Last day

Up about 8:30, had breakfast, then walked the opposite direction on East Nanjing Road (away from the Bund) and discovered my hostel is super close to People's Park. I walked through People's Park, lots of locals doing tai-chi and playing Chinese Checkers in the park, but backwards walking.

This morning, I couldn't go 20 feet without getting offers for watches, t-shirts, shoes, hashish and a hundred other things. It got to the point where when they approached me, I'd start talking first, "No, I don't want any watches, t-shirts, shoes, hashish, massages or anything else!" Haha, they often liked that would laugh, ask me where I was from, pat me on thre shoulder and then leave me alone.

Had a latte at Starbucks, killing time, then back to the hostel, checked out about 11:30 and hauled Lisa's humoungously heavy suitcase and my backpack to the metro, took the metro to the where it intersects with the maglev train, then took it to the airport. The maglev was awesome! 431 km/hr, took about 6 minutes to get to the airport. Probably would have been 30+ minutes on the regular metro.

Got checked in and waited for my flight and that's it. Back to Canada.

Thoughts and Observations on China
- 99% of the motorbikes are electric.
- For women, lots of leg, short skirts and short shorts, usually with stocking, are common. Not much skin showing (except arms) for tops
- Chinese are not escalator walkers
- I was really surprised at the lack of harassment (except in Shanghai). I expected that all throughout China.
Hostels in China are top notch, above and beyond anything else in Asia, and even western countries. Super impressed! And cheap. Even my mom would be happy at most of them!

Shanghai in a Flash

Slept well on the train again. Because we were late leaving, we were late getting into Shanghai. Lisa took a different train into Shanghai, which was supposed to arrive 15 minutes before my train and she was going to wait for me at the McDonalds outside the station. I was about 30 minutes late, and I went outside to the McDonalds and Lisa was there, but was getting concerned, thinking maybe she had the wrong McDonads or something.

I'm bringing a suitcase back to Canada for Lisa, as she's cancelling her teaching contract and not staying the second year.

We hopped on the metro and got totally lost on the metro trains, getting on the wrong trains, going the wrong directions. After half an hour, we got ourselves sorted and made it to the correct station and got to my hostel, Blue Mountain Bund hostel. I checked in and showered while Lisa waited, then she took me on a whirlwind tour of Shanghai.

We walked to the Bund (soooo busy with tourists, both Chinese and foreigner), then headed to a pretty interesting art district, where all kinds of artists setup shop in old, renovated warehouses). Lisa bought a couple of small photos. Then to People's Park, then to the French Concession (lots of expensive outdoor cafes, quite European), where we had a couple of drinks and supper. Lisa was also searching for another area like this French area, but she's never been able to find it since being taken there when she first to to China. She texted her friend and found out where it was. We walked about 10 blocks through totally non-touristy areas and found it, a labyrinth of small alleys full of little shops and restaurants and cafes. We had another drink. Lisa had to catch a train back to Suzhou, so I headed back to my hostel area and walked to the Bund to get (or try to get) they typcial nighttime shot of Shanghai that everyone is familiar with

Along East Nanjing Road, the pedestrian friendly road that leads to the Bund, there are lots and lots of touts, all offering me massage servies, by beautiful Chinese ladies, they all tell me. I couldn't walk 20 feet without getting another offer. I finally found the Asia I've been expecting!

More Xi'an

Got up, headed to the park area near the towers again, still no old people walking backwards. Lisa said I have to get up pretty early to see that.

Back to the hostel and had breakfast, then headed to Starbucks between the Drum and Bell Towers to wait for Ellen. She showed up, we each got something to drink and hung out for a bit, then we walked to the South Gate of the old city wall, paid the entrance fee and went up. It's pretty cool, the vast wall is maybe 50 feet high and it stretches for many kilometres around what was the old city (which is now mostly demolished, replaced by lots of skyscrapers and malls). We rented bikes and biked all around, stopping for pictures quite often. It maybe took us 2+ hours.

We went for lunch at a hostel near the south gate, then jumped on a local bus and headed to the Big Goose Pagoda. There's a huge park and public area with huge fountain pools leading up to the pagoda (and of course, lots of people selling trinkets). Apparently at night, they put on an awesome fountain light show.

After that, it was getting late in the afternoon and I had a train to catch ay 7:50pm, so I headed back to my hostel, had supper, then got a taxi to the train station.

A local started chatting with me (english practice time again). He was on the same night train, but he had a seat (not a sleeper bed). Most Chinese can only afford seats, not the sleeper beds. He was also getting off at Suzhou, one stop before Shanghai and where Lisa is teaching.

The train was a bit late boarding. In my birth, the two bottom beds were not taken, so a group of four locals moved in with 18 beer (the big bottles) and lots of snacks. Of course, they had to offer beer to the foreigner, which was nice, so had a couple of beers with them, but I declined the chicken feet when they offered. They didn't speak any English, but my "friend" came over from his seat and ended up acting as translator.

Other than the hospitality of the locals on the train, nothing else exciting happened, and I climbed into my top bunk about 9:45, 15 minutes before lights out.

Remember the tv's on the train playing some good, old "Just for Laughs Gags".

Terracotta Army

Up about 8:00, had breakfast, then walked to the park area near the Bell and Drum Towers hoping to see old Chinese people walking backwards. Nope.

Back to the hostel and waited for the 9:30 Terracotta Army tour pickup.

16 of us on the tour from two related hostels, including a handful of Canadians.

Our guide was awesome. She spoke good english and had a great sense of humor and was very energetic. She was concerned about us using our passports for id, and asked us if we had other id. One girl from Holland (Ellen) didn't, so the guide gave her a fake id that she could use. The picture on the fake id didn't look anything like Ellen.

