Day 39 - November 12th

Shopping!!!

I leave my Uncle and Mr Jin at 2 to catch my train back to Hangzhou. I decide to take a motorbike taxi back to the hotel with a box of stuff which my uncle needs to take back to UK. We get stopped by police! He asks for my ID, so I give him my British Passport. The police officer is dumbfound! He doesn’t know what to do or where to look at it! After studying my passport for a while, he gives up and gives it back to me. On hearing that I’m from England, the motor cab driver decides to quiz me! “are English girls pretty?... I would like to get with one... Chinese girls are like tigers” Then he asks me, “How do you say; I want to make love to you?”, so I translate, and tell him that I’m not that way inclined!

I get my stuff and head to the train station. I go to the toilet with my pack on my back and daybag in front. It’s at these times which I am glad I am not travelling with Eamonn and I would be prime for a pushing over, and with one hand holding my cock and the other holding my day bag to one side, I would not be getting up!

I am glad about spending the last few days with my unlce in Yiwu. It was a reality check and helped me sort a lot out. And I got a good hotel and good food!

People are selling torches on the train journey again.

Arrive at Hangzhou again and book into a different hostel; closer to the station. It seems okay and I meet a Japanese guy, Tatsu, who has been cycling from Vietnam all the way to Shanghai! It seems amazing... I want to do it! It’s all unplanned, he just gets to a province, buys a street map and then rides to the next province! He turns out to be a right laugh and we have a few beers.

Can’t decide on where to go next, as my intended place, Huangshan seems to be cloudy and will rain later. Seems a bit pointless going if its shit weather and won’t get to see the sun rise! But still can’t decide.

Miles walked: 266.047m

Day 32 - November 5th

Wake up at 9.30, shoulders still hurt and I find it really hard to get up. I suppose I’m not used to waking up so early from waking up around at least midday in Shanghai! I get ready and find out that I had the taps the wrong way again yesterday for the shower! STUPID!!! I get a decent enough bike (yesterdays was a little too small) and ride out to get breakfast in town. I meet Andrena at the Ming Hostel in town.

We get her a bike from the hostel (more expensive then my bike!). My first impression is that she doesn’t look too ‘mobile’ on the bike! I ask her when was the last time she rode, it was only a few weeks ago in Xian, though that was on the city wall, not on busy streets! I’m glad we changed our plans, as originally we were going to go ride through the mountains!

First stop, Yellow Dragon Cave Park. We dismount and walk up to the pagoda. Looks pretty different to all the other pagodas I’ve seen. Andrena whips out her wide angle lens for her compact camera. It looks pretty cool actually, bit weird for a compact camera but pretty cool gadget! We then trek up the mountain which gives pretty cool views of Hangzhou and try and find the Sunrise Terrace. We finally find it after getting lost and then bump into Paopin Temple, one of the places I wanted to go see.

After two hours of trekking in the park, we leave and go for lunch. Go to a pretty posh looking place on the north bank of the lake and turns out to be pretty expensive! Y50 each, but it was pretty nice food, had West Lake Fish, a speciality of Hangzhou.

We then re-saddled and cycled across Baidi Causeway and went to the provincial museum. It was actually pretty good, and free! I’ve never been to a free museum in China before! Would have been better if I hadn’t just been to Shanghai Museum the week before and Nanjing Musesum the week before that… I don’t think I will be going to another museum for a while! We then get to General Yue Fei’s Mausoleum. He was a general in the Song Dynasty who successfully fended off several invaders, but then was betrayed by the court and executed (fucking Mandarins!).

We then rode down Sudi Causeway and then all the way around the lake to return to the hostel where we rented the bikes! The hostel looks a lot livelier then the one I’m in at the moment! We go to the Old Street to look around and go for some tea tasting! Dinner was good, ate fatty pork (aka heart attack in a pot)!

Knackered, return to my hostel and use free internet!!!

Miles walked: 214.283m

Day 31 - November 4th

Wake up late… shoulders hurt! No hot water for shower! I have breakfast/lunch at the restaurant downstairs from the hostel. It looks as though it used to be just a restaurant, but then they added a hostel on top. There’s a nice water feature at the restaurant. I eat noodles. I then rent a bike and ride into town (my hostel seems to be miles away from town). I get to a pagoda which I enter and climb. It’s really nice and the views are pretty good, but I just can’t be arsed with anything! I’m just bored of it all now!

I ditch my bike and then pretty much force myself to walk by the West Lake (bikes are not allowed) which is full of people. What’s worse, it’s full of couples. Yea, it’s pretty romantic, with all the cheesy love songs blaring out the speaker system, but it gets a bit too much for me! I start to hate all the people who are showing too much affection for each other in public! (I used to be unashamedly be one!) Then I see all the doochebag looking people with their girlfriends. I don’t know which is worse? Overly affectionate or dooschebag couples?

