Malaysian Borneo - Jungle Boogie...

The island of Borneo is split into two halves, one side belonging to Indonesia, known as Kalimantan, the other side belonging to Malaysia & known as Sabah. We flew into Sabah’s capital city of Kota Kinabalu for the start of our unfortunately shortened trip to Borneo, as a result of the ridiculous Indian visa requirement - meaning we had to be back in Kuala Lumpur several days earlier than planned to finalise the ridiculous process.

Kota Kinabalu really couldn’t be further from the image we all had in our minds of what Borneo would be like. A modern Asian city, full of bright lights & air conditioned shopping malls that is clearly developing at a fast pace. Situated right on the Northern coastline of Borneo, it is perfectly located for a short boat ride out to a cluster of islands that form one of Sabah’s National Parks. Equipped with snorkelling gear we made our way across the crystal clear waters out to the island of Safi, a beautifully under-developed island where the only way to spend the night is by camping, there refreshingly not being a single hotel or guesthouse, just a simple restaurant and a couple of shacks providing dive & snorkelling gear.

A white sand beach surrounded by coral reef & perfect turquoise waters with an abundance of tropical fish swimming right up to the shoreline, making great snorkelling very easy & accessible. The weather here was great, about 35 degrees with a cool sea breeze taking the sting out of the humidity on the mainland. The idyllic setting had also proved attractive to a host of large monitor lizards, averaging around 1-1.5metres, they bore more than a passing resemblance to the Komodo Dragons we visited in Indonesia not so long ago. Drawn in by the smell of the BBQ’d meat that was being prepared, they patiently sat around a few metres away from where we were sunbathing, being kept placid by the odd chunk of BBQ’d chicken being thrown their way by the guy doing the cooking.

Jonny’s shoulder injury had now unfortunately got to such a bad state that he was unable to travel the long & bumpy mountainous bus journey over to the east of Borneo to visit the jungle rain forest reserves, home to the wild man of Borneo (and no Mother, that isn’t me what with my unruly hair & beard these days!), the Orang-utan. So Jonny spent a few more days in Kota Kinabalu while Claire & I made our way across to Sandakan & the Kintamani Rainforest Reserve.

They call these reserves ‘pockets of jungle’ and they are really are now just relatively small pockets of rainforest that have been saved from deforestation in place of enormous palm tree plantations to feed the ever hungry palm oil industry. The palm plantations are on such a huge scale, that for the most part as far as the eye can see in all directions are just palm trees on land that was once rainforest. The palm trees do not offer an environment in which many of the native jungle creatures, including the Orang-utan, can actually survive in and there are also a huge amount of Orang-utans & other wildlife that are killed during the de-forestation process. The palm oil business, whilst being good for the economy of Malaysia, has unnecessarily made a near endangered species out of the Orang-utan, one of the few remaining species of great apes that share 96% of the same DNA as humans – apparently our 3^rd closest living ancestor.

So we booked ourselves into ‘Uncle Tans Wildlife Adventures’ for our trip out to a one of the pockets of jungle. Due to the amount of time we had to cut our Borneo visit short by as a result of the Indian visa nonsense we only had 2 nights to spend over this side of the island. So we stayed at Uncle Tan’s B&B for a night & took the early morning journey into the jungle camp for a one day tour, before returning to the comforts of the B&B again for another night. A pretty good decision as it turned out, as we managed to take a trek through the jungle, go fishing for Cat-fish, take a river cruise & eat three meals without actually having to spend a night in the ultra basic jungle camp accommodation. The sleeping huts had no windows or doors at all, & just an inch thick mattress placed directly on the wooden floor with a mosquito net hanging above. We thought our jungle accommodation in Ecuador was basic enough – but this was something else.

Anyway, during our jungle trip we didn’t actually catch a glimpse of any wild Orang-utans, but did however spot a few of the rare Probiscus Monkeys – their defining features being pot bellies & huge noses. Not dissimilar to your average ageing alcoholic really...

The following morning we made our way down to the ‘Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre’, a rainforest area of 40 square kilometres that has been completely set aside for breeding, rehabilitation & freedom for Orang-utans who have been rescued from wild when they were displaced by the deforestation. There are several points within this reserve where the wardens provide regular food for Orang-utans who are still finding their feet as wild & self sufficient creatures, though only one of these feeding stations is visible to the public for viewing. Twice daily the wardens bring out the food & very quickly several Orang-utans come swinging into the area to take advantage of it. Fantastic to see in such close proximity, & whilst this area of the reserve may seem a little zoo-like, the reserve is run in such a way that only Orang-utans at a certain stage of their rehabilitation come into this area & are exposed to humans. The Centre is actually run with the needs & considerations of the Orang-utans placed firmly as their key objective, rather than the need to be able to show off these creatures to camera wielding tourists. A great job is being done in the preservation & conservation of the Orang-utan in one of their last natural habitats left on earth, where the alternative for them is pretty much certain extinction as a result of the amount of money available associated with the Palm Oil industry.

A beautiful island with much more to offer than we had time to experience this time around, it is a place that we’re sure will open up as a much more accessible tourist destination over the coming years due to the relatively cheap flights Air Asia offer in & out of Kuala Lumpur, & certainly somewhere we hope to return to one day & spend a little more time.

After meeting up with a still somewhat crippled Jonny in Kota Kinabalu, we all flew back to Kuala Lumpur for the third time – where unfortunately our trip with Jonny would come to an end, three months that had passed way too quickly but which had been a real adventure & a great laugh. However, quite when Jonny would actually get home was hanging in the balance somewhat as a result of the Icelandic volcanic eruption which had put a hold on all flights back to Europe. So having finally got our Indian visas finalised Claire & I took our flight to Delhi, leaving a stranded & slightly crippled Jonny to wait it out in Kuala Lumpur for an undefined period. Thankfully this time we had upgraded to a guesthouse that was a significant upgrade from The Paradiso, called The Rainforest Inn, meaning Jonny had somewhere more comfortable to wait it out...In true Jonny style however, having been convinced by the Emirates office that his original flight time would go ahead, he had thrown his only remaining pair of shorts in the bin & given his guitar away to one of the girls in the hostel...

Kuala Lumpur - The Second Coming

Back to Kuala Lumpur for the second of what will be three visits here in total, Kuala Lumpur was turning out to be the city of meetings – the first time we were here we met up with Jonny, this time we were meeting up with Kerry & Gus, on their way back from the Australian holiday they had postponed from Christmas time. Our respective flights arrived within an hour of one another, so we all met at the airport... great to see a newly pregnant Kerry and Gus, the beaming imminent father.

