kjp

So there's pretty much zero I can do. We leave Dunhuang in 40 minutes at 4pm. I'm all packed, ready, etc. So there's not much to do - just 15 minutes to kill or so. Anyhow.

I had lunch with 2 other of the people in the tour group at a very local restraunt (when we walked in the volume in the place dropped a bit...). We had donkey. Eee-oor. It was pretty tasty - a strong taste like old beef that had been cooked for ages. And was quite rich, and stringy.

This morning (early) we were riding on camels across the sand dunes nearby, watching the sun rise over the dunes. Nice, but cold. Camels have got very dodgy teeth. It's a pretty smooth ride, just the getting up and down bit is a bit worrying - you feel as though you're almost going to go head first if you don't hold on.

The early morning start (5am) was a bit hard given that the previous night our group was out being raucous at a karaoke (yes, karaoke) place until 1 or 2 am or so.... Aussies drinking lots and being raucous. What a surprise.

I'm in Dunhuang at the moment. 1/2 hr by bus outside of town there is the Mogao Caves. These are bunch (700+) of caves that have Buddist paintings / muruals and statues in them. They were created between 300 AD and 1300 AD. ie: they were being worked on by people over 1000 years, over 10(?) Chinese dynasties. Pretty impessive.

Some of them were to praise various buddhas. Some where done by travellers about to embark on travel over the silk road (in particular the desert in western China), so that they would have good fortune.

We went in about 10 or so of them. At any one time there's only a limited number open. No bags, cameras, etc allowed inside, so no pretty pictures.

There were some pretty big buddhas - standing at the base of a 35+(?) metre buddha with all of the walls, ceiling, background painted / with statues that were made 1500 years ago is pretty awesome. Very interesting art.

The night before last (in Jiayuguan) was pretty interesting - enroute to the night markets I ended up talking to a mother and (school aged) son (both wanted to practice their English). I had skewers and beer with 2 local engineers at the market themselves. All 4 were very friendly and open people. Was prety cool. Last night was at the Dunhuang night market. Similar deal of skewers with mutton, along with noodles, and a breadish thing, and potato skewers. Very yum.

Boo magoo.

Hey. I'd be having a better time if I didn't have this cold..... had it for a few days now. dang nabbit. at least we're out of the pollution zone now (beijing xian). there's just other people's smoking to worry about. great.

anyhow, we're in jaiyuguan at the moment, which has a nearby fort which is at the western end of the great wall. it's pretty cool, methinks. we're in whats called the hexi ("hershi") corridor: tibetan plateau to the south, gobi desert to the north. the corridor used to be very important strategically as it was the gateway between east and west. this fortress has got to be one of the most impressive places I've ever been too. it was hardto get a good shot of the snow capped mountains that are very high up in teh background. the downside to it was the tacky lighting that has been put on the walls of the fortress.

Out the front of heaps of building in China there's two lions either side of an entrance way. This is a male lion (he's playing with a ball, females have a cub under their paw), which is in the Lama Temple in Beijing. Quite a few 100 years old.

I liked the cast for some reason.

The forbidden city, taken from the top of JingShang park (Jing Mountain park), which is an artificial hill created from the excavation of the moat of the forbidden city. It's just north of the forbidden city.

Hey, I've just reallised I can listen to my music...

Another email for you, yes, I'm a bludger. I'm taking it easy this afternoon after riding around (on a dodgy bike that I couldn't raise the seat of the so my efficiency in pedalling was not as high as I would have liked....) Xi'an city wall this morning, and not feeling 100%. Which is a bit of a bummer. It's just my throat / sinus neck of the wood that is a bit on the iffy side.

Anyhow.

====================================================

China has been great so far. The first 1/2 week or so in Beijing were great. It's an amazingly big / oversized place. Heaps of big buildings, very wide roads that you can't cross on foot (there's heaps of underpasses everywhere). It took ages to go anywhere by foot. Anyhow, our day trip to the great wall was 'great' (funny that) - it's very impressive when you're walking on top of it. See attached - peace!! Tiannanem square and the forbidden city (where the emporers used to live when Beijing was the capital) were interesting and, of course, big as well.

