opon arriving in Vanuatu the first thing i noticed was how flat it was with just a few hills and volcano's, the humidity hit me as soon as i left the aeroplane. breathing felt different for a while, the air tasted different. anyway i passed through customs where they have a live string band. nice touch i think. they should try that in England. i met sue in the airport(the woman in charge of the volunteering placements) she took me to my accommodation, told me a Little bit about Vanuatu and then left me to explore. I had arrived a week before the other volunteers were due to arrive.
later that day i walked into town to check out the town. there wasn't really much of it and this was the biggest town in Vanuatu. there was a really nice market and lots of Chinese owned shops selling fake stuff. and some duty free shops. the main thing that shocked me was how expensive things were. everything was more highly priced than England but i guess its because of frait charges.
my room was pretty nice a single room with a fan very small with one bed with a thin mattress and a mozzy net. but it was good Enif for me. the habiscus motel (where i was staying) had a communal kitchen with a hob and a fridge so i was living off instant noodles and beens for the next week.
in the next 7 days i explored the island went snorkeling at some beaches. went running in the mornings and went on a tour of the island that took me to a worrier tribe and some really really big trees and spiders. i learnt abit about Vanuatu. turns out that most of there economy comes from coconuts. they are coconut farms everywhere both the green and brown coconuts. also if you want a wife here you need a pig. they are many wild bores in the bush.
Vanuatu has over 100 different languages and is one of the most diverse in the world. most people speak 3 or 4 languages. 1) there local tribal language 2)bislama(a pidgion english) 3)badly spoken french or badly spoken english. my job when i start teaching will be to try and improve there english skills. but i will also have to learn the national language Bislama to help interact with the locals and realy imerse my self into the culture.
on the 28th of jan the rest of the Volunteers arrived. Sue told me to meet her at the airport so i could meet all the volunteers when they arrive. i caught a buss from outside the motel. the buses here are pretty much just minivans with a big red B in the license plates taxis have a T government cars have a G etc. anyway it costs 150 Vatu to get anywhere in town. ou just tell the driver where you want to go and he takes you there *eventually* after he has dropped everyone else in the buss off.
sue arrived at the airport about 10 mins after me just as the first volunteers were arriving and going through customs and passed the live string band.
they were 2 boys and 14 girls. 7 english, 1 scottish, 1 new zealander, 1 american living in new zealand and 6 Australians. a nice mix. we all got a buss back together and sue left us at the acomadation to get to know each other. my placement partner is an english guy called pete. we have alot in common with regards to traveling, martial arts etc so im sure we will get on well in the next 6 months. the next day we decided to have abit of a party so i got a crate of beer and just got everyone to pay me after for the beer they drank. anyway we played lots of drinking games, card games etc and a weird wearwolf game. i wasn't complaining about been out numbered 1 boy to 7 girls. it was a fun night.
the next couple of days i showed everyone around the area and told them what i new about vanuatu.
a week after arrival we headed to an island called Knuna for 3 days to live with a host family and learning more about the culture and to start mastering the language Bislama. wich is not actually that hard as they have very little grammar. my name is frazer = name blong me frazer.
and to ask someone there name you simply say name blong yu?
you can see how it is derived from english. but some words are harder to see how it has derived from english.
anyway, knuna was amazing. i was put in a host family with mike, an ozzy volunteer. they taught us how to wash clothes by hand and cook using a fire. how to cook local food (bislama = kae kae) such as LapLap made from root vegetables and bannanas. i asked my host brother what he did for fun and he said fire stones at chickens and pigs, showed me his slingshot and let me have a go........it was fun. later that dayt we all had a bislama lesson in the community hall, looked more like a community hut to me. anyway. on the night the men showed me, pete and mike how they make the local intoxicating drug kava. the drug is made by grinding up the Kava root and miking it with water. the muddyish mix is then sived through tights and the muddy water that is releaced is the drinkable Kava. later that night we tried the kava in the kava hut. there version of a pub. the kava is drunk in shells and drank like a shot. it has a similar effect to alcohol, but no hangover apparently. anyway we all had a great time drinking kava wih the girls and listning to the locals play guitar. on some of the islands women are not alowed to drink or even view making of kava, here they are not allowed to be involved in the making.
in the next couple of days we checked out the island, played sports and football with the kids, tried climbing cocanut trees and tried all the fruits the bush offered. from cocanuts to wierd gient nut like fruit, i was chewing on shuger kane and drinking cocanut milk. they make this delicious food by cooking these huge nuts and covering them in cocanut milk and shredded flesh. so delicious!!! my host mum also made some home made bread dipped in cocanut milk. the best bread i have ever had. at the end of my time there i gave my host pearents a gift.(its a cultural thing to exchange gifts) i gave them an england flag, and stickers for my youngest host brother and sister. in return they gave me a collerfull bush shirt my host mum made her self.
my time on knuna was an amazing cultural experience i just love how the people living there dont need money they can just live from the bush. the whole village was like a big family with a cheif in charge. its such a relaxed way of life.
heading back to port villa was a let down i was now very excited to get to pentacost where i would be teaching english for 6 months. the next few days we got little things that would be usefukll at owr placements, stationary etc. on Monday 3/4 of the volunteers left for there placement islands (vanuatu is made up of lots of little islands) me, pete and a few of the girls were left waiting to leave on wednesday.
although on tuesday night we were told the plane was broken hmmmmm
we were told we would leave on Sunday instead
opon arriving at the airport on sunday we were told again the aeroplane had broken hmmmmm
we were told we would now leave on thursday, thats tomorrow so hopefully we go then.
i better get packing :)
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Monday, 24 January 2011
New Zealand
I arrived in NZ, Queenstown and was stunned by the beautiful scenery. Defiantly one of the most beautifully views I had seen since I got there. I got the buss to the town in QT and went hostel hunting, after walking around for about an hour and only finding hostels with no rooms left, I went to an information centre and found the last available hostel, but it was right at the top of a hill. At this stage I was regretting bringing so much stuff. 2 backpacks one on the front one on the back, a tent, a full size guitar and 3kg of preteen powder I picked up for Vanuatu as my diet there will have very little meat in it.
The hostel was great, free wifi and beautiful views of the lake and the mountains from up on the hill and only a 10min walk into town. I went into a 8 bed dorm and met 7 bearded guys from israil…..awesome actually I met a lot of people from israil while I was in NZ I found out later its there no1 travel destination. Anyway all of them were pretty cool and two played the guitar and could tune my guitar for me as I had lost my tuner.
I stayed 3 days in queens town taking part in adventourous sports. Jet boating, canyon swinging, rafting and mountain biking. It was epic. Next I headed on a buss to christchurch (10 hours) but half way the buss stopped at a place called lake wannaka and I saw skydives advertized for 150 nzd, very cheep so I got off there instead did the skydive
Next day I went to christchurch, bussy city just had an earthquake so many hostels were closed due to building damages, anyway I found one in the end, I also met a swiz guy on the buss who we went looking for hostels with, he had just come back from thailand so we were swapping a lot of travel stories. I stayed in christchuch 2 nights and then headed off to pickem where I could get a ferry to wellington. WOW wellington is very bussy but also a very interesting city, I would compare it to London. I went up a ski lift for views of the city, what a view!
The next day I headed to Tauronga where my Great Uncle was going to pick me up and take me to KatiKati, he said I could stay with him for a couple of days. It was verry interesting to meet him, he was very knowledgeable about travel and New zealand we had lots to talk about. He Kindly drove me to Auckland a couple of days before my flight to my teaching placement on Vanuatu.
I chilled in auckland a couple of days staying in hostels, on my last net met the first guy I had met who spoke Spanish! Finaly, he was pretty cool ended up hosting a hostel party in my room, got some whyskey vodca and mixes and drunk chilled played the guitar in my room with 3 German girls a spanish guy and a french guy, it was a fun night. I then headed off to the airport to fly to Vanuatu. I was very Excited.
The hostel was great, free wifi and beautiful views of the lake and the mountains from up on the hill and only a 10min walk into town. I went into a 8 bed dorm and met 7 bearded guys from israil…..awesome actually I met a lot of people from israil while I was in NZ I found out later its there no1 travel destination. Anyway all of them were pretty cool and two played the guitar and could tune my guitar for me as I had lost my tuner.
I stayed 3 days in queens town taking part in adventourous sports. Jet boating, canyon swinging, rafting and mountain biking. It was epic. Next I headed on a buss to christchurch (10 hours) but half way the buss stopped at a place called lake wannaka and I saw skydives advertized for 150 nzd, very cheep so I got off there instead did the skydive
Next day I went to christchurch, bussy city just had an earthquake so many hostels were closed due to building damages, anyway I found one in the end, I also met a swiz guy on the buss who we went looking for hostels with, he had just come back from thailand so we were swapping a lot of travel stories. I stayed in christchuch 2 nights and then headed off to pickem where I could get a ferry to wellington. WOW wellington is very bussy but also a very interesting city, I would compare it to London. I went up a ski lift for views of the city, what a view!
The next day I headed to Tauronga where my Great Uncle was going to pick me up and take me to KatiKati, he said I could stay with him for a couple of days. It was verry interesting to meet him, he was very knowledgeable about travel and New zealand we had lots to talk about. He Kindly drove me to Auckland a couple of days before my flight to my teaching placement on Vanuatu.
I chilled in auckland a couple of days staying in hostels, on my last net met the first guy I had met who spoke Spanish! Finaly, he was pretty cool ended up hosting a hostel party in my room, got some whyskey vodca and mixes and drunk chilled played the guitar in my room with 3 German girls a spanish guy and a french guy, it was a fun night. I then headed off to the airport to fly to Vanuatu. I was very Excited.
Australia
australia
my next stop was Australia and although i was upset about leaving Thailand i was excited to get to Sydney as i got to the airport i was stoped and searched, my laptops were checked for porn and my flip knife was confiscated :(
as i was leaving the airport i got talking to a couple of English lads from Manchester, they had just arrived in OZ for one year traveling and working. i told them about a hostel i knew about and asked them if they wanted to share a taxi there. at the hostel we ended up getting a 4 bed room for 34 Australian dollars, cheep for Sydney. i stayed in the room with the 2 english lads and a big black guy from fiji who was very strange and disappeared at 3 o'clock in the morning, left all his things and didn't return. we checked out at 10 and i decided to go traveling with the guys i met at the airport we went to bondai beach shared a taxi to save money as no buss's were running on bank holiday. we found a cheep hostel and checked in.
I stayed at bondi untill after NYE on NYE I went to see the fireworks at the sydney harber and then went back to bondi for the beach party. After I left Bondi I joined on to a surfing camp I had booked earlier. After the first day I was thinking that surfing was not for me and was regretting booking a week on the camp, but after the second day and I managed to stand up a few times I was hooked, surfing is amazing! The rest of the camp was awesome and the instructures had a lot of surfing knowledge we surfed up the east coast all the way from sydney to byron bay and back again. After the course on the way back we swapped photos and facebook details. After I left the coach I went to find a hostel with a couple of mates I had met on the course. As they were also staying in sydney one day. I got a hostel next to the train stantion as I had to go to the airport early the next morning, that’s what I thought anyway, I ended up turning up a day early, better than a day late I guess so I caught the train back to the hostel and checked back in for one more night.
my next stop was Australia and although i was upset about leaving Thailand i was excited to get to Sydney as i got to the airport i was stoped and searched, my laptops were checked for porn and my flip knife was confiscated :(
as i was leaving the airport i got talking to a couple of English lads from Manchester, they had just arrived in OZ for one year traveling and working. i told them about a hostel i knew about and asked them if they wanted to share a taxi there. at the hostel we ended up getting a 4 bed room for 34 Australian dollars, cheep for Sydney. i stayed in the room with the 2 english lads and a big black guy from fiji who was very strange and disappeared at 3 o'clock in the morning, left all his things and didn't return. we checked out at 10 and i decided to go traveling with the guys i met at the airport we went to bondai beach shared a taxi to save money as no buss's were running on bank holiday. we found a cheep hostel and checked in.
