Almost Home!

it about 6am in the morning currenlty in kl and after only 3 hours sleep, because i am paranoid of over sleeping, i am writing our last post.

We arrived at about 11pm last night hung around for a while for di's friend jess to turn up and then we headed to her boyfriends house for a long chat and maybe a snatch of sleep... the chat was long, the the snatch short... and now with the cooling down pour of rain around us, we prepare to leave for the much anticipated flight home.

we will see you soon!!!

ps. if any of the unicard folk see this, please sms mark what smokes Grant and john want us to buy for them duty free, before 6.30pm tonight!!!

Beijing Again!

We have arrived back at beijing after a 12 hour trip... which thankfully we managed to get changed to sleepers. IT was a very nice train, but origionally we only had soft seats... but we got them all changed to soft sleepers... very good sleeping... except for one midnight wakeup call caused by my uncle hitting the emergency button instead of the flush button.... i know... how stupid... but to us it was how annoying!

now in beijing, where it is meant to be cooler than shanghai, but it really doesn't seem it to us... will go exploring today.. and then tommorrow is the summer palace.

Then thursday morning we will go wondering around till its time for our flight to malaysia where we will meet Jess and Jeremy before we head home on friday!

boy has it been fun, and boy do i (di) want a good hot shower, and washing machine.

3days to gooooooooo!!!!!!

Shanghi

Well currently we are in Shanghi, we are just having a two hour break in this internet cafe before we jump on a train to beijing. Witha bit of luck we will have a net cafe there that is fast and has USB (stuff we have had trouble finding) so we can upload a few photos.

We caught a sleeper train from Luo Yang to SHanghi. It took about 16 hours, but went quickly, was a nice way to travel. We arrived in SHanghi at about 2 on the afternoon and went to the railway hotel whichis really close to the railway. First two things we noticed is that Shanghi is so darn hot. Hotter then any other city we have been in so far, secondly it is very western in most things,thirdly (did I only say two things?) is that it is SOOOO crowded here, more then beijing. There are people everywhere!

First night we had a meal and went for a wander around at the peoples square, which is near the centre of the city. We then went for a wander down to the Bund area which is where the oriental pearl tower is.

The next day we headed out of SHanghi a bit with Di's Uncles friend to a town called zhu jia. it is a small twon that has remained pretty much the same for centuries, I mean pretty much because I am sure that a few hundred years ago they did not sell plastic toy soldiers to other villiage locals. There has been many movies filmed in this town, unfortunaly I have forgotten the names and have not seen any of them :) The town was very nice and had long narrow streets with lots of canals. It was kind of like the venice of china. Later on in the afternoon we went for a gondola ride diwn one of the canals. It was pretty cool. After that we headed back into the city and went looking around an old shopping area. The best purchase we have made so far was this dragon and pheonix picture that is three dimensional that has been made out of coke cans, when we can we will upload a picture, it is really nice, looks like it has been cast in pewter or something. AFter thatwe went out to the Shanghi golf club, we only went out here cause it was on the way and we needed to pee,the toilets were sitty ones, whichis a nice change from having to squat (too much info?) and trust me... I have had to visit some toilets. Did you know some squatty toilets dont even have cubicle walls, you do your business infront of everyone... very hard to get used to :)

ANyway after our loo break we went off to where the China world expo is being held in 2010 (these people are prepared... the place is already built) and bought a kit and two reels for it, the first one was flash, but the second looks like a fishing rod cut down a bit, real nice and a total of about $5 all up :)

We then went for a wander around the base of the oriental pearl towaer again. By this time it was late, so we then went backto the hotel and slept.

this morning we were up and into the city, got some photos of the power lines, sounds boring, but these people have some lines strung up. We then took the Bund tour, which starts on one side of the river, you take this little car/train thing and it goes under the river over tothe oriental pearl tower, then we went up the tower and got a great view of over shanghi. After that we took the metro back, found the internet cafe and are now waiting on our train. We then have two more nights in Beijing and then back to Brisbane.

We will try and upload some pictures in Beijing, we have about 600 or so :) we went nuts :)

Henan rain stealers

Since we are in China... and we are in Henan I thought that this was a funny story Di came across:

check the site out here.

Wish someone would steal the rain from us here in Luo Yang...

Back in Xian (out of order again)...

Well we arrived back in Xian last night. The drive took
about 7 hours again to do about 300kms. We are thinking
about heading off to Shaolin tomorrow and then Shanghai and
back to beijing.

The internet here in Xian is much faster, but the computers
aren't as easyto use and the spacbar key on mine is a bit
broken :)

We went to the XIan drum tower this morning. We were going
to look at the bell tower this morning as well, but it
looked very european (by that I mean it is covered in
scaffolding).

