Day 41 - November 14th

Toothache! I wake up and arrive at Wuhan. I chat to the couple whilst we get our stuff ready to get off the train and they tell me that I should get a Chinese girlfriend! I then break my glasses! So much for titanium frames! One screw loose and the thing falls apart. I lose that screw! Good job I have a spare pair! I step out of the station and the place looks grim! I do not like it! So I jump on the first bus I can out of there! Apparently the bus station I was at was owned by a Hong Konger. The people’s uniforms looked a lot smarter than local Chinese companies, like air stewards!

I sleep on the bus but wake up to watch Cats and Dogs in Chinese. The journey turns out to take 5 hours, not the 3/4 hours suggested in the Lonely Planet! I get to Yichang and put leave my backpack and then go get something to eat. I forget how much difference there is from inland places and coastal areas. I order some food at a restaurant and a bollock-load of food turns up! I didn’t even get halfway through it! And it was dirt cheap! Although, it was smothered in oil and far too chilli for my likings!

I walk about the town and feel all icky! I’ve not showered in a while and I must smell... run out of deodorant too! I walk pass a square where there is a performance and music. Why isn’t there things like this in other towns? I spend a few hours in a internet cafe. I then find a department store and get some deodorant! Thank god!

I then decide to have a hot chocolate and sit at the square. A group of kids arrive with a teacher. Bit late for a school trip to see performances, it’s 6pm... they then get into formation and then start dancing! They weren’t here to watch a performance, they were here to practice their cha-cha! The teacher was also the stereotypical dance teacher snob too! The kids were well good too! Amazing! All we got at my primary school was gay interpretative dance (I’m a tree) and morris dancing!

Then from the other side of the square, I hear music. I turn and see there are people practising Riverdance! It was amazing! After a while, On another corner of the square, ladies with drums start playing! I love this place! It’s a musical square! At 7pm, the real show starts and the stage is alight with people dancing and performing. I see a midget in the crowd. I don’t know why, but it reminds me of porn... don’t ask! I decide the ethnic minority dancers are fit! And in some ways, the show reminded me of our performance we did at BLCU when my class cross-dressed and sang!

I succumbed to the big M and get a McCheese burger! I sit down in Maccy D's and am surrounded by couples. How romantic! Dinner at McDonalds! I then get a drunken flash back of Shanghai and the Danish guys heckling all the people in McDonalds after our night out in Bon Bon!

I go back to the bus station for my backpack. It’s a close one, as the place was closing! Wouldn’t have been able to pick up my pack 5 mins later! The lady then tries to help me to my pier to get on my boat. She isn’t sure where it is, and calls her friends for me. She finally gives up and then puts me in a cab, but not one which is outside the station, as she says that they are not very honest! My cab driver takes me to the wrong pier at first and then after a few calls, he takes me down some dimly-lit lane and drive right pass the boat! After turning back I am finally arrive at the pier and embark on the Yangtze River!

The cruiser looks fantastic! I feel a little strange, as I rock up with my backpack and probably smelling bad whilst there are loads of middle aged people wondering around. There is a little bit of trouble at the check-in counter, as they had me down as from Hong Kong. It was run like a hotel! Very nice. I get to my room and Do the 3 S’s; Shit, Shower, Shave. I then look around the boat; it’s full of middle aged tours! Not great! I go to the bar and get a drink; Y50 for a JD and Coke. Doesn’t look all that exciting on the boat!

Miles walked: 278.595m

Day 40 - November 13th

Wake up to Chinese guys in my room talking loudly; “that girl likes you... she likes you... you have a better chance... is she looking in?” It’s like 13 year olds! I decide I'd better get out of bed and make an early start to get to Huangshan. Shower and then check email... decide against Huangshan after talking to Ting Ting. So I surf the net instead and decide on my next move. I almost forget to check out!

New plan: bum around for today and wait for sleeper train to Wuhan, then get a bus in the morning to Yichang and get on a boat and go to the 3 gorges and end up in Chengqing. But what boat to take?

I meet Roger whilst I check out. We sit and chat whilst I have my lunch and the topic seems to get really deep again. What is wrong with me? Everyone I’ve spoken to recently, the topics have got really deep like people’s living standard and politics!!!

