We got
ready for our next stop Guilin. We already had booked a hard-sleeper train that
was 20 hours drive. First we were fine with the circumstances, but after
hearing some bad stories about the train rides, we got a little skeptical about
it, but couldn’t and wouldn’t do anything about it. Thought we needed to
experiences it, before we made the judgement. So no big expectations and that’s
probably why we didn’t get disappointed. We booked the top and the middle bunk
bed. There were unfortunately only two seats attached, to the six beds in our
little room (not really a room, but the whole cabin is just filled with bunk
beds, with no doors to the isle). We sat on the two chairs from the beginning,
cause you couldn’t sit in your beds (it was only the lower beds, you could sit
in proberly), and we didn’t wanna lay down for 20 hours. The ride itselves was smooth and comfortable (also this 200 years old train, drove more smoothly on
the tracks, than the newest danish trains does!!!), and the train was equipped
with free hot water, so around dinner time everyone was having cup noodles, and
of cause we brought that aswell. The toilet facilities was in a bad shape, both
toilets were standing toilets and with no handles to hold on to, so your
flexibility and balance were put in a test. And you definitely only went, when
you really needed to. I saw one kid getting carried of his dad, while he was
peeing, and he didn’t hit the toilet hole once, so you can imagine how it looked
out there – and smelled. There was a sink, but no soap and nothing to dry your
hands in.
The people didn’t bother us during the afternoon and evening, but in
the morning the chinese people started to get really noisy, eventhough they sat
right next to each other, they spoke so redicilious loud, and at some point we
started to do the same to each other, just to try to make them realize how loud
they were, but they didn’t even notice that we were making fun of them. Anyway
we got to our destination and felt reliefed of get out of the train. We will
not hesitate to do it again, for sure worth saving that much money. For both of
us we payed 677 RMB (610kr) for over 1600 km train ride. Friday 4th Oct.
In Guilin
we took a public bus, towards the hostel we already booked in advance, luckily
we meet another backpacker (Leah) that was going in the same direction, so we
got lost together with her a few times, before we found the hostel. We booked a
6 beds dormetry room, but apparentely
the hostel made a mistake, so we got a double room for the first night, for the
same amount of money (the next morning we had to change to the dormetry). We
went out for a short walk around the area, and had lunch with the girl – Leah (from
Boston), that we just met, now we could tell that we were far away from the
big cities – there was horse and dog on the menu cards… In the afternoon we chilled, at the hostel and
did some research for our next destination, Yangshou. The evening went by with
a walk around the beautiful lake just near by, and enjoying a beer on the
waterside. We are really getting use to streetfood, so we had that for dinner,
but we’re also still curious about what we’re eating. We’re always asking what
kind of meat it is, but most of the times they can’t tell us, so that’s when we
start to imitate the animals noises and movements. That usually makes the
locals laugh at us, but we’re getting use to that aswell, but they understand
us, and that’s the most important thing.
Later in
the evening, we went for 30 min. food and 30 min. back massage, that came to
200 RMB for both of us. That was sooo well-deserved for our bodies and a great
experience, eventhough Erik hesitated when he realized that he was getting
massage from another guy. Got seriously tired after an hour of relaxation.
Saturday 5th
Oct.
We (us +
Leah) wandered around town, walked by the riverside and watched some more
foodmarkets. For the first time we saw the chickens kept in a cage and small
snakes in net. Pure animals!! We enjoyed lunch in a local restaurant that served raclette, he
didn’t understand a word english, so we pretty much just pointed, at the stuff
we wanted and got a lot of food, which we fried on the pan on the table. In
order not to get it to stick on the pan, we poured a lot of oil on it, so everything we
got was really greasy. I mean it tasted good, but afterwards, it was like when
you have visited Mc Donalds, and ate way too much, and you just feel overfull
and dirty inside.
In the
afternoon we planed to hike a limestone mountain in the middle of the city, and
watch the sunset from the top. Unfurtunately there was a lot of clouds in the
sky, so it wasn’t as beautiful, as it could have been. But still a fantastic
view over the city, and all the limestone mountains . We stayed on the top
until it got dark, and walked down with usefull help from our headlamps. We
spend the night with researching, beers and writing our blog.