Bought a few more DVDs (have ammassed quite a collection),
hope customs don't hassle me... touch wood). PLus we
wandered around and saw some more of XIan. We are on our way
to visit the south wall of XIan. The entire inner city is
surronded by a wall similar to the great wall. Iam guessing
it was once a forbidden city as well since Xian housed 13
dynasties, but I could be very wrong on that one :)

Overall Ireally enjoyed Yanan, although I have one
dissapointing thing about it, DI continually told me that it
was a small town, but I now realise it is a big city. YAnan
is so much more lively then brisbane and there is somuch to
see and do at any time :) I was also got a bit of attention
there, it seems that not a lot of western people get out
there, so I got lots of stares, lots of "hellos" (which when
I returned a "hello" got lots of laughs and giggles). It was
a really enjoyable city with a lot more tosee and dothen I
was expecting.

WEll this spacebar is dying so Ishall finish this. Not sure
where the next post will be from (just so happenedto be Luo Yang, on a computer with a broken spacebar).

In Luo Yang

We are in Luo Yang at the moment. We arrived yesterday by bus. The trip took 5 hours, which wasn't too bad. The busses simply drive along and honk at people walking along the road. If the people wave then they stop and pick them up. Would be a bummer if the bus was full.

We got up at about 7 this morning, had some breakfast and then got on the busfor Shaolin. It did some winding to other places soi Iwill try tosummerise. The first place it went was were the Monk from monkey magic was taught. The second place was the grave of the monkey magic monk.

Then we finally actually arrived in Shaolin. It is way up in the mountains, yet still at the base of some mountians. First off we went to a Shaolin Temple, and had a bit of a look around. Got lots of photos and some video. Next it was off to the main Shaolin Kung-fu school where we watched 40 minutes of kung fu displays. It was really good. I think we both like the kid that did the frog impression the best. I have the whole thing on video which should be good.

Then after that we went to the Shaolin temple. It was under a lot of restoration with two new buildings being made as well, but still it was very nice towalkaround. Unfortunatly it has rained most of the day on us, but that hasn't been too bad, it has been pretty light and straight down rain (not angley).

We then headed back to Luo Yang, arriving at 5pm this evening. We then had dinner. Sammy this is for you, we have been trialling Sweet and Sour pork (or it's closest counterpart) in each city we have stayed in. So far Xian rates the best of three, but we still have shanghai and beijing.

We are now wasting some time until our train arrives at 10pm tonight.

Oh, and by the way, Di forgot to log out of MSN messenger at Xian, so if anyone thinks they were talking to heror she was being rude it's because it was still logged in. Hopefully the computer has been restarted since then and sheis now logged out :)

Last in Yanan

Well it's our last day in Yanan. Seen heaps and eaten even more. Spent the
last day getting some souvenirs so we have propped the local economy up pretty
well. We have been told that we have been fleeced on many occasions, but it is
still cheaper than we can get in Australia, so it's not a hassle.

While in Yanan we have travelled by all sorts of transportaion means. By 3
wheel bikes (two people sit in the back seat and the person up front pedals).
Three wheel motor bikes, up to four people in the back and one driver. As well
as the crazy taxi drivers, for whom the lines on the roads do not exist. We
have figured that at round abouts the person that has right of way is the
person with the biggest car or the best nerves, cause they just hurtle towards
each other in a daring game of chicken until one of them gives up and lets the
other in. Surprisingly the most damage I have seen to a taxi so far was when
we were getting out and tripped on the side panel and pulled it off.

Food has been really nice here, although at time not always agreeable with our
bellies. But we are a lot better now and both have our appetites back, any
weight lost in the first week has been gained back with a vengence.

We are off to Xian again tomorrow. We have seen most of the sights there that
were on our list. It's less then 300kms away but will take about 8 hours to
get there because of the road works. So the next post will be in Xian maybe or
further along. After Xian we are heading to Luoyang, Shaolin, Shanghi and then
Beijing where we fly out on the 22nd.

Internet... So slowwww......

okay... we are sincerly sorry, we did try to post yesterday, but the cable internet was soooo slow and then the electricity went out that we had enough, and waited till this morning. And now that we are here, the cable still isn't that fast anyways....

anyways the last 3 days we have been hurrying around and stuff... been out and about visiting relies on di's dads side, seeing the beautiful countryside, with not so beautiful toilets.
we have been great... will commence our exploration of Yanans tourist sites and also shopping centres.
hair cuts and glasses are also on the list.

In Yanan

We have found a little internet cafe around the corner from where we are staying, so we thought time to update :)

Firstly Di got her results. 3 5's and a 6 so she is very happy :) not what she wanted (she wanted all 6's) but above her cut off...

We headed off by overnight train to Xian, now these trains are how the airlines should do it. They are all sleepers, you don't sit anywhere, all beds have a TV with some not to bad movies playing. The train also ran non-stop to xian.

