TravelStream™ news feed for member hwhiteland on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/hwhiteland en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 26 Oct 2008 05:17:10 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1224148380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1224148380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1224148380/tpod.html Sun, 26 Oct 2008 05:17:10 -0400 Moscow, Ulan bataar, Beijing and beyond

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Bangkok, Thailand

The 11th of October at 8.00am, we got up early to catch our boat bus that was going to take us to phi phi, while we were sitting waiting for the boat to turn up we over heard a french man telling people that the resort he stayed in was amazing and well worth the £500 a night price tag ( uh i dont think so) we eventually got on to our boat bus to take us to phi phi just 10mins late,when we got to the boat it was very nice it even had air conditioning. The journey took only 2 hours and it was really smooth,it didn't feel like you were moving at all. sitting across from us was a couple who did not stop arguing the whole time,at times it was funny.

When we arrived at Phi Phi island we were swamped by touts offering cheap accommodation or boats to leave to other islands it was really hectic! After a lot of NO's and no thank yous we soon came out the other side in one piece and got chatting to a dutch couple Rudolph and Anna who we ended up walking around with looking for somewhere to stay. We found this great little guest house with air con for 500 baht "bargain". we grabbed some lunch then headed off on a 4 hour walk around the island looking at all of the other bays and coves on the other side of the island. It was so nice to walk through the shaded area where all the trees where at the top of the hill. At various view points you can see the whole bay, and thats when we recognised the bay from the tv when they showed the tsunami hitting. There are pictures on the trees showing what the place looked like after the wave hit.......they have worked really hard to get it back to look like it does. when we returned back to our guest house we had noticed that next door was a quite little cafe/restaurant so we decided to treat our selfs to a couple of drinks called "lassi shakes" these consist of fresh fruit, ice and yogurt all put through the blender in a huge glass, they are the most delicious drink you will ever have, Merlin had banana Helen had Mango. Once inside this little cafe we noticed that they were also a very small bakery bakery,it wasn't long before Merlin spotted something that resembled a Chelsea bun and Helen a muffin,these were also delicious.
Later that evening we decided to head off to the beach to see what was going on as there are a few bars dotted along the front, after a 2min walk we were on the lush sandy beach where there were many people juggling with fire " COOL" we watched the show for a bit then headed off further down the beach where the same sort of thing was going on. As we were watching in amazement at these locals playing with fire we noticed that the three girls from Cardiff sitting right in front of us "what are the chances?" we grab a couple of seats and get chatting. The fire show kept on getting better and better apart from one guy who was a bit of a loose cannon and kept swinging his fire into the crowd by accident. after all the fire swinging,they moved on to fire eating " oh goodie lets see how the loose cannon gets on with this one" but unfortunately this bit was left to the professionals. After the fire eating came jumping through a ring of fire, Merlin couldn't wait to see someone get this wrong but unfortunately it was all plain sailing here too, even one of the Cardiff girls had a go at this she did it no problem, then one of the locals jumped through it naked! it was so funny to watch him disappear down the beach into the darkness. We thought that was the grand finale until they set alight to a 5 meter length of rope and started to swing it around like a giant flaming skipping rope "COOOOOL" even better they had decided that the loose canon was allowed to play as he stepped up and timed it perfectly he began to jump perfectly "boring",but he soon got ahead of himself and got his feet tangled up in the burning rope whilst still trying to jump over, this was very funny. Then the same pyromaniac Cardiff girl decided that it would be a good idea to give this one a go...... well she did a great job of showing up the locals and successfully managed at least 6 jumps. we all headed back and it turned out that the three girls were staying practically next door to us "again what are the chances".

Next morning we decided to find a sports bar as we were going to miss the grand prix,we found a nice place with a few brits cheering for Hamilton, we both had homely breakfasts Helen had hardboiled eggs with solders,while Merlin was guaranteed a proper cheese toastie with real cheddar cheese,yum yum. After the GP we had a little walk in the immense heat down to the pier where we looked for some prices to get to our next destination. Afterwards we decided that it was time to go swimming in the sea, so we grabbed our kit and headed off to the beach. When we got there it was low tide which meant we had to go quite a way out before we could swim. In the distance we could see black clouds but this was fine as the wind was blowing them away from us. so off we swam , the water was so hot and it was lovely just swimming about,until we noticed that the black clouds had grown considerably and were now heading straight for us. ( typical Helen and Merlin luck ) We decided that it would be best to turn back and move our bag which had our camera inside,by the time we got to our bag it started to spit, we both had the same attitude "so what if we get wet we have just been swimming" but when it rains boy does it rain,we would probably have been dryer if we had stayed in the sea! not only that but it was raining so hard it hurt, so yet again we found our selfs running away.

On the 13th not much happened really, went swimming very early then lazed on a sun lounger for half of the day, next thing we know it was dinner time,which came and went very quickly as we were desperate to book a fight home, after a lot of searching we had decided ( well Merlin had decided ) that we should just turn up at the airport and see what they had to offer, well it wouldn't be a Helen and Merlin holiday if we just booked something "said Merlin" then we both had a fit of the giggles . So the big question is will it pay off ? or will we end up in Antarctica !

On the14th at 8.00am we still didnt have a clue on what we were doing so we decided to go down to the pier, where there are lots or travel people, this was to give us an idea on times and costs . There was a boat leaving for krabi at 9.00am then the next would be at 4.30pm, but the 4,30 was not an option as it meant we would have to wait in krabi for the whole of the next day for a bus, but if we booked the 9.00am it meant that the ball would finally be in our court for a change as we would get to krabi at a perfect time for the buses, so we both decided there and then that we should do it, so quick as a flash we both charge off back to our guest house to grab our bags ( luckily Merlin packed the night before as he saw this coming ) then headed back off to the pier,we got there with ample time to spare, a record breaking 30mins.

When we arrived in krabi we still didn't really know how we would get to bangkok fly or bus. we were guaranteed a luxury bus, and we would need it for a 14hour trip! or just one hour by plane at 3 times the price, we were both doing our math trying to work out if it was worth us catching the bus, it would cost us approx 1000 baht to get to bangkok then we would have to get to the airport,maybe 200baht + a 14hour journey in a bus = grumpy people on our last few days.

Then it finally clicked in Merlins head that if we did take the bus which was a 14 hour journey plus the time to the airport, maybe 15 hours in total, then after that we have a 14 hour flight straight away or maybe the next day ( i say maybe because we still hadn't booked our tickets to Heathrow yet ! ) so we again decided at the last minute to go to the airport and book tickets to bangkok, just to reduce the travelling time.

