Day 46 - November 19th

10am wake! Latest I’ve slept in to for a while! I find out that my toilet is blocked and then all the water overflows when I flush it. I leave it and try and pretend it wasn’t me! I check out and have lunch. I wait for a taxi outside the motel for a good 15 minutes and then a man comes up to me and tells me he will take me to the bus stop for the airport and that a taxi will cost at least Y50! I go back into the motel and ask reception. They tell me to take taxi from across the road. I cross over and if by magic, a cab appears straight away! As I jump in, another guy asks me if I was going to the station and if we could share a cab. We arrive at the station and the meter says Y14.90. Y50 my arse!!!

The train to Chengdu is a double-decker train. Not much happened on the train ride up, I slept a bit, read a bit and also spoke to Lisa on the phone, but gave up as the phone cut out every few km as there were many tunnels! The journey took me past things of China which I haven’t seen in a long while; palm trees and rice paddies, but then soon it got cold again as we travelled higher and higher. Saw the sun in the first time in ages!

I arrive in Chengdu after 5 hours and decide to go to the Dragon Town Hostel… it was on a street named 宽 which is my name in Chinese! The taxis in Chengdu all seem to have webcams in for some reason, which reminds me of the daytime TV game show in UK called Cash Cab! A London cab would drive around London and pick up people and then quiz them in the cab whilst they are on their journey and the contestants win money!!! Great show! I arrive at the hostel and put my washing in the machine. It finishes, but hasn’t spun dried at all! I also book a tour to the panda sanctuary for Y90. I know I could do it much cheaper on my own, but I didn’t like the idea of catching buses at 6 in the morning (pandas sleep most the day so have to go in the morning), and I got a free panda bear!

I decide to stay close by for dinner and eat at a posh looking restaurant next to the hostel. I order the burger for Y22, which turns out to be a bit of burger meat in a baguette! Not the best burger I’ve ever had! I then realize that I have been wearing the same pair of trousers for a week and half and that I must have left a pair of shorts in Shanghai at Eamonns.

I decide that I want to fly to Kunming to meet Jane my sister on Sunday, rather than take the 18 hour train! Only cost Y390! Meet Terry (another Londoner) and then later find out that in our room, there is another Brit and an Italian!

Miles walked: 303.427m

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 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 30 - November 3rd

Late wake up again! Woken by Pierre, French guy who’s living at the apartment at the mo, losing his phone. He must have dropped it in the taxi when he was returning from the office (on a Saturday!). Pretty annoying, as the person called my phone back, but when I tried to talk to them, they didn’t answer. Stolen! Decide to get my shit together and go down to Pizza Hut for lunch! I eat 4 of the 6 pieces of my pizza and save the other two pieces for later! I’ve turned into such an old man! Haha!

I bid Eamonn farewell, even though he says he will meet me tomorrow in Hangzhou. I face the metro system with all my luggage. Pretty hard work! I get to the train station after an hour and go get a ticket. The Lonely Planet suggests it will cost Y40, I get a ticket for Y24. I notice later that I have got the slow train! Everyone seems to be looking at me. Just staring! The train stewards here are sooo anal! He had to make sure all my straps from my backpack were tucked into the over head shelf which took a good few minutes! So anal for something which is perfectly safe! I suppose he was trying to make his train look neater or something? He seemed to have missed the fact that the trains are just DIRTY! The Tannoys start blaring out Backstreet Boys. I decide it’s time to listen to my iPod!

After 2 hours, I arrive at Hangzhou. Whilst leaving, I talk to people and they warn me that I shouldn’t tell people I am from Hong Kong! So what should I tell them? I come from England? Rip me off even more? The taxi ride is crazy! We get to a traffic jam, where people are getting out of their cars and yelling at the police! Apparently, there is a fireworks display today and all the roads are closed! The taxi driver stops and tells me to get out and walk the rest of the way to my hostel. Its just a few 100 metres down the off ramp of the highway. Okay… so I get out and walk.

Turns out my hostel wasn’t ‘just’ down the road. Its miles away! I call the hostel and the original one I wanted was fully booked anyway… first time I’ve had trouble with bookings! Then the second one I choose say I should get a taxi to get there. So I wait for a taxi… and wait… and wait. A good half hour passes so I decide maybe I should move and try to find a better place. I walk pass many massage parlours with red lights… hmm. When I say lots, I mean a whole bloody block! Maybe this ain't the best place to hang out! After an hour, I give up getting in a taxi (after several actually don’t let me in!) and decide the best course of action would be to go to an Internet café and chill for a bit until the traffic is better (this is at about 10pm).

After an hour, I still can’t seem to get a taxi. So I call up the hostel and ask them which direction I would have to walk. Better to walk half way and find a cab then sit around with nothing! On my walk, I get people laugh at me “so you can’t get a cab?”. I finally get a cab after walking a good 4 blocks. “Why do you want to go to that youth hostel? There’s one just around the corner…” I decide that I started walking to this hostel, by god am I gonna get there!

I arrive (3 hours after getting off the train!) and check in. I am greeted by a Chinese lady who was from the states who can talk Cantonese. We talk in 3 different languages! She seems nice enough, but then after a few hours, she leaves with some other people to go to Yellow Mountain.

I see a mouse run out of my room! I eat my 2 remaining slices of pizza!

