to remember everything...

So we left Ulaan Bataar in the afternoon, and once the ger-camp suburbs of the coldest capital city in the world became pinpricks in the distance, watched the rolling hills whizz by under darkening skies.  The weather had began to turn since we left the ger camp, and it seemed that the steppe to the north of Mongolia looked far less interesting than that in the south which we had passed through coming from Beijing.

Soon night drew in and it transpired that Sally and I were alone in our cabin, so tired, we turned out the lights and slept in our bunks.  I awoke at about 5am, it had started to get light, but additionally the train was being bumped and rattled as if the carriages were being uncoupled (or something...), I rolled over and tried to continue sleeping, but by 8am I noticed that since waking earlier, the train had not moved - at all!  I guessed therefore that we were at the border, and were maybe waiting for it to open?

I got up and made myself a lukewarm cup of coffee (the water heater at the end of the carriage had not been fired up yet...), and had a look out of the windows - yes we were at a station, and yes it appeared to be the last station in Mongolia - the border station!  So I walked to the end of the carriage to see what else I could see, and it turned out that what had been a train of about eight or nine carriages and an engine the night before had been reduced to two carriages and no engine!!

Well, no-one else was panicking, so I assumed this was ussual procedure, so we waited, and waited.

Then some Mongolians got on the train, first black-marketeers trying to sell Roubles (at inflated rates), and then passengers who wanted to cross the border.

A family encamped themselves in our cabin, and then their luggage arrived: bags, and bigger bags and bigger bags, and then plastic bags of meat, and then kettles (?) and TV antennae (?), and then it seemed that everyones compartment was being loaded with various goods and even the vestibules at the ends of the carriages were being stacked up with items...

Then some official looking Mongolians got on, and warned the "families" that there was too much stuff, so some things were cleared from the compartments but our "family" still had a lot of bags which they opened and then started scattering clothes around the compartment (hanging them on rails and hangars - after removing them from plastic bags and taking all the tags out...), then they started to put additional clothes on - one man wore about seven shirts, his wife donned a similar number of pairs of tights and t-shirts, other items of cloting in packets were stuffed in all available spaces, and then the Mongolian customs came on board - checked passports and departure cards, and our cabin-mates breathed a small sigh of relief...

BUT we still were without an engine or any other carriages... and we still had to get through Russian customs control...

By now it was nearly mid-day, but soon enough we were coupled to an engine, and we began a slow trudge passing razor-wire electric fences and tall watchtowers with spotlights and fierce looking russians...

We arrived at another station, this one populated not by Asian looking Mongolians, but by Caucasian Russians...

Our "Family" started to get twitchy and nervous, and inevitably so did we - we definitely did not want to get caught up in whatever it was that they were doing that they shouldn't have been...

The Russians borded, first opening compartments and panels to see if there were any stow-aways...

Then a second group who were checking passports and customs declarations...

While everything seemed to be in order for Sally and I, they ordered us all out of our compartment while they tore apart the Mongolians luggage and inspected every part of it...

We hoped that we were in no way implicated in what went on - the conversation was entirely in Russian, and we did our best to keep out of it in order to look like we weren't part of it...

The Russians looked stern...

The Mongolians did their best to look like an honest, jovial, hardworking family...

Eventually the Russians seemed happy (as happy as a Russian Border Guard could look, anyway) with what they had to say, and moved on to the next compartment...

After all of the Russians has left the train, our "family" started to replace all the clothing into their packets and into their bags.  They told us that they were not staying on the train for very long after the border.  I was quite relieved at this, because in their attempt to look like a happy family, they were taking over the cabin with smelly tins of fish and salami, and a small child peeing into an empty water bottle...

But still the train waited at the border station.  Of course the toilets on the train were locked, so many passengers were taking the chance to use the facilities on the platform, change money in a bank there, and buy in more supplies for the rest of our buffet-car-less journey to Irkutsk.

By now I too was tired and restless and more than a little annoyed with our cabin-mates from hell, I was getting impatient to get going and see what Russia looked like, and get to where we were going...

Eventually at about 4:30pm (yes, nearly 12 hours after arriving at the Mongolian border!), we were coupled to an Engine (our border crossing engine had been un coupled), and more carriages, and we set off, on our way.

As promised, an hour later the Mongolians had packed up and removed themselves from our cabin, and left us in peace, so I tidied up the cabin and started to make my self comfortable for the remainder of the journey - we were due to arrive shortly after 8am the next morning.