Another thing that Kuala Lumpur is becoming synonymous with for us is ill health... the first time we were here Claire was really ill with a suspected case of Dengue Fever, this time both Claire & Jonny were ill with sickness and nausea and Jonny was suffering a great deal of pain from an old war wound he has with his shoulder & spine, sparked off again from all the seriously uncomfortable long distance bus journeys & lugging around of his bags for the last few months. The curse of Kuala Lumpur strikes again...

Pulling into the city centre from the airport it was rather blatant who were the workers earning money & who were the jobless hobos out of the five of us – Kerry & Gus were dropped off at their 5 star hotel, the ‘Istana’, complete with ornate lobby, bars, restaurants & pool, while Jonny, Claire & I returned to the hostel we had stayed at previously, the ‘Paradiso’, which isn’t much like paradise at all. The slogan on the sign for the Paradiso says, ‘The Paradiso – For All The Comfort You Desire.’ As Jonny rightly pointed out, if this really is all the comfort we desire, we need to radically reassess our desires. Having said that though, the fellas that run the place couldn’t be nicer and they had just stored half of our luggage for us for the best part of 3 months while we done our lap of South East Asia without charging us. In terms of budget digs in Kuala Lumpur it is a pretty good option, right in the heart of Bukit Bintang, the main commercial district of Kuala Lumpur.

After a good night catching up over an Aussie Steakhouse meal, we ventured out the following day for the very touristy, but very convenient hop on-hop off open top bus tour of the city, taking in a whistle stop tour of China Town, the Petronas Twin Towers, the KL Communications Tower, a few key Mosques, the largest open air avery in Asia & few other key parks & buildings.

By late afternoon the 37 degrees & 80% humidity proved enough to force Kerry, Claire & Jonny back to all the comfort they desired, & have a bit of a rest. Gus and I made our way back down to China Town, Gus being in the market for a pair of fake Oakley’s. In true English fashion, Gus and Kerry had apparently done a pretty good job of bringing the British rain on holiday with them, having had more than their fair share in Oz, suffered a couple of days of monsoon rains in Singapore, & sure enough while we were strolling around China Town the rains had followed them once again and let out an almighty downpour. There being nothing else for it, Gus and I had to retreat to a little street side bar Jonny and I had drank in the last time we were in town, & sheltered from the storm with the magical waterproofing properties of a few Tiger Beers.

Sometime later, Gus and I returned suitably lubricated (from the rain naturally...) & we all made our way out to sample another of Kuala Lumpur’s many fantastic restaurants. Not dissimilar to Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur is a real melting pot of cultural influences, very apparent in the wide choice of great food available. Gus being the undisputed King of food appreciation & eating, was naturally in his element...

While Gus & Kerry enjoyed a luxurious day lounging around their pool, the rest of us embarked on the next phase of travellers hassle & ridiculous bureaucracy while we attempted to arrange our visas for India. The Indian Embassy having followed the lead of most businesses these days and outsourced the visa application process to a third party, which without boring you with the details is now a bureaucratic nightmare.

Before we knew it the final night the 5 of us would be spending together until we were all back in Blighty was upon us and Gus very generously covered all expenses for a great night of eating & drinking. The following afternoon amid yet another monsoon rainstorm we all made our way back to the airport, Kerry & Gus flying back to Singapore for their connecting flight back to the UK, while Jonny, Claire and I made our way across to Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The storm was so bad that all flights were delayed a few hours, the loudest thunder and biggest lightning storm we had seen for a while and flash flooding everywhere not really offering up much in the way of in flight confidence to us as we said our goodbyes. An all too short, but really good few days of catching up and by the time we are back the new family member will be well on its way!

Cambodia - Land of Conflicts

Arriving in Siem Riep we found a great guest house, dumped the bags and headed straight into town for some birthday beers to celebrate Jonny’s 40th Birthday. Tucking into some great Khmer curry and Anchor draft beer, we met a Canadian couple and before long we were rather drunk.

Siem Reap is a strange place and not at all like we imagined. It is one of the poorest places in Cambodia and yet has the country’s premier tourist attraction, the temples of Angkor Wat, on its doorstep, attracting tens of thousands of visitors every year. It has a huge amount of high end hotels, flashy bars and clubs, restaurants galore and in parts not dissimilar to Kao San Road in Thailand albeit, a slightly more tasteful version. We were here for the same reason as every other tourist; to visit the infamous site, Angkor Wat.

We hired a tuk tuk driver for the day ($10) and set off for the site. The site is far larger than we thought and you can easily spend 2 or 3 days exploring the site but we opted just for a one day pass and hoped to cram in as much as possible, given our limited time in Cambodia. It was 40 degrees and about 80% humidity when we headed out to the site at 9am so perhaps trying to do it all in one day was a little ambitious and after only a couple of hours we were already waning but with regular ice cream and iced coffee breaks not to mention a ridiculous amount of water, before we knew it the sun was setting & we had seen most of Angkor’s best parts.

Angkor was once a huge empire that stretched several hundreds of kilometers from Myanmar to Vietnam and had over 1 million inhabitants. The temples that remain today are the remains of that empire, build over 900 years ago, the heart of which was in Cambodia. The stone temples were the places for gods, with all the normal buildings and structures built of wood which have long since decayed or been destroyed. The temples lay forgotten until the late 19th century when they were ‘rediscovered’ and work began in the early 1900’s to restore and reveal many of these huge structures. Work still continues but some of the more interesting ones are those that have yet to be cleared or restored and still remain engulfed by jungle.

The principal temple; Angkor Wat was built around 1100 AD as a funerary pyre for the then emperor. It is surrounded by a large moat and is the largest religious building in the world. The temple comprises 3 elaborate levels and is incredibly well preserved with thousands of stone carvings all the way around it and through the halls.

Moving on from Angkor Wat is Angkor Thom, the fortified city of Angkor with 5 monumental gates each topped with 4 faces of Avalokiteshvara (Buddha of compassion). The city walls stretch for more than 12km and are 6m high and 8m wide. It was built after Angkor Wat, around 1180AD and leading up to one of the main gates to the site, is a line of scary looking giants, there to protect the site from possible invasion. Within the walls are some amazing monuments but in particular is one called Bayon, which is a complex of over 216 giant faces of Buddha and another called the ‘Terrace of Elephants’ which is a 300m long terrace with, as the name suggests, huge elephants engraved all along it.

There are a number of other monuments and temples that we whiz past in the tuk tuk while driving around this huge complex and whilst most have been lovingly restored using local materials, there are others that are currently being restored with the help of Chinese donations and help, that do not seem to be quite as in keeping... the stone colour is different and pieces have been put together that seem like they should not belong together... maybe it will all make sense one day.

