Travel Journal

Sorry folks internet connection problems again- so gallery will be disjointed !!!


Hello again folks,
Well we now have moved down to Beijing. The temperature is rising and is now -5c… a heat wave!!! Our journey from the airport took 40mins and went past the Bird-nest stadium… very impressive. We are staying at the Holiday Inn…. Very swish and it has a great restaurant that also has western dishes, a nice change from Chinese!!!
I had a dodgy stomach after all the garlic, although had been told the food was fine….. NO Garlic??!! I had found porridge so had that for dinner, the rest of our party had buffet. It worked well for all concerned and nice full tummys meant good sleep, maybe also the beds were a little softer!!!

Next morning…Monday, we were off to “The great Wall”…. there are lots of different areas you can go to get onto the wall. We had organised a driver and car, rather than a bus tour that took all day and went to places we didn’t want to see.
The area of the great wall the driver took us to had a cable car to take us up to the wall area. Once there we had two ways to walk, right uphill or left downhill. We started downhill, the view was fantastic and the feat of wall building is awesome.
The slope of the uphill and downhill was about 40% so quite scary going downhill !! There were millions of steps, some of them very fierce… a rise of at least 12 “, luckily the tread was quite wide or it would have been very scary.

I must say it was very impressive. We did have some fun; we saw a brush hidden under ledge; so we borrowed it for a while so we could brush the great wall….. The other tourists there were mostly Chinese and thought this was hilarious.

We then came down by the cable car and had a coffee and some nuts were supplied….. Well the cost for 4 coffees and 2 tea plates of nuts----#22.00 !!!

The tour had taken less time than we thought so we decided to stop at the Bird nest on the way back to the hotel. The Olympic park is enormous… You cannot imagine how many houses and businesses must have been demolished to let this be built. We were surprised at the Bird-nest as the pillars around look metal, they are infact concrete painted in silver metallic paint!!
The arena is being used for skiing and snow slides at the moment, there were lots of families playing in the snow.

What was really noticeable in Beijing is the pollution, there are lots of power stations within the city using coal to power them; what with that and 1000 new cars on the road each day the air tastes of smokey residue. The sun although high in the sky is very dull and not much heat, I can imagine in another 5 years then Beijing will be in complete darkness unless something happens!!


Next morning after breakfast, off to the metro going to Tiananmen Square. We got off the metro outside the entrance to Forbidden Palace…. On a building opposite, looking towards the square was a man on the roof, filming what was going on; the sinister thing was the larger machine gun next to him on a stand…. I was told not to start conspiracy theories and to stop looking for people following us!!! I am sure half the people who wanted their photos taken with Andy or the rest of us were undercover spies keeping tabs on us… the other travellers with me will tell you I was hallucinating as I sampled some magic mushrooms…. Total rot !!!

The square was a huge area and to get to it we had to use a subway under the road. Before we got into the square all bags were x-rayed and we were hoovered with a hand wand!!!

Once in the square there were lots of hawkers selling photos, maps and hats that looked like pandas. We decided to visit Mao’s tomb as it was only open for a short time. Again we were screened and all bags and cameras to be left in a bag-drop. We got to the entrance at 11-45am, it was closing at 12.

The queue snaked around to yet another screening area before walking up some steps; here was a sign saying no hats or talking from now on.
WELL the man himself (or was a copy??) was lying in a glass case with only his face showing, there was a yellowish light shining on his face, infact it looked like he was in a tanning booth!!! The queue was kept moving at walking pace by the guards inside, infact you got no more than 4mins passing him.

Next away for coffee, we spied a KFC. It was a little greasy but fun as a couple of kids started taking photos of Andy again… we think it is because he is so tall and had a white beard, most Asians are barefaced and struggle to grow beards. Mike was not very well, coming down with flu like symptoms, so he disappeared back to the hotel to rest. We were off to Japan the next day, let’s hope he gets in and he has not got swine flu!!!

So only 3 Tourists go onwards heading to the Great hall of the people, but it was closed, so round the corner to The Forbidden City, it is absolutely huge; I believe it must be at least 15x size of Buckingham Palace and grounds!!!
The roofs of the sprawling building were yellow tiled with carved decoration at the ends. Most of the halls were empty, but a couple of them had thrones inside, with beautiful carpets.
We had lots of huge gates to go through and the tops of the buildings were highly decorated. It was difficult to think about how many people must have worked and lived in this complex, when the emperor lived there.

