China - Beijing, Xian, Shanghai and Hong Kong

Beijing

After a 4 hour flight from Tokyo to Beijing we had an interesting experience just outside the airport. We had thought we were in a taxi queue with a man in the front, wearing an official looking jacket, controlling things. Turns out it wasn’t really a queue and the man in front wasn’t actually controlling anything. He was just getting the taxis to stop and park up behind each other and that was where his job ended. As soon as the taxis arrived it became a free for all as the people behind us pushed passed us and jumped in to the next taxi! When we finally managed to muscle our way over to one, Steve was putting the bags in the boot, and I gave the driver the address of our hostel which we had written on a piece of paper. To which the driver just laughed and just shook his head - he couldn’t read or speak any English. Pity that, as we couldn’t write or speak any Chinese, and the hostel had sent us the address details in English. We then had a bit of a heart failure when the driver started to pull off with our bags still in the boot. We ran after him shouting our bags are in the boot, which he wouldn’t have understood one word of. Turns out he was just pulling a ways forward to let other taxis get by. Luckily we also had a map with the nearest subway station (Dongsi) circled on it, so we gave him that and after a couple more minutes he agreed to take us there instead. So he dropped us at the subway station and we had to walk the rest of the way to the hostel following their sketchy directions e.g. turn left at the next big building. After a scary 10 minute walk down a dark alleyway we managed to find the hostel and it was a good one. They made an English breakfast there and had a half decent restaurant. It was just a shame that China didn’t have a no smoking indoors rule, as people were smoking in the bar with the windows closed (cough cough).

The next day we headed to the Forbidden City, which was a 20 minute walk away from the hostel. I should mention that on the way we quickly found out that crossing the street in China is actually taking your life in to your own hands. Having read about the number of pedestrian deaths in China every year, we waited for the pedestrian walking man to appear and then cautiously stepped out, only to be nearly mown down by a man that was turning across in to the street. It would seem that even when the green man is showing, cars still cross and they still have right of way over pedestrians. So after an eventful 20 min walk we arrived at the gate of the Forbidden Palace which is surrounded by a moat. We headed for the gate and made the mistake of pausing to take a photo of the entrance, which allowed a number of very aggressive Chinese men to run up and offer us a rickshaw ride. After saying No about 5 times we decided it would be easier to just head inside immediately rather than being harassed anymore. First impressions of the Forbidden city from the outside were fab.

We decided to get an audio guide of the grounds that came with a sort of electronic map. For those not in the know the Forbidden City is actually a palace museum. Or rather the palace of various emporers over the years that has now been turned in to a museum, and the grounds are massive. We were there for 4 hours and we only managed to walk up the middle from one end to the other, so we didn’t have time to see the stuff on the left and right of the main trail. The Imperial Garden and some of the buildings in there are really stunning, and we stopped to take loads of pics despite the bitter cold.

Then we walked back to the hostel and saw a number of men hakking up and spitting on the side of the road, which I was totally disgusted by, but it is completely acceptable in mainland China. No wonder you need so many vaccinations before you go to China. After the spotlessly clean streets of Tokyo, the streets of Beijing are dirty by comparison. We had a nice dinner of peppered beef on a sizzling hot plate when we got back to the hostel. Then for the next surprise - why did nobody warn us that Facebook has been blocked in China - arrggh! So no Facebook access for the next 3 weeks. We would have to go cold turkey!

The next day we’d arranged arranged a tour to see the Great Wall of China (Mutianyu section which has been restored). We met an austraulian and a kiwi on the bus and spend the whole day with them. The Great Wall was really awesome. We took a chair lift up to the top, and then first walked right to see the different types of forts, and then back to fort 6 to go left and walked along that side for a while. The right handside was a harder walk, as it was quite a steep climb with some big steps. I was expecting the great wall to be flat like a yellow brick road so that was a bit of a surprise. The left handside was an easier walk and was flat / paved in parts. There where people selling snicker bars and drinks every now and again, so we stopped to buy one. It was pretty cold on the wall, and the snicker bar was frozen solid, so we almost broke our teeth when trying to eat it, but it was still a welcome snack. Although the weather wasn’t perfect we still got some great shots with the wall in the distance and we actually managed to bump in to a couple of saffies on the wall as well - Lekker! Afterwards we got a toboccan down to the bottom which was good fun and then we stopped on the street to barter for a terracotta warrior . We managed to get it down from 500 to 120 yen wohoo. Then it was on to Mr Yangs for a buffet lunch with the group, before getting the bus back. What was surprising is that we had expected the smog of Beijing to clear a couple of hours outside the city, but it just never cleared. The smog is really bad in China. That night we made pork and leek dumplings in the restaurant at the hostel, and got chatting to a young Aussie couple that had just gotten engaged. It was a great hostel for meeting other travellers and comparing travel notes.

Day 3

We went to the post office to post the terracotta warrior back to the UK. And I must say that they have a really fantastic postal service in China. We simply handed over the warrior and the lady at the counter bubble wrapped and boxed it up for us. Fingers crossed it arrives in one piece. There was actually a post office lady sowing up a pillow for one man, Lord knows what was inside, but a pillow seems to be an acceptable way to post things in China. Then we went to see Tianamen Square, which was pretty unimpressive. Its basically just a big open square. So after about 2 minutes there we made a quick trip to the Beijing Zoo to see the Giant Pandas. It was a bit sad to see the panda sitting up against the bars, as it looked like he was trying to get out. They were very cute though. Then we went on a mission to find some Peking Duck. We found a place in the book and then walked about an hour in the cold to find it. The duck was pretty good, but not sure it was worth a 2 hour round trip. We had asked the hostel to book our train tickets for Xian. However when we came to collect them that night, it turned out they had booked the wrong bunks (middle and top instead of middle and bottom). However they couldn’t be changed, so we were going to find out just how small that top bunk would be.

Day 4

We went to see the Summer Palace which is where the emporers would go in the summer and frolic. I thought it was a really beautiful place and has a lake, gardens and a large white marble boat. We walked around for about 3 hours, and still hadn’t seen the whole place. For me it was prettier than the Forbidden City. While we were there one local woman came up to me and wanted to have her picture taken with the foreigner, so I thought what the hell and made her day. Then we took the subway to try and find a tea house. Eventually we found one and each had a flower tea. Mine was a crysanthemum and opened to reveal white and pink petals - it looked beautiful but didn’t have a very strong tea taste. Steve had something that opened to twice its original size, and tasted more strongly of tea. Then we walked in to a restaurant that happened to be offering hot pots. So on Sue H’s recommendation we ordered a beef hotpot, and it was totally delicious. Easily the best meal we had in our three weeks in China. Hotpot is a bit like a fondue, there is a large copper pot that has hot coals in the middle and ours had a kind of mutton broth boiling that we cooked our beef and vegetables in. Delicious! The following morning we bought some food for our dinner on the train, and then headed for Beijing West train station in a taxi.

General notes on Beijing
The subway is very good;
They actually project adverts from the train on to the tunnel walls;
I’m afraid the general public arent as groomed or as stylish as those in Tokyo;
The people are not as helpful as they were in Tokyo. In fact I would say they can be pretty aggressive towards foreigners;
The spitting is totally disgusting. Period. There is just no getting used to it.
After walking around outside all day I have a lump in my throat…presumedly from the layer of pollution, which is perhaps also why everyone is spitting on the street.

The train station was an interesting experience. I reckon it’s a good thing we caught a taxi there, as there where no signs anywhere in English to indicate that we had actually arrived at Beijing West train station. We saw a lot of buses outside, and a lot of people going in entrances, and figured we must be in the right place. So after queuing to get in and having our bags security scanned we came upon a large departures board that was showing the different train codes (ours was T41) and the waiting room number - 9. We mistook this for the platform, however upon getting to T41 we saw there were 3 different platforms inside and a sign up signing T41. So we queued up and then managed to get down to the platform where the train is. Our ticket, rather confusingly had the number 134 on it, and then an 8. We didn’t know exactly what these numbers stood for, as the rest of the ticket was in Chinese. So we headed to a lady near a carriage door to ask her which carriage we belonged in , and she pointed us left towards number 13.

We got onboard on first Chinese train and pushed passed a number of locals that had already taken up their seats alongside the window, but we couldn’t find the number ‘4’ that was on the ‘134’ on our tickets. So we showed our tickets to some locals, who then sent us off in the wrong direction, when we were actually in their bunk area (on purpose I wonder?). Another lady sent us back the same way, and so we eventually found our bunks next to number 8. We were in the middle and top bunks of the ‘hard sleeper’. We got on the train at around 17h00, so we sat on the bottom bunks (the end of someone elses bed) for an hour or so playing cards, before we moved up to our own bunks to read for a bit. I should mention that all the locals on the train seem to bring pot noodles on board for their dinner, as the train supplies boiling hot water from taps (what an excellent idea). However not exactly trusting the water supply, we had brought along some rolls and some chips and juice for our dinner. The ‘hard sleeper’ wasn’t as hard as I had anticipated, so it wasn’t too bad, and they did supply a pillow and a duvey (looked clean enough). Although we did subsequently speak to an Aussie guy who said that he woke up with a tick on his face on another train - yuck!

It was automatic lights out at 10pm, although we didn’t know that as all we heard was ‘blah blah’ in Chinese over the intercom, and then the lights went out lol. I did manage to get a bit of sleep in the middle bunk until the man in the bunk next to mine starting snoring like a chainsaw connected to an electric speaker. He was sooo loud I cant understand how he didn’t wake himself up. Steve said that he had worse problems on the top bunk as all sorts of funky smells were drifting upwards lol. One other odd thing on the train is that a woman came around at the beginning of the journey and exchanged our tickets for some plastic cards. Then when they woke us up abruptly at 04h00 by switching the overhead lights on again, she came around again and exchanged the cards for the tickets again. I think she was keeping the tickets, so she could come around and tell us when to get off the train. All in all the Chinese trains were a lot better than we had expected. They were relatively new and relatively clean.

Xian

We arrived in Xian at 05h00 in the morning, one hour earlier than scheduled. Apart from the fact that it was the middle of the night (still dark), the early arrival was unfortunate because the hostel was only due to collect us from the train station at 06h00. So we got the map out and managed to walk to the hostel - result! We were very pleased that the hostel had our room ready for our early check in, and pretty much collapsed for a proper sleep for much of that first day. We did come up with a rough plan for the rest of our time in China and also managed to book ourselves on a tour to see the Terracotta Army the following day.

We were due to meet at reception at 08h30. Its worth mentioning at this point that we paid Y310 each for an All Day tour, and there were 3 listed stops (Terracotta Army & Museum, Emporer’s Tomb and Banpo Museum). I did ask and the woman selling the tour at the hostel said that we would have between 2 and 3 hours to see the Terracotta Warriors…

At around 08h40 we woke with a knock on the door, and the realisation that we had overslept (through 2 alarms) and were now late for our tour. We threw on some clothes and ran out to reception to see if we could still catch our bus. Fortunately they were waiting and we went on to collect some other people at another hostel before setting off. Our first stop was a Terracotta Warrior factory (the astute among you may have noticed that this was not actually on the itinerary), where we got a very brief overview of how the warriors were originally made - put some clay into a wooden mold, make a solid bottom, a hollow top and a separate head for stability. Then fire in an outdoor kiln at a couple of different temperatures, and then each one was worked on by hand to give them their different details like faces, hair, outfits etc. They made a different mould for each different type of warrior e.g. archer, cavalryman, artilleryman. And each was given life size real weaponry, which has since been taken off them, I’m guessing for security reasons.

It was around this point that we found out that the couple sitting directly in front of us on the bus had bought a half day tour (Y220 each) and needed to be back at the hostel at 16h00 to catch their shuttle bus to the airport. So we had a somewhat heated conversation with the tour guide on the bus, trying to find out why we had paid for a full day tour, and had now ended up on the same bus as a half day tour. The remaining people on the bus were on a full day tour as well, but from a different hostel, and had paid slightly less than us but at least their price was in the same ballpark. It turns out the half day couple did not have tickets for the Banpo Museum, although they would have to either wait outside for half an hour in the bus, or pay an extra Y35 each to go in. Saying that I was less concerned about the fact that we had paid an extra Y55 each for the same tour, and more concerned about the fact that the 2 - 3 hours we had been promised with the warriors, had now turned in to 1.5 hours to see the 3 pits and the museum. Needless to say we were not pleased and the tour guide was not in the least apologetic and just said that in the low season they had to combine the tours to make it viable for them! Fuming and without the hostel phone number with us, we had no choice but to wait until we returned that afternoon to sort it out.

