Day 42 - 13th March - Beijing

We were up early for our trip to the Great Wall. The drive there took a good three hours and we had a maniac driver who kept overtaking on the hard shoulder, bullying other drivers and constantly bawling into his mobile phone. This isn't so normal in China but we just seem to attract them. At least he was a minority though so it didn't feel as dangerous as Nepal - and at least the bus wasn't older than me either.

I spent quite a lot of the time peering through the seat in front to watch the Chinese girl, Maggie, who was supervising the trip. She had the cutsie fashion sense of many girls in Beijing and each nail was painted in a different colour with a unique array of gems decorating each one. I had chance to get a good look at most of them as she tapped away on the iphone that was wearing a giant plastic pink cat case. She wore big glasses frames but without any glass and a pretty pink wooly hat that she did not take off for a second, despite the heat inside the minibus meaning that Matt had stripped down to the bare minimum he could socially get away with.

More importantly, I was fascinated by the number a variety of different snacks that she was working her way through. Most of them were unrecognisable but I was rather charmed by the snack bar that just looked like she was munching her way through an uncooked slab of Super noodles. Perhaps Batchelors are missing a trick.

The walk we were taking was from Jinshanling to Simatai, a mostly uncrowded stretch with mostly original stone.  As we stood at the top of the first hill and looked at it winding its way over the hills beyond, it looked spectacular. And long. And steep.
It was a beautifully sunny and crisp cold day and we really enjoyed tramping our way along the wall. Much of it was intact but crumbly and we had to stop occasionally to admire the view of the seemingly endless hills and valleys beyond because we were spending most of our time watching our feet.

At each of the 22 towers along the 6km stretch, we paused to appreciate the majestic ruins and the feat of strength and determination that had created it.

Some sections were quite precipitous and we had to be careful not lose our footing and come tumbling down. The steps were a real challenge too. In just one section the steps would be a number of different heights, from only a few inches to above my knees and it mader getting into a rhythm impossible. Now Chinese people aren't  as short as people make out but I've no idea how they managed it in all the battle garb of the day.

To make matters worse, we were being 'helped' along by one of the farmer cum tourist tat hawkers who kept telling us how many steps there were at the bottom of each section. She had attached herself to our small group of self-designated 'slow ones' made up of Matt, myself and an interesting lady called Eileen. If she had told us afterwards that we had just climbed up 129 steps then we would have been proud, but to tell us beforehand did nothing for our morale. Neither did the fact that she was about 60 and yet was attacking it with the agility and stamina that we didn't possess.

However, by just after half way it felt a little like Christmas. It was something that I'd been really excited about and had enjoyed very much so far but the fact that the end was now closer than the beginning was was starting to loom. Chatting and enjoying the experience was making it fly by and I didn't want it to end. Thankfully, my knees know better than my head and so by the time we heaved our weary and sweating bodies up the final steep set of steps, I was about ready for it to be over.

On the way back, we stopped for the loo by another 'gym park' and I asked Maggie to help me identify the contraption that I couldn't work out yesterday. Turns out it was a calf massager - how could I have missed that? There were a few others I hadn't seen before too - including a cool Tai Chi spinning plates wotsit.
We went for a cup of tea (still not found a good one) with Eileen before she went to see the acrobats - another Beijing speciality that we'll maybe catch another time. She was originally from Ireland and had trained as an irrigation engineer but was now married to a German guy and was teaching students at Bonn University about the cultural differences in approaches to business. She'd been sent to China to deliver an exam at the Chinese partner university but had also spent some time beforehand trekking up the mountains on the border of Tibet and spending time in a panda sanctuary.

We met up afterwards for a beer and a giggle and talked about the fact that just when you get old enough to know how to deal with people who feel you up or make unwanted advances whilst travelling, you are also too old to attract the attention any more. She also told me that she used to do flamenco classes. I quite liked the sound of it so Claire and Jane, maybe you could look into it - at least we wouldn't need to keep dragging the poor boys then.

Day 41 - 12th March - Beijing

Decided to spend the day looking at the key parts of Beijing and so decided to walk to Tian'anman Square. Just round the corner from our hostel we found another 'gym park' and so got to have a quick play. I guess they were added to the city in anticipation of the Olympic games but there were a few 'machines' that I couldn't work out how to use.