We arranged a taxi to take us to the airport, and before we knew it were in krabi airport, and boy was it small ! we found two airline ticket desks one for air china "merlins favorite" and the other was Thai airways, Thai were four times the price as air china so obviously we booked our seat as they only had 3 seats left" finally towards the end of our holiday we were getting some good luck.

We boarded our plane in Krabi and set off for Bangkok.

As soon as we landed it was very important that we found the ticket booths ASAP as the flight we wanted left at 1.15am which meant we had four hours to find a flight and book the tickets ( easy ) .......it was going great our bags were first out of the luggage shoot,then we were off, around the corner there was a information desk, so quick as a flash we asked where the ticket booths were then headed up to the 4th floor. Ok the top floor was massive but we had to crack on and find the ticket booths,we found our first port of call Thai airways "ouch" the flight for both of us leaving at 1.15am would cost us both £1500,so we did the normal thing of walking around looking for either Quantas,BA,Emirates or Egyptian airways most were around the same price £500 for both both us "much better" and one of them flew at 1am, only problem was we had to pay the airline company, as our credit cards had expired "note to self cancel very thing to do with HSBC" we had to use our debit cards, oh dear why do i have a maestro card? the poxy thing doesnt work any where! and the worst thing is that airlines dont take payment via debit cads !!!! WHY? this was so confusing and annoying, but no problem we will just take the money out of the cash machine, Nope that didnt work either.
so we were stuck in the airport with money but no way of using it. we phoned good old mum up tried to use her card details but this was no good either as they didnt except american express either,by this time, we were running out of time and had only 1hour left to book something that could take us home. After another panic phone call home desperate to try another card, but by the time we had sorted our paying method we had missed the flight home! but not to worry as there is another flight home the next day at 6pm, so we booked the fight then tried to get a hotel.

On the15th, We had a late check out from our lovely hotel then headed off to the dreaded airport to be harassed by all the touts asking us if we want air tickets, a bus, taxi, train, hotel. this wears thin after a while and Merlin started to ask them before they could ask us. This was so funny as they were not expecting Merlin to ask the Tout if they wanted any tickets. We checked in and found out that we had an over night stay in " Columbo Sri Lanka" but it would be ok as the price included hotel , We touched down in Columbo and went looking for our hotel only to be told by our airline "no we only give out hotel rooms when you have at least an 8 hour wait " our stay was 7 hours...... how gutted were we. We headed down to the check in desk then found some cozy chairs and got some sleep. Typical.

On the16th, We had to wake up early from our cramped sleep as our flight left at 4am. Boy were we tired i think we both fell asleep as soon as we sat down on the plane ....neither of us remember taking off, the flight flew by and before we knew it we had landed in Heathrow, the sun was also shinning which was a huge bonus, we grabbed our bags then haded off to the bus terminal where we already had tickets waiting for us to take us to Cranligh where we were due to stay with Merlins brother. Helen dared Merlin to go out side to see how cold it was, so of course he did, it didnt take long before he came running back in. we both went through our ruck sacks to find warm clothes and jackets.........roll on the summer!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1223644440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1223644440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1223644440/tpod.html Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:15:45 -0400 Moscow, Ulan bataar, Beijing and beyond

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Krabi, Thailand

10th October 8.00am with our bags packed, we head off to get some breakfast for our long trip ahead, I say long, what i mean is we have no idea where we are going or how we will get there, We both have the best breakfasts for a long time, Helen has croissant with scrambled eggs while merlin has fresh mixed fruit with yogurt. After our delicious brekkie,we both notice that the local taxis are nothing more than pick up trucks with seats in the back. It didnt take long before one stopped and picked us up, then we were off too a place where all the local boat ferry's operate from. we booked our boat to a little cove called Railey,only accessible by a 20 min boat ride, where we hopped off on the west side of Railey
.
When we jumped out of the boat and into the ice cold water of the sea,...... only joking it was sooooo warm, we then headed off up towards the beach hotels and restaurants. At this point i will be totally honest after all the hype from other travelers, it didn't seem that special, don't get me wrong the views were fantastic but we have much better beaches in west wales. Also, the prices for accommodation were through the roof the cheapest we saw on the west side was 1500 baht (£24) and the most expensive was 5400baht (£82) we knew that the east side of riley would be cheaper so we headed off for a 5min walk where accommodation was a lot cheaper( 400 baht ) but the sea water looked like some thing that would come out of a sewerage pipe, and there was a horrible smell. We were shown a room which was far enough away from the sea that you couldn't smell that stink, which was good news all round, it didn't take us long to get settled in then Merlin had little nap
.
Later we walked up a steep muddy hill that was very very steep, and had orange/red soil that stained everything...shoes, clothes, legs, hands etc. we were covered by the time we got to the top. There was an amazing view point where you could overlook the beach on both sides of this place. we then tried to slide our way down the other side of this hill to get to a lagoon. But halfway down it got incredibly steep and dangerous so we decided to head back down the hill. At the bottom of the hill, on the path, we head off in the other direction and stumbled across a load of wild monkeys hovering around for food....... Merlin whimpered quietly....... Then we stumbled across this amazing beautiful beach, that was shut off from the other side. The water was warm, there was an amazing cliff that looked like it was melting and it was just a great beach. Neither of us have any swim clothes or spare clean clothes at this point, so we just paddled our feet for a while and headed off back to our 'swamp'. unfortunately we were so disappointed that we had found this little cove, as we had already booked our tickets to go to another island called " phi phi" which is where the film "The beach" was filmed. Phi phi is pronounced pee pee so you can just imagine how much fun merlin is going to have trying to explain to the locals that he wants to go pee pee. We were gutted to be leaving after we found such a wonderful part of this dream place,but hay hoe another island another beach,


....................................

We just remembered that on our way to Krabi we saw an elephant! yep thats right an elephant , so what ? I hear you say. well ...... it was in the back of a pick up truck going down the motorway, we thought it was so strange and probably a one off, Untill 30mins later we saw asecond elephant in the back of another pickup........ just a little bit strange.........
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1223469960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1223469960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1223469960/tpod.html Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:12:53 -0400 Moscow, Ulan bataar, Beijing and beyond

