lucy_and_matt's TravelStream™ — Recent TravelPod.com entries TravelStream™ news feed for member lucy_and_matt on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/lucy_and_matt en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 08 Dec 2006 01:32:23 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com THE END! — Bangkok, Thailand http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1165562400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1165562400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1165562400/tpod.html Fri, 08 Dec 2006 01:32:23 -0500 Lucy and Matt's travel adventures of South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Bangkok, Thailand

So that's it folks, it's all come to end, after 20 months of traveling we are finally heading back to good old Blighty. We have had an absolutely amazing time but always knew the end would some day finally come. We can't wait to see everyone!
Hope you enjoyed the travel pod! See you all really soon.
Lucy and Matt xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The End : )
]]> Rest and Relaxation — Koh Samet, Thailand http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1165470480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1165470480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1165470480/tpod.html Fri, 08 Dec 2006 01:30:58 -0500 Lucy and Matt's travel adventures of South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Koh Samet, Thailand

After China, what a crazy place that was, we decided to spend our last couple of weeks lazing on a Thai island. We literally did nothing except sunbath, eat, sleep and drink beer - can you think of a better way to end our trip!
]]> Giant Pandas — Chengdu, China http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1164104340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1164104340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1164104340/tpod.html Fri, 08 Dec 2006 01:30:18 -0500 Lucy and Matt's travel adventures of South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Chengdu, China

Chengdu was all about the giant pandas and we went to visit them in the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base early on our second day in Chengdu. There is less then 1000 giant pandas left in the world (about 80% of them are only found in Sichuan province, the other 20% are only found in nearby Shaanxi and Gansu Provinces), it felt pretty awesome to get that close to them. Pandas consume enormous amounts of food - up to 20kg a day each - with bamboo the main source of their diet, they spend 10 to 16 hours a day munching on the stuff. We pretty much just saw them eating and sleeping, they are just so cute though. We got to see some baby pandas too, this was a highlight, they were just adorable but we weren't allowed to take photos. We got to see the smaller red pandas too, who are also endangered - they looked more like raccoons then bears though, they were cheeky and playful little things, more active then the giant pandas. We enjoyed every moment of the day, it was certainly worth the 16 hour train journey to Chengdu. Better still Matt was starting to recover from his illness. Hurrah!
]]> Shaolin Temple — Zhengzhou, China http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1163585640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1163585640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1163585640/tpod.html Fri, 08 Dec 2006 01:27:19 -0500 Lucy and Matt's travel adventures of South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Zhengzhou, China

We were bracing ourselves for a rough ride on the hard-seat carriage of the train to Zhengzhou. Being the lowest class ticket you can buy, the majority of Chinese people travel this way and supposedly the carriages can get packed, with people even being sold standing tickets, sod standing for 10 hours! We expected mass smoking, spitting, (ok there was a bit of both), people nicking our seats, over flowing toilets but it honestly wasn't half as bad as we had expected.

Zhengzhou was crazy compared to Beijing, there were millions of people everywhere - well China does have a whopping population of over 1.3 billion people. There was nothing particularly interesting about Zhengzhou, to be honest it was dirty, grey and boring, we were just using it as a hub to visit the Shaolin Temple.

We've been stared at quite a lot recently but it was here that we were stared at like never before, people would literally stop dead in their tracks, turn and stare right at us and we saw other people with jaws down to the ground as we walked passed. They also liked to sneakily take photos of us with their mobile phones and then act all embarrassed when you catch them doing it.