We arrived and met up with Di's Uncle, who drove us to the hotel that we stayed at for two nights. I was pretty sick on the train, so we slept most of the first few hours in Xian (cause I was sick on the train I had to keep wakig di and telling her, so she was tired too :) that afternoon we had a massive lunch, they bought us all sorts of foods, and I can now say I have tried frogs legs :)

That evening we ate more (even though I have been sick it seems we are always eating :) and went and saw the temple that Monkey Magic started out at on the journey to the west (that one will be on the DVD - orders being accepted now ;)

The next day we went out and saw the terra-cota warriors. They were pretty impressive. It was also very hot and there were people seling stuff everywhere. We have heaps of photos that we will upload of these. We also got a book signed by the guy that was digging the well and found the warriors. Next we headed back to an exhibition that trys to show what it was like back when the warriors were placed there and inside the emporers tomb. The actual tomb is 1.5km from the actual warriors and simply looks like a hill, but when looking through the exhibition it was pretty impressive, the whole place had a wall 15km radius from the mound, he was the emporer that united china and started the great wall, so I guess a wall that big is nothing after a 5000km wall :) it also showed the booby traps that they think are placed throw his tomb and what the writings say it should look like.

We then had a look at the Xian muesum, was very impressive, Di's uncle said that everything in there was authentic (or it mentioned if it wasn't). It had a great collection from neolithic china right up to the last dynasty.

The next day we headed off to Yanan (which is where we currently are), Yanan is DI's birth place and the start if the communist march before the civil war, and I tell you, if they had to walk on the roads that we drove to get here then my hats are off to them. It took 7 hours to drive 290kms on some pretty winding roads (but saw some amazing places).

Now that we are in Yanan it is good, we are visiting all of Di's family and going to fit some sight seeing in as well. It is odd here, there aren't a great number of caucasian tourists, only some from the local uni and the occasional passer through, so I get lots of looks and small crowds gathering, such and odd feeling.

Well that gets us to what we are doing now, so I will leave it at that for the moment. Hope all are well.

Di and Mark.

One from KL Airport (out of order)

>We are to board our connecting flight in 20 mins, so if we don't make the
>whole email we will post later.
>
>After waking up at 7.30 in the morning on Saturday morning and not
>sleeping on the Brisbane to KL stretch(11.50pm - 5.30am) we are now very
>refreshed after a 6 hour sleep in KL International AIRPORT!
>
>We arrived ahead of schedule into Beautiful KLIA, at 5.30 this morning.
>Having done the scope of the airport, we decided the plan was to head into
>KL via their very clean and very fast KLIA Ekspres. 28 mins was the length
>of the trip. And we set out for KLCC, where the worlds tallest twin towers
>reside. We arrive at Petronas Towers at about 7 in the morning and the
>line for the Free attraction was only 2 deep. So we decided to hunt for
>breakfast. Nothing being open, we took a load of photos, and came back to
>the line, to find that in just 15 mins the line was now 10 deep. Within
>the next hour, the line got Very Long.
>
>Once through we were taken up in a service lift to the 41st floor, this is
>the bottom floor of the bridge (it is two stories), there they gave us 10
>minutes to take in the amazing scenery. Although very smoggy at that hour.
>It did clear up at 11am (which felt like four in the afternoon for us.
>
>Breakfast was next on the list, with an amazing lack of eating places
>around this area this was a bit of a challenge. We eventually found a
>place where we could eat. We could even kind of use the forks (they look
>like they had been run over). The food was nice (who knows what it was?)
>and the price was great (about $2) and no rumbly tummy afterwards. We have
>been eating local food and have been really good. We are currently having
>Burger King and will probably get our first bout here :)
>
>After some walking and back and forthing, we finally caught a taxi to KL
>Tower (every person we met claimed the opposite direction was the quickest
>way. Turned out neither were reall quick :) so we shared a taxi with a
>German couple (cost about RM3.20 a bit over a dollar).
>
>We went to the observation deck and had amazing views of the city. It was
>a bit of a shame though cause we were still in the smog. It cleared at
>about 12.
>
>After a quick rest, and we found the "people's" shopping hub of KL,
>CENTRAL MARKETS, and PETALING Street. Much shopping was done and feet were
>very worn out, at which we decided to retire back to the Airport and have
>a nap.
>
>That done, after being woken by the wake up call, we had a much needed
>shower and are now on our way to our next leg, BEIJING!!!!!!
>You will hear from us sooon!!!!!
>
>Mark and di

P.S sorry about the arrows (>) we lost this post and had to get it sent to us :) thats why it's not in order as well. This was our first overseas post from KL

In beijing on day 4.

We are in beijing, safe and sound, and sick.
So much for our travelling before sickness hit us, Sickness hit us before we even landed in beijing.
Mark was very sick all of the first day, his belly rejecting stuff from both ends. After a day of slowly resting, his belly got alot better, only to have muscle spasms and headaches the next day. This all happened on the two days that the place in which we were staying was having not only electricity outages, but also water outages.

Having gotten alot better since that first day we have done alot of sight seeing, TIAN TAN( temple of heaven), Tiananmen, Forbidden City( mark realises why its called a city now), Wang Fu Jing( a major shopping strip that looks like Tokyo), and of course the GREAT WALL. Photos are currently being uploaded on our photo site, please have a look soon.

we head off to Xian Tommorrow night, and will be in Xian by 7.30 on Saturday morning. Will probably hop straight off to Yanan after that, but will keep in contact often after that.

when we get into Yanan we will have more photos and news.

hear from us soon

mark and di