The last of the temples on the day’s agenda, was Ta Prohm, the site that was used in the first Tomb Raider film. This temple was also discovered over a century ago but has been left to the elements and remains as it much did when it was discovered, with the jungle devouring most of the structures that still remain. It was also build in the 12th century and apparently took over 80,000 people to maintain. It is a maze of corridors and crumbling intricately carved stonework and is by far the most impressive of all the monuments on the site.

After a few exhausting but really good days in Siem Reap, we opt to take what is built up to be one of the most beautiful boat cruises in Cambodia, to the town of Battambang. It may be a very beautiful boat cruise in peak season when there is a half decent amount of water in the rivers, but out of season, it wasn’t quite the cruise we had in mind. The slow boat we opted for (quite deliberately after hearing some bad tales of the faster speed boats doing the same route), didn’t materialise as they didn’t have enough passengers, so the speed boat it was. You are probably imagining at this point the sort of speed boat you see in movies or on holiday.... not quite. It was more of a wooden dugout canoe with a diesel car engine attached to the back. You could not hear anything over the noise of the engine, the tranquil boat ride we had hoped for came to an abrupt halt complete with enough toxic diesel fumes to knock you out. After only 100 yards, the driver (a young lad of about 18) crashed into the first of what would be 3 sand banks in his attempt to get us out of the first river and into the lake. The journey was meant to take about 7 hours, suspecting that it may take considerably more if we carried on crashing & breaking down at the rate which had in the first 45 minutes. What with the noise, lack of comfort & lack of water, we opted to get off the boat while we still could & and take the bus. Much to the bemusement of the driver, he took us ashore and from out of nowhere a tuc tuc raced down the muddy bank to pick us up and take us back into town. The boat company refused to refund us the money despite not providing the boat we booked, and not being able to get a bus, undeterred we took a taxi to the town of Battambang taking a mere 2 hours and arrived in time for lunch. Far more civilised.

One of the hostel staff in Siem Reap was originally from Battambang and so had friends who worked in a 4* hotel in town. He called ahead for us and booked us rooms for $15 a night..... great hotel with an outdoor swimming pool which was just what we needed. The following day, 2 girls that had been on the same boat, checked in and regaled the tale of the boat trip we had missed.... it had taken 9 hours and they had spent considerable time digging the boat out of sand banks, there was no respite from the sun and the scenery although nice, was not as outstanding as it was made out to be. All in all we felt we had made a good decision. Battambang was a nice enough place and had a couple of half decent cafes and restaurants and a few old colonial French buildings so proved to be a good stop over for a night or two, before taking a bus direct to Phnom Penh as time was running out and we had a flight booked back to Kuala Lumpur a few days later.

We had booked a great little guesthouse in the centre of Phnom Penh, dropped the bags off and headed to a restaurant run by a friend from home; Mark, who we had not seen in many years. Mark now lives there so he met us and suggested places to visit and how to best to occupy our limited time there. The food in the restaurant he had was also very good and we tucked in and had our quota of English grub to see us through another few months.
Phnom Penh is unlike other Asian cities not least due to its historical, bloody past. It is flashy, new and modern in parts and old, rambling and chaotic in other parts. In stark contrast to other places, the key sights are not just the usual beautiful old buildings... the Royal Palace, National Museum and some of the many temples and pagodas but also the historical sites where horrific, unthinkable atrocities took place under the rule of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970’s. Cambodia wants the world to know what it went through at the hands of the Khmer Rouge and wants to open it to the public and allow visitors to see what happened so it can never happen again. The 2 main sites to see are the Tuol Sleng Museum, also known as ‘S-21’, a school turned prison during the Khmer Rouge rule, and the ‘Killing Fields’, made famous by the film of the same name in the 1980’s.

In 1975, the Tuol Svay Prey high school was turned into ‘S-21’, the main prison, detention and torture centre for the Khmer Rouge. It was here that anyone who was arrested for any crime (a crime included simply being educated), would be held, tortured and ultimately taken to the Killing Fields and executed. In the history of the prison, only a handful of the tens of thousands that passed through, were not executed. All that remains of the school are some rusty beds, the makeshift walls created to form cells in the classrooms and now the museum where mug shots of all the prisoners are displayed. The Khmer Rouge were very clinical in the records they kept too and so every detainee was logged and photographed. Any prisoners who died while being tortured, were buried inside the prison and at the peak of the regime, it is estimated that over 100 men, women and children were killed there each day.

The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek are 14kms from central Phnom Penh and it contains over 129 mass graves, containing over 17,000 people of all ages. The site is still being excavated and each year after the monsoon rains, more bones and clothing are revealed. Many of the victims were bludgeoned to death to save bullets. This is one of just many sites all over Cambodia and it is estimated that almost 3 million people died during the 3 year reign of the Khmer Rouge. There is now a white stupa on the site which acts as a memorial to the people who died. Cambodians believe that the spirit or soul of a person can only be free if they are buried properly and so by building a religious stupa on each of these sites around Cambodia, it is a way of bringing peace to the souls of everyone who were so brutally killed. Controversially, in 2005, the Killing Fields were sold to a private Japanese Company, enraging many Cambodians that the government are financially benefitting through the murder of their loved ones.

There is a real conflict of interest as to whether to go to these horrific places and promote ‘war tourism’ or not however it is an instrinsical part of Cambodian history and to go and not see what went on only a few years ago while the world was blissfully unaware would be the crime.

Having really warmed to the city of Phnom Penh after the few days we spent here we left Cambodia and flew back to Kuala Lumpur again, this time to meeting up with Kerry and Gus who were stopping off to see us en-route back to the UK after finally having the holiday in Australia they should have had over Christmas.

Laos - ...and relax.

Leaving China did not prove to be as easy as anticipated.... arriving at the Kunming South bus terminal to catch a bus to the border seemed easy enough until we saw the actual bus we would be taking. After spending some time armed with our electronic translator (we could not find anyone who spoke any English to help us), we finally bought 3 tickets for the only bus leaving that day at 10am. The lonely planet didn’t mention the fact that the bus journey takes 13 hours to a place called Mengla, from where it is an additional 2 hours to the border and from there another 2 hours to the nearest Laos town. It also failed to mention the state of the buses they use... this had not crossed our minds as so far they had been fairly good. This bus on the other hand was falling apart and was a Chinese sleeper bus. A sleeper bus comprises hospital like beds lined up in 3 rows down the bus all in a semi reclining position with the back seat, one huge bed, and 5 people wide. The ‘mattresses’ and sheets they provide have not seen a washing machine in months and to make matters worse the beds were only long enough for a person of about 4ft height i.e. not your average westerner. Paul and Jonny attempted to get in their seats but could not sit or recline as they were about 2 ft too long. They also had the misfortune of having 2 of the back seats and was expected to sleep alongside 3 other Chinese men in close proximity... that and the noise of spitting and hocking that had all ready begun 15 minutes before we had even left, was enough to tip Paul over the edge. Having had enough, he marched us back into the ticketing hall, armed with the translator found the phrase in mandarin for ‘We would like a refund please’ and demanded our money back. They were more than happy to give it back in full (I think by this point glad to see the back of us) and we promptly hailed a taxi and headed to the airport.