I stayed at bondi untill after NYE on NYE I went to see the fireworks at the sydney harber and then went back to bondi for the beach party. After I left Bondi I joined on to a surfing camp I had booked earlier. After the first day I was thinking that surfing was not for me and was regretting booking a week on the camp, but after the second day and I managed to stand up a few times I was hooked, surfing is amazing! The rest of the camp was awesome and the instructures had a lot of surfing knowledge we surfed up the east coast all the way from sydney to byron bay and back again. After the course on the way back we swapped photos and facebook details. After I left the coach I went to find a hostel with a couple of mates I had met on the course. As they were also staying in sydney one day. I got a hostel next to the train stantion as I had to go to the airport early the next morning, that’s what I thought anyway, I ended up turning up a day early, better than a day late I guess so I caught the train back to the hostel and checked back in for one more night.
Leaving Thailand
i really really didn't want to go, i never thought i could like a place as much as i like thailand, this is a place i defo want to live in as soon as passable. the people, the culture, the food, muay thai, the mountains and tropical islands and so cheep. its the perfect place.
in the last week i did a bit of training and some sight seeing, i went to see big budder one mre time this time with my thai friend and my best mate and his brother and mum who had come over to see him from Switzerland. as i was flying away from Thailand, the only thing i was thinking is when can i go back?
in the last week i did a bit of training and some sight seeing, i went to see big budder one mre time this time with my thai friend and my best mate and his brother and mum who had come over to see him from Switzerland. as i was flying away from Thailand, the only thing i was thinking is when can i go back?
Monday, 22 November 2010
moving into the house
the house is insane, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, swimming pool, kitchen, 2 lounges and for just over 100£ a month each instead of before 180 a month for one small room, no air con! crazy.
its so nice to come back after training and jump in the pool, chill out cook some food and sleepl.
i now only have 1 more month left in Thailand. i cant imagine leaving this place for good its so cool. the people are great and the culture and language is so cool! but also i m excited for NZ and OZ it will be nice to go to a country similar to English where i can talk to everyone :D
its so nice to come back after training and jump in the pool, chill out cook some food and sleepl.
i now only have 1 more month left in Thailand. i cant imagine leaving this place for good its so cool. the people are great and the culture and language is so cool! but also i m excited for NZ and OZ it will be nice to go to a country similar to English where i can talk to everyone :D
More Thailand and Muay thai,
after a flight to Bangkok i stayed one night with a couch surfer, she met me at the metro stn we went to eat and then got a tuk tuk back to her house to crash on her couch, in the morning she gave me directions to the train to the airport. i took the train and headed back to PHUKET!!! arriving back in phuket felt like coming home, returning to my friends and the place i have been living and training in for the last 4 months. I like Phuket so much, the place is just so chilled out and relaxed. i went str8 back to the gym to see the trainers and talk about moving into the new house with my friends. they told me they had decided to move in on the 11th of November so i decided to get a cheep room until then. it was great getting back into training, but the week of training has had a big effect on my fitness, i dont seem to have as much energy but for some strange reason i have lost more weaght? i am now 69kg i was 78 when i came to phuket, i can now fight in the 60 - 70 category instead of the 70-80 :D
HONG KONG AND MACAU BEEEEATCH! (edit)
hong kong and abit of macau
5 crazy days in HK and an awesome day in Macau.
the next day i managed to find my host after getting a Chinese sim from 7 11 (a convenience store they have all over asia) anyway i got her to meet me at the McDonald's near her house, i took the subway to shami shui po and followed her directions to the McDonald's. I love the transport systems in asia there so organised, frequent and cheep. anyway i met jaq a really cool girrl, she lives with her dad(with blonde hair :0) and her brother. she gave me keys to her apartment and let me stay in a spare room. i was talking with her until about 3.00pm, very cool chick, interesting to talk to. anyway the next day after not planning what to do as usual i decided to take the metro to a random station and wonder around the city, ended up in the biggest shopping centre i have ever seen with very unsafe looking escalators with hardly any sides? i grabbed some street noodles and then headed to an internt cafe to research where to go and what to see and to organise meeting my friend tomorrow.
(pikky)
the next day i went to meet stella wong, a HK girl i met in Beijing at a couch surfing event. she took me to a traditional HK resteronte and introduced me to Chinese Hot pot, very popular in HK and very tasty indeed. after we wondered around before going to a rooftop bar with a view of the city, they where doing a pyrotechnics display, they were many people running around in monster masks and a guy dressed as mario?, at first i just thought it was the chinease well just been chinease but after aa while i realised it must be halloween, i realy loose track of time when im traveling. the view from the rooftop was so cool. after a couple of cool bears on the roof of a skyscraper looking at the crazyist view ever! oh and a pyrotecnics display we took the tram to lay fan kwong, the busiest street of bars in HK, a very famous area i think feachered in a couple of films, anyway its suposed to be bussy on a normal day, i couldn't imagine what it would be like on Halloween. thousands of nutty Chinese running around dressed as everything, most not realy halloween related, people in borat mankinis, ninjas, Aime charicters, video game characters....lots of video game characters, anyway the place was so bussy you could hardly move. it was redonkulous!!!!! too many crazy people we finally managed to get into a bar after dodging a few pikachus and a vampire. we got a shooter in the bar, some traffic light thingy. very nice. we managed to pik up some haloween hat things so we could join in the madness. later we found a nightclub called 97 and went dancing, this time i was not surprised to see the nuttyist dancers in the world, its just normal for the chinease! one guy(dressed as a redish blueish fish thing) was jumping screaming and punching the roof, actually i don't think he was dancing, he was clearly insane! (OR BAH)
later we went to an Irish bar so i could show stella wong a good solid pint of irish cider :) we finally decided to call it a night at about 4am, as the metro was closed i got a minibus to mong kok and then a taxi to sham shui po. i managed to find my hosts apartment using mcdonalds as my only reference :D
the next couple of days i wondered around hong kong, took many photos went to local restaurants and mcdonalds a couple of times(fat i know XD) jaq my host also took me to a local noodle shop in sham shui po, good spicy noodles that managed to make my nose bleed :O
on Tuesday i decided to leave hong kong, after 5 very cool days, i returned the apartment keys to my host jaq who had been very kind to let me stay at her apartment for 5 days and not complain when i came back at 430am one night. i thanked her and her family and welcomed jaq to come stay with me when she visits england next year.
next to Macau,
i left hong kong and set off on my way to macau. i got the sky train from central to the airport assuming that is where i get the ferry from as i remember seeing signs for ferrys when i arrived in hong kong, i was wrong! you get the ferry from central so i got a buss back to central, busses in hk have wifi btw (cool shit) but the buss drivers are the moodiest bastards in the world Ever!
i went to get a ferry ticket from central and i was asked if i would like a ferry or a helicopter. helicopter!! sweet, i nearly did it but it was double the price. i arrived in macau, the Lass Vegas of Asia and booked a hotel for the night from the airport as i was unable to find a couch to surf. i went for the cheapest hotel, that turned out to have no wifi, damnnnnn. anyway the hotel was nice, i got a motorbike taki to macau tower to find out about the bunjee jump, macau has the highist comertial bungee in the world, the reason i went to macau!!! i found out the jump cost 200£ and double if you want a video/pictures. so expensive but i couldnt come all the way to macau china and not do it so i booked it for the morning before i fly back to Thailand. the view from the top of the tower was redonkulous! i have never seen such an exciting adrenaline pumping view! the bungee itself wasn't that good as its a controlled decent to stop you hitting the building, feels like cheating.
5 crazy days in HK and an awesome day in Macau.
the next day i managed to find my host after getting a Chinese sim from 7 11 (a convenience store they have all over asia) anyway i got her to meet me at the McDonald's near her house, i took the subway to shami shui po and followed her directions to the McDonald's. I love the transport systems in asia there so organised, frequent and cheep. anyway i met jaq a really cool girrl, she lives with her dad(with blonde hair :0) and her brother. she gave me keys to her apartment and let me stay in a spare room. i was talking with her until about 3.00pm, very cool chick, interesting to talk to. anyway the next day after not planning what to do as usual i decided to take the metro to a random station and wonder around the city, ended up in the biggest shopping centre i have ever seen with very unsafe looking escalators with hardly any sides? i grabbed some street noodles and then headed to an internt cafe to research where to go and what to see and to organise meeting my friend tomorrow.
(pikky)
the next day i went to meet stella wong, a HK girl i met in Beijing at a couch surfing event. she took me to a traditional HK resteronte and introduced me to Chinese Hot pot, very popular in HK and very tasty indeed. after we wondered around before going to a rooftop bar with a view of the city, they where doing a pyrotechnics display, they were many people running around in monster masks and a guy dressed as mario?, at first i just thought it was the chinease well just been chinease but after aa while i realised it must be halloween, i realy loose track of time when im traveling. the view from the rooftop was so cool. after a couple of cool bears on the roof of a skyscraper looking at the crazyist view ever! oh and a pyrotecnics display we took the tram to lay fan kwong, the busiest street of bars in HK, a very famous area i think feachered in a couple of films, anyway its suposed to be bussy on a normal day, i couldn't imagine what it would be like on Halloween. thousands of nutty Chinese running around dressed as everything, most not realy halloween related, people in borat mankinis, ninjas, Aime charicters, video game characters....lots of video game characters, anyway the place was so bussy you could hardly move. it was redonkulous!!!!! too many crazy people we finally managed to get into a bar after dodging a few pikachus and a vampire. we got a shooter in the bar, some traffic light thingy. very nice. we managed to pik up some haloween hat things so we could join in the madness. later we found a nightclub called 97 and went dancing, this time i was not surprised to see the nuttyist dancers in the world, its just normal for the chinease! one guy(dressed as a redish blueish fish thing) was jumping screaming and punching the roof, actually i don't think he was dancing, he was clearly insane! (OR BAH)
later we went to an Irish bar so i could show stella wong a good solid pint of irish cider :) we finally decided to call it a night at about 4am, as the metro was closed i got a minibus to mong kok and then a taxi to sham shui po. i managed to find my hosts apartment using mcdonalds as my only reference :D
the next couple of days i wondered around hong kong, took many photos went to local restaurants and mcdonalds a couple of times(fat i know XD) jaq my host also took me to a local noodle shop in sham shui po, good spicy noodles that managed to make my nose bleed :O
on Tuesday i decided to leave hong kong, after 5 very cool days, i returned the apartment keys to my host jaq who had been very kind to let me stay at her apartment for 5 days and not complain when i came back at 430am one night. i thanked her and her family and welcomed jaq to come stay with me when she visits england next year.
next to Macau,
i left hong kong and set off on my way to macau. i got the sky train from central to the airport assuming that is where i get the ferry from as i remember seeing signs for ferrys when i arrived in hong kong, i was wrong! you get the ferry from central so i got a buss back to central, busses in hk have wifi btw (cool shit) but the buss drivers are the moodiest bastards in the world Ever!
i went to get a ferry ticket from central and i was asked if i would like a ferry or a helicopter. helicopter!! sweet, i nearly did it but it was double the price. i arrived in macau, the Lass Vegas of Asia and booked a hotel for the night from the airport as i was unable to find a couch to surf. i went for the cheapest hotel, that turned out to have no wifi, damnnnnn. anyway the hotel was nice, i got a motorbike taki to macau tower to find out about the bunjee jump, macau has the highist comertial bungee in the world, the reason i went to macau!!! i found out the jump cost 200£ and double if you want a video/pictures. so expensive but i couldnt come all the way to macau china and not do it so i booked it for the morning before i fly back to Thailand. the view from the top of the tower was redonkulous! i have never seen such an exciting adrenaline pumping view! the bungee itself wasn't that good as its a controlled decent to stop you hitting the building, feels like cheating.
