The week from hell.

Hi guys, well I'm in Suzhou today - arrived about 5 hours ago,
since my last update I've been up to a few things.. however it's
all been tainted by sickness :(

So lets see... first of all I visited Putuoshan island, which is
very small ... picturesque, and though renowned for it's seafood
I didn't really enjoy it much (expensive, tasteless).. I've had
better luck with the farmed fish from further inland.

On Putuoshan I got really sick - had a temperature, which turned
into a fever - didn't break till my last day on the island. At
this point I started counting how many days I'd gone without
sleep (2).

Putuoshan Island did provide some priceless moments, such as
monks with cellphones... angry monks getting anoyed with our
copious luggage, old lady tourists pushing monks out of the
way... the insanity of people pushing and shoving to get to their
allocated seats.

After the island we headed to Shanghai - sickness and lack of
sleep still reigning supreme... I felt exhausted all the time -
getting sick when your on the move far far away from home really
is the pits - and going into a chinese dispensary just makes it
worse... buying unknown drugs with sign language *cough cough -
points at throat, screw up eyes*

That night, despite my sickness I managed to get enough beers
into me for a "second win" (a very bad idea in retrospect ;o) and
went out to bar/club called "windows" that's a bit of a student
hangout, partly to see desmond (my roomy) off - as he's leaving
us in shanghai to stay with his sister for a couple of weeks.

With the cheapest drinks in all of shanghai I suspect (50 Yuan
cover charge, then 5 yuan beers/10 yuan spirits) - most beers in
Shanghai top out at around 25 to 35 yuan, all a bit painfull on
the travellers wallet... we didn't leave till around 1:30am, then
got a taxi back to the hotel (we'd taken the MTR there, but the
trains shut down around midnight) - we stopped in at a bbq kebab
place and had a bit of a nibble before crashing.

Desmond got up way to early the next day, and I still hadn't
managed to get any sleep (3 days) so I was feeling like absoloute
death... wandered round Shanghai with a couple of my fellow
travellers, but was pretty much just a sheep - my throat started
to get really sore that day (and still hasn't got any better).

Today we also met the 3 new additions to our intrepid group for
the rest of the trip, and older couple from Aussie (Ian &
Judith) and a old'ish lady (Also from aussie) called
Daniella.  Ian is a doctor, which is a good thing :)

That night I went and saw a movie, in an effort to not expend
much energy... the only english movie on though was "National
Treasure" ... it wasn't good, but it was mindless.  I got a
mountain dew at the theatre only to discover that in China it
tastes a lot like green tea.

(Incidentally, almost every bottled drink in China is sickly
sweet, it's fairly rare to actually find a natural juice drink
that hasn't got half a tonne of added sugar).

That night I also got no sleep... the day after that we visited
The shanghai museum and some rock gardens, which wasn't too bad -
though I was pretty much a zombie for the entire experience.

I sat in a bath for an hour and finally managed to get about 6
hours sleep when I went to bed... I still felt exhausted, but at
least my constant headache is subsiding...

Then we left Shanghai, and travelled by Bus to Zhouzhang - quite
a quaint little village, where we stayed in a traditional chinese
guesthouse... which was awesome, my room had an adjoining study
full of 100+ year old furniture, which was pretty funky - though
the old buildings are fairly cold, without the air conditioning
cranked right up the room just ends up like a giant fridge.

And that leads us to today... where we took an hours ride on a
boat from Zhouzhang to Tong Li, and from there we drove to
Suzhou.. I've almst lost my voice, however I'm now armed with a
fresh supply of drugs including some anti biotics that Ian helped
me pick out - drugs are cheap and handed out without prescription
in China, I think it cost me 9 Yuan for a course of 24
amoxycillin pills.  Ian is unsure it'll help me (what I have
is probably viral) but he recons it can't hurt to try, in case I
have some kind of secondary infection to clear up.

At any rate, I'm feeling a bit better now then I was a week ago -
but it hasn't been particularly fun, which is a real shame -
there was a lot I could've seen and done in shanghai if I'd had
the energy.

Tomorrow night we're doing another overnight train trip, ending
up in Xi'an, the furthest west I'll end up travelling in China,
which should be interesting.  The train trips are always a
bit of fun, if a little chaotic to get on/off.

Ciao!

 - Alex

We arrived at Hangzhou the day before yesterday (Monday the 14^th) after having flown from Wuhan (2 flights, plus some bus rides) and having got up at 5am! All pretty tiring, this being the 3^rd domestic flight I’ve taken since arriving in China – no crashes so far, so it’s pretty positive *ugh*

Hangzhou is beautiful, it’s a very picturesque city surrounding a large lake with a number of man made islands in the middle – it’s definitely the most beautiful city I have visited since arriving in the mainland - it seems since about 1999 the entire city has been undergoing a massive rebuilding program to make it a prime destination for internal chinese tourists, it really is a great place.

