Hello From China
17th November 2009

Hi Everyone

I think the last time I spoke to you was before I went to Shanghai. Well since then I spent a week in Shanghai where I visited the sights climbing the Pearl TV Tower and the Jin Mao Tower which is the second largest building in China. Both of these were cool as at the top they had glass bottom floors which allowed you to look down at the city. As well as the towers, I also went on a boat cruise to see the city at night.

Getting out of Shanghai was hard as at the time the Chinese were celebrating their national day which actually lasted for a week making travel almost impossible! However eventually I was able to get out by spending 26 hours on a train to Guillin which is in the west. From here I took a bamboo raft down the river to a town called Yangzhou which was surrounded by mountains which I could hire a bike and travel round. The town was absolutely amazing and I spent most of the nights at my hostels roof top bar which had great views of the town and the sun setting over the mountains.

With my time in China coming to an end I had to go on another long journey to Shanzen where I could cross the border into Hong Kong. I only spent 5 days in Hong Kong but they were great. I went across to Hong Kong Island where I climbed up to its peak to look out across Kowloon Bay and the surrounding area. I also took a walk along avenue of the stars which is essentially the Hong Kong version of Hollywood Boulevard and went to the various night markets that they have.

After Hong Kong I flew out to Bangkok where I only spent two nights mostly wasted by heavy drinking before getting on a bus to Chang Mai in the north of Thailand to do some trekking. On the trek I spent hours trekking in the jungle up and down various mountains before reaching a great waterfall to swim in. After the waterfall I spent the night in a small village in the jungle before trekking my way to an elephant village. The night here was great my accommodation was a bamboo hut set into the hill and overlooked the area where all of the elephants slept. The next morning I continued my trek on the back of an elephant, which was quite an experience, especially as that morning my elephant had gone off on a rampage through the jungle and didn’t seem to like the idea of anyone on his back!

Once the trek was over I headed back into Chang Mai where I spent some time looking around the city and zip lining through the jungle in the cities monkey research base. While in Chang Mai I also visited a tiger temple where you could play with baby and adult tigers, a snake farm where I watched snake handlers playing with poisonous snakes and a monkey school where the monkeys can do tricks such as playing basket ball and riding bikes, before heading to the border to enter Laos. At the border I took a slow boat down the river to reach the town of Lang Prabang. The journey took two days to make and on the first night I stopped on a small island where I ended up having to kill a chicken so that everyone could have dinner!

Eventually the next day we arrived in Lang Prabang which has a curfew of 11.30 unless you go to the bowling alley which was open most of the night. Needless to say most of my nights were spent in the bowling alley! During the days I made a trip to the waterfall park where I was able to swim and rope swing around loads of pools before finding one of the biggest waterfalls I have seen. As well as the waterfall I also made a trip to the Buddhist cave which were very similar to the ones I saw in Louyang but not on as grand a scale.

After Lang Prabang I went to Vang Vien which is the town to do tubing in. For those who don’t know tubing, it is when you go down the river in a rubber tube stopping along the way at the different bars at the riverside, (10 in total) until you are either back in the main town or its too dark to see anymore and you need to find a tuk tuk back. This was repeated for three days before I decided to call it quits and make my way to Vang Tien.

Vang Tien was pretty quiet so I got my Vietnam visa and headed straight for Hanoi where I spent some time exploring the city before taking a trip to Halong Bay which has to be one of the most beautiful place ever. At Halong I spent the first day kayaking to the fairy dust caves before spending the night on a boat. The next day and night I spent on a deserted island with some friends just relaxing. After the trip I went back to Hanoi and went to a snake village. This is quite a surreal place. When you first arrive you get to play with some snakes and afterwards they lead you to a restaurant where there is a bag of snakes waiting for you. They take a snake out and you have to cut its heart out and swallow it with a shot of snake’s blood. Then you have to cut the bile out of its stomach and take it with a shot of snake wine before being served various dishes such as crushed snake bones and snake fillet!

After Hanoi I travelled to hue which is where I am now. So far I have taken a tour round the city and visited the Purple Pagoda and the Emperors Tomb both of which are found on the outskirts of the city. I have also gone for a walk in the Citedale located on an island in the centre of the city. Next I am going for a tour in the DMZ before attempting a top gear style moped ride down to Hoi Ann.

Any way things are going really well at the moment and I hope things at home are going just as well.

Sorry it’s taken me so long to update you but as you can see I’ve been really busy.

Speak to you soon

Ian

Pictures From China

Ian's first blog and pictures




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