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Hat Yai, Thailand

8th of October 9.30 am, we were both sitting on our bed trying to decide our next move, Do we stay here in Taman Nagara for one more day,or shall we catch the 2.30pm bus to Kuala Lumpur? While we were deciding our hostel manager was filling us with bus times and destinations. our problem with catching the 2.30 bus was we would get to K A at 7.30,not a great time for trying to find accommodation. Then our hostel guy tells us that the 9.30am bus doesn't leave until 10am ( any ideas on what comes next ? ) yep thats right we stupidly decide to pack our bags and rush to the bus station all in 20mins !!! we get to the bus as it starts its engine,we sit down as he pulls away, 30mins into our journey i realize that neither of us checked that the bus that we got on was the right bus, we were suppose to go to a town called "Jerantut" but we both fell about laughing when we past sign pointing left to Jerantut and we went right we both said "typical". Luckily after an hour we came to the sign for jerantut, and realised we were heading in the right direction after all! once we got off the bus we caught another bus to the next town an hour away. Once we jumped off of that bus, we walked up to the ticket window to ask for the next bus to kuala lumpur and it left in 10 minutes....... great! this was going smooth......a little too smooth for our liking! So another 2 hour bus trip to KL. once there, we jumped onto the monorail, a train above the roads, and get off at a place called Sentral KL. This building is massive. All forms of transportation leave from there. Local buses, national buses, trains, metro ,taxis, (and maybe flights). It first looked chaotic, but it was just really easy to use and plan your next trip. We contemplated saying in KL for 2 days or so, but in the end decided to try and jump on the train leaving for Thailand that night. Lucky for us there were seats available for the 14 hour train trip to Hat Yai in Thailand. I say seats, it was a carriage full of beds. It cost us 100 Ringgits which is about £16,so cheap enough! We met 3 girls from Cardiff in our carriage,just a couple of beds down from us. They were studying as medical students,so Helen was talking nerd stuff with them,whilst merlin was yawning away! The beds were comfy,although Helen did sleep much better than merlin,as the train was a lot more 'bumpy' than the trans siberian trains. The train left Kuala Lumpur at 8pm and arrived in Hat Yai, thailand, at 10am. We wanted to go to the quiet islands to the south of the country, but we are out of peak season, so the islands just shut down,and we couldn't get to them. So we end up sharing the price of a minivan with the Cardiff girls to a town called Krabi. Once there, it began to hammer it down with the monsoon rain. But the hostel we were dropped off at was a bit pricey,so we waited for the weather to calm down and we walked through town to find cheaper and better accommodation.... which we didn't find!


We walked down to the water front and found people selling boat trips to the islands. But then we got chatting to some other couple who said that there was a ferry port about 3 kilometers away where the tickets maybe cheaper. So Helen's ears pricked at the sound of saving 40p so we i mean Helen decided that we should walk to this ferry port, we eventually get there 2hours later ! to find that the place is shut. There was only a security guard sitting in his little booth, so he thought he would try to sell us some tickets, at 450 baht same price as the first place, so frustrated,tired,hungry and angry we start to head back in the nearing darkness,the security guard did offer us lift on his scooter for 100 bhat or a ride in 4x4 for 200 baht but merlin decided that it was time for helen to pay for her silly mistakes so he started to march her back at high speed on our way back merlin noticed a what we call " normie"which is some one like our selves. he speeds past on a rented scooter heading towards the ticket office, it wasn't long before he whizzed past again having a good look at us. He soon turned around and stopped next to us and asked if we wanted a lift to the main road which was about 30 minutes walk...... yey! So all 3 of us are squashed onto the scooter and off we go! We were so happy that he had stopped. He was from Germany we think. So we jump off and start the 30 minute walk back to the town. It was pitch black by the time we stumbled into a little restaurant, where we had a beer and a game of pool........


On the way back to our hotel we pass the German lad sitting in a cafe, so we stopped and thanked him once again. When he dropped us off he went in a different direction to try and get some information on boat trips so he passed on the info, so he was very handy! hopefully the next blog will be about phi phi island and how easy it was to get there....


to be continued in the next episode of helen and merls travel disasters.
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Kuala Tahan, Pahang, Malaysia

We arrived at 8.00am on the dot
hungry, tired but very pleased, for two reasons the first it was
amazing to be with in 50 kilometers of the oldest rain forest in the
word, the second because we managed to avoid merlin punching the living
daylights out of the driver who dumped us in the middle of nowhere and
told us that we had to catch another bus,as you can imagine a very
tired merlin was in no mood to be told "tough luck" after a lot of
shouting the driver paid for our fair ( oh my god ) and we were off on
another bus. we arrived at the national park at 9.00m on the dot,had
some breakfast which was a coconut roll then found a little hostel to
stay in, we slept as you can until 1pm then ventured out in to the
unbelievable heat, it didn't last very long until we came back to our
air conditioned room.

Tuesday morning (7th October) we set off early to go across the river into the jungle, first thing we did was head off to the canopy walkway which is one of the longest canopy walk ways in the world at half a kilometer. At times it was so wobbly you thought you were going to fall off the side, we also asked if it was safe and he assured us that every morning all the ropes and steel wires were checked "yeah right !" we got to the walk way very early to avoid the heat and snobby tourists,it was well worth getting up early to miss the tourists as we mostly had the canopy to our selves.
When we were up above the trees it was amazing,you could really see the size of the trees and the leaves which were bigger than Helen's head,and although we were about 50meters above the ground some of the larger trees that were attached to the walkways were still managing to disappear up in to the sky. we didn't get to see many birds while we were up in the air but there were a lot of ants which were incredible as they were in a long line running up the tree for as far as you could see, and then running down the tree, maybe to the bottom.
we finished the walk way and decided to keep on going to a mountain where you could get a real view of th rain forest,the path way started to deteriorate rapidly with huge vine like roots coming up out of the ground. We got to the top and the view was amazing and so were the sounds,we were warned about leeches so we had to be very careful, and keep checking our trouser legs, Helen was the smarter of us,she tucked her trousers into her socks which worked well but she looked like a right mental.


When we got to the top (by this point most of the tourists went back down the way they came ) but not us! so we walked the pathway that looked a little less worn in,it took about 1hour to get down to the huge river where we thought we would see some wildlife if we crept around and whispered , but no luck..... all we saw was a blue chicken and huge lizard and i mean huge probably about two foot long !. we found an amazing place to sit by the river and we just sat there listening to the jungle, by this time we were 4 hours into our trek and hadn't any leeches on us at all, although Merlin had one stuck to his shoe,but he managed to see it in time before it got his ankle or his leg. we decided to walk a little further in as we knew there was a hide somewhere near by, we eventually found the hide which was in a really cool pace there was even bunk beds in case you wanted to sleep there. we hung around inside the hide for a while but didn't see anything,so we headed back and came across a little bridge and decide to do a leech check, good job as well because merlin saw his socks and they were covered in blood not just one sock but both socks... he rolled up his trouser legs and gave the same type of scream as did when he was attacked by the monkey ! he had a grand total of 7 leeches, 3 on his left then 4 on his right,and boy were they stuck on, He first started to poke it with a stick, then tried to flick them off,and then tried to pull them off, but nothing worked. He then remembered he had lighter in his pocket so started to burn them off, only problem was that the heat would burn his leg before the leeches gave up, so he then went back to flicking them which did eventually work ,only one problem he was flicking them at Helen... After all the leeches came off his legs, we set off again only to do another leech check and found a further two in his shoe and one on his leg.