Can’t get through to the train station by phone to buy my tickets, so I decide to go directly and buy it myself. I follow a group of German guys but they talk me to the wrong bus stop, as they are going to another station. Damn Germans! The bus back from the train station was a tour bus!

Back at the hostel, I meet a Canadian couple who had done the cruise downriver, and from their experiences, I decide to take the expensive luxury cruise up! Though they paid Y1200 each, which didn’t include food, excursions and they had to share a cabin with 2 other people, all in all costing them Y1400. The 5-star cruise that I am looking at is Y1800! I’m so glad that I have friends in the travel business here in China to get me the deals!

Watch Alien vs. Predator in the Hostel. Another hour and a half of my life I will never get back! Then go get dinner with Jay, a Londoner! He is on his way to Australia via China, and was waiting for a flight to Zhengzhou tonight. I don’t think he liked the local food all too much! I get a toothache. We see Tatsu with his “girl friend”... funny that, as last night he was saying how his girlfriend was in Japan and this girl was Chinese!

I send Jay off in a taxi to the airport and go back to the hostel. Super Size Me is on. I decide to go read in the reading area as the film is too depressing for me, but an American guy at the hostel seems to love it! They put on Alien vs. Predator again! Decide to watch the first 20mins which I missed last time round! So an hour and 50mins of my life gone now! I say goodbye to Roger, who seems to be accompanied by his Chinese friend (also a young girl), everyone's just picking up girls? Is there some sort of female escort service at this hostel?

I get on the sleeper train to Wuhan at 11.20pm. I am lucky to get put in a cabin with an elderly couple. We talk for a bit with the only notable subjects; University system, families and living together and then I taught the wife some English; “goodnight”.

Miles walked: 271.342m

Day 34 - November 7th

Wake up and check out. No internet!!! I get a taxi to the train station, and listen to some real funny radio ads. Both were selling apartments, “In London, you have the Thames lifestyle. In Hangzhou, you have the West Lake lifestyle!” and “I’m always first to the football pitch because I live at the Cambridge Complex”. I leave my backpack at the left luggage place at the train station and then jump into a mini van to the long-distance bus station. The driver was actually mad!

I get on a bus for Wuzhen, another water town which my mother suggested I go to! It takes a good hour to get there and then I jump into a rickshaw and he takes me on a tour for Y30... it was pretty shit! Haha! He took me to the old crappy part of town and to a wine wholesaler as I said I wanted to buy some! Cost me Y30 for 2 bottles and they look pretty nice! Tasted it... not too nice! He then took me to some old woman's house and I gave her Y1 for her to talk to me about her house. Apparently it was about 500 years old and there was these wooden panels which were supposed to be important. He then took me to some other back streets which were pretty crappy, though I did see a lot of local workshops with old folk making stuff!

He then took me to the main touristy area where he said it’s not really worth going to see. I look around the outside and like it so decide to pay the Y100 to get in. It was like the old town, but renovated and more pretty! Walked around the ‘scenic spot’, but a lot of the shows were not on as it is off season! Looked at all the sites inside, was okay, but the things that stuck out were the opera in the main square and the puppet show!

On the bus ride home, I sit next to a Chongqing University graduate and we get chatting. He tells me that there is another place nearby which is also a river town, but it is much much better and is free. On my return to Hangzhou, the traffic is chock-a-block. I manage to get on a taxi back to the train station, but the next train was in an hour and 45mins. It seems that Hangzhou has always got it in for me for travelling! I decide to spend my time in a Internet cafe/massage parlour/brothel! Strange combo place next to the station! Funny as I see a guy and his g/f, where his g/f is saying "let's go" but he’s saying back to her "let me play a little longer"! This goes on for a while. I have a little titter!

I have an urge for KFC so I go, but I was running out of time so run out of the place to catch my train. I think I actually forgot the chicken wings, but i don’t really know what I ordered! I get the usual stares on the train and can smell Bai Jiu everywhere. I don’t know if it’s me or what? I’m getting a real disliking of it now! I spend the rest of the train journey brainstorming what I need to do when at Yiwu (my next destination where I meet my uncle for work). The sweets in my pocket melt.