Ohh yes, before I forget, my room mate is non existant... there's 12 people in the group - 5 couples and me and one other woman from Canada. So, no crazy partners for me...

At the moment I'm in Xi'an, a city south west of Beijing. It's the site of the Terracotta Warriors that you might have seen pictures of. It's an amazing site - 8000 or so ornate life sized teracotta models of warriors - foot soldiers, archers, cavalry, etc. They were burried as part of the first emporer of China (Qin) journey into the afterlife.

Xi'an used to be the end of the Silk road (at the eastern end). So in Xi'an there's a strong muslim community, and also buddist communities as well. There were some weird but yummy smells (and some foods I had no idea what they were) as I was cruising through the Muslim quarter yesterday. Xi'an used to be the capital in the Tang dynasty (600 - 900 AD or so - and was one of the high points of Chinese civilisation). We went to a show of Tang dynasty dancing and music last night which was really good.

Since ariving in Xi'an (morning of day before yesterday) I've got a funny feeling of almost getting a cold / sick. Hopefully it is just the polution in the air. Xi'an seems to have more people smoking than Beijing; but maybe thats just the places I went to. But it's good because it means that I can take it easy and catch up on my emails!

This afternoon we're going to head west - start of the silk road proper. And starting to get into the desert / more strongly muslim areas. Camel riding and kebabs await!

Anyhow, stay cool,

Kevin

A bit of the great wall of china. It's not actually one wall, just different sections here and there.

I went up to the watchtower that is the one below the one on the crest of hill (up a very long flight of steep stairs)

Hey, this actually works. But uploading a file is painfully slow.

Anyhow, I forgot to send a quite important email yesterday (my accomation in Chengdu - immediately after I finish the tour). Anhow, that's sent now.

I've spent this morning cruising around the Muslim quarter of town - really interesting, and the Xi'an great mosque. Xi'an is the start (or end) of the Silk route, and so has muslim influences.

Last night was kind of hilarious, kind of disturbing. We were eating at an all you could eat place - which had heap and heaps of variety in food. I'd need another 5 or so visits there just to get a sample of everything. On the weird side was the sushi, which was being made in front of you and placed on a rotating circular table thing. but - in the middle of the table was a gold fish in a bowl (alive). This is either funny, disturbing, cruel or just plain wierd. Anyhow.

I'll try and put a couple more photos now that i know it actually works (this is from a different internet cafe to last night).

no upload from this computer ???? so no fotos for u

In case you can't pick out the change in style of writing from the usual schlock on this site, below is a copy and paste from an email.

Anyhow, we got to Xi'an this morning (overnight train). Xi'an was the capital city of China for quite a few 100 years (not sure how long exactly, but it was for ages).

Previous two days in Beijing doing touristy things. Yes, it is a massive place. Went to great Wall (or a part thereof). I didn't realise that it wasn't one wall - there's bits and pieces of it everywhere. anyhow. had a couple of hours walking on it - spectacular engineering construction and scenary.

Also went to Tiananmen SQuare, and Forbidden City. Forbidden city is massive, as everyone says it is. There's the outer court and the inner court. Outer part = bigger courtyards / open spaces (what's the word?). inner court = the residencies for the emporer and his concubines and hangers on, etc. Apparently one of the emporers once had 3000 concubines. Nice work being an emporer if you can get it... :)

In the inner court we went to where a famous concubine, who I can't remember the name of, but known as 'Dragon Lady' killed off the emporer and had the next two emporers under her control or something like that. Crazy stuyff. Also, Apparently there's a Starbucks in the inner court somehwhere. This is a big yuckky i think.

OK, back to today.
Outside of Xi'an are the burried terracota warriors which were really impressive. Thousands of clay statues, all were ornate. They were buried as part of the first emporer of China's burial + journey into the afterlife. This was 220 BC... This first emporer (Qing - pronouced Ching) was the first guy to unite cChina - before that fo several hundred / thousand years, China was a bunch of states that were continually fighting each other. Qing was a pretty cool guy as he joined them all together, albiet by conquering the other states and killing quite a few people.