We were met at the station, and with a few other tourists (including John and Kelly, with whom we had shared a homestay and Ger camp in Mongolia) were taken the hour-long journey out of town to Listvyanka, on the shores of Lake Baikal.  Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake in the world, and is apparently aver 400km long, and about 1.5km deep at its deepest part.  It is known as the "blue eye of Siberia", and was looking extremely blue when we first caught a glimpse of it.  It looked very alpine, surrounded by mountains, pine and birch trees, and picturesque log cabins and wooden houses with intricately carved shutters, and little wisps of smoke rising from their chimneys...

We were taken to our chalet, which lived up to and beyond our expectation: wooden building clinging to the hillside, pine interior, balcony overlooking the valley and the lake, pine forest all around, intense smell of pine inside and out, breakfast cooked for us in the morning...

So on that first sunny afternoon, we hung out in cafes, eating Russian Food (which is great - at least it is the way they do it for foreigners...), drinking Russian beer, and feeling like we were on holiday...

The next day we walked to the lookout point, a spot on the mountains where you can see great views (obviously!), we took a chairlift to get to the top, and that was all rather good fun!

Yesterday though the weather took a turn, which was nice for us as we were due to leave the lake that morning, and it was even nicer to see Siberia with a smattering of snow as we trundled away from the lake in an ex-Russian Military transport as we were taken to our homestay in Irkutsk.

OK, here I am in an internet cafe in Ulaan Bataar, and my train to Russia leaves in a couple of hours...

So I don't know how much I will be able to write about, so I will keep it brief, and maybe pad it out later...

First, the Great Wall - it was great!  We went to one of the less touristy bits at Mutianyu, and while it was still reconstructed and had more than its fair share of tourist stalls, it wasn't too crowded.  The journey from Beijing took a couple of hours, up into the mountains and we met an English couple who were also travelling Trans-Mongolian (although their trip sounded far more adventurous than ours).

We took a cable car up to the wall, and walked a fair stretch, up one particularly steep part to the end of the reconstructed wall, to the wild wall!  We walked back and opted to take a tobogan down! (OK so that was pretty touristy - but it wasn't too tacky!)  The tobogan run (a bit like a 1 man bobsled) twisted and turned though trees and undergrowth down the mountainside, and while it does sound tacky the run was obscurred from sight by all the vegetation, and therefore wasn't an eyesore or anything...honest!

That night we went out for Peking Duck - which was delicious, and I ate duck brain!

The next day was Monday, and we walked the streets of Beijing, and picked up our tickets and some supplies etc. and made our preparations for the next day, the train to Mongolia!

The train left early in the morning, which meant that while on board we had plenty of opportunity to watch the scenery go by, after a couple of hours the fertile plains to the north of Beijing gave way to the mountains, and we passed another stretch of Great Wall.  These mountains marked the boundary of Inner Mongolia, and again the landscape changed changed, flattening out.  That evening we were to cross the border, and this was a legnthy process which first meant passing Chinese customs control, then changing bogies (in order to run the train on wider guaged Monglian tracks) - this took about 2-3hours, then crossing in Mongolia and going through Mongolian customs.  The whole process started at about 9.30pm and we had finished by about 2am, after which we were able to get some sleep.

I woke quite early the next morning as I was keen to see what Mongolia looked like in the day time.  It didn't dissapoint me.  Wide rolling plains dotted with herds of sheep, goats, cattle, horses, camels, and yaks (yes camels and yaks!!!)  Giant black birds of prey soared overhead, as white gers could be seen sporadically in the distance.  Every now and then the train would stop at a picturesque station with white buildings and ornate decoration and delcate blue trim.

We were quite keen to arrive now, and I started to think about our homestay.  When we did arrive, shortly after 2pm, it was clear that Ulaan Bataar is far less populous than any city we had been to so far on the trip, the suburbs were made up of Ger camps, and the city centre a mix of old decaying apartment blocks, and soviet-era buildings.  We were met at the station, and joined by another couple from Liverpool who were doing the same thing as us, and with whom we would be sharing our homestay.  It turned out though that all was not well with them.  They had been the victim of a robbery on the train, and had lost a small bag in the confusion when the train stopped at the platform.  Apparently they had lost nothing of any value, but were obviously quite distraught!  We checked our own bags, and resolved that we would be extra vigilant from now on...

We were all taken to our homestay, and it was great!  Our hostess's name is Madame Galia, who is Buryat Russian, and works for the university teaching Russian and German.  She is an old lady in her 60s, and is very kind and welcoming and makes us all endless cups of tea.  We arranged that we would be taken to our ger camp the next morning at 10, so for the rest of the afternoon we looked around the city, and decided to take in a show of traditional Mongolian performing arts - including the fantastic throat singing (we bought a CD!!), and a contortionist who would make your eyes water (I had to close my eyes at the end...)

