Travel Log 24

I flew into Inchon International Airport (Seoul) and it lived up to the title of world’s best airport as everything just seems to go so smoothly and it so clean and really well designed.  I caught the last bus to Suwon which is a small huge city on the edge of Seoul and then a taxi to the Chinese couchsurfer and her husband’s apartment. They live in one of hundreds of the exact same apartment blocks which Suwon has and one of millions which exist all over S.Korea.

The busy travelling in China had tired me out and knowing that Japan would also be the same I had decided to take Korea easy and catch up on doing nothing for a while this is also easier because S.Korea gives British citizens a 90 stamp on entry and so I didn’t have to worry about when I had to leave the country.

So the day after I arrived I joined Nancy for a game of tennis with one of her university friends. On Sunday Nancy had planned to join her university friend to go bungee jumping as said that the price was only £20 so I thought sounds like fun lets do it. And off we went bungee jumping.

Bungee jumping is the most terrifying and most amazing thing you could ever possibly do. First you take a lift up to the top of crane which is 60metres high (a 20 storey building) then you wait at the top while you get cold in the wind looking and freaking out about how high you are. Then when it is your turn (I went first) you get attached to the bungee cord, then they open the gate for you to walk the plank to the edge of the platform all the while you are hanging on for your life. Then when you think you are at the edge they say that you have to step closer so that your toes are actually off the edge. Then once you really have soiled your pants they say you then have to hold your hands above your head and then on their count you jump – 5-4-3-2-1 and you jump (the counting was really quick). About half way down your heart starts again and you can scream and you do… really loud. Then you bounce up and down for a while before they lower you down. For the next five minutes your heart beats at a million times a second. So terrifying! So amazing!

After that everything else I did in Seoul was very tame. I spent four nights in Suwon and then a further week and a bit hoping from couch to couch in Seoul. One thing I will mention in Seoul is that they have the best tea I have ever had in a café. Real Earl Grey leaves in a teapot with a tea strainer – really good.

After Seoul I went to Busan where I was to catch the ferry to Japan. Again I really didn’t do much in Busan either. I couchsurfed at an American girls flat for a couple of nights and then moved to a Korean girl (Jiwon) and her family’s house. Jiwon and I went to see some pretty awesome cliffs.

Oh and since I also stayed at a Korean girl and her family’s house in Seoul I noticed that Korean families eat the same food at home all the time. Same for dinner as for breakfast. They have the rice and same side dishes ,of which there are many, on the table always and only one main dish changes and therefore it always taste very similar. I think this is strange – no variety. I think it is also possible true of Chinese families.

Next Japan!

Travel Log 23

I arrived in Beijing tired and soon got grumpy when there was no starbucks in the train station or nearby. I had forgotten to write down directions to the hostel I was going to stay in and needed to pop into starbucks to get a coffee and use the free wifi. I was also annoyed that the main train station didn’t have a metro line going to it. However I managed to get to the metro and find a starbucks and then find my hostel. The hostel I stayed in was a terrible hostel, not because of the standard of cleanliness or for any fault of the staff, they were lovely, but because of all the British louts on holiday in Beijing during Easter. One morning I woke up to find a couple in the bed opposite my and a couple in the bed below me, I find it a little inconsiderate for couples to share the bunk bed in a dormitory, they may not be doing anything naughty but it is just the thought that they could be that I don’t like.

The first day I arrived I unfortunately add to sort out how to get out of the country. I had originally planned to take the ferry from near Beijing to Seoul but the ferry left the day after my visa ran out and the late charge on the Chinese visa is £50 every extra day. So it took me all day to find a cheapish flight out of Beijing as all the Chinese websites which had the cheap flights would only accept Chinese credit cards.

So during this Beijing visit (I am going back to China some time again soon) I decided to skip The Great Wall and instead see the Forbidden City – very impressive and huge, the summer palace – very romantic (well could be if I went with anyone), the Olympic Park – also very impressive even if I don’t like the birds nest and I also went to see the recently constructed CCTV headquarters – quite incredible!

And well that is China … for now. I like China.

Next South Korea.

Travel Log 22

The last entry was rather long so I am going to give a really brief account of Xi’an.

Train – not as luxurious as the one to Xining but still comfortable. I talked to a Chinese boy, I spoke in English he in Chinese and with the little English he knew we managed to kind of understand each other. He gave me some chicken feet his mother had cooked for him. They were nice bit like eating chicken skin. I like em.

Couchsurfed at a Chinese girl and her parents house. Shared the sofa with a nice English fella of the name of Rob.

Rob and I went to see the Terracotta Warriors, I bought two to go with the two Granny and Granddad got me when they visited many years ago. Oh and we briefly spoke to the most beautiful Chinese girl – gorgeous.

Yuan, Rob and I went dancing in a club. Chinese girls don’t dance.