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Another Blog update from King Kong
its been a while. sorry for no updates but i have been verry well lazy :)
i am currently in Hong Kong doing a visa run from Thailand, yes i want to stay there longer i am addicted to the life style there.
anyway heres whats been happening since my last blog update.
some amount of weeks earlier...........
pretty much everyone i know has left Thailand now and eather gone home or moved on just me an Oli from Switzerland are still here. we are both addicted to muay thai and Thailand. we are both training at a different gym now "Jaruad Champion Gym" a small gym round the corner from my old gym it is run by an X world champion of Muay thai as all the gyms in Thailand seem to be hmmmmm. anyway i moved to this gym mainly because me and oli had made friends with alot of the thai trainers and jaruad himself. i don't really hang around with any Fallang(foreigners) anymore just oli and the thai guys. I usually eat at the gym as the trainers cook great thai food and i can eat for free. also this gym is slightly cheeper than rawai muay thai (40 pounds a month cheeper) and there are only 3 or 4 people who train there so it is always 1 on 1 tuition.
ermmmm some exciting things i have done since my last blog update.......
last week i went to a thai music venue with the thai trainers, me and oli were the only non asian people in the place. the venue was verry dark but the live music was cool, i actually quite like the thai music especially the thai Reggy music. anyway in the venue we ait round a table, it seems to be acceptable to bring your own whisky to bars, clubs, music venues in thailand if your thai so the thai trainers brought 2 bottles of whisky and we purchased soda and ice at the venue. the thai guys drink so much whisky and soda its crazy.
i have been in rawai, phuket so long now when i walk down the street people recognize me and say hi frazer. when i get back from HK me and a couple of students from rawai plan on renting a house, it will work out cheeper than where i a staying now but i will have a 3 bedroom house with cooking facilities and Deng one of the trainers has offered to come round and show me how to cook thai food. to top it all of the house also has a swimming pool. i wish i found out about this earlier.
before coming to HK i spent a night in BKK it was crazy a night in a 4 star hotel for only 1000 Baht. BKK is like Beijing but with even more crazy people. i went out, walked through a few cool markets, purchased a cool t-shirt, wnt to a bar, played some pool and then returned to the hotel for sleep. the thai language is soooo cool. i have actually learnt quite alot, i speak more thai than some thai people speek english now.
in the morning i went to see the BKK temple and then headed to HK once in the airport i got the sky train to HK island. such a cool view from the train, amazing architecture everywhere. when in HK i followed directions to a couch i had been told i could crash on (www.couchsurfing.org) although i got close i couldnt find it. i got a taxi to a hotel. this time prepared with a list of useful Cantonese phrases as expected the taxi driver didn't speak English. i got to the hotel and crashed out.
what i have planned.,,,....
i plan to spend a few says in HK and meet a few couch surfers and also stella wong. i met stella wong in Beijing and i have arraigned to go have dinner with her tonight and she wants to show me around HK. after HK i plan to spend a day in Macau to do the highest bunjee jump in the world. i am very excited for Macau, the lass vegas of asia!!! should be fun!
frazer out!
i am currently in Hong Kong doing a visa run from Thailand, yes i want to stay there longer i am addicted to the life style there.
anyway heres whats been happening since my last blog update.
some amount of weeks earlier...........
pretty much everyone i know has left Thailand now and eather gone home or moved on just me an Oli from Switzerland are still here. we are both addicted to muay thai and Thailand. we are both training at a different gym now "Jaruad Champion Gym" a small gym round the corner from my old gym it is run by an X world champion of Muay thai as all the gyms in Thailand seem to be hmmmmm. anyway i moved to this gym mainly because me and oli had made friends with alot of the thai trainers and jaruad himself. i don't really hang around with any Fallang(foreigners) anymore just oli and the thai guys. I usually eat at the gym as the trainers cook great thai food and i can eat for free. also this gym is slightly cheeper than rawai muay thai (40 pounds a month cheeper) and there are only 3 or 4 people who train there so it is always 1 on 1 tuition.
ermmmm some exciting things i have done since my last blog update.......
last week i went to a thai music venue with the thai trainers, me and oli were the only non asian people in the place. the venue was verry dark but the live music was cool, i actually quite like the thai music especially the thai Reggy music. anyway in the venue we ait round a table, it seems to be acceptable to bring your own whisky to bars, clubs, music venues in thailand if your thai so the thai trainers brought 2 bottles of whisky and we purchased soda and ice at the venue. the thai guys drink so much whisky and soda its crazy.
i have been in rawai, phuket so long now when i walk down the street people recognize me and say hi frazer. when i get back from HK me and a couple of students from rawai plan on renting a house, it will work out cheeper than where i a staying now but i will have a 3 bedroom house with cooking facilities and Deng one of the trainers has offered to come round and show me how to cook thai food. to top it all of the house also has a swimming pool. i wish i found out about this earlier.
before coming to HK i spent a night in BKK it was crazy a night in a 4 star hotel for only 1000 Baht. BKK is like Beijing but with even more crazy people. i went out, walked through a few cool markets, purchased a cool t-shirt, wnt to a bar, played some pool and then returned to the hotel for sleep. the thai language is soooo cool. i have actually learnt quite alot, i speak more thai than some thai people speek english now.
in the morning i went to see the BKK temple and then headed to HK once in the airport i got the sky train to HK island. such a cool view from the train, amazing architecture everywhere. when in HK i followed directions to a couch i had been told i could crash on (www.couchsurfing.org) although i got close i couldnt find it. i got a taxi to a hotel. this time prepared with a list of useful Cantonese phrases as expected the taxi driver didn't speak English. i got to the hotel and crashed out.
what i have planned.,,,....
i plan to spend a few says in HK and meet a few couch surfers and also stella wong. i met stella wong in Beijing and i have arraigned to go have dinner with her tonight and she wants to show me around HK. after HK i plan to spend a day in Macau to do the highest bunjee jump in the world. i am very excited for Macau, the lass vegas of asia!!! should be fun!
frazer out!
Saturday, 18 September 2010
Day ermm errrrr er.....more Thailand
its been a while since i did a blog update, i have been very busy with training and traveling. in the last 2 or 3 weeks since i last updated i have moved out of the gym and changed to cheaper accommodation, changed gyms to a cheaper gym with better trainers in my opinion and spent a night in hospital with a throat infection and fervor.
Awesome right?
one cool thing i did last week was a Bungee jump! so much fun, i just love adrenaline sports. I did two jumps a water touch jump where i got dunked into the lake and a catapult bungee where i am attached to the ground the bungee is stretched and i am released and fired into the sky! best thing ever! just epic!
another cool thing that happened was spending a night in a police station, one of my friends was accused of steeling a phone from a girl in a bar in Thailand. the story goes, we were all drinking in a bar, orange juice of cause as we are sports men... ;) anyway a man was refusing to pay his bill and well he ended up fighting a lady boy. the police were called then a girl accused us of steeling a phone, the police searched us all. The phone was found on one of my friends, a girl from the UK called Nat, she claimed that it was her phone and that the girl must have one the same. the police were having none of it and told us she would have to come with them to the police station, they said one person could go with her,so i went. the police wanted a bribe of 200'000 bahtor she does one year in the slammer. i said thatz ridiculous, later some more of my friends arrived at the station one was a police officer from Bahrain so i let him do the talking , then 100,000 then 50,000 anyway in the end she had to do one night in the slammer and pay a 15000 baht bribe, about £300. kalid payed the fine for her as she couldn't get the money and would have had to stay a year in prison if someone didn't pa the fine. kindest Arab i have ever met.
allot of my friends left this last week which was a little depressing, Nat from England, Khalid from Bahrain, Stephan from Switzerland, Joel from NZ(my room mate for a month), Alexandra and wajeeeha from Australia and Courtney from England. all cool people i hope to see again in the future. its great how we can all get along so well even though were all from totally different backgrounds and cultures. we all seem to have one thing in common Murray Thai and drinking.
overall i am still enjoying it in Thailand, they are still many cool people still hear some i hope to travel with for a bit in Thailand before moving onto Australia. i am still hoping to fight i want to experience the rush.
Thailand is SUPER!
Monday, 23 August 2010
WEEK 7 DAY 46 - 53
event full week, managed to crash a motorbike, get an eye infection, visit an Island with insane nightlife and chill on beautifull beaches :)
i didn't train much this week as i caught an eye infection on Tuesday, the trainers wouldn't let me train as it is infectious, so i just ran and used weight's, i couldn't spar, pad work etc. so as i couldn't train i thought i may as well go out and sample the nightlife a couple of times, there was 5 or 6 of us with pink eye and therefore no shortage of people to go out with, people dont tend to go out while training as it can effect your training dramatically but we all couldn't train so we thought what the hek!
had a awsome 4 days chilling on beaches, going paint balling, drinking, socialising, playing cards and just having tonnes of fun.
on the weekend we managed to get 9 of us together who wanted to go to Phi Phi island for the weekend, for the beaches, the nightlife and the scoober diving. booked a minibus to pick us up from the gym and take us to the port. about an hour and a half ferry ride to Phi Phi. WOW such amazing views, beautiful clear water, hundreds of tiny tropical islands!
the weekend was pretty crazy fun! i have never been to such a cool place and so cheep as well. best weekend ever!
got back from phi phi Sunday grabbed some food, chilled then went to sleep to prepare for a full weeks training next week, now my eye infection and motorbike accident wounds have healed thanks to some crazy medication combo i got from the local doctor.
Day 46 Thailand is Cooool
day 46(Munday 15th of August)
back into training after a chilled out sunday off, i had so much energy. great training sesions, did some training in the ring with Tuk, my kicks are getting spot on now!
back into training after a chilled out sunday off, i had so much energy. great training sesions, did some training in the ring with Tuk, my kicks are getting spot on now!
Day 45 Train and Surf
day 45(Sunday 14th of August)
woke up late
went to kata beach on the scooter with joel my room mate, chilled there, surfed went back wached a movie and went to sleep.
woke up late
went to kata beach on the scooter with joel my room mate, chilled there, surfed went back wached a movie and went to sleep.
