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28 April The End...or just The Beginning?Katie here!
Well we made it back in one piece after what felt like a rather epic journey from Hong Kong to Heathrow (then waiting around for 6 hours) then into Manchester. Our families were waiting for us at the airport so that was really nice and it was great to see them again.
We spent the first night with Pat and Lee (Patrick's parents) and last night here with my mum, Pete, Jenny, Dean, Jack and of course Smudge!! Woof Woof.
We briefly went back to our house, it was nicer than we remember which is a bonus, felt bizarre but also like we were home. I was in awe of having the option of wearing different clothes and having some toilettries readily available, it is a good feeling after living out of a backpack for a year! Unfortunately very few of my pants fit due to all the weight I've put on, so in the end I've still had to wear my travelling pants!
Difficult to really reflect on the travelling, what we did and what it all meant, still feels abit surreal should sink in soon I guess. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has looked at our blog, and sent us emails along the way, and been part of the 'virtual' community.
In brief here are some of the highs the trip:
Meeting friends and family in Canada and Australia and having the opportunity to stay with them and see what life is like there, we are really grateful to everyone it has been really great, we are totally in awe of everything they have done for us: thank you!
Meeting some amazing people from all different walks of life it has been a real learning experience, and it is great to hear other peoples' stories, opinions and dreams. I feel like I have made lots of really lovely friends around the world and hopefully we will be keeping in touch.
Challenging ourselves to try something different just getting out of the rut and trying new activities, food, seeing new sights, and pushing ourselves has been great for the soul. Who would of thought we could absail, white-water raft, canyon swing, kayak, plus drive 3000km in ten days!?
Appreciating the world :it can be a scary, dark and unforgiving place but it can also be wonderful and exhilerating populated by friendly helpful people, fascinating animals, places that are testament to human endeavour and spirit, and places were the power of nature is overwhelmingly beautiful. Sometimes you feel part of something bigger, but other times you can feel very small and humbled, but hey that's life!
Spending so much time with each other of course at times we have gotten on each others' nerves and had our rows but it has been such a priviledge to be able to do and see all that we have together. Now we can bore everyone we know about it in stereo!
Learning some Life Lessons (maybe?) as I said before, with time more things about our trip might be revealed to us, but for now the main thing that I have taken away from the experience is a new mentality: if you want to do something, then you have to give it a go you just get one chance at life so you have got to make it count. There are so many opportunities out there. I've realised that in the past the only person holding me back is myself, I really need to drill into myself the idea that you can do anything if you put your mind to it! If you don't like something do something about it! It's a beautiful world and it's out there waiting.
So now we are back we want to keep our travellers' mentality, we would love to see more of our own country and of course do some more travelling further afield. Rather than being the end of our trip, it's just the beginning! It's the journey not the destination that counts.
With that in mind I am going to keep the blog going and keep you all updated! Next stop Cornwall: "No sleep till St Ives" tour.
Love you all, thanks so much, be safe and happy and hopefully see you soon for a pint of Boddies and a glass of wine!
Love from Katie (and Patrick). XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 24 April Snoop dog (the original!) and Woodstock (the bird!)Hello there, everyone!
Katie here, well we left mainland China, so long squat toilets, a spitting populus, amazing sights, salty food and cheap beer.
China has been a hard place to travel in but we have seen some amazing things and met lots of great people, also it felt really different. Big changes are afoot for the country and the world waits with baited breath.
We are now in Hong Kong again. Not doing very much, just visited the Charlie Brown Cafe, good grief chuck!
Travelling is nearly at an end, can't believe it has been a whole year! Seems to have flown by.
Now we have to worry about 'real' life, growing up and getting a job, as I said before - Good Grief!
Hope to put some more photos on soon.
Lots of love from Katie and Patrick XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
22 April By Gorge! It's a mighty big Gorge.Hello there, sorry the subject of these blogs are getting sillier and sillier! Small minds...
Well we made it down the Yangtze, it was a really good trip, a real highlight and very relaxing.
Getting there was abit scary as the bus driver used the horn instead of the brake, I timed him, on average he beeped his horn every 80 seconds - for five hours!!!!
Once on the boat though it was great. The Gorges were beautiful, and when we went to the Lesser Gorges it was a wonderful sunny day, we made a new friend called Jason who was from Shanghai but is now an Australian citizen, we learnt about his family's history during the Cultural Revolution and Tiannamen Sq 1989, fascinating. Interesting to watch the Chinese as tourists as well. All in all a great trip.
