Friday, May 23, 2008
Ni Hao
Hi everyone,
It’s been much harder to find time to write as most places have only
one computer and slow internet in China, and a queue 5 people long so
we use what precious internet time we have to book the next lot of
accommodation/travel etc.
Our trip through China has been very interesting and mostly enjoyable.
China is basically ‘under construction’ so where ever you are you are
always surrounded by construction sites. Its a very dirty country. The
Chinese people will throw rubbish on the ground instead of taking an
extra 2 steps (literally) to put it in a bin. Out most building
windows in all major cities (except for Beijing… Olympics 
theres
a pile of rubbish. Hmmm. Even driving up to the Great Wall it was a
constant stream of rubbish, each dwelling having its own tip,
literally outside their front door. Charming!
Highlights
The Great Wall was amazing (a great birthday day)… we went to the
“less visited by tourists” part and walked 10km’s along the wall,
mostly where it hasn’t been restored. Our other highlights have been
Yangshuo (a small touristy village south of Guilin) surrounded by
karst mountains and rivers; we basically hired bikes and rode into the
country and got lost between farming villages. Also there was a lovely
park in the middle of Beijing where the locals went to fly kites, play
cards/chess, musical instruments and sing and dance - it was so neat
to see their culture in that light.
Also we have met some lovely people, made some new friends, two of
which (Collie & Nancy, an Irishman and Korean) are coming to New
Zealand to live so it will be neat to catch up with them again. (We
met them on the Great Wall and then randomly bumped into them in
Guilin 2000km’s away, they are biking from Seoul to Singapore so
hopefully we’ll see them in Vietnam too).
Lowlights
Yes there are always some. The major has been our beloved SLR camera
dying on us. :-( and Toby getting food poisoning which meant we had to
stay put in Guilin for a few extra days. He’s getting better now but
its not been pretty.
The Earthquake
We were on a train in Shanghai when the Earthquake hit so we didn’t
feel it but many did. As you can imagine its hit the country hard. Its
constantly on the TV, all of the media reports only report on the
positive like successful rescues, what the government are doing to
help, heart warming stories like people giving their lives for others,
no spreading of diseases etc. Its really weird hearing only the
positive over and over again… either they are doing their job really
well or its total propaganda… I would say its the latter considering
China.
We have arrived in Hong Kong now and its another world. The minute we
got over the border people were speaking English, helping us, the
place was clean and tidy (you can be fined up to HK$5000 for spitting
or littering) and its easy to navigate. Yay!
We’re off to Thailand on Monday for our next leg. Looking forward to
slowing down a bit.
Hope everyone is well… thanks for all your emails, sorry if I
haven’t written you back, I will get around to it I promise.
Lots of love,
Libs (& Tobz)