Miles walked: 195.750m

Day 27 - October 31st

Sleep in till 1. Doesn’t look like I will be going to the museum today! Cook noodles for lunch at home. I feel real bad that I have wasted yet another day, so decide to leave the house and just go somewhere. I end up going to the old town… I’ve been here before! My dad took me last time I came to Shanghai! Worse, it’s full of people! I’m not really feeling busyness today!

The metro system in Shanghai is very similar to Hong Kong in the fact that the platforms have glass panels to stop people falling/jumping and have doors at where the doors of the train would stop. But unlike HK, the doors were open all the time, rather than just when the train pulled up. Sort of pointless now having a safety system when you don’t use it? My thoughts on the savvyness of the Shanghainese changes. Even funnier, the trains aren’t even the whole length of the platform, causing stampedes of people running up the platform when the train stops… surely not safe? Worst of all, I get stuck on my train as I can’t get off because the crowd of people rushing in when I am trying to get out! My metro experience was not very good today!

Have dinner with Eamonn, Neith and two other Irish, Amy and Keane from the flat downstairs. Big Halloween night tonight, but I am too tired to go with them! Also, I was determined to go to the museum tomorrow! I was asked what food I really wanted to eat. I answered; “shepard’s pie” the response was “fuck off back to England!!!” I settle for a lasagna instead! Go home and have early night.

Miles walked: 180.488m

Day 22 - October 26th

Pack my bags and it ends up heavier and bulkier than before! Maybe it’s the make up bag the Danes left which I was taking to them! I have a Burger King with Tom for breakfast! We walk pass another internet café which is closer then the one we had been going to all this time round the corner. I say goodbye to Tom who is the first person I have spent more than one day hanging out with!

I top up my phone, buy an Y100 card for Y105, a common thing I found out from now on as I have a Beijing number and that takes a different top up card.

I get a ticket to Suzhou and I think it is 1^st class again when I get on the train. Pretty short trip and I sleep for most of it. I get off the train and find a whitey tour group. I leave the station and am swamped with people selling maps and homeless people with limbs missing. Not the best first impression! I buy a map and then someone asks me if I need a hotel. I tell them I got a hostel booked and they ask me the price. I tell them Y40, they turn away knowing they can’t do much to match that!

I get into a cab and am taken to the hostel by a nice man who is learning English and Cantonese! We chat away alternating in the three languages and I help him with some of his homework!

I arrive at he hostel and I am told there is someone from England who looks just like me who left yesterday! I have a doppelganger!

I walk around the streets. It is really pretty… so are the girls! It was like walking backwards in time and the canal is really cool!

Arrive in Shanghai! Have a stiff drink, sleep.

Miles walked: 143.750m

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

Day 9 - October 13th

5.30am wake up for my train to Jinan! Took a taxi to the station which cost me Y8, same journey took me Y5 the day before… apparently the night fare is different!

It was one of the worst train journeys of my life. The train was full of… I’m going to say it, filthy people! There was no seats when I got on so I had to sit on my backpack in the hall way. I should have asked for a bunk! A fight nearly breaks out near me an hour into the journey! I didn’t really understand what was going on, but I think I heard cursing of each others provinces! The police on board the train manage to stop the fight!

Half way through the train journey there is a mass exodus of people from the train, so I get a seat for the last four hours. Every so often I ask some one what stop we are at. I can’t figure out what they are saying but I hear the town Suzhou at least two times for different stops!!! I finish my book. Lots of thoughts enter my mind. I look around and see all the dirty people with dirt on their hands. In contrast, I have ink from my leaky pen! I listen to my iPod and whack on some Black Eyed Peas. Probably one of the oddest mix with the dirtyness around me. Yep, I have mentioned the word dirty and dirt a lot in these two paragraphs. All I can think about is how dirty everything is!!! Why do some people just look unclean? My iPod dies and I still have 3 hours to go!

Chinese comedy is blaring out the train Tannoy system. It’s not bad. A little like the Two Ronnies! A lady tries to make convocation with me. I can’t be bothered! I watch an old man with a can of spam. He is dumbfounded by the key contraption used to open the can. He spends a good ten minutes… it was great watching him! He finally gives up and eats an egg instead! I look at my boots. They are dirty! Even from the rain yesterday. Normally, the rain will wash my boots as I step in puddles back in the UK, but here, they have got even dirtier! A highlight of the journey was the saleslady on the train selling batteryless torches. It works on a sort of press/lever system which powers it up. Apparently pressing the lever for one minute giver you two hours of power! I buy one for Y10!

There is an announcement over the Tannoy. “Is there a doctor on board the train? A child is sick in train carriage number six”. I see a moth on the train and wonder where it must have got on board from. It must be far from its mates! Karl Pilkington… you are a genius! We go past Taishan (my next destination)… it is huge!!! Bloody massive thing. Then a girl sitting next to me vomits into a pot noodle box.

You can tell that I had fun on this seven hour hard seat journey... I slowly went insane! Mental note: no more hard seat long journeys… buses are the way forward!

I arrive in Jinan and a lady ushers me into a taxi. There are already two people on board. I’m just fed up and ask her to take me to my hotel. She takes me to another one which turns out to be cheaper. She scams me off of Y20 for a distance I find out I could have walked. The bitch leaves me her number to take me around the area. Like fuck I am going to call her up! I chill the rest of the day and use the internet. The sun comes out… first time I’ve see the sun since I arrived up north!!!

Miles walked: 58.425m
Steps taken: 48,665