At Kunming ‘International’ airport, there were 2 flights on the departure board to Vientiane, Laos. We then tried to purchase tickets.... apparently, this is not possible. The only way to purchase a seat on an international flight was to get a taxi into town, go to a travel agent, buy a ticket and then go back to the airport... glad to see flights in China are as bureaucratic as their trains. This would take too long and we would miss the 2 flights departing in the next 2 hours. Finally accepting we would need to stay another night in Kunming, we headed to a hostel called the ‘Cloudland Youth Hostel’, a change from the Mingtong International Youth Hostel we had stayed in the last couple of times we were in Kunming. It proved to be a really good hostel, good food, private rooms, helpful English speaking staff, and we wondered why we had not chosen to stay here earlier...

We found a Laos Airlines office that agreed to stay open after business hours for us to have time to get there and buy 3 flights, and to our amusement, we find that you can negotiate anything in China so despite advertised rates both online and in the Laos Airlines office, the girl was happy to discount the flights considerably and charged us 30% less than the advertised ‘reduced’ fare.

Next morning, armed with tickets, we make our way to the airport again. It claims to be an International Airport but there are only 2 airlines that operate a limited number of International flights – China Airways and Laos Airlines – and there are 2 ‘check in’ desks, one for each airline. It is here that we realise that the flight times on the ‘Departures’ board are actually ‘check in’ times and not departure times as you would expect and in fact we would have had time the day before to make it back and leave on one for the flights bound for Vientiane... obviously not meant to be!

We arrive in Vientiane excited at the prospect of a new and exciting destination.... and some hot weather, 35 degrees. Vientiane is not quite like any other Capital city... it is more of a small town and has a relaxed, not at all hectic feel that most cities do. Most of Laos was under French rule like Vietnam and so everywhere you go there are still remnants of past French Colonial buildings, good bakeries and patisseries, good coffee and good beer; Beer Lao, for want of an original name. It also shares close ties with Thailand both linguistically and culturally so it is predominantly Buddhist and for those that know a few words in Thai, which we all did, you could manage to get by (albeit everyone also speaks English). Thai baht is also accepted as currency as commonly as Laos Kip and US$ given its close proximity. Laos used to be a cheap destination and received much fewer visitors than its neighbour Thailand, however after the Tsunami hit Thailand a couple of years ago people have looked to Laos as an alternative although being landlocked it doesn’t have the same great beaches, but prices have risen significantly anyway. That said, we still found a great little hostel for around £8 a night and eating out was barely £1-2 each so no great hardship!

We spend a few nights in Vientiane relaxing before we took a bus to the UNESCO World Heritage City of Luang Prabang, 8 hours north of Vientiane through beautiful lush green countryside. Luang Prabang is a beautiful old town positioned close to the Mekong River, littered with old French Colonial buildings, great cafes, restaurants and bars all very tastefully constructed in keeping with its surroundings and many Buddhist temples looked after by orange-robed monks... it makes for a very picturesque and photogenic place to relax.

After being mobbed at the bus station by guesthouse owners, we chose one and head there only to discover that the rooms they say are available, are not and the place is not close to the main centre at all... they will try to sell you anything for commission. Annoyed, we trudge into town with our bags to find somewhere to stay and after asking at many, finally stumble upon a great place, Kintamani, with huge rooms, lovely old furniture, balcony, bathroom and all at the rock bottom price of about £10 a night. Most other places were twice this price and didn’t have the benefit of a great balcony from which we could not only watch the world go by & have a few beers but we could also watch the monks walking past during their early morning calls for alms.

It is true what all the guidebooks say about Luang Prabang, it is a beautiful place and one where you can easily spend a week or two relaxing. Whilst this is exactly what Jonny and Paul chose to do for a week, I stayed only a few days, checked out the sights, notably many wats dating back hundreds of years, ambled around the town and checked out the night markets before heading back to Vientiane and further south to Savannakhet, hopeful to see a little more of the country in the short amount of time we had. Jonny’s 40th birthday was approaching and we agreed to spend it in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I had hoped to cross the Laos-Cambodia border overland and see as much as possible before arriving in Siem reap in time for his birthday but despite the relative short distances, travel by bus is slow and it would prove to be impossible. Jonny and Paul booked flights from Luang Prabang to Siem Reap and booked onto the same flight that connected in Savannakhet instead.

The drive to Savannakhet was long (10 hours), uncomfortable (no aircon, 38 degrees, PVC seat covers, stops every 5 minutes) but it passed through some beautiful countryside and I met some lovely people en route. Savannakhet, unlike Luang Prabang, was nothing like the guidebooks say.... “beautifully faded Indochinese mansions”... “ghostly charm”..... “streets abloom with bougainvillea” but rather a ramshackle mess, maybe 3 or 4 old colonial buildings still remain and little in terms of sights or anywhere decent to eat. That said, the people were lovely and it made for a nice relaxing few days all the same.

In my absence Paul & Jonny spent the rest of the week getting up late, heading for a leisurely breakfast of exactly the same omelette & Latte every day, back to the room for a little lay down, reconvening at about midday for a few hours guitar playing out on the balcony & making some significant headway with the songwriting for the’ Dangerous Brian & The Casino Brothers’ sessions, coming up with such ridiculous songs as ‘I know they’re only Spring Rolls, but I like them’ & ‘Bringing The Bristols Back’ – inevitably leading into a few too many Beer Laos’ & dinner at one of the riverside restaurants having a thoroughly good time.

We all reconvened on the plane as planned & flew onto Cambodia to celebrate Jonny’s big 4-0!

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a place that doesn’t really lend itself to backpackers on a budget due to the amount of mega rich people that live there, good budget accommodation is not something that has too much of a place in the market. As such, the backpackers’ choice of digs is pretty much limited to one of two equally horrendous old tower blocks that are falling apart in pretty much every way, the ‘Mirador Mansions’ & ‘Chungking Mansions’. We had opted for Mirador Mansions of the two, possibly the slightly better option, but still horrendously overpriced for the standard of room you get. Rooms are set back off the main hallways on each floor in blocks of about 5 rooms, behind a barred gate giving the place a nice prison cell feel.