The next day we were taken to the Terelj national park, and to our ger camp.  It was so beautiful out in the wide open spaces of the Mongolian coutryside, crickets and grasshoppers swarmed in the closely cropped grasslands, while herds grazed and nomadic horsemen looked on.  Words cannot do it justice, as it is a place of immense beauty, and after being in China's densly (spelling?) populated big cities, it was nice to feel like we were almost alone in this vast country (apparently its the size of western Europe...)

The next day we went horse riding, which was really nice getting even further into the wilderness.  A mongolian horseman (dressed in all the gear) took us out passed more herds of animals (the vast herds of horses were the most special; the closest thing to wild horses you can find), and while the sun beat down on us it was easy to imagine we were in a western!  Our guide was very understanding about all our inadeqacies at horse riding, but allowed us a great deal of freedom (we weren't led, he just told us how to control the horses and left us to it, while we followed him to our destination).  The three hour ride left us very saddle sore and weak in the knees, but was thoroughly enjoyable!!

That afternoon, we rested.  In the evening, it turned out that it was the birthday of the owner of the ger camp, and all his friends joined him for the celebration.  We were invited to be part of the festivities, which started tamely: a couple of glasses of beer, curious questions for the foreigners and a great deal of catching up (in Mongolian) between the Mongolian friends, but after the champagne was opened, and the first of the neat vodka toasts was drunk, the singing started: first the Mongolian folk songs, then the battle songs, then on to Frank "Frankie-Boy" Sinatra (to include the foreigners), and on to "You'll Never Walk Alone".  The night also included examples of Mogolian "human beat-box" and breakdancing/robotics...we got to bed by 5am...much the worse for wear, but incredibly pleased to have found ourselves so accepted by our Mongolian hosts...

The next morning we awoke for breakfast, and felt rough!  Very rough!!

That day we were served a traditional Mongolian meal which was cooked in a giant pot with heated stones, and involved boiling an entire sheeps skeleton.  This was not the hangover food I was craving.  But it was again good to be a part of this exotic tradition.

So today we take the train up to Irkutsk, which will depart at 6.40, and will not arrive until about 9am after 2nights on the train...

Our train from Xi'an to Beijing was a super fast 11hour, non-stop, luxury with TV's in cabin, super new and clean express train!  It was nice travelling at the height of luxury on the Chinese transport network!

Anyway, the day before we caught the train, though we both got a bit of a dose of travellers food poisoning (or something...), I'll spare the details, but sufficed to say that while we didn't feel ill, a loss of appetite (on my part at least) meant that I had absolutely no energy!

We did manage to take a walk around Xi'an though to the southern city wall, along one of the older streets there which was lined with quant old Chinese houses, most of which had now been turned into shops selling Chinese Calligraphy supplies.  Beyond this lay the Confucious temple, which boasts one of the largest collection of stone "steles" (I think...) They were stone tablets inscribed with great (and ancient) calligraphic works, mostly from Confucious (including dictionaries and philosophies written by him), but also many, many other classic, ancient Chinese texts, as well as histories and accounts etc. etc. etc.  Given that I don't read Chinese - especially classical Chinese I found it fascinating (there were no English translations, mind - I guess you need to be a museum curator as Sally spent most of it sitting under a tree reading her book).  After that, we had enough energy to get back to the hotel and get ready for the train.

The train (did I mention it was such a great train?), left at about 7.20pm which meant it was dark outside when we left, so there were no poortunities for watching the countryside, so I watched the TV at the foot of my bed before dozing... being woken at about 6am by our alarm with enough time to make a quick coffee before we arrived in Beijing!

We checked into out hotel, which is a real gem - a kind of hostel/hotel combinded with all the plusses of a hostel: being surrounded by like minded travellers, having a restraunt that can serve a plate of chips when you've had enough of Peking Duck, cheap laundry and internet facilities etc.; while having all the plusses of a hotel; a private room with TV and fridge (what else do you need?)  In addition, the hotel is in a rabbit warren of back streets of typical Chinese houses, with small market stalls, men playing chess in the street etc. (you get the picture) BUT having the hotel/hostel in the neighbourhood means that all of the shops and restraunts in the district are used to dealing with foreigners, so have signs in English and are all generally helpful and nice (rather than being tacky and touristy, or quant and unaccustomed to wierd ways of foreigners).  AND its only 15 minutes walk to the centre of Beijing!  So after we checked in, had a shower, booked tomorrows excursion to the great wall, we walked to Tiananmen Square (as you do...), but we picked the wrong day for it.  Today was the "60th anniversary of the mighty and proud victory over the terrible Japanese aggression" (or some similar communist, nationalist, anti-Japanese rhetoric, in Eurpoe I'm sure we would celebrate "the end of war", or "the return of peace" or something...), which meant that Tiananmen square was off-limits while heads of state and diplomats etc. made speaches (probably abhout how great they are and how bad the Japanese were and still are), but we didn't really want to stick around to find out, luckily just to the north of Tiananmen square (through Tianan gate) is the forbidden city, and while today Tiananmen square was forbiden, the forbiden city was not...