We are now in Wuhan, its raining, went to snack alley today and we are waiting for a train, should get to Hong Kong tommorrow!
Homeward Bound.
Lots of Love from Katie and Patrick XXXXXXXXXXXX 16 April Terracotta Wow-iors! and cute-sie Pandas!Good evening peeps!
Katie here to give you an update of all our travels.
Well got to Xi'an, which was a really nice place and very clean by Chinese standards. Maybe not as 'old' as I thought it would be but that is the Chinese way, out with the old in with the new.
Xi'an use to be the start/end (depending on which way you look at it) Silk Road so there are lots of Islamic influences there. We wandered around the Muslim Quarter looking at all the food stands and then we went to the Great Mosque. As usual there was lots of 'antique' stalls to peruse. I have got quite good at bartering by pointing! I bought a caligraphy brush that went from 280 yuan to 80 yuan!
The hostel we stayed in was nice but there was quite alot of work going on there, lots of drilling and welding, no safety whatsoever, sparks and mortar flying right in-front of your face! The hostel was good though because they had a Golden Retriever there called Terracotta, who was 5 months old, she was lovely (her brother had been stolen!), also the staff were ultra friendly, and best of all we made two new lovely friends Lou and Matt who lived in Manchester and had worked at the big M&S. It was great to meet them and we had a right laugh, good luck with the rest of your trip guys!
The big draw for going to Xi'an is the Terrracotta Warriors. I feel so priviledged to have seen them, they are really astounding, and there are alot more than what you think! Three pits in total have been uncovered but it is painstaking work and there may be many, many more leagues of silent warriors in the area. Each has a different facial expression. They have been working to put some of them back together again, but alot are so well preserved given that they are 2,200 years old. Quite unnerving to see them all standing stock still, guarding the underworld. They did have weapons but they have been removed, rotted away or were stolen in the peasant uprising after the Qin dynasty fell. Once again it makes you think about what humans are capable of doing and how things can survive and how they can remain hidden for so long, China has the most amazing sights, but the back-story to these is that thousands of people were indentured to do this work for the Emperors. Terracotta Warriors are really exquisite.
The actual tour was ok (we also went to a museum which was very small), apart from a complete moaner from Sydney on it, we went to have lunch (come on it is always a tourist trap, but if you want to eat then it is your only option really!) and she made such a scene about it. I was so hungry I just wanted to eat, and it was quite a good banquet in the end. The moral of the story is if you don't want to be treated like a tourist then don't come because there is no way of getting around it I am afraid!
The next day we spent a frustrrating morning trying to sort things out and then got the train tickets to Chengdu. We went on the wall, which surrounds Xi'an, alot of it has been remade, so not quite as ancient as you think but a nice quiet experience.
In the evening we went to the Tang Dynasty to see traditional dancing, acrobatics and that thing where they have two sticks attached by string and a funny shaped ball on it. It was very good. We did this instead of Beijing Opera.
The next day we had to roll, have to fit in quite alot as time is a-tickin'. 15 hours on a train later we pulled into Chengdu. Felt abit groggy as we were alittle unwell, (I'd give you more details but Patrick says I am not allowed, let's just say it is not an experience I would want to repeat!) so we didn't do anything yesterday. Today we went to the Panda breeding sanctuary to see Giant and Red Pandas (this is what Chengdu is famous for!). So glad we didn't go to a zoo to see them as they seem quite happy here, with lots of bamboo to eat! They are real eating machines! They just lie back and get tucked in to 20kg of bamboo a day! And they are so much bigger than I expected. The best bit though was the little cubs, which I think are about 8 months old, they kept fighting each other, playing with their football, climbing trees and sliding down their slide for exercise, oh and of course eating. So Pandas are really cute, like a real life teddy bear, and so fluffy. My favourite animal (well apart from Smudge!).
Tommorrow we go to Chongqing to start our Yangtze River Cruise and see the three gorges before it disappears forever when they flood it in 2009. After that we are more or less done, onto Hong Kong and then back to Blighty!