Day 44 Tuk Tuk
day 44(Saturday 14th of August)
another days training on the beautiful beach of rawai, Phuket. such a good day, great workout. concentrated on cardio in the Beach training and grappling in the gym training, good fun. after the training we all went out as its saturday night. i plan to go out every couple of weekends. it was good fun we started at the bar next to the gym then headed to the next bar in the back of a truck, managed to get about 10 of us in it. one of the thai trainers offered to take us down there. the strange thing is that he was watching some kind of weird pornography while driving the truck.........only in Thailand. W went to a couple of bars near where the truck dropped us of, Karihn was trying it on with the cook in one of the bars, so funny. after that we managed to get 6 of us in a 4 seater taxi, and went to a reggy bar. then to a nightclub, as i was walking home from the nightclub a random thai girl stopped on her scooter and said. "where you go" i say i go to Rawai gym and point forward, she said ""no no rawai gym that way" and pointed in the other direction, she offered to give me a lift. and took me to the gym on the back of the scooter at this stage i was quite drunk wich makes it quite hard to balance on the back of a scooter. anyway she dropped me to off at the gym, i offered to pay her but she said "no no this fine i take you home free ok". i dont even think she was a real taxi. very kind of her.
another days training on the beautiful beach of rawai, Phuket. such a good day, great workout. concentrated on cardio in the Beach training and grappling in the gym training, good fun. after the training we all went out as its saturday night. i plan to go out every couple of weekends. it was good fun we started at the bar next to the gym then headed to the next bar in the back of a truck, managed to get about 10 of us in it. one of the thai trainers offered to take us down there. the strange thing is that he was watching some kind of weird pornography while driving the truck.........only in Thailand. W went to a couple of bars near where the truck dropped us of, Karihn was trying it on with the cook in one of the bars, so funny. after that we managed to get 6 of us in a 4 seater taxi, and went to a reggy bar. then to a nightclub, as i was walking home from the nightclub a random thai girl stopped on her scooter and said. "where you go" i say i go to Rawai gym and point forward, she said ""no no rawai gym that way" and pointed in the other direction, she offered to give me a lift. and took me to the gym on the back of the scooter at this stage i was quite drunk wich makes it quite hard to balance on the back of a scooter. anyway she dropped me to off at the gym, i offered to pay her but she said "no no this fine i take you home free ok". i dont even think she was a real taxi. very kind of her.
Friday, 13 August 2010
Day 43 Western Style!
day 43(Friday 13th of August)
great days training again! did some sparing in the ring, Western style though no elbows, knees or kicks aloud. it was great fun though putting all the training into practice. i love the adrenaline rush you get that allows you to train even harder!
good day :) beach training tomorrow :D
Day 42 Train Train Train
Day 42(Thursday 12th of August)
hard days training, found it hard, i was knackered from yesterday throeing in surfing as well as training is crazy, but i pushed on through. good training. my technique is getting pretty good i think after next week i will take it up a notch and start the fight training.
Day 41 Surfing SunBurn!
day 41(Wednesday 11th of August)
another aewsome days training, we decided to go Surfing at the beach imbertween the training sesions, 5 of us ended up going down, me and joel went down on the scooter, we had rented one together for a month to save money. the guys next door also went down on the scooter, the beach was amazing, we parked up the scooters and went str8 into the sea. we rented some body boards and tryed to catch some waves, it was good fun and a nice break from training. we stayed a couple of hours and headed back on the scooter over the hills. its great driving through Phuket on scooters. the views are Breathtaking.
i got a bit of sun burn on my back. i think i will keep my shirt on next time.
Day 40 Push On!
another hard days training, felt great after the morning run, i am loving it here, the training is such a rush
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Day 39 And The Legend of the Training was HARDCORE!
hard days training, did the usual running and training but also through in an extra hour VIP lesson with Trainer Mungmain. very good session, i learned much more than in the group training sessions but it was hardcore, 1 hour in the ring with the trainer doing pad work with only one water break.
after training we chilled in the room watching youtube videos of Kimbo Slice for motivation and just because there cool. joel hooked is laptop up to my monitor to show us( me and Bhanu, a new student at the gym who moved in next door) a documentary about gangs in NZ, i never thought it was dangerous there, but apparently there is a big gang presence there, according to Joel, all the places i plan on visiting seem to be gang hot spots ha.
sleep time
after training we chilled in the room watching youtube videos of Kimbo Slice for motivation and just because there cool. joel hooked is laptop up to my monitor to show us( me and Bhanu, a new student at the gym who moved in next door) a documentary about gangs in NZ, i never thought it was dangerous there, but apparently there is a big gang presence there, according to Joel, all the places i plan on visiting seem to be gang hot spots ha.
sleep time
Day 38 Day of Chill
day 38(Sunday 8th of August) Day of Chill
Sunday is the only day i dint have to train so i slept.....................
chilled all day, rented a scooter for the day to do some shopping get water, fresh fruit etc, then on the night a couple of guys told me that they were going to the night market, around 10 of us went in the end 6 in a taxi and 4 went on scooters. i also met a new guy who had recently arrived at the gym from England who came along. anyway the journey should of taken us 15 Min's or sot.......yer it took us an hour, we got very lost, i don't think the Thais like to say no, if you ask them for directions and they don't know they will just make something up and point in a random direction or say do a U turn so we were going backwards and forwards all the time. eventually we found a night market, but it was the wrong one so we asked a taxi where it was. he wouldn't tell us but said we could follow him there for 100 bart.
eventually we got there, parked up the scooters and headed in to the bussy market, at this stage there was only 3 of us left as one guy went speeding off like some kind of race driver so we lost him, anyway the night market was cool, got some cool t shirts and shorts and a couple of DVDs.
got back 10.00 ish was knackered, went to sleep.
Sunday is the only day i dint have to train so i slept.....................
chilled all day, rented a scooter for the day to do some shopping get water, fresh fruit etc, then on the night a couple of guys told me that they were going to the night market, around 10 of us went in the end 6 in a taxi and 4 went on scooters. i also met a new guy who had recently arrived at the gym from England who came along. anyway the journey should of taken us 15 Min's or sot.......yer it took us an hour, we got very lost, i don't think the Thais like to say no, if you ask them for directions and they don't know they will just make something up and point in a random direction or say do a U turn so we were going backwards and forwards all the time. eventually we found a night market, but it was the wrong one so we asked a taxi where it was. he wouldn't tell us but said we could follow him there for 100 bart.
eventually we got there, parked up the scooters and headed in to the bussy market, at this stage there was only 3 of us left as one guy went speeding off like some kind of race driver so we lost him, anyway the night market was cool, got some cool t shirts and shorts and a couple of DVDs.
got back 10.00 ish was knackered, went to sleep.
Day 37 Beach Training at Rawai
day 37(Saturday 7th of August) Beach Training at Rawai
up at 6.45
quick breakfast
str8 out shoved my gloves and hand wraps in the truck going to the beach and started running. about a 45 min run, good fun, great scenery. got to the beach at nearly 8.00 and met up with all the students and trainers on the beach, we trained for 3 hours or so, working mainly on fitness and cardio, running around punching kicking pads. its pretty good as they is nearly as many trainers as students so you can get allot of good practice in. after training we played football on a field next to the beach, i sucked at football as usual but it was tonnes of fun! we all went back on the back of trucks and they were driving crazy, great fun but i am glad i didn't fall off the truck, it was bumpy! and it would of hurt at that speed
after the morning training session i went paint balling with the guys from the gym, good fun ended up with alot of bruises, i also got to shoot a 9mm colt pistol which was great fun, i think i prefer firing rifles though.
started the afternoon training session at 3.00pm as usual, another good session skipping was painful though as all my muscles had ceased up from running to and at the beach earlier, but i guess that's a good thing, no pain no gain!!
watched films
went to sleep
up at 6.45
quick breakfast
str8 out shoved my gloves and hand wraps in the truck going to the beach and started running. about a 45 min run, good fun, great scenery. got to the beach at nearly 8.00 and met up with all the students and trainers on the beach, we trained for 3 hours or so, working mainly on fitness and cardio, running around punching kicking pads. its pretty good as they is nearly as many trainers as students so you can get allot of good practice in. after training we played football on a field next to the beach, i sucked at football as usual but it was tonnes of fun! we all went back on the back of trucks and they were driving crazy, great fun but i am glad i didn't fall off the truck, it was bumpy! and it would of hurt at that speed
after the morning training session i went paint balling with the guys from the gym, good fun ended up with alot of bruises, i also got to shoot a 9mm colt pistol which was great fun, i think i prefer firing rifles though.
started the afternoon training session at 3.00pm as usual, another good session skipping was painful though as all my muscles had ceased up from running to and at the beach earlier, but i guess that's a good thing, no pain no gain!!
watched films
went to sleep
Saturday, 7 August 2010
Day 36 The Room Mate
slept in and didn't wake up until 7.15 so i missed the morning run, i just got changed quick and went str8 to the gym. gr8 morning training session! after the training sesh i went back to my room to sleep i was tired from staying up late last night at the boxing mach. i was later woken up by a women knocking at my window. i opened the door, she said "room mate for you. i thought god not that polish guy again? later on someone arrived at my room, turned out my new roommate was the guy i met the other night at the boxing mach. he had rented a scooter and as i had to return mine as i only rented it for 3 days, he gave me a lift to tescos, got food and also a plug extender thingy as there was only one socket in the room and we both have laptops. after we got back i went srr8 to my afternoon run and training session, good workout! good news as well i found out tomorrow we are training at the beach! cool stuff, also after some of the guys are going paint balling so i put my name down for that, as threes no training Sunday i can do something after training without not been able to get up the next morning as it don't matter if i do. i ran again at 2.30 and got back in the gym at 3.00 for some more kicking punching kneeing and elbowing. another good training session learned allot of moves. got plenty of pad time with Ot my trainer, i think i have got the kicks and punches and elbows pretty good now just need abit more work on the knees before i can start sparing. chilled after training, went out for food, 80 Bart for a big plate of noodles, good deal! after eating i chilled in the room, watched the new A team film, my roommate had it on his HDD. then went to sleep
Friday, 6 August 2010
Day 35 Immediately Addictive
day 35(Thursday 5th of August) Immediately addictive
its true what they say about Thai boxing, it is immediately addictive, did the basic day routine again, run,break, run, train, sleep. deffo feeling my fitness improve already, its great training with the Thais plenty of banter and good fun. think i have lost some weight. at the end of the night i went to pa tong boxing stadium with the guys from rawai murrey thai camp as they had a couple of people fighting, two Australians and a Thai boy. the match was great and relay made me want to fight at the end of my training. it reminded me of the time i first saw a skydiving video on YouTube, i instantly knew i had to do it. well i was at the mach i got talking to a guy from NZ, i was sat with all the people from Ravai murry thai giving support to owe fighters i one area. it turned out the guy from NZ was thinking about coming to train ar ravai murry Thai, he must of noticed the camp tshirt i was wearing, anyway i told him if he came he would probably be put in a room with me as that was the last available room.
i got home from the the boxing mach at around 00.30 sober of cause ( i have given up alcohol while training at Ravai) anyway as i went to my lodge i noticed there was someones sandals outside my room i did not recognize so i went in and there was some guy sleeping on my bed, Wat the hell. i was 100% sure i locked the door, i must of woke him up coming in, he got up said hallow i am from Poland, shuk my hand said something about securaty and went. what the hell, i was too tired to care though and just went to sleep.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Day 34 Hard Fast and Aggresive
First full day of training and my god it ws hard. I was nackered after the run in the morining, i have never sweat so much, running 5k under the sun is crazzzy! concentrated mainly on tequnike during training, getting my kicks, punches, jabs, hooks, knees and elbows correct. after the morning training sesion i did some weaght training before having a powernap. up at 2 and another run, seemed harder than the first run, back in the gym for some more training AND THEN CHILLLL TIME........
Day 33 The first Thailand Day
up early, went to tesco for supplies, food to fill the fridge. water, trainers, clothes etc. i started training at 3.00 at a beginners class, had to buy some gloves pads hand wraps etc. learned the basics of Thai boxing and was told what to expect over the next 3 months, basically, run in the morning(6.00) train for 3 hours rest and chill through the day then at 3.00 run again and train for three hours, repeat every day but Sunday also through in a couple one to one training sessions a week.