Getting into Tian'anman Square meant going through the eternal bag-scanner and pat-down but we seem to avoid any close scrutiny as foreigners. I didn't even have to hand over my lighter.
#
The square itself is very big but the picture of Mao was smaller than I'd imagined it. I thought he'd cut a much more imposing figure. Matt wanted to see Mao's body at the Mausoleum but it wasn't open - apparently they need to take his body away to do essential maintenance every now and then.
They don't seem to encourage anyone to hand around and there's nowhere to sit at the square itself so after a walk around and a giggle at the policemen on segways and the fact that there were giant screens wich were actually set in stone, we pushed on to the neighbouring Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City covers quite an expansive area and houses some interesting buildings and relics. We couldn't be bothered with a guide and so after taking a look at the main stuff, we just spent time trying to explore some of the areas away from the well-trodden path.  There were some nice courtyards with little museums to look around and some pretty trees. We saw lots of expensive and elaborate knick-knacks, including a few gold jewel-encrusted ear-cleaning spoons. There was also lots of jade but I'm not sure that I see the beauty of it. It just looks like soap.

On our way back we went into Jing Shan Park, where it's possible to climb a hill to a serious of elaborate pavilions which overlooks the Forbidden City and also gives pretty incredible views of modern Beijing. The sun was starting to set and we spent a long time watching it change colour, listening to a busker and observing people taking pictures. Matt even managed to hijack a lengthy posing session by a number of teenage girls.

The park was also the chosen suicide spot of Emporer Chongzhen, the last emporer of Ming dynasty. As well as causing quite a few social problems which led to many people having to turn to a life of crime, he was also responsible for starting an unecessary war, realising his mistake and then killing his wife and daughters (apart from one who escaped with just having her arm chopped off) before committing suicide with his eunuch mate by hanging himself from a tree there. We couldn't quite work out why but he seemed to be quite revered.

Day 40 - 11th March - Beijing

We were really tired after our long day yesterday and so chilled out after the free breakfast of super-sweet toast, egg and very very pale sausage. I thought the one in the in-flight breakfast was just suffering from plane aneamia but it seems that's just how they like their sausage.

We moved rooms to a dorm to save some cash and although we'd been warned about the infamous snorer by other guests, we somehow managed to get put in the same room - probably because everyone had scarpered. I'd asked one of them why they didn't wake him up but I understood as soon as I saw the size of him! We asked to  move too because I know what I'm like when I'm tired and I'm not sure our travel insurance covered picking fights with Chinese giants!

Had a walk around the funky shops on the street and I think Matt was grateful that we had so much stuff because otherwise I'd be leaving Beijing with a large cache of cute, colourful and totally useless crap.

I tried to venture into the world of Chinese food a little more and so we spent some time perusing the goodies on sale. The only vegetarian thing that I could find seemed to be a strange concoction of crepe, eggs and doughnuts all wrapped up and smeared in different coloured goo. It tasted of nothing (as one would expect fried flour and fried egg to taste) but it was well worth the money just to witness the concentration and precision in making it and the fascination of all who were watching. I gave in and tried some chicken on sticks shorty after. Given the success on stick based snacks I also tried sugared strawberries on sticks and they were the best food yet.

We decided to go and take a look at the drum tower and bell tower nearby. They were the centre of old Beijing and were interesting looking buildings. Between the two there was a recreation space where we watched people play with feathered hackey sacks. There was also a kind of park but all the apparatus were like mechanical gym machines. There were cross-trainers, steppers, and bikes as well as a few other things.
We ventured further in Beijing city centre and realised that the kooky stuff they sold near us featured in every shop nearby. We spent a while looking around and giggling at all of the (strangly alluring) nonsense that was on sale. Matt had been despairing over the impractility of his perishing jelly bean bag for a while so we looked for a new one. Somehow, we ended up with a Chairman Mao bag. I was totally unsure of the ethics or morality but since the rice bag that I bought it Kathmandu had swastikas on (a core symbol in the Hindu faith I might add), I didn't feel like I could object.

We took a detour around the lakes. They looked very romantic and almost mystical with the silohuette of traditional buildings and the cityscape in the distance and the light of a sunset reflecting on the ice. The lakes were lined with bars and we strained to recognise various lounge version of a plethora of unlikely songs as well as a few pretty acoustic chinese songs. The stalls nearby sold increbibly intricate sugar animals (on sticks of course!) and I was quite tempted by the giant sticks of candyfloss but my new healthy eating regime prohibits eating anything bigger than my head.

The search for actual food started again and we tried a cafe by one of the lakes. There wasn't much on the menu that I fancied and the 'fresh bovine spinal chord' really wasn't floating my boat  so we headed elsewhere. We eventually stopped and had dinner in a place called 10 3 - it didn't have anything to particularly recommend it but the woman working outside, whose job it was to entice people in, had made me jump so much that I got the giggles and felt more inclined to eat there. We branched out from vegetable noodles and ordered vegetable pasta too. It wasn't quite what we wanted but the lady serving us seemed reluntant to let Matt looked at the ipad menu for too long - maybe she could sense something.

