As amazing as our trip so far had been, I was starting to feel that travel these days is missing some of the adventure it used to have. You hop on a plane, watch a film and poof! you're in Bangkok. Or Tibet. Or Timbuktu. Just a little too easy. Something more challenging was in order, I thought.
We had made our way from Hong Kong to Beijing by train, with side-trips to Macau by boat and Xi'an by train. No planes. My home town, Hexham, is in the Northeast of England. Would it be possible, I wondered, to get all the way from Hong Kong to Hexham without a plane? The overwhelming power of alliteration won the day, and so the morning after Chris flew home I found myself in Beijing Central Train Station, awaiting the 7.50am number 3 train, to Moscow.
Six days and 4735 miles later, at 2.40pm on Monday afternoon, I got there. On the way I had crossed to the Chinese border, the Gobi desert, Mongolia and Siberia. I had seen ruined sections of the Great Wall, nomadic Ger villages, the extraordinary Lake Baikal and the epic steppes of Siberia. I had hopped off for brief stops in interesting Cold War era stations across Eastern Russia. I had improvised a shower with a sink and a thermos. I had eaten terrible dining car food and too many instant noodles. I had enjoyed the most stunning scenery I have ever seen, in places too vast or remote for most people ever to visit. I had enjoyed Russian vodka and good company. I had spent four and a half days by myself in a cabin on an almost empty train, and read a lot of books... I had experienced northern summers where the sun never actually sets.
And I had really, properly, truly, travelled.
Friday, 24 July 2009
Friday, 3 July 2009
Beijing, China: Last days in Asia.
Back to Beijing, and the final days of my trip (Jacqui had 3.5 weeks ahead of her). The first thing we needed to do was some serious souvenir and present hunting. The nature of backpacking means that most of the gifts you buy for people back home have to be bought in the last place you visit, due to the logistics of having to carry everything around. Thankfully, Beijing is not short of shopping.
We spent an enjoyable few hours going around the enormous Panjiayuan Market, also known as the 'dirt market'. Jacqui was quickly among the bargains, but it took me much longer. My haggling technique was finely honed after five months of practice, but I wasn't getting anywhere with the Beijingers. The trouble is, too many tourists come to this market and slap their cash around as if they were at home. So I was struggling to buy things at the price they were actually worth. It took about two hours before I actually bought anything. Eventually though, we both left with all the items we wanted for ourselves and for people at home. In the evening another old friend of mine Lingyan came over to Julia's for dinner, along with her husband Jiang and their very sweet one-year-old baby Sai'er (known as 'Tintin' due to being conceived in Brussels).
The following day we checked out the Summer Palace. I'd been in deepest winter back in 2005, and had enjoyed sliding around on the frozen lake and playing football with lumps of ice. To see the place on a gorgeous summer's day made me realise that I hadn't exactly soaked up all the culture on show on my first visit! It's a really pretty setting, especially the little shopping and cafes area called Suzhou Street which makes for some excellent photos.
After lunch it was time for the obligatory 'ahh bless' moment with a trip to see the pandas at Beijing Zoo. This was excellent fun. I hadn't really realised before how funny pandas look when they're slouching with a pile of bamboo on their belly ready for eating. Most comical. They have the demeanour of a lazy teenager who can't be bothered to do anything. In searching for a token picture for this paragraph, I stumbled across this one which clearly shows a panda from the zoo playing the flute while his mate shines his shoes for him. Nice.
On my last day, I had some unfinished business to attend to. In 2005, I was one of the first Westerners to be allowed inside the (then under construction) Beijing Olympic Stadium, as part of a tour arranged through work. At the time it was a hive of activity with thousands of workers working three shifts around the clock to get the enormous venue built. The chance to come back and see it completed was not to be missed. We bought tickets to enter the venue, and then you could just wander more-or-less where you pleased. There was an enormous thunderstorm while we were inside, giving the place a rather eerie feel. I wasn't quite as blown away by the stadium as I thought I might be. Its clearly quite impressive from the outside, but inside it has no more character than, say, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium. Personally I think Munich's Allianz Arena is still my favourite futuristic-looking stadium in the world. We also went in the Water Cube, which was the Olympic swimming venue. Again, pretty impressive, but it probably looks a lot better on a sunny day. The 'soap bubble' design of the exterior of the building looks a little on the grey side on a dull day. It certainly looks the business at night, but I was flying that afternoon, so no time...
And then it was time for me to head to the airport (Etihad Airways are fantastic by the way). The last couple of months of the trip went unbelievably quickly. So strange to be leaving Jacqui behind after five and a half months of being pretty much joined at the hip. But a whole new chapter of the adventure was just starting for her, as she will reveal in her next few posts.
We spent an enjoyable few hours going around the enormous Panjiayuan Market, also known as the 'dirt market'. Jacqui was quickly among the bargains, but it took me much longer. My haggling technique was finely honed after five months of practice, but I wasn't getting anywhere with the Beijingers. The trouble is, too many tourists come to this market and slap their cash around as if they were at home. So I was struggling to buy things at the price they were actually worth. It took about two hours before I actually bought anything. Eventually though, we both left with all the items we wanted for ourselves and for people at home. In the evening another old friend of mine Lingyan came over to Julia's for dinner, along with her husband Jiang and their very sweet one-year-old baby Sai'er (known as 'Tintin' due to being conceived in Brussels).
The following day we checked out the Summer Palace. I'd been in deepest winter back in 2005, and had enjoyed sliding around on the frozen lake and playing football with lumps of ice. To see the place on a gorgeous summer's day made me realise that I hadn't exactly soaked up all the culture on show on my first visit! It's a really pretty setting, especially the little shopping and cafes area called Suzhou Street which makes for some excellent photos.
After lunch it was time for the obligatory 'ahh bless' moment with a trip to see the pandas at Beijing Zoo. This was excellent fun. I hadn't really realised before how funny pandas look when they're slouching with a pile of bamboo on their belly ready for eating. Most comical. They have the demeanour of a lazy teenager who can't be bothered to do anything. In searching for a token picture for this paragraph, I stumbled across this one which clearly shows a panda from the zoo playing the flute while his mate shines his shoes for him. Nice.
On my last day, I had some unfinished business to attend to. In 2005, I was one of the first Westerners to be allowed inside the (then under construction) Beijing Olympic Stadium, as part of a tour arranged through work. At the time it was a hive of activity with thousands of workers working three shifts around the clock to get the enormous venue built. The chance to come back and see it completed was not to be missed. We bought tickets to enter the venue, and then you could just wander more-or-less where you pleased. There was an enormous thunderstorm while we were inside, giving the place a rather eerie feel. I wasn't quite as blown away by the stadium as I thought I might be. Its clearly quite impressive from the outside, but inside it has no more character than, say, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium. Personally I think Munich's Allianz Arena is still my favourite futuristic-looking stadium in the world. We also went in the Water Cube, which was the Olympic swimming venue. Again, pretty impressive, but it probably looks a lot better on a sunny day. The 'soap bubble' design of the exterior of the building looks a little on the grey side on a dull day. It certainly looks the business at night, but I was flying that afternoon, so no time...
And then it was time for me to head to the airport (Etihad Airways are fantastic by the way). The last couple of months of the trip went unbelievably quickly. So strange to be leaving Jacqui behind after five and a half months of being pretty much joined at the hip. But a whole new chapter of the adventure was just starting for her, as she will reveal in her next few posts.
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