On our first day in Zhengzhou, instead of making our way to the Yellow River as planned, we had to spend half the day trying to book a train ticket out of there. It's really important in China to book your tickets a couple of days in advance, as trains get booked out really quickly - we didn't want to get stuck in this dreary town. We experienced just how hard and frustrating the language barrier can be, the important thing was to keep our heads and take it slowly with people. There was only one lady working at our hotel that spoke English and hadn't been around before we left to book the train tickets. We therefore tracked down an advance ticket booking office, recommended in the Lonely Planet, there was no way we could have book the tickets in the train station, pointing to the book and gesturing with a cue of 50 Chinese people behind us! Nobody spoke English in the office and they sent us on a wild goose chase to find another one, which we couldn't find. We decided to go back to the original office but then discovered it was closed until 2pm, hence why we wasted the whole day on this! In the end, with a bit of perseverance, pointing to the Lonely Planet and attempting Chinese words we managed to get the guy in the ticket office to write all the information down. Once we had that, it was easy - we were so happy to finally have the tickets in our hands phew!!

Our day out to the Shaolin Temple didn't run as smoothly as we had hoped. We opted on getting the local bus, it's half the fun right and asked the lady in our hotel to write it down for us. The bus ended up dropping us off in a town called Dengfeng still another 15 minutes from the temple and we had to get a taxi the rest of the way. However, the taxi driver decided not to take us straight to Shaolin but to take us to another temple that we didn't even know the name of. He insisted we take a look, hence having to pay the entrance fee, where we spent a whole 5 minutes - a bit annoying considering we didn't even want to go there! We told him quite firmly after, that we wanted to be taken straight to Shaolin but when he dropped us off still had no clue as to whether we were there or not. He then tried to demand more money of us, having taken us to the other temple, erghh I don't think so mate! It really put us in a bad mood. After walking around confused for about 5 minutes, we spotted another Westerner and rushed over to him to see if maybe he could enlighten us as to where the hell the dodgy taxi driver had dropped us off. Thank god we were in Shaolin!

The Shaolin Temple is the place where China's most famous martial art was born - Kung Fu. We expected to see monks training at the temple, kicking and punching thin air but the temple itself was like any other we have seen - Matt was pretty disappointed. Feeling extremely dishearten we decided to slowly make our way back to the exit and that's when we heard a long banging noise. We followed the sound and discovered it was people banging a huge drum at the Kung-Fu training centre and there was a show just about to start.

We ended up watching a really cool show with both boys and men performing all sorts of Kung-Fu moves. These men are so physically fit and literally have bodies of iron! Some guy broke metal over his head and another had his neck pressed against a sharp spear while concrete slabs were broken over his back, bloody impressive stuff. After leaving the show, a bit happier we then stumbled across thousands and thousands of young boys practicing Kung Fu within the Shaolin grounds, there was even a class of boys that look about 5 years old! Now this is what we came to see.
]]> Army of Terracotta Warriors — Xian, China http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1163845020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1163845020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1163845020/tpod.html Fri, 08 Dec 2006 00:47:18 -0500 Lucy and Matt's travel adventures of South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Xian, China

We had yet another easy train ride down from Zhengzhou, we've heard all these horror stories and so far haven't experienced any of it. We got chatting to a Chinese guy who currently lives in England and bombarded him with a whole load of questions, more importantly he taught us how to ask for 2 beers in Chinese - liang ping pi jin.

Our hostel/hotel was right in the heart of the red light, what a surprise I hear you say! It was a really strange set up, with hundreds of little shops or booths posing as hairdressers, all with strange pink lighting and a girl sitting out the front. It brings new meaning to the term cut and blow, sorry that was Matt's one.

Unfortunately for us Matt became really ill while we were in Xian and spent most of his time in bed. Of course, ever the dutiful girlfriend I spent most of my time trying to look after and comfort him. We only managed to get to the Terracotta Warriors, well how could we not go and poor Matt suffered the whole day. We took the local bus, which was surprisingly easy for China, otherwise they charge stupid money for tours.