This it seems is the palace/grounds that virtually everything else is based upon: a huge complex of courtyards, palaces, throne rooms, antechambers, alleys where (and I really don't remember the exact figures) loads of emporers have lived.  It was spectacular, and though vast areas of it are still out of bounds, and there were vast swathes of it behind scaffolding, it was still exceedingingly spectacular and stunning!

After that, it was time to come back to the hotel, were we ate Mongolian Barbeque, which is, hopefully, a taste of things to come as it was delicious!

Tomorrow we go to the great wall, and on Monday we get ourselves in gear to go to Mongolia: the train departs early on Tuesday Morning...

After the culture shock of finding ourselves unprepared in Shanghai, we are now begining to have a great time in China, as we learn the easy way to get things done: find travel agents who speak really good English, and who cater to foreign tourists!!

The 28 hour train journey wasn't nearly as painful as it could have been, which is good, because crossing Siberia in a couple of weeks will involve a 3 and a half day train journey!  Our cabin mates weren't nearly as talkative this time, which was nice as it afforded me even more time to doze and read and relax, without having to try and concentrate to understand an increasingly difficult accent (these mainlanders speak Chinese funny!).

The was very peaceful, as the tracks spanned broad rivers, trundled through villages and towns and cities, giving us more glimpses at everyday life beside the railway.  As we made our way north, the climate became noticeably cooler (really? was that just my imagination?), rice paddies, palm trees and outcrops of bamboo gave way to wheat feilds and copses of poplar (or was it spruce, or cypress?), and birch and ash and alder (maybe, I'm not really a tree expert - they weren't oak or maple thats for sure!), passing factories new and old - some derelict, and some reused for something else.  The jagged peaks of the complex rock formations in the south flattened into broad plains, scattered with two storey farm buildings with sloping tiled rooves, and there were times when there were no clues that I was in Asia: I daydreamed that I was travelling accross Europe, and began to fantasise about western food.  During the entire journey I think I saw more Churches and Mosques each than I did Pagodas, Temples, Shrines or any other form of the traditional Chinese spiritual structures together.  Remembering Taiwan, and particularly Tainan (the temple capital), it is hard to turn a corner without seeing a temple.  Occaisionally it would only be a whitewashed wall, with an undulating tiled top with broad stokes of blue or red Chinese characters that would remind me where in the world I actually was.

Once again, the topography began to rise: this time into anthill like structures made from a red-yellow sandstone, some terraced (whether naturally or for farming I do not know).  Then I began to notice the most intruiging part of this train journey: first it appeared that some of the cliff faces contained smatterings of caves, then I would see a cave entrance that looked more man-made (or man decorated).  These first caves all seemed long out of use, but it wasn't long before I noticed one cave with a courtyard wall around the entrance, and laundry hanging out to dry in the courtyard.  Now, not having done any research,I do not know if the caves were natural or man-made, I also do not know if they were originaly intended as dwellings, or if they began life as drift mines for ore or minerals.  Certainly some were industrial, and still showed evidence as such, some were in use as warehouses or stores, most that I saw were abandoned, but I do not know how many must have been beyond my sight, away from the railway tracks.  Vowing to find out more about the caves when I was next at a computer (it is my next job: I promise...), I returned to dozing.  Looking out of the windows a few hours later, I was surprised to see exactly the same landscape, and exactly the same rock structures, perhaps with a greater frequency - I promise I will find out about them and post something here soon...

We arrived in Xi'an at about 9pm, and as promised in Guilin, we were met at the station, by a sofly tall and softly spoken Chinese man with a slight German accent (he reminded me of the camp German Officer in the sitcom "'Allo 'allo"), but on arrival at our hotel, he proved that he already had everything organised: our tour to see the terracotta warriors the next day, and our train tickets to Beijing for the day after that!  We could relax: nothing to do here but get on with being on holiday!!

