China

I am really behind on my blog (sorry brooke lol) but because of the Chinese governemnt sensoring, blogs being freedom of speech are not allowed to e accessed.
After the Yoga retreat i was feeling a little blue, no longer having the friends I had gotten used to travelling with but i knew that a new adventure in a new country would lift up my spirits and I was right.
During the flight to Beijing I had a stop over in Tibet and a local Tibetan guy climbed into the seat next to me. I was reading my 7 years in Tibet book, getting myself slightly educated about the culture and the Dalai Lama from the author, Heinrich Harrer's perspective when the Tibetan guy taps me on the knee and asks me what I am reading. When he saw that it was in fact 7 years in tibet he told me i should be especially careful with the book and not to let many people see I am reading it because it could get me into some trouble. Heinrich Harrer writes about the negative effect China had/still has over Tibet so its been banned in the country. This was a nice little wake up call for what i was to expect in a communist country and from then on I kept my book hidden in my knees just in case.
I arrived in China late at night and caught a taxi to my Hostel. Luckily I had the Hostels name printed in Mandarin because the taxi driver didnt speak a word of english but unfortuanetly i had no cash to pay her and she didnt understand me when i said i needed t stop at an ATM so that was an expereince in itself after a long day. This was also another wake up call, not many people speak English in China so its harder to get around on your own.
My hostel was amazing and 10 minutes away from Tianamen Square.
The very first day I arrived i hit the streets to Explore. After some shopping there was a nice girl who stopped me to admire my bleach blonde hair and blue eyes and we talked for a while with questions back and forth. She seemed like a nice girl so when she asked me to go for some tea i didnt see why not, I had the whole day alone so i thought i might aswell have some local interaction...Tea seems like an innocent thing to do right? WRONG! We went to this little tea house, nothing fancy and had a tea ceremony done for us. This is where you get several different types of tea served to you in tiny chinese glasses (smaller than a shot glass) just to get a taste of what the tea is like. We had a nice chat but she was a little strange and very hyper but I had no problem passing the day sipping some tea... that is until we got the bill... 1500 Yuen!!!! thats 75$ i had to pay once we split it! I almost cried, i am travelling on a budget and 75$ could have lasted me all week! I told her this and she pretty much told me tough luck. I payed the bill, being trapped in the situation and hightailed it away from her. I was scammed! I got back to my hostel and complained to my Roomates about what had happened, they laughed and pointed to the reception desk where there was a big sign reading "DO NOT GO FOR TEA CEREMONIES WITH CHINESE STRANGERS" I was crushed, and wished i had payed attention to the sign, however you live and you learn and it just adds to my list of silly travel experiences. Other than the scam i had a great time in Beijing just wandering around and going to different palaces and temples, exploring Beijing using the subway system which i was SO proud of being able to do alone. I went to the famous silk market which is 7 floors of knock off, brand name clothes and accessories. It was nuts in there! everyone shouting at you to buy from their stall and some getting aggressive and pulling you in. If they say a t-shirt costs 500 Yuen, i would bargain for 100 or less and each time they would end up giving in. Its a dangerous place for a girl, way too easy to spend Far too mcuh money. I could have spent all day there but i knew i was on a budget and i also had no more room in my bag.
I started another group trip after a few days on my own in Beijing and was a little shocked to see an old couple in their mid 70's sitting at our table however i relaxed once we started talking because they seemed like the young at heart type just looking for another adventure. Their names are Gordon and Brenda and they were quiet cute and funny. There was also a Polish couple Joanna and Micheal, an Australian, Nick and An my chinese tour guide. I knew i wasnt going to have a problem with them, they all seemed like laid back folks.