It took about 7 hours to do the round trip and by the time we left the shade of the canopy of the jungle, you soon felt the heat when there were no trees. Helen was happy to have made it through the jungle and only to have seen one spider.....which was dead! but there are some huge spiders in there. We caught a little boat across the river and instantly jumped onto the floating restaurant and ordered a whole lot of food, as we hadn't eaten since breakfast which consisted of three small cakes each..... nutritious and delicious!


The jungle was well worth the 6 day wait in Penang, if only just to come to listen to the amazing buzzing of all the insects and lizards and birds,The noise is just incredible!
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Panang, Malaysia

The morning we were due to leave Singapore to go to Taman Negara, we spoke to the consierge in our hotel to ask him for the best way to get there i.e. bus or train, instead we spent the next 2.5 hours with this guy who was really helpful (almost to helpful) he got us some prices.... "$129" straight to Taman Nagara on the east coast Leaving that night and arriving in the early hours of the morning at taman nagara. we were all set, but typical us, we had no money on us ,so a trip to the cash machine was in order. The hotel offered to take Helen to the cash point as they were taking some people to the metro station. On the way back the driver was talking to Helen and was very shocked to find out that it would cost $129 for the bus, in fact he was so shocked that he asked if it included a hotel !!.
We were expecting the guy to put a little bit of money on top but it sounded like he was being greedy ( this is maybe why he was being to helpful ).

When Helen got back from the cash machine she told me about her conversation with the driver, so we decided to do a runner luckily the guy had gone for his lunch so we disappeared pretty sharpish.
We headed off to the metro then went straight to the bus station, when it started to rain cats and dogs. We eventually found the bus station but we were both soaked through to the bone ( we were now wishing that the guy in the hotel had come to get our tickets ) we talked to the girl behind the counter, and asked if we could buy two tickets to Taman Nagara, she shook her head and said no not until next week ( now we were really wishing that the guy from the hotel had come to get our tickets ). So we huffed and puffed for a bit,then got out the map, and decided that a bus to some where close would be fine then all we would have to do is to take a connecting bus trip (easy).

So we booked our ticket to a place called Taiping, on the west coast,, the bus left at 9.30pm and it was 3.30pm so we had a nice long wait. ( now were we really really wishing that the guy from the hotel had come to get our tickets )
We found a great little restaurant called the Lighthouse which had WIFI this was brilliant so we both sat down and enjoyed a lovely mug of hot chocolate which manged to last us for 1 hour, then we had an early dinner which also lasted 1 ½ hours then it was followed by another mug of hot chocolate also 1hour. Time was really flying by and before we knew it we were on the bus and ready for the next day.

The next day came, and at around 5am we got off in Taiping, Well i know it was dark but there was nothing to see or hear and it was raining,so we were standing at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere ( we were now really really really wishing that the guy in the hotel had come to get our tickets ) Day light came and we headed off towards a few buildings and with luck one of them was open and it was a bus ticket office, we managed to decipher from the lady who was speaking broken English on the other side of the counter, that the bus was leaving for Taman Nagra in 15min, brilliant, but wait...... we weren't in Singapore any more, so our money was no good! so we watched our bus drive off into the distance. ( we were now really really really really wishing that the guy in the hotel had gone to get our tickets) we had to wait for a few more hours before any taxis would start running backward and forwards towards the town where the cash machines were.

We eventually caught a taxi to the nearest cash machine then headed back to the bus ticket office armed with loads of money, we had to wake up the lady behind the desk who decided to have twenty winks , only to be told that the next bus goes at 9pm to Taman Nagara via Kuala Lumpur ( we were now really really really really really wishing that the guy in the hotel had come to get our tickets) so we both sat down a bit disappointed , tired, hungry but laughing at our selfs for running away from the man in the hotel in the fashion that only school kids do when they have been naughty...
We get the map out to see whats not in Taiping but amazingly there is a tourist information center in the town, so back in the taxi and into Taiping we go. The man in the office couldnt of been more helpful and he was really glad to be doing his job, he also really wanted to know why we were in Taiping "so did we!" he spent about 20mins on the phone trying to get us some tickets to Taman Nagara but everything was fully booked,unless we wanted to go all the way back down to Kuala lumpor, this is when we found out that it was their holiday time which is why everything was fully booked.
Some other older holiday makers came into the office who were trying to trace their parents footsteps, from years ago when there was a lot of British armed forces in Malaysia. we got talking to them and they under stood our muddle,which is when they talked us in to going north to Penang, which sounded nice and there would be more transport heading towards Taman Negara, the man in charge made a few phone calls and found out that there was a bus leaving in 1hour, so quick as a flash we headed off to the station to buy our tickets,we even had 10mins to spare.




We arrived in Butterworth bus station a little less tired,not so hungry and excited to be in a new place,we knew we had to catch a ferry to an island called penang which was suppose to be a really nice place then we would head north once on the island to a little place called batu ferringhi.
When we got to the ferry terminal and the queue for the ferry was huge. People were queuing to change their money to get coins to put into the machine. Then from that queue you join another to go through the actual gates. We thought that we had a long wait in front of us, when suddenly a policeman (with a truncheon and gun on his belt) shouted at us 'you, come here,' GREAT! now we are going to die! SO we walk past about 120 people to this guard where he smiles, says 'welcome to Malaysia' and lets us skip the whole queue to the front!! OH MY GOD we love Malaysia!! Of course it is a sure fired way to stir up hatred between the locals and tourists.... but hey, we saved about 45minutes to our day!


When we arrived in Batu Ferringhi we asked ourselves "what the hell are we doing in this place" to some it up in one sentence its a costa del sol for the aussies. We went for a lovely walk down the beach which looked very beautiful from afar but when you got.... closer boy oh boy was it filthy,such a shame. We decided that two nights would be more than enough time to recharge our batteries then we would be on a bus and heading towards Taman Negara (will we ever get there we kept on saying to each other) we checked out and headed off to the bus ticket office which was miles away from where we were staying,once we got there we asked a lovely young lady who spoke really good Engish, if she had a bus going to Taman Nagara today, she replied "YES" oh wow we were so happy to be on our way to the rain forest at last she told us how much it was going to cost, "great!"...........BUT... we were short on cash, no problem she said the cash machine is 5min walk that way, so off we trundle,by the time we return, guess what ? thats right the tickets had sold out and there wouldn't be another bus until 4 days time ! ( we were now really really really really really wishing that the guy in the hotel had come to get our tickets) Oh dear, we both sighed and chuckled a little bit. we headed off back to George town and decided to have a few nights there instead of the dreaded Batu Ferringhi, we spent the best part of 3hours looking for somewhere decent to stay. Most hotels were either fully booked or disgusting,we decided to go down one last street because their was suppose to be a nice hostel, it was nice but across the road was a much nicer place,that was not advertised as a hotel or hostel it had only been open for 2days. There was a charming old man in the doorway asking us if we wanted a room,we were invited in and the place was amazing it was an old 1950s building that had just been given a lick of paint, it had only been open for one day and we were the 6th guests to check in.
It was so nice to just sit in a really old building and watch the day go by. Four days later it was crunch day and we were dead chuffed to finely be going to the rain forest so we got to the station early so we wouldn't miss it, only to be told that the time was wrong on our ticket! so instead of the bus leaving at 9.45pm it would now be leaving at 10.30pm, so a longer wait in the dingiest bus station in the world. Finally the bus turned up at 10.45 and then left at 11.15pm.