Our tour to see the terracotta warriors today included a whole variety of other destinations: mainly local, small-time museums and sites, trying to jump on the back of the big attraction around the corner.  For the most part our guide wasn't too good, but then I guess if he is too good, you don't need to pay for a guide book too, eh?  Before seeing the main attraction, we saw some tombs and coffins, and the mausoleum mound of the Empororer that the warriors are meant to be guarding, and while all of this was nice, it wasn't what I had gone on the trip esspecially to see (and, like I say, our guide wasn't really that good, so it took a while to realise the relevance of what we were seeing).

BUT, when we did finally get to see the covered excavation site of the terracotta army, it was truly astounding and spectacular: especially given that there are approximately 1000 excavated figures, of an estimated 6000 total in one part of the site, and some believe that there may be other sites, or that the present site may extent even further!  The site is, of course, a World Heritage Site - and this means it has the money and international backing to make the exhibitions there world class.  It made me think though that it was such a shame that all the other smaller heritage attractions which are not related to the World Heritage Site, and therefore don't have the money, and whose exhibits would probably be seen as far more important if it wasn't for their ostentatious neighbours, are living in ramshackle museums with peeling displays, and are visited by an unimpressed and impatient public.  Anyway, I'm not sure what my point is there (or even if I'm making one - its getting late here now...)

Right, so tomorrow Beijing or should I say 7pm take the train to Beijing, just a short 11hour hop away.  This means, we'll have plenty of time to explore Xi'an town before our train leaves...

Arriving in Shanghai it was a relief to find that we could communicate again, and our fears of not being able to unstand or be understood with our Taiwan Mandarin on the mainland were immediately dispelled...

But, our trip was turning into another game of "good news/bad news"...

While in Tokyo, the day we were due to fly I found that my rucksack had broken, and the rip was right at the point where the shoulder strap joined the actual body of the rucksack, leaving the strap hanging precariously off, and leaving a 6 inch (and widening every time any weight was borne on the strap) hole in my pack...

My options were: 1, ignore it; 2, repair it or have it repaired; 3 buy a new rucksack.  Deciding that 1 wasn't really a viable option given the journey ahead, and that 2 may be too unreliable we had to find a camping/outdoor shop that would supply us with a new rucksack (and bear in mind these things don't come cheap, and in Tokyo - one of the worlds most expensive cities...)

So the morning we were due to fly to Shaqnghai we had a mission.  The good news was the hotel gave us the name address and map of a great outdoor supply shop, right next to one of the main subway stops.  The bad news was it was closed for one day only for inventory taking.  The good news was that on the way there we saw an open camping supplies shop which sold rucksacks.  So thankfully this little episode ended with good news.  After buying a new 95litre rucksack, we made our way to the Asakusa district of Tokyo, and breifly took in the sights there before rushing back to the hotel to repack my bags, and jump on a train that would take us to the airport.  No time for real Tokyo Sushi though...

We arrived in Shanghai Pudong Airport late at night, and found all the airport information desks/public transport facilities closed, and found that no-one knew where our hotel was, so we weren't able to direct a taxi driver.  A very helpful girl in the business suite at the airport allowed us to use the internet and phone there (she even phoned up for us), and we soon found the address in Chinese, and were once again on our way.

As we drove from the airport we were pleasantly surprised at the wide open spaces, the acres of greenery, and the quiet roads.  But all this faded away as we neared the city, and this giant metropolis loomed.  I read somewhere that Shanghai boasts a population of 15 million people (Cambodia as a whole only has about 10 million...), and I could believe that as tower blocks crowded the elevated highways as we swung down from the high bridge that took us accross the river.  Eventually we got to the hotel, and slept in preparation for a busy day sightseeing and arranging our the next stage in our trip.

The next day, after sleeping in we decided to walk into the city, and we passed scores of high-rise tenements and apartments, under the elevated highways and through the "Chinese Quarter" (I too couldn't believe that a Chinese city would have such a thing), this was an area of much older housing, delapidated and in need of repair, narrow streets filled with people plying their trades, and around the outskirts of this district were more touristy silk and caligraphy stalls, making money selling to the foreigners.  We made our way from here to The Bund Shanghais tourist district on the west bank of the river, seeing the famous pearl of the orient TV tower (Shanghais most famous landmark) on the opposite bank.  After walking here in the pleasant afternoon sun, we continued onto the Nanjing Road (Shanghai's famous shopping street), now in search of a bank that would change our travellers cheques in order that we could continue on to the railway station and buy our onward train tickets.  Bank after bank told us they did not deal with travellers cheques, and after a suggestion from a (generally unhelpful) branch of the Shanghai Tourist Information, we even tried an upmarket hotel who refused on the grounds that we weren't guests.