What really got me started on wanting to come to China was when a couple i met up with in India started talking about how they were going to the great wall and i was so envious and knew i HAD to get there to see this wonder of the world. So when we made it to the Wall I was overjoyed! It was so amazing to be able to walk along the old bricks and see it stretch on forever! I walked for a a few hours and explored as far as they would let you until it became to eroded it was unsafe. To get down from the wall I took a sled that ran on a metal semi-circle tube which was a blast. Everywhere i went i felt like a celebrity having chinese take pictures of me like crazy paparazzi! There was no way of stopping them so i just let it happen, at first it was really funny but it got extremely tireing after a while and i just wanted them to leave me alone. At tianament Square when it was cold and miserable and i was miserable because i only had a light sweater a girl literally just grabbed me and stuck the camera in my face.. i was not impressed and i am sure it showed in her picture as i made one of my famous scowls. A boy once stood infront of me and joanna as we were trying to watch people dancing in the park and took pictures 2 feet away, so i mockingly started taking pictures of him but after 5 minutes he didnt budge and so we gave up and walked away. We visited the Terra Cotta warriors and i am ashamed to say i wasnt blown away like i was at the great wall.. However it is still a pretty cool thing to see. We visited the Giant Panda's and got to Meet An's roomates. One is from Canada!! It was nice to go out for some beers and talk with some people more in my age range. Me and An got along really well and has become a great friend of mine throughout the trip. Its funny how after being in China you start to stereotype the Chinese people. They are always rushing around from place to place, they have to be first for everything so they push and shove you around if your not fast enough. They are loud and just kinda goofy people if you ask me but An broke that stereotype and was just alot of fun. Taking the Train in China is an intense expereience aswell where you see the chinese impatiance in its prime! when there is an announcement that the train has arrived but it will not be ready to board for another half hour or so everyone jumps up and starts making a mad disorganized line trying to be first, all along we are still chilling in our seats waiting. Once its time to board you are pushed roughly along the mob, i probably wouldnt even need to move my feet and i would just get pushed to where i needed to be. In Chengdu we went out for Hot Pot dinner which is just a big boiling pot of extremely spicey oil that you dip all sorts of raw food inside, and wait for it to cook, its really good but extremely greasy like all chinese food! After our spicely meal we bought some beer from the corner store (there beer is only 3.6% alcohol!) and feeling rebellious i got to drink my beer on the streets and in the taxi we took to the Nightclub. They thought it was pretty funny how pumped i was that it was legal to have a beer out in the open. The Chinese nightclub was a hilarious time. We walked in and i tried to take a picture and immedaitely a security guard grabbed me and told me i wasnt able to... whatever thats about i dont know. The music was mostly Western stuff and at one point they were singing a remix if Happy birthday for no good reason while everyone was still dancing about enjoying the song. There was this one obviously gay guy who was up on the high boxes in front of the DJ just kicking everyones ass at dancing and he got me to come up with him and join him. We danced the night away and i had to choke down a few awful drinks of jackdaniels with a WHOLE lot of water that were given to me. The Chinese really dont need alot of alcohol to get drunk so it tasted like yucky water to me but they got pretty drunk off of it. It was a good night until i had some really random allergic reaction to the pollen in the air or something and could hardly breathe so we had to go back to our hotel.
We ditched the big cities and hiked into the jungle where we spent 3 nights sleeping in monasteries which was suh a peaceful experience. We went on a hike that took us to one of the monasteries hidden away we stayed at and on the way we literally had to fend off monkeys. They were so aggressive and would follow us up the trails wanting food, we had to use our walking sticks to hit them away. We got to experience something really amazing and unique at one of the monaseries; One of the Head monks had passed away and so there was a huge ceremony where they burned the body, lit candles in huge designs and chanted over and over for hours. We were the only white people in a huge mass of monks and as I walked away when it came to a close a little old monk gently handed me an orange, this is a huge honour because it has been blessed by the monks and for good luck and a long life.
This was only the start of the trip but i felt like i really got a good feel for China and had so many great expereiences. However I was excitedly awaiting when we would finially make our way into the mysterious magical land of Tibet...



Tibetan adventures... To be continued :)