Trying to claw back some time for the Terracotta Warriors we asked the guide whether we could just take the Banpo tickets, and see it ourselves on another day, but he said the tickets were only valid for that day, so we either had to go inside today, or forgo the tickets they had already bought for us.

So given that choice, the next stop was the Banpo Museum, which is basically an archaeological site for an old Chinese culture, but not really anything to write home about. To be honest at this point it felt like we needed to rush around so that we could get on to the main event, as our time would be limited with the warriors anyway. Then it was on to a quick half an hour buffet lunch (not bad although we didn’t really know what we were eating - perhaps for the best) before we drove on to the Terracotta Warriors Museum.

I would like to say that by this point I had forgotten about the disagreement with the guide, but as nothing had been resolved, I still felt that we had been taken advantage of, so this did overshadow the rest of the day slightly for me. I just wasn’t interested in listening to the tour guide anymore, or asking him any questions.

We got to the Terracotta Museum, and then had to pay an extra Y5 each to get an electric cart from the car park to the actual entrance (and I’m thinking what yet another charge - we‘ve already been ripped off once!?). Then the tour guide whisked us around the 3 excavation pits, and I was annoyed at him rushing us through. We actually had to run after him at points to keep up with the rest of the group. Unfortunately this meant that a lot of the time we missed his brief introduction to what we were seeing, and frankly he didn’t provide us with very much information anyway, which left me wishing I had picked up the audio guide at the entrance so that I would know what we were looking at - garr!

All aggravations aside, the warriors were an amazing sight. Especially in pit 1 which is roughly the size of an aircraft carrier and holds about 6000 warriors (you cant actually see that many as they havent all been excavated yet). The ones towards the front have been restored, and you can still see a pile of broken bodies at the back which is apparently what they looked like before the restoration began. I cant imagine a more difficult jigsaw puzzle than everything being brown fragments of broken clay.

Pit 2 was good because they had a couple of different warriors that were in glass boxes so you could get up close and have a proper look. The detail on them is amazing. Even the soles of their shoes have tread, and the back of their hair has braids in it. The cavalry man’s horse had a detailed saddle, and he was holding a bridle in his hand! No detail has been spared on the warriors, and you can start to understand why it took 700,000 people to complete the work on the mausuleum. What came as a surprise is that the emporer’s mausuleum consisted of much more than just the famous warriors. The emporer practically had a whole city built around his tomb. The museum also shows bronze birds, clay acrobats and shows some of the remains of the quarters that were housing the mausuleum’s caretakers. We didn’t have much time to walk around the museum but we did manage to see the 2 half size bronze horses and carriages which again were very detailed and quite impressive.

After the terracotta warriors, we stopped briefly at a souvenir shop where I managed to get a jade bangle that I had been after, and Steve‘s eye was taken by a rather large Chinese painting that we managed to get for another bargain price of Y150 (at that price who can resist).

Then it was on to another unscheduled stop, to see a short (15 minute) performance of some traditional dancers underneath the emporers tomb, which turned out to be rather good. However we didn’t actually get to walk up to the tomb as expected, we just saw the mound in the distance. By this point I was pretty confused about what should have been included in the tour, and what was still left to see. However as it turned out it was already 16h00, so we just got back in the bus and drove back to town, so that we could drop the airport couple off by 17h00. So on return to the hostel we went back to reception to complain and the manager rang the tour agency (a new one apparently), and later came and gave us each our Y55 back, along with a coke to make amends, which was good of him. Still you cant get the time back, as we only had the one day to see the warriors. I would have preferred to get the public bus there myself and had plenty of time to walk around but you live and learn.

That night we went for a walk to find the Muslim Quarter (good for food) and more specifically the Last Noodle Bar Under the Sun, which makes a 3.8m single strand of noodle. Steve ordered the longest noodle, but I was not keen as it came with a bowl of shark fin soup! I had a shredded beef lamb instead which was tasty, if a bit spicy. I am documenting the noteworthy meals we had, to show that it wasn’t all 2 minute noodles lol.

The next day (Thursday) we went to the train station to get our train tickets for Shanghai. We had asked the lady on reception at the hostel to translate our requirements in to Chinese, however as it turned out when we found the ticket window, the lady spoke some English so we managed to get the tickets without any trouble. Then we went on to the post office to post the painting that we bought at the Terracotta Warriors Museum, and again the service was awesome. They actually cut two different boxes up so that they had one long enough to fit our picture.

Then we went to see the Bell Tower, which is a tower with a large bell in it that they used to strike at daybreak. You can now pay Y10 to strike the bell 3 times, so it would seem its always daybreak, but we declined. We did go inside the tower just in time to catch a short performance of people striking old bells which was pretty cool. Then we walked the 200m across to the drum tower, to see the drums that people would strike at sunset and during the night. I was expecting just the one drum, but there were loads of them there. They also had a tower you could go inside and that one was filled with antique furniture, but not that exciting. We did elect to pay the Y10 to strike the drum there which was fun. Afterwards we went to Starbucks for a sit down, and then decided to try and find a cinema to see a movie.

The woman in Starbucks gave us a map to the cinema (complete with Chinese markings) and we went looking for it. In the end we did manage to find the cinema by asking a local (the top floor in a shopping centre), which was a miracle in itself. However when we got to the front of the queue, the woman said that there were no movies playing in English (boo). So instead we went to a local canteen kind of place for dinner and got some enormous pork dumplings and some prawns wrapped in bread (okay). They had the soy sauce in large vats, like you would have ketchup at Mcdonalds which was cool.

Next day (Friday) we walked to the South gate and hired a tandem bicycle to cycle around the old city wall which was great fun. It takes about 1,5 hours to cycle around the four sides (14 km with photo stops), and the going was easy enough as its all paved and pretty much flat, but you cant see that much on either side, as the wall is in the way. Fun and the first time I had been on a tandem bicycle. Then we went to Subways for lunch (still not as good as Fenchurch street Jem). We asked one tuc tuc driver if he would take us home and he said it was too far, so we ended up walking lol. Too far for a motorbike, but walkable for us.

More random thoughts about China:
- Strangers shout hello at you when you walk past them in the street. Presumably practising their English.
- Weirdos keep staring at us everywhere we go. I feel like I should have a tshirt made up that reads - ‘Take a picture it will last longer‘. Seriously it’s very disconcerting. I wouldn’t mind if they had a quick look and then smiled when you caught them, but theyre just staring and staring for long minutes like weirdos, until we eventually have to look away. Have they no shame? I have taken to wearing my sunglasses on the subway like a celebrity to try and hide at least half my face.
- There are fake goods everywhere. I saw a knock off Gucci handbag in a store for Y190 (£19) and it looked real to me. Everyone is carrying Fendi, Gucci or Chanel bags. Ditto for their shoes.
- All the womens shoes and boots seem to have diamante on them.
- Even if you are clearly toting a very heavy bag, people will Not wait for you to get out of the subway doors, before they try and push their way past you. Its every man for himself in China. Very annoying.
- Chinese people love food on a stick. Sausage on a stick. Scorpions on a stick, Fruit on a stick, you name it.
- What is with the one long fingernail on the pinky finger of the left hand? I’m scared to find out!
- Why is everyone fighting with one another? To the ignorant non speaking foreigner, the short sharp sounds of Mandarin always sound like an argument to me. Heaven forbid we come across 2 people who are genuinely in an argument, as I shudder to think what that might sound like.
-Why hasn’t anyone in China ever heard of South Africa? I mean when I lived in South Africa, I knew where China was. Or perhaps its just that I don’t know what the Mandarin translation for ‘South Africa’ is?

Last day in Xian
We went to see the Big Goose Pagoda. We hadn’t realised exactly how far it was and took one very noisy tuk tuk to get there. We had thought the man was going to wait for us, but when we got back to the place where he dropped us off he was gone. We had a quick walk around the fountains which were impressive and we could see the pagoda in the distance, which was okay. It looked like it was leaning a bit to the right to me (the leaning tower of Xian?), and then we had to make our way back to the hostel to collect our bags, to catch on train on to Shanghai that night. So we walked over to the nearest junction and put our hands up to try and get a cab. What we hadn’t reckoned on, it being a Sat night and all, was the amount of competition for taxis. One ended up stopping to let people out, and we had to jump in before we lost it to some locals that were trying to steal it out from under us (as I said its every man for himself in China)! Later we got our bags and managed to find the train okay.

It was a bit easier finding our carriage and bunks this time, as we were old hands by that point (train 2!). We both had top bunks this time, as they were the only bunks left. The train was packed and everyone was running to get there, although we are not sure why if they have reserved seats. Despite the lack of heavy snoring for some reason it was more difficult to sleep this time, and we were both pretty knackered by the time the train pulled in to Shanghai station the next afternoon. We got the subway to Luban road, which is where our hostel was, and then pretty much crashed out for the remainder of the day.

Shanghai

The next day we took the subway to see The Bund, which is basically the road and promenade that runs along the river, with the financial district on the other side. Our first impressions of the financial district were awesome. We couldn’t believe how glossy / developed Shanghai was. We could have been looking at New York from the staten island ferry, and it came as a real surprise. Even better than Tokyo.

We saw some great old art deco buildings along the Bund, and then caught the Bund sightseeing tunnel across to the city centre, which was pyschdelic to say the least. Then we went for a walk to the Shanghai World Financial Centre tower which has the worlds highest observation deck at 100 floors, and went for a look out over Shanghai at night which was awesome. There was a bit of job creation going on there, as there were about 10 different people directing us to go left or right to find the next elevator which really wasn’t all that hard!

Day 3 in Shanghai
We spent a rather frustrating day trying to find / book a cruise on the Yangtze River between Yichang and Chongqing. The problem seemed to be that we wanted to go upstream in low season, and there weren’t many boats going upstream in the low season. However we did eventually manage to find a Chinese boat going upstream on our dates, so decided we would try that. I mean how bad could it be right? *Cough*

Then we took the subway to Shanghai South Railway station to buy the train tickets to Yichang. We managed to find a ticket office, that had a number of different and rather long queues at each window, and there were people walking up and down asking something in Mandarin that we didn’t understand. Some guy came up to Steve and looked at our written ticket request (handily translated in to Chinese by the hostel reception again) and said that No we couldn’t buy tickets to Yichang from here, and then tried to point something out on a train board. However trusting no one we just stayed in the queue, and when we got to the front the man behind the glass just gave us our train tickets, no problem. I reckon the people walking up and down the queues were operating some sort of scam, probably trying to sell us alternative bus tickets or something, but as we don’t speak Mandarin we will never know lol.

Day 4
On our last day in Shanghai we just checked out and went to the local Century Mart to get some food for the 24 train journey to Yichang. We decided that we would risk the boiling water provided on the train this time, and get some instant noodles as all the locals do. It does appear to me that everywhere you go in China you can get some boiling water, either by a boiling water dispenser on the train, or a kettle in your hotel room. The Chinese always seem to be carrying these long glass jars of hot water around, so that they can make their tea. And they drink a lot of tea, which I suppose is better for your health than coke. Particularly when they aren’t adding any sugar or milk to the tea. Anyway, so we whipped around the supermarket, which had multiple levels connected at the back by a series of escalators, and managed to get some noodles for our dinner, and then some muffins and OJ for brekky, followed by bread for our lunch the following day, and some fruit. Although to be honest I am a little scared of eating the fruit. I will definitely be washing it with the bottled water first.

That afternoon we caught our train to Yichang okay (KFC in hand) and we even managed to get 2 middle bunks this time (opposite one another) which was a much better choice. A friendly Chinese couple with a young boy got on the train with like 3 massive bags, a pushchair and their daypacks, so their luggage went under both beds, and the tiny table. It was nice to meet some friendly locals, as the father (who was so clearly doting of his son) could speak a bit of English (very unusual in our experience), and the wife kindly offered us some naartjies (again wondered briefly if it was safe to eat them, and then thought aha I can peel this fruit so it should be okay). So we spent a good few hours playing cards (Steve won 10-3 which is unheard of so he was very chuffed), and then read our books for a while, until it was time to make our noodle dinner, which went down rather well.