The ‘double en-suite’ room Claire & I had booked was a joke, the room was only just wide enough to squeeze a small queen size bed in, the only way in & out of the bed was via the end of the bed, as there was no space on either side of the bed too squeeze along. The ‘bathroom’ consisted of a 3ft x 5ft space at the end of the room where you pretty much had to stand in the toilet bowl, or on the seat to actually get under the shower. All this luxury for the mere price of about £25 per night...

Jonny’s room on the other hand was still equally rubbish, but had marginally more space than ours. So for another few pounds a night we ‘upgraded’ to a room that wasn’t quite so blatantly a converted broom cupboard as the room we spent the first night. It turned out after speaking to some other travellers who were staying in Chungking Mansions that another benefit we had in the Mirador (depending on your requirements I suppose..) was the lack of pimps, prostitutes & drug dealers that were plying their trades openly on each floor of the building.

In their favour however for both places is their location, right in the heart of Kowloon & just a short walk from the ferry terminal to take you over to Hong Kong Island. The streets of Kowloon are lined with Indian tailors, incessantly trying to get everyone to get a new suit made up. Alongside each of the tailors is another guy selling fake designer handbags & watches – equally as persistent as the tailors. Funnily enough, as three jobless pikeys we didn’t really have much call for a Louis Vuitton handbag, sharp new suit or fake Rolex; but if you were in the market for something along those lines then it’s not a bad place to come.

The traffic around Kowloon is pretty relentless, and as a result they have developed a network of pedestrian subways that you have to take to cross the roads, spurring off in all directions underground with signposts to the various locations, which is great once you know where you are going, but makes just ambling around a little more difficult.

Every night Hong Kong puts on its own light show, called ‘The Symphony of Lights’, watched from the Kowloon side of the harbour all the sky scrapers on Hong Kong island perform a synchronised lights & music show by flashing their neon lights, like a huge graphic equaliser display...which we pretty much missed, arriving just as everyone was leaving due to us getting a little side tracked by a few beers. The main lights stay on all night though, & it’s still an impressive sight looking across the harbour – you wouldn’t want to be paying the electricity bills for any of those buildings though!

Hong Kong Island has a much more British feel about it than the Kowloon side, all road signs are in English first, with a small Chinese translation underneath, even though we gave Hong Kong back to the Chinese in 1997. There is even a Marks & Spencer in the main street, making for a great lunch option down in the food court. I never thought I would ever get excited about going into M&S, but after a year or so away from typical English foods it was great. How sad.

There is an old British style tram that takes you up to high point on HK Island with a viewing platform & shopping mall at the top, offering great views back across the harbour to the Kowloon side.

Another frustratingly bureaucratic Chinese element comes into play when you go into Hong Kong in that although part of China, it is still treated as a separate country in as much as you have to go through border controls to enter or exit Hong Kong from or into China, & it also means that if you leave China to enter Hong Kong, you then need another Chinese visa to re-enter China again, just another way to sting you for cash really. Claire & I already had dual entry visas for China as we hope to go to Tibet later in the trip, so we had to use our second entry just to get back into China again to take a flight out of the place. Jonny only had a single entry visa though, as none of us had really looked into it that closely & just assumed that as part of the same country he wouldn’t need a dual entry visa. Anyway, £80 later he was all set to get back into mainland China.

There are some advantages to this different treatment of HK, such as the lack of restrictions that are imposed on the internet versus those in mainland China. The famous ‘Great Fire-wall of China’ that blocks access to all social networking sites such as Facebook, limits as much access to free speech as possible by putting a blanket ban on all blog sites & sites such as You Tube and returns ‘cannot locate page’ messages when you try and search for anything remotely controversial about China. Thankfully this was not in place in Hong Kong. While we were there the whole issue with Google pulling out of China was going on, adding to the difficulty of using the internet.

We were only in Hong Kong for 3 days, which on a budget is long enough to be honest, as it’s not a cheap place. It is a great place to be though if you have plenty of cash, every designer label & big global brand has several shops in Hong Kong, & the food is a great mix of influences from all the Asians & Europeans that have made it home over the years.

Leaving Hong Kong, we re-entered mainland China in the city of Shenzhen for a flight across southern China back to where we started our Chinese epic, Kunming, to make our way south across the border into Laos.

China Part 3 - Pingyao, Datong & Beijing

Another long Chinese bus journey, another obligatory round of spitting and puking from our fellow passengers, which Is hardly surprising given their bus snacks of choice - vacuum packed bite sized chunks of meat, chickens feet being a particular favourite, along with all sorts of tiny bird eggs being merrily chomped away on like we would enjoy chocolate eggs. Whilst we were happy to sample most of the food options on offer we were strangely never tempted by these delights. The mildly concerning aspect of this bus journey was that the bus was dropping people off in the hard shoulder of the motorway, not a huge problem if you are aware of this in advance and have made arrangements for someone to pick you up but as we had no idea this would be the case, we hadn’t made any such plans. As it turned out we were slightly more fortunate than some of the other passengers with our drop off point, still by the side of the motorway though it was actually at a toll booth, so at least there were a couple of people milling around. It was however about 10pm and absolutely freezing...and there didn't turn out to be much in the way of stopping or slowing traffic and no taxis.

After some resourceful miming and pointing from Claire, we were able to convince some guy who seemed to be stood around in the freezing cold just for the fun of it, to phone the guesthouse we had pre-booked and ask them to send a taxi or something to collect us. About 20 minutes later, what can best be described as an elongated golf cart being towed by a moped pulled up to taxi us into town.

Like 3 blocks of ice we creaked into our guesthouse, a fantastic traditional style Chinese dwelling, complete with its own lanterned courtyard out the back, managed by one of the friendliest chaps in China who went by the name of Bob; who became affectionately known as ‘discount Bob’ by us, owing to his propensity to offer considerable discounts or even give away items for free without any hint or request from us.

Pingyao, in Shanxi province, is famed as one of China’s best preserved ancient walled towns, what this apparently translated as is it was an area that the Chinese government hadn’t quite got round to bulldozing to be replaced by soulless communist architecture, before they woke up to the fact that the traditional style architecture actually draws in tourists and therefore left it as it was. Throughout China this destruction of their cultural and architectural heritage in favour of the rampant rush towards modernity is unfortunately irreversible in many areas. There are tell tale signs of how close Pingyao came to a similar fate, as within the newly restored ancient city walls you can see areas where the traditional buildings were knocked down and replaced by horrible small industrial factory units, now all being pulled down and replaced with old style buildings again.