It was exactly 10 mins before we both flew out our seats ( we had evil Knievel as our driver ) we both looked at each other and thought oh dear we got another 8 hours of this, but then the driver decided to calm down a little bit, then we got some sleep, until "the cough ness monster" started to cough non stop. this old lady just did not stop coughing all the way,she would stop when she had some cough medicine but then she would have a fit of the burps ( merlin style ). So we waited 6 days afterleaving singaporee before we were on our way to Taman Negara......if only we had paid the $129!! Oh well. About 1 hour from our stop, it was just us two left on the bus, and the driver stops in this town, and says right you now need to get a local bus for the rest of the way! Even though we had the name taman negara on our ticket!! After a lot of arguing and shouting we said that we were not paying a penny for the next bus which they agreed to..... At 8am we eventually arrive very tired at our destination.... YEY!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1222524540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1222524540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1222524540/tpod.html Sat, 04 Oct 2008 04:59:33 -0400 Moscow, Ulan bataar, Beijing and beyond

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Singapore, Singapore

We arrived in Singapore at around 7.30pm and had to wait in immigration for 2hours as it was so busy.
We found a map with the metro routes and decided it was the best way to get near our hotel.The ticket machines in the metro are almost perfect i say almost because they do not except any money over 10 dollars, so off we go to the desk and sort out our 3day tickets, as the ony way to get around is using the metro.
we get off the metro and head up to the street ( I must point out that since we landed until this point it had been air conditioned all the way ) as we walk out side we were hit by a wall of pure 80% humidity wow it was amazing, and it was about 10.30pm. we get out our maps and compass to try and work out where our hotel is,i suppose we did look a little lost and it wasnt very long before somebody asked us if we needed help, we told him where we wanted to go and he had never heard of it, so we decided to get a taxi,until the same helpful man told us about a little trick that the taxi drivers do, after 11pm the taxi drivers can charge a little bit more so from 10.40 until 11.05 they just drive around with their 'busy' light on, clever hey, so we decided to walk, it didnt look very far, and it wasn`t very far about 5min from the metro,we could actually see the hotel sign from the road.
When we walked in to the hotel foyer we were just in amazment "helen had been looking forward to this hotel since 3 months ago" as it has a differnet theme on ever floor. We are staying in the Beegees room. http://www.hotelre.com.sg

We are only here for the first ever night formula one grand prix,in total i think we will be here for 4 days, this is an amazing city with so many different races and cultures,yet they all seem to speak english which is really handy. Also when it comes to food you are spoilt for choice, you can go into these food courts where you can have nearly any food from any country you like.

The first morning when we woke up there was yet another amazing thunder and lightning storm.From our hotel window you can see the motorway, and it was just one big swimming pool, cars were travelling so slowly.The storm lasted about 5 hours, when we decided to eventually venture out with a brolli in hand.We went to see the race track when it is lit up and its
amazing. Helen was like a big child jumping up and down as the f1 cars
went past at 300kmh, and of course as the race is in a built up area
there is no where for the noise to go except in to your ears.


September 8th the GP day......
We arive at the track at about 1pm,and take our time to walk around the track and all the different stalls around the place. We had read in the paper that you can hire a mini tv thing which allows you to watch the race from the tv cameras, and also choose any driver to follow him on the onboard camera. It also done a load of other cool stuff,which Merlin spent hours playing with. It cost £40 to hire this tv thing which was more than the tickets themselves..... but by the end we were really pleased to have treated ourselves! We found ourselves a great spot on a bridge where we sat for 2 hours waiting for the race to start. There was a parade lap of the drivers at about an hour before the race started which was great to see all the drivers up close.

The race started and the noise levels are unelivable! After a few laps Barrichello broke down right in front of us. we tried frantically to wave at the cameras to be seen on tv..... but I don't think the cameras could pick anything up except those bright lights! We had a crowd of people around us trying to watch our tv, and asking us the positions and times etc..... we should have charged $10 for each person and made our money back!

Two hours later, the race finished, and we started to make our way towards one exit, but the queue was massive to get out. So we went out a back way and managed to get back to our hotel within 20 minutes!! Result! We have had a good time in Singapore, although there isn't really much to do here. Tommorrow we leave either by bus, plane or boat (havent' decided yet) to go to Malaysia.So roll on the next country.......
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1222248600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1222248600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1222248600/tpod.html Sat, 27 Sep 2008 08:26:02 -0400 Moscow, Ulan bataar, Beijing and beyond

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Chengdu, Sichuan, China

We thought that the blog for Mt Emei would be the last one in china but we had such an amazing evening when we got back to chengdu that we had to put it in to the blog.

After walking all the way down the mountain merlin had very sore leg muscles,and could not wait to get back to chengdu to have a 90 min foot and body massage the next day. (to be continued)
We had a pile of smelly clothes that needed to be washed and when they were done we hung them up, just as we finished hanging them up a lady said that it would be a good idea if we moved them because it was going to rain. ( slight understatment). We could hear the rumble of thunder a long way away and it eventually got closer then we had lightening followed by rain.

Ok so this is the bit where it will not at all sound possible, it started to thunder and lightning at about 10pm then it went on all night long non stop right through until after 1oclock yep thats 15hours of non stop thunder and lightening, it was amazing, the thunder was so loud it really hurt your ears,merlin woke up to the sound of "drip drip drip" and instantly knew what it was, yep our room had sprung a leak and it wasnt long before we had a puddle in our room, so with a quick shift around of bagage everything was off the floor safe and dry. While Merlin was awake he decided to go to the bathroom which was across the hallway, he opened the door in to the corridor and stepped into a 3inch deep puddle "aaaahhhh thats why there is a step in front of our room".