We visited pit 2 first, then pit 3, then pit 1, the best pit. While it was really cool to see and I'm glad I did it, it wasn't that "Wow" moment I was expecting. Still the work done to create the army is remarkable. And they recently found another pit (pit 4) which has more warriors.

After that we headed to the tomb of the guy who built the army (I think), which consisted of us seeing a big manmade hill from a distance. We took pictures of it from ther distance.

Our guide was very touchy feely and would often walk arm-in-arm with a few of us and chat, including me. At the tomb, she wrapped her arm around mine and whispered to me "I have a special gift for you!" Then proceeded to bounce away, giggling. Confused.

We went for lunch, and she randomly came over to my table and stuffed a piece of bread with a sweet sauce into my mouth. The girl sitting beside me laughed and remarked how odd that was

As we were walking back to the bus, she came up to me, grabbed my hand and put something into it, a replica of one of the terracotta horses. How sweet. One othjer guy got a gift, I don't think anyone else did. Ellen, the Dutchu girl, didn't.

On the bus back to the hostel, Ellen and me made a date to bike the old city wall tomorrow,and a bunch of us decided to head out for supper a bit later tonight. We made arrangemens to meet at the Starbucks between the Drum and Bell Towers at 7:30.

Back to the hostel, showered and vegged, then headed for Starbucks at 7:30, 5 of us altogether. We headed to the Muslim district for supper, then walked around all the shops for a while, then headed back to our hostels around 10:00.

A Day in Xi'an

Another superb sleep on the train. Xi'an wasn't the last stop for the train, but I knew the arrival time in Xi'an (about 9:00am), so I was concerned about getting off at the correct station. We stopped at 8:43 at a station, so I showed my ticket to a local and asked "Xi'an?" and pointed down to indicate here. He shook his head and waved his hand, I assumed to indicate no. 15 minutes later, the train was slowing again, he tapped me and said "Xi'an", nodding. I thanked him and got off at the correct station.

After exiting the train station, as hoped, the hostel was waving a sign with my name on it. Got to hostel, checked in, had breakfast, showered, booked a Terracotta Warrior tour for tomorrow, then walked around town. Went to the bell tower, drum tower, Muslim district, the old Muslim mosque. Then walked to the south gate of the old city wall, down some random back alleys looking for some stones (which I never did find), then hit up a Walmart for some kicks, walked through a vast mall, sat outside in one of the pedestrian friendly shopping streets and people watched, then to Starbucks, then back to the hostel and did nothing too exciting. Had a couple of beers, played a couple of games of pool, watched a movie, had supper, read, journal, not necessarily in that order. Then to bed.

Panda's

Up early, I didn't sleep well, because I was concerned my alarm wouldn't go off and I would miss the panda trip.

I ordered breakfast the night before, so my meusli breakfast was ready when I went downstairs shortly after 7:00am.

Left for the panda's at 7:30, about 25 of us altogether, a big group.

It was less than inspiring, actually panda's do nothing but eat bamboo all day, so all we saw was panda after panda after panda being lazy, sitting on their ass eating bamboo. Panda's have the digestive system of a carnivore, but because they eat just bamboo, they receive very little nutritionj from it, which is why they eat so much of it.

On the flip side, the panda center seemed nice, and the bears had lots of room and seemed very well taken care of.

Near the end, we saw some young pandas playing with human volunteers. The youngsters have more energy, so it was a bit more interesting to watch for a bit.

Back to the hostel around noon, I checked out, had lunch, then took the metro to the north train station for my 2:50pm train.

Train ride uneventful, and I headed to bed before the 10:00pm lights out.

Stuck in China?

Slept really good on the train. Hard sleepers are fine. There was a local in my birth that was anxious to practice his english, so he was enthused to have me there.  The train ride this morning was quite something. Lots of tunnels, but when we came out, steep mountains and deep gorges all around, then, wham, another tunnel. Very smoggy, though, could barely see across the valleys, lots of pollution here from factories in the mountains (that's what my Chinese friend told me).

Got to Chengdu around 2:15 in the afternoon and took a taxi to Lazy Bones Hostel. I had a brochure which had the address in Chinese, so it was easy. Lisa stayed at this hostel earlier and recommended it. I booked a Sichuan Opera for tonight (Lisa's recommendation) and a panda tour for tomorrow morning. I then asked about booking a train from Chengdu to Xi'an for tomorrow night. According to the website they used, there were hard sleepers available, but when he called, he was told they were all full. He suggested I go to the train booking suboffice just down the street. He wrote my request down in Chinese for what I wanted, then wrote a second request for a ticket from Xi'an to Shanghai for Thursday night, May 12.

I found the booking office and she didn't speak a lick of english, so I gave her the note hostel buddy wrote for me. She found a hard sleeper that leaves at 2:50pm tomorrow (195 RMB). It arrives in Xi'an at 9:00am the following morning. I wanted more time in Chengdu, but oh well.

Then I showed her the flip side (Xi'an to Shanghai for May 12), she looked it up, then started beaking in Chinese, I said Ting Boo Dong, but that didn't matter, she kept going anyway. She showed me the screen, which had a bunch of 0's in all the columns, then she wrote NO on my piece of paper and gave it back to me.

Uh-oh! How was I going to get back to Shanghai? My mind started racing, considering options (bus? plane?), then I wrote Fridays date on the (2011/05/13) on the piece of paper and took it back to her. She looked it up and luck! I got a 7:46pm train from Xi-an to Shanghai to on Friday night, arriving in Shanghai at 11:00am Saturday morning. So, three days in Xi'an and only about 1 in Shanghai.

