Lee and Clare, The road home

Kiaora from Pingyao

3^rd November 2003

Kia Ora cuzzies.

We're not doing so well with learning Chinese as we did with Russian, we haven't quite even worked out how to pronounce thankyou properley yet. It's hard!

We're still not loving the Chinese people much, but trying to keep an open mind.

Peking duck was yummy the other night. First they bring out the meat chopped up with all the skin and fat (they do it a special way, the skin bit is kind of like pork crackling). You have this with really thin pancake type things made from wheat, sauce made of fermented bean paste and some sliced cucumber and spring onions. You use your chopsticks to pick up the meat and veges and put onto the pancake thing (unless you are Lee, in which case you have your whole hands covered in sauce and fat, can't take him anywhere). Then a bit later they bring out the legs and neck with a bit of meat in served in soup with Bok Choy. Very interesting dinner!

It was nice to have a good hotel for one night. However even though we paid about 3 times the price of our hostel it still had some dodgy things about it and people shouting in the hallway at 7 in the morning. They had one English channel, which was all about China, lots of financial reviews which were quite riveting. We watched live the big ceremony held in Hong Kong to celebrate China's first astronaut. He sang live with Jackie Chan.!

Yesterday we went walking around Beijing's Hutong (hutong means alleyways) and we went to some quite historic ones north of the Forbidden City. People live there and there are lots of old courtyards. However they are nothing compared to Pingyao where we are now.

Last night we had our first experience of a Chinese night train. Very different to the Russian/trans-Siberian trains. We travelled in Hard Sleeper Class which is rows and rows of bunks 3 high instead of the 2 we are used to. There are no closed compartments. It's like a big dorm room. No compartments for luggage either, but we managed to get ours under the bed with a squeeze. Not as bad as it sounds though, it was perfectly clean and quite comfortable, we got a duvet instead of the skanky blanket you get on Russian trains. The toilet is quite hilarious. It's just a room with a hole in the floor with footpads on each side. Gotta hope you don't go around a corner fast.

Unfortunately we didn't sleep that well though, it was a bit chilly. We arrived here in Pingyao at about 7.30 this morning. Luckily the hotel we chose out of the Lonely Planet had someone at the train station so we got a lift (we are so over carrying our packs for miles). Our hotel is really really nice. The whole town is completely traditional, like something out of an old Chinese movie or something as they didn't have the money to do it up years ago. There are red lanterns hanging out the fronts of the buildings along the street. Think old Chinese and this town is it. There is also an old town wall, the best one in China, that goes right around the city. First built sometime BC, the current wall dates from the Ming Dynasty, from about 1300s to 1600s. We're gonna go on it later, cool.

Our hotel is also completely traditional, we even have red lanterns in our room! We do have a hot shower and sit on toilet of our own too, don't know how traditional that is?? The website of the hotel is www.pytyk.com, you should have a look if the fancy takes ya.

We are here till about 7.30 tomorrow evening when we get another night train to Xi'an, arriving there at 7am on Wednesday morning. They have free Internet at this hotel and we are chilling so will most likely be back on here again before long.

There are 6 staff members in this 6 table restaurant at the moment. 4 of them are sleeping on the tables and 2 more are looking out the window. They have been doing this the whole time we are here. But as soon as we get up two of them will jump up to open the door for us.

Lee looks like Dennis the Menace (he hasn't had a haircut for 2 months, but it actually quite suits him I reckon).

Us