At 10pm they put all the lights out on the train and we settled down for the night. However the little boy did a bit of crying and then at about 01h00 two new guys got on the train at a station, and made a hell of a noise crackling plastic bags and talking to each other at full pitch, which made it impossible to sleep. You would have thought that the rather silent bodies and pitch dark would have given them a clue, but apparently not. After a fitful 6 hours they snapped the overhead lights on again at 07h00 much to our dismay. We eventually reached Yichang around 15h45 feeling pretty tired out.

We had arranged with the Yangtze River Hotel in Chongqing for someone to collect us from the train station, to take us on to the boat cruise up the Yangtze. And much to our amazement when we got through the exit at Yichang, there actually was someone standing there with a board that read ‘Steve Connellan’. He said Hello and we followed him to a taxi that would apparently take us to a bus. He gave us his mobile phone in the taxi and we spoke briefly to the hostel, who explained in English that we would have to change to a bus, and confirmed that we would need to pay the money over to this guy from the travel agency. The taxi took us to a Business Hotel (where the travel agencies tiny office was rented) and the man asked us to hand over the cash for the cruise, which we did. So we asked him for the boat cruise tickets and he said he didn’t have them, that the girl he was now handing us over to, would give us the tickets when we got to the boat, which clearly we were none too happy with, as we had just handed over our cash to a stranger, and had nothing to show for it. So Steve made the man write a little receipt on a piece of paper, and he gave us his business card (all in Chinese). We tried to confirm that we had paid for a first class cabin and that there would be 3 excursions included (as per the hostels email) but no one’s English was good enough to give us a response. Hmm not a promising start then for the Chinese boat cruise.

So then off we went with the new girl to a bus parked outside the hotel. We put our bags under the bus, and then the girl explained in pigeon English that we had an hour to go and eat / kill time before the bus would leave at 17h30. Well at first she said 17h00, but when we wrote it down on a piece of paper she crossed it out and wrote 17h30 (her written English marginally better than her spoken English). Now you may appreciate that neither of us have ever set foot in Yichang before, and here we are with an hour to kill in the middle of a strange Chinese city. To be fair Yichang was a much bigger city than we had anticipated. So we did the only logical thing. We wandered down the road past the fish tanks filled with live fish and crabs, and the cages filled with live chickens and rabbits, and found a local shopping centre, where we found ourselves some McDonalds. The fact that we were saying ‘Thank God for McDonalds’ at this point, is testament to the fact that we were finding the food in China a bit difficult to stomach. I mean we are okay with noodles and pork dumplings, but we have to draw a line under a whole roasted baby bird on a stick, or a hens claw in a bag as a snack.

So anyway we finished our Mickey D’s and then went back to the spot that we were meant to meet the bus, only to find that the bus wasn’t standing there anymore (ahem our bags were inside it), which of course gave us a minor heart failure, and also got us wandering if we had been scammed and were now up the Yangtze without a paddle. So we went back inside the hotel and asked the travel agency where the bus was (and the lady was very offhand, of course first answering a couple of phonecalls with us standing there), only to finally say that we should just wait another 15 minutes and they would come back to collect us. Which in the end they did, but it still wasn’t a very pleasant way to kick off the tour. At this point we were wondering how long it would take to drive to the boat, as we were pretty shattered and ready for a lie down. And we tried asking the girl what time we would get to the boat, but with her English not being very good all we could get out of her was ‘show’, which didn’t sound very promising, unless that was the name of the boat.

So after a bit of sitting around in the bus on our own (Chinese tour of two?) another bus of Chinese tourists arrived and clambered on board our bus. In fact there were 2 bus loads of Chinese tourists, and the people on our bus were quite taken aback to find us there (the only foreigners on the bus). Anyhow we set off on the bus driving for about an hour and all the while the girl is chatting away on a microphone in mandarin (which we could have done without in the second row), as it was all very loud and preventing us from nodding off.

Then we stopped and half the people on the bus starting getting off at what looked like a hotel. We were starting to wonder if there was ever going to be a boat. Then the tour girl came over to us and asked us if we wanted to pay another 30 Yuan to go and see the 3 gorges dam. We tried to explain that we already had paid for 3 excursions included on our ticket, and tried to check if this was one of them, but she didn’t understand us. So eventually this kind lady got up from the front of the bus and came over to try and translate, as she could speak a bit of English. The tour girl said that the price we had paid didn’t include any excursions, and that we now had a choice to get off and wait with the others, or come along and see the dam at the extra price. We opted to stay on the bus (seemed safest) but were once again irritated and disappointed that what the hostel had sold us had not been communicated to the tour girl or the boat we would be going on. And at a price of 450 Yuan extra each, we had clearly been ripped off for the boat cruise compared with everyone else on the bus.

We asked the tour girl to call the agency on the business card he had given us, and she just said No! So we vowed to call the hostel when we could get to our mobile phone later on. So we went to see the dam by night and had to pay her 30 Yuan each for the priviledge, except when we asked her for a receipt (so we could sort it out with the hostel later) she refused to give us one. The kind English speaking lady explained that this was not an official part of the tour, and the 30 Yuan each was actually their tip for bringing us here ie she wouldn’t give us a receipt as they were making money on the side. Then we drove back to meet the others, where we all got off the bus and went inside to see a free show, which consisted of some dancers, singers and some great acrobats, so it wasn’t all bad. Except that as I mentioned we were exhausted. After that we got our bags and transferred them over to a new bus, which then finally (and mercifully) took us to the boat. The tour girl gave us a small piece of paper with a number written on it, along with some other Chinese symbols that we couldn’t understand. The kind English speaking lady explained that it was our room number along with the name of the boat, so best not to loose it. So we got on board and then followed the crowd to a queue at the reception desk where they were handing out the keys (after a 20 Yuan deposit). With the reception desk not speaking any English either, we were starting to realise what we had rather stupidly got ourselves in for, for the next couple of days by getting on a Chinese boat. It wasn’t going to be easy.

We got or room key and made our way up to the 4 th deck to our room. We were pleasantly surprised when we got in there, to find that we had our own room (twin beds) and bathroom. Although they weren’t exactly first class by European standards, at least the room looked relatively clean and we were relieved that they hadn’t got the room type wrong as well. We did walk past the third class cabins on the way up, and saw that they were dormitory style bunk beds. We would have been sharing with the locals as well, which would have meant no privacy. We got a fairly decent nights sleep, only to be woken up at 07h00 the next morning by music playing over the PA system, and then a knock on the door at 07h30 to say that we were leaving on an excursion at 08h00, so we’d better head down for brekky if we wanted some. This was all from the kind English speaking lady, as the tour guide just couldn’t relay any useful information in English.

We went down to the restaurant to find three big tables of people all looking up at us and a board, with presumedly food and prices all in Chinese. The tour girl came and said it would cost us 6 Yuan each for brekky so we paid her, an they gave us each one bowl of rice porridge (tasteless and pretty grim but hot) and then another plate with 2 little steamed dough breads, along with some nuts and some green sliced vegetable we didn’t recognise. Oh and a boiled egg. Yummy! And on top of that we had to eat the lot with chopsticks. I will add that since then, after three weeks of eating in China, we are practically professionals now at eating with chopsticks.

Then it was on to the excursion. Although as we don’t speak any Mandarin, we didn’t know what we were getting off to see. We were just relieved that they weren’t asking us to pay more money for this excursion. The English lady was alone for this excursion and she came and said good morning to us, and told us we had better stick with her, which was kind of her. She was very sweet and we chatted to her about our trip, as she was thinking about visiting South America the following year. Unfortunately her husband was not well, which would influence how much travel they would be able to do the next year.

We got on to another boat and went to see the Little three gorges, which was very cool. Then took a small boat with a fisherman so that people could wear his rice raincoat and take photos. He sang a song in a quiet spot between the gorges which was great. He was quite the character, full of life and fun even though we didn’t understand a word he was saying. The Yangtze river is pretty huge and we got some great views on the first boat as we were going through the gorges and under the massive bridges. The weather was a little cold / misty though and the locals were clearly still surprised to find us on their boat cruise.

Later that day the boat stopped again, and after some overhead PA announcements (erm mandarin) the tour girl knocked on our door and said that the excursion was leaving downstairs in half an hour. So we got ready and went downstairs only to be told (again the kind lady had to translate) that the excursion to the city would cost 90 Yuan, so we decided to give it a miss and went back to our rooms to read. We did try the tv and it had 5 channels, but they were all in Chinese. I managed to finally finish reading Eat Pray Love which was pretty good and Steve finished Bangkok Tattoo, which Dave the Australian gave him at the hostel in Beijing.

That night we went down to the restaurant at 7h30pm to see about getting some dinner (the services book in our room said dinner until 8pm). However the restaurant was all shut up and no one was around. We went around to reception to ask about food and there was a man behind the counter using a hairdryer to dry his dog. He called us over to see his dog (that was very obligingly standing still during this process), but he didn’t speak any English so he was no help. So we found the onboard supermarket and bought some snacks so that we could have some dinner. There was probably some sort of annoucement re dinner that we’d missed as it would have been in mandarin.

Day 2 we got up, had some fruit for our breakfast (we couldn’t face another rice porridge) and then around 11h00 we had a knock on the door to say that the next excursion would leave at 11h30, and that lunch was being served if we wanted any. So we headed down to the restaurant to find three full tables of eyes again, and that there wasn’t actually any food left for us to eat! So we came back to our cabin and had some more snacks. Then at 11h25 we went down to the reception area, and it was oddly quiet. We figured we still had 5 minutes to go and they were finishing the lunch. However 5 minutes later there was still no one else around, so we asked a girl onboard where they all where, and she pointed in to the distance, they had already left (early) without us - humph. So we ran off down the pier, and eventually caught up with them buying tickets for the golf carts, to go up to the Ghost City (some temples on a hill). The HK lady very helpfully came over and told us that we would go up to see the temples, but we had to get ourselves back down to the boat again before 2pm when it would leave. The view from the top of the hill was good, and we walked back down to the pier again in plenty of time. That evening we were subjected to some very loud karaoke from the bar about 2 doors down from our room. It was very loud and it was very Chinese. Not one western / English song we recognised the whole night. Although we did get some funny video footage through the door.

No other stops that night as the boat slowly made it way to Yichang. At 07h00 am the next morning we were very unceremoniously left on the boat (last ones) and had to find our way to the hostel in the rain. You would have thought that the tour guide was have seen us off or something? We didn’t have the hostels address so we walked around looking for some free Wifi so that we could look it up. Then we walked to the hostel and checked in. Fortunately the room was ready, despite the early check in so we got some sleep. That afternoon we went and bought our train tickets to Guanzhou on our way to Hong Kong. I will say that although we were glad to see some of the Chinese countryside, after being in 3 cities, I would not jump to book a Chinese tour again anytime soon.

The following day we had a tea ceremony with the girl in our Yichang hostel. Then we went to catch the 22 hour train to Guanzhou. This was a pretty unpleasant train journey. But it was more to do with the locals, than the train itself. At 5am we were woken by a man doing a 30 min hocking up session (no exageration) - nice. It was very loud and very disgusting, so impossible to sleep through. Although again the man didn’t seem to think that he might be keeping everyone in the adjoining carriages awake with his noise. Once we arrived we got a subway transfer and then a 2 hour train in to Kowloon Hong Kong. Then a subway to our hostel which was in an odd building. It was like a bazaar downstairs, and then a hotel upstairs. Although the room was newly decorated (tiny but new) so was fine for our purposes. Apparently the accomodation in HK is always pretty small.

Hong Kong

On the first day we went shopping for Xmas presents for one another on Nathan Road. More specifically we were looking for new phones, as mine was stolen somewhere along the way and Steve discovered that the screen on his mobile was cracked, and rendered unusable. After much deliberation and shopping around, we had decided to buy iPhones from one particular store that seemed to have a slightly cheaper price (and cheaper than in London), so we went there. However after taking our credit card details, the man behind the counter went on to say that the phones he was selling us were not international versions, but rather unlocked Chinese phones, and that we might encounter problems with software upgrades back in the UK. So after much negotiation we settled on two different phones, which we would squirrel away until Xmas so we would have some presents to open.

