Travel Chaos

So, you may or may not have read in the news there's a bit of problem with travel this week. Planes, trains and roads are all in complete chaos as piles of snow descends on the UK with no means of stopping and unfortunately I managed to get caught up in it. On Friday we flew back from Beijing into Heathrow Terminal 5, the flight was fine but once we'd landed the pilot announced that we'd have to wait "tens of minutes" for a gate to become available for us, this seemed ok as the plane was still running and you could see the terminal building so it wasn't like we were in the middle of nowhere. About 30 minutes later the pilot announced that we were waiting for a gate and would be stuck there for the next hour. He explained that we were 16th in a queue of planes waiting for a gate and it should take about an hour to clear. Although this was frustrating they kept the in flight entertainment on and continued to serve drinks. Once that 1 hour was up the captain announced that we would be stuck for another hour. People were really starting to get annoyed now, we'd already been stuck for 1 1/2 hours after we thought we'd off the plane and setting off home and now there was the possibility that we'd be stuck for another hour. Little did we know. The captain did explain that it was a problem on the ground, that the staff couldn't de-ice the runways quick enough for flights to take off, which was why we were waiting for a gate. This all seemed completely ridiculous as Terminal 5 had cost so much to make and open why couldn't they ensure that there were good practises in place for such an event? I know everyone goes on about how it never snows much in England, but it's been pretty heavy the past 3 years so you'd think they'd be a bit more prepared. Anyway, as the hours rolled in the situation became less funny and more stressful. Everyone was hungry, thirsty and annoyed and the cabin crew didn't have any new information. Eventually the captain announced that we had a gate and we slowly made our way there. Everyone seemed pretty relieved to be getting off the plane.......no such luck. Once we'd parked at the gate we were told that because we were so far away from the terminal building we'd have to wait for buses to take us from the plane there. It really did seem that everything was going wrong especially as we were at the back of the economy cabin so we'd have to wait until everyone else had got off before we had the chance of catching a bus. Another 30 minutes passed by and we EVENTUALLY made it off the plane (good riddance) and onto a freezing cold bus. We'd landed at 3.10pm and now it was around 7.30pm so it was getting cold. Once we were in the terminal it was slightly better, customs and border control were pretty quick affairs but the baggage hall was a nightmare. You literally had to fight to get your bag back as there were hundreds of people waiting for theirs. I was so glad to finally get through arrivals and away for Heathrow and I honestly have never felt more relieved to be home especially after seeing on the news about how flights have been cancelled all across the country and people have become trapped abroad. Phew is a understatement. It was a stressful end to 3 amazing months in Asia that I'll never forget. I think I'm currently in a state of shock as it sinks it that it's all over.....for now anyway. Who knows what 2011 will bring? Hopefully not more snow.....

Beijing Bliss

So, I have finally arrived back in the UK (post to follow over the next few days once jet lag has buggered off) and I'm trying to catch up on everything I've failed to blog about so here's a quick one about our stopover in Beijing. Beijing is a complex city, for one it's absolutely massive. The city and surrounding districts is roughly around the size of Belgium, absolutely mind boggling to someone whose once bustling country seems tiny compared to China's 1,331,000,000 (roughly) population which itself is growing at a rate of knots. The city is a constant building site, creating new homes and jobs for the masses and if you've never seen anything on this scale before it really is incredible to see. The subway is packed, if you think you've seen rush hour on the tube, the Beijing subway is about 10 times busier and no one queues, which can be great when you need to shove in at the front of an escalator. The residents of Beijing themselves are lovely people, very charming, inquisitive and shy, some stare at you in curiosity, some with pure fear and some just out of interest. You have to become pretty thick skinned when visiting the city especially if you aren't a fan of staring because people will stare. All the time, everywhere, for prolonged periods of time. You find yourself becoming completely oblivious to it but it does take a few days to adjust.


The city itself is a big hub of ancient history and modern consumerism, throw together in a weird but fantastic mix and there's always something to see and do., We kept ourselves busy with the usual, Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Great Wall and Mao's embalmed body and tonnes of shopping, there's so many malls it actually makes me drool to think about it. Before we got to Beijing I didn't have a particularly good impression of it from what other people we'd met had said, so I was really pleased to find I loved it. Although we'd spent lots of time in busy Asian cities, full of cars, motorbikes, hagglers and the sellers and the like, Beijing is in a league of its own and everyday there was something new to amaze me. I'd recommend China to anyone and am definately going to go back and visit whenever I can scrape funds together to pay for a flight (or if Heathrow ever re-opens). There really is something very special about Beijing and here are a few of my choice photos to let you see what I've been lucky enough to see.

Goodbye Vietnam, Hello China

So it has definatly become more difficult to blog. The last 2 weeks have been such a big blur of activity that I've found it impossible to sit down at a computer and write anything. But I've managed to squeeze in a few brief minutes to update on the adventures. After the last post of Halong Bay we head to the mountainous region of Sapa in North Vietnam. Compared to the scorching weather we had experienced in the bay this came as a bit of a shock at first, and we were both quick to comment on how "freezing" it was (we'd clearly not checked the weather forecast for china). The vietnamese don't seem that big on central heating so we were stuck in a cold room with no hot water, bit of a bugger as we'd just disembarked a 10 hour coach ride. Eventually after hot showers and lots of hot chocolate we set off to explore the old French hill station of Sapa, which is so beautiful. It was really weird, being in the middle of Vietnam yet feeling like you were in the Alps. The town itself has adopted a real alpine ski lodge feel to it and apart from the hordes of hilltribe people we could have been anywhere in Europe. The first night was spent exploring and catching up on much needed sleep and on the second day we set off with our new tribe "friends" (i.e women who want to sell you stuff). The men of the town work in the village and surrounding fields and the women learn english, make crafts and head off out to sell them to tourists. They are quite good company though and help you along the way, especially when it got really muddy on the second day trek. The first day was quite tame, 12km trek across flat ground with quite nice weather. We were teamed up with a nice german man called Torsten and an Australian woman called Hayley, and it was nice to have an intimate group. After the day trekking and haggling and buying, we ended up in our hilltribe village, complete with a hilarious sign with such phrases as "DO disrespect local laws" and "DO dress sexy when visiting the village". Clearly the local teenagers had fun with that one. We were staying in a simple house with a lovely family who cooked us the most amazing buffet style dinner and insisted we drink some horrendous local rice wine. There was no sipping involved and after several shots and a long bout of drinking games with some friendly americans it was time to call it a night.