"In 1974 peasants digging a well uncovered what turned out to be perhaps the most major archaeological discovery of the 20th century: an underground vault of earth and timber that eventually yielded thousands of life-size terracotta soldiers and their horses in battle formation." Lonely Planet

The warriors are fantastically well preserved considering they are over 2000 years old - really impressive! Unearthed in underground vaults, it's believed they were there to protect the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, whose rule lasted until his death in 210BC. In one of the vaults we visited, over 6000 terracotta figures of warriors and horses faced east in a rectangular battle array, all strategically place (archers, armored soldiers etc) and each one differs in facial features and expressions wow!! We were able to view them from a platform above the excavation sites, which have now been housed in roofed enclosures. Archaeologists are still unearthing figures to the present day and believe that what has been discovered so far may be part of an even larger terracotta army still buried around the tomb - this could take decades excavate.

Apart from the masses of tourists, it was an awesome step back in time.
]]> Discovering China — Beijing, China http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1163240400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1163240400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1163240400/tpod.html Thu, 07 Dec 2006 10:37:32 -0500 Lucy and Matt's travel adventures of South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Beijing, China

Our 24 hour train journey from Hong Kong to Beijing was an absolute breeze, helped by the fact that we had a four share compartment to ourselves, more comfortable then sharing and sleeping in a confined space with two complete strangers. When we weren't sleeping (roughly 10 hours), we were playing cards, drinking dirt cheap beer (15p a can) and chatting - half the time we didn't even noticed we were on a train when actually we were traveling half way across China. The views from the train window were disappointing to say the least, there were so many factories/power stations with huge chimneys, churning out clouds of smoke, I guess that's because everything is MADE IN CHINA.

Stepping off the train, we got a sudden wave of panic like what the hell are we doing in China but after a few deep breaths we braced ourselves for the havoc. There were literally hundreds of people hanging around outside the train station, with bags and bags full of belongings. We obviously stuck out like a saw thumb as everybody was gawping at us. Our friend's Joe and Emily had suggested a hostel they had stayed in and had given us the directions to get there, only when we got to the bus stop we realised we had no idea on how to communicate this to the bus conductor! As I rummaged for the Lonely Planet in my bag a random Chinese lady must have spotted us looking confused and came to our rescue. By this point we now had quite a group of spectators gathering around us - they were really intrigued. The lady spoke a little English and was able to phone the hostel, get the directions in Chinese and relay them to the bus conductor, how lucky was that!

We stayed in a hostel called Downtown Backpackers, which was down a quiet little lane and has been one of the nicest hostels we have stayed in, they arranged all our trips and had really helpful staff on hand. On our first night we went to try out the local food, we thought we had ordered sweet & sour chicken (breast perhaps) but instead ended up with chicken organs and foot coated in some kind of coffee sauce - it was foul!! That's one thing about the Chinese food out here, they seemed to eat every part of an animal, so you just don't know what you are getting. One restaurant, this is the truth, had deep fried crispy cat's ear on the menu, what?! How can that taste of anything?! Thankfully there were a few Western restaurants close to the hostel - terrible I know.

We hadn't quite prepared ourselves for just how cold China was going to be at this time of year, I ended up having to buy myself a fleece, it is all good preparation for the long winter ahead I guess burghhh. Beijing was not nearly half as busy and hectic as we had anticipated, it seemed much calmer then most Asian capitals we have been to. The traffic wasn't particularly heavy, although we still found the pollution tightened our lungs. People that aren't zooming around in cars like maniacs in Beijing, still ride push bikes or little electric scooters. We really believe the Chinese are crazy, we saw so many random things e.g. on a freezing cold day we saw people swimming in the lake; a guy riding a push bike with a sofa attached to the back; guys selling pets (turtles, cats, puppies) off the back of cart; people getting their hair cut in a car park - just to name a few. Supposedly there are campaigns at the moment trying to stamp out the practice of spitting in China but we saw and heard loads of people doing it around Beijing. It's absolutely disgusting walking down the street and hearing people noisily clearly their nose and seeing the aftermath on the floor, well you could just imagine yuk!! I don't think we are going to get used to that one, I guess if can't beat them, join them erghh ha ha ha!