Day 2
The following day we had arranged to go to Kate and Justins house for lunch as Kate had kindly offered to make us some lunch, and it was tasty and contained lost of vegetables, which was exactly what we needed after months on the road. It was great to catch up with some friends again, as we literally hadn’t seen anyone we knew in 6 months. After lunch Kate took us on a short hike up over a hill and down to see a reservoir, which was beautiful. This part of HK came as a real surprise to us, as we had pictured lots of city lights, rather than islands and walking trails. But apparently a lot of the locals in HK go hiking as its so hilly. After dinner and on Kates recommendation we went to the Jordan market for some seafood dinner at the stalls and then walked around the night market. I must say that after 3 weeks in mainland China, Hong Kong came as some what of a relief, as a lot of people spoke English again and it was much easier to get around.

Day 3
This was a really touristy day in HK. We went up The Peak Tram for a view over Hong Kong, which was pretty good, except that the weather was a bit cloudy. Then we went to a Bubba Gump Shrimp for surf and turf which was awesome. Afterwards we got the subway to the star ferry pier and took the harbour tour for 2 hours to see the Symphony of Lights show which was fab. The buildings along the bay are lit up with laser beams, and co ordinated with the music on the boat.

Day 4 - Our last day in HK, so we got packed and got the trains to the airport. One interesting thing is that we actually checked in our baggage in the city train station, before we got anywhere near the airport, which was a real novelty for me. They actually put the bags on to a train and send them to the airport for you froo there. Once we got to the airport we caught a local bus 20 minutes away as we wanted to see the worlds biggest outdoor Buddha. What we didn’t realise was just how long it would take to get there and back. As it turned out you have to catch a 30 min cable car to the little village at the bottom, and then climb a set of steep stairs to get to the Buddha, so we barely had time to take a few pictures (that was a very big Buddha) before we had to hightail it back down again. We very nearly missed our flight, as when we got back to the cable car there was a massive long queue to go down, but we upgraded our tickets and managed to get a head in the queue a bit. Then after a taxi back and a major rush, we successfully caught our flight to Hanoi, Vietnam - result.

On reflection we saw some really awesome sights in China, but it has been the most difficult place we have travelled to so far. For me it was a bit of a culture shock, with people being pretty unhelpful, pushing ahead in queues, staring for long periods, spitting on the street and smoking like they’d never heard of lung cancer (even on the trains). The layer of thick yellow smog everywhere we went also came as a bit of a surprise, as it just didn’t lift no matter where we went. That and the food. The food was a real problem most of the time. Half the problem was that we just didn’t speak any mandarin so we couldn’t order easily, and people don’t speak much English (unlike south america where most people speak a little English). I found it particularly difficult that none of the convenience stores stocked chips or chocolate (hens feet anyone?), so we ended up eating a lot of pot noodle. No wonder everyone is so skinny!

However we could also easily see the evidence of China’s powerful economy everywhere we went. Clearly there is a lot of money about, and there was no shortage of buildings going up in every city. Also on a positive note the people in the hostels were super helpful, and we stayed in some of the most modern, well kept hostels on our trip so far. I would say that travelling China independently was definitely an experience and its best to rush in headlong rather than thinking about the practicalities too much in advance!

The next stop would be Vietnam for Xmas and New Years.

Love to everyone at home.
Kirst x

Japan - Tokyo

We flew into Tokyo at around 16h30 local time, which was around 23h30 LA time. We’d set our clocks forward and tried getting some sleep on the plane, but that was difficult, so by the time we landed we were pretty tired. We’d read that taxis in Tokyo are ridiculously expensive, so we headed down to the train station to get some train tickets and thankfully the man behind the ticket desk spoke some English. It took around 75 minutes to get to Ueno, where we had to change for Asukusa. Then we had a supposedly 5 min walk up the hotel, where we were presented with our first problem. All the street signs were in Japanese and there were no numbers on the buildings, so we wandered down the street for a couple of blocks, looking for the sign of our hotel, and couldn’t see it. We had to stop and ask a shop assistant if they knew where our hotel was, and it turned out we had walked right past it as the sign was in Japanese characters. We checked in to our tiny hotel room (just big enough to fit a double bed with a cupboard sized bathroom) and managed to stay awake for a couple more hours, before passing out around 9pm. Not bad considering the time in LA.

Day 1:
The following morning we woke up around 5am (jet lag will do that to you), tried to force a bit more sleep and then went looking for breakfast. Fortunately we found a Starbucks down the road where we could have a sandwich. Then we went to see the temple nearby and we each got our fortunes. You have to shake a metal box that has a bunch of wooden sticks in it and a small hole, until one wooden stick comes out. The wooden stick has a couple of characters on it, that you match with a key to find your fortune. I got Best Fortune and Steve got Worst Fortune, so he tried again and got Good Fortune which was only slightly better. However he got to tie his Worst Fortune to a little stand for the wind to blow it away. We also got to wave the incense smoke on ourselves which is meant to be good luck and sure to have swept away any residual worst fortunes! The temple itself and the attached garden were beautiful with the autumn colours on the trees. What I did find odd was that the temple itself seemed to revolve around money. Before anyone makes a prayer they throw a coin into a massive metal coin catching thing. I mean I know there are collection boxes in Christian churches, but they feel a lot more optional than the coin box at the Chinese temple.

After that we took the subway to Sibuya to see the famous crossing in Lost in Translation. However it wasn’t as busy as we’d anticipated, at least initially. What does make it feel busier is that all four crossings take place at the same time, unlike most Western crossings where one side crosses at a time. We also went to see a shopping outlet (Tokyu) while we were there but it sold just the same things as any UK department store. Well with a bit more Hello Kitty thrown in. Then we went to the Sony building to see if they had any cool new toys. There we got to put on some 3D glasses and watch 3D telly which was cool. Extra note: Buying a subway ticket in Tokyo was very interesting, as it had an English button on screen, but all the destinations were written in Japanese. You have to read off a key that tells you how much it costs to your destination (e.g. 190 Yen), push the Y190 button, and then push another button with a picture of 2 people on it. Actually I should mention that the people in Tokyo were very helpful. At one point we were standing in Ueno station trying to decide where to go next, and an elderly Japanese man actually came over to us and asked us where we were trying to get to, so that he could help with directions. Unsolicited help - eh?!

Day 2:
We walked to the park at Ueno, which is where the Tokyo National Museum is. There were some street performers juggling and such, and we stumbled across a temple in the park which had a great entrance down some steps. Then we went to see the Tokyo Museum which I was really impressed with, so I kept stopping to take photos of everything, which meant we were there for ages and only did one of the buildings. The lacquer ware was amazing and the big Buddha sculptures are awesome too. Steve was more impressed with the samurai swords and the scroll paintings. By the time we came out it was getting dark, and we walked back to the train station looking for some dinner. We ended up having seafood pasta near the station which was very good. The Japanese Love their seafood and it really is everywhere. The restaurant had all these bowls of fake food in their window to show you the dishes they offer, which is actually pretty helpful for foreigners and very lifelike. Afterwards we got the train to Roppongi as it is meant to be the night life area. We had a walk around trying to find a specific bar, but with the numbers and names of buildings being none existent (in English) it proved impossible to find anything in our guide book. So we ended up in Starbucks again having some tea (tired legs after the museum). What is cool is that one high rise building in Roppongi will have a number of different clubs / bars in it, each on a different floor, and there is a key at the bottom of the building telling you whats on each floor. We did consider going up the tower to see the views of Tokyo by night, but they wanted 1500 yen each, so we gave that a miss. I should also mention here that Tokyo is ridiculously expensive. We headed back to our little hotel room, in search of an English tv channel, but alas every single one was in Japanese - humph! On another note I am finding the food a bit difficult in Tokyo. As we don’t speak any Japanese we have to rely on the menus containing pictures of the food, so that we can literally point out our choice. However there seems to be a lot of tasteless broth and very fatty pork on offer, which was just not my thing. I havent seen anyone offering any chicken on their menu as yet. It seems to be all fatty pork and fish. Although I suppose that probably provides a good dietary balance, well sans the veg.

Day 3:
Back to our local Starbucks for breakfast (seriously rice that early in the morning, I think not!) before catching the subway to Haranjuku to see the kids in their weird outfits. The place reminded me a lot of Camden in London and is basically small cheap independant shop after small cheap independent shop with a Lot of people walking about. There weren’t that many people dressed weird, but we did see one girl in a bonnet and hoop skirt a bit like Bo Beep. We sat and had lunch at a place that made roast chicken (a relief after yesterdays beef noodle without any beef) and then tried to get in to the nearby temple, however there was an alarm going off and they were filing everyone out. Instead we decided to try and walk to the Metropolitan Tower to see the view from the 45th floor. We walked for about 2 hours and got lost (easy to do when there are hardly any road signs or numbers), until eventually we found another Metro station and then got the train there. Turns out we had walked way too far and in the wrong way. But we found it easily from the Metro station and went up to the 45th floor (for free) where the views were great. I was looking for a Tokyo souvenir in the gift shop, but it was full of a lot of tat instead. The Japanese seem to like their small plastic toys, which Everyone attaches to the end of their mobile phone. Even the men. They also have a lot of small soft toys that the women tie to the handbags (how mature is that?). It was well, rather odd. But unfortunately no real souvenirs saying Tokyo on them.

Day 4:
We managed to find a local bakery across the road from our hotel, where we went to buy a couple of dohnuts which involved picking them up with some plastic tongs and putting them on a tray before heading for the checkout. Then we got the trains through to the famous Fish Market. Unfortunately it was around 2pm by the time we arrived so the market was all but closed, but we had a walk around, saw someone cutting up a fish and then found a sushi bar for lunch. We had to queue up outside for a while until it was our turn to go inside. It was my first taste of sushi and it was really very tasty indeed. We each had a long dish that was filled with various different kinds of sushi. Although we cant tell you exactly what we were eating. We did have a couple of California rolls and there was definitely a piece of tuna in there and some slightly sweet tofu. I also tried some fish roe (salmon I reckon) and we each got a free tasty Miso soup. Yum. Japanese food was definitely looking up that day and I have to say this was probably the highlight of our time in Tokyo. We also got talking to a local couple who bought Steve some sake and were shocked to hear that we had taken 8 months off to go on holiday. They clearly thought we were loco.

Afterwards we went to Tokyo station to have a look around the CBD, which had some very tall buildings and we found a shopping centre, so I had a look around there. After which we walked to Ginza to find the Kabuki -za theatre, but unfortunately it had been knocked down. We asked for directions in a shop and they gave us a bag of free rice crackers each lol. Then we walked up and down Ginza looking at the lights and shops which included the likes of Gucci, Louise Vuitton and Tiffanys (Tokyos answer to Fifth Avn in NY). Then we took the subway home and stopped at the local market to have noodle soup for dinner, but the pork they put on top was pretty much all fat - yuck.

Random notes about Tokyo (positive):
The streets are very clean
Everyone is very helpful. 2 People have now offered us unsolicited directions. Then again I guess they have to help tourists, as they haven’t bothered to put up any road names or numbers.
Japanese art is amazingly detailed which appeals to me on a deep level.
All the woman in Tokyo are perfectly made up and beautifully / stylishly dressed. Also they are all stick thin which is enough to make anyone feel like a heffalump by comparison. It must be all the fish. Although you’d think the fatty pork would put some meat on their bones.
As it was autumn when we were there the colours on the trees were a gorgeous burnt orange colour.
Their sushi is to die for.

Random notes (weird):
Electrically warmed toilet seats - its very unsettling as it just makes me think that someone else has just pre-warmed the seat - yuck. Their electric toilets also have other odd functions like playing music, or the flush sound. Now why would you need to make a flush sound without actually flushing the toilet I ask you? We were loving the all in one sinks though - you can get soap automatically, get water to wash your hands automatically and then dry your hands on the air dryer all inside the same hand basin - very efficient! Wonder why these super sinks haven’t caught on in the rest of the world! You can wash your hands and get out of there without having to touch a single soap dispenser, tap or paper towel dispenser. This really appeals to the OCD in me.
Women going out in schoolgirl knee high socks, with mini soft toys tied to their handbags
As mentioned before no real street names or numbers ie proper addresses! This turned out to be the bain of our existence in Tokyo. We are used to choosing a restaurant / place in our guidebook and then going to find that place on a map. But that’s very unrealistic in Tokyo. How does any mail get delivered here?