Leaving Shanghai with train
Hard sleeper train, packed with loud chinese people
This was our home for 20 hours, I was in the middle bed and Erik in the top
Nice and convenient toilet facilities on board!!!
Just an idea of how bad they translate chinese to english. Notice dog meat chafing dish!!
Enjoyed a beer by a lake and had this view
Fresh steamed rice, vegetables and meat from a street kitchen
Our first dormetry room, shared with 5 others.
Another evidence of the hygiene here...
Pure chiks
Hey there... a nice park in the middle of the city
Greasy raclette with Leah
Erik is showing of with his muscles
Making spices - pretty easy 8% garlic and 92% Chili - works with all food!
This is the first chapter, in our new version of the blog.... It's gonna be in English from this date and forward... So that everybody we meet on our way, (and of course our, not danish, friends in the whole World), can follow us aswell, as those in Denmark.
The 25th of September, was the day we swapped Beijing with Shanghai, we left from Beijing railway station at 11 pm, with the high speed train, and arrived 4 hours and 50 min. later in Shanghai railway station... A Journey on 1318km, with an average speed just over 300km/h - i think compared to the danish trains this average speed is close to 3 times higher, and the comfort (one smooth glide all the way, the train didn't shake from side to side, at one single time, like the danish trains does allmost constantly) and silence is 10 times better.
Not to forget that the train departured and arrived just on time, not a single minute late - oh yeah and the price was 558 Yuan (503 kr) pr. ticket - DSB go read up on your homeworks...
We arrived at our hostel, that was only 1 minute from the metro station, checked in, and got our room - when we opened the door, it was like getting hit by a hammer right in the face.
The smell was really bad, 2 of the walls had big water damages, so it smelled totally fusty (muggent). But we had our own room, with a queensize bed, tv, airconditioning, free wifi and 2 windows to the street for 277 Yuan for 2 nights.
We used the evening looking around in the neighbourhood, and tried the local street food for dinner, which was 14 Yuan for both of us.
Leaving Beijing
The super high speed trains.
Blue Mountain Youth Hostel Shanghai
We had a good night sleep, even though we had to sleep with the windows open (because of the smell), and then the traffic noise from the street, and a lot of mosquito bites, woke us up pretty early.
The day went by, with slendering around, at a close by neighbourhood called "The French Concession", this was really neat made, almost like being in the south of France, with small alleys and nice café's... And tons af Asian streetfood, we tried some different kinds of this. Our breakfast was 5.20 Yuan for both of us, so it's VERY cheap, and actualy the food is more tastefull, than most of the restaurants we have tried so far, and they cost 5-10 times more.
After walking around all of the afternoon, only paused by a quick nap in a park, we went for some more streetfood for dinner, brought it home together with som cup nudles, and went early to bed with a good movie.
What kind of nuddles should we pick??
The French Concessions
Streetfood in the backstreet area
One of the many alleys in French Concessions
Got tired of all that research
Next morning we ate some streetfood for breakfast again, and walked to a train ticket offices, to buy our next tickets to Guilin (1621km for 677 Yuan for both of us), we had some really big problems telling the girl at counter what we wanted, because she didn't understand ANY english, but after a while we managed to make some good drawings, and we now hope that we got the right tickets :-/ (2 hardsleeper beds).
At 12 a clock we checked out of the hostel. Today was the day where we should change the hostel out, with a new kind of travelling accomodation called "Couchsurfing". A trip by the subway brought us to our couchsleeper host - Angela from Taiwan, we found her place, after walking by it a couple of times.
After a quick chat with her, we left to meet up with our friends from Denmark, Annette and Jannik, that just arrived in the morning, they are visiting us, and Jannik's twin brother Jakob and his boyfriend. We went through the French Concessions again, and found a decent bar to grab a beer at, and one beer took the other, had a great night out and got home in a reasonable time.
On the way to our couchsurfer host, and Erik is loaded...
Next day we arranged to meet up at people square. We were told that there should be some kind of dating in the park, apparently its parents from all over Shanghai that are bringing posters, with information about their child, how much money he/she makes, height, weight, education etc. Some of them even have pictures shown aswell. So the park is litterally full of parents that wanna get their kids married. Really strange how its actually is the parents that are dating first, before they pick a guy/girl for their children.
