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Silly China
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Silly China. We knew we were in trouble as soon as the plane pulled up to the terminal in Beijing. Barry was scared, but I said it is okay
I got a book, I can translate, little did I know that it was not as easy as that! When we were getting of the plane, everyone got out huge coats, but we were in shorts and T-shirts, what a shock we got as we walk out into -10 and snowing.
It's been the hardest country so far to find our way around, as normally we can look at signs and time tables, but here the symbols
mean nothing to us, but saying that the Chinese are the most friendly, silliest and happest people we have come across so far. What they lack in English, they more than make up in impressions, signs and funny faces. We still don't understand it, but its funny watch them tell you the way to the train station.
We both expected China to be a little like India, smelly, dirty and scary, but we have been pleasantly surprised, that
or we are becoming more hardcore travellers. Our first night we had a walk around and ended up going in to a tiny
bar for some food as it was so cold. Every one seemed to know each other so we felt a bit uncomfortable, and it was obvious they were
talking about us, so we wanted to drink up and leave , but the guy behind us then did a very passable impression of Mr bean they all found
hilarious, that broke the ice and before we knew it we were in a drinking competion. Then someone got a guitar out and before the end
of the nigh I was soloing to Hey Jude (Barry). I woke up next day with a very sore head.
Chinesse people are very sweet and curious, if they know a little English they will try very hard to talk to us. They keep taking
pictures of us as well, we feel a bit like celebraties. Maja as been scared a few times, because she is sure that they want to take her
home, put her in a cage and prod her with a stick.
We found our way to shanhiguan, a beach resort where the great wall hits the sea, it's very breathtaking to stand on the beach and watch
the wall disappear into the mountains in the distance . The beach was very nice but I decided not to go for a dip as the sea was turning to
ice as it hit the beach.
After Shanhaiguan we moved on to Tianjin to meet up with one of Maja's old work colleges Mark, who is studying
Chinese. It was very relaxing for once to travel with somebody who spoke the local language, made it much easier to get around and order food, until then all we have had to eat was hot pots and things on sticks. Mark took us out for drinks with his fellow students and he
must have thought that we were a bit homesick, because he took us to a bar that looked just like 10 downing street!
We then moved on to Qingdao to where the sailing Olympics were held, another crazy town with beautiful beaches and crazy locals swimming in the sea and playing beach volleyball in -2c. We went to the tsindao brewery for a tour and met up with some American guys who had work out a way to get free drinks, needless to say it turned into a very drunken afternoon and night. We even had to knock up one of the other guest at the hotel to get in, just as it was getting light.
The food so far has been very nice, we have been amazed to see that asolutly everything can be cooked on a stick, and it makes a great
snack too, though at times we have been slightly worried when the meat tasted like chicken but looked nothing like it, and the sweet puppy dog we've been playing with is missiing.
We are moving onto Beijing next to meet up with maja's mum and brother, where hopefully we can extend our visa or we will be kicked out, and poor maja's mum will have to stay in this scary country all alone.
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