Later on after we had mopped up and had breakfast merlin went off for his massage with the Israeli girl called "einav" who he walked down the mountain with. The masuse was supposed to repair our sore muscles.... but instead it hurt like hell,at one point Einav shouted "oh you f@*#ing b@#ch aaawww". So we then hobbled back to the hostel in more pain than what we started with! Merlin had the lady scratch his back during the massage with some sort of instrument this was called "scraping". He asked Helen to look at his back a few hours later....oh my god!!! It looked like that monkey on mount Emei had got hold of him and ripped his skin to pieces!! Check out the photos of his back!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1222140900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1222140900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1222140900/tpod.html Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:12:19 -0400 Moscow, Ulan bataar, Beijing and beyond

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Emeishan, Sichuan, China

On the 18th of September we caught the bus from Chengdu to Leshan, where we planned on going to see a huge buddha built into a cliff. On the bus journey we changed our minds and decided to stay on the bus until the next stop which was Mount Emei, which was a mountain we were going to hike up. Once we get to Leshan, the driver asks us where we want to go, so in Chinese we show him on paper the words mount Emei. Instead, we get dropped off at this dingy hotel that we had no idea where it was and got left there by the driver. So we go into the hotel, and they soon give us ideas on how to get to Emei town from where we were, and we decided that taxi was the easiest option. The lady in the hotel said it was 100 Yuan to go to the next town (about £8), so as we got into the taxi, Merlin got the driver to start the meter as he hadn't done it yet. When we arrive outside of our hostel, the driver asks for 100, even though the meter says 60!! In broken English he said it was for him coming out of his way to drop us off??!! By this point we really had had enough so we just paid the taxi man his money and checked into a Hostel called 'Teddy Bear Hostel'. It was a really nice place, the owner spent 10 minutes showing us photos of the place from years gone by when it was just a shanty town looking cafe, but fair play, he's done well for himself as this hostel had 3 floors of various dormitory rooms etc. It only cost us 35 each to stay the night so about £5, and that included air conditioning...which is a must!


The next morning we decide to start our hike of Mt Emei. with a map in hand, we were within stone throw of the entrance of the park.....so no getting lost then? Wrong..... the map from the hostel gave no real indication that the entrance to the park was behind some crappy looking shops, up a bit, then left, then right, then pay! Oh no! we walked for an hour and a half through forestry to some random temples in the trees that you had to pay to go in! Outside of one of these temples, we point to the chinese name on the map and ask which way to get to where we wanted to go. So this man spools off a lot of chinese and points in 3 different directions.....??......so again we pointed to the map and got the same response....... boo hoo hoo!!


Anyway, turns out that a lad near us was taking his grandparents in the general direction and that he would show us where to go (and all this information is passed on through the Chinese language! we must be amazing to understand it!). Sure enough we are taken to the entrance of the park, which really is behind a load of shops and cafes. We really wished we'd bought a proper map for 24 pence at the start....but we are too tight with our money!


When we got to the entrance, it's £24 to get in......so another heart attack as it's just way too much money! But we'd just spent the last 2 hours trying to find the entrance, so we weren't backing out now! At the hostel, fellow travelers write messages on the wall, and one common theme that cropped up was the endless amount of steps. The steps were designed for chinese feet, so if you had a shoe size greater than 3, three quarters of your foot couldn't get on the step! After about 3 hours of walking on our own and occasionally seeing the odd chinese tourist, we caught up with 2 men from London, whom we ended up walking the rest of the day with. We got to the section of path where monkeys hung about. This area was full of tourists that had caught the bus to the nearest stop. The monkeys are known to be quite aggressive, so there were men in suits keeping an eye on the monkeys, and had canes to scare them back if they got too cosy with the people. The Irish man we were walking with had bought monkey peanuts at a stall and fed a monkey from it's hand, but we quickly declined as it was just too risky!


We spent our first night in a monastry that was absolutly beautiful and creaked whenever you walked on the floor boards. It was just great. After a lot of arguing with a man on the desk about whether or not we could have the cheapest room (he just kept saying, in chinese, that he didnt have this type of room even though it was plainly advertised on the wall!) We walk up the stairs, past the huge buddhist praying room, with gold statues surrounding the outskirts of the wall, to our little dormatory room, which was really cosy. Throughout the evening you could hear wild monkeys fighting in the trees.


That night we decided to walk down 2 long flights of stairs to a little food stall we had passed on the way up. It was run by a crazy chinese lady called Betty. We had dinner wiith the 2 men from London, and just had a good evening sitting on a table that was on the edge of a cliff, surrounded by a dense forest with monkeys squealing in the background. As we decide to leave the 'cafe', Betty is saying for us to take a torch to light our way up the stairs, but as true Brits, we declined and said that we would be fine. Of course, by this time it's pitch black outside, and we have the most laughter trying to climb up about 100 steps, you just couldn't see anything. When we got back to the monastry, we stumble across a ping pong table that the monks use in their spare time. So for the next hour the 4 of us play ping pong, but using our own rules, as it's too difficult to play otherwise!


The next day,after filling our tummies with fried rice, fried noodles and pork(.......where's the toast with peanut butter?) We set off for the next leg of the journey. On the first day we had walked up 17km worth of steps, non stop steps! and today, we have 22km to walk up to the very summit.We had set off with our 2 London companions, but they had only this one day to get to the top, so they soon zoomed off as Helen was flagging only an hour into our second day. About 4 hours into walking, we came across the really true wild monkeys sitting in trees, and 2 were sitting on the path up ahead grooming each other. We soon spot about 4 big babies playing in the trees, so Merlin starts to film them. As Merlin is filming, Helen notices one of the big daddy monkeys starts to climb through the branches and casually make it's way over to us. Then out of nowhere, this big monkey jumps and grabs Merlins hips (There's muddy handprints for proof!) and tries to get into our bag for food. Merlin screamed like a girl,it was so funny. We tried to beat the monkey back by banging our walking canes on the floor next to it, but the monkey just grabbed Merlins cane and held it, true Kung fu monkey style! After showing us a lot of teeth and screaming at us,it soon walked away back to it's tree. It was so frightning!


So we keep on walking,very very slowly, as the muscles in the legs are really burning, only to stumble on part of the course where they were putting in new steps and barriers. You start to see men carrying absolutly insane amounts of weight on their backs, be it 2 bags of 25kg cement, slabs of stone etc, it is insane when you see how steep these steps are. we worked out that they only get paid depending on how much weight they carry,so some men had boxes of water and juice at about 60kg. We were struggling carrying our small bags with a bottle of water in on our backs, but some men were offering the service of carrying you up. They had 2 bamboo canes with a seat in between them, and 2 men would carry you up.These men were very often in their late 50's maybe 60 years old. You would often see them carrying these perfectly capable people who can walk, and these men who are absolutly exhausted have no water on them as they cannot afford it. It's a side of China that you don't get to see, but there is so many people right at the bottom of the scale that do this sort of job for hardly no money at all. It's really sad to see.