For the privilege of walking around the tops of the city walls, and paying a visit to a few buildings of apparent note (what used to be the old police station, the old post office etc) you buy a ticket for £12. Obviously this is not that expensive by European standards, but by Chinese standards and particularly weighed up against the cost of visiting the Terracotta Warriors (£9), it feels like blatant tourist exploitation, because to be perfectly honest Pingyao is not worth the money. Discount Bob however made the place worthwhile and the money we wasted on the £12 ticket we probably gained back in free or reduced price food and drinks Bob gave us.

While here Claire & Jonny took a day trip to Zhangbi, an ‘Underground Castle’. An elaborate network of defence tunnels and rooms developed by a paranoid emperor from the Sui dynasty, some 1400 years ago, convinced he was under imminent attack. The 'castle' stretches some 1500m underground, going directly underneath the site of an existing village built some 800 years ago. Another example of the impressive paranoid craziness from the ancient Chinese rulers.

Outside the walled city the rest of the town of Pingyao has not been saved, as we discovered on our trip to the train station to buy our onward journey tickets. Soulless buildings, industrial chimneys and half mud half asphalt roads pretty much sum it up.

After another great night at discount Bob's and him slashing an unnecessary amount off of our bill, we took a tuc tuc to the station for our joyous journey. Our onward journey was a mere 7 hour train journey, though as is so often the case in China, all the good seats were gone, leaving us only the option of the bench seats in the 3rd class carriage. Fearing the worst, having heard numerous horror stories from other travellers we had met along the way, of overcrowded carriages, people smoking the entire journey and spitting all over the floor, we found it was nowhere near as overcrowded as feared, and no sign of smoking or spitting so we were mildly relieved. After the initial clamber over people and possessions to get onto the train, the locals graciously rearranged themselves so the three of us could sit together. One of the advantages of being in the lowest class of carriage on the train was the fact we were literally the last carriage on the train, and the back door was left open, meaning when the smoking started (which didn't take long) we at least had some flow of air to clear the carriage. This soon became a double edged sword, as the further north we went into the mountains, the colder it became. By the time there was snow on the ground outside it was time to close the door and start breathing in the second hand smoke. The saving grace was that the spitting on the floor never started, and we proved to be quite a novelty to the rest of the train - the Chinese not being shy to stare and point it wasn't difficult to see who was keeping them entertained for the most part.

Passing by endless coal mines and power plants belching out pollution into the air, we finally pulled into snow covered Datong station. A mining town rapidly on the move, Datong lies in northern China close to the border with Inner Mongolia. The surrounding landscapes are all vast plains, rolling hills and mountains, dusted in a light covering of snow all adding to the beauty. The city itself is pretty uninspiring however, in keeping with every other new city and town we have been through in China there is a huge amount of apartment tower blocks being built in a rapid attempt by the government to house the 100 million migrants from the countryside to the cities that is taking place. They have also recognised the value in their heritage, as the once grand city wall that was knocked down several years ago to make way for 'progress' is now being hastily rebuilt again to make the place more attractive.

Our reason for coming to Datong was to visit what we found to be one of the most impressive sights in China, the Hanging Monastery. Built into the face of a sheer cliff out in the mountains surrounding Datong, suspended some 50 odd metres above the ground, it is an incredible sight. It must’ve constituted an inordinate amount of man power when it was constructed several hundred years ago and yet again as with so many of the remnants of ancient China, you are left asking why????

One of the things we discovered while in China is that they offer student concessions on most of their tourist attractions, though as a huge section of the population don't speak or understand any English you can pretty much show them anything and pass it off as a student card. As we were feeling somewhat exploited by the governments entry charges we decided to play them at their own game and wave around our Hostelling International cards and pass them off as student cards to get the concessions. There were some particularly confused and suspicious looks as we pulled this one off at the Hanging Monastery, surely now only being a matter of time before the government issues the staff with genuine student ID cards to cross reference against.

After a couple of nights in a really poor but overpriced hotel (cleaning products clearly not something to have hit these parts yet, just plain old water and a sweeper), we took another 3rd class carriage for the final 6 hour train journey up to Beijing but not before managing to find some of the best quality, cheapest food in the form of the best steamed pork buns and noodle soup of the trip so far!

Winding our way through Northern China’s mountains, past numerous coal mines & huge power stations we pulled into the city of Beijing. Bitterly cold, incredibly polluted & insanely busy were our initial impressions. Huge amounts of money were spent on Beijing prior to China hosting the 2008 Olympic Games, and as a result Beijing now has a Metro system to rival anywhere else in the world. On a mission to buy some more warm clothes to cope with the Beijing cold, in particular for our pending visit to the Great Wall, we hopped on the Metro & made our way round to the Silk Market. Buying the Metro tickets couldn’t have been easier; you just touch the station you want to get to on a display of the tube map & bingo. On the train there are maps that light up to tell you which station you are approaching & then lit in a different colour to tell you which station you have arrived at. Announcements in English (well, American actually) & Chinese, accompany the map lights to make it pretty much fool proof. They have also come up with a new way of advertising while on the underground, they have long lengths of computerized displays that line the walls of the tunnel, outside the train windows that are set to move at the same speed as the train, so as you whizz past the advert keeps up with you in bright lights, forcing you to take notice of it. Whether this is actually advertising or some form of subliminal messaging that the Chinese Government has employed to continually brainwash the population is a matter of debate however…

The Silk Market is actually a huge tower block, linked directly into the Metro station, so without having to go outside into the cold polluted air at all you can browse endless floors of goods. Each floor has a different type of product for sale, Clothing on a few floors, electrical goods on another, jewellery, carpets, household appliances etc on the other floors. It is a pretty full on market place however & you have to be in the mood for it as the vendors are all yelling & pawing at you to get you into their particular stall. Endless rows of counterfeit goods sit alongside the genuine articles, not always so easy to distinguish which ones are which. In most places in China the general rule of thumb when it comes to negotiating prices is that you should end up paying between 10-15% of the original asking price which means if you can bargain well and hard, there are some great bargains to be had, however in the Silk Market they weren’t quite playing that game & were either working on a fixed price basis or wouldn’t go below about 60% of their original price. Needless to say we didn’t end up buying much here that day.