I arrive at Yiwu earlier then intended and jump in a cab. I share it with some other woman; cabs here are soo retarded! I get to my hotel and tell the receptionist that my uncle has booked me in and such. They take me up to the room and no one is there. I tip the bellhop; I was staying at a nice hotel, what can I do? Meet my uncle and eat dinner, then go to the street market and buy some more socks!

Miles walked: 231.078m

Day 33 - November 6th

Wake and take a taxi to the Tea Museum, where the taxi driver waits for us (I meet Andrena there) whilst we look around the museum. He gets pissed off as we take a good half an hour when he suggested that it only takes a few minutes to see everything! He then takes us to Longjing Village (Dragon Well Village) to buy tea. The first 'tea house' we went to tried to charge us Y500 a catty (500g) for the tea, so we walk out! We carry on walking up the road and get to the village proper. The air is so clean here! On our stroll, an old lady comes up to us and asks us if we wanted to take pictures! She then grabs us and grandma-handles us to get into the perfect poses for pictures with the mountain as backgrounds and surrounded by tea plants (trees?). She could have been a film director with her demands of “stand this way… no, no, point the camera this way!” We end up going to her tea house and buying tea from her. Y250 for a catty! Half the price, so I buy 3 tins!

Time is running short as Andrena has to catch a train back to Shanghai, so we get a taxi back to town and get some food. We go to a Muslim place for a quick bite, which turns out to be the slowest meal to cook ever! And the spiciest as well! The food takes so long that Andrena actually misses her train back to Shanghai, so we go for drinks at the hotel opposite (originally coffee, but then saw that alcohol was same price!). Safely get her on the train on our second attempt!

I then decide to go for a wonder around the city which takes me to Carrefore (French food store, like Tesco). I walk past the car park and see a man going to all the mopeds and hitting the boot compartment and setting all the alarms off. He had the BIG and CLEVER look on his face! I then went to the Temple of King Qian, the king of the area many years ago who led the local people through many years of peace and prosperity whilst joining with rival kingdoms to create China. I saw the tiniest squirrel in there! Very different to the grey ones at home! It seems that I had just missed something, as a lot of photographers were walking out and there was gold clothe on all the walls and pillars.

I then found a book store and replenished my reading literature and got a paper which I sat by the lake and read as the sun went down. Was very old man like! As the sun went down I returned to my hostel by bus this time. Hangzhou’s bus system is strange in the fact that I got a coach with the bus route on and there are also mini vans which run the same route. So it’s not one company with a fleet of buses, but many people running the same line.

I get back and have dinner; West Lake fish again. I’ve realised that I am eating well again - hurrah! I then chat with the reception girl at the hostel all night, showing her pix of my travels so far and testing her English! I’m surprised that she didn’t recognise Marx and Engels in one of my pictures. Early night.

Miles walked: 223.15m

Day 21 - October 25th

Just couldn’t get the day started! The amounts of times we left the hostel and had to go back for things or got distracted by things! We head to Nanjing Museum, first taking the metro system. We sit and admire some of the warning signs. A toddler sitting across from us stands up and walks towards me so I give him a nice smile. He gets embarrassed and turns to run away to his mother, grabbing the first part of her body he could. Turns out it wasn’t his mother he turns to, but he accidentally grabs hold of a random guys legs he was next too! Cute Chinese baby!

I get distracted by a book store we walk by and I decide to go in to solve my lack of reading material problem! I am browsing the English section as Tom has to use the facilities, when a Chinese girl comes up to me and starts talking. I’m not sure what she is talking about, but she shows me a flyer for an English School. I stop her mid-sentence and in perfect English say “I can speak English!” She is highly embarrassed and runs away! Funny girl! Was pretty fit too! I end up buying The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (Tom’s recommendation) and Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

We then board a bus takes us to the old Ming Palace Ruins, the predecessor to the Forbidden Palace in Beijing. On the bus, we see a girl who gets off at the wrong stop and has to ask her friend who is on board for Y2 so she can get back on again. It is mildly funny! Nanjing people are funny! The Ming Palace Ruins turns out to be just a park with the front gate of the old palace and just an open space with some ruins/rocks which I presume used to be the palace… they weren’t lying when they said it was a ruin!