After this unusual experience, we walked to the urban exhibition center, and found a big model over Shanghai. Quite impressive and entertaining.
Walked to "The Bund", which is Shanghai's biggest turistattraction, an old colonial, and a place of feverish trading and fortunes made and lost. Now its transformed into the most powerfull banks and trading houses in Shanghai, together with a big restaurant zone and the city's most exclusive shops and hotels. On the other side of the canal you see Pudong's skyline, which is the newest developed part of Shanghai. Unfortunately we were unlucky that it just started to rain a little, but we were prepared for that. All the other days have been great, not to hot, not to cold, around 25-28 degrees.
Went to the old streets, also called "Chinatown", that was filled with people and old traditional houses, quite beautiful but also a big turist trap, if you ask me.
We read about Yuyuan Garden and thought that would be nice to see aswell, I think it would have been more pretty during spring, but still neat and fascinating by now.
After that, we went to the huge shopping street, Nanjing road, just to have a look. Everything is enormous huge and theres blinking neon lights everywhere, big tv screens, advertising everywhere and ridiculous crowded all over the place. Definately like any other big city in the world. So we all agreed to get the heck out of there as soon as possible.
We were gonna go for dinner with Jannik's brother and his boyfriend (Jakob & Bo), at a hotpot restaurant. There was a big queue, when we got to the place, so we decided to grab a beer somewhere else, while we were waiting for Jakob & Bo. Someone told us that it was just around a corner, but what we realized one time and for all, is that when people from the bigger cities says, that its just aroung the corner, it means that its at least a few kilometres away. So we ended up getting really thirsty when we finaly found the bar. Walked the whole way back to the restaurant to finally have the dinner all together. The services at this restaurant, was better than we have ever tried anywhere else in China so far - actually this one HAD service!!!
We went out for some drinks afterwards, at a pool bar and ended up at a gay club...
Dating in the park
This is at a museum.. An usual day at work..!! This is really a common sight, the chinese people are sleeping everywhere.
A model over Shanghai.
Anyone up for a barbeque on the balcony..??
Chinese herb medicine, which almost nobody believes in anymore. But apparently somebody is willing to pay 3880 yuan for medicine that probably dosen't work.
The Bund - Annette & Jannik
The old streets of Shanghai
Some weirdos I saw in Yuyuan garden
Neat little area in the garden
Still in the gardens
Another weird human
A little squirrel
Trimming Bon-Sai trees (I dont know the little nerd behind me)
Nanjing road (the huge shopping street)
Just next to Nanjing Rd. The girl in the red shirt is literaelly cutting fishes directly on the ground, thats unfortunately the hygienic we see a lot.
Sunday we meet up with Annette & Jannik again, and went to a smaller town 30km outside of Shanghai, called Zhujiajiao. Its known as the "Venice of Shanghai", a waterside town with a lot of antique buildings and markets, from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The town was calm and peacefull, specially after 3 weeks in the bigger cities, this was really something that we appreciated a lot.
We rented a bamboo boat with a captain, and took a cruise along the river.
For lunch we found a "nice" restaurant, but apparently no one spoke english. They had a english menucard, but it didnt describe the meal well. There was like 5-6 people at work, and we were the only ones in the restaurant, so as soon as we got the menucard all these waiters (or it seemed more like a family) were standing around our table, waiting for our order. I mean come on, give us a minute. (its actually not the first time this happend). But we managed to tell them with body language, that we needed more time. Eventually we were ready to order, but wasn't sure what we ordered. It took like 5 minutes to order rice, cause we needed to find translations in our books, after that we had troubles with ordering soya sauce etc.
An older guy came to our table, and started playing on some kind of traditional chinese instrument, Erik tried to intice me to play it, but i rejected, unless he would dance while i was playing. The guy definitely expected to get some money out of this, so Annette said that she would pay "the session" if we did it. Jannik immediately asked the guy, if I could try to play the instrument. And the video below will show how that went!!!