Since arriving I have:

• Popped into the tea village, the tea here in Guangzhou is apparently the best in china – it nice, but I don’t think I’ve developed my taste buds enough to pick it from some of other stuff I’ve had.  Grabbed a small tin of the “A grade” which I’ll attempt to get home through customs – or maybe I’ll mail it off from shanghai.  Apparently counterfeit tea is quite common round here as well – which is a funny idea
• Attended a tragic “silk factory” tour, which included a very very bad fashion show, a brief look at the printing and unraveling machines they use on the silk worm cocoons and then another maze of a shop which forces you to pass every single item in the shop before exiting.  Another government run operation.
• Been out to a pub that was laying down some old school Chinese hip hop, if you ever wondered what happened to all the old drum machines in the 80’s… well you probably haven’t, but they’ve been exported here… however it really does rock, in a sorta kriss kross kinda way. 5 Yuan beers were a pleasant bonus, and Tony (our Chinese guide) introduced us to a Chinese dice based drinking game which was pretty fun. After finishing up there we grabbed Tibetan kebabs (made by Tibetans!) from just outside, which were phenomenal. The food is all just so good here, especially if you like chili – which I do – though everything is dodgy (a word we’ve taught Tony) – really the only rules are don’t drink cold water, don’t eat anything uncooked/cold (and if it’s fruit, always peel it… ) – I’m enjoying it, but some of my fellow travelers have been a bit off colour since there arrival.
• Visited the leaning temple/pagoda – what an amazing site, the 200 odd bronze statues depicting people who can never obtain the status of Buddah are fascinating – this is a huge spot for Chinese tourists, and there was soooo much incense being burnt by them, got some very cool pictures.  In fact all of china is full of Chinese tourists, seeing any other ethnicity is beyond rare. Chinese tour groups are easy to spot and provide wonderful entertainment, because they all get issued the same baseball cap and their leaders walk around with telescopic poles with a flag on top and are constantly yelling through a megaphone– it’s very funny to watch.
• Visited the Luhe bell, which I got to strike 3 times.. strangely satisifying.
• Been on a hour cruise around the lake in a boat… sun was shining, feet hanging over the side.. all very pleasant.  It looks deep, but apparently the maximum depth is only about 3 meters!

Traffic here is hilarious – you develop some really bad habits, basically there’s an order to things, based on size.. Trucks and busses can do anything it appears (run red lights for instance) – pedestrian crossings mean nothing – there are just horn noises all the time, as it’s used to warn people/cyclists of oncoming traffic… crossing the road is a true mission, especially at night, you see close shaves all the time. Oh, and road markings are merely a suggestion – a 2 lane road will often have 3 trucks or 4 cars abreast squeezing down it.   On the flip side, where there are lights they have a counter on them so you can see how long it will be till red goes green / green goes red - pretty cool.

At any rate, on the “me” side of things – I’m definitely forming a love/hate relationship with China, it’s such a huge and beautiful place – yet there is so much to drag you down as well, I’ve already been accosted by small children begging, the smog is so thick you think the clipping plane is wound down really low and I keep getting a sore throat every time we stay in a city for a couple of days…thank god for the amazing food and the good company to keep my spirits up.

Hope you guys are all doing well.

Cheers,

- Alex

Hi guys, sorry about the lack of updates.. I've been on the road a lot since my last update and haven't been able to post an entry about the time I've spent over the last few days (or even shower... eww)

At some point I'll back track and say a little about Guilin and the outlying areas (where I was before now) - but for now I'm just going to talk about the 3 gorges where I've spent the last 3 days.

We arrived at the boat after a 2 hour bus ride from Guangzhou and a look at the 3 gorges damn project (which is an impressive structure, which once complete in 2009 will generate enough electricity for about 120 million people) to freezing cold weather and a quickly setting sun - at which point we climbed aboard the Chinese cruise ship that intrepid had arranged.. this is the kinda ship you might take your mistress away to if you wanted a "dirty" weekend in China..  It's a tub made of very rusty plate steel, 3 decks, water that was generally always near freezing, spittoons in all the hallways that defy description and in my "first class" cabin I shared with a fellow traveller there was stained sheets and the most foul smell... it was pretty funny :P - I was really greatfull to have brought my own sheet and pillowcase!

So we set off, and went through a couple of locks in the dark - only about 30 odd metres each.. the boat is chaotic, as it's not designed for western tourists but the Chinese tourists.  All well 'n good, the temperature seemed to keep dropping all night.

So we wake on the second day to see snow falling all over the first of the 3 gorges - the scenery is breath taking, apparently this is the first time anyone has seen it snow here - so it felt pretty special (though bloody cold, I've never heard Desmond (the english guy I share a room with) say "Jesus Wept!" so many times... very funny.. I hope the pictures I took convey just how amazing it looked.

The proposed height marks for the water (about 175 metres above sea level) on the hillsides everywhere just makes you realise how much housing and farm land will disappear when the project comes on line - nothing in China is a on a small scale (accept for farming, but that must eventually change with the shift of the population towards the cities) and this project is a wonderful example of the chinese people exerting there will against nature (the projects main motivation is to stop the devastating 10 year floods which cost billions in damages in lost lives). They're all very proud.

We ended getting on the turps and having a bit of a card playing and drinking sessions that night, and I had my first experience with Chinese spirits... god almighty they're awful, the one I had was "like" vodka, but made from sorgam and around 45% alcohol.. when drunken with "future cola" the coke equivalent in china, that's miles cheaper, it was a lethal combination...

And so I awoke today feel surprisingly good for all my drinking, the boat steemed back down the gorges and we've arrived back on land - tonight we're staying put then early tomorrow we begin to move towards the coast again, with the destination (eventually) being shanghai... it should be all fun, though I'm feeling pretty whacked.

I watched Immortel/Immortal last night http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314063/?which
was pretty cool, though the character animation is frustrating -
it features a mix of character animation, CGI of a reasonable
rate (the scenery is generally of?a very high quality) and a very
mixed bag of character animation, ranging from models which
wouldn't look out of place in final fantasy, and others which are
like watching re-runs of reboot...

I would suggest watching, but depending on your capacity for
being anal you may either enjoy it or just be left wanting,
personally I liked it and found the story fun.. though I've
always liked european science fiction.

?