Day 32 time to Fly!
floooooo to Bankok then flooooo to Phuket
I am genna say this for every country i go to but WOW it looked cool from the Sky all the small islands surrounding. i couldn't wait to get to the camp. when i got outside the airport i noticed a guy holding up a sign saying MIKE HAINSWORTH. must be 4 me so i went over, hehe was a friend of a friend of a friend of my dad, he thought i was my dad if that makes sence anyway it was a cheep and reliable taxi so success! i arrived at phuket ravi murrey thati and i payed for one months training and one week accommodation as the room i wanted wasn't available yet. i checked out the area, very cool, very green and surrounded by beaches and water.
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I am genna say this for every country i go to but WOW it looked cool from the Sky all the small islands surrounding. i couldn't wait to get to the camp. when i got outside the airport i noticed a guy holding up a sign saying MIKE HAINSWORTH. must be 4 me so i went over, hehe was a friend of a friend of a friend of my dad, he thought i was my dad if that makes sence anyway it was a cheep and reliable taxi so success! i arrived at phuket ravi murrey thati and i payed for one months training and one week accommodation as the room i wanted wasn't available yet. i checked out the area, very cool, very green and surrounded by beaches and water.
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Day 31 Time to Move
a chill out day as i fly early the next morning, went to the Internet cafe i did some more research on Phuket, looked on Couch surfing to see if there's any people to meet when i get there etc. i decided not to bother sleeping as i have to get a taxi to the airport at 3.00am. as it takes 1h30 to get there
Day 30 Stella Wong
Chen decided to sleep all day today.i had organised to meet up with Wong Stella from Hong Kong that i met the other night at a Couch Surfing party. We met at metro line 9, there is a pretty cool strip of restaurants there. after walking around and chatting for a while we decided to go to chinese restaurant that looked cool and apparently was famous according to Stella. we talked for agers about music, arts, Family, relationships and randomness. very smart girl speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and English, very impressive she was doing an internship in Shanghai. she goes back to Hong Kong next month. later on we ended up taking the Subway to a strip of Bars near where she lives, we got a motorbike taxi from the subway to the bars, god motorbike taxis are cool, they really should have these in England. we went to a couple of bars, sat, chatted and played pool. i couldn't believe she had never played pool before, but after teaching her the rools and how to hold the que, she nearly beat me. I was helping her quite a bit though! i really enjoyed meeting Stella, we stayed at the bar until around 3.00am chatting and chillaxin. we both have similar tastes in music and she was showing me some pretty cool Cantoneese music on her Iphone, it sounded great i just wish i could understand it :P towards the end of the night when i went to the bar to get me and stella some drinks some crazy American rugby player guy came up to me and said. Why are you so rude!, i replied sorry what? he was clearly very drunk and almost falling over. again he said why are you so Rude. he then kept insisting that i drink with him and his friends now! and dont be Lame, when i said no sorry i am with someone and pointed to Stella at the other side of the room. he looked like he wanted to kill me! started shouting and swearing at me. saying "drink with me!" "drink with me you fu***ng blah blah blah" well you can guess the rest. this guy wasn't even human size, i wasn't going to get into a fight with him. i said sorry man i cant drink with you, someone is waiting for me. eventually his mates pulled him away and he nearly fell over the bar stool lol. it doesnt matter where you are in the world theres always crazy ass people who just want to fight. anyway i went back over to Stella with the drinks, we drunk and chatted for abit longer mainly joking about that crazy american, i attempted to repeat what he was saying in his accent lol. we finaly left the bar as they were closing up areas, i made sure she got a Taxi and then flagged one myself giving the driver the screwed up bit of paper in my pocket with chens address on it.
Day 29 Eternal Chaos of the Internet Cafe
not long left in china now, i am very excited for Thailand but will be sad to leave Chen and china as i have been here quite along time now and had a great time.
anyway today i needed to find an Internet cafe with a printer, an easy task? think again. anyway Chen CBA coming with me to find one and wanted to sleep, so i headed off on my own, i caught the free bus to the subway, i was getting used to using the Subway in china now, its like the London underground just much more complicated.........yes that is possible. anyway i got off the bus at the subway Metro line 1 and went UNDERGROUND!. the Subway in china is the Busiest place you will ever go. its so cheep though, it will cost you 20p-70p to travel pretty much anywhere in Shanghai. its great, anyway i got on line 1. six stops then got off at the interchange for line 7. line 7 for one stop and then got off at Tianzifang. i couldn't find the Internet cafe that i researched on the tintaweb anyway, so i flagged a taxi and showed them a page in my lonely planet book that had the chinese symbols for Internet cafe nearby? on. after driving around for a while the taxi finally found an Internet cafe. the taxi cost 12 yen. very cheep. the Internet cafe was on top of a restaurant. you tent to find that Internet cafes (wangba) in china are often squirreled away down hutong(alleyways) or in the basements or upper floors of buildings on side streets so they can be hard to find. you just have to look out for the chinease symbols 网吧. anyway i went in, it was very dark and very smelly, no smoking ban in china :(. yep of cause there's no printing available here. damn, i went on the computer and found addresses of Internet cafes nearby, wrote down the addresses and went on a hunt. after trying 2 more Internet cafes i finally found one with a printer but i had to use the computer behind the counter to be able to use it and he didn't seem happy about that. anyway he let me do it and he didn't charge me any extra on top of the 30p i payed for an hours use of the computer for the printing....brill. i soon realised i had lost the little bit of paper i wrote chen's address on crapy! i knew there was a tesco near his house but i think there was two. anyway i found the address for one the only address i could find. i also printed out the chinese translation for "this is the wrong Tesco please take me to the other nearby tesco" just in case the taxi took me to the wrong one. anyway i got the subway to the end of metro line one. the stop closest to chen's house. i then got a motorbike taxi just because there more fun than regular taxis. anyway i showed him the address for tescos, he nodded, i jumped on and we weaved in and out of the madness that is Shanghai Traffic. yup you guessed it wrong Tesco. I showed him the translation for "this is the wrong tesco please take me to a different nearby tesco" he just laughed at me. i think it was a bad translation, Fu*k you google translate! i wonder what it actually ment :/. he clearly didn't understand the message so i just kept repeating the chinese word for Tesco and pointing away from the Tesco i was at and in the end he took me there. I walked from Tesco to chen's about a 2 min walk and chilled. we went out to clubs later that night...........good day!
anyway today i needed to find an Internet cafe with a printer, an easy task? think again. anyway Chen CBA coming with me to find one and wanted to sleep, so i headed off on my own, i caught the free bus to the subway, i was getting used to using the Subway in china now, its like the London underground just much more complicated.........yes that is possible. anyway i got off the bus at the subway Metro line 1 and went UNDERGROUND!. the Subway in china is the Busiest place you will ever go. its so cheep though, it will cost you 20p-70p to travel pretty much anywhere in Shanghai. its great, anyway i got on line 1. six stops then got off at the interchange for line 7. line 7 for one stop and then got off at Tianzifang. i couldn't find the Internet cafe that i researched on the tintaweb anyway, so i flagged a taxi and showed them a page in my lonely planet book that had the chinese symbols for Internet cafe nearby? on. after driving around for a while the taxi finally found an Internet cafe. the taxi cost 12 yen. very cheep. the Internet cafe was on top of a restaurant. you tent to find that Internet cafes (wangba) in china are often squirreled away down hutong(alleyways) or in the basements or upper floors of buildings on side streets so they can be hard to find. you just have to look out for the chinease symbols 网吧. anyway i went in, it was very dark and very smelly, no smoking ban in china :(. yep of cause there's no printing available here. damn, i went on the computer and found addresses of Internet cafes nearby, wrote down the addresses and went on a hunt. after trying 2 more Internet cafes i finally found one with a printer but i had to use the computer behind the counter to be able to use it and he didn't seem happy about that. anyway he let me do it and he didn't charge me any extra on top of the 30p i payed for an hours use of the computer for the printing....brill. i soon realised i had lost the little bit of paper i wrote chen's address on crapy! i knew there was a tesco near his house but i think there was two. anyway i found the address for one the only address i could find. i also printed out the chinese translation for "this is the wrong Tesco please take me to the other nearby tesco" just in case the taxi took me to the wrong one. anyway i got the subway to the end of metro line one. the stop closest to chen's house. i then got a motorbike taxi just because there more fun than regular taxis. anyway i showed him the address for tescos, he nodded, i jumped on and we weaved in and out of the madness that is Shanghai Traffic. yup you guessed it wrong Tesco. I showed him the translation for "this is the wrong tesco please take me to a different nearby tesco" he just laughed at me. i think it was a bad translation, Fu*k you google translate! i wonder what it actually ment :/. he clearly didn't understand the message so i just kept repeating the chinese word for Tesco and pointing away from the Tesco i was at and in the end he took me there. I walked from Tesco to chen's about a 2 min walk and chilled. we went out to clubs later that night...........good day!
Day 28 The Countryside 2
up early and to the Countryside.
we went to visit Chens Grandparents and his Cousin, who lived around a 2h drive from Shanghai. he was going to come stay with us in Shanghai. To get there we had to drive across a 30km+ bridge that went across the sea, pretty cool huh? although i was sleeping so i missed it but i saw it on the way back :)
we spent the whole day there, we arrived and got some street food from a small shop in an alley. It didn't look very clean but I'm sure it was fine........i regretted it the next day.
the area was totally different from the city, lots of very small alleyways, and big doors. shops all over selling street food and all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff. around the village was lots of hills and trees, very green it was a beautiful view.
we went to visit Chens Grandparents and his Cousin, who lived around a 2h drive from Shanghai. he was going to come stay with us in Shanghai. To get there we had to drive across a 30km+ bridge that went across the sea, pretty cool huh? although i was sleeping so i missed it but i saw it on the way back :)
we spent the whole day there, we arrived and got some street food from a small shop in an alley. It didn't look very clean but I'm sure it was fine........i regretted it the next day.
the area was totally different from the city, lots of very small alleyways, and big doors. shops all over selling street food and all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff. around the village was lots of hills and trees, very green it was a beautiful view.
Day 27 Beach Babes
Day 27(Wednesday 28th of July)
two words "Babes" and "Water park"
basically on a Wednesday to get more people to go to the water park they lower the prices for females. so the park was packed with hot girls in Bikinis.
great idea if you ask me.
good day :)
two words "Babes" and "Water park"
basically on a Wednesday to get more people to go to the water park they lower the prices for females. so the park was packed with hot girls in Bikinis.
great idea if you ask me.
good day :)
Day 26 HOOTERS
today we went to the gym early, chilled around the area chen lived and later went to meet two girls we met in a nightclub the other night for a meal. i let Chen choose the Restaurant he told me it was an American style restaurant. sounded good to me although it wasn't until we were on the subway on the way there that he told me the name..........HOOTERS! yer probably not the best place to invite girls on a date to. Chen didn't know what hooters was he said he just heard it was a good place for American food. after explaining to him about Hooters and what Hooters means, he also thought it was a bad choice of restaurant to invite girls on a date to. anyway it turned out to be a fun night and they thought it was funny. The girls spoke little English even though one apparently had an English Degree hmmmmmmmm, anyway the food was good, the music was good, the service was good and the company was good! think Chen was getting bored of translating for me after a while though ha.
Day 25 the countryside
expected to be going to the countryside today to visit chens family....change of plan we slept in and went horse riding just outside the main city. it was good fun, they had over 30 horses. Rach would of being complaining about the conditions the horses were kept in if she was here.
Day 24 Its a Day of Unknown Events.......By The Power of Raaaaaaa
left it wayyyyyyyy late to write this up.....and pretty much forgot what i did this day. probably just something exciting.