In the afternoon we took the bus home again. There's always two people working on the busses here, one is driving (which we appreciate) and the other is a "ticket lady" (in China they're jobs for everything - thats how they try to keep the unemployment rate down to a minimum). So just as we thought we could have a good rest on the way home, this "ticket lady" and a male passenger started argueing, we dont know about what, but we could sense on the tone, that they were getting in a big verbal fight. Both of them got really mad, and it seemed like they thought, they were the only ones in the bus, even it was totally full, they started yelling at each other, and at some point the guy walked up to the lady and pointed his fingers really close to her face (we were sure that he was gonna hit her) and the argument went on for a while. I dont think they ever came to an agreement but eventually they stopped. We were surprised that none of the chinese passengers said anything, or tried to stop them.
Well, we got back to Shanghai safe! We separated from A & J, and went to see our host, at her job in a Louis Vuitton store downtown.
Cruising down the river
View from the boat
Tiny canal with small shops along the sides
Lotus flowers is very common to eat out here
Just a beautiful view from the restaurant we had lunch at
Street kitchens on both sides of the road.
Angela's work
They just re-opened the store, so a lot of things happend in there...
And here is, my sweet revenge:
The next morning Angela made breakfast for us, with hashbrowns, sausage from Taiwan, jam, homemade scones and hot soyabean milk. We were a bit sceptical with the milk, but didn't hesitate to try it, and it was surprisingly good. She took us for a walk to Suzhou river (does anyone remember the scandal about the farmers throwing dead pigs in the river, about 5-6 month ago?) Then thats the one.
We were supposed to buy groceries, for danish dinner the day after, so Angela took us to a local market. We have been on a few of them and they have absolutely no hygienic what-so-ever, the meat is NOT refrigurated, you wont believe how dirty the tables, knifes and cutting boards are. And you never know how long the meat has been out from the fridge, and how many people have touched it. We quickly realized that we were NOT able, to buy our groceries in there. Vegetables, fruit and all kind of dry food is allright to buy at those markets, its cheeper than at the normal stores, you're just gonna wash it properly.
Angela were laughing at us, because we were so shocked and she couldn't understand it, when we told her that a place like that, would be closed immediately in Denmark.
Anyway, we went for lunch with our very friendly and easy-going host, at one of her favorite restaurants. She pretty much decided all our courses, so we got to try a lot of different Shanghai-nese specialities. We enjoyed all the small meals and the fact that you dont rush with eating it.
We split up with her, and went for dinner at Jakob & Bo's place (a large penthouse apartment on 20th floor), together with Jannik, Annette and 3 other guys (1 from China, 2 from USA) and their labrador - Anton.
We had a nice and funny night there with loads of food and beverage.
Lunch with Angela
Bo and the great skyline view from their appartments balcony
This is such a long way from the backpacker style, but I guess we will learn it soon...
Still not backpacking.. But having fun
Our dinner hosts Bo, Anton & Jakob (and Jannik)
Next day we went for the grocerie shopping in a "normal" supermarket, Carrefour. It took us a few hours before we found everything we needed, and we had to change some of the salats, cause they didn't have all the different vegetables we wanted,but instead they have a lot, that we have never seen before, eventually we got it all under control and were ready to go "home". We cooked 3 courses of "danish" food, which we served for Angela and one of her friends - Evelin. They lived and studied together in France and thats how they meet, so both girls are really international and good at english. Annette & Jannik came for the dinner aswell. We made tuna/pasta salat, aspargus with bacon, scalloped white cabbage (stuvede hvidkål), fried meatballs (frækkedunser), boiled potatoes and pancakes with ice cream. Angela never tried to make pancakes before, so she found that really interesting and fascinating, and did some herself. Again a great night but with less alcohol, which was fine.
Dinner at "our" place (Angela's)
Yesterday the 2nd of Oct, have been a relaxing day, we didn't go out at all, instead Erik did all our laundry and cleaned Angela's appartment, as a thanks for letting us stay here, while I was on the computer most of the day, updating the blog... He's really been my house bitch, ha ha...
Today we're leaving by train (20 hours) to Guilin, where we're gonna stay a few days, and after that a few days in Yangshuo. We are looking forward to get out of the big city, and see the nature and countryside of China.
