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 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 19 - October 23rd

The light from the shop below the hostel is turned on all night as it seems someone forgot to turn it off. It is sooo bright! I woke up at 6 in the morning thinking it was midday due to the light but then look at my watch! By 8 o’clock the noise from outside wakes me up. The hostel would be in a good location if it was several metres down the road as it is right on a roundabout and Chinese drivers like to honk when they get to a roundabout!

I go into the shower room and turn on the water. I stand there for a good 10 minutes and then come out asking the cleaning lady if the heating is turned off or not? I had been standing there with the cold tap on rather than the hot! I feel a right plonker! I then play pool whilst I wait for everyone else to wake up. Joe suggests we go play badminton. Sounded like a good idea… I go for it! Turned out to be pretty fun!

Say good bye to the Danes and then go and have a Burger King! First one I had in ages! And it costs the same as a McDonalds! Why the hell do locals still go to Maccy D’s when there’s the King? Joe didn’t know there was a difference between the two, but now I have shown him the light! I go to the Taiping Museum which is in a garden. The garden is very nice and I would have stayed longer I wasn’t being eaten by mozzys!

I return to the hostel and meet a Dutch guy called Tom. We play pool and table football. He beats me at pool 2-1 and I take table football with a landslide 2-0! It turns out he met the boys from Leeds when he was in Shanghai! Small world!

We go have dinner with the Aussie couple. Not the best meal. Expensive and very plain, though they did order the plainest things! I decide to go for a ducks head. Pretty salty! Not much meat and was a pain in the arse picking the fleshy bits from inside the skull out (I’m guessing that must be the brain?)

I go to an internet café and they ask for my ID. I give them my passport and they just look at me. So I give them my HK ID instead. They are grateful! Everyone’s asleep by the time I get home so I also slumber.

Miles walked: 121.485m

Day 18 - October 22nd

Wake up and check out. Internet is down at the hostel, so don’t get to check up on my Facebook before my long train journey! I get in a cab for the train station and pass the bus station which I arrived at. The meter showed Y10… I paid Y72 on my way in… fucking cowboy taxi driver!

I feel that in Qingdao, I’ve been neglecting my blog entries, so 8 hour train journey with no reading material should help me with some good blog material! I get on the train (1^st class baby!!!) I decide first class IS the way forward! It’s clean and plenty of leg space… important factors for 8 hour journeys! And I get warm water on demand! Wow!

A steward walks pass with her hair tied up in the back with a hair net… looks like a bollock! We pass the Qingdao Malting Mill… I’m annoyed that I went Qingdao and didn’t have a single beer… I was offered two free ones and all!!!

Hour and half into the journey, I decide to go check out the facilities! I press the button for the automatic door for the toilet… it flings open and there’s a Chinese guy pissing… ARGH!!! Pretty embarrassing! I don’t stick around to say sorry!

I notice there are less people to watch in 1^st class compared to my last train journey! Though the guy who’s seat should be next to mine keeps moving away, but moving back as more and more people board our train. Past Jinan and Tai Shan… I hate back tracking!

I chat to Matt Earley on the phone… maybe I should have taken a trip up to Beijing. Korean saunas sound interesting! I have a thought; have I learnt more then I would from reading a book? Maybe I should talk to more people? Don’t really feel like it!

Pass soo much countryside! I see new sprouts in the field. It’s such a contrast from 2 weeks ago! I notice I’ve taken a lot less pictures this week. Suppose everything looks pretty much the same now! I decide to go to the restaurant car for some luncheon and pass the peasant’s seats! They don’t look too bad and maybe it doesn’t look like a Y100 difference, but I’d rather be where I am than with the common folk!

The train crew are cute. I test the water; "do you have any English magazines?" … they’re not digging it! I eat a shitty microwave meal for Y20. A thought comes to my mind… do I get food in my moustache when I eat? Would any one tell me?

I return to my seat to find the business man sitting next to me studying the safety manual pretty intensely! He’ll know all the safety exits very soon. Maybe I should start a conversation with him…

Speak to him after an hour of twiddling my thumbs! He asks me if there are poor people in UK. Odd topic we talk about! We exchange business cards after a while. Shit! I didn’t study his intently enough as he did mine when we exchanged. He must think I’m a barbarian! Turns out he’s a salesman for machinery which makes glassware. He’s been in the industry for 30 years and at his current business for 20 years. The job he had before was before the industry got privatised and he was working for the state.

I pass wind.

The man gets off the train an hour and a half before me and then a really camp guys sits next to me! I decide against talking to him! I take a nap but wake up to him trying to chat up a steward (girl). She is not impressed… he’s old enough to be her father!

Why do so many Chinese people smell of preserved cabbage?

The train had been playing the same music over and over again, but then a new CD gets put on and I get to hear the BeeGee’s ‘How Deep Is Your Love?’. The train passes a bridge which is one of Nanjing’s tourist attractions. It’s dark outside so I see nothing!

Get off the train and into a taxi. The taxi driver is rubbish! I tried making conversation and he just ignores me. Bastard! It also takes two phone calls for him to finally find the hostel I am staying at. The worse bit was when he pulled over to call the second time. He was there for a good 5 minutes talking to the girl from the hostel before he told me to get back in the taxi where we proceeded to turn around and drive 30 metres and arrive at the hostel! To be fair, there were no signs at all saying it was a hostel!

The staff at the hostel are pretty crap too! It takes ages for me to check in and the girl needed a calculator to multiply 35 (cost of the room) by 2 (nights I was going to stay). She then forgets to get me to sign my signature and give me keys to my room!

I put my things down and then head to the common area. I kick a puppy by mistake! He was under my feet and I didn’t notice him! He’s the cutest thing ever! Name is Simon! Hostel looks pretty nice, but empty. Not a single whitey yet! Maybe I will be speaking Chinese again! I order food and some hot milk. I’ve really got into it! I bet I get a layer of milk on my moustache!

I meet an Aussie couple who are travelling to UK via the rest of the world! Then I meet an Indian guy, Joe and we proceed to play pool… it was the worst two games ever! A group of Danish guys then come in and put on a Guns ‘n’ Roses DVD. We hang out and play a card game called donkey. This carries on till 1 in the morning when we decide to go get some food. I feel a bit bad as whilst we were eating, the conversation gets started on weird foods in China and I give them all the stories I have heard and experienced (monkeys, seals penis etc.). I put them off their food and they don’t finish their food! Return to the hostel to find an American girl in my dorm. Try to make conversation, but she seems really weird and non-talkative!

Miles walked: 113.960m