After 9 hours of walking up steps, we eventually find ourselves above the clouds! It was amazing. We caught a cable car to the top, which was just brilliant. It cost £3.60 each and went really fast through the mist and then, boom!, out the other side of the clouds where the sun was shining and you were truly on top of the world. Just a sea of thick fluffy clouds all around us. We spent the next hour trying to get into a hotel room, haggling with the price, and when they wouldn't budge on the price we would walk to the next hotel. We eventually stayed in a hotel right on the summit for £10 for both of us which was a good price considering the location! On the summit there were many monks, a monastry,and a gigantic shrine! How they got the materials up there to buid this thing, I dread to think!


The next morning we wake at 6am to see the sunrise above the clouds. We stand there for about an hour, when we finally got our first glimpse of the red sun appearing from beneath the clouds. All the chinese go mad, like they have never seen the sun before and start going 'woooowww!', 'wwwwwww' and so on! Then they all start doing silly things like cupping the sun, once one does it they ALL do it. But then we saw a man trying to bite the sun for a photo, So we spend the next 10 minutes trying to do the same! Silly tourists. On the way back to the hotel,after seeing the sunrise, Merlin starts chatting to 2 Israeli people who we find out are going down the mountain today. Helen had woken with a bad stomach again, and had bad knees and wasn't sure if she could make the 38.5km hike down in one day. So Merlin teamed up with the couple from Israel and started to make their way down the mountain, whilst Helen took the 2 hour bus journey down to the bottom!.


After saying goodbye to Helen, we set of at a good pace bouncing down the steep stairs and making the most of the early morning cool weather, the views were amazing even though we had seen them the day before. It only took maybe 3 hours before we got to the split in the pathway to go back down another direction, as we decended into new territory we all knew that this way down was supposed to be very easy as every one recomends going this way up if you are short on time. But my god it was the steepest we had seen, it didn't get easier, it just kept on going. We met some people who were really struggling,we didnt have the heart to tell them that it just keeps going.

We got to our first snack shack and have a early lunch consisting of apples, pears, savory biscuits and some very funny looking thick yellow bread which was delicious. When we left the snack shack the cloulds parted just enough for us to see this beautiful mountain, I jokingly said " you know we have to walk down this one then up that one then back down it" Bloody hell I was right, I didnt mind walking up the stairs that zig zaged back and forth, but when you are confronted with a staircase that is in a straight line and disapears into the clouds it really makes you wonder why they didnt go around the Bloody mountain!

We reach "Wanaian Temple" which was a huge boost for us as we knew that we were really close to the bottom ( 2.5hrs away) so we decided to stop for some noodles, this is where i finally have my first dose of real sichuan food, I was not disappointed my lips were on fire, as was my tounge and the inside of my cheeks! but we couldn't let it show as the 3 ladies who served us all watched to see if we could handle the food, as we sat there with sweat running down our faces ( from the food not the walk ) we finish off our noodles and in an act of sheer stupitity i decide it woud be a good idea to drink the rest of my noodle soup, now i didnt look so cool as I was left coughing and spluttering much to the amusment of the 3 ladies !! boy was that HOT.

We set off for the final part, and it was so amazing there was a river that was as clear as tap water running through a gorge with rope bridges crossing back and forth,as we walked around a corner there was a lake with some of the most amazing colours and more wild life here than we had seen over the past 2 days. We saw dragon flies, koi carp, funny little creatures at the bottom of the lake, birds with amazing colours, huge colourfull butterflies and a crab! weird.

We decided to catch a bus back for the final 10 kilometers as we did not fancy walking up another 900meters just to go down again. we celebrated our descent with a magnum ice cream yummy yummy.

All in all, a fantastic 3 days and some of the most amazing scenery we have ever seen, i really hope that some of the pictures that we put on will help you to imagine what it is like, this was by far the best way to spend our final days in china, now for Singapore...... and the Grand Prix!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1221832320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1221832320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1221832320/tpod.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:52:27 -0400 Moscow, Ulan bataar, Beijing and beyond

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Chengdu, China

We arrived in chengdu by plane on the 18th at 1 am, as we were landing we were discussing on how wew were going to get from the airport to the hostel at such a ridiculas time,we knew there as a bus which consisted of a change and then taxi for about 15miles. So we were all set with bus numbers taxi directions and silly small change ready for the buses and taxis. we picked up our luggage and headed out to the busses when merlin noticed a small chinese man hoding up a sign which read "mix hostel" Merlin couldnt belive it so he decided he would try his luck and get a lift to the hostel, the chinese guy made no attempt to agree on anything he just said "stand over there away" so we did then 4 chinese students turn up also going to mix hostel, this is when we knew we would be in for long night of taxis and buses, but the chinese relised that 6 people in a taxi is cheaper that 4 people in a taxi so BINGO we were off for the total cost of 10 yuan bargain.

The next morning, I mean a few hours later, after a bit of sleep and being bitten to death by mosquitos, we decide to have half a day off so we lounged around in the hostels court yard next to a lovely rockery with huge goldfish swimming around.
Now we were in a new province, and the speciality food is spices! They eat bucket loads of chillies with their dinners! It's absolutly mad. Helen isn't having such a goodtime with the food, but Merlin is in his element! That afternoon, we meet up with Tanya who we met in mongolia and again in Beijing, and had lunch at this small cafe. We order 3 different dishes via Tanya's phrasebook and hoped for the best! One dish was deicious, it had homemade crisps with pork. Another dish had chicken, pork and crab meat (!) with rice, and finally Merlins dish was spicy chicken. This plate was absolutley loaded with about 1500 chillies all chopped up, it was so hot. They love their spicy food! so much that tanya saw some guy whos food was so hot he had tears coming out of his eyes and he was local !!

We decided to go for a quick walk around chengdu it was a very typical city, smelly and polluted with a very strange air raid siren bellowing out across the city, it was really annoying.

We strolled through an outdoor market with people selling loads of fresh fruit, spices, meat and fish. As we walked through the fish part it was all about being in the right place at the right time, as a large fish jumped out of its tank and squirmed around on the floor, ( merlin jumped out of his skin ) we looked around to see if someone would rescue it but everybody was asleep, and before we knew it it had jumped down between the drain.... a real life 'finding nemo'.

We walked through a park that had a temple in it. It was nice enough, but after seeing temples in mongolia and the rest of China, you find yourselfalmost getting bored with seeing them! We also stumbled across a supermarket and managed to buy a REAL FRENCH STICK(bread) yummy!! so webought some jam and butter and had a picnic back at the hostel... It was so nice to have some comfort food again!