Saturday, 31 July 2010
Day 23 The Humonguasnesssess Water Park of Chaos
we went to Shanghais biggest water park at around 4.00pm stayed until 11.30pm. cool place full of crazy slides, fake beaches and big wave pools. the weather was just right as well, not too hot :)
got back and chen insisted that we go to some clubs, i thought why not although i was limping, i think i stood on a nail or something. anyway it ended up being a good night Chen met some girls at a shop while we were getting food and invited them to come skiing with us tomorrow.....sounds good to me.
got back and chen insisted that we go to some clubs, i thought why not although i was limping, i think i stood on a nail or something. anyway it ended up being a good night Chen met some girls at a shop while we were getting food and invited them to come skiing with us tomorrow.....sounds good to me.
Day 22 - The CouchSurfing Outing!
up late
chilled
went out to a Koala bar at 6.00pm and met a group of couch surfers, a girl from hong kong, 3 guys from the US, a Spanish girl, a guy from Singapore who kept telling me how i must visit Vietnam while I’m in Thailand. all great people, but of cause they must be as everyone on couch surfing is Awesome!
Everyone was really cool and had some funny stories.
After the bar we all headed to a live music event Couch Surfing Style to see some crazy/awesome bands! There were two bands on gochick from shanghai and New Pants from beijing. both pretty Awesome
http://www.myspace.com/gochictheband
http://www.myspace.com/beijingnewpants
we walked in to some weird home made video with vampires and ghosts being played to some slow electro music......really strange. they were only around 100 or so people there all stood around the dance floor and nobody on the actual dance floor so we all decided to go get some noodles and some cheep beer from the place next door and come back when the bands are on and its abet more lively. After drinking some cans of 30p beer and eating some tasty chicken noodles we headed back to the music event.
Couch Surfers are crazy dancers!!! they insisted that we dance right in the middle of the mosh pit and this was one crazy mosh pit, everyone pretty much just pushing each other not really dancing and everyone trying to crowd surf and many failing in a humorous display, crazy fun though. later in the night we invited a girl we met in a club the other night to come down, she arived just as we were leaving.
after the club we all decided to go to a nightclub called Shelter, apparently its an old converted bomb shelter. it was pretty darn awesome! i spent most of the time dancing with and talking to this really cool girl from Hong Kong. The place was full of crazy dancers, great music as well which can be hard to find in Shanghai nightclubs! These couch surfers really do know the good places to go. later in the night I realized that chen and that girl we invited out earlier were not with us and my phone had gone dead so I had no way of contacting him. I left the cub at around 5.00pm with the hong kong girl. I asked her the Mandarin for Subway as I couldn’t pronouns chens address and a taxi all the way would be expensive and I knew my way back through the subway. I flagged a taxi said some word I didn’t understand, the guy started talking chinease to me so I just said the word again.
i think he must of understood as he set off and I eventually reached the subway.
overall great night, met plenty of cool people with tones of interesting things to say.
Couch Surfing parties are the best parties!
chilled
went out to a Koala bar at 6.00pm and met a group of couch surfers, a girl from hong kong, 3 guys from the US, a Spanish girl, a guy from Singapore who kept telling me how i must visit Vietnam while I’m in Thailand. all great people, but of cause they must be as everyone on couch surfing is Awesome!
Everyone was really cool and had some funny stories.
After the bar we all headed to a live music event Couch Surfing Style to see some crazy/awesome bands! There were two bands on gochick from shanghai and New Pants from beijing. both pretty Awesome
http://www.myspace.com/gochictheband
http://www.myspace.com/beijingnewpants
we walked in to some weird home made video with vampires and ghosts being played to some slow electro music......really strange. they were only around 100 or so people there all stood around the dance floor and nobody on the actual dance floor so we all decided to go get some noodles and some cheep beer from the place next door and come back when the bands are on and its abet more lively. After drinking some cans of 30p beer and eating some tasty chicken noodles we headed back to the music event.
Couch Surfers are crazy dancers!!! they insisted that we dance right in the middle of the mosh pit and this was one crazy mosh pit, everyone pretty much just pushing each other not really dancing and everyone trying to crowd surf and many failing in a humorous display, crazy fun though. later in the night we invited a girl we met in a club the other night to come down, she arived just as we were leaving.
after the club we all decided to go to a nightclub called Shelter, apparently its an old converted bomb shelter. it was pretty darn awesome! i spent most of the time dancing with and talking to this really cool girl from Hong Kong. The place was full of crazy dancers, great music as well which can be hard to find in Shanghai nightclubs! These couch surfers really do know the good places to go. later in the night I realized that chen and that girl we invited out earlier were not with us and my phone had gone dead so I had no way of contacting him. I left the cub at around 5.00pm with the hong kong girl. I asked her the Mandarin for Subway as I couldn’t pronouns chens address and a taxi all the way would be expensive and I knew my way back through the subway. I flagged a taxi said some word I didn’t understand, the guy started talking chinease to me so I just said the word again.
i think he must of understood as he set off and I eventually reached the subway.
overall great night, met plenty of cool people with tones of interesting things to say.
Couch Surfing parties are the best parties!
Day 18 Football of Endless Suffering
we got up early and went to play football against some people at a local football school. I got absolutely thrashed even though they were 4 years or so younger than me
went out for Indian food, was so nice but different to English Indian food if that makes sense :)
then at about midnight we decided to go to the clubs, met a girl from England who is teaching English in Shanghai, cool girl and knew less mandarin than me though, so I don’t know how she could be teaching English to Chinese kids.
got in around 5.00am, good night.
went out for Indian food, was so nice but different to English Indian food if that makes sense :)
then at about midnight we decided to go to the clubs, met a girl from England who is teaching English in Shanghai, cool girl and knew less mandarin than me though, so I don’t know how she could be teaching English to Chinese kids.
got in around 5.00am, good night.
Day 17 The Structures of Megatron
we first went to the town centre to see all the cool mega structures and the busy streets of shanghai, great experience and good fun :)
we then went str8 out to the clubs but this time knowing some good places to go, we went to too clubs, great fun, met plenty of cool people.
we then went str8 out to the clubs but this time knowing some good places to go, we went to too clubs, great fun, met plenty of cool people.
Day 16 Panda time
up early and headed to Shanghai Safari, plenty of stuff to see. a pretty cool Circus inside.
after we got back we decided to go out to some clubs, we ended getting a pizza going to a few bars then going home, we couldn’t find anywhere good.
after we got back we decided to go out to some clubs, we ended getting a pizza going to a few bars then going home, we couldn’t find anywhere good.
Day 15 Shanghai Expo With Spikes of Chaos
planned to get up at 6.00 and go to shanghai expo. yer that didn’t happen, more like 10.00. we went to the expo anyway, lots of cool buildings very impressive engineering. a building for every country, the African building was the most impressive split into all the different countries within Africa
 |
| expo! |
 |
| The UK Building |
 |
| this guy apparantly represented a typical english man |
used a motorbike taxi on the crazy roads of Shanghai, very cheap managed to get three people on a Kawazaki 300, pretty crazy man.
hit the gym
went out to get food
very nice Chinese food
Sleep
Day 14 Free Gym
up early and str8 to the free gym, muscles still aching from the last gym session damnnn. After gym we got the subway to an indoor climbing wall, pretty impressive wall some nice climbs.
after climbing we went back and had a meal with chens family, very nice indeed.
then shopping centre to get some supplies
then sleep
after climbing we went back and had a meal with chens family, very nice indeed.
then shopping centre to get some supplies
then sleep
Friday, 16 July 2010
Day 13 50% Chinese Vodca
Second day in Shanghai, I have to say I prefer it to Beijing so far, but that’s probably because it isn’t as hot, at the moment anyway. Today we went to a theme park near by, it was very big, we hit all the biggest rides and then headed back.
we then went to play badminton with chens dad and his friends, met some cool people it was good fun, sweated like a sheep in a sauna though, not used to exercising in such heat.
after badminton we went to a Chinese restaurant, chens dad was drinking some crazy 50% Chinese vodka on its own, he got a bit drunk so chen drove home, with no license and about 3 driving lessons worth of experience, but its okay cos its china :D
we then went to play badminton with chens dad and his friends, met some cool people it was good fun, sweated like a sheep in a sauna though, not used to exercising in such heat.
after badminton we went to a Chinese restaurant, chens dad was drinking some crazy 50% Chinese vodka on its own, he got a bit drunk so chen drove home, with no license and about 3 driving lessons worth of experience, but its okay cos its china :D
Day 12 Skiing of Total Epicness
9.00am start, had breakfast, egg on toast. Then set off to a theme park nearby, chens dad kindly offered to give us a lift there.
It started raining on the way there so we decided to go to a indoor ski-ing place instead, the largest one in Asia, we stayed there all day, attempted some sweet jumps and failed a few times. chen offered to teach me how to snow board next time we go as I only know how to ski. I will look forward to that, plenty of falling over I guess.
After we had finished ski-ing chens dad picked us up and we headed back stopping at a supermarket and the biggest buffet place I have ever seen. Everything was included in the buffet, food, whine, beer, ice cream everything and only 100yen, or 80 yen for me with my STA student card, that’s about 8 squid. It was very nice, I ate way too much though.
once we got back we chilled for an hour or so and then went to the gym to get ripped init!
got back from the Gym 11.30 ish, uploaded some photos onto the tintaweb then hit the sack!
It started raining on the way there so we decided to go to a indoor ski-ing place instead, the largest one in Asia, we stayed there all day, attempted some sweet jumps and failed a few times. chen offered to teach me how to snow board next time we go as I only know how to ski. I will look forward to that, plenty of falling over I guess.
After we had finished ski-ing chens dad picked us up and we headed back stopping at a supermarket and the biggest buffet place I have ever seen. Everything was included in the buffet, food, whine, beer, ice cream everything and only 100yen, or 80 yen for me with my STA student card, that’s about 8 squid. It was very nice, I ate way too much though.
once we got back we chilled for an hour or so and then went to the gym to get ripped init!
got back from the Gym 11.30 ish, uploaded some photos onto the tintaweb then hit the sack!