Nanjing Museum is okay. Not that much is labelled in English even though the Lonely Planet says otherwise. The most impressive thing of note was probably the lacquer-ware. Most other things in the museum I have seen before in either Beijing or Xian, though the Jade armour was pretty cool too! It is something I had read about as a kid in a children’s encyclopaedia. Spend a good two hours in there. Fall asleep on the bus journey home, so we decide against going to the Citadel, plus it was getting late and dark by then. We spend next three hours in an internet café playing Counter Strike! I forgot how fun it was to shoot random people!

We returned to the hostel to have dinner and chill out. I decide against going out on the town with Tom as I am still feeling ill and I have to be better for when I get to Shanghai. A lot of drinking to be done then! So I have a shot of Jim Bean and take a rain-check with Tom. He decides to go out and tries to find the girls who work at the hostel at a nightclub they said they would be at. I notice a picture of Sam in one of Tom’s photos! So that’s two different sets of people we both have met on our journeys!

I speak to the night porter at the hostel and it turns out he is from Guangdong. He tries talking to me in Cantonese, but I understood him better when he spoke Mandarin! I also find a guy from Hong Kong when I go to brush my teeth before bed. He is putting some facial scrub on… such a Hong Kong metrosexual!

Miles walked: 136.063m

Day 13 - October 17th

I check out and go to Zoucheng (Mencius’ hometown). We drive past a street full of shops selling cannons and artillery pieces! Sat next to a really cute Chinese baby – she was being taught numbers! I’ve got to say, anyone out there who wants a cute Chinese baby… I am willing to spread my seed!

I get a motor cab from the bus station to the Mencius Temple. Lonely Planet suggests it’s a Y10 ride, I get it for Y5, but the more I think about it, I could have got it for even cheaper! A thought comes to my head; I’ve never seen a Chinese person blow their nose before! Is that why they always spit? I think more research is needed on this matter!

I start to feel really ill so get bus back to Qufu. A beggar at the bus station starts to really annoy me. I tell him I have nothing to give him and he gets annoyed with me. I mean, I’m not a mean person and maybe he got down on his luck, but him getting annoyed at me for not giving him any money is just stupid. He’s lost all pride in himself.

The bus journey to Qingdao was pretty crazy! The driver was just weaving in and out of traffic like a madman! A few near misses! Hold a pee in for a good hour and half… almost wet myself!

Once in Qingdao, I jump in a cab. Turns out the bus dropped me off in the suburbs and the hostel I want is in the city! The taxi man is very talkative. I miss most the things he says, but he seems very proud of his city and seems well travelled (Korea, Hong Kong twice) which begs me to think, how could he afford it as a humble taxi driver? Turns out he used to work in garments in Guangzhou!

Arrive in the hostel, turns out to be Y20 a night! The cheapest I have had so far in China! I meet an American guy called Greg in my room. He seems alright, but also speaks me ear off! It’s all good though, the first English convocation I had with some one face to face in ages! I think it was the same for him!

I have some freshly made noodles in a hole in the wall restaurant. Was so nice that I have a second bowl! Fat bastard!!! Play guitar in the common area… first time I’ve touched a guitar in a few weeks. They turn on the music which annoys me so I move out to the foyer and serenade the reception lady! She is nice to me from now on!

I return to my room to sleep but an American Hong Kong lady talks at me even though I tell her I am ill and need sleep! We get into an argument about Britain, she claiming that it fucked the Hong Kong people over and that they don’t let Hong Kongers into the country to work. She seems odd, doesn’t want to speak Cantonese even though I know it would have been easier for her! Odd lady! Funny… there are three stages of people in the room that night; me (young and about to start career), Greg (mid life crisis and looking to do something totally different with life) and the Old Lady (old and retired and seeing the world with her spare time)!

Miles walked: 90.559m
Steps taken: 30,432

Day 11 - October 15th

3am wake-up call!!! Didn’t get that much sleep last night. The boys were snoring, I was really cold and there was a mozzy buzzing around. I don’t know how mozzys survive in this cold. If I was them, I wouldn’t bother coming up here to feast!

We climbed the rest of the way up to the peak of the mountain. It was really cold and we did it in the pitch black. It took another three hours hike up some real steep steps. Saw the sunrise… it was beautiful!

