River Deep, Mountain High

Yangshou, with its warmer climate and lots of cafes had a somewhat Mediterranean feel to it, a nice change from the hustle and bustle (and smog) of the cities. Yangshou sits alongside side the Li river and in amongst the mountains, and as one of the most beautiful parts of China, it has long been a favourite tourist hot spot and is therefore somewhat an international town in China, with a range of western bars and cafes. Ammy, our loveable local expert, informed us that even George W Bush had visited Yangshou.

We were staying in a hotel called Fawlty Towers, which as Luke pointed out, is a name you can only really get away with if you run a very good hotel indeed. Sadly they didn't, and it wasn't, as Luke constantly reminded me over the course of our three day stay.

Yangshou is also place for outdoors-types and activities, and was where we would spend our last day in the area cycling. Having not ridden a bike since I was 12, I was very scared at this prospect.

Before that, on our first full day in Yangshou, we decided to relax before our day-long bikeathon and go on a bamboo raft trip down the river. You can imagine my delight when we turned up and found out the rafts were only... an hours bike ride away. Despite being called a village Yangshou has a population of about half a million and has the kind of traffic, roundabouts, lorries, etc you would expect in a place of that size. And some tractors, rickshaws, and pedestrians that you wouldn't. Its fair to say that the Chinese don't stick to the highway code quite as rigidly as the Brits do. Still Ammy had some helpful advice. "We don't use bicycle helmets in this country, so you just need to be careful." Despite thinking I was going to die as we went straight across a busy roundabout I lived to tell the tale.

The raft itself was very calm and quiet along the incredible beautiful Li River, or so I thought, but turns out Luke is scared of small boats. (You learn something new about someone everyday.) He maintains he is not scared of boats, per say, just small rafts made of bamboo being punted along by a lunatic who speaks no English, laughs when we tried to put the life jackets on whilst chatting on his mobile phone and crashes after the first five minutes. Turns out the bamboo raft trip is not so romantic when the person next to you is saying "this is dreadful", "we're going to die". Still I took some nice pictures during the hour and a half trip.

Leaving Luke behind for health and safety reasons, I also went caving in Moon Water Cave near Yangshou, which was fantastic. Following a mad and bumpy bus journey, you take a small rickety boat into the caves. Despite having to bend double in the boat to get into the caves, inside they are enormous and fascinating. As well as the excitement of the stalagmites and stalactites, there is a mud pool which you can swim in. The mud is good for your skin and when you lie down you float! I then swam in a cold water pool.

For our last two days in Yangshou we cycled (see the theme developing here?) to a guesthouse called Outside Inn, in the country which was fantastic and did wonderful Chinese food.

And so on our final day we had our day of bike riding. Having cycled out of the "village" on the previous day, the days cycling in the country was very enjoyable. We cycled over and along rocky roads and rivers, to Moon Hill, a hill with a hole in it the shape of the moon, which we climbed, to a local school, and to a farmhouse for lunch.

I managed to only fall off the bike properly once, and that wasn't under a bus, so I think I survived surprisingly well. And apparently the old saying is true - you never forget how to ride a bike.

Luke and Louise

xxx

(Posted by Louise)

I want to see the bright lights tonight

DSC01883, originally uploaded by Louise and Luke.

What. A. Bloody. Brilliant. City.

It wasn't just arriving after the mediocrity of Xi'an that did it. It wasn't the sunnier weather that had us discarding coats and thinking about sun tan lotion (albeit slightly prematurely). It wasn't even the "cake terrorists" (scary men who make money to overthrow the Chinese Government by... er... selling really pretty cakes on the street) that Ammy, our lovely and amusingly Chinese local guide, pointed out to us shortly after our arrival.

No, it was the delicious marriage of daft skyscrapers that look like spaceships with old colonial townhouses, the drinks that cost the earth but were served 88 floors above ground level in the Cloud Nine bar, the fantastic food at Grandma's Kitchen, the parks, the history. It was Shanghai, and the two days we spent in China's second city was nowhere near long enough, such was the wealth of things to do, see, eat, drink and absorb.