I find a pavilion with people taking turns in singing opera and playing music. Nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon methinks! Then I get to this square where it seems that people are just gathering in crowds and arguing! It looks pretty heated! I suppose ancient Greece was very much like this?

I meet an Aussie lady called Andrena from Melbourne outside the ticket booth for a boat trip. I approach her and make conversation and try to help translate for her with the ticket booth lady. I crack one of the best jokes ever! “I don’t know if I wanna go on this boat” “me neither, I suppose we’re in the same boat!” hahahaha… I guess you had to be there! We take the boat trip and see all the islands in the lake. Not much to say. Just some islands innit! We decide to have dinner and have a Hangzhou specialty: duck. It was pretty nice, a bit on the salty side though.

Andrena then goes to a show which apparently foreigners always like to watch! It’s Y300 so I decide against it! I find a busker on the way to my bike and then start chatting and play a few numbers! Yes… I did. I played Wonderwall!

I finally find my bike and cycle home. I chill out and use the Internet. When I go to pay for it, the boss tells me not to bother, just use it! I also meet the other person staying in my room. We chat and he says that as long as I’m Chinese, we are friends! He seems real nice, a art student from Dalian. A big group of students arrive in the hostel tonight, but not in my room!

Miles walked: 203.519m

Day 20 - October 24th

Slept in until 11! We (me and Tom) finally get our act together and rent bikes from the hostel. Tom had to get his fixed and he gets charged Y5, I think I would have got it for Y2 or 3! We get brunch at a Papa Johns which turns out to be pretty expensive for very little, however it is the first time in China I have seen a refill on fizzy drinks!

We then cycle to a park where the guard tells us we cannot enter with bikes. So we ride down the road a bit more and enter through another entrance where the guard just waved us through without paying! We then ride to a place called Zujin Mountain; basically huge park with a mountain in it. We decide against riding our bikes up the mountain as we don’t have too much time due to our late start (2 o’clock by now) and didn’t fancy the workout! We pass bus’ which goes to Argos! I later find many more buses in the city go to there. I’m guessing many people in Nanjing want to do some catalogue shopping!

We decide to skip the Ming tombs, but decide to go see Sun Yat Sen’s Mausoleum. It’s pretty cool with its blue nationalistic roof tiling, as opposed to all the red Communist style of Beijing I am used to! Dr Zhong Shan (another alias of Sun Yat Sen) was a very important figure in Chinese revolutionary history and is called the grandfather of the Chinese Nation, with his 3 principles; Nationalism, Sovereignty and Livelihood. He is revered by both Nationalists (Taiwan) and Communists. I admire a plaque erected outside his mausoleum reading; “The World Belongs to the Public” (trans.)

We also go to the Linggu Temple which houses the Beamless Hall… a large building with no beams supporting it. It’s not actually that impressive, just has curved roof arches and is converted into a sort of show room with revolutionary and anti-Japanese war dioramas. We then go see a pagoda… they all seem the same now!

It starts to get dark so we decide to make our way home. Have dinner at a restaurant on the way where I teach Tom how to eat meat off the bone. Funny how the food you eat when you are growing up dictates what you eat when an adult. Not much happens when we get back to the hostel. Played pool and then sleep. Sore bum again!

Miles walked: 129.587m

Day 17 - October 21st

Wake up feeling better, so I decide to rent a bike for the day. Qingdao is not a great place to rent a bike as there are many hills! Pretty annoying, as I had put on a new pair of trousers and within 15 minutes, they had dirtied from grease and crap off bike!!!

I cycle to a place called Small Qingdao, which is an island connected by a land bridge off the coast. I pass the navel museum on the way. Everything in Qingdao looks soo European! I make my way to the music square… all in all, today I rode for 6 hours! I have a very sore bum!!! I wanted to go to the TV tower to see the sun set, but it closed at 5.30 and I had arrived at 5, not giving me enough time to get up the tower.

Go home. Find out my train tomorrow leaves at 10.30 in the morning, so decide to rest up and sleep… not much to say about today!

Miles walked: 111.384m

Day 12 - October 16th

Bitten by mozzys last night on the eyebrow!!! Who bites the bloody eyebrow! This makes me angry all night and I try and find the culprit! I find lots of mozzy splats all over the walls in the room!

Wake up still ill! I think about how I want to spend the day. My original plan was to see all the attractions in Qufu and leave for Qingdao tonight. On second thoughts, I feel I need to rest and take it easy so I haggle my second nights stay at this hotel for Y50! I then get a rickshaw driver to take me to all the sights for Y20 for the day! He even took me to get breakfast and medicine for my cold!