Back at the hostel I tried to get the hang of communal sleeping arrangements but just couldn't seem to master the art of taking everything into the shower in order to get washed, dried and changed. It's a lot like camping but at least there isn't so far to walk when you realise you need to get dressed again and go and fetch your towel. Nor to do the same again when you've forgotten your pyjamas too.

Blog updates

Updates may be a little sporadic whilst we're in China, as blogger is banned here. We're getting around it with free vpn services but they're quite slow so bear with us.

Day 39 - 10th March - Hong Kong to Beijing

Didn't manage to sleep but arrived Hong Kong 6am local time and blessed Matt's ingenuity at finding flights with free ticket amendments  when we avoided the 10 hour wait we were due to have. We brought our Beijing connection forward and instead only waited until 9am. This gave us just enought time to rehydrate a little and send an email to our hostel before heading through security again.

The plane breakfast was unpleasent. We hedged our bets and got one of each of the two breakfast varieties on offer. One was a very white sausage with scrambled egg and onion chutney and the other was a plate of biege. It was first taste of Chinese food that I had dreaded. The dim sum seemed to contain some whipped meat and there was a square of stuff that I wouldn't touch. I asked Matt what it tasted like and he simply said, 'dirt'.  Matt being the chivalrous soul he is, let me eat the scrambled egg. I don't know if it was the context but I wondered why I'd never tried it with onion chutney before.

We arrived Beijing around midday and took the cool monorail to collect the bags. We spent a while faffing around with buying a SIM but despite Matt's best efforts, it wasn't playing properly so we'll probably not use it much.

When we took the airport expressway to Dongcheng, we thought the station had got the air-con turned up too high. We felt pretty stupid when we arrived in the city to find that it was actually just freezing cold. We'd thought Nepal would be cold and it was lovely and warm and we'd thought China might be spring-like by now. Seems our lack of research is showing us up.

The walk to the hostel was very long and our hands were red-raw and cracking by the time we'd walked just a few of the huge Beijing blocks. We seemed to be trudging for so long that eventually we saw a McDonald's and cracked. Not even a few hours and we were running to the familiar comfort of a McD's cuppa. All credit to Matt, he was eyeing up the variety of gloop and slimy things on sticks that were on sale next door but decided to wait until we'd dropped off our bags before trying to eat anything so spiky.

The hostel, Beijing Downtown Backpackers, was quite nice and much more like European hostels but very expensive compared to to 2 or 3 quid a night we'd become used to paying. It was on a street that seemed a mix of classic Chinese architecture and cool modern city slick so we hit the shops to entertain ourselves and keep ourselves awake for a few hours.

I think the modernity quickly rubbed off on Matt because he went all hip and bought espadrilles! All credit to him though, his waterproof walking shoes have been "rotting" (eugh!) his feet and so needed a little comfort. I was dumbfounded by the fact that he had found shoes that he liked without months of trawling the shops and so encouraged him to buy them as soon as possible.

Back at the hostel we chatted to a nice Dutch couple, Jolene and Michael, who were in a similar situation and were doing a round the world trip too. They'd been more daring and and included Africa, as well as sensible enough not to include so much time in expensive countries like Australia. We also chatted to a couple of girls who were meeting up there. Mara was a German student and Nicole was American and was living in China teaching English. We drank a few beers and listened to how they met as Au Pairs in Australia. I was really interested because it was something that I considered doing a long time ago. Nicole was very entertaining and loved to spin a tale so we  talked for a long time about all sorts of things to do with China and travel.

We were joined by another German guy, Jakob, who the girls had met earlier and after several beers and conversations about food, we were really hungry. Jakob wanted to get chicken sticks and go for a beer and since the time for sleep had long since passed, we agreed to join him. Unfortunately, the chicken-stick shop was closed so we headed to a restaurant. The stall selling scorpions on sticks and silk worm chrysalis was still open but we wanted to go to the night market to see the full range of stuff and hopefully buy it more freshly. I'm not sure whether this is the place for the freshest ming-on-sticks but surely if there's so much competetion then there's more customers.

By now I was not surprised to learn that the food is as insane as it was made out to be. Matt had bullfrog for dinner and spent quite a while picking the tiny little bones out of his mouth and putting them on the side of the plate. This was quite tame compared to lots of stuff on the menu though. There were all sorts of gross animal parts floating in blood with just the head on show or stripped down to the tendons. We weren't sure of the portions and so ordered far too much. After blowing a Nepali weeks worth of budget on one meal, we ended up with some fried mushrooms, aubergine (which they apparantly couldn't resist putting chucks of pork fat in) and some nasty fried rice to accompany those little frog limbs.

I had the hostel write down 'I am vegetarian' on a piece of paper and the symbols for 'Vegetable with rice' and 'vegetable noodle' for future reference. I can see a large food obsession coming on so brace yourselves for constant blogging about munching matters.