I walked to the main square to see a giant statue of Mao. Chengdu is a pretty modern city.

Back to the hostel and vegged, journal, ate supper, then at 7:30, headed to the opera. There was another couple also from our guest house and a girl from Manitoba from Mix hostel, a sister hostel to Lazy Bones

Opera was awesome. It's famous for face changing, where the performers masks appear to change by magic, in a flash. It was pretty cool. One woman's dress even changed in the blink of an eye.

After the opera, back to the hostel and to bed.

One thing I noticed, locals almost always seem to assume that you speak Chinese. Even if you tell them you don't understand (Ting Boo Dong), they keep talking anyway, maybe thinking you'll pick up the odd word here or there anyway.

Bye to Lisa

Lisa got up early to go for a run (she's training for the half marathon on the Great Wall)i. I got up later, picked up my train ticket from downstairs, showered and waited for Lisa. She got lost running, but made it back about 10:30. After she showered, we headed to Salvador's for an awesome breakfast. We walked around, then at 1:30, Lisa took off and headed back to the hostel, then to the airport.

I have a train to catch at 8:20 this evening, butwasn't really motivated to do anything. When I have a bus or train or plane to catch, I never really have any motivation to do anything.

Walked through an electronics store near the university. They were on me like fleas to a dog or flies to ketchup, whatever the saying is. Then walked through the university campus, then along a high-end shopping street (pedestrian friendly), which had all the high-end shops you might find in any western city. So many people milling about. There were also little kids singing in the street for donations.

At the main square, a little girl (maybe 10) ran up to me with an armful of newspapers and said to me, in perfect english. "Excuse me mister, would you like to buy a newspaper?" I replied no thanks, and said I couldn't read Chinese. She replied "Well, you could look at the pictures!" Haha. I chuckled at that and said no anyway.

Then to two old pagoda's (East Pagoda and West Pagoda), then sat in the shade and watched a dog chase a golfball, some teenagers playing soccer and some kids on bikes and a skateboard typer thing.

Went to a cafe and used internet for a while, then to Salvator's for supper, back to hostel, got my bags and got a taxi to the train station and got my 8:20pm train. 10:00pm and lights out. I felt like I was in a prison, the old, stern train lady was the prison warden barking at everyone to go to bed.

Day Bus to Kunming

Up at 7:30, went to KFC for a quick breakfast (it was the only place open), then headed to the bus station for our 9:00am bus.

Bus ride uneventful, but long (over 8 hours), however I enjoyed it much more than the night sleeper bus we took earlier. I just watched China unfold for 8 hours.

Got to Kunming around 5:30 and hopped in a taxi to take us to Kunming Cloudland Youth Hostel. It was full, but they called another YHA hostel and got us a room there. We walked to the other hostel (it's a dive), got checked in, then I had them book me an overnight train to Chengdu for tomorrow night (248 RMB). I got a hard sleeper, middle bed.

Lisa and me headed to Salvador's, a pub/restaurant catering to westerners. It was odd to see all the white people crowded around this little place, surrounded by a see of Chinese.

Had supper and a few beers, then walked around Green Lake Park for a bit, then back to the hostel and to bed.

Phrases I've learned from Lisa:
Ting boo dong (I don't understand)
Shey Shey (Thank you)
Nee How (Hello)

Also learned some numbers.

Ting boo dong is the most often used.

Tiger Leaping Gorge Day 2

Got up, another beautiful day. Had breakfast and continued on the trek.

Todays hike includes a lot of paths along ther edge of the gorge, with massive drops along the path. Awesome!

We reached Tina's Guest House about 10:00am, I guess, the end of the high path. At Tina's Guest House, we paid 10 RMB to take a private path (built by a local) down to the bottom of the gorge, then paid another 10 RMB to take a different path back up, which included a long ladder climb to go up a cliff face. Mom would not have liked.

Got back to the main road, and there were three Spanish guys trying to get a mini-van back to Qiaotou. With Lisa and me, the mini-van driver had enough people to go.

Back to Jane's Guest House, Lisa and me ate lunch, then the guest house dude arranged a mini-van to take me, Lisa and two French girls back to Lijiang.

Remember the mini-van driver tossing his empty orange juice plastic bottle out the window as he drove down the highway.

Got back to Lijiang bus station, Lisa and me bought tickets for Kunming for tomorrow on a day bus, then headed to the old city and found a hotel at the edge of old town.  One of Lisa's coworkers was in Lijiang as well, so we met up with her (Annie) and her boyfriend for supper. They we headed for ice cream, then back to the hotel.

Tiger Leaping Gorge Day 1

Up early, 7:00am, to get to our 8:00am bus to Qiaotou, the start of Tiger Leaping Gorge. The guest house owner drove us (and another 3 people) to the bus station.

It's a beautiful day, blue skies. The weather forecast was for rain all week.

Arrived at the start of the hike, bought our park pass, left our big bags at Jane's guest house and started off.

Beautiful views. The hike starts up this valley with a range of snow capped mountains towering over the valley.

There are guest houses approximately every 2 hours or so, and locals selling drinks, fruit and snacks all along the trail as well. A few locals were even selling marijuana at their stands ("good quality" they would say). Some locals have also setup photograph platforms, where you can pay a few yuan and get a picture. Usually you can get a free picture by just hiking around the next bend.

We stopped at Naxi Family Guesthouse for lunch, then started on the hardest part of the hike, the 24 Bends, a series of steep switchbacks going up and over a huge ridge.

The views from Half Way are amazing. They have a rooftop terrace (Inspiration Terrace, they called it) with just a grand view of the snow-capped peaks across the valley. And, I have another bathroom for my WorldsGreatestThrones.com website!

