Anyway, last we spoke we were pretty hacked off in a Chinese McDonalds. Things improved slightly before the end of the Beijing leg, however the relief when we landed in Hong Kong, and away from the line of people on our flight staring at us whilst going through passport control was immense, and even though Hong Kong is still under Chinese rule, it is very different, and much more pleasant in our opinion.
(Ah - the woman woke up, I have my arm back)
The Great Wall didn't disappoint. We went to Mutianyu - follwing the guide book, which told us we could go by coach and change to mini-bus. The bus driver told us to get off the bus, although we think he was probably on commission as he told us to get off early and go with this taxi driver who had been hassling us at the stop before. Instantly we were hounded by people selling us a mini-bus - or some of them pretending to sell us a mini bus, when it was actually just a taxi. After much manhandling, we found a driver who was a bit less of a mentalist, and got in.
I think Loz thought we were being kidnapped, which made me rather nervous, so I hid my spare credit card and some cash in my bra for emergencies, and held on tight to everything else. Turns out they were taking us where we wanted to go - who'd have thought?!
On arrival, I bought a new hat, as I'd forgotten to take mine out - at least we no longer matched - and we began the ascent to the wall. There were hundreds of steps, and many of them were sheet ice. We made it up in one piece though, and unsurprisingly given the weather, it was very quiet!
The Great Wall is still my favourite place on Earth - despite it being in China. It's so peaceful and quiet, and is surrounded by amazing scenery. The snow made everything even prettier than last time, and if not for inevitable frostbite, I could have stayed there all day. Keen to explore, I suggested we went for a wonder to the next tower. Bits of the wall were quite slippy (srip srip), though it seemed a shame not to give it a go. I managed to talk Loz into this eventually - though she wasn't over-keen, and before long she was flat on her backside, having thought she was ok, but in a moment of overconfidence sripped over. Failing not to laugh, I went to help her up, and ended up after a bambi spectacular, clinging to the stones with both hands as my shoes would not grip at all. Unfortunately, in true gladiator style, the icy travellator got the better of me and I slid back down the wall on my hands and knees. Guess who was laughing now?!
(Oooh, we're landing - I spy beach :D)
(Change of location - now by the pool in Bali. Before I tell you how amazing it is, I should finish talking about China...)
We realised when we got back down from the wall that we were actually stuck, as the minibusses, of which there were hundreds at the bus stop, were now a rare occurance. In fact at this point there was only 1 driver, who wanted us to pay more than three times as much as we'd paid on the way there. After haggling for ages we'd got the price down, but it was still more expensive than the same journey earlier, so we walked away. Eventually the guy followed us and decided to lower his price more, and finally he agreed to go with the price we'd asked for... until we got to the taxi. Loz got in, and he changed the price. So she got out, then he agreed our price again. I got in, then he whacked up the price to more than three times the amount. I got out and walked off. 'OK OK' the guy ran after us, but we felt it was too late so we ignored him. He grabbed my arm and started dragging me back to the car (which was not infact a minibus as promised). I managed to shake myself free and elbowed his phone out of his hand across the carpark. Oops. Meanwhile another driver had been watching and offered to take us back for the price we asked for, without any fuss at all.
I think China is the worst place for hassling tourists. You can say 'NO' all you want but they will not leave you alone until you're out of range. Don't worry mum, it's not malicious, it's just cultural. However it is irritating.
When we arrived at our tube stop to go back to the hostel, I spotted something incredible, that made the day even more magical. Pizza Hut. I can't believe we hadn't noticed it before, but that was it, we had to go. Despite the inedible Pizza we'd had on our first night in the hostel (made with soft sweet bread, and ham that a that tasted like they hadn't washed the pig before they killed it), it was amazing. A perfect ending to a perfect day. I hasten to add, China, having being served half a chicken head last time I was here, is the one place I am too frightened to eat anything that is local. Unless it's vegetable fried rice, I can manage that. After 6 days of vegetable fried rice Pizza Hut was like a gift from God!
For our last couple of days, we visited 'The Temple of Heaven', the Olympic stadium, and then the 'Forbidden City' and the 'Summer Palace'. Of those my favourite was the Summer Palace, which was stunning. You can't actually go into the palace itself I don't think, but there is a huge lake for boat trips out in the summer. While we were there it was totally frozen over though, and had people walking all over it. Seemed to have cracks in though so we gave it a miss!
I think towards the end we got a bit more used to China. We met a couple of really nice people - Tina and Janet, both of whom were in our dorm, and neither of whose Chinese names I can pronounce. Tina came out with us on the last day, which was fun, and particularly helpful on the Chinese speaking front. We actually learned some Chinese - 'Zeeeen, woah shi-an yao' is I want that please, 'bu shur' is no and 'shur da' is yes. There were other bits but I forget. It turns out my Chinese name is 'Kar-li' and Laurens is 'Lau-la'... so when we open our ice cream parlour it will be called Carly and Lola's - that's as far as our travel epiphany has got - ice cream. Think we may have a bit further to go.
We saw pandas, we saw the wall, we saw the teracotta warriors, Tiananmen square - everything we went to see, and most of it was amazing, but I'm in no way tempted to go back to China. It's too much. A lot of other places have been culturally a million miles from the UK, but I've found them friendly and often different in a good way. China was not so for me this time, which was a little disappointing.
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