Day 5:
We got up early and got the overland train out to Kamakura. Then another local train to Hase and a short walk up the road to the 37m outdoor bronze Buddha which was pretty impressive. We got to go inside the Buddha and see that its made of loads of different pieces all welded together. Steve got another fortune, and it was better than the last time so he was pleased. Then we walked back towards the station to find the temple, which had a beautiful garden featuring trees in their autumn reds, and a koi pond. We also saw all the little statues for the departed children which was a bit sad as there are so many of them, and people have left sweets and toys as offerings at the temple. We did stumble across a small cave there which had statues carved into the rock walls inside. Very cool. Then we got the train back in to Tokyo and had pasta for dinner (getting tired of tasteless noodle soup) which was very tasty. Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to try to book our hostel in Beijing. Unfortunately we figured out that we wouldn’t be able to see the tuna auction at the Fish Market the following day, as you have to be there at 4h30 and the first subway train starts at 5h01. Oh well I wasn’t that keen on getting up at 3am anyway.

Last day
We just packed and headed for the airport to catch our flight out to Beijing. I was a little apprehensive about how easy it would be to get around given the language barrier, so we shall see.

Think thats about it for now. Hope everyone had a very Merry Xmas and all the best for the New Year.

Kirst x

U.S. - California, Nevada and Arizona

California - Los Angeles

We flew to LA via Dallas where we had 1 an hour to change planes, and we had to go through customs and security again. It was another close call but we made it. We landed in LA in the afternoon, picked up the rental car (and a GPS at 12 extortionate dollars per day) and drove to the hostel. Its probably a good thing I wasn’t driving as I found it very difficult to get used to driving on the right handside of the road. It took Steve a while to get used to it as well, but fortunately he managed to avoid turning in to any oncoming traffic. The weather in LA was great, but then I hear the weather in LA is usually great. It was nice to see a bit of blue sky again.

The staff at the hostel were very friendly and being LA, a couple of them were waiting for their big break in ‘the Industry’ acting, or singing and dancing. The hostel did have a strange set up with anyone using any bathroom, which meant that you could have strangers coming through your room to get to the bathroom. We were staying in a mixed dorm room. For the un-initiated this means sharing with strangers, possibly of the opposite sex, all in bunk beds in one room.

So we dropped our bags off and then drove to Ralphs to buy some groceries, and onwards to the nearest state beach, just in time for sunset, which was beautiful. Actually all the sunsets we saw in LA were pretty spectacular. We went to bed relatively early that night as we were knackered, and were getting to grips with the time change. However around 05h00 in the morning a funny thing happened. I was sleeping in my bottom bunk with my feet near a door, and I was woken with someone standing at the end of my bed, slowly dragging the duvey off my legs! It took me a couple of minutes to wake up and realise what had happened, before I went out of the room to see if I could find the freak, however they were already long gone. I did remember that there was a security camera just outside it in the passage, so I gave it a little wave and then went back to bed, this time with my head facing the door.

The next morning we got up and went to ask the hostel if we could see the recording from last nights security camera, to find out who the perpetrator was! They said they would get the manager to watch the recording and get back to us later on. Even though they would have seen little more than a calf before I woke up, I still felt pretty shaken by the incident and I wasn’t befriending anyone in the hostel, until I found out who was responsible and what exactly they were playing at.

In the meantime we took the 210 bus in to Hollywood Boulevard and got a hop on hop off tour bus that took us around the Hollywood area and Beverly Hills. We practically had a private tour with this American lady as there were only 2 other customers that day and they got off the bus halfway around the loop. She pointed out lots of interesting places like the hotdog place where Bruce Willis proposed to Demi Moore, the tar pit, and the recording studios that are still in the area. She also had a kind of obsession with expensive cars and would point out whenever a Bentley or a Rolls passed us by which was highly amusing. After the complete loop we got off and did a load of walking to see the Walk of Fame (with the stars on it) and the famous handprints at the Chinese theatre. Interestingly we found out that an artist just pays a certain amount of money to get a star on the Walk of Fame, whereas they have to be personally invited to have their handprints done, so the latter is clearly more of an honour. I did manage to find the star for Elizabeth Taylor to give my Mom a laugh, and I got a pic with Marilyn’s star for Jules as well. I can see what they mean about Hollywood Boulevard being a bit seedy, however you can see that a lot of money has been spent trying to breathe new life in to the area, especially towards the top of the boulevard. I was thoroughly excited to see the stars’ stars and what is funny is that we recognised most of the road names there, from watching the American sitcoms e.g. Melrose, Wiltshire or Rodeo Drive.

Later when the manager replayed the security recording, they could see this French guy leaving our room in the wee hours of the morning, so they had a quiet word with him. He claimed that he was sleepwalking the night before and so they let him off with it. I had my doubts (he certainly scuttled away fast enough when I woke up) so I steered well clear of the Frenchie after that. I also changed bunks with Steve so that I would be on the top bunk, as I felt less vulnerable up there. I’ve never had a problem in a mixed bed dorm before, but I would be a bit more weary in one in future.

The next night just happened to be Halloween, which is a big deal in the U.S, so we were pleased that we’d happened to land in LA just in time for it. During the day we decided to buy a new GPS and return the rental back to the airport (mission), as it turned out to be cheaper to buy one than continue renting theirs (not to mention that we’d get to keep the GPS at the end of the period). Then we went shopping for some Halloween costumes before heading back to the hostel for their free braai (very tasty). Afterwards we got into our costumes which was fun. I had found a cheap Morticia dress and Steve had a full length cammo overall and a matching green Mohawk wig - class! Ironically we couldn’t find any face paint in the shops around LA, so we had to make do with a bit of smudged brown eyeliner. Earlier at the braai we’d got chatting to 2 other guys in the hostel (French and Dutch) that were keen to come along to the West Hollywood Street Parade, so we rounded them up and went to wait at the bus stop. Earlier in the day a load of people had wanted to go, but when push came to shove it was just the four of us that were willing to make the effort to venture out. After about 30 minutes of waiting one bus went straight past us as it was full, so we hailed a taxi and the guy totally ripped us off, but dropped us near the action. We walked up the hill to see people wandering around the pedestrianised street in loads of cool costumes and 2 stages that had been set up playing music. There were a load of gay couples there with matching outfits and they tried to set a record for the large number of timewarpers at any one time, but I’m not sure there was an official Guinness rep there to make the count. The strangest thing to me was that it was a completely alcohol free street party. There were no street vendors selling alcohol, and the 1 or 2 bars in the area were charging an extortionate cover to get in, so we bought a couple of cokes and had a good boogie anyway while watching the passers by. It was clear that some people go to town with their costume, just so that they can stand around posing for photos and possibly make themselves famous that way. We did see a couple of helicopters flying overhead - who knows we could have made the news! Then at 11pm they simply turned the music off and the crowd starting to make their way home. I must say that the lack of alcohol does make for a calm, collected crowd at home time, but it also takes the edge off the party a bit. Besides we were a bit annoyed with 1 of the guys from the hostel who turned out to be a total wet blanket complaining about everything from where we chose to stand (too busy), to how much it cost to get in to a bar (free beer at home) etc etc. So we weren’t too sorry when the party ended early. We did manage to get a taxi home surprisingly easily, and it was half the price of the one on the way out. Overall it was great to see peoples costumes and get a better idea of what Halloween in LA is all about. We saw a load of peoples houses that were dressed up for Halloween as well, with gravestones and ghosts hung up in their front gardens which we’d never seen before.

The next morning we drove to the Chinese embassy to apply for our Chinese tourist visas, which was a bit of an experience in itself. You had to take a number when you walked in the door, and they were paging the numbers so fast you literally had to run to the window or you’d miss your turn. The woman behind the counter didn’t seem to understand why I didn’t have a green card in my UK passport (to work in America) despite my explaining that we were there on holiday, and had a visa waiver form. However she photocopied everything and said we could collect our passports in 2 weeks when we’d be coming back to LA again.

Then we drove back to Hollywood Boulevard and had lunch at an Arbys (their roast beef sandwich was pretty good). What I will say about America is that they have an amazing (or alarming depending on your point of view) number of different fast food chains. Arby’s, Wendy’s, McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Pinks, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, the list goes on. And after the relative dry spell in South America this came as a welcome change.

We managed to find some free parking (not easy in Hollywood) and walked up to Hollywood Boulevard where we got a great low season deal on a Stars Homes open top tour bus, so we were driven around for 2 hours and got to see the LA homes of Tom Cruise, J Lo, the one where MJ died, Drew Barrymore, Nicholas Cage, Larry King and Seinfeld, amongst others. Its quite surreal driving past a house and thinking that Tom Cruise actually lives there (well at least some of the time). For me it kind of takes something away from their star status as it makes them more human. They do walk the earth and live in normal homes just like everyone else (well granted bigger, nicer homes) but they still have to shop for real estate just like everyone else, and it is limited in BH. We enjoyed the tour (the chance to see a real life celebrity at their gate at every bend) and the tour guide was pretty funny claiming that he just saw Russell Crowe drive past in that car, not that anyone else managed to see him (would you believe him?). That night we went for a pretty good cut price steak dinner along the Hollywood Boulevard before walking back to try and find the car in the dark. Good thing it beeped when we pressed the button or we might never have found it! Then we drove on to the Silent Movie Theatre (how cool is that?), to ask what movies were on. But unfortunately the silent ones were only played on a Wednesday, so we didn’t get to see one.

On our last day in LA we drove out to see the Hollywood sign. We had seen it in the distance whilst driving around Hollywood, but we wanted to try and get right up close to get a good picture (preferably hugging a letter). So we found it on the GPS - THE Hollywood sign - and away we went climbing up and up the narrow winding roads until we could go no further. Unfortunately you cant actually get all the way up to touch the sign as I’d imagined (too many people have defaced it before so it is fenced off now), but we did manage to get some cool pictures near the top. Then we went on to the Farmers Market for some lunch (basically a whole bunch of food stalls, yummy Thai), before heading on to The Grove for a look around. The Grove is a shopping street and we happened upon Bad Charlotte that were doing a tv interview in the middle of the road, and stood in the back of their little audience while they played their new song (how cool is that!). After that we drove to LA Ink in Venice Beach. We parked up and went inside for a look (it’s a tattoo shop with a tv programme). The shop was very cool just like you see it on the telly, and even though we didn’t get to see Kat it was still surreal to actually be in the shop.

Nevada - Las Vegas

The next morning we got up early and drove out to Las Vegas. How cool that you can drive from Hollywood to Las Vegas in a couple of hours. It is interesting to see how the scenery changes from the city of LA to the desert of Las Vegas. Although I suppose technically LA was once a desert itself, you just wouldn’t believe it when you’re standing under all the Royal Palms they’ve planted. We arrived a bit too early for the hotel check in (a 3 star hotel for the price of a hostel - score), so we thought we’d try Wendy’s. It was our first time in there and we loved their do it yourself breakfast - yum! It had been a while since we had seen any bacon and eggs so we spent a bit of time in there while we were in Vegas.

Then we went for a drive down the strip and I have to say I was a little under whelmed by it all during the day. However we went back to the hotel and checked in, and then came back to the strip at night which was more impressive. There were a lot of lights, but we didn’t see the famous waving armed cowboy that we’d been expecting to see out there. We managed to stumble across a fountain show at the Bellagio which was absolutely amazing. I could have stood there for hours watching all the different songs play out. However I was starting to get a sore throat by that point, so we found a 24 hour pharmacy and got some strepsils (Me: 1 Nasty stomach bug and 2 colds so far; Steve: 0 Healthy as a horse as usual, and Yes I am counting) and headed back to the hotel.

The next day we parked up near the strip and went for a walk to take some pictures. We went to see the mountain at the Wynn Hostel (not that big) and the Shark Reef Acquarium at the Mandalay Bay (very cool), before ending up at the Bodies exhibition at Luxor (fantastic). I had forgotten all that gumption they taught us during high school biology and found it interesting all over again. They even let us hold a slice of brain at the end (we were sure to wash our hands before dinner). It was also cool to see the beam of light coming out of the top of the Pyramid on our way back to the car.

Day 3 - Steve wanted to go on the rollercoaster above the New York New York hotel, so I went to see the live Lions at the MGM Grand and then to the M&M store while Steve was queing up for the ride. They actually had a Welcome to Las Vegas sign made out of M&Ms in the store, and their own cinema showing movies featuring the M&Ms! Steve said the ride was great, but over pretty quickly so he went to play the slots and actually managed to win a bit which he was chuffed with.