We showered, had a beer, then had supper on the rooftop terrace, as more and more backpackers crowded into the guesthouse. It started raining about 6:30 (after a beautiful day) so headed inside to the restaurant.

A huge Korean tour group came into the restaurant, making lots of noise and filling up the place. Headed to our room and read and to bed.

Damn Locals

We woke up and headed to Compass for breakfast.

Lisa feels FANTASTIC! She's so happy, she's jumping up and down and she has a massive appetite again.

Around 11:00am, we rented bicycles and got a map and suggestions on where to go from the hostel lady.  We headed west, towards thwe snow capped mountains to some valley. Not much to see, as the park (and chairlift to get up the mountain) was closed. It's off-season.

We then headed for Napa Lake. On the way out there, there were two locals standing on the road. They let Lisa bike by, but stopped me and wouldn't let me pass, they kept holding onto my bike. And they were beaking at me in Chinese and had a pamphlet with a picture of the a pasture with mountains in the background. I kept trying to push through, not having any idea what was going on. Then another local came running over and he took over, speaking Chinese, while the other two held my bike. There was a car coming the other direction, Lisa flagged it down and asked if they spoke english (yes), then asked if this was the way to Napa Lake (yes). The car people then told us they were asking for money for people to pass, a Pasture Protection Fee. They wanted us to pay 10 RMB each to pass, even though it's a public road. The people in the car didn't pay. Essentially a foreigner fee. Lisa HATES foreigner charges with a passion.

So, a Mexican standoff. They spoke no english, us no Chinese. Lisa and I sat there for 10 minutes, playing dumb and discussing what to do. Then Lisa called the hostel on her phone and asked about this supposed fee. The guest house lady said there was no fee, we shouldn't have to pay anything. Lisa then handed the phone to the dudre and they had a discussion in Chinese, then back to Lisa. Hostel lady told Lisa we could either pay the free, turn back or try to make a break for it (and face the consequences coming back). There was nothing she could do to help us. We decided to not pay and turn back. According to the Lonely Planet, there's nothing to see between March and Sept. anyway, as the lake dries up.

We headed back to town and started heading for the bus station on our bikes to buy tickets to Tiger Leaping Gorge for 8:00am tomorrow. It started raining, so we aborted the bus station run and went to a cafe for a bit.

After the rain stopped, back to the bus station. My bike is finished. The cable that controls the major gears broke. And the chain keeps skipping when I peddle hard.

After bus station, we dropped our bikes off, back to the guest house, hung out, then went to Seans Cafe for supper, did some shopping abd bought some stuff.

After supper, there was a local dance session happening in the old city square. There must have been 50 locals all in a big circle dancing.

To bed around 9:00. Temperature in our room is a comfy 11 Celcius.

Off to Shangra-La

Up around 8:00am. Lisa thinks she's feeling better. We packed our bags, checked out, the guest house gave us a pendant thingy before leaving, a piece of cloth wrapped around something that smells. I think it's eucalyptus, Lisa thinks it's mint smell. We got a taxi to the bus station and got the next bus to Shangri-La.

It's a good day to be on the bus, it's overcast and raining and pretty cool.

Bus left at 9:30 and we climbed up into the mountains, twisting along a little highway as it meandered past deep valleys. The scenery was awesome and would have been more awesome if there were no clouds and we could've seen the peaks.

Got to Shangri-La around 2:00, still raining. Lisa ane me started to walk to the old city with our backpacks, but it soon became apparent that te bus station wasn't where the Lonely Planet said it was on their map. That, and the rain, we decided to hail a taxi, showed her the Chinese name, she called the place, then she knew where it was and off we went.

We checked into Kevin's Trekkers Guest House, 100RMB, about $8 CDN.

Walked into the old city, had an awesome lunch at Sean's Cafe, then walked some more, to a big square with a Buddhist temple on a hill behind it. It also had what could be the worlds biggest prayer wheel, which I spun 3 times. It must have been 40-50 feet high and 20 feet in diameter.

Back to guest house, I used the wi-fi to find out the NDP is now the official opposition in Canada. I didn't think i'd see the day...

Shangri-La is so much quieter than Lijiang. There's hardly any Chinese tourists and quite a number more foreigners. And most shops and restaurants we've been to so far have spoken english, quite a change from Lijiang. There's a lot of hiking here as well, so there's plenty of shops selling brand name (or fake brand name) hiking boots, Columbia and Mountain Hardwear clothing and such.

Now, a story about loss. I brought a bottle of shampoo and a bar of soap and a plastic MEC soap holder. Unfortunately, I left them in the hostel in Singapore. So, in Malaysia I bought new shampoo and soap. Unfortunately, I left that at the guest house in Lijiang.  So today I headed out in search of new soap and shampoo. There's a supermarket just down the road, so I went in and found a bar od soap WITH a plastic container for 6 RMB (less than $1). Then to the shampoo section and found Jackie Chan shampoo! It was more expensive than other brands, but if it's good enough for Jackie, it's gotta be good enough for me.

Lisa and me went to Compass for supper. I had chicken kebabs and an Oreo milkshake and Lisa had a huge piece of chocolate cake and an Oreo milkshake.

We both went to bed about 8:00pm and reads.

It's very cool (temperature wise) in Shangri-La.

Wandering around Lijiang

Woke up, had a good sleep. Lisa slept for more than 12 hours. We went out for breakfast, then Lisa went back to bed. Lazy bones! I walked to Black Dragon Pool area and hiked up Elephant Hill.

Back to the room, Lisa sound asleep. I had lunch at a restaurant and tried to figure out how to use the advanced functions of my camera and read for a while.

It's not a great day today, overcast and cool.