First stop is the Confucius museum, where I get a free guided tour! The girl who gave me the tour got sooo annoyed as my Chinese was poor and I had to stop her every so often to ask her what she meant! She got really frustrated! It was hard work for both of us! Apparently she is a descendant of Confucius and was training to be a vet!

On the way to the next stop, I spy a music shop so I jump out the rickshaw and go in. I buy a harmonica, but they didn’t have any small travel size guitars! Just as I was beginning to like this place, the rickshaw driver takes me to this tackiest shittiest waxworks! They precede to rape me several places… entry, incense sticks and gay hand wash which they said was from blessed water. I should have known better, but I was caught unaware! Spend Y56 in there for stuff I really didn’t care about! I tell them I am disgusted with their behaviour and they seem to be a bit embarrassed and I tell the driver never to take me to a place like that again! He is also embarrassed! We then go past a youth hostel! The taxi driver from yesterday said there wasn’t any in town!!! I am pretty pissed off at that point!

I am then followed by a lady on a bike who insists that she gives me a tour of Konglin (the burial ground of Confucius and his descendants). She starts at Y20 but I tell her I am not interested, then she drops to Y10 and I tell her it’s not about the money, I’m just pissed off and tired from the last guided tour! She follows me all the way into the cemetery and starts chatting to me. I get into the grounds and she offers to lend me her bike for Y5 as the grounds are pretty big. I go for it! And I take her offer on the tour as courtesy! I have a great time on the bike riding around the cemetery! Other people take the motor cart thingies which cost Y10 and are just ushered around! Suckers! The lady says it should take me 20mins to ride around… I take my sweet time and end up going for 35mins!

I return to the starting point where she gives me a tour of the main Confucius’ tomb. I take this opportunity to ask her as many questions as possible and make her write things down for me… get my moneys worth! I get jipped again at his tomb where I pay my respects but pay for some flowers! She is confused why I am so stingy so I tell her about my intended three months travels and how everyone is ripping me off. She relates to me and then as she begins to understand my predicament, a lady comes up to me and starts telling my fortune. I try to run away, but I feel bad so I ask my tour lady if it’s okay to do this. She says go ahead. Now, I’m no expert in palm reading, but I know some of the stuff she was saying, I could have made up myself too! She says I am single minded and independent, not relying on my friends or family to get what I want (good guess for someone who is travelling on their own!) She said something about my 68^th birthday where I will get a gift from my son (haha) and I had to do something with that gift or I will have a premature death, otherwise, I will live for a long time (the split in my life line supposedly)! Also, I will not be rich this lifetime, but my kids will be rich from my work! Also there are two/three women in my life but I must only choose one of them. Thanks for the insightfulness! I didn’t know I was only allowed to marry one person at a time! She then asks for some money, even though at first she said she wasn’t in it for the money! I’m very reluctant, so give her Y3 (3 is a good number in Confucianism)! She is not happy! My guide tries to explain my money situation. We end up at Y6. I am not pleased and tell my guide. She now relates to me more! She then spills the beans and tells me a lot of the inside secrets and tells me never to tell anyone that she told me. I am paying far too much for things and need to be a bit more stubborn and have a goal when I arrive in towns for the first time. She turns out to be really nice and she says that she has a son of her own who is eleven. I think I play the poor ignorant son card very well!

I have a pot noodle special for lunch. The special bit is the sausages I get for it!

I visit the Confucius Temple and the Confucius Mansions. This is when I realise that if I waited, then all the Chinese tours would just go away! I started to flake out a bit so chilled out in the Gardens of the Confucius Mansions. It smelt of farm! Languages started to blur for me now as I started to hear Cantonese everywhere and talking in Chinese for so long has started to really get to me! I swear the Tannoys in shops were speaking in Cantonese, but that would make no sense at all in the north of China!

Have dinner at the same restaurant/tent I ate at last night. I tell them that I am a little ill so they tell me I should have some fish soup and they give me ginger water (no, not orange water!). Bernice (old class mate from Beijing) was actually saying the other day that chewing on ginger helps the immune system! The food seemed cheaper today… I think I must have befriended them! I have liver for dinner… it was actually really nice! I leave and the couple who own the restaurant/tent tell me to get more rest and take medicine!

I watch my favourite TV add so far. It shows a factory worker and tells of the bad conditions people are working in. Then it compares the conditions as like that of a fish swimming in dirty water! It then cuts to a picture of somebody’s lungs all black and minging from inhaling dirt and dust. Cut to fish dying and floating up to the top of the fish bowl (my fav. bit!). It then has people dressed in industrial protective gear and they all have smiling faces! The fish is now happy… I swear it must be smiling too! The ad was brought to you by Shandong Provincial Government!

Watch the replay of the England match and sleep.

Miles walked: 84.886m
Steps taken: 15,996 steps