I dunno why, but there’s something about cute Chinese girls in big army jackets! And as usual, they’re with their douchebag boyfriends! I catch a cold on the peak as I sweated so much on the way up and I don’t think the Bai Jui (rice wine) we had last night helped at all!

I treat the boys to more slurp at the peak even though they thought it was a bit too expensive up there… I was hungry! Coming down was harder then going up. Though physically it wasn’t as demanding, I really had to concentrate on my footing as my boots were too big for the steps! We walk to the midway point again and decide to take the bus down as we were all knackered. I leave Tai Shan a little Shan (mountain) of my own in the toilet! Maybe that’s why I’m ill! I have angered the gods with my poo!

Arrive in town and then leave the boys as they want to stay in Tai'an for another day whilst I want to go to Qufu (hometown of Confucius). We decide to meet again in Qingdao in a few days. The bus to Qufu was playing the same film as from Luoyang. Something about the Japanese and guns… I don’t get it!

I arrive in Qufu around midday. It looks like a real old town and the walls are still intact around it! I can’t see a single tower block. I’m guessing that would interfere with the feng shui (apparently the train station was built a few miles away from the town for the same reason). The cab driver takes me to a hotel (one that I didn’t ask to be taken to) but I was too tired and ill to argue. I haggle the room from Y120 to Y70 a night, not bad I think! I have a shower and then chat to Lisa on the phone. The first time I’ve spoken English in 3 days! I sleep for an hour!

In my wanderings around the town, I don’t know how I understand the people. I ask them a question, but then they talk at me words I just don’t know (must be Shandong dialect or really accented) but I seem to know what they are on about! I really like the look of this place, very peaceful for China! I spend the rest of the day on an internet bar and still not manage to get all my first days pix online!

Eat at the food market. I think this is the nicest place I’ve been so far… maybe it’s the drugs talking! But all the trees had fairy lights on and it looked like Christmas! I retire to my room around 8pm. Watch Bewitched in Chinese… did the trick for putting me to sleep!

Miles walked: 76.155m
Steps taken: 93,779

Day 7 - October 11th

Upset stomach still today. I think it may be all the greasy food I’m eating. I decide to go to the White Horse Temple, the first Buddhist temple on Chinese soil. The bus journey was long and my mind wondered. I thought about things like, if ever you needed to go for a poo, you can eat two apples and that usually does the trick! I haven’t done that since I was a kid, so maybe that’s not true any more? For some reason I also thought back to the time when I playing for KCC in the tournament in China and there was an upside down face man. The best upside down face man I have ever seen! I also remember my old statistics teacher, Mr. Jones also having a pretty good upside down face!

I went to the temple and helped some whities (European) burn incense. They were burning them one by one so I told them that they should do it in threes. I also bumped into the guys from Gansu again! Didn’t know what to say really! My Chinese small talk sucks!!! There are many giant spider webs in this temple but I can’t seem to get a good picture of it. I walk to a pagoda in a different part of the grounds and walk past a building where monks were knocking on their wood blocks and praying. Was pretty cool.

Another thought came to me whilst I was walking in the temple grounds. It’s more a thought from Gary actually! There are sooo many fit Chinese girls walking about and they’re always, always attached to a dooch bag boyfriend! Gary was right! They all look pretty good looking and have boyfriends who just look like complete tools!

I return to the hostel after taking a wrong bus (should have taken no.56, not 58) and check out. I walk to the bus station with all my gear and look at the sex shops again. There are actually brothels in between them. Still doesn’t explain why someone needs a blow-up doll in the morning!!! And surely business for the sex shops would be pretty crap considering you can get sex just next door?

I take the bus to Kaifeng. They show Twins Mission on the bus. Only four people on this bus… I think buses are the way forward! I see fireworks outside. The most bizarre music video was shown after the movie was finished. There was some woman singing an old Chinese folk song. The videos backdrop is Tibet with all these Tibetan people running around being happy and a fat woman (the singer) in what I can describe as a Jimmy Saville-esque track suit. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the video goes on and the Tibetan people start greeting the Han (Chinese) railway workers and they’re all smiling and happy and loving the Chinese. Good propaganda I would say!!!