We found a cafi and a western style loo!!!! I can tell you it is flippin awful trying to go to a Chinese hole in the ground loo with all these extra clothes on. By the time you get undressed you can hardly get down to squat, then once down there is no handrails to help pull yourself up with; I worry either I or some part of my clothes falls in !!!

It was a bit of a rip off price area, 3 coffees were #8.00, but very hot, tasty and a welcome seat.

Next we visited the treasure rooms, now these were fab, gorgeous jade and semi- precious stones carved into bowls so thin around the walls they looked like bone china. Headdresses and crowns made with precious stones, fine threadlike gold and enamel. Gold dishes and in one room a frame holding 16 bells about 6” high made from solid gold, it must have been lovely to hear them ringing. We had seen a poster showing “The cup of Heaven”, made of gold decorated with precious stones and pearls; we looked around for it and suddenly realised we had passed it as it was so small…. it was a small goblet that stood no more than 4” high, with the bowl the size of a teacup. It was pretty… but small !!

Next job was to get home, luckily Andy has the same “homing nose” as Mike, so Babs and I just had to follow behind. Our patient was tucked up in bed not looking too well, fingers crossed for tomorrow!!

Well the journey to Japan went ok, Mike got into the country although he was feeling terrible and still hot but obviously not running a temperature, or the heatiness camera was switched off!!!

We landed to a temperature of 16c positively summer--- tee-shirts???!! We chose a bus to the Hotel; it took us over 1 hour from the airport to arrive at the hotel. The difference between China and Japan was stark, Japan is so quiet, and the traffic is organised and the drivers give-way to keep the traffic moving rather than the Chinese drivers being single-minded and pushy. We passed a driving school that seemed to be driving around inside in a car-park??!!

The Japanese ladies are all very smartly dressed, posh frocks and jewellery. That night we went to the hotel cafi for coffee. Well the most expensive one yet…..1x coffee was #6.00 and 1xcake #7.00, it was the tiniest cake too!!!
The restaurants have either photos of the food available or plates with plastic food showing what they provide. There are pubs that have fish and chips also Curry is very popular here, the Japanese food can look very strange, so far we have not been brave enough to go into one of the Japanese restaurants. On the streets there are vending machines selling cans of drinks and cold coffees but nothing is vandalised or broken into.
Next morning Mike was still no better but had to take a train to another city to do some experiments with a couple of students. The other 3 tourists took to the Tokyo streets. We used the train and metro to get to another area of the city, the train is so punctual, arrives and leaves on the time stated. The trains are so clean, the only trouble is when buying a ticket, the information and station names are all in Japanese; however the staff were very helpful and even if you underpay it is easy to sort out the problem before you leave the station.

We took ourselves off the main streets and went into the smaller streets and older houses. What was really obvious was the silence and cleanliness of the streets. Japanese houses use most of their plot for the house with only a very small area for garden; some are merely pots with trees and bushes!!
There were lots of Temples that were within cemeteries, these were a peaceful oasis, and had lovely trees that were bound with ropes, had trimmed and trained branches that were arching down. Some older trees had a rope wigwam over them protecting them from any snow that may snap their branches…. Mike was told however that Tokyo has not had snow for over 10yrs??!!!
We then braved another metro ride to the posh shopping area… well how the other half lived. We did pop into Tiffanys, didn’t see anything that we loved so saved the men some money!!
We did stop for coffee again, and yes this was expensive too. We saw small loaf cakes in different flavours priced around #8.00 each. All I can say is if Japan is supposed to be in a down-turn we did not notice!!!

Next morning after Mike had a sleeping pill, but managed to keep me awake!! … We all went to Tokyo tower, this was a more complicated train ride; but after asking a local who turned around and took us towards the correct direction while drawing a map as he walked, we were soon on the right track. The tower looks like the Tour Eiffel in Paris, although a little higher. The view was spectacular and even the weather was kind. The temperature in the tower was a little too hot especially with all of the coats still on, why do they do that I wonder, is it so you stop for a drink as you get dehydrated???

Next stop was Electric city, a huge area designated to everything electrical. Computers, notebooks, TV’s, IPods, wiring, lamps and mobile phones. These are very different to the ones in the U.K. They all tend to be clam shell types here but have every colour imaginable. I thought the prices were around the same as the U.K. and I always worry about buying abroad as any guarantee could be tricky to enforce… probably me being chicken!!!
Mike was going out for dinner with the students, the rest of us called off as we were exhausted and needed a rest before flying home. It’s an early start and looking at the flight when booking in online I think it’s pretty busy, so no 3 seats to ourselves… boo hoo!!

Well I think that’s all I’ve to tell you about our trip, will post
some photos as well.
Laur xx