Anyhow. enought of a history lesson.

No, I haven't dried dog, cat, or rat. We had Peking duck on Monday night, which was nice. (It's a special way of cooking the duck). On that menu there was 'Fur Seal Penis' no joke. I stayed away from that. There were also snakes in jars near the counter.... hmmm That restraunt, and all those around it, had dwarfs (yes, reall short people) out the front encouraging people to come in. What will they think of next.

So I've now copied my files from my camera to this computer, and can view those images on the harddrive. And...

This computer has a weird O/S... somewhere between Windows and on of the *nixs that I used at uni but can't remember the name of....

And, I've now got a folder view of my flash drive!!! woo hoo. (this took several minutes to accomplish - there's no windows explorer / start bar, etc/...)

It's weird how the small things are accomplishments when you're out of your usual surrounds.

Anyhow. I lost a big long post because I put the computer into some wierd data entry mode. Such things happen on computers that are set up to input Chinese characters on a standard QWERTY keyboard.

Anyhow. There's a chick nearby who started smoking a little bit ago, and is still going and is annoying me. So I won't write much more, just (fingers crossed) a couple of fotos.

this works!

i`VE JUST LOST ALL OF MY TEXT AND CAN'T TURN OFF CAPS LOCK。 DANG。 （ＯＴＨＥＲＷＩＳＥ　Ｉ　ＣＮＡ'Ｔ　ＴＹＰＥ　ＥＮＧＬＳＩＨ）。　　i　ＨＡＤ　ＡＢＯＵＴ　１／４ＨＲ　ＮＯＴＥＳ　ＷＲＩＴＴＥＮ　ＵＰ　ＡＮＤ　ＬＯＳＴ　ＩＴ。　　　　ＹＯＵ　ＭＩＧＨＴ　ＧＥＴ　ＭＯＲＥ　ＳＯＯＮ。

In the internet cafe again. I've got a slight problem - this is the second computer that has windows 98 on it... And it doesn't recognise either my camera or my flash drive.... So I may have a storage issue, unless I can find a different / better internet conection.. But this may be a problem - there doesn't seem to be too many of them around that I can find easily. Otherwise. No photos for a future spam or two; or this website.

OK some random stuff about the past 2 days: No order - just as things come...

* crossing the big roads in Beijing is on the hazordous side of things... A honk / bell means that someone is coming through, regardless of the colour of the light. I always wait 5 / 10 seconds after getting a green walk light to cross - lots of people pushing the green light..
* The view from Jingshan park (just nrth of the forbidden city) is very good. Went up there yesterday - which was the moon festival or somehting. There were heaps of groupps singing. Just random people I think, as just random people were joining in. So they were folk tunes, I suppose.
* Beijing is big - big buildings; big distances; big roads, etc, etc.
* Exploring a hutong / backstreet or two is pretty good fun.
* The Buddist lama temple (went there this morning) is pretty cool - old, ornate stuff. unfortunately, could not take photos from withing the temples - just outside.
* beijing subway is pretty fast / effecient. Good valuefor Y3.
* Getting a sim card for my phone was a bit of a challenge.
* I haven't been to the hotel restraunt - just to local stuff. There's a small place just over the corner
* Getting stared is a bit weird. I am somewhere between weird / strange / curious to some people.
* Lunch at the equivalent of maccas for chinese was a bit bland today. Although there are Maccas and KFC stores. Although the Maccas are very small - just icecreams and deserts. Weir.d
* bottled water is Y5 for 1.5Litre. It tastes a bit wierd. I think that I prefer "Canberra juice" (!)
* It's cool watching old guys do their caligaraphy on the stones in the parks.
* At a park earlier today it was cool to see heaps of old people and grannys / grandpas do their excersises and taichi... (you would have fit in j&s!)
* I've had t use wo zai nar (where am I?) already....
* Beijing seems to be a city of contrasts - big modern buildings with run down old (very old) hutongs right next door.