The next day was a shorter walk, only 6km but as it had rained the night before it was so much harder. The clay had become slosh and made it impossible to walk up or down any sort of incline. The only way we made it was through sheer determination and the help of several tribe ladies, some with babies strapped to their backs. We eventually made it back to Sapa, freezing, muddy and covered in blisters but triumphant, the trek was really enjoyable and we met some really lovely people. We caught a disasterous night bus to Hanoi that night and spent a few days in the city before flying to Beijing last sunday. And that's where we are now, hiding from the freeeeeeeeeeezing temperatures outside and enjoying the company and hospitality of the Kemp family. Off to see the Great Wall tomorrow before heading home on Friday after three incredible months. When we return to blighty I'll be sure to write an update on China. Until then..............

On a Boat

So folks it's yet again been a while since I've had a chance to sit down and update this blog. Vietnam has been hit hard with the wifi stick too so I've been keeping connected through my itouch, which is notoriously difficult to type on so I must admit I've yet again left the blog for a bit too long. Sorry blog.

So we're about to enter the final week, the last few have gone by in such a blur it's amazing to think how much we've done, seen and the people we've met. It all started when we left Hoi Ann for Hanoi, after a dreaded night bus, in which I ended up next to a drunk Vietnamese man who took up so much space I ended up sleeping on the floor (not best pleased) we arrived in Hanoi around 7am and were whisked off to a guesthouse owned by a really lovely Vietnamese family. We had to wait a while for a room, as it was so early other guests hadn't checked oout and we couldn't view the room etc etc so whilst we waited Hien talked us through their tour packages for Halong Bay and Sapa, two places we knew we wanted to visit. 1 hour and several sweet coffees later we had an entire week booked up and planned thanks to Hien's expertise and persuasive talk. And the 4 coffees I drunk.

Anyway, 8am the next day we were picked up and taken to Halong City to board our junk boat setting sail for Halong Bay, a beautiful archipeligo of islands off the north coast of Vietnam. Here's a few prime shots:

We'd paid a bit more for a deluxe boat which turned out to be brilliant, although we were the youngest people on the boat, many of the others were older couples or old polish people (who were determined not to talk to anyone else on the boat, EVER). We ended up befriending a hilarious German lady named Evie who introduced herself and was quick to mention that she thought "all Germans are very rude". Priceless. We also met a lovely Canadian couple called Jessie and Marc, who added to my belief that canadians are such a good bunch of people. I know you can't really generalise people according to their nationality, but every canadian we've met since we've been travelling have been amazing. The first day and night were spent kayaking, visiting various island caves and drinking and eating. The food was absolutely amazing, fresh seafood everyday and massive portions. It was served in a buffet style so it was easy to share and what not. The boat staff tried to get us to do kareoke but suprisingly no one wanted to have a go so after a few glasses of local wine everyone headed to bed. The sea was so calm so there were no problems sleeping that night in our posh deluxe cabin.

The next day we left the boat at Cat Ba island and joined another group on the not-so-deluxe boat next door. There were 27 of us in total (our guide made a point of telling us this) and we were introduced to our tour guide for the next day, Mr Ice T. I can't remember why he was called this but everyone in asia seems to have some sort of hilarious name. We went to Cat Ba National Park and embarked upon a 5km bike ride to a nearby hospital cave. During the war it was used by Vietnamese troops to treat their wounded as Cat Ba island was quite heavily bombed. It was really eerie and absolutely massive, it even included it's own indoor swimming pool and cinema. The bike ride was really laid back, there was an assortment of old city bikes and new mountain bikes and despite Mr Ice T telling us we could only cycle 2 side by side we managed about 6 without him minding. Back at the minibus we drove to the port and took a boat to Monkey Island, where we would be spending our second night. It was beautiful, and completely deserted except for our bungalows so we were really lucky. The sun was out, the sand was white and we soon settled on some loungers and found ourselves sipping cocktails. Started talking to two Australian boys who, VERY weirdly happened to have lived in Bath for a year in 2006. Very very small world seeing as not a lot of people you meet out here have heard of Bath anyway. This led to more cocktails and some beer before we were decided to go with Mr T for a "small trek" across the island to find the monkeys. We wore flip flops and "small trek" actually resembled a hardcore rockclimb up the island. But thankfully we eventually found the monkeys so it was worth it. Except one of the monkeys bit someone, so that was a tad harsh. The evening was spent drinking local beer and playing drinking games until the early hours, the other boat was full of backpackers our age so we could let loose a bit more.

Saturday morning- we got picked up quite early and started our long journey back to Hanoi. It included boat + minibus + another boat + coach and once back in Hanoi we boarded the night bus to Sapa, but that's another post! Check back for more updates, soon to fly to China and for the adventure to be over (sob sob).