Getting back on the Metro again around to Tiananmen Square was amusing…. on the platform everyone waits in orderly queues at the spaces marked out where the doors will be when the train arrives, all policed by security guards to ensure order is maintained. Then, the second the train doors open there is an almighty scrum to get on the train, this section of the line being particularly busy, people were literally launching themselves into the carriage when it got to the stage of looking like it couldn’t possibly hold another person. Meanwhile the security guards that had so staunchly ensured the queues were 100% orderly stand back & turn a blind eye to the ensuing chaos.

Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden City, are interesting places. The Forbidden City, as the name suggests was once off limits to anyone other than the Emperors & their entourage, now open to all, it is a huge area within a boundary wall that just seems to go on & on - we actually had seen enough before we got to the area right at the back. Full of old palaces, places of worship & grand sculptures it is an impressive glimpse into the opulence of the ancient Chinese rulers.

Even relatively mundane tasks such as going to the supermarket in China can be an entertaining experience. They are have the strangest things on sale, half of which we have no idea what it is... lots of jellied looking things, every cut of meat or offal splayed out on shelves, fruit and veg we have never seen before and over the tannoy staff are announcing in Chinese and English (strange as few people speak English), “please do not consume food until you have paid for it!” just as we see a Chinese man munching his way through a pile of self serve biscuits with one hand and smashing them in his hand with the other claiming they were broken so could not possibly be sold anyway! We also found a huge Carrefour Supermarket & while walking around, noticed the fresh fish counter. They have tanks full of live fish & a row of nets alongside the tanks where you just help yourself to whatever fish takes your fancy. While we were there a woman was just scooping the live fish out of the tanks & placing them in her trolley like you would a loaf of bread. She then just carried on around the supermarket with a selection of live fish flapping around in her trolley, almost sending her vacuum packed chickens feet flying as they thrashed around.

Raphael, our Swiss friend we had spent time with earlier in China turned out to be staying at the same hostel as us, so along with a few others that were staying at the same place we got stuck into some Chinese beers. The beer in China is rubbish it has to be said, nearly every brand on offer is about 3.2% & is so full of artificial preservatives & chemicals it gives the worst hangovers without much of the fun of getting really drunk. A German guy we were drinking with who was working in China as an architect, though living in a hostel as it was cheaper & more fun than an apartment, told us a little saying that ex-pats have while working in China. Bearing in the mind the disgusting nature of most of the toilets in China & the fact that many of them are the hole in the ground squat style, the saying goes that you know you have spent too long in China when you look down & see your own bare feet around the edges of the toilet. Thankfully we hadn’t actually got to that stage yet, but it was starting to feel like we were approaching the stage of having spent enough time in China, many of the day to day hassles & bureaucratic nonsense really starting to get on our nerves a bit now.

Before leaving Beijing however, we obviously had to go & check out the Great Wall. There are numerous stretches of the wall around Beijing that are in various states of renovation or disrepair. We decided to visit a stretch at a place a couple of hours out of Beijing, called Mutianyu. They actually have a cable car that takes you up the side of the mountain to get to the wall at this site, and although it is actually relatively touristy, there were very few people there and we had very little hassle to buy something from the many vendors selling naff ‘Great Wall’ merchandise. Having come prepared for the worst in terms of how cold we thought it was going to be, it actually turned out to be a really nice day & dressed in all our newly acquired warm clothes we were overheating somewhat, particularly once we started walking. Stretching out as far as the eye can see along a mountain ridgeline protecting China from invasion from the Mongolians, it climbs up some seriously steep slopes & walking along it gives a pretty good cardio-workout. Really impressive, really big, insanely paranoid & slightly ridiculous, the Great Wall has come to represent China in all sorts of different ways depending on your point of view…

The last thing we were told we must do whilst in Beijing is sample the 'peking duck'. The peking duck is a special kind of duck bred especially for this dish and is not the same as the one we consume in the UK. The whole duck was served to us, pre sliced by a waiter and served with small pancakes and spring onions, just as it is in the UK. It is a completely different colour however and tasted lovely although it was very fatty and we only managed about 3 small pancakes each out of the entire birdas the rest was fat... the remaining parts of the bird being served up in a glass soup, not the best meal we have had!

The following day Beijing was caught under a massive sand storm that had blown in from the Gobi desert, the sky became yellow & combined with the pollution it was even harder than usual to see 10 feet in front of your face. Ready for some warmer & better weather we took a flight out of Beijing headed for Hong Kong.

China Part 2 - Chengdu to Xi'an

Thankfully we had pre booked a hostel here that offered a station pick up service, as Chengdu station was an unbelievable sea of people. Our initial impression was that we had just arrived in a refugee camp, as literally thousands of people along with huge bags and sacks of what appeared to be their entire worldly possessions were sprawled out all over the place. In reality it later transpired that it's pretty much exactly what train stations actually are, as a reported 100 million people (of a nation of some 1.3 billion people) are migrating from their homes in the country in search of a share of the wealth pie that is being created in the cities. For a country of China's size it has very few cities for these millions to migrate to, hence the mayhem.

The hostel turned out to be something of a revelation, and certainly not something that you find in China very often, kitted out with all the facilities, amenities and services you could hope for (bar, restaurant, wifi in room, pool table, table tennis, a gym, DVD lending, travel agency etc) - called Sims Cosy Guest House, and it came as no great surprise to discover that it was not Chinese owned or run...

First up on the attractions list for Chengdu was the Panda Breeding Centre, getting there for feeding time at 8am to see them at their most active, as the rest of the day they pretty much just sleep. We had our reservations about the place, fearing it may just be some zoo where the pandas are kept in poor conditions (China not having the best reputation for zoos) but we were pleasantly surprised to find a huge enclosure out of the city, with many large areas for the pandas to eat play and sleep.

The adult pandas just sit back like an old man in his armchair and chomp away on their bamboo oblivious to the fact there is anyone there, while the baby pandas provide all the entertainment, climbing trees, falling off logs and play fighting with one another. It is apparently the most successful breeding centre for the panda, now near extinction in the wild and only around 50 pandas exist in zoos around the world, the breeding centre in Chengdu has 50 giant and red pandas of all ages, 'red pandas' being a genetic mix of panda and raccoon, for which there is also a very successful breeding program here.

Wandering around the city in the afternoon it was quite apparent the rate at which the economic wealth is growing, whilst there are still large areas laid out in the traditional Chinese style, the main part of the city is all high rises and glitzy shopping malls with as many high end designer shops in Chengdu as there are in Milan. All of them remain completely empty the entire time though, mere showrooms to create aspirational desire in the newly rich - all of whom apparently catch a flight down to Hong Kong and buy up all the designer gear down where there are significantly reduced taxes, and hence cheaper prices.