Day 10 - day 11 Noodles
Day 10
woke up very late indeed, last day in beijing so we decided to hit the bars again as we had such a good night last night, went out around 3.00 went to play pool and snooker. Played until around 7.00 then headed out to bars. Another good night, lots of live acts, good beer, good food. random Chinese girl came up to me and asked if she could have her photo with me, I don’t blame her. I am stunningly attractive
we didn’t get back in until around 8.00 am the next morning, got a few hours sleep, packed and headed off to beijing airport ready to fly to Shanghai :D
Day 11
the plane was 3 hour delayed so we got noodles in the airport, I am getting slightly better at chopsticks :) arrived in shanghai around 8.00pm and chens dad met us at the airport and drove us home, he lives in a really nice house just outside the city, 3 floors, very big. I unpacked we decided what we were going to do tomorrow and then hit the sack 11,00ish
woke up very late indeed, last day in beijing so we decided to hit the bars again as we had such a good night last night, went out around 3.00 went to play pool and snooker. Played until around 7.00 then headed out to bars. Another good night, lots of live acts, good beer, good food. random Chinese girl came up to me and asked if she could have her photo with me, I don’t blame her. I am stunningly attractive
we didn’t get back in until around 8.00 am the next morning, got a few hours sleep, packed and headed off to beijing airport ready to fly to Shanghai :D
Day 11
the plane was 3 hour delayed so we got noodles in the airport, I am getting slightly better at chopsticks :) arrived in shanghai around 8.00pm and chens dad met us at the airport and drove us home, he lives in a really nice house just outside the city, 3 floors, very big. I unpacked we decided what we were going to do tomorrow and then hit the sack 11,00ish
Day 9 Clash of the Bars
woke up around 10.00, no plans trying to decide what to do.
in the end we decided to go to the internet cafe for a bit, we then went to a pizza buffet food to eat nearby, then back to the internet cafe. its good to be able to be in contact with home.
we headed back to chens at about 2000 hours, but on the way back we decided to go out to some bars, we flagged a taxi, which I had finally got used to doing, we went to a lake surrounded by lots of bars, this place really topped banana club(beijing) the nightlife was buzzing tones of bars most with very good quality live music and entertainment. we spent most of the night in bar cooza. ordered a pizza, loadz of shots and beer and chilled out watching lots of acts from fire eaters to a really cool rock band.
the only bad thing about the area was the people who followed you around pretty much begging you to come in your bar and asking if you would like very nice lady massage. they just don’t leave you alone, especially because I am a tourist they all just went for me.
we headed back pretty late around 4.00 am good night.
in the end we decided to go to the internet cafe for a bit, we then went to a pizza buffet food to eat nearby, then back to the internet cafe. its good to be able to be in contact with home.
we headed back to chens at about 2000 hours, but on the way back we decided to go out to some bars, we flagged a taxi, which I had finally got used to doing, we went to a lake surrounded by lots of bars, this place really topped banana club(beijing) the nightlife was buzzing tones of bars most with very good quality live music and entertainment. we spent most of the night in bar cooza. ordered a pizza, loadz of shots and beer and chilled out watching lots of acts from fire eaters to a really cool rock band.the only bad thing about the area was the people who followed you around pretty much begging you to come in your bar and asking if you would like very nice lady massage. they just don’t leave you alone, especially because I am a tourist they all just went for me.
we headed back pretty late around 4.00 am good night.
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Day 8 The Great Wall
early start, chens mum managed to get us a driver to take us to the great wall of china, her friend is very high up in goverment i think. it took about 1hour to get to the wall, it was much higher than i expected we walked for a while along it taking in the beautifull views. after spending around an hour on the wall we headed back down. one thing that surprised me is or the first time it was cool in china, very refreshing.
chen rang our driver and he came and picked us up and took us back to chens.
when we got back, after persuading chen who was very tired we went to a electrical hypermarket near by so I could get a USB lead for my mobile phone so i could upload photos online. I got the lead although the internet is so slow I only managed to upload a few pics.
when we got back from the hyper market we got ready to go out for a meal with chens family and friends. the restaurant was very impressive, the biggest restaurant I have ever seen, even bigger than aakash in clek mmmmmmmmmmmmm aakash..... anyway again we had a private room and our own waitress. they ordered so much food and the guy next to me "the father of one of chens childhood friends" kept taking food off the middle of the table and putting it on my plate and sayig "try this very nice yes" most of it i didn’t like as it was seafood but I didn’t want to be rude so I ate it anyway. before the meal I was asked to introduce my self and say a bit about myself and all of chens friends did the same. Everyone was very friendly and funny. It was a good night.
chen rang our driver and he came and picked us up and took us back to chens.
when we got back, after persuading chen who was very tired we went to a electrical hypermarket near by so I could get a USB lead for my mobile phone so i could upload photos online. I got the lead although the internet is so slow I only managed to upload a few pics.
when we got back from the hyper market we got ready to go out for a meal with chens family and friends. the restaurant was very impressive, the biggest restaurant I have ever seen, even bigger than aakash in clek mmmmmmmmmmmmm aakash..... anyway again we had a private room and our own waitress. they ordered so much food and the guy next to me "the father of one of chens childhood friends" kept taking food off the middle of the table and putting it on my plate and sayig "try this very nice yes" most of it i didn’t like as it was seafood but I didn’t want to be rude so I ate it anyway. before the meal I was asked to introduce my self and say a bit about myself and all of chens friends did the same. Everyone was very friendly and funny. It was a good night.
Day7 Olympic Park
day 7
earlyish start, we first headed over to the subway to go to the Olympic park top see the cool megastructures, the birds nest and the cube. they were very impressive.
we got some noodles then headed off back to the cooool subway :) then to teanem square and the forbidden city.
this place was very impressive, especialy the forbidden city, so much history in one place.
after spending 3 or 4 hours there we headed back home on a crazy scooter taxi thingy that aeemed to be alowed to drive in the scooter lane and barge past everyone, im not complaning it was cheep :)
earlyish start, we first headed over to the subway to go to the Olympic park top see the cool megastructures, the birds nest and the cube. they were very impressive.
we got some noodles then headed off back to the cooool subway :) then to teanem square and the forbidden city.
this place was very impressive, especialy the forbidden city, so much history in one place.
after spending 3 or 4 hours there we headed back home on a crazy scooter taxi thingy that aeemed to be alowed to drive in the scooter lane and barge past everyone, im not complaning it was cheep :)
day6 The Hangover
woke up about 2.00pm hungover
41 degrees outside
too hot to go out
chilled inside all day
ate Chinese food
skyped
then slept
41 degrees outside
too hot to go out
chilled inside all day
ate Chinese food
skyped
then slept
Day5 The Bass System
day 5
ah thank god for air con. first good nights sleep in china :)
Today i slept in until about 10.00 and me and chen decided to go to the silk market and get some breakfast on the way. breakfast was, a pizza ball thing, a cheeseburger(cold) a croissant and some mango ice thing. still slightly confused about that breakfast choice.
The silk market was massive, its basically full of lots of fake bags, clothes etc. you can get a Taylor made suit for 80 squid. although it gets very boring buying things as you have to barter for 5 - 10 mins just to buy one item and they will start with a price at like 300 yen and you can usually get them down to more like 30 - 40 yen.
After a while in the silk market we set off to the underground to go back to chens. I managed to get a pocket watch, a zippo, a fan, a purse and some shirts and trousers for around 230 yen. not bad
once we got back I was exhausted, it was over 40 degrees Celsius so you get tired pretty fast.
I spent ages trying to get on facebook and finally managed to through a French proxy server, there are so many restrictions on Chinese internet its crazy.
I then went to sleep for a few hours before getting ready to go to some Beijing night clubs.
as expected I was the only westerner in the night club, walking in was like a scene from a western, everyone turning round and staring at me. Once I was in it was okay though. The club was massive and full of beautiful Chinese and Russian girls. Although i didn’t have much luck with any, I managed to dance with a few Chinese girls but that’s all. I blame the language barrier. I will have to learn Chinese i guess.
the bass system in the club was ridiculously loud! I like loud music but this was stupid. Cant of been good for my ears.
Overall the club was pretty good. I am glad the music was all English although the kept repeating old Abba songs all night wedged in between electro tunes, very strange, oh and the Chinese are the craziest dancers in the world, I mean I look like a good dancer compared to them. Me and chen were having a right laugh watching some of them dance. One guy was clearly just doing star jumps and tuck jumping, dancing? I think not.
After a long night we got a taxi back to chens pretty late, although Beijing was still busy as ever.
ah thank god for air con. first good nights sleep in china :)
Today i slept in until about 10.00 and me and chen decided to go to the silk market and get some breakfast on the way. breakfast was, a pizza ball thing, a cheeseburger(cold) a croissant and some mango ice thing. still slightly confused about that breakfast choice.
The silk market was massive, its basically full of lots of fake bags, clothes etc. you can get a Taylor made suit for 80 squid. although it gets very boring buying things as you have to barter for 5 - 10 mins just to buy one item and they will start with a price at like 300 yen and you can usually get them down to more like 30 - 40 yen.
After a while in the silk market we set off to the underground to go back to chens. I managed to get a pocket watch, a zippo, a fan, a purse and some shirts and trousers for around 230 yen. not bad
once we got back I was exhausted, it was over 40 degrees Celsius so you get tired pretty fast.
I spent ages trying to get on facebook and finally managed to through a French proxy server, there are so many restrictions on Chinese internet its crazy.
I then went to sleep for a few hours before getting ready to go to some Beijing night clubs.
as expected I was the only westerner in the night club, walking in was like a scene from a western, everyone turning round and staring at me. Once I was in it was okay though. The club was massive and full of beautiful Chinese and Russian girls. Although i didn’t have much luck with any, I managed to dance with a few Chinese girls but that’s all. I blame the language barrier. I will have to learn Chinese i guess.
the bass system in the club was ridiculously loud! I like loud music but this was stupid. Cant of been good for my ears.
Overall the club was pretty good. I am glad the music was all English although the kept repeating old Abba songs all night wedged in between electro tunes, very strange, oh and the Chinese are the craziest dancers in the world, I mean I look like a good dancer compared to them. Me and chen were having a right laugh watching some of them dance. One guy was clearly just doing star jumps and tuck jumping, dancing? I think not.
After a long night we got a taxi back to chens pretty late, although Beijing was still busy as ever.
day4V1
Day 4
struggled sleeping last night, the heat was unbearable. woke up at around 5.30 to a traditional Chinese breakfast from chens grandparents. it was very nice :D
after breakfast me and chen decided to go visit a mountain with a slide going down it!! and the famous summer palace. we first went to the mountain, here we took a ski lift to the top of the mountain and slid down on boards. it was great fun.
next we went to the summer palace and looked around all the old buildings then took a boat on the lake with the palace surrounding it. what a view!!
time to eat! we went to a place called 'big pizza' basically a rip off of pizza hut although at big pizza its only costs around 4 quid for a full buffet, drinks and desert buffet. alrighttttt!
we then went to Beijing zoo and aquarium, although all the animals seemed to be sleeping, the aquarium was good though :D
finally we went back to chens place on the Beijing underground(i thought the London underground was busy)
once we got back to chens, his mum told me we were going out for a meal with one of her friends from university and her son, great! we went to one of the biggest Chinese restaurant I have ever seen. we had are own private room and waiter, finally i got to try real peeking duck and it was gorgeous, after the meal we walked back to there apartment. we walked through a street market and chens mum purchased some massive watermelons so me and chen had to carry them back home.
struggled sleeping last night, the heat was unbearable. woke up at around 5.30 to a traditional Chinese breakfast from chens grandparents. it was very nice :D
after breakfast me and chen decided to go visit a mountain with a slide going down it!! and the famous summer palace. we first went to the mountain, here we took a ski lift to the top of the mountain and slid down on boards. it was great fun.
next we went to the summer palace and looked around all the old buildings then took a boat on the lake with the palace surrounding it. what a view!!
time to eat! we went to a place called 'big pizza' basically a rip off of pizza hut although at big pizza its only costs around 4 quid for a full buffet, drinks and desert buffet. alrighttttt!
we then went to Beijing zoo and aquarium, although all the animals seemed to be sleeping, the aquarium was good though :D
finally we went back to chens place on the Beijing underground(i thought the London underground was busy)
once we got back to chens, his mum told me we were going out for a meal with one of her friends from university and her son, great! we went to one of the biggest Chinese restaurant I have ever seen. we had are own private room and waiter, finally i got to try real peeking duck and it was gorgeous, after the meal we walked back to there apartment. we walked through a street market and chens mum purchased some massive watermelons so me and chen had to carry them back home.
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Day 4
struggled sleeping last night, the heat was unbearable. woke up at around 5.30 to a traditional chinese breakfast from chens grandparents. it was very nice :D
+pik add here
after breakfast me and chen decided to go visit a mountain with a slide going down it!! and the famous summer palace. we first went to the mountain, we took a ski lift to the top of the mountain and slid down on boards. it was great fun.and an amazing view of the city.
next we went to the summer palace and looked around all the old buildings then took a boat on the lake with the palace surrounding it. what a view!!