As well as the Great Wall of China (amazing) and the Forbidden City (see separate entries), the other sights we visited included the Summer Palace, Beihai Lake, and Tiananmen Square, there is certainly enough to keep you entertained in Beijing. The Chinese Opera was an interesting evening's entertainment, our first show started of with a lot of high pitched squeaking but the second show had acrobats flipping and spinning over the stage. The costumes and make up were fantastic and we even got to have our photo taken with some of the cast.

We really liked the Chinese capital and really believe it is just going to absolutely come alive when the Olympics starts in 2008, we recommend a visit.
]]> What a skyline — Hong Kong, Hong Kong http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1162462740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1162462740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1162462740/tpod.html Thu, 07 Dec 2006 09:51:43 -0500 Lucy and Matt's travel adventures of South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Hong Kong, Hong Kong

By the time we touched down in Hong Kong we hadn't slept properly in about 27 hours, this was mainly our fault for being complete tight arses, although blaming the budget airline made us feel better at the time. To save a bit of cash we had booked a flight from Bali to Singapore (arriving around 10pm), then another on to Hong Kong (leaving around 6am), for some reason we decided the 8 hour wait in Singapore airport would be much better then sleeping in a bed for the night, well it was free. Had we been able to check-in early and go through to the departure lounge, fully equipped with comfy seats, movie rooms, free internet, basically all the modern amenities you could imagine, it would have been a breeze. However, our budget of budget airlines couldn't or wouldn't allow us to check in until 2 hours before our flight. Therefore we had to kill around 6 hours in the early hours of the morning, in the deserted check-in area, with a choice of either hard plastic seats or the floor to sit on. So, I guess my point is, sometimes it's worth spending a little extra money, especially in Asia, in exchange for a little bit of your own happiness or maybe I just like my sleep too much.

We were so excited to be in Hong Kong, it made us completely forget about our sleep deprivation and we were suddenly bursting with energy. We couldn't wait to get out of the airport (can you blame us) with all our new found enthusiasm but ended up waiting over an hour just to get through passport control, something I expect we'll have to get used to in China. Finally we got out of the airport, we were starting to feel like Tom Hank's in the film "The Terminal"! We caught the swanky train from Lantau Island (airport) in the direction of Hong Kong Island to track down my friend Tim's flat. In case you don't know (honestly I didn't) Hong Kong is made up of four main areas; Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, the New Territories and the Outlying Islands, separated by the Victoria Harbour. Tim and his girlfriend, Sarah have just moved to Hong Kong and were kindly putting us up. They are living in a cosy 2 bedroom apartment, 26 floors up can I add, in an area called the Mid-Levels, it's built on a hill and goes up in levels, hence the name. You can travel up and down the hill using the 800m-long Central Escalator (goes down from 6-10am and up from 10.20am-midnight), which connects you right to the heart of the city. Sarah can pretty much ride the escalator from their apartment to work in around 20 minutes, what a stress free commute - beats the tube any day.

Hong Kong was actually owned by the British until as recently as 1997 after a 99-year lease ended and it was handed back to China. The huge British influence is apparent throughout the city with bilingual signs, British street names (Chancery Lane), Western restaurants & bars galore (even Pizza Express) and double decker buses, to name a few. With all the comforts of home, the opportunities for those in the financial industry (mostly) and not to mention the nice weather, it came as no surprise that there is a large ex-pat community living in Hong Kong.

But, despite the British influence, Hong Kong still has its own identity and certainly doesn't lack in Chinese culture or charm. We sat on little stalls, eating sweet & sour chicken and rice with our chop sticks, drinking Chinese Tea, all while the crazy world carried on around us. We walked through bustling markets with thousands of consumer hungry Chinese, shops blaring music, neon signs flashing arghh consume consume!! We visited temples, bargained on the night markets and visited the world's largest outdoor seated Buddha.