On our first night there, we strolled through the Old City shopping area, ignoring offers for knock off Rolex watches and Gucci bags, opting instead to barter furiously for some new shoes for Lou with a local stall holder. Just walking down the street was a joy in a city that felt so alive, vibrant and combustible in a way that made Beijing seem almost sedate in retrospect. We also tasted some of the best food since our time in the Capital at the famous Grandma's Kitchen, something of a Chinese institution. We finished off the night with a few beers at a backstreet bar that, somehow, afforded wonderful views of the city skyline across the Bund as a cool breeze blew across the terrace. It was almost good enough to give up voting for...

We started day two with a personal highlight, namely my successful consumption at breakfast of a an entire, runny fried egg... (drum roll please)... using chopsticks. The fact that the day managed to get better from there on in is a true testament to Shanghai's greatness. We spurned the metro, choosing to traverse much of the city by foot, and in doing so were rewarded with some truly magnificent open spaces such as the massive, magical "People's Park". These places also told a darker story, though, with the occasional statue of former leader and all round murderous shitbag Chairman Mao still standing, and an eerie lack of little brothers or sisters for the steady succession of cute Chinese kids to play with. After a few hours strolling through the glorious former French Concession, including memorable visits to the home of former (and actually quite sound) Communist guru Zhou Enlai and that of democratic trailblazer Sun Yat Sen, we zipped through the very grand though sterile Shanghai Museum.

The undoubted highlight, though, came with our evening visit, along with a few travelling companions, to the New Shanghai Circus. The show contained such feats of contortion, strength, grace and skill that would dazzle any visitor, but the final act, where seven full size motorcycles drive at full pelt round a 360 degrees metal cage-ball has to be seen to be believed. Look on Youtube - it's bound to be on there. Better still, book a flight and go see it for yourself.

We rounded off the night, and our last proper day in Shanghai, with a obscenely expensive cocktail on the 88th floor of Shanghai's second tallest building, but her still tallest bar. Since you ask, we had to use plastic, and mine was a Cyberlady, hers a Mai Tai. And yes, they were worth every bloody penny.

Stay warm,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Luke)

Seven Nation Army

DSC01710, originally uploaded by Louise and Luke.

After our fantastic Trans Mongolian train trip, including the sumptuously wonderful final First Class leg from Mongolia to Beijing, the 'hard sleeper' trains in China took a bit of getting used to. Still, after telling ourselves that it could be worse and thanking several Gods that there was no livestock in our carriage, we hunkered down and actually ended up quite enjoying the 16 hour trip to Xi'an. The fact that we were travelling overnight probably helped a fair bit, too...

Xi'an itself is a fairly average city with way above average smog problem, even by Chinese standards. The centre has a decent array of shops, and an even more impressive range of beggars and vagrants jostling for your attention. There are some nifty things to do and see, though, with the Muslim Quarter providing some memorable sights, sounds and smells, a fantastic light and water show opposite the Small Goose Pagoda every night and a Bell Tower and Drum Tower that look suitably imposing. Top tip, though, is to jump on a bike and cycle the 17 kilometres (actually can't believe I'm typing this) along the high city wall that still encases old Xi'an. Great fun and great sights, made all the better if you manage to hire a bike with brakes, which is never a given in China. Fun when you get to see the fat Americans crashing, not so much fun when it happens to you...

The main reason for a visit to Xi'an, however, is for its close proximity to the famed Terracotta Army. An hour or so away by bus, they are truly spectacular. Though in varying states of repair thanks to age and Dynastic pillaging (and, one suspects, slightly shit Chinese excavation), they are a wonder to behold, not only fulfilling expectations but exceeding them. The locals refer to them as "the eighth Wonder of the World", and they could have a point. Take a look at the pics to see them in their full glory.

Next up, Shanghai.

Stay Warm,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Luke)

China in Your Hand

Clearly, we didn't have time to see everything that the Chinese capital had to offer, but we did spend a couple of heavy sight seeing days in Beijing, walking about 30 miles in total!

We visited the utterly magnificent Forbidden City, right in the centre of Beijing, which was the main residence of the Chinese emperors in pre-revoltuion China. As the name suggests, normal people were banned from entering this area of the city. The Emperor lived here alone, aprt from his hareem of concubines and army of advisers and servants, evry one a male, and every one a eunuch. A bit like Thatcher in Number 10, I guess.