That was the two nights I spent in Xi’an.

Next Beijing

Travel Log 21

The train journey to Xining although the most expensive was also the most luxurious thus far as I was in a compartment with three middle aged men and a nice comfortable bed with electricity to charge my phone and laptop and hot water to drink tea and heat noodles. Wonderful, I had a very good sleep and arrived in Xining quite relaxed.

The couchsurfer I was supposed to stay with put me in touch with Clark, an American guy who has lived in China for a couple of years.  Although a little bit disappointed I wasn’t going to be staying with an American guy rather than a cute Chinese girl it turned out that Clark was one of the best hosts I have had as he was very knowledgeable about China and went out  of his way to make sure I had interesting stuff to do. Clark is an English teacher and when he was working he hooked me up with some of his friends which he thought might be able to help me out. The first a nice Chinese girl helped me to buy my train ticket to Xi’an the second a Tibetan girl showed me around the Tibetan Medical museum and then took me to the park where she herself took part in the crazy dancing – it is not really a crazy dance just a traditional dance like Morris dancing but the idea that lots of people go and dance badly in the park all day long is crazy – and most of the dancers are pretty bad and old. Well actually in Xining it seemed that rather than it just being the older people that danced in the park here lots of younger people joined in both male and female. In the evening we joined Clark at a club that showed traditional Tibetan dance and singing. At first the three of us got a table by ourselves and tried to order some drinks but unfortunately we had to order a minimum of £20 worth and thought that this was too much beer for two people to drink (Chukqi didn’t drink) and decided to leave however just outside we bumped into one of Chukqi’s old friends from her home town and he invited us to join him as he was out celebrating with his friends. So we joined them and has a wonderful night drinking and I learnt a lot about the drinking and celebratory customs of Chinese and Tibetans and saw some professional traditional dancers which I were a lot better than those you see in the park.

Xining is in the Qinghai province (where the earthquake hit recently) and since the problems with the minority people there; China and enforced the rule that you have to register yourself to the police when you arrive and if you don’t then you can get arrested and the people you are staying with can get into trouble. Registering took me a whole day as you have to take all sorts of forms to one police station get them to stamp it and then take it to another police station and give the stamped form to them. At the first station the woman clearly didn’t want to deal with someone that couldn’t speak Chinese and first of all said come back tomorrow. I told her that that would be pointless as I leave the day after tomorrow, she then said I need three photo copies of the documents and not two and that they didn’t have a photocopier so I would have to go somewhere and get the copies. So of I went to find a print shop. Luckily there was one nearby and the lady in the police station reluctantly gave me the all important stamp. I then had to find the other police station, the enter and exit police station, and I had to do this without a map and only a vague idea of where it was. Unfortunately the bus Clark had told me to get didn’t go past the one land mark I knew and so I got lost on the public buses ending up at the edge of town. I finally made it to the police station 15 minutes before it closed having been going around town for about 2 hours on the buses. The next day after climbing the hill in the centre of town I met up with Clark as that evening we had arranged to take the Tibetans out for dinner in order to repay them for the night they treated us to. Unfortunately they cancelled on us at the last minute and instead we and a few others treated ourselves to a nice Tibetan dinner. On the final day I went to see the biggest Tibetan monastery in China. It had quite different feel from the Chinese temples and the monks of course where all of Tibetan origin.

Oh and Clark invited me to talk to his English class about my travels so before I left I a really nice experience talking to the Tibetan and Chinese people about my travels. It was a really nice experience.

 

Next stop Xi’an and the Terracotta Warriors.

Warriors come out to play. Warriors come out to play.

Travel Log 20

In Chengdu my couchsurfing host that I had been in contact with for a month decided that she wouldn’t host me the day I arrived so I had to find a hostel at the last minute. Luckily I found a nice hostel and settled down there for a few nights. Although I liked Chengdu I didn’t see much there, a nice temple, some crazy dancing people in the people’s park, a few nice reconstructed ancient tourist streets. One thing I did do was go out for some really nice food with a few CSers. One night my host ordered enough food for 4 people and then didn’t eat anything herself which meant I had it all to myself ,so I tried my hardest to finish as much as I could but failed luckily this being China the whole bill only came to £7. Another thing I did was meet a couchsurfer, that used to work in the hostel I was staying in, for Chinese tea in the park. So although I didn’t see many tourist sites I did have fun hanging out with the locals.

Although Chengdu is the home to the giant Pandas I decided not to spend the money going to see them as I thought that it would be more useful saving it for later on in my travels it also meant I could stay in bed. I had also just bought the most expensive transport ticket of my travels – a £45 soft sleeper 24 hour train to Xining and was feeling poor. Unfortunately just after I bought the ticket the couchsurfer I had planned to stay with in Xining decided to tell me she was working that weekend out of town and that I should find another couchsurfer. Grrr!