I arrive in Keifeng and it’s pissing it down. The first things I see is a little shop with pink light and then loads of homeless people sleeping outside a department store. I make my way to the hotel suggested by the Lonely Planet. It is DIRTY!!! Minging as hell!!! I change my room once as the windows didn’t seem to lock, so they moved me to a room where the window had a metal grill around it.

I decide to go eat and treat myself to Chinese-style steak. I’ve only been gone a week and I’m starting to ‘treat’ myself! I find myself scoffing the food down, not eating, but scoffing! Though I passed on the bowl of fruit with ketchup in! The restaurant was playing songs which I learnt in singing class in Beijing Language and Cultural University!!! Didn’t stay in that class for long… no, it wasn’t ‘cos I was rubbish! There wasn’t enough people in the class… yes, I did scare them away!

I decide to go look for an Internet bar… I walk for ages and find nothing!!! No internet bar??? In China? The fuck am I? I decide to walk back to my hotel when I get to this local bar and there are three people standing around in the car park “chatting”.

Retire to my room and turn on the TV. Watch the most degrading thing ever… no, not animal porn! It was on the kids channel… basically it was a game show where there are five kids. One of the rounds had this American guy who was supposed to be the ‘boss’. He then orders each of the kids in turn to do his bidding as all good Americans should order their Chinese lackies! It was a disgrace. He’s done his country no favours by just publicly humiliating the kids and treating them like servants! I would be so embarrassed by this man's behaviour if I was from the States!

Miles walked: 43.498m
Steps taken: 10,682

Day 6 - October 10th

I had trouble sleeping last night… must be the dodgy kebab I had for dinner yesterday! A group of lads from Leeds also turned up last night.

Cold this morning, so I go and have breakfast. This consisted of slurp and greasy cake (congee and some sort of pancakey thingy!!!) which I didn’t finish! The cake was alright though, so I brought an extra one on the go. I walk past the sex shops again… it’s 7 in the morning, who in the world needs a blow up doll or a dildo at that time??? I walk to the bus station and the attendants ask where I am from. I tell them I am from Hong Kong. They call me ‘tong bao’ which means we share a womb (the womb being China) and I manage to get on a mini bus which cost me only Y6.5. The Lonely Planet suggests Y20 for the bus ticket! Sweet!!!

The mini bus journey takes me through all these villages (no wonder why it was Y6.5) and to my horror, people on the bus start smoking. Mainlanders aye? We go past a village called Lau Village.

I get to Shaolin Temple and pay the entrance and find out Chinese guides are only Y50! English guides are Y200, so I decide to go for it, learn about the place and practice my Chinese on the way… worth Y50 I think! She was actually very useful and informative and told me loads of odd facts which I would never have found out. Like how all the pagodas in the Pagoda Forest odd numbered levels as a monk has to be celibate, therefore cannot be in twos (evens). Also, all the pagodas were facing the mountains apart from one, the smallest one which is in honour of a child monk who was very good at kung fu and his pagoda faces Shoalin Temple to protect it!

Although I do get sort of scammed! I go to burn incense and make three wishes (yes… a bit like a genie!) and the monk asks for a donation as he oversees the ritual. Shit… no change. Only hundreds! Oh well, I suppose it’s good to be pious once in a while! Afterwards I ask the guide if Y100 was a lot. She said no! But then she asked me how much the pound was compared to the Yuan. I tell her and I tell her that I’m sort of on a budget, travelling for three months and all! She tells me that next time, maybe I could give a little less. A few kuai would be enough!

After the temple, I decide to have luncheon… a pot noodle! I then take on the mountain. I start walking in the general I direction indicated by the Lonely Planet, but I start to lose heart. But then a group of monks approach and I ask them which way. They decide to help me on my quest (proper kung fu stylie!). I really didn’t know how to make conversation with monks. What do I say? Phwoooar, look the rack on her? So you fancy a drink lads? They were sooo charitable! We stopped at a store and they brought me some water and biscuits. Our paths then diverged as they were heading to their temple and I was heading up the mountain. They point me in the right direction and I start my ascent. After about an hour, I reach a path way and see more tourists. They had come up the cable car. I then look around and head even higher until the path sort of ends and there was a sign in Chinese. I didn’t understand it all, but I could see two characters which meant tourist. I decide to ignore the sign and carry on climbing, at this point sometimes on my hands and knees! I finally get to a peak and peer over to see a cliff edge. I have gone up the wrong mountain!!! There’s more mountain further on, but I can’t get to it as it was far too dangerous. Those monks! Sent me up the wrong mountain!!! Worse of all, it starts to rain and I have definitely not brought enough layers for this hike!