Continuing the dynasty theme we also spent a glorious half day at the stunning Temple of Heaven, a series of mini-temples built for the emperor's to pray for good harvests. The buildings were incredibly beautiful in their own right, but set in the beautiful grounds, were quite magical. The grounds are used as a park by local Chinese people who gather there, every morning to dance, sing and practice Tai Chi which inevitably adds to the peaceful atmosphere.

The final stop of the empirical site seeing was the Yonghe Gong (Tibetan Lama Temple) which whilst allowed to survive the religious purges, because of its historical status, is now a practising Buddhist temple again. Along side the throng of tourists, there are practising monks and local people burning incense sticks. Record breaker fans will be delighted to know that not only does the temple have the largest Buddha ever to be carved out of a single piece of wood, it also has a certificate issued by the Guinness Book of Records.

From dynasty to people's republic (but still record breaking) no visit to Beijing is complete without seeing Tiananmen Square, one of the largest squares of its kind in the world. Truly massive in scope, and eery for reasons that the throngs of Chinese touriosts are blissfully unaware of, it has to be seen to be beleieved. Continuing our world tour of ex-communist leaders whose bodies have been kept for all to see, Luke and I were delighted to visit the Mausoleum of the (now deep-frozen) Great Chairman Mao Zedong. This was a strange experience, as the cult of Mao is very much alive in China, and as we joined the throngs of people going into the Mausoleum, many people were laying down flowers and kneeling by his statue. We felt like frauds, albeit of the righteous variety.

Perhaps even stranger, but certainly less creepy, was the number of people who wanted to have their photos taken with us in the square. Many Chinese people were not able to travel until a few years ago and many people now make the trip to Beijing, to see Mao and their and have photo taken with his tomb and portrait. For many people it is a once in a life time trip and, so we've been told it is a big deal to show the folks back home that they've been to the big city and met westerners. You can therefore imagine their excitement when not only did they get to meet two westerners, but one of them was actually twice their height.

To complete our sightseeing in the Chinese capital, we took a metro ride up to the Olympic stadiums. Inevitably it looked pretty much like it did on telly, and the birds nest was just as impressive in real life, and I'm delighted that we got to see it in person (Luke was, however, bitterly disappointed not to see Adrian Chiles). After listening to "One World, One Dream" on a loop for half an hour, the novelty wore off a little and we decided to return to the city centre.

To complete our Beijing experience we went on an over night trip out to the Great Wall of China. The wall is actually three hours out of Beijing so we left at half eight in the morning. Luke, who had been feeling unwell all morning developed some sort of 24 hour fever, on the way to the wall. Whilst I completed the 10 kilometre hike across the Eighth Wonder with the rest of our group, Luke had to be taken back to the hostel to sleep, and woke up in time to get the bus back to Beijing.

The wall was actually better than I could have imagined and more magnificent than it seems in any picture. But, don't tell Luke - I told him it was all a bit overrated!

Then it was back to Beijing station and aboard our first (non First Class!) Chinese sleeper train for a 17 hour trip to Xi'an...

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Louise)

xxx

xx

One World, One Dream

I'm starting to wonder if I've spent to much time in Wales, as my first reaction to every city we get to seems to be marvelling at how big everything is! And Beijing is no different - it is a very,very, very big city.

Arriving on the train into Beijing's main station Luke and I had prepared ourselves for the culture shock of a lifetime, so we were quite surprised to find that the city had been "olympified" to quite the extent that it had. The biggest shock was not the culture difference, but how overtly capitalist this red city appears to be. There is a McDonalds, Starbucks or KFC on every corner. The main shopping street did lights, opulence and glitz up there with any city in the west and you could buy any designer label you wanted.

It is difficult to know how much of Beijing has been cleaned up/changed/improved/removed for the Olympics, but I think its fair to say that there has been a huge amount of upheaval in this city over the last few years. There are a vast number of brand new buildings, the streets are incredibly clean from litter, road signs and information is all in English as well as Chinese characters and all pubic toilets now have one 'western style toilet'. Even the famous smog isn't as thick as it is in other cities in China (although it is still there). There is also an excellent transport system from the electric buses to the metro system, most of the lines on which hadn't been built when our 2005 guide book was written. One of the first things we noticed about Beijing (arriving from Ulan Bator) is that it appears remarkably safe, there is very little visible crime (I won't comment on why) and you feel at ease walking around town at any time of night.