The guest house does a communal Chinese supper every night, so I partook in that. Lisa didn't, still not feeling well. She (and I) hope she gets better before the hike. She has had travellers diarhea today, so at least we know what it is now. She just needs rest to let her body fight the virus.

After supper, about 8:30, we walked around the old city, hoping it would look awesome all lit up at night, the lanes and the canals. NOPE! Just masses and masses of Chinese tourists, so many human traffic jams are common place. Crazy!

I hit up Freshnam Cafe (same place as last night) for a beer and live music. There's a guy from Toronto performing this weekend. Then headed to bed about 10:00.

Lijiang

Wow, horrible sleep. Even if I slelpt at all. There was this weird pressure thing happening on the bus, my ears kept popping and I was getting nasty headaches from it. And temperature, air-con blowing directly on me, blanket on me, my bodu couldn't adjust.

We got to Lijiang about 5:30am, I think, still dark. Got a taxi to take us to the old city, the touristy area, but nothing was open yet, so we just wandered around for a long time trying to find the good hostel in the Lonely Planet. We eventually stumbled on it, and Lisa walked into a random room, trying to find the reception desk, and ended up waking up some local. She asked about a room, he got up and took us down the road to the proper reception. He seemed upset that he was awakened by Lisa.

We got a twin room (100 RMB) and went to sleep.

Got up about 11:30am and checked-in and paid and got some directions and a map from a British guy working at the hostel for a few weeks.

We walked around the old city, then had something to eat, walked to the local market where I got an accidental buzzcut and a super close shave.

Lisa went to bed, as she's not feeling well and I wandered.

The Old City is quite awesome. A maze of stone roads and alleys, with restaurants and cafes and shops and small guest houses, it's very easy to get lost in all the intersecting lanes. There are no cars allowed, so it's pretty much all pedestrians.

I got back to the hostel just after 4:00pm. Wrote in journal, interneted, read for a bit.

Lisa and me headed to supper after 6:00 near the main square. There were a bunch of pubs there that had some awesome live acoustic music earlier in the day. We picked one, shortly after all the pubs in the areaq turned loud and obnoxious. After eating Lisa went back to sleep and I went to a quiet pub to have a beer and read. After a while, two older Aussie couples (3 originally from Malaysia, one from Phillipines) sat with me and we talked. Live music started, acoustic style, very good.

To bed around 11:00pm.

Lijiang Old City is a big tourist draw, but 95% of the tourists are Chinese and most of the shops and restaurants cater to them. There's only a handful that have any English.

Off to Kunming

Up at 7:30, showered, packed. Lisa booked train tickets for 9:22 train to the airport. She figured we would leave the apartment by 9:40, that would give us lots of time to get to the train station. We haqd a helluva time getting a taxi, they all had fares aready. Lisa was very concerned we would miss the train.

Finally got a taxi at 9:05, Lisa showed the driver our train tichet to give him some urgency re the time. Off we went, swerving in and out of traffic, laying on the horn. The whole while, Lisa was saying it would be close!

Wre got to the train station at like 9:20, jumped out of the taxi, threw a wad of money at thre driver, ran through the station, rushed through security, pushed our way through the gates (pushing the locals out of the way) down to the train platform, and throught the train doors. Made it! No word of a lie, within 60 seconds of us getting on the train, the doors closed and we were off. We didn't get onto our car, so we ended up standing for the trip.

Got to airport, flight left on time, got to Kunming and got a taxi to the bus station and booked a sleeper bus to Lijiang for 8:30. We had about 4 hours to kill, so randomly walked around and found a treed hill with trails, benches and grave sites. Lisa napped and I walked around.

Back to bus station, I had a real authentic Chinese supper (i.e. I don't know what I was eating), then we went to the bus.

Sleeper buses are hilarious. The beds are tiny, no more than 5 feet long and only about 16" wide. And they squeeze as many as they can on the bus, bunk bed style.

Bus left around 9:00. They give you a pillow and a thick blanket to sleep.

A Day in Suzhou

Lisa got up to go to work around 7:30, I got up shortly after 8:00, showered, then hung out a bit. Lisa left me a map, her keys and her mobile. She works until 2:30, then she's going to call me to see where I am.

I headed to a pub called Mallone's, where Lisa tells me they serve the expat crowd and have awesome American breakfasts. It was about a 30 minute walk there, got there just before 10:00am and all the posters outside were in english. I went inside, there were two girls there who seemed a bit confused as to why I'm there. It soon becomes apparent neither of them speak any english, so I finally make the international "I want to eat" gesture (hand to mouth), and they understand.

They give me amenu, and there's no breakfasts on it, it's all burgers and wings and ribs and pub food, not what I want. I left, and went to the Starbucks near Lisa's and had a latte and a yogurt instead.

Back to Lisa's apartment around 11:00, updated my journal and Lisa's mobile rang. I answered and it's some Chinese guy talking Chinese. I keep saying english, english, but he keeps talking Chinese. Finally he hangs up. A couple of minutes later, it rings again, this time it's a lady talking english, and she tells me that there's a package for Lisa at the front desk and she needs to pay 15 RMB to get it. I tell her I'll pass the message on to Lisa.

It's shortly after 1:00pm when I finish my journal, so hang out at her apartment until 2:30. She calls, heads back to the apartment (about 3:15) and we wait for Maru (Venezuela) and Megan (US), two other teachers, and we all hop in the taxi got Tiger Hill.

As me and Lisa were walking to the taxi (Maru and Megan came in the taxi), the taxi driver started yelling "LET'S GO!!!" over and over, ther only two english words he knows. It was hilarious.