We were now getting desparate, and also regretting not having bought a Lonely Planet for China (we had generally neglected the planning for this part of the trip, as the Beijing-Moscow part was taking most of our pre-trip attention).  So we decided to try and get cash from an ATM, buy our train tickets, and then worry about the travellers cheques the next day.  But ATM after ATM refused to accept the cards, and we almost began to panic, until a branch of the "Agricultural Bank of China"'s ATM allowed us to withdraw enough money to buy our tickets.  With that we rushed via subway to the train station and (this is where speaking Chinese is really helpful) bought our train tickets relatively easily for the next day: we were on a 26hour journey to Guilin in the south, leaving at 5pm... by now it was late, and after a hard day walking with all the knocks we had taken in terms of trying to get things done we returned home to evaluate our situation: we felt very underprepared, and naive about travelling in China, we had been overconfident given our past travelling experiences, and had been so focussed on other parts of our travels that for these two weeks in China we had done very little in terms of preparation and research. 

We awoke early the next day, with two main objectives: change travellers cheques and book a hotel in Guilin.  We had by now given up on being tourists in Shanghai, deciding that practicalities had to come first.  We had somehow learned that the "Bank of China" is the only bank in China that will change travellers cheques, and after some research and budgeting, decided it was best to get rid of the travellers cheques, and carry cash (apparently they are evn more difficult to exchange in Mongolia and Russia).  We got the hotel to help us find the nearest branch, and after a short taxi ride (with a very grumpy driver), we found the branch, took a ticket and waited apprehensively in the hope that this suburban branch of the bank might be able to help us.  We learned that not only can they change travellers cheques, but their helpful and knowledgeable staff also speak very good English!  Hoorah! We had (with some ease) accomplished our first mission, and it wasn't even 9:30am yet...

So now, we had to sort out a hotel: we decided our best bet might be to book one through the internet, so after returning to the hotel to ask for directins to the nearest internet cafe, we set off again, inspired by our first triumph...

We then found the internet cafe (again with some ease), but they refused to allow us access.  At first we thought this might be because we were foreigners, but later we learned (by following a local man in) that they just weren't letting anybody in.  But the good news here was that downstairs from the net cafe was a handy CITS travel agent (CITS are the government body that handle foreign tourists in China), and though they didn't speak very much English, they were able to help us get a hotel in Guilin, for a very good price.  Eventually we found a net cafe, but only had the chance to check my email before we had to get back to the hotel to pick up our bags before dashing to the railway station to experience our first Chinese train.

The train station was vast, and heaving with people.  We hadn't really seen it the day before when we bought our tickets as the ticket office was in a different location.  We arrived in plenty of time, and after having our baggage X-Rayed, were led to a vast waiting room thronging with people.  Apparently the numbers of people travelling through Shanghai station are so vast, that no-one is allowed on the platforms before the train has arrived.  Eventually the gate for our train was opened, and we came down another escalator, onto the platform to find ourselves at our train, our birth was in car 8, and the escalator came down at car 14, and the train seemed uneneding in both directions...

We didn't really know what to expect on the train: although we had thought we bought soft sleeper tickets, we didn't know exactly if we were successful in that, or what level of luxury (or not) that might entail, but we were overjoyed to find a 4 birth cabin filled with enough bedding, flowers on the table and the strains of oriental music over the PA system.  We revelled in this luxury, and we felt happy to have the cabin to ourselves, wondering if they had not booked anyone else in with the foreigners.  We expected company in our cabin at some point, but we were very happy in our surroundings.  After half an hour or more we were joined in our cabin by two Chinese men, who would be our "room-mates" for the journey.  We talked to them briefly, and they seemed bemused, but generally accepting of the foreigners they were sharing with.  We watched the Shanghai cityscape slowly disipate into wealthy suburbs, we passed outlying factories, but the city never really seemed to end.  As night fell, the buildings gave way to farmland, hills and countryside, so we closed the curtains, and read before the lights were turned out and we slept.

Due to the motion of travelling, and the flimsy curtains which refused to stay shut with the rocking of the train, we woke early, and struck brief and stunted conversations with the men in our cabin.  We found understanding one of them relatively easy, but the other spoke mandarin with a very strong accent, and to us it seemd completely indecipherable.  Then conversation was only as limited as our Chinese ability, as neither man knew any English, and often the men would have to resort to what I guess might have seemed like baby-talk, and mime in order to get their message accross.  But it was fun for us, and I believe they genuinely enjoyed their cross-cultural exchange - they even learned about the existence of chewing gum, something I'm not sure they enjoyed, nor would treasure...