Clearly a fast changing city, it is still an historic and fascinating place to be. There is so much to see and do in Beijing, we could have stayed there for a month and not been bored. It is not just the sights that you can see (which I will come back to), you could spend a lifetime walking through all the markets, parks and hutongs. Hutongs are hidden back alleys with literally hundreds of homes, stalls, shops and cafes, which you can get lost in for hours. Chinese parks (one of which we spent a lovely sunny morning in) are not quite like British parks. Stunningly beautiful they have streams, little bridges and (in the case of the park we went to) lakes. Local people go there to practice Tai Chi, play Mah Jung and swim, whatever the weather! We both enjoyed the atmosphere and feel of Beijing, and it has been one of my favourite places so far - I personally could have spent a month there just eating.

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Louise)

xx

Out of Nothing

Following the runaway success of Russia by numbers, here's our stab at Mongolia. For obvious reasons, it's shorter...

When in Mongolia, you should try...

1. Spending a night in a yurt.

2. Horse ridding through Terjeli park.

3. Taking in the unbelievable Mongolian scenary

4. Drinking in the night sky -I've never seen so many stars!

5. Warming to a country so excited and proud of their emerging democracy Also the history museum, the purge's museum, the beatles statue, etc, etc

Things you get a lot of in Mongolia:

1. Mutton

2. Yurts

3. Mad, mad traffic

4. Children running wild on the streets of Ulan Bator

5. Aloe Vera Juice

Food and Mongolia is an uneasy marriage. Here's five reasons why:

1. Mutton

2. Mongolian Beer

3. Mutton, cabbage and noodles

4. Cinnamon Flavoured Biscuits

5. Mutton

Right, what's next? China!

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Louise)

Ulaanbaatar, You Better, You Bet

Hello, hello and apologies to our army of readers (last count - four parents in total) for not writing anything for ages, and being at least one country behind. Still, them's the breaks...

Having unexpectedly fallen in love with the land mass of madness that is Russia, and already in a state of excited panic about China, we'd both sort of forgotten about Mongolia and our five day stay there on the penultimate stop of our Trans Mongolian odyssey. So when we arrived in the capital Ulaanbaatar with our two new travelling pals (Swedish) Anna and (Dutch) David at 7.30am on October 28th, we were not quite sure what to expect. Truth be told, we felt lucky to be there at all, after a four-hour border crossing leaving Russia, where our passports were taken away for a three hour inspection, and the validity of mine questioned by a twitching border guard with a gun and a whip. Still, arrive we did, and we were soon being driven - along with a fellow Brit couple - through the city streets by Zaya, owner of the erstwhile hostel that was to be our home for the next five days.

In a nutshell, Ulaanbaatar is utterly and indescribably mad, and not really in a good way. Still a relatively small city in size, it houses about half of the entire Mongolian population (unofficially) of about 1.3 million people. Simple things - like crossing the road - are a very real hazard, as pedestrians have no rights whatsoever. Traffic Wardens shout and wave flags at those daft enough to walk, while even the green man has an evil glint in his eye. Pick pocketing and theft is also rife, as are the gangs of street kids who work in packs, attaching themselves to passing foreigners with varying degrees of menace, violence and effectiveness. The one that got us in a busy street in broad daylight nearly throttled Lou with her own scarf, and helped me decide that I really didn't like the place much at all.

There are, however, a few things to recommend it. The Museum to the Victims of Persecution, opened by the daughter of this magnificent guy, is a chilling, moving and fitting testament to the horrors perpetrated by a Communist regime every bit as vile as that of Uncle Joe's.

The national museum is a hidden gem, and like the Parliament building is a fittingly upbeat reminder of the new-found democracy that the Mongolian people are rightly proud of.

But the underlying sense of danger, coupled with a dearth of things to really see or do, makes Ulaanbataar a bit... erm... shit.

The one thing that makes a visit to the capital worth it, however, is the wondrous beauty of the rest of the country that surrounds it. During our overnight stay with a nomadic family in the huge, mountainous countryside, I ran out of superlatives for the beauty of the place within an hour of arriving.