Hong Kong truly is an urban jungle, with masses of tall sky scrapers dominating the skyline, which comes to be expected from a modern Asian city and particularly a city with lots of money. It is one of the most impressive skylines we have seen and when we took a trip up to Victoria Peak (552m) by cable car we got a full panoramic view of the whole of Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour and Kowloon. Our day time view wasn't the best, with smog looming in the air but as soon as the sun went down on the city, the whole place was illuminated. We're guessing there's a bit of healthy competition when it comes to who can display the biggest and best lights.

If the craziness of the city all gets a bit much for you, you can jump in a taxi or boat to the nearest beach or take a junk boat out to sea. There really is something for everybody here, it's a great city, and we had an awesome time! Thanks for your hospitality Tim and Sarah : )
]]> Forbidden City - 8th Nov 2006 — Beijing, China http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1163333460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1163333460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1163333460/tpod.html Thu, 07 Dec 2006 08:44:49 -0500 Lucy and Matt's travel adventures of South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Beijing, China

"The Forbidden City, in the heart of Beijing, is so called because it was off limits for 500 years, it is the largest and best preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China. It was home to two dynasties of emperors, the Ming and Qing, who didn't stray from this pleasure dome unless they absolutely had to." Lonely Planet.

We spent half a day exploring the huge grounds of the Forbidden City, supposedly there is over 9,000 rooms within its walls, it wasn't as impressive as the Great Wall but was an interesting insight in to Chinese history and architecture. It got a little repetitive after a while though. We were quite disappointed to discover large parts of it were shut for renovation and hardly any of the buildings had their original paint work, which spoilt the authenticity a little. They are obviously 'tarting it up' in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games. The place was absolutely packed with Chinese tourists on tours, all wearing stupid bright yellow caps and it was near impossible to get photos without any one in them. After walking around for a while we noticed a few of the locals trying to take sneeky pictures of us, at first it made us feel really paronoid, in the end we started to pose for them he he.
]]> The Great Wall of China - 6th Nov 2006 — Beijing, China http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1162815600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1162815600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1162815600/tpod.html Thu, 07 Dec 2006 06:52:27 -0500 Lucy and Matt's travel adventures of South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Beijing, China

"He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man".

We set off from our hostel around 6 in the morning for the 2 hour drive to Jinshanling, where we picked up the Great Wall. The temperature was around the freezing mark, it was bloody cold - we had to buy hats, gloves and spare socks for the occasion.

The Great Wall snakes its way roughly 4,163miles from East to West China and has a history of over 2000 years, it has so much historical significance to the Chinese people. We hiked for 4 hours from the Jinshanling section to the Simatai section, it's only actually about 10km but takes so long due to the steep and stony terrain. At some points we had to use both hands to climb up and crawl down the really steep steps. Little restoration has been done to these crumbling sections of the wall so it made for a more authentic experience, at certain points the wall was so unsafe to climb that we had to walk along side it. The landscapes that surround the wall are just breathtaking and at some points we could see the wall wind up, down and around the hills and valleys for miles.

Conquering the Great Wall of China has got to be one of the most exhilarating, unique and amazing experiences of our lives to date. It truly is one of the wonders of world and exceeded all of our expectations and more. It's an achievement we will be proud of for years to come and will certainly never ever forget.
]]> Sun, sea, surf and Aussies — Bali, Indonesia http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1161937680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1161937680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucy_and_matt/lucy_and_matt/1161937680/tpod.html Sat, 02 Dec 2006 09:48:21 -0500 Lucy and Matt's travel adventures of South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Bali, Indonesia

It was out of curiosity really that we found ourselves in Kuta, the Aussies' Costa-Del-Sol, we've heard so much about it but found it's nothing special! We used our time here to recharge our batteries and to plan & prepare ourselves for China.

We hadn't realised but the day after we arrived here was the 4th anniversary of the Bali bombings and we stumbled across the memorial procession by chance. It was a lovely, peaceful procession; the Balinese people laid a white sheet the whole length of the street and gave out roses to the forming crowd. They marched with huge banners, saying violence no, peace yes! We followed them to what is now called ground zero where a plaque has been erected with all the victims' names, laid our roses and paid our respects.
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