So I made it China and the end of the trans Mongolian trip. I felt like I should have been victorious but something was brewing, little did I know what it was at the time. The culture shock for me in Beijing was huge. Spitting, shouting, pushing. Some of the smells in the street must have been from Hell, or somewhere as bad. And the pollution was unbelievable, shockingly bad in fact. That afternoon I visited the Olympic site, and was impressed with it's size and actually that it was still very popular. I can't help feeling the London Olympic legacy won't be quite the same.
Later on that afternoon my finally body let me down. It gave in to the Badness. Even after all my moaning, I have NEVER felt as wretched as I did for my time in Beijing. Truly awful. All I could do was hope my immune system was up to it and I wasn't going to die (it crossed my mind). When you spend days in bed with nothing to do odd thoughts come into your head including how long would it take for someone to find a rotting corpse.
Eventually after 4 days of sweating, cursing the Chinese government for banning facebook, my blog and anything of interest, vommiting, sleeping and sweating, I made a break for freedom. It was an unsteady start, with only a banana for sustinence and support from Ben (a guy I had met in Mongolia on tour who was in Beijing that day) we ventured to the Lama Temple (largest and one of the most important centres for Tibetan Buddism in the world), the Drum Tower (tower on a hill full of drums originally used for telling the capital what time it was) and ate some delicous duck at Da Dong's (or so Ben tells me, he ate an entire duck, I had an orange juice).
The spitting thing did start to get on my nerves, as did the shouting and pushing. They spit everywhere. In temples, in restaurants, in tube stations, in front of you, behind you, in shops, in bars, in buses, in trains, in toilets, on carpets, on tiles.. and most dangerous of all on bikes (some are electric, meaning they are silent and so you sometimes don't know they are there until they've ridden over your toe) when they are riding past you, you get the picture. It's just wrong.
The next day things moved lower down in the belly if you know what I mean, so I braved Chairman Mao's mausoleum (like Lenin he is mummified, why? who knows), Tinanamen Square and the Forbidden City. Mao was weird. The Chinese come in their thousands to see him. Remember he is a man who killed them in their multi millions (and friends tell me he was actually very thick and used to make up science). There are pictures of him everywhere, and actually when you do finally get in to see him, well I won't spoil it for you but he looks like an alien. In the hall he's in, there are signs everywhere saying no talking, and it was like a God send, finally some peace and quiet. Like with most of these sorts of things you have to keep walking past him, which I did but at the top of the "coffin" it had his birth and death dates etc and so I slowed, only to be immediately "indicated" to quite energetically by an angry looking man to keep moving. It took a lot for me not to laugh in his face.
After that I wandered through Tiananman Square, repeatedly refusing to buy a Chairman Mao watch (although part of me did want one) to the Forbidden City. Toilet count since leaving the hostel, 5. A great thing about Beijing is that they have public toilets everywhere, probably because if they didn't people would shit in the streets (the small children actually do). So I was ok as far as toiletting accommodation.
Even though I was weak, the Forbidden City was awesome. Again the only problem was the pushing and shoving to see in the halls but it was very impressive. The most interesting fact I learnt was that on each stairway leading up to each hall there are massive marble carvings inlaid into the floor at the same angle as the stairs. These vary bewteen 5-20 metres long and are always made from one piece of rock. They had to transport these from a mine outside of the city. To get the slabs to the Palaces they would, in winter, spray the streets with water until it turned to thick ice and then slide the rocks all the way on the ice. We're talking between the 13th