+pik add here
time to eat! we went to a place called 'big pizza' basically a rip off of pizza hut although at big pizza its only costs around 4 quid for a full buffet, drinks and desert buffet. alrighttttt!
+pik add here
we then went to Beijing zoo and aquarium, although all the animals seemed to be sleeping, the aquarium was good thow :D
+pik add here
finally we went back to chens place on the Beijing underground(i thought the london underground was busy)
+pik add here
once we got back to chens, his mum told me we were going out for a meal with one of her friends from university and her son, great! we went to one of the biggest chinese restaurants i have ever seen. we had are own private room and waiter, finally i got to try real Peking duck and it was gorgeous, after the meal we walked back to there apartment. we walked through a street market and chens mum purchased some massive watermelons so me and chen had to carry them back home.
+pik add here
+pik add here
after breakfast me and chen decided to go visit a mountain with a slide going down it!! and the famous summer palace. we first went to the mountain, we took a ski lift to the top of the mountain and slid down on boards. it was great fun.and an amazing view of the city.
next we went to the summer palace and looked around all the old buildings then took a boat on the lake with the palace surrounding it. what a view!!
+pik add here
time to eat! we went to a place called 'big pizza' basically a rip off of pizza hut although at big pizza its only costs around 4 quid for a full buffet, drinks and desert buffet. alrighttttt!
+pik add here
we then went to Beijing zoo and aquarium, although all the animals seemed to be sleeping, the aquarium was good thow :D
+pik add here
finally we went back to chens place on the Beijing underground(i thought the london underground was busy)
+pik add here
once we got back to chens, his mum told me we were going out for a meal with one of her friends from university and her son, great! we went to one of the biggest chinese restaurants i have ever seen. we had are own private room and waiter, finally i got to try real Peking duck and it was gorgeous, after the meal we walked back to there apartment. we walked through a street market and chens mum purchased some massive watermelons so me and chen had to carry them back home.
+pik add here
Monday, 5 July 2010
Day 1 to 3
sorry for the delay in updates it seems that google blogs is blocked in china as well as facebook :( although i have found away around it using proxy servers...
day 1
my first update from dubai airport, wow Dubai looks amazing.
I set of from england on my around the world trip at 0900 hours, my mum nicely offered to take me to manchester airport. I arived at manchester airport at 1100 hours and for some reason i still wasnt nervous, just very excited. after a wait in the airport i left for dubai at 220. I loved flying with Emirates, plenty of gadgets and complimentery drinks to keep me amused :D although the food was terrable.
Flying down to dubai airport was amazing. so many lights. it made me think how much energy must be needed to run a city like that. i flew over and was amazed by the crazy man made islands before finaly landing in Dubai airport at 2400 hours.
Dubai airport was very impressive full of tourists from all over and lots of people with tea towls on there heads. after an hour or so looking round shops i found a nice bar and confy chair to chilax in and wait until my flight to Beijing 11 hours later.
Day2
I left Dubai airport early saturday morning and headed off to Beijing, again flying with Emirates but thins time i apeard to be the only english person on the flight and kept getting hit by the guys head who was nodding off next to me. i tried telling him but soon realised he spoke nill English. after a 9 hour flight i arived in china, very excited. I got a packed train to terminal 2 to collect my baggage, i was the only westener on the train and i got a few funny looks. :o
i grabbed my baggage and headed for the exit to meet chen. I couldnt find him anywhere i checked everywhere. after an hour of waiting and looking i gave up and decided to ring him but of cause my phone had gone dead. I therefore decided to try and get a taxi to his home so i followed the signs for taxis wich lead me just outside the airport. I got a taxi streaght away and i asked the taxi if he could ring chens number and find out his address. i passed him his number wich i had writen doen and he rang him. after listening to him talking down the phone in chinease not understanding a word he was saying he said i have got the address. after driving for 5 mins or so i asked him how much it would cost he said 250yen, i wasnt sure how much that was but it was half of what i had in currency so i said that sounds abit steep 200? he agereed. after a 25 min drive we reached a very untouristy area with plenty of chinease people hanging around outside shops with scooters. it looked a very rough area. the taxi driver pointed to a building and i got out. I soon realised that this was not chens address and was given a very aggresive look from a scarylooking shirtless guy outside the building when i tried to enter, he shouted somethin in chinease at me (possably some kind of insult) i quickly turned round and walked away fast. as i walked down the street with my weston clothes and my big rucksack i was stared at by pretty much everyone, i must of stuck out like a saw thumb. for the first time i felt quite scared as i realised i was at the other side of the world on my own in the middle of the night in a dodgy area being stared at by pretty much everyone and to top it all off i had no working phone. :s
i knew i had to get out of there and fast, i decided to try and find a taxi and get to the closest hotel. i finaly found a taxi and i asked him for a taxi to a hotel. he replied blacudamacharatas or something. yep clearly he cant speek english i tried to explane using signs and making snoring noices and sleeping motions but he wasnt getting it and possably thought i was some kind of nutter, after trying a few more taxis i finaly found one that understood my sign language. he took me to a hotel and charged me 15 yen for a 10 min journy. i then realised that the other taxi driver must have ripped me off damn...
i entered the hotel and tryed to ask for a room for one night, yep they knew no english. i realy should of learned chinease before coming here. after a long time trying to explane using signs and bits of english they knew and pointing at things in my lonley plannet book aka my bible!!
i managed to pay on my card wich is good as i only had about 14 yen left in cash. i was taken to my room by a tiny chinease man. i gave him a tip for carying my bag then went in and locked the door. i organised all my kit for the next day and wrote down what i needed to do tomorow inorder to find where chen was.
Day 3
I woke up in the hotel at about 8.00 and the first thing i did was ring chen and find out where he was. he said he would come pick me up from the hotel. i then went down for breakfast. yougutt and tomato juce mmmmmmmmmmmmm......
chen arrived soon after and we got a taxi together back to his place. he lived on floor 9 in a very tall building. after speeking with his family and unpacking my stuf we decided to go out and hunt for a laptop. we got a taxi to a big Hyper Market in Beijing. as we entered chen spoke to one of the people and we were escorted to a laptop shop. we looked at three different shops chen negotiated and translated for me. finaly i purchased a laptop for 2700 yen. a very good deal as i got a very powerfull little netbook :D
chen then flagged a taxi and we headed back to his place, dropped off the laptop then went to get some food, we went to a cantoneeze resteronte and got loads of food for 80 yen about 8 pounds.
I failed at chopsticks :(
after the meal we headed back up to chens and planned some stuff we wanted to do over our time in Beijing.
*piks to come soon :D
day 1
my first update from dubai airport, wow Dubai looks amazing.
I set of from england on my around the world trip at 0900 hours, my mum nicely offered to take me to manchester airport. I arived at manchester airport at 1100 hours and for some reason i still wasnt nervous, just very excited. after a wait in the airport i left for dubai at 220. I loved flying with Emirates, plenty of gadgets and complimentery drinks to keep me amused :D although the food was terrable.
Flying down to dubai airport was amazing. so many lights. it made me think how much energy must be needed to run a city like that. i flew over and was amazed by the crazy man made islands before finaly landing in Dubai airport at 2400 hours.
Dubai airport was very impressive full of tourists from all over and lots of people with tea towls on there heads. after an hour or so looking round shops i found a nice bar and confy chair to chilax in and wait until my flight to Beijing 11 hours later.
Day2
I left Dubai airport early saturday morning and headed off to Beijing, again flying with Emirates but thins time i apeard to be the only english person on the flight and kept getting hit by the guys head who was nodding off next to me. i tried telling him but soon realised he spoke nill English. after a 9 hour flight i arived in china, very excited. I got a packed train to terminal 2 to collect my baggage, i was the only westener on the train and i got a few funny looks. :o
i grabbed my baggage and headed for the exit to meet chen. I couldnt find him anywhere i checked everywhere. after an hour of waiting and looking i gave up and decided to ring him but of cause my phone had gone dead. I therefore decided to try and get a taxi to his home so i followed the signs for taxis wich lead me just outside the airport. I got a taxi streaght away and i asked the taxi if he could ring chens number and find out his address. i passed him his number wich i had writen doen and he rang him. after listening to him talking down the phone in chinease not understanding a word he was saying he said i have got the address. after driving for 5 mins or so i asked him how much it would cost he said 250yen, i wasnt sure how much that was but it was half of what i had in currency so i said that sounds abit steep 200? he agereed. after a 25 min drive we reached a very untouristy area with plenty of chinease people hanging around outside shops with scooters. it looked a very rough area. the taxi driver pointed to a building and i got out. I soon realised that this was not chens address and was given a very aggresive look from a scarylooking shirtless guy outside the building when i tried to enter, he shouted somethin in chinease at me (possably some kind of insult) i quickly turned round and walked away fast. as i walked down the street with my weston clothes and my big rucksack i was stared at by pretty much everyone, i must of stuck out like a saw thumb. for the first time i felt quite scared as i realised i was at the other side of the world on my own in the middle of the night in a dodgy area being stared at by pretty much everyone and to top it all off i had no working phone. :s
i knew i had to get out of there and fast, i decided to try and find a taxi and get to the closest hotel. i finaly found a taxi and i asked him for a taxi to a hotel. he replied blacudamacharatas or something. yep clearly he cant speek english i tried to explane using signs and making snoring noices and sleeping motions but he wasnt getting it and possably thought i was some kind of nutter, after trying a few more taxis i finaly found one that understood my sign language. he took me to a hotel and charged me 15 yen for a 10 min journy. i then realised that the other taxi driver must have ripped me off damn...
i entered the hotel and tryed to ask for a room for one night, yep they knew no english. i realy should of learned chinease before coming here. after a long time trying to explane using signs and bits of english they knew and pointing at things in my lonley plannet book aka my bible!!
i managed to pay on my card wich is good as i only had about 14 yen left in cash. i was taken to my room by a tiny chinease man. i gave him a tip for carying my bag then went in and locked the door. i organised all my kit for the next day and wrote down what i needed to do tomorow inorder to find where chen was.
Day 3
I woke up in the hotel at about 8.00 and the first thing i did was ring chen and find out where he was. he said he would come pick me up from the hotel. i then went down for breakfast. yougutt and tomato juce mmmmmmmmmmmmm......
chen arrived soon after and we got a taxi together back to his place. he lived on floor 9 in a very tall building. after speeking with his family and unpacking my stuf we decided to go out and hunt for a laptop. we got a taxi to a big Hyper Market in Beijing. as we entered chen spoke to one of the people and we were escorted to a laptop shop. we looked at three different shops chen negotiated and translated for me. finaly i purchased a laptop for 2700 yen. a very good deal as i got a very powerfull little netbook :D
chen then flagged a taxi and we headed back to his place, dropped off the laptop then went to get some food, we went to a cantoneeze resteronte and got loads of food for 80 yen about 8 pounds.
I failed at chopsticks :(
after the meal we headed back up to chens and planned some stuff we wanted to do over our time in Beijing.
*piks to come soon :D
Friday, 2 July 2010
Thursday, 1 July 2010
The Day before I go...
I fly tomorrow at 2.20 so i thought i would update my blog before i go. hopefully i will pick up a laptop pretty soon after i get to Beijing so i hope to start Blogging as soon as i get there.
Anyway, my kit is now all packed and weighs a total of 13 kg, I was hoping to get it under 10kg but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.
my next update will be from Beijing. until then. a few photos.
all my kit ready to be packed
kit packed :)
Anyway, my kit is now all packed and weighs a total of 13 kg, I was hoping to get it under 10kg but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.
my next update will be from Beijing. until then. a few photos.
all my kit ready to be packed
kit packed :)
Sunday, 16 May 2010
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