Day 38 - 9th March. Kathmandu to China

During breakfast we found out from Surita  that Diego had been admitted to the hospital across the road in the early hours of the morning. He's been suffering really bad stomach problems and was trying to put his shoes on to talke himself in when Surita found him in the hallway.

David had been to see him earlier in the morning and we made plans to go and visit with him and Paula. Poor Diego didn't look too sparkling at all. He was hooked up to a drip and looked pale but said he was feeling much, much better and wanted to leave.

Nepali hospital tests are a little hard to fathom but it seems that there's no method of submitting and retrieving tests and results. David had had to take the tests down to the lab in the morning and also had to go and collect them so that the doctors could take a look and decide if Diego was well enough to leave. While David was collecting the tests we discussed what we thought might have caused it. Diego thought it was the 4 slices of pre-s;iced watermelon he'd muched through yesterday but then we remembered the gutter water that had been used to soak him through during Holi.  Eventually te doctors decided that he could leave and gave him a list of medication to buy from the pharmacy. After making sure that he knew what he was doing with it all,  we deposited Diego back at the hostel, collected Forrester, and went in search of coffee and cake.

After stopping at a street stall on the way for the tastiest momos yet, we all followed Matt as he navigated to a coffee shop that he's read up on online. It was much further than we'd thought and had almost given up hope of finding it when we detected the smell of freshly-baked pastries.

The coffee shop was divine and as we sipped our French press and shared our fabulous cakes in amongst the shelves of English books, I had to keep reminding myself where we were. Travelling is awesome but it is so good just to have the feeling of something familiar and decadent every now and again. Given that I was a bit nervous about the move to China where I was anticipating problems with communicating and eating, it was just what I needed.

The rest of the afternoon was spent scouring the shops in Patan for the Kathmandu fridge magnet that I had promised Denise. Since we weren't technically in Kathmandu and it wasn't a tourist area this was harder than I expected. Trying to explain that I wanted a picture of a different part of townm, that stuck via magnetism to a household appliance most people woud never own was quite a challenge. Unsurprisingly I went back to the hotel empty-handed.

We had time for our last communal dinner without everyone before the flight and it was really nice to spend the last hour chatting and enjoying their company. The food was great as usual and it was a little sad to be leaving such a great bunch of people. Paula was heading to Pokhura, David and Forrester were spending a few days elsewhere before joining her, Josh and Naomi were continuing their work with rescued sex traffickers before popping back to Australia to renew their Visas so they could continue running the ashram in Varanasi, and the Scottish girl (why can't I remember her name?!) was finishing her thesis while waiting for her girlfriend, Megan to come back from her hospital placement so they could decide whether they'd move to the US together.

About 9pm we headed to the airport. Surita came with us so she could pick up some people who wanted to stay at the hostel and dropped us off at departures. We were scanned and checked so many times starting from the second we set foot through the door but yet most of the officials didn't wear uniforms. The airport was a bit like a delapidated hotel with wood panelled walls and fancy wooden mirrors but I did manage to find the fridge magnet!

Time at the airport was mostly spent queuing up for continual checks. When we finally got to the gate there was just a big group of people (too many to fit) and a very expensive shop. I asked to go back through to the main bit so that I could grab a few things but when I got there, everything was suddenly shut. It seemed strange that it handled so few people that they only bothered to open things just before a flight left.

The Dragon Airlines flight was pretty unremarkable apart from that they asked me to fill is a customer satisfaction questionnaire, with the chance to win free flights to Hong Kong. This seemed a bit daft considering we were on a flight to Hong Kong but I wouldn't complain at winning. I mostly kept myself entertained by filling it in at each key point: when I used the in-flight entertainment (which was crap and crackly with no function to stop and start),  following the meal (which was pretty tasty), after going to the loo (no complaints there) and when I asked the stewardess to bring some water (efficient and polite but was still thirsty). I did consider asking for all sorts of things to see how hard they tried but thought I might be better trying to rest instead.

Day 37- 8th March - Kathmandu

We slept late after last night's shennanigans but didn't feel as rough as we expected when we woke up.
We gave our sopping and stained clothes to Surita for laundry and immediately felt guilty when I saw her working her way through the piles of stuff we'd all given her.

Nothing else much to report for once. We walked into Patan with Paula and Diego and went to noodle stall for a carb fix and had watermelon. That really is as exciting as the day got.

Later, Matt had sleep and I chatted to Paula about all sorts of disturbing and interesting stuff before we went downstairs to help with dinner. It was so nice to just contribute to making a meal because I've really missed cooking. I had my first experience with soya beans and I'm really not sure they're worth the hassle, or the creepy feeling of squeezing all the moisture out just for them to spring back to their original foamy shape.

After stuffing ourselves senseless as usual, an early night was had by all. Guess we're not the young party things we thought we were last night.