By this point I was starting to feel my cold really coming on, so decided that as it was Vegas (lets party baby!) the symptoms would be best treated with a super sized pitcher of strawberry daquiri. Ticking somewhat, we decided to go back in to one of the casinos and try the slots. Steve seems to have a real knack with the one armed bandits, whilst the bandits on the other hand, seem to have a real knack with taking my money. The combination meant that we pretty much broke even, which isn’t bad when you consider that we had a couple of hours worth of fun for free. Afterwards we went downtown in search of Vegas Vic, that famous cowboy with the waving arm. We did eventually find him inside a sort of centre, but his arm wasn’t waving which was a bit disappointing. Still it felt more like Vegas once we’d seen him. That night, we headed out to see Vegas! The Show at the Planet Hollywood Hotel theatre, which was actually pretty good. A pleasant surprise and featured various type of Vegas entertainers over the years, which of course included a couple of showgirls in the full feathered outfits which I had wanted to see. Of course Steve had wanted to see them as well, but for somewhat different reasons.

Day 4 - We decided to stay an extra night in Vegas, so we would have some time to plan our onward journey in the U.S, and also go for a bit of retail therapy. Unfortunately we had to move on as the rates were jumping at our hotel, and the new hostel (the only hostel in Vegas) was really dire. We had reserved a private twin room and when we got there it was very basic. Think 2 metal beds and a small lamp table and you’ve got it. Further the mattresses were covered in a thick plastic that made a noise whenever you moved, and the mattress dipped in the middle like a hammock, which all in all made for the most uncomfortable nights sleep we’d had so far. However we did have the extra day to play with, so we drove out to the Blue Diamond Retail Outlet, just outside Vegas. The prices in the majority of the stores weren’t that ‘discounted‘ as far as we could see, however there was one exception. The Levi store was having a sale and it was $25 for any pair of jeans, so we couldn’t resist the bargain and bought some to send back home. I also managed to find one of those discount dress shops the U.S are great for (the whole store is just cheap dresses in all different styles - nice), and bought a semi smart dress, which I have been missing (for evening dinners) up until that point.

Arizona - Grand Canyon

The next morning we got up early and drove out to the Grand Canyon, which took around 7 hours. It was interesting to see the scenery change from dessert to mountains with trees. I was still full of a cold and was pretty high on the max strength flu caps from the pharmacy. We did stop to look at the Hoover Dam on the way there and had some lunch. That is one really big damn and what is cool is that you can lean over the top of the damn wall and look down, feeling the wind rush up against your face. You get a nice view of the bridge from there as well. Then it was back in the car and onwards to the Canyon. We got to the hotel just before sunset, so we timed it nicely. That night we went for dinner at a steak place called Ee I O! - I kid you not. The waiters were dressed as cowboys and they had hay bails and saddles in there. What we weren’t expecting after the scorching heat of the Nevada dessert, was that it would be pretty freezing in Arizona only 7 hours away. There were actually hailstones outside and it was pouring it down with rain.

The next morning we drove in to the Grand Canyon National Park itself and pulled over to get our first glance of the canyon. It was an amazing sight. The views are breathtaking - literally. We’d driven all the way down to the South rim (we decided to give the Skywalk a miss at a whopping $75 each) and it was worth the drive. Unfortunately the weather was a little cloudy on the day, but we still got out and walked along the little paved paths that run along the rim, and then stopped by the Geology centre in time to hear a ranger give a talk on the geology of the canyon, which was interesting. Apparently if you look closely (more closely than we did clearly) you would notice that the North side of the canyon is higher than the south side, and also that the North side is wider (from the river to the rim) than the South side. That night we watched the Grand Canyon movie at the Imax theatre (as it was next to our hotel), which was okay. We did make enquiries about doing a helicopter ride through the canyon, but they wanted a ridiculous amount of money, so we made do with the movie instead.

We had only booked 2 nights at the hotel, as it didn’t come cheap. FYI there are NO hostels anywhere near the south rim of the Grand Canyon. So if you live near there, you could make a bundle by opening one! In fact hostels are proving rather difficult to come by in the US period, although after the one we stayed at in Vegas perhaps that’s for the best. I must say that after the relative cheapness of South America, the expense of the American hotels and restaurants came as a bit of a shock. However the ease of being able to ask for whatever you want in English and the friendly service we’ve had in the shops and restaurants has been great.

I do have a few unanswered questions that perhaps an American friend can answer for me:
1. What is Adopt a Highway all about? We saw a lot of these signs as we were driving along and all the while I was thinking - why doesn’t the local municipality / council maintain the roads with tax dollars?
2. Why are all the houses made out of wood? And is that also why there are so many pest control companies around?
On another note I cant believe that Starbucks hasn’t heard of English Breakfast or Ceylon tea. Black tea is not the same thing, but I suppose at least they were trying.

Via Death Valley
Whilst planning our time again we realised that after spending a bit too long in LA and Vegas, we were going to have to high tail it back to LA in order to catch our next flight, but we wanted to try and fit some national parks in, and the Pacific Coast Highway along the way. We had to accept that we would not have time to drive all the way up to San Francisco (and unfortunately would have to give the American Football game there a miss) but we planned to get as far up the coast as Big Sur.

The following morning we drove to the Sequoia National Park, and stopped in Death Valley on the way there. Death Valley is another national park and has some pretty spectacular views, although a lot of what we saw was dry desert. We did stop to walk through a Canyon in the valley, which was made of granite rock (pretty cool) and we stopped at a small town in the middle, but there wasn’t much to see there so we quickly moved on again. It took about 6 hours for us to reach our hotel just outside Sequoia and we were both pretty tired of the driving by then. Our hotel was along the main road, but was comfortable enough. It was a very small town / settlement and we struggled to find decent places to have dinner. We did manage to find a Mexican restaurant where the lady warned us that black bears and big ‘porks’ sometimes walk in to town lol.

Sequoia National Park
The following morning we drove to the Sequoia Park, which was pretty closeby our hotel. Sequoia is the name of the largest trees in the world (by volume of wood, not necessarily the tallest), and we went to see General Sherman which is the biggest tree in the world. Our first impressions of the park were fantastic. The park basically encloses the huge trees and a mountainous area. Driving up the winding mountainous roads to get to the trees reminded me of driving in the mountains in SA. The leaves on the trees were beautiful golden brown colours and the views of the distant mountains were great.
On our drive up to see the trees in the Giant Forest, a man and his daughter waved us down, asking for water. We didn’t have any, so we ended up driving them down to the campsight and back to get some, so we lost a bit of time there. However it was just as well, as when we got a bit further up the road was closed for roadworks and we had to wait an hour for it to reopen again, so that we could carry on up to see the trees.
We were surprised to find that the trees were actually up above the snow line, and as we got higher the mountain turned in to a winter wonderland with snow and trees everywhere. Just when the roads were getting icy and we were starting to wonder if we’d missed the turnoff for General Sherman, we saw the parking. Those sequoias really are enormous trees, you can actually walk through a fallen tree on the way in. And while the sight of Gen Sherman is impressive, I would also add that he is surrounded by a number of other massive trees, and you probably wouldn’t be able to tell which one was the biggest, if there wasn’t a sign to tell you. It was great getting out in the outdoors and breathing a little fresh air again. We also managed to time it well, to get free entrance, as it happened to be Veterans Day. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to see any black bears (or fortunately), but we did see a great sunset over the mountains on our way down again.

Monterey and Carmel
The following morning we drove on to Monterey, which took another 4 hours. Monterey is a seaside town and is known for its whale watching. We did debate whether we should go on a whale watching boat tour, but it would have involved getting to the docks at 08h30 the following morning so we decided to give it a miss. Instead we went to the local shopping centre and saw Megamind, which wasn’t as funny as the advert had let on. The following day we drove to Carmel. Carmel is a beautiful little seaside town with quirky little boutique shops and I loved it. We found a Xmas shop that was open and there was a beautiful little Santa Elf ornament for the Xmas tree, but at 40 dollars it was a little too steep for my pocket so it had to stay in the store. If I’d been on a regular kind of holiday I probably would have bought it. Then we went to the beach and watched the sunset there, after which the GPS took us on a wild goose chase trying to find the local seafood restaurant. In the end we parked and walked up and down the road, and we did find it, but it was actually on a different street to the one listed in the GPS. Apparently shops / restaurants don’t have detailed street addresses in Carmel, so maybe that’s why the GPS got it wrong. It was great to have a seafood dinner (ie not pizza or burgers) for a change and we made the most of it. We also managed to do a load of washing at the hotel (had a laundry), so we’d be leaving with a bag full of clean clothes again -hooray!

Santa Barbara
The following morning we drove out to Santa Barbara, which turned in to another 7 hour driving excursion, as we drove 2 hours on the wrong road (Highway 101), until we realised that it wasn’t running along the coast. We had wanted to drive from Monterey down the Pacific Coast Highway to see the coastal views, so we changed our route to get onto Highway 1 and after that we certainly weren’t disappointed. The views were gorgeous along that road, with trees on the left and a cliff face down to the sea on the right. It reminded me of the Great Ocean Road in Melbourne. We drove through Big Sur and I can see why its Jens favourite place, with the tall forest on one side the sea on the other. However it was really expensive. We stopped to fill up with petrol and it was 1 dollar more expensive than in Monterey. The restaurant that we stopped at for lunch wasn’t cheap either. On the way down we kept pulling off the road every now and again to see the views and take some pics. We also stopped to see the sunset which was stunning (orange and pink colours), before seeing a bunch of sea lions at a bay. By the time we got to Santa Barbara we were pretty shattered, and the hotel had lost our reservation - groan. So we had to go through the check in process from scratch. We didn’t have very long in Santa Barbara, well just the one day really, but it was another lovely seaside town, with a very laid back sort of feel, a load of sailboats and a very clean / upmarket shopping road that ran up the middle. We managed to find some Tokyo and China guidebooks in the Borders, so we were pleased with that and we had a rather productive day making photo Cds and finally getting the underwater cameras from the Galapagos developed. We also managed to finally post that bloody Cuba parcel, (on attempt number 5), with the new levis, and despite being twice the weight it was only slightly more expensive than the Cuban PO had wanted to send it home.

The next morning we got up early and drove on back to LA, which ended up taking around 2 hours in traffic. We drove straight to the Chinese embassy to go and collect our passports (knick of time) with our new Chinese visas in them (result). Rather handily the collection window had a sign up in Chinese saying that they don’t take any cash or cheques, only cards, so thank God Steve had his credit card with him, otherwise we would have been none too pleased after standing in line for 30 mins! Then another productive day getting haircuts and posting the photo Cds home. We went for lunch at a Johnny Rockets, which is a retro (like 50’s) burger joint that makes Malts - yum. The strawberry malt I had was to die for and we loved the whole 50’s feel of the place, the waiters were wearing black dicky bows and there were mini juke boxes up on the counter. Then back to the same hostel in LA for one night, before our flight out to Japan the next morning.

Cuba - Havana, Valadero, Santa Clara and Trinidad

Havana

We flew into Havana airport and after a number of checks and rechecks we finally got through customs. It seemed to be a classic case of job creation, with a number of different queues to get through and people all checking the same things over and over again. When we finally got through customs with our bags we were met by a massive crowd of people waiting to receive their loved ones. I’ve never seen that many people in an airport arrivals hall before, it was actually difficult to get through and get to the exit.

We’d pre-booked in to a casa particular (a Cuban peculiarity where someone rents out 1 or 2 rooms in their private home to tourists) in the Vedado suburb of Havana, so we caught a taxi there. On the way we were excited at our first sight of all the old Buicks, Fords and Chevrolets passing us on the road. We arrived at the house and were welcomed by a friendly Cuban man, who promptly told us that the room we had reserved had a problem (plumbing issue caused by the recent hurricane rain), and that he had booked us in to a casa around the corner instead. At this point we were thinking that we weren’t off to a great start in Cuba, what with the flight cancellation, and now the room issue. However we walked about 2 blocks away and he introduced us to the other couple. The room was in a beautiful old house with large rooms and high ceilings, built around an open courtyard. The old couple that owned it were friendly but unfortunately their English wasn’t very good, so the help we’d been expecting to organise our time in Cuba wasn’t forthcoming. Also there were no other tourists staying in the new house, so it was very quiet.