The next morning, 19th, we got up at 7am and caught a taxi half an hour later, to the panda breeding centre. We wanted to go to the large panda reserve which is about 150km from chengdu, but it's not accessible due to the earthquake
(we were told). When we arrived, we were the first people there, so we ran to the cub enclosure just in time for their feeding. It was brilliant to see 3 pandas in frnt of you, munching away on the bamboo. We went to another enclosure with older pandas in, but there were more people there so we decidedto find the nursery. When we got to the nursery, there were 2 workers behind a huge glass screen, and 6 tiny little babies of varying ages between 1 month and 5months. They were so tiny and pathetic, but still incredibly cute. The photos don't give any perspective on their size....tiny, tiny, tiny!

The big pandas were asleep when we got to their enclosure, so they were borning, but very cute when you see them fast asleep balancing in a tiny tree!
we saw a sign for RED pandas so we were really curious as to what these pandas looked liked,We had both never heard of red panda before o we were really interested to see what they looked like,they were kind of like a cuddley fox, but a lot slower.

They had a research centre at this park which you got to look around, and Helen found out that there is a genetic research base here for the pandas,so she was absolutley chuffed. She now wants to move to chengdu and work in the genetic research department for the pandas!
We headed back to our hostel to pack our bags and head off to Mt Emei for another 3-5 day back breaking hike up a mountain
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1221483960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1221483960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hwhiteland/1/1221483960/tpod.html Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:06:18 -0400 Moscow, Ulan bataar, Beijing and beyond

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Qiaotou, China

The day we arrived at Janes Guesthouse in Qiaotou, about 2 hours north of Lijinag, it was moon festival day. Jane was quite keen for us to stay with her and her family for the night (although it was only 4pm, and we wanted to get going on the hike) but we agreed, and we are glad we did, as we just had a nice few hours of just sitting in this amazing tree house-like guesthouse, and just chill (its hard work all this travelling you know?!)

Within an hour of being there, Jane came up to us asking for money for the room.... thats when we realised that between us we have about £6 which is meant to last us 3 days!! Of course there is no cash machine in this village, so we were in a bit of bother! jane said that she will feed us for free which was nice, but we still needed more money to pay for accomodation, food and drink for 3 days! We found a £20 note (english money) in our bag, which we asked Jane if she would exchange for Yuan. She cheecked how much it was worth in her money, and exchanged it for us!! So we went from being very poor, to very rich in chinese terms!

At about 6pm, Jane came and told us that dinner was ready, and it was going to be a big feast with all the family sitting around the table (we instantly had flashbacks of the mongolian wedding food....salty tea, goats everything etc). But it was a great spread of food ranging from fish, pork and chicken meat, to noodles, rice and spices, it was delicious. Even though the rest of Janes family couldn't speak english, we still felt very comfortble and welcomed by them. The dad kept filling Helens bowl with various foods. After filling our tummies with a lot of food, we say our thank you`s, only to have Jane tell us that the second course will be ready in about an hour! So at 9pm we are invited back to the table for every fruit under the sun, nuts of all types, and mooncakes! These things are filled with sweet fillings, or others have various seeds and nuts stuffed in them, they were really good. We went to bed at about 10pm, ready for our hike the next day, but the rest of the family carried on with games and stuff until gone past 1am!

At 11am, we leave our backpacks in a locker at janes, and start our hike of the tiger leaping gorge with a small bag containing a change of pants and socks, and a toothbrush!. The start of the trail is nice and relatively easy, slowly letting us warm our little legs into action. We walk through tiny villages of about 6 or 7 houses, with local old men sitting and watching the world go by. After 2 hours of walking through relatively easy hills, we get to our first stop, a hostel where we were to get some lunch,and rest our legs. There were many other hikers here, but wedidn't see a single one of them when we were walking the first part. After lunch,we set off for the next 3 hours on the most difficult part of the trail, known as the 28 bends. It's so steep you have to keep zig zagging back and forth. There were many locals at the bottom part of the bends with horses, which they were willing to hire to you for a small fee, but we declined (well Merlin did......Helen wasn't very happy about that!). This part was really difficult, and it's the only part of the trail that you kept seeing the same people time and time again, as we all kept stopping and starting at different times. Once we reached the top, about an hour later, the view was amazing, and worth every bead of sweat to get up there. We were at 2800ft.

The next part of the trail was nice and flat, and shaded. The worst part was that the sun was shining and it was very hot, so the trees and shade were a god send!. We reach the next hostel at 4.30pm only to find the showers were shabby, and rooms relatively expensive. We sat down with an Australian and 2 Germans who, along with us, decided to carry on for the next 2 hours to the next hostel. Our feet and legs were absolutley dead, but the extra 2 hours were worth it, as we had arrived at half way hostel, a beautiful, massive log cabin/chalet type of building, with amazing showers, and it also boasted to have the best view from the toilet...... which it did! The view from our bedroom window was just this massive wall of mountain covered in clouds at the top.... we didn't want to leave. That night we ordered and ate more food than we had done in a few months, we must have burnt off a lot of energy! (well that was merlins excuse)


the next morning we set off at 10am with the Austarlian and Germans to the final stop.This part of the trail was amazing, not only was it downhill :) but it also had many waterfalls that fell onto the pathway, and you had to cross. The paths themselves on this part were very, very narrow, with a nice little drop on the other side! We arrived at the end of the path 2 hours later, and instantly had some lunch. We decided to trek about 40 minutes down the road to another hostel called seans guesthouse..... what a mistake! The rooms smelt of cat wee, there was building work going on until 10pm then started at 8am. We were really hungry the next morning but decided to walk 40 minutes back to where we were the day before, and sat in a cafe with amazing views over the river and gorge.

With the 2 Germans in tow (they had to pay for our bus fare back to Lijang, as we had, by this point, run out of money!) We picked up our bags from Janes hostel, said our goodbyes to Jane and her family, and made our way back to Lijiang to catch our plane. Once back in Lijinag old town, we were going to show the germans the hostel we stayed in 3 days before hand..... but we got lost straight away, as the taxi had dropped us off in the wrong street! So after walking for 30 minutes of walking around we eventually found the hostel. The 4 of us had dinner that night, then we caught a taxi to a bus station that had a direct bus to the airport. Our flight was at 11.30pm, so we got to the bus station nice and early at 9pm..... the bus didnt leave until9.40pm, when Helen realised she got the time wrong, and we were actually flying at 10.45pm!! So we had 30 minutes to get to the airport and check in before they shut the boarding gate!! The bus journey it self took 35 minutes, we turned up at the check in desk 5 minutes late,but luckly the bus was full of people on the same flight as us, so we were checked in with no problems!!

And so we caught our flight on the 17th to Chengdu..... the home of the pandas!
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