The following day we hooked with Raphael, a Swiss guy staying at the same hostel as us, and made our way to the town of Leshan, a couple hours out of Chengdu to go and pay a visit to the largest 'Buddha in the world' - carved into the side of a cliff overlooking a river, hundreds of years ago. The giant sitting Buddha is some 71 metres tall, but he is not alone in this area, also carved into the same cliffs is the longest reclining Buddha in the world as well, that lounges across the cliff face some 170 metres. There are in total over 3000 Buddha’s carved into the surrounding hills, some hundreds of years old, some more recent replicas of significant Buddha’s from elsewhere in China, along with a series of hilltop temples still home to communities of Buddhist monks.

It was also while in Chengdu that Jonny bought a guitar for the princely sum of £17, enabling us to get cracking with our new travelling 3 piece band; 'Dangerous Brian & The Casino Brothers' now the stupidity can really begin...

Having a day of sampling the local culinary delights as we wandered through the different districts of Chengdu, we found ourselves in a canteen place that had been recommended to us, with no English words, pictures or anyone that spoke any English, we somehow ordered up some dumplings that were pretty much just sugar inside, not quite what we had had in mind, but interesting nonetheless. Following on from this we thought we would wash them down with a nice cup of tea or coffee and having learnt our lesson about tea shops already in China, we headed to the Tibetan quarter and ordered up their take on tea. It turned out to be very light on the actual tea flavour, and incredibly heavy on the boiled salty yak’s milk it was made with, an acquired taste that we were apparently unable to acquire. Making our excuses we made our way out rather swiftly to the somewhat bemused stares of the owners, wondering why these strange westerners had just walked in, ordered a huge pot of 'tea', taken a couple of mouthfuls then left over the asking price as they shuffled out of the door as fast as possible...

Finding the buses and trains yet again fully booked as we planned our onward trip to Xi'an, and not really fancying the 16 hours on the rickety old sharrabangs that were left on offer, we took the easy option, said a quick good luck prayer and booked ourselves on a flight with that most reputable of airlines, China Air, to Xi’an, home of the Terracotta Warriors. Chengdu was a really nice city, cold and grey at this time of year and apparently humid and polluted during the summer, it had a nice feel about it; no one was in your face and it was home to the best hostel in China.

One safely negotiated China Air flight later, we touched down in Xi’an and took a bus into town. Along the way we passed by an incredible network of new motorways and fly over’s, putting Birmingham's spaghetti junction to shame, with many more still under construction. The encouraging thing about some of the development that is going on is that China appears to be considering some renewable energy technologies to their urban planning in certain areas, with things such as solar and wind powered street lighting lining the sides of the roads.

Xi’an is an old walled city, and outside of those walls, it is pretty uninspiring, once inside however it is a different story. 21st century glitz and glamour line the streets, every designer shop under the sun, high end jewellery stores and an abundance of Range Rovers, Merc's and BMW's, set against a mixture of ultra modern architecture and ancient Chinese architectural grandeur from an illustrious past. It was here we hooked up with Alva, a young Irish girl who had spent the previous 4 months teaching English and studying Chinese in Chengdu.

Heading out that night, the 4 of us ventured into the Muslim quarter for dinner and with Alva being able to communicate significantly better than us, we went to a restaurant with no English on the menu again and were actually able to make semi informed choice of what we eat that night. It was pretty impressive how much of the Chinese characters Alva was able to understand, and how much she could converse with the waitress with only 4 months of learning. We ended up having a fantastic beef and lamb noodle soup with homemade noodles, delicious! Being a Muslim restaurant however, all the Chinese in the world was not going to get us a beer mind you.

The food in China to date has been superb, much better and more varied than your average Chinese restaurant back home has on offer. The street food snacks you can get are great, perfectly barbequed meat skewers that you roll in sauce and chilli flakes to your taste, steamed buns with a variety of veg or meat fillings, the delicious steamed wanton dumplings and strange but remarkably tasty dried yaks meat, not entirely dissimilar to a slightly sweeter beef jerky.

Xi’an at night is a lively place, the main centre of the old town is called 'New Times Square' and they are certainly giving New York's time square a run for its money with huge cinema screens projected onto the sides of building, neon lights adorn every wall and rooftop, huge laser beams shot up directly into the sky supposedly pointing out various stars and planets that you can then view via huge telescopes that are wheeled into town on the back of push bikes, not to mention hoards of kites that fly in amongst the city centre power cables, that consist of one very long piece of string with 20 or 30 small kites attached to each one. There might just be one of those in the post for Jake.

Awoken yet again by the dulcet tones of someone hocking their guts up in the street outside our bedroom window, we tucked into a breakfast of delicious steamed pork buns jumped on the local bus headed out of town to the Terracotta Warriors. At least we thought that was where we were headed, 20 minutes or so later, we realised that we were actually heading in completely the opposite direction... the indecipherable characters having got the better of us yet again. An about turn back the way we had just come, a bus change at Xi’an train station (yet again resembling a refugee camp with people and their possessions all over the place), we arrived at the archaeological site where the Terracotta Warriors were unearthed.

Originally discovered by a local farmer while he was digging a well in 1974, there is now a huge area that has been uncovered incorporating three separate pits, though there are plenty more still believed to be buried. Acting as guardians to the tomb of an ancient emperor, it took 38 years to complete. Each warrior was handcrafted to resemble an actual member of the army at that time with no two Warriors the same, even down to hairstyles and the tread on the shoes. There are also horses and chariots, as well as all manner of weaponry supposed to prepare the Warriors for battle if anyone attempted to raid the tomb.

The tomb itself, still remains buried, as metallurgy tests carried out in the area have confirmed local myths that there are rivers of mercury surrounding the tomb and all manner of triggerable devices set to impale and maim anyone coming close. It has also been discovered that not only were the Warriors all intricately hand carved some 2000 years ago, but they were also all individually painted.

To date, the Warriors that have been unearthed are all just their base material colour, as the chemical reaction between the paints that were used and the oxygen in the air causes it to completely degrade within 30 minutes of exposure. It is for this reason that the huge area that makes up pit 2 remains largely covered over still, while tests have been carried out to find a way of ensuring the paint doesn't degrade. They have now cracked this problem and so progress to unearth the rest is being started shortly.

Thousands of these life size figurines are in the fields and in the largest pit, Pit 1, it contains over 6000 figurines. When you think about the effort and man hours that went into creating it all you can't help feel that not only is it very impressive but also completely insane and possibly somewhat pointless. The whole area has been laid out really well, and for one of China's top tourist attractions it is good value for money (c. £9), compared to a lot of the more minor attractions which are pretty overpriced, as we were to find out on the next stop of our journey north east - Pingyao.