Tiger Hill was cool, it's a large pagoda at the top of a hill, the tower leans, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Then we took a cab to Ping Jiang road, an awesome pedestrian walkway along an old canal, with small restaurants and shops and the canal all lit up. We ate supper there.

Taxi'd back home and to bed before 10:00. Lisa is not feeling well.

China Experiences!

Woke up at 5:30am.  The hostel lady knew we were getting up early, so she had tea and toast ready for us as soon as were out of the room. I didn't even really want it, but had to eat it, as she made it for us!  We left for the LRT shortly before 6:00am and took it to the KLIA Ekpress line, a high-speed train to the airport.

We got all checked in.  My flight is at 9:00am, Jen's is at 9:40.  We said our goodbyes as my flight was boarding and I was off to tackle China.

Flight was uneventful, Malaysian Airlines.  Just under 5 hours.

At Shanghai, the immigration was pushing people through at a record pace.  I've never seen immigration go so fast.  I got up to the immigration counter, handed the guy my passport and my entrance/departure form.  He gave me back my departure form, but called someone over, said something to him and handed him my passport.  The new dude said "Please come this way" and I followed him to the immigration supervisor area.  He asked me to have a seat on one of the three seats there, and my passport disappeared into the hands of a supervisor. Uh-oh!  I waited a few minutes (I was the only one there), then another foreigner was brought in and asked to have a seat.  He remarked, "I hope we're not in trouble", as he sat down.  I chuckled and said it's probably nothing.

While this was going on, I wasn't concerned or scared or anything like that.

After sitting for 7 or 8 minutes, I was given my passport back and was sent on my way.  No explanation or anything.  I blame Ryan, probably causing trouble with the authorities when he was here, now they flag all Courtnages.

After exiting the airport, an information dude approached me and asked me where I was going.  I told him I was taking a train to Suzhou.  He told me the best way to get to the train station was by taxi, as the bus is very slow, as it stops all the time.  I had read in my Fodor's China guidebook that airport bus #5 goes to the railway station, and Lisa had mentioned something about taking the metro straight from the airport, but my guidebook made no mention of the metro.  I asked how much for the taxi, he said 450 RMB (also called the yuan), I told him that was too much, he said no, it's not expensive only about $65 US.  I told him I was a backpacker, I needed to travel cheap.  Haha, he sighed, and pointed me towards the buses.

On the way to the buses, I spotted the Metro sign, so ended up taking the metro to the train station for 7 RMB.  Big difference between 450 and 7!  I think there's also the option of the maglev train, that I think interconnects somewhere else on the metro.  Apparently the maglev train really goes fast.  According to Wikipedia, it reaches 350 km/hr in just 2 minutes, and gets up to 431 km/hour after that.

It took about 1.5 hours to get from the airport to the Shanghai Train Station.  In the craziness that is the Shanghai metro and railway hub, I got swept outside to the big square in front of the railway station, so I took a few pics, tried to get my camera GPS to work (it didn't, said it wasn't available in that region), then went to buy a ticket.  It was about 4:30pm.  Trains to Suzhou run about every 25 minutes, but the next handful of trains were all sold out, the earliest train I could get was 8:00pm.  I bought a ticket, walked around outside for a bit longer, then went inside the train station, sad down with my backpack and read my Fodors China book for a while to try and kill some time.  I don't recommend this book for backpackers, it's aimed at the higher end traveller.

I decided I needed to try and get an email to Lisa, as she was expecting me around 6:15, but there was no free wi-fi in the train station.  I found some secure lockers to put my backpack in, then left the train station to see if I could find a Starbucks, as they always have free wi-fi.  There's about 20 KFC's and McDonalds surrounding the train station, so figured there shouldn't be a Starbucks too far off. Sure enough, one appeared about a block away, I ordered a latte and confirmed they had free wi-fi.  Sat down, connected to the wi-fi, but to use it, you need a get a username and password, and the only way to get a username and password is to get a SMS message sent to your China Mobile phone, which, obviously, I didn't have. Foiled. I asked the Starbucks dude (he spoke pretty good english), so he grabbed his mobile and he let me use it to get the username/password SMS message.  He received it, but then the username and password didn't work anyway.  He had no idea why.  Foiled #2.  I guess I won't be getting a message to Lisa.

After finishing, I walked around some more outside, then back to the train station, got my backpack and waited for the train.

The Chinese are in so much of a hurry.  They always try to rush on to trains, planes, the metro, with no regard for anyone else or for anyone trying to get off the metro.  It's very chaotic! Complete opposite of Singapore, where people would wait in the train platform for everyone to depart the train before they got on.  It's like the Chinese are scared the train might all of a sudden close it's doors and leave them there.

The train was SUPER FAST.  We hit a top speed of 317 km/hour.  Made it to Suzhou in no time (about 25 minutes). What a change from the trains in India, for example.  Haha.

As I was leaving the train station in Suzhou, a guy asked me "taxi?"  I said "meter?", he nodded.  I think those were his only two english words, and I'm not even sure on the word meter.

I showed him Lisa's address, that I had printed off, he indicated that he knew where it was, so I followed him, past the taxi stand, past the police van outside the station (which he kept looking back at as we were walking, like he was concerned about them). After a couple of blocks, nearing his car, it was obvious it was not a metered taxi, he wanted to charge a bunch of money to take me there.  I told him, "No taxi, no meter".  He pointed to his car and said "meter", I laughed and said "no meter" and walked back to the normal taxi stand.  He didn't try and come and coerce me back or anything.

I queued in the taxi stand queue, after a few minutes, got a taxi, showed him Lisa's address, he gave me the international OK sign (making an "o" with is thumb and forefinger) and off we went.