I then decide to come back down the mountain on the scariest cable car ride ever! Things got even worse. As I get off the cable car a man approaches and shows me pictures of the places I wanted to see today and said he would take me there for Y5. So I jump on, only to find he drives me to the exact spot that I met monks. I couldn’t be bothered to walk on as I was cold and wet so I make him take me back. I give him his money and told him sarcastically in front of his friends ‘I hope your business goes well’ they laugh at him! Next I get fleeced again! I decide there are a few more places in the Lonely Planet which is near by which I can see. I ask directions and the tour assistant shows me to this booth to buy tickets to these attractions. So I buy tickets to two things. I get on the bus and then the driver explains to me, you’re not going to get a chance to see both, it’s too late in the day! Pretty gay! I get talking to two guys on the bus from Gansu and I go to see one of the attractions. The… library; it was shit!

I then manage to get to Dengfeng (the nearest town) to try and get a bus back to Luoyang. It was pretty hard finding a cab. I chat to the cab driver and he asks me what language they speak in Hong Kong? I’m amazed!

I go home cold and tired!

Miles walked: 37.489m
Steps taken: 95,392

Day 5 - October 9th

Rough night last night. The Singaporean old guy was snoring all night. Some how I managed to sleep straight away, but when I woke at 4am I just couldn’t get back to bed! I had to go get my ear plugs to shut out the noise!!! It was a sort of two-tier snore - the first part was heavy breathing, but at the peak of his breath, it was like all the flappy skin inside his nose was vibrating!

I braved the communal showers and didn’t manage to get raped or anything… phew! Then I had breakfast with Sam who was really surprised how cheap you can get food for in China. We went to a scummier looking restaurant then she usually does, which doesn’t have an English menu. Pays to be in the know ;)

Even with all the savings and food, I couldn’t convince her to stick around and go to the Shaolin Temple and go to Kaifeng together! So I walk her to the station and we walk past sooo many sex shops!!! The whole street opposite the station was full of them! How strange!

I got on the bus to go to see Guanlin Temple and the Longmen Grottoes where a man sits next to me and decides to start a conversation. He catches on that I’m not Chinese-Chinese and we just chat about stuff. It’s a shame, but I wish I had videoed it, but I played my first Chinese ‘what’s in the bag???’!!! It turns out he owned a fruit cart and had just picked up some fruit from the market and was taking it back to his wife to sell. So he had fruit in the bag!!! Wouldn’t have guessed that! Then I did one of the most dangerous things ever! I told him I was going to Guanlin Temple and he tells me that I’m actually on the wrong bus, I should take the no.55. We chat for a bit more where he decides to see if I know much Chinese and shows me his ID with his address for me to read. He also tells me how he has a kid who is in a Wusu school next to Shaolin Temple! He is about to get off the bus and then I ask him, would it be easier for me to get to Guanlin Temple if I jump off here and get a cab? He says yes, so I jump off with him. He then tells me that he will take me there as it is near by and it was his day off work after he drops off his bag. So he makes a call and his wife comes peddling along on her bike/shop. He then takes me across the road and says, oh, you can buy clothes over here if you want. I’m like, errr, no, I’m okay, can we go to the Temple now? So we jump into the nearest motor taxi and drive to the temple. Then I think maybe it wasn’t the best idea to go off with a stranger who I met on the bus! My reckoning was that the guy showed me his ID and his address, no one would do that if they’re about to rape you! We drive past a church! I carry on chatting with him and he says to me that ‘your father is in a business, and so am I, but mine is a little smaller!’ which I found very humbling. In the end we arrive at the Temple and HE pays the driver Y2. I buy my ticket and then I try to give him some money for his troubles. This was what I thought I should do. A man did a service for me, so I should repay him. He wouldn’t accept it and in fact I think I might have offended him! He says that he doesn’t want my money and that he has loads… which I did see he did! So I suppose the moral of the story is… sometimes there are random acts of kindness and that not everyone is after the foreigner’s money!