Gazing out of the window, reading a novel, or the tiny pocket guide to China I had were all nice relaxing distractions from the intensely busy shedule we had been keeping, seemingly for as long as I can remember:  First there was planning the trip back in Taiwan, then the stresses of finishing up at school, saying our goodbyes, and our last week in Taiwan had been entirely dominated by "To Do" lists ensuring that we had visas, tickets, provisions, that we had sent our stuff home, that we were ready to move out of our apartment, etc. etc. etc. Every day new things had been added as each previous item was crossed off, then Tokyo and Shanghai had been hectic messes of activity, filled with their own set of stresses and worries, but now I had no choice but to sit, watch, read, listen, talk, and doze...

As the train sliced through the Chinese countryside inland and to the south, it was possible to catch glimpses of everyday Chinese life: a factory lunchreak here, a farmhand's siesta there.  Flat square rice paddies turned into terraces of wheat fields as issues with irrigation and soil affected the potential for crops, back again into rice paddies as the topographies levelled off again - and my mind was able to drift trying to take all of the scenery both on and off the train.  Another factory, a comotion on the train with a child who had recieved a scald from the hot water tanks, a small town, some people selling rice pushing a trolley down the train...

Eventually the mountains seemed to loom closer as we neared our destination, famous - almost to the point of being revered throughout China as one of its most beautiful landscapes, the landscape which inspires virtually every classical Chinese painting.

By the time we arrived, it was again dark and as we stepped off the train we could already feel that the pressures of big city living that had been present since we had first arrived in Tokyo were not present in this southern outpost of China.  We took a taxi to our hotel, and our taxi driver was chirpy and relaxed (qualities that none of the drivers in Shanghai shared), and while Guilin was bigger and glitzier than I had expected, its cityscape was interupted by its famous jutting peaks, illuminated pagodas, a busy nightmarket, tourists both foreign and Chinese mingling in the relaxed evening of the weekend.

Our hotel turned out to be great, and though it is a new hotel, so an interupted water supply and tripping fuse switches are an infrequent, but less than catstrophic interuption, it is nice to feel we are staying in relative luxury.

Having learnt from Shanghai, we decided to make it our mission to get as much achieved as we could when we first arrived, and then relax into being a tourist later, so we woke early on our first morning after a deep sleep (it is amazing just how tiring siiting on a train for 26hours can be...), with the plan to get our onward train tickets, book a hotel in our next city (Xi'an, home of the terracotta warriors), and arrange a river-boat cruise of down the Li River to see some of the local scenery.  Our hotel was 5 minutes walk to the south railway station (we had arrived at the north station the previous night, and had been told that trains to Xi'an departed from the south station), and we very easily booked our next train journey.  Then opposite the train station was a CITS branch, with signs outside in English, so we made a beeline...

The man inside spoke great English, and again seemed very helpful and knowledgeable (he even correctly guessed that we were teachers, based on our knowledge of Chinese - not a great puzzle admitedly, but I was impressed nontheless), he helped us to choose a hotel in Xi'an, and booked us on a river tour (we opted for a westerners tour, in spite of his insistences that we could go on the Chinese tour - we were begining to miss the company of westerners...), he even managed to arrange a representaitive in Xi'an to come and meet us and to help us with our travel plans from there onward.

We were very happy, as we had managed to accomplish all of our goals within about an hour of leaving the hotel, we even had the peace of mind that we would be able to sort out our next arrangements easily when we made it to our next destination: we had the rest of the day to amble around the city, relax and enjoy ourselves without any worry.

That afternoon, we walked down the river, visiting elephant trunk park: a riverside landscaped garden overlooking a mountain escarpment resembling an elephant drinking from the river with its trunk.  We walked on to the prince palace, one-time home to the kings and emporers in China (I can't remember when, or which dynasty, but maybe 13th century?)  Sally opted to sit in the shade of a tree while I took the tour, in which I witnessed dancing (of some variety), and took a mock "Confucian" exam (in Chinese), my tour guide helped me with the answers while I struggled to remember how to write basic Chinese characters, but somehow I managed to pass the exam, and was treated to a mock-up of the ceremony that examinants would have gone through back in the day, had they passed the 3-day exams of the time - I got to wear a gown, and got a certificate and everything!  I then climbed the 60metre mountain in the middle of the palace grounds, giving myself a great view of the city and its surroundings, but completely wearing myself out in the process.  I returned to Sally to tell her what she had missed.  We walked on, to find another peak from which to watch the sunset over the surrounding scenery.  After which we found some kind of Chinese buffet restraunt where we ate spring-rolls, fried cuttle-fish tentacles, and a bowl of ice shavings...