Bye for now,
lots of love from Katie and Patrick XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
10 April No Maos is good MaosWhat's that you are saying? A gap in the entries? Yes here's the lowdown on Beijing. Like most train journeys in China we arrived at Oh my god in the morning, but after a breadstick and a hot soy milk we were all set up for our first disapointment. The Mao Mausaleum was closed! The big fella was out of view. It actually took us a few minutes to find it anyway as we simply didn't believe that the huge building in front of us was it! Really you could fit six double-deckers buses in there and still have adequate parking space for a good sized wedding reception. Also closed was the Museum Of Chinese History - this time for renovation so the signs say, but it was closed 1966 - 1978 for historical adjustment so who knows? However the rest of Beijing's quite fabulous stuff was open for buisiness. Tian nemen square is just vast, you really can't appreciate it until you are there, but in the past it has hosted rallies of up to a million people, surrounded by giant halls built in the industrial communist style all watched over by a 10 foot portrait of Mao above The Gate Of Heavenly Peace - The entrance to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was next on our list of unbelievably big things. "City" isn't just a term here it really is that size. Temples, residences, government buildings, its own world within a world. Mao's portrait proclaims Communist China but the Imperial past is being scrupulously restored and preserved inside. It is a place of unbelievable beauty and splendour however it also left a bitter taste in your mouth that whilst Emperors lived in luxury their people starved. Having seen it one feels that revolution was inevitable and it is fitting that in the Zhongshan gardens within the walls there is an exhibition and statue of Sun Yatsen, a leading light of a democracy movement who's ideals led to the Emperor's abdication, but ultimately not his true goal of democracy for China. The world's 2nd best travel guide (after this site!) Lonely Planet advises you to visit Lama Temple before you are "templed out." I thought I was until I went here. Monks and worshipers wander amongst beautiful temples and carvings including a 55ft wooden buddah, the smell of inscense everywhere around. White cloud temple was also pretty cool but the only one near to matching Lama was The Temple of Heaven. In acres of parkland there are huge bridges and giant round temples constructed purely for the Emperor to visit once a year. Crazy. Last but by no means least of course is The Great Wall. A mere 3 hour bus journey and a cable car ride away it was truly spectacular spanning miles, off into the morning mists we were at a really quiet spot, sometimes even on our own. The solitude and silence was eiree imagining the lonliness of guarding this strange frontier. Another thing on the "have to be there list." It's worth pointing out though that the wall is still easier to conquer than the mounds of red tape it takes to get a visa extension! Anyway I'm off to wind up my new Mao alarm clock (not a joke!) Laters Chairman Patrick 09 April New photos, just about.Hi there,
just added some new photos, sorry I thought that they would be of China but I must of copied the wrong disk, hopefully there will be some more up to date ones soon.
Please ignore my muffin top! (for those who don't know what that is its when your belly goes over the top of your pants!)
Bye for now,
Katie (and Patrick) XXXXXXXXXXXXX 07 April A Great Wall not the Great WallHi there
having a wonderful time in Pingyao, it is like stepping into another world! An ancient walled city/size of a village! We walked the whole way around yesterday on the wall most of it Ming era, pretty tiring but good fun, and we were all on our own. Saw some crusty instruments of torture that they use to hurl off the sides, things with lots of spikes! Eek.
Then we had a few well deserved brewskis, beer and food is so cheap here, even cheaper than South East Asia. Met a nice lad called Jason who is Chinese but lived in Nottingham, and two Aussies from Melbourne.
Today we will go around some of the old residencies and museums.
The locals here are amazed to see us, once again we get lots of hellooooos. I was invited to help build a road! I stirred the plaster, no-one spoke English. Funny. Don't worry they are not doing horrible tarmack, the whole village seems to be occupied with repaving the roads using very traditional methods.
At night we amble through the little side streets which are lit with red lanterns and fairy lights.
Seen lots of souveniers, Mao statues, posters, little red books and lots of animal skins!
Bye for now, off for a pot of Jasmine tea, going bonkers on the stuff!
Toodles, love from Katie and Patrick XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 05 April Drowsy in PingyaoHello there,
Just a quick one to say we are ok and that we sucessfully renewed our visa - the red tape in itself was an experience/sight to behold!
Yesterday we caught another golliath of a train and early this morning arrived in Pingyao, bundled into a tuk-tuk style van thing with tarpoline sides and raced through the streets that look like they have come straight out a movie set! This place is old, and undeveloped (which is a real rarity in China!). So I think we will have a good time here. Plus the hostel is amazing! Like being in the quarters at the Forbidden City!
Talking of the Forbidden City, promised that we would give you a Beijing review, well Patrick says he is onto it so very soon, very soon, I promise! For now all I can say is "wow!"
Toodles for now,
love from Katie and Patrick XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX |
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