GREAT CHINA

 After our time spent in Luang Probang we headed to the bus stop where we climbed aboard a big bus with dozens of scrawny beds and began our overnight journey into China! We passed the thirty hour bus journey by sleeping, trying to make sense of the movies in Chinese, and trying to breathe through the cigarette infested bus. The 2 bus drivers that took shifts were literally chain smoking so I had to have my window open letting fresh motorway air in for the entire duration of the journey.  People must have thought I was loony as the night air was quite cool but I’d much prefer to freeze than to inhale 30 hours of second-hand smoke!

Our bus--narrow little beds

On our way to China!

At the Laos/China Border

Me with my rucksack arriving in Kunming

Beautiful and manicured China

Chinese Landscape

On the bus we met a lovely American girl who helped get us through our first day in the very non-English speaking China. She had become fluent in Manderin after teaching English in China. We stopped at the border of Laos and China and my first impression was how clean and well-manicured everything was! I also noticed how difficult it was to order food... I think I got a taste of what it might feel like to be illiterate!

We arrived in Southern China into a city called Kunming. Des and I made our way to the shopping centre in order to get  yuans (Chinese currency) and find the bus route. I honestly don’t know how we would have made our way around without our American friend as literally ALL the signs were in Chinese and hardly any locals we met could speak a word of English. It was like being re-born again and not being able to communicate! We noticed very interesting things in Kunming. While in the mall, Des found a little vending machine that sold dress shirts. The city itself was extremely modern, clean and full of tall buildings and bright lights. We stayed at an awesome little hostel with loads of travellers and spent the nights drinking Tsingtao beer and playing pool (oh ya and watching the Royal Wedding J).  Des and I had an interesting experience trying to order food on our own the next day. As there is so much meat in Chinese dishes. The American girl we had met told me to say what sounds like “boo row”  (meaning no meat) when ordering food. Des and I went into a restaurant  and tried to order anything that had “ boo row!” Well, they had NO IDEA what I was on about! They brought their colleagues out one by one in order to attempt an understanding of what we were trying to say. It ended up in a game of win lose or draw followed by sherades! I was drawing chicken bones and flapping my wings like a bird and moo-ing like a cow....they still had no idea. We exited the restaurant leaving the waiters giggling and bamboozled! We eventually found a restaurant with photos by the food so winged it and somehow got the no meat thing right! We roamed the streets and checked out the shopping centers (very modern and similar to home). We went for an absolutely amazing meal the next day after a night out and had a hot-pot (one of my favourite meals on the whole trip).

Vending machine Dress shirts! 

Downtown Kunming 

Our American friend

We chose the noodles, vegetables, spices...everything we wanted (based on photos) to put in our hot pot and they brought out little bowls and a big pot of water. We put the pot on the element in the middle of the table and added all the ingredients one by one until we had our masterpiece hot-pot...absolutely scrumptious! 

Something I picked up on in China was how people seemed to conform so much. There didn’t seem to be a great deal of people saying no or straying from the norm. I suppose that might be expected in a communist country.

Yummy Hot pot!

Cooking up a storm

At airport on our way to see Fred!

From Kunming we took a small flight up to Beijing where the great Freddie Hogan was waiting for us! Fred has been teaching business in Beijing for the past year and wow, did he show us a good time! Des and I got settled into our little hostel minutes away from Fred’s school and apartment and then the exploration of Beijing began! We went and saw the forbidden/ancient city with all the tributes to Mao. Beijing is like something from the space age. Everywhere you looked was massive skyscrapers, movie cinema size billboards that were actually TVs and bright lights flashing everywhere. On the other hand there were lovely little hidden lanes with little restaurants, little old ladies cooking, sweet smelling aromas and beautiful red Chinese paper-looking lanterns.

Together again atlast! 

Mao Mao

                                    We saw some very unusual cuisine on the streets of Beijing!

Nutloaf

Edible Starfish

Things on a stick

Steamed Crab

Yellow and White Dumplings

Scorpions on a stick

We went for drinks in an Irish pub with Fred’s Canadian friend Drew and then out for a lovely dinner where the lads ordered a couple of whole peking ducks. We met all of Fred’s crew and had a few patriotic Jameson’s. We then went clubbing with the gang and got a feel for the madness of the ex-pat community in BJ! We danced the night away and watched the sun rise over the buildings from the roof-top of a club. As the sun rose we made our way back onto the street that looked like an absolute train-wreck from the night before...street food and garbage everywhere. The lads bought a couple giant bottles of beer and we sat on a small piece of grass watching the morning street cleaners get to work. Fred and Des tried to steel a rickshaw (sortof...more like tried to ride it) and the state of everyone was so hilarious that even a toothless old homeless man stopped to ask if Freddie was ok! Ha. We then smartened up and made our way for a very early morning MacDonalds where people started to fall asleep over their Egg McMuffin...meaning it was time to go home to bed.