Which brings me to today...

This morning, we got up to be met at our hotel by a minibus to take us to the Guilin boat cruise.  The cruise was every bit as spectacular as it had been made out to be: jutting peaks, bamboo rafts, bathing herds of water buffalo, men fishing with cormorants (well actually they weren't: most of the cormorants were just hanging around waiting to be fished with, and those that were with men, were posing on bamboo poles for 5 yuan per photo - but apparently, they do still do that here - I believe mostly at night time...).  The cruise reminded me of the peaks in Halong Bay in north Vietnam, or of those north of Phuket we had seen at Christmas: Jutting mountain peaks seeming to rise from nowhere, distant silhouettes (spelling, I know!) of similar peaks, caves burrowed into the base of sheer cliffs.  While again I found the cruise peaceful and relaxing it was not as stirring or inspirational as I thought it might.  Maybe I am just in need of relaxation rather than stimulation, maybe it seemed to be "same old, same old" (seen it in Vietnam, and Thailand), maybe the hype had gotten the better of my expactations.  It wasn't in any way a disappointment, but I didn't find that it excited me as much as some of my previous experiences.  I hope this doesn't mean I am turning into a "been there, done that" traveller, I think it was purely that while it was nice to be out in the countryside, nice to sit on a boat for 4 hours or more, nice to sit and watch the world go by, this was never billed to be the highpoint of our journey home, or even of our trip around China.  Maybe I would have been better seeing it, and indeed the rest of China on a separate trip, not the journey home.

Like I say though, it was in no way disappointing, and I know that we still have the terracotta warriors and the great wall to come: and I have never seen anything like either of those sights before, so I am confident that these cutural wonders of China may yet prove to be the highlight of China.

The boat cruise ended in a small village called Yangshou (or something?), which was a very pretty little village whose soul purpose seemed to be to cater for disembarking tourist groups.  It reminded me alot of Hoi-An in Vietnam, cosy old houses and narrow streets, craft shops, and travellers cafes: everything here was in English, and while it was full of charm, it was definitelt the tourist dollar (or yuan) that maintained that charm.  It would have been nice to have stayed there longer, but it was just nice to know that such places do exist in China.

Tomorrow we travel by train (28hours) to Xi'an, where we plan to stay for 2 nights before our onward journey to the capital.

Yesterday, we moved out took all our remaining possessions and flew to Tokyo  - The journey has begun!

In many ways, Tokyo looks alot like any other cosmopolitan big city.  On arrival, after over an hour of waiting to clear immigration, it took us at least another hour to figure out the Tokyo Metro/Subway/Transit system, and figure out how to get to our hotel, but we got there in the end, and we have a nice little hotel in a very quiet suburb of Tokyo, only 30 mins from the city centre, and 2 hours from the airport.

Today we saw a few sights, notably the Imperial palace gardens, looking very japanese with willow trees, waterfeatures, and pine trees looking like giant bonsais...  We also walked down the main commercial street, and saw the neon lights, the giant TV screens on the sides of buildings, and the diagonal zebra crossings.  A short subway ride away, and we went to a kind of amusement centre which contains what was once the worlds largest ferris wheel, and robotic, automatic cars that drive themselves i around a giagantic Toyota warehouse/showroom/exhibition hall  - we had a ride on both!

Tomorrow we will visit some of the older parts of the city, try real Tokyo sushi, and then fly to Shanghai!  The weather man says Typhoon is on the way, so I hope it holds off long enough for us to fly - the weather here has been as wet as it was in Taiwan for the week before we left.

Today is a "Typhoon Day"!!

This means we have the day off because the typhoon has hit!

The pictures on TV look quite scary, from the north and east of the island, but luckily we are comparatively sheltered here. I just went out to the shop to get some supplies (crisps, sandwiches, water and ferrero rocher...)

Anyway, we are fine, check here for the typhoon track...

By The Way I completely forgot in my last couple of posts:

Last weekend was the weekend Sally ate testicle! I think it was a pigs (originally - the rest of the animal had been removed...).  Just looking at it made me feel very sad!

She said it was the most disgusting thing she had ever tasted in her life...

She ate it in a posh Japanese restraunt at the weekend - I'm not sure if going to Japan is such a good idea...