After check in, which involved us providing our passports and visas and signing a kind of vouchers book to confirm our stay, we decided to go for a walk to the Malecon. The Malecon is the street / promenade that runs along Havana’s bay, and we estimated that it was probably about an hour’s walk away. It turned out to be more like 2 hours walk away. One thing we certainly did a lot of in Cuba was walking. Partly because we wanted to have a look around, but mostly because the taxis are just so expensive. It cost us 5CUC for a taxi between the house and Centro Havana, and then another 5CUC to get home again. The coco cab we tried (like a motorbike with a round coconut shaped seat behind it) was even more expensive as the guy put the meter on. What we noticed about most taxis in Havana is that its always cheaper to agree a price with the driver before getting in, and then he won’t put the meter on (in other words he doesn’t declare the income and puts it in his back pocket).

Actually while I’m on the topic, Cuba in general is very expensive. Apart from the taxis, the food and drinks were very expensive as well, especially considering what you get for your money. We had been warned that Havana would be expensive due to the two currencies (Moneda National for locals and Cuban Convertibles or CUC for tourists), but we didn’t realise just how expensive, until we started to experience it for ourselves. You are basically paying UK prices for everything, and in some cases even more. This does come as a bit of a shock when you are walking around a city, which at times looks like its falling down around you. And its more than just the expense, to be honest a lot of the time we felt like people were trying to rip us off / sponge money out of us whenever they could. If it wasn’t the taxi driver claiming he didn’t have any change, it was a restaurant charging CUC when we should clearly have been paying MN.

However I will say that even on that first walk up to the Malecon I was a bit like a kid in a candy store stopping to take photos of all the old art deco buildings, and the classic cars we passed along the way. It is a shame that the vast majority of the buildings have not been maintained, and in some places have even fallen down. However you cant help but think that Havana must have been something really spectacular back in the 1900‘s when all the grand old houses were originally built. PS. Elaine I think you‘d love it here. Saying that, despite their facades even as the buildings stand today with their flaking paintwork, they still give Havana a special feel.

So after our 2 hour trek in the scorching heat (it was very hot and humid) we basically arrived at the Malecon just in time for sunset, to see the buildings of Centro Havana being lit up a golden colour in the distance. There were a load of people just sitting along the bay wall hanging out, drinking and chatting, along with some fisherman casting their lines over the wall in to the ocean. After sunset (and with rather tired feet), we found a local paladar for dinner. Now a paladar is another Cuban peculiarity and is basically where someone is using part of their home as a restaurant. In the one we went to, it was as though they’d put a couple of extra tables in to their conservatory. Looking back, despite the unusual surroundings the food we had there was reasonably good, considering what was yet to come.

The following morning we went looking for the local Cadeca (exchange house) to exchange some of our euros (thanks for the currency tip Nicole). When we got there it turned out to be nothing more than a kind of makeshift wendy house at the side of the road, with a window in it. Afterwards we headed back to the casa to read up on Cuba and plan out the rest of our time (12 days). We decided that since we had 12 days, we would move around a bit and see a couple of different areas. We planned to split our time between Havana, Valadero, Santa Clara and Trinidad, before heading back to Havana for our flight out. Rough plan in hand, we headed back to the original casa we’d booked, to ask him for some help with booking up the casas we would need in the other areas. He was very helpful (despite the fact that we were no longer staying with him) and called ahead to casas in Santa Clara and Trinidad to make the bookings for us. He also wrote down all the details on a piece of paper for us. Lastly he offered us a walking tour of Habana Vieja (literally Habana Old) the following morning, which as it didn’t sound too expensive, we decided to take him up on.

Itenarary planned and casas booked, we went for another walk. This time we walked past the cemetery (we didn’t go inside as they wanted to charge us CUC 5 each), and on to the Plaza Revolution. The plaza is basically, well, a large cemented parking lot kind of area that I understand is used for staging political rallies and the like, and is overlooked by the large metal faces of Guevara and Castro on the sides of buildings. After about 2 minutes of looking at the empty parking lot (I don’t really understand what all the tour buses are doing there for so long?!) we went over the road to the Jose Marti monument, and paid the entrance to have a quick walk around there. Then we took a taxi over to Centro Habana and did a walking tour to look at the old buildings there, some of which were really awesome.

After we’d worked up a bit of a thirst walking again, we stopped at a bar called Floridita (little Florida) to have a strawberry daquiri. This bar claims to have invented the daquiri and was apparently Hemingway’s favourite place for this tipple. There is a life size brass statue of him at the bar (although without a name plaque) so we got a couple of pics with him, before finding out who it was! Whilst on our walking tour its also worth mentioning that we almost got scammed by a couple of locals, who offered to show us to a salsa place nearby but quickly turned off the charm when we refused to buy them any drinks (my fault for being too friendly). Perhaps they were working on commission at the bar, or perhaps their intention had been to get us drunk and mug us, fortunately we’ll never find out. Exhausted by all the walking we took a taxi home.

One thing that really shocked me about Cuba is that no one has any internet access. Apparently regular Cubans are not allowed to have internet access (perhaps lest they realise what they are missing), unless they can prove its necessary for their work. To me its like living in the dark ages and for travellers trying to book their onward accommodation / plan their trip, it’s a nightmare. There are only two ways to get internet access, neither of which are very convenient. You either need to pay a visit to a 5 star hotel (a 10 CUC return taxi ride from us) and use their business lounge facilities (don’t forget your passport at home as we did, or they wont let you on), or try a local branch of ETECSA which may, or may not have computers in it. The hotels we visited actually charged an astounding CUC10 per hour, which was even more than Cancun and by far the most we had paid for internet access so far. On our travels around Cuba we only found one place resembling an internet café (in Trinidad), and the more people that logged in, the slower the connection became. As we had been used to free, readily available Wifi connections up until that point, it came as a bit of a shock to suddenly be cut off. It was also rather inconvenient as we needed to book a hotel in Valadero (they don’t have casa particulars there), not to mention that we needed to contact the travel agent to change our flights from Mexico to LA, due to the Mexicana cancellation. Anyhow as we didn’t have any ID on us that night (so as to prove we were not Cuban), all that would have to wait for another day.

The following morning we went over to the original casa again to meet our tour guide. Somewhat surprisingly he had ordered a taxi to take us in to Habana Vieja. As he had a perfectly good car (a white Llada of course) sitting outside his house, we had assumed that part of the tour would involve him driving us in to town, but apparently not. We also had to stop at the Viazul office to buy some bus tickets for Valadero, and the driver waited outside for us whilst this was going on. When we got to Habana Vieja the taxi driver asked for 10 CUC (double what it would normally cost without the stop, so rather expensive) and instead of paying the taxi driver himself, the casa owner promptly got out of the car, indicating that we should pay the driver. This made it a more expensive tour and we wondered what other hidden costs had not been included in the quoted price! However the casa owner was very knowledgeable about the area and walked us around Havana Vieja for around 3.5 hours, pointing out interesting spots and taking us into all the notable buildings and hotels, so it was worthwhile doing. At one point we went in to a tower to get a great view over Havana and saw a kind of periscope that showed a realtime moving picture of the world outside (very cool and very enemy of the state). Whilst on the tour we also stopped at Havana Club for a tour of how they make their rum (they claim to have invented Rum) from sugar cane in Cuba. The tour included a taster, but I cant say that either Steve or I are big big rum fans and Havana Club did not convert us. We did stop at a chocolate making place (now we’re talking) and one perfumery that will actually make up a unique scent after a consultation with you (what a great idea). Before the tour ended we stopped at a mojito bar where again, Hemingway apparently drank his mojitos. Interestingly they don’t make their mojitos with mint in Cuba, but rather a sort of flower leaf that looks a lot like mint, but doesn’t taste minty. Overall we really loved the old buildings in Habana Viejo, and the Art Noveau work on the doors, windows and stain glass walls in certain hotels along Bishop street were gorgeous. The buildings in Habana Viejo certainly beat the other suburbs in Havana hands down (and in my opinion the remaining areas of Cuba that we would later see).

The other thing that I really liked about Habana Vieja is that pretty much wherever you walk you can hear a little Cuban trio playing music somewhere in a restaurant or hotel lobby. The downside of this more touristy area, is that you do feel a bit harassed when you are trying to walk around. There was one guy that starting following Steve around playing a guitar, and although Steve said no thanks a number of times, he refused to stop playing and then got a bit aggressive 2 minutes later when we wouldn’t pay him for his music. There were always people asking us for money, or trying to sell us something, or offer us a taxi, pretty much whenever we stood still for more than 10 seconds to have a look around, which was a bit of a pain.

After the tour we grabbed a quick lunch and then walked around attempting to draw some more cash from an ATM. After trying all of our cards at various ATMs around town and getting the same ‘Transaction Cancelled’ message, we finally figured out that you can’t use a Switch Card, or a Mastercard in a Cuban ATM. This was rather unfortunate as neither of us had a VISA card, and nor did we have enough CUC to last us for the entire duration of our trip. However, passport in hand, we did manage to find a hotel that would give us internet access, so we managed to email the travel agent regarding our flight change, and started the search for a hotel in Valadero. The trouble with trying to book a hotel in Cuba, is that none of the hotels seem to have an online booking facility (probably because Cubans don’t have internet access). Because of this we had to send off availability requests to a number of different hotels, in the hope that one of them would reply with a confirmation the following day (queue another days internet quest and expense). That night we managed to find an Italian place for dinner that made a good spaghetti (result), before getting a cab back to the casa.

Next day we had to check the internet again to see if any of the hostels in Valadero had replied. They had not, so we had to do another search and managed to find an agent with an online booking system for a cheap all inclusive hotel in Valadero - result. So we booked it in the knick of time. Then we went for lunch at pan.com which wasn’t too bad. The friendly owner got chatting to us and told us they didn’t get many saffers around them parts. As the cliché goes half of the options on the menu were currently unavailable, however they made us some tasty pork hamburgers and even managed to rustle up some surprise fries (no ketchup but you cant have everything, and especially not in Cuba). Afterwards we went to Coppelia for an ice cream and I had the worst choc mint ice cream I‘ve ever had in my life. Those of you in the know will remember that I’m not a big fan of chocolate ice cream and it was basically 2 scoops of chocolate ice cream with a drizzle of mint sauce over the top. Now how can you call that choc mint? Then we went for another walk and saw Cuba’s version of the Empire State building and a memorial with Walter Sisulu’s name on it. That evening we took a taxi over to the fort to see the Canon ceremony at 9pm, which was awesome and definitely a highlight of our trip. They actually light a real canon and even though I knew it was coming that big bang still scared the life out of me. Afterwards we grabbed a quick dinner inside the fort walls (a memorably bad one of chicken and chips, where the chips were like tasteless pieces of stale cardboard) before taxiing back to the casa.

And now a couple of general notes about the odd bits and pieces around Cuba…There is no advertising anywhere. I suppose when everything is owned by the state and there is no competition, then there is little point in spending money on advertising, or for that matter attractive packaging. The cafeterias (like a small informal restaurant, think old melamine tables and wicker chairs) are pretty much all named the same thing (cafeteria) which makes it difficult to know what sort of food they would have on offer. And they don’t bother with silly things like menus, they just display the three dishes they are making that day in a case outfront. The one we went to was making Margherita pizza, a ham and cheese roll, and a hamburger, none of which looked appealing, so we ended up with a very soggy pizza for lunch. Also all the products seem to come in the same rubbish packaging (e.g shampoo / shower gel). Not to mention the bizarre stores, which rather than a traditional supermarket set up, all seem to have a shopkeeper standing behind a glass cabinet, so that you have to ask them for each and every item you want (not easy with limited Spanish). And if you can find a corner shop for some snacks, the chances are they will all have the same 3 types of fizzy drinks TuCola, Lemon and Naranje and 2 packets of ancient looking biscuits. PS I could never live here as they only seem to have one type of crisps (called Papitas, or Chips) and they taste like cardboard. Nuff said.

The next morning we got up early and took a taxi to the bus station and then got the Viazul bus to Varadero, which is about 2.5 hours away. Varadero is kind of like a poor mans Cancun, and is basically a beach resort on the South coast of Cuba. Steve tells me it was a lovely ride along the Cuban coast to get there, although I couldn’t tell you as I was asleep most of the way. What is interesting about the Cuban bus journeys is that the bus driver seems to stop wherever the fancy takes him, at cafeterias along the way so that he can buy himself a drink / have a snack. Although since the bus stations don’t usually sell any food, this is not always a bad thing.