I want to get some fruit, and see what a maccas icecream tastes like

I need some more cash.-- need to visit a bank. The hotel will give me Y807 for USD100. I can probably do a bit better.

the guy over there's ciagerette smoke is anoying me. (Although in the trip this hasn't been too much of a problem for me so far).

ok,
bye.

I'm safe in China.

The plane from KL to Beijing was pretty uneventful. Was at the back of the plane so farely noisy. Able to get a bit of sleep anyhow.

Got picked up from the airport - arranged beforehand. Figured it was extra $5 but almost certainly worth it, I think. The guy grew up in Chengdu. His dad was from Urumqi originally. He thought it was funny that I didn't have a 'lady'. I asked about a bit of fruit that he had. Found it in the dictionary, but didn't know what the English meant. (!). Anyhow.

My initial impression of Beijing is big. Lots of the building around where I am staying a big. Very wide roads. Special bike lanes on the side of the roads which is good... It's also pretty flat. No hills anywhere.

Anyhow.

I'm getting hungry, and it's starting to get dark. So head off soon. Probably early to bed. Tomorrow I plan to hire a bike, and cruise around town. Too big to walk around.

am in kulua lumpar internat airport at a prety dodgy free internet kiosk thing. slept on the flight here - good. was one of the last to b oard the flight - was talking for too long at brissy.

anyhow. all ok. flight to beijing leave in 1 1/2 hrs.

in case you care:) -
tandas = toilet
keluar = exit in malaysian.

it's pretty hjumid; smoky outsid.

the keboard is dodge and can't type properly. yahoo mail is taking ages to load up.... longer than writing this. anyhow.

bye.

yahoo still hasn't loaded yet. ....

One sleep to go before I jet off on my adventure to China.

It's amazing how fast time has flown by to this point.

Everything seems to be in readyness. I was all packed last Saturday, stuff, documents ready, etc. Most of this week I've been working on my QUT assignment which I sent in today. It's slightly annoying because I didn't answer the last part of the last question (too busy with other stuff), but this should only be a few marks off my total - shouldn't hurt me too badly.

The two past nights of not much sleep (staying up to 1 / 2 am to work on assignment), plus the stress of the trip, plus dodgy bugs floating around, have mean that I've coughed and snifled a bit today. Hopefully that will be the worst of it.

I'm surprised at how nervous I've become - only very recently. It's hit me in the past hour or 2 when driving home from coffee. I suppose I haven't had the time to be nervous / think about it all. Now I have little to do before I leave - just waiting. It's just the worry of whether I will cope in a strange land / environment all not, and whether I will be ok.

You don't know if you don't give it a try.

Anyhow, my neice is the cutest girl in the world, in case I haven't told you already. She was extremely cute earlier tonight. :)

Well, that's it (not that it's been much). So I suppose the next post on here will be from Beijing...

I'm frustrated:

* I have a big pile of jobs to do
* I've been very productive since getting back from Sydney on Tuesday (ie: minimal, if any procrastination)
* I let myself get caught up with stuff at work
* Which meant that I got stuck in traffic
* Which meant that I couldn't get to the travel agent to pick up my travellers cheques and other bits of papers
* And couldn't get into the city to go to Borders and that cheap souvineer store on Queen St mall.
* Going to the Chermside shops I got stuck in traffic again
* Neither Kmart or Target had the things I wanted.
* Causing me to get home without accomplishing anything on my big list of jobs to do tonight.

Great.

... when I get to spend 1/2 hr or so just sitting quietly with my neice talking to her with her hand around my thumb.

:)

Happy Kevin.

[back in Brisbane]

So, I'm in Canberra again.

This is just a pre-China trip to say 'hi & how are you going?' to people down here, followed by a hi and a very big hug to the newest addition to the family in Sydney on Sunday and Monday. Then the early morning flight back to Brisbane and straight to work.

The flight down was pretty boring, as per usual. On the up side, my new shoes, which I'll be wearing to / from / around China, don't set of the security scanner thing at the airport - a welcome non-hassle.

It's quiet here. Not that it's noisy in Brisbane - there's just always background noise.

I leave for China in two weeks and 6hrs or so. Crickey.