The Guanlin Temple was pretty cool. In the gardens of the grounds is an earth mound which is where the severed head of Guanlin is buried. I move on to Longmen Grottoes where I am in two minds whether to stay until dusk when the lights light up the Buddha. I decide to leave around 4pm as I get bored!

Early night tonight, going to climb a mountain tomorrow and hang out with the monks!!!

Miles walked: 27.822m
Steps taken: 70,795

Day 4 - October 8th

Decide to sleep in and have a late check out. I needed the sleep to catch up on the last few days. I eat at the hotel, a bowl of rice, some veg and two fried fish. It was a really good meal and only Y25 and I didn’t even finish it because there was sooo much fish! Not bad going I think for a hotel, though I did go in the restaurant and basically asked for the two cheapest dishes on the menu! They must have thought I was such a gypo!

I get to the bus station where I find cleaners putting sand on the floor and mopping it up. How very strange! I think I get over-charged on the bus, as I read in the Lonely Planet that it costs about Y20 whereas I pay Y40. Bus journey was really good though! First notable thing to mention is the Y2 porn DVD shop we drive by - shame that the bus doesn’t stop for you!!! We drive for about an hour out of the city. Big contrast! The first thing I think about is how different it was from the fields down in the south of China. I remember driving past a rice paddy on my way to Guangzhou airport and seeing lots and loads of green. The fields in Henan are pretty much empty. I suppose the harvest has just been collected a few weeks back. It seemed a barren place. Then I notice that what I thought were bags in the middle of fields were actually people with ploughs and such. There were loads of people, just in the field ploughing and digging. Now to me that seems so very, very strange. I mean, I never lived in the countryside or anything, but when ever I see such big expanses of fields, you would see maybe a tractor or two and a combine harvester to collect all the crops. In China, there’s just a bollock load of people with hand ploughs and a ton of elbow grease.

I arrive in Luoyang at 5pm. It seems even colder here and looks miserable. I book into my first hostel (Y40 a night), where at the counter the girls are squabbling. One’s complaining to the other to stop playing solitaire and do some work whilst she retorts back “do your job properly” when the girl serving me makes a mistake. Seems like a barrel of laughs here! I meet a girl called Sam who has been travelling China for the last two weeks and seems to have a very similar route planned as me. Shame she is leaving tomorrow morning and I plan to spend two days here. I walk into the toilets and to my horror… COMMUNAL SHOWERS!!! I’m relieved as I don’t have soap, but have shower gel!!!

I explore the surroundings and find a wet market down some back street. It was like walking back in time! Back with the salt of the earth! I also find a place which sells sunflower seeds. I tell the shop assistant that I want Y5 worth, she turns around and gives me the biggest fuck off bag of seeds. I wish Matt (Early) was here to finish it all! I have dinner in a side of the road restaurant. I order a portion of dumplings and I get a strange look. Turns out there are sixty dumplings in a portion! So I order half a portion for Y6!

I drink my first Luoyang beer and get started on my seeds! I’ve hardly made a dent after 2 hours!

Miles walked: 19.607m
Steps taken: 49,892

Day 1 - October 5th

So only had 3 hours sleep last night. A mixture of worrying, getting stuff ready and digesting the all-you-can-eat sushi and seafood! I meet my Uncle and we make the journey to the border crossing to Shenzhen. From Shenzhen my uncle decides to take me to a place called San Xuang, where I later find out that he owns properties for rent. It was a pretty odd two hour bus journey. I saw at least five car crashes, including one really bad one where it looked as though a truck carrying logs caught fire!!! I think this may be the most car crashes I’ve ever seen in one day!

We leave San Xuang at 2pm only to be caught in more traffic behind yet another car crash. I’m beginning to think that if I wanted to stay in traffic jams, I should have stayed in Hong Kong. My original plan for the day was to go visit my Nan at an old people’s home in Guangzhou, but we don’t arrive in town until 6pm. My uncle suggests it may be too late to go see her. I feel I have wasted the whole day and I could have stayed in Hong Kong for a few more hours’ kip. Fuming!!! We stay in my uncle’s holiday home in Guangzhou. I didn’t sleep well that night.

Miles walked: 2.223m
Steps taken: 5,657