About 15 minutes drive, I saw the big traffic circle sculpture that's near Lisa and knew we were close.  He dropped me off close to gate, I paid him and managed to find Lisa's building and ring her number.

Shortly after 9:00pm. Made it!  Way later than expected, though.



Lisa and I headed to a Japanese restaurant there they cook everything right in front of you.  I think they were pissed at us, it appeared they were just closing as showed up, but they let us in and order food anyway.  We got back to Lisa's apartment and to bed around 11:00pm.

Sunway Lagoon

We got up around 8:00ish this morning.  We have an air conditioner in our closet room, but we left it off last night, as it was already decent temperature in the room.  We just had the fan running. Over the course of the night, it got warmer and stuffier and I was sweating in the morning, but slept pretty good.  My throat is saying thank you for not having the air on all night again!

We had breakfast at the hostel, then went across the street to Starbucks for a latte.

Back to the hostel, and we hung out there until about 10:30, then caught the LRT and bus to the Sunway Lagoon.  I had mentioned it to Jen earlier, and she was pretty pumped to do it.  Courtney and me had spent a day there in 2003 and had a blast.

Much of it was the same, but quite a bit busier than it was in 2003.  Back then, we pretty much had the whole park to ourselves, no lineups, we could go on ride after ride after ride.  There were some lineups this time around, but nothing too long.

The water park is part of a bigger complex, including a HUGE mall. So, after the water park, Jen went shopping and boughbt 3 pairs of shoes at Charles and Kent for way cheaper than she can get them anywhere else.  She was a happy camper.

We left in mid-afternoon, when we got off the LRT near our hostel, it was pouring rain, so we waited in the station for a while for it to subside.

Back to the guest house, we hung out for a bit, then went for Thai food for supper (not that great, just average), then walked around a street market and the Central Market, bought a few trinket things, then back to the hostel and packed our bags, as we're leaving tomorrow.

To bed before 10:00.

Off to Kuala Lumpur

We got up early, 7:30, as we had an 11:20am flight to KL. Although we were woken up much earlier by morning prayers.

Around 8:00, we went out to try and get some breakfast, but nothing was open yet, so we got our bags and waited on the main road for bus 102, which goes to the airport. The 102 only runs every 45 minutes, and we didn't get one until 9:05. We (i.e. Jen) figured the bus ride to the airport would be about 45-60 minutes, perfect time. Unfortunately, it ended up taking much longer. We didn't get to the airport until after 10:30 and Jen was convinced we were going to miss check-in. We rushed to the counter just as they taking down the sign, but we made it. Incidentally, this flight cost us $17 CDN, $30 CDN with all taxes in. I don't understand how they can operate so cheaply.

We got to KL and managed to find the hostel tucked away in a back alley. It's a brand new hostel, very nice, our room is a tiny closet with 2 bunks. You can smell the fresh paint.

We're two stone throws from Pudu Hostel, where Courtney and me stayed back in 2003. This area has changed quite a bit since then, lots of development.

We showered and went walking to Plaza Low Yat, a huge electronics mall. I was on the lookout for an Android tablet or maybe a Nexus S, but didn't find much. They only had the 7" Galaxy Tab, which I didn't want.

We then hit up some shopping malls where Jen was in shopping heaven. Then to Petronas Towers for pictures and ate at Chili's.

KL has changed a lot. The area around the towers has all kinds of new towers that I don't remember being there before.  They have a vast MRT that goes all over now. The skyline competes with Singapore for modern skyscrapers. Very cosmopolitan city, little cafe's all along the streets, very livable.

After supper headed back to the guest house and hung out, updated journal, etc. To bed around 11:00.

I also want to mention the air-con.  We've had air-con every single night since we started travelling, and it's wreaking havoc on our throats.  Our throats are very rough, and not used to the hot, humid of day, then sleeping in the cold air-con of night.

Batu Ferenghi Day 2

Morning prayers again at 4:00am, but no fighting cats this morning. And I wisened up and put a towel over my legs to help keep me warm = better sleep.

We ended up sleeping in until 10:30, holy crap!

I finally got motivated around 11:00 and we went for breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed to the Tropical Spice Garden and walked around it. Jen wanted to do a cooking class there (as recommended by Tony at Betel Box in Singapore), but they only do private classes on Monday.

We went for a cola drink across the road while a storm rolled through, then caught a bus back to the hostel.  It was still early in the day, so so we headed to the buttefly farm (by bus), just south of Teluk Bahang. This was pretty cool, thousands of butterflies.

Had a snack at the butterfly farm, then back to the guest house. I updated my journal and Jen researched hostels in KL and booked one, Ribbon Stayz.

We went to The Living Room for supper, it's supposed to be one of the best places to eat on Penang. It was awesome. Then we walked along the long night street market to a bank and got more RM

To bed earlish, we have a flight to KL tomorrow.

Batu Feringhi Day 1

Got woke up very early (4am, I think) by morning prayers. The guest house, aside from being right at the beach is also right beside a mosque.

Tried to gonto sleep, but couldn't, as after the morning prayers,, cats were fighting for the longest time.

I think we got up around 8:00, had breakfast, thenheaded to Teluk Bahang and Bahang National Park. We did a hike to Pantar Kerachut, a beach on the western part of Penang.

There was a handful of other people there. It's also possible to take a boat from the park headquarters, so there were boats coming and going as well.

We went swimming and I got stung by a jelly fish on the foot. OOOWWWWWWWWW. It hurt long time.

Jen was in no mood to hike back, so we got on one of the returning boats back to the park entry.

We had an awesome lunch at a tiny roadside Indian place for cheap, then caught a bus back to the guest house.

We had a crap sleep, so I read and Jen napped for a couple of hours.