Des, Fred and Drew

Jamesons! 

Peking Duck! 

Chinese poison--Byjo! 

Doesn't go down well at all! 

Freddie's Roomate 

Dancing up a storm with Lenny! ;)

Hang on! 

Havin a moment with himself! haha...

Group shot! 

Street carnage the next morning (same night for us!)

The lads purchasing morning beer

Rickshaw theft?

Bromance 

Right before the toothless hobo asked Fred if he was alright! 

Where Des and I stayed 

The next couple days we explored the city with Fred. We went to a lake, the Summer Palace and the Olympic Stadium which was something out of the space age as well with the “nest arena” and the multi-coloured lit up swimming arena. We had a couple more nights out where we met some crazy people (one in particular that stands out was the Russian Mafia arms dealer that insisted on sitting with us and asking us whether we would like to buy a gun...all the while drinking white Russians after a month of being sober...hmmm probably not the wisest person to be-friend!) Poor Freddie still gets random phone calls from the guy...might say it serves him right after he left us to meet “a girl” while the Russian sat with us, met his mafia friends (and a new bright orange-haired guy he was introduced to that he had to impress in the trade) and did a deal right in front of us! 

Some Traditional Chinese Music

Panda Bear hat shopping! 

Chose this one to bring home for Benji! 

Roasted yams on the street-delicious! 

Man painting in water

This says CANADA!

The last day we spent in Beijing, we went to the markets to buy Juliet and Benjamin a china doll and panda bear hat and Des and I climbed the GREAT WALL OF CHINA!  It was awesome! We took a chair-lift to the top and then climbed the ancient wall surrounded by surreal, amazing views. Lush green landscape surrounded us and the wall seemed to be never-ending. Although some of the wall has been re-built over time, it was a bit mind-blowing to think how old and how much history was under our feet. There were very steep parts to the climb and amazing viewpoints through rock windows at the top.

The "nest" in the Olympic stadium

Space-age lights

The swimming pool that turned different colours on the outside

Gondola up

THE GREAT WALL!

Chinese nectarines! 

Dried sweet fruit! 

In order to make our way down, we took a bob-sled style of transportation down a ramp to the bottom! At the bottom were a thousand stalls of souvenirs, sweet nuts and fruit. We went for our last dinner on our 6 month travels to an unforgettable vegetarian restaurant that Fred found for us with every kind of mock-meat you could imagine. It was nestled in a little alley and the outside looked like a stone wall but inside was an ancient house that was converted into a restaurant. Unbelievably charming! I got to try (fake) Peking duck with the sweet peanut sauce after all!

Bob-sled track

Taking the bob-sleds down! 

Faux meat! 

Vegetarian kabobs! :)

Traditional Chinese Game

The next day we packed our rucksacks for the very last time and met Fred on his lunch break at the local restaurant we had visited several times where I got my staple dish of noodle soup with egg and tomato in it. We said a big good-bye to our dear friend and made our way by taxi to the airport.

 Boarding that last plane was a surreal feeling. I have never felt so excited to get home!

Everything was an OH CANADA moment! From the maple syrup in the travel catalogue to the newspaper reporting on the current Canadian prime-minister elections.

As we landed in Vancouver for our stop-over on the way to Saskatoon I felt unbelievably patriotic. Our first stop was Tim Horton’s where I introduced Dessie to Tim Bits and the “nicotine” coffee. We rang David as he was in Vancouver (not long distance--Yay!) and eagerly awaited our last flight back to Saskatoon, back on Canadian soil at last.

Things I was dying to do when I got home:

Have a bath, sleep in a comfortable and clean bed, eat real brown bread, bite into an apple without having to worry about contaminates, use a toilet that I can sit on, eat perogies and all the home cooking I could get my hands on, watch a hockey game, walk and run in clean- smog-free air, drive a car, reach for clothes out of a closet, go buy something without having to barter, not having to worry about being scammed, do my own laundry, cook my own food and of COURSE see all my friends and family!

We had an unbelievable, unforgettable and life-changing trip. Thank you to all who followed our blog and a special thank you to my travel buddy, partner in crime, love of my life, Desmond Michael Howe! I had the best 6 months around the world with you and I am so lucky to have such an adventurous, spontaneous, fun, patient, energetic, and kind partner in life beside me. I will never forget the memories we have created and will value and cherish all the experiences we had together for the rest of my life. I love you! Roll on the wedding!