Valadero

So after a short bus ride we arrived in Valadero, where we valiantly thought that we could walk to our hotel carrying our bags. However it was stiflingly hot so after about 3 blocks in the blazing sun, we had to stop and hail a taxi. Now I should say that the hotel itself wasn’t too bad, as it had a pool, an open bar providing as much rum as you could drink, and was a short walk over the road to a fantastic Caribbean beach. However the hotel was filled with some very odd clientele, which I suppose might be what you get when you go for the cheapest all inclusive option. We saw lots of old/ fat men with some very young, pretty girls, a couple of threesomes and at one point a drunken brawl broke out by the pool. Needless to say we kept ourselves to ourselves.

On the upside as the hotel was all inclusive we did stuff ourselves with food for 2 days. The buffet wasn’t too bad compared with the food we’d had in Havana. So we basically spent two days lying around the pool / by the seaside reading our books. This was a welcome break after all the walking we had done in Havana and the beach there was great. White sand, free loungers, free drinks from the beach bar and warm blue water - yippee! On the Wednesday afternoon we stopped at the hotel tour desk and found out that the Buena Vista Social Club were playing that same night, and she could get us tickets for their Premium seats. The Premium seats meant that they would collect us in a classic car, and take us to a private bar before the concert, where we could meet the band and get some autographs, before going on to see the show. Needless to say we were very excited, and practically snapped her hand off to get them. So that night a proper Cuban character (chatting the whole way) came to collect us in his 1940’s open top car, and we did indeed get to chat to the band and we bought a CD so that we could get all their autographs. One of the original Buena Vista Social Club members was there and I managed to get a photo with him as well, which was very exciting. Then we went on to see the show (third row from the front) and they were fantastic. Only the first and last songs were the recognisable Buena Vista stuff, but the rest of it was great too, the band had a great energy about them and we even got up and danced for the last couple, before being driven back to our hotel in the 1940‘s car again. This was definitely the highlight of our Cuba trip for me.


Some general notes about Valadero. We noticed that they have curly tailed lizards. We saw one big fat bright green lizard (about 20 cms in length) that had a big tail all curled up just like a puppy. And later a more black and green coloured one of a similar size with another curled up tail. It certainly makes a lizard look a lot cuter, which of course, must be why they’ve evolved that way on the island lol.
Its true that Valadero is nothing like Havana. Well apart from the old cars and the Spanish lingo. You don’t have the same old buildings, and it just didn’t have the same feel. However it does have a long white sandy beach and some beautiful blue Caribbean water, so its great for downtime.

After 2 decadent days we got up at 06h30 the following morning and headed for the bus station to get some tickets for Santa Clara. Again the bus drivers stopped here and there for whatever they felt the need for and after about 3 hours we arrived in Santa Clara. Now if you haven’t heard of Santa Clara before, it is basically renowned for being the burial place of Che Guevara / generally the spot for Che fans.

Santa Clara

As the man in our Havana casa had called to make the booking, we had been promised that a man would collect us from the bus station, bearing a sign with our names on it. However surprise surprise there was no one there when we arrived, so we walked out to get a taxi and were followed around by a woman trying to sell us another casa (very aggressive) so I ended up shouting at her (No Me Moleste ie don’t bother me) which seemed to do the trick. Our first impressions of Santa Clara were Not great. Frankly it looked like a right sh*t hole from the bus station. It doesn’t have the appeal of the beautiful old buildings of Havana Viejo, and the buildings that are there, are also in much need of repair. We did manage to get an old buick taxi to the casa which was pretty cool (massive back seat, door handles only open from the outside by putting your hand out the window) and on arrival the casa owners were very friendly.

Again we did a lot of walking in Santa Clara, and it was a bit more manageable as it is smaller than Havana. The prices were a bit cheaper as well, which came as a welcome relief after Havana. Santa Clara is a little more off the beaten track, so we didn’t see as many other tourists, and felt less harassed by people trying to get money off us / sell us stuff. We went to Dinos for pizza on the first day (not great), and then went looking for internet access to check if our new flight was confirmed. That night we had a couple of cheese burgers for dinner which was a real rip off, and then went for a walk around the plaza and saw an orchestra of about 20 people playing for no real reason (fab). We sat in the square for a bit and listened to the band and there were lots of people sitting around even though it was evening. The scene was very quaint / sociable, and it guess it comes from all the people in the small town knowing each other.

The next morning we took a horse drawn cart to the Che Mauseleum and Memorial. Unfortunately no cameras were allowed inside and someone asked Steve to take his cap off. We did go inside the mausuleum and see the wall where Che’s bones are buried, alongside a number of his other comrades. The walls and roof are made of the same rough stone and it gives you the feeling you are in a darkened cave.

Then we had lunch at La Concha which was pretty good for Cuba. Steve got enough pork schnitzel for 3 and I had the shredded beef. Then we went to buy our bus tickets for Trinidad and took another horse drawn cart back to the park, to have a look at the schedule at Mejunje. Now I should mention that Mejunje is a club that the guidebook recommended. On the walk back to the casa we went to see the Boxcar museum, which is where Che blew up a train just before taking over Santa Clara, and then we stopped to see the Boulevard, which is basically one street lined with a couple of restaurants (?) and ’shops’.

Lastly we went to Cubatour to get tickets for the cigar factory the following morning. Another thing worth mentioning is that the service is dire in Cuba, the woman selling us the tour tickets spent about 30 seconds with us and was extremely offhand about the whole thing. We had a similar experience in the cigar shop, and the Viazul office as well.

However that night we had dinner at the casa and they made us lobster, which was slightly overcooked by still pretty good and a welcome surprise. Then we headed out and saw a great local band playing in a pub next to the square while drinking mojitos. It was a very informal session with a lot of local people dancing and was very cool (the different between the more touristy Habana Viejo and Santa Clara is that there were very few tourists there). Despite our initial impression, Santa Clara was definitely growing on us.

The next morning we got up early for our tour of the cigar factory. We had a local woman take us on to the factory floor where we got to see a woman actually press the tobacco leaves together and then on to the pressing process and the wrapping and packaging processes which was very cool. However seeing the 200 + people sitting in the factory making the cigars came as a bit of a shocker. It was a pretty unpleasant place to be, and with wages very low, the only upside I could see was the little old man with the microphone reading them the daily newspaper. Its times like those we were very grateful for what we had back home. As I alluded to earlier, we did visit the cigar factory across the way, and despite the terrible service, we did buy a couple of Monte Cristo cigars to send back home as a souvenir.

We had some lunch on the boulevard and the went for a walk to see the statue of Che carrying a baby, and then up the National Monument hill to see the view over Santa Clara, which was good. Then we walked back down to the boulevard and decided to go looking for some toilet paper (its handy to have your own roll as restaurants often don’t provide any, youre lucky if you get a toilet seat). Unfortunately all we could find in the store was a 12 pack so it was a no go. Then a bit more walking around a musuem that wasn’t very good and featured a collection of period furniture like a house. We did later manage to get a cardboard box (from a shop) and some packaging tape (after trying 3 different stores), so that we could box up and try to post the cigars back home. Then we went to the first post office in Santa Clara and tried to post the box, but they said they couldn’t send as the box had some writing on the outside, and we would need to cover it with paper (strike 1)!

After a forgetful dinner on the Boulevard, we went to club Mejunje, which rather surprisingly turned out to be a bit like gay pride except on a smaller scale. Who would have thought that that many gay men and drag queens could be found in a relatively small Cuban town? We managed to meet an interesting character named Geraldo (who managed to get us bumped past the queue) and introduced us to a few friends inside, so we danced with them for a while which was fun. At one point there was one drag queen that was desperate to pick up Steve (much to his dismay), so I had to keep dancing with Steve, to get him to back off lol. Frankly those Cubans know how to party, and party they did. I looked hard and I couldn’t see any inhibitians anywhere, although being primarily a gay club could have something to do with that. Towards the end of the evening Geraldo actually tried to give me his phone number in front of Steve, and he knew full well we were married, so I’m not sure where he was expecting to go with that?! Anyway we had a fun night out, and we hadn’t been out dancing in a while. The Cubans are big fans of something called Reggaeton, and although I cant say it’s a new favourite, it did have a good dance beat.

So after our big night out, the following morning we caught another Viazul bus to Trinidad.

Trinidad

Once again we arrived in the sorching heat, only this time a man really was there to meet us as promised. We dropped our bags off and went looking for some lunch, which ended up being in a kind of internet café (yes the only one we found in Cuba). Steve had a hamburger on toast (no jokes) and I had the worlds worst spaghetti which tasted like it had been made with tomato sauce and took about an hour to arrive. Then we had an ice cream while we walked up to the Plaza de Mayo which is a lovely quite little square with an old church at the back of it. There was a man playing the guitar on the corner when we got there and it was lovely. Afterwards we headed back to the internet café to try and find a hostel in LA, only to find out that you cant actually book anything from Cuba (the websites are blocked / give you an error!). Then we went to the supermarket to get some water and on the way back to the casa we got caught in a real downpour. We tried to wait it out in a doorway, but after about a half an hour it had not abated, so we had to make a run for it and got completely soaked through. As we didn’t want to head out again in the rain, we had a light dinner of chocolate biscuits in the casa (its no wonder my skins turning in to a right mess).

The following morning we had an enormous breakfast at the casa (this particular casa also offered food). In fact, if you said No to their food, they actually tried to find out why you had declined and convince you of how good their food was. We told them that we need to go out and find some wrapping paper for our parcel, and they kindly gave us some of theres (this must be a common thing in Cuba). So we wrapped the parcel and then headed back to the post office to try and post it again, only to then be told that they couldn’t send international parcels from that post office (strike 2).

Feeling slightly annoyed by his point, we went to the Museum Historico and walked up the tower for a great view for Trinidad (very cool). Then we went for an expensive lunch which wasn’t very good (camarones and rice overcooked, took ages to arrive, and was rather expensive (back to Havana prices in Trinidad).

By this point we were really wondering what all the fuss was about re. the architecture in Trinidad. According to the guidebook it was meant to be better than Habana Viejo, but we hadn’t seen any evidence of that. Then we walked back to the Plaza de Mayo, and just above that we found an older area of houses that were a little easier on the eye. However in my opinion the buildings in Havana Viejo are still tops. Then we came back to the casa and they made us a chicken dinner, which was pretty good. We have learnt that the best dinners in Cuba are in the casa’s, rather than the resturants. Afterwards we went out and saw a terrible band and some dancers supposedly doing the congo. Then we went to the plaza and saw another Buena band that were pretty good. Although of course, not as good as the real thing.

For our last day in Trinidad we took a coco taxi to Playa Ancon, which is their local beach, and it was our favourite beach in Cuba. Again with the white sand and beautiful warm blue water, but this time a quieter more relaxed atmosphere.

The following morning we took a bus back to Havana (5 hours) and went back to the same casa. Then we walked to the post office in Havana to try and post the parcel, only to be told that we would have to go to the next post office as they didn’t do parcels there (strike 3 and by this point we are fuming). So we got a taxi to post office number 4 (it wasn’t close) and went to the international post window to try and send the by now much hated parcel. This time the woman takes the neatly paper wrapped parcel from us and actually starts to slit it open with a knife. We ask her what the *&^^ she was doing, and she said that she needed to inspect everything inside the parcel. So she takes out each carefully wrapped item and has a good look at it. Eventually when she gets to the cigars she says we cant send those, as only the cigar factory can send them, and we are just about ready to murder her right there. In the end they wanted to charge us 70 UDS to send only half the contents of the parcel, so we took it all back and walked away from there, very very frustrated with the Cuban postal system and the once neatly wrapped parcel, open in our arms (strike 4). We would just have to take the contents along to LA with us, and try to post it again from there.

All in all I would say that Cuba is the most interesting country we have visited thus far, because it makes you question all of the things you take for granted back home. I constantly found myself wondering where the majority of our everyday products were sourced from back home, and we marvelled at how resourceful a country can be when its practically cut off from the rest of the world (they even have their own brand of Cola!).

We loved the old cars and old buildings in Havana Viejo, and not to mention the fantastic music. However due to the costs, the lack of internet access, the fact that the ATMs didn’t work, and how difficult it was to find a decent meal, it is not a very easy place for a traveller and we were pretty relieved to be heading on to LA the following morning. Roll on our first English speaking country in 4 months!