Around 7;00ish, we went to a different beach restaurant while the sun set.

Had a few beers, a storm rolled through, then to bed sometime after 10:00.

Georgetown, Penang

Up around 9:00am. It was so cold with the air-con on all night, Jen had to gret up and turn it off.

We had breakfast at the hostel (free), then went on a walking tour of Georgetown. It's a World Heritage Site because of all the old British colonial buildings downtown.

Went into the museum, visited Fort Cornwallis had lunch downtown and walked around the old colonial area.  Very cool.

Mid afternoon, we headed back to the hostel, got our bags and caught a bus to Batu Feringhi, maybe a 30 minute bus ride.

The northern coast of Penang is full of massive hotels and resorts.

We got to Baba Guest House and checked into our room, got changed and went for a swim in the ocean. Jen got stung by a jellyfish.

We went out to the main drag so she could get something for her sting, then headed to a beach restaurant and had supper and drank beers while the sun set.

We then walked along the night market along the main drag, which seemed to go on forever.

Then to bed.

Singapore Day 2

Up shortly after 8:00, I slept awesome.

We had breakfast and decided to head to Pulau Ubin, a backwater island 500 metres off the NE coast of Singapore.

We caught bus 2 to the Changi Ferry Terminal and there was hundreds of people in the queue to go to Ubin.  It's a holiday in Singapore, Tony (hostek owner) told us it would be busy.

We waited about 30 minutes before we finally got on a boat. It was a 15 minute boat ride to the island. Each boat only takes 12 people, so they had a loyt of boats working today.

On Pulau Ubin, we had lunch, then walked around the hike close to the pier, through sokme kind of jungly bits, along the mangrove forests. It's so hot and humid I'm sweating like crazy.

After walking, we drank beer and a storm rolled through. Thunder, but not much rain.

Ubin is more like other parts of SE Asia, not hi-tech or developed like Singapore.

Around 3:30, we caught the boat back to Singapore, back to our hostel and booked Baba Guest House for April 23, 24 and 25 on Penang.

We were trying to figure out how to book a hostel for tonigjht, as we arrive at midnight. Jen had sent an email to a guest house in Georgetown earlier in the day, but they replied and said they had no room.

We started talking to Tony, owner of Betel Box, and he did us a favour and called Hutton Lodge and was able to get us a room for about $10-12/night. Decent price.

Tony was super helpful and awesome.

Jen and I started talking about supper, and Tony suggested laksa and told us where to go to get the best laksa.

Around 7:30, got our backpacks and headed to the airport, via the MRT.

Arrived in Penang around midnight and caught a taxi to Hutton Lodge and went to bed.

Singapore

Slept pretty good, considering it was the middle of the day to my body.  Up about 7:15, Jen too. We're in the 20 person dorm, so tried to be very quiet.

Showered, then we had breakfast at the hostel (free).

After breakfast, we got directions to the MRT and headed downtown. Downtown Singapore is exactly as I suspected, huge skyscrapers, ultra clean, very modern and super nice. We didn't really have a plan, just walked around the Marine Bay area.

There's a huge hotel complex that looks like it should be in Dubai. It was three massive towers, with a "boat" on top, sporting palm trees and a pool. We tried to go up, but they wanted $20 to go up, and you couldn't even use the pool.

Very humid today.

We headed to Chinatown for lunch and had a beer, then headed to Orchard Road area. Jen had heard about a "4 Floors on Whores" at Orchard Tower and she wanted to check it out. We didn't see much.

We headed back to the hostel around 3:00. So tired. Still jetlagged. Updated journal, then I napped for 2 hours and woke up at 6:00pm, then Jen and me took MRT to Little India to get some Indian food for supper. After supper, went to a pub for a few beers, then took MRT back to hostel.

To bed about 11:00pm.

Off to Singapore

Mavis took me to the airport.  I took the C-Train to Lions Park Station, and where she picked me up.

It was a direct flight from Calgary to Tokyo, and was very uneventful and arrived in Tokyo on time.  As we were flying down the coast of Japan, I wondered if I was getting a higher dose of radiation than normal.

I had a 3 hour layover in Tokyo.  Narita Airport is BIG, so I spent a lot of that time walking around it.

My flight from Tokyo to Singapore was United Airlines.  I wasn't expecting much, and they didn't disappoint.  Hey, United, 2001 called, they want their little 4", lo-res LCD screens back!  And, for business fliers only, they advertise a "Personal Video Tape System".  Tape?  Really?  Oh, and one of the announcements before we took off: "For security reasons, passengers are not allowed to congregate around the washrooms on the plane."  One cool thing they have on offer is the ability to listen in on all tower communications.  It was interesting to listen in all the planes and towers communicating. The plane was about 25% full.

During the flight, a curious thing, the planes flight plan showed it flying right over Taiwan.  But, when we reached the northern tip of Taiwan, the plan made a sudden course change and veered down the east side of the island.

Landed in Singapore about 11:50pm, got through customs and got my bag and Jen was there waiting for me.  She was waiting for 2+ hours at the airport.  The Beesy Bus dude was there waiting for us, so after grabbing some money at an ATM, he took us too the Betel Box Hostel.

The hostel was very busy, and we had to wait for him to get to us, finally we got checked in and probably got to bed around 2:00am.

Long day!

Off on another adventure

Today I'm off on another adventure. I'l be spening almost four weeks travelling through Singapore, Malaysia and China. The big part of this trip is a hike through Tiger Leaping Gorge in western China.

I'm meeting Jen in Singapore for 8 days, then flying to Shanghai to meet up with Lisa for 10 days. The final week, I'll be on my own, taking trains from Kunming back to Shanghai.