We spent two days and a night living in the most awe-inspiring, beautiful place I have ever been in my life, with some of the kindest people. The Yert we stayed in was warm (when the fire was going) and brightly coloured, and when we weren't walking in snowy mountains or horse riding, sans helmets and training, along rivers and ridges, we just sat, ate mutton stew and excitedly talked of things we had seen that day. Things like camels, silver tress, packs of horses, other-worldly rock formations, paths and raveens that led everywhere and nowhere.... I also made friends with a dog called Fang, which was pretty damn cool. It was just wonderful. And even worth visiting Ulaanbataar for.

Stay warm,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Luke)

From Russia with Love

DSC00809, originally uploaded by Louise and Luke.

For anyone who has been bored by the length of our blog entries so far (but is strangely still reading the blog), anyone who has only just started reading the blog (eg my parents), or anyone who just likes facts and numbers, we have put together a summary of our time in Russia.

Russia by Numbers

During our 26 days in Russia we:
Slept in 10 beds
Made 9 Metro Journeys
Took 5 long distance Mashrutki (a minibus) journeys
Made 4 long distance train journeys
Travelled just over 4400 miles
Spent 116 hours in transit
Spent about 20 hours in train stations (not including all 7 hours at the border crossing)
Went to 22 churches
Visited 11 museums
Saw 11 statues of Lenin
Walked down 4 different Ul Leninas (Main streets called Lenin)
Crossed 2 continents
Saw the deepest lake in the world
And visited Asia for the first time.

Our Top 10 Russian Experiences
1. Taking a Russia Banya.
2. Seeing the spectacular views and watching the sunset over Lake Baikal.
3. The Trans Siberian train journeys.
4. Standing in Red Square.
5. Visiting Dvortsovoya Square and the Hermitage.
6. Spending Saturday night in Food Master in Tomsk.
7. Taking a boat ride through St Petersburg.
8. Seeing Siberian snow.
9. Eating Russian Food. Seeing the beautiful architecture of Russian Railway and Metro Stations.
10. Meeting lovely, generous Russian people who looked after us, fed us and entertained us!

Our Top 10 Food Experiences

Whilst we spent a lot of our time eating noodles, soviet bread and two litre bottles of Russian beer that cost a quid. We also just about managed to eat out a few times throughout our time in Russia, and these were our favourite culinary experiences:

1. Eating baked Omul, a fish unique to Lake Baikal
2. Going to Stollie Pies in St Petersburg for the best pie we've ever eaten.
3. Having Russian Borsch Soup with sour cream.
4. Enjoying Beef Stroganoff on our first night in Russia.
5. Eating fish, bread and tomatoes with beer with Olga on the train.
6. Food Master's Chicken Pot, a dish of chicken, cream, cheese, onions and carrots in a pot.
7. Fried potatoes with onions and mushrooms every where we went.
8. Breakfast at Mu Mu's - two eggs, a toasted sandwich and real coffee for R99.
9. Stuffed cow's tongue and red caviar on potato pancakes in Terema's in Krestovka.
10. Eating Fried chicken and mashed potato in Napolean Hostel.

As we spent most of our time in Russian supermarkets, not being able to speak Russian, here are our best (and worst) food discoveries:

1. Strawberry flavoured chocolate and strawberry flavoured biscuits (not honey flavoured -they are horrible).
2. Ekra - A paste made from mashed fried aubergines.
3. Mushroom flavoured Lays (crisps that actually tasted of Mushrooms).
4. Baltika 3 and 7.
5. Cabbage baked in bread.

And finally the 10 things you just couldn't seem to get enough of in Russia:

1. Mashrutki buses - crowded and cheap minibuses going everywhere and anywhere
2. Russian Euro pop - played everywhere from trains to restaurants and always bad
3. Police - on every corner looking scary
4. Knee high boots - despite the snow, ice, cobbled streets and bad pavements Russian women don't go anywhere without there knee high boots
5. People drinking beer - despite suposedly being a nation of vodka drinkers everyone seemed to be drinking beer, young and old, night and day.
6. Stray dogs - the further east we went the more stray dogs there were.
7. Ugly Grey Soviet Buildings - every town has at least 10.
8. Lenin -from statues, streets, a giant head or his actual body, he was everywhere.
9. The smell of cababage - everywhere we stayed seemed to have a stairwell that smelt of cabbage.
10. Beaurcracy - why fill in one form when you can fill in three.

Then it was off to Mongolia for us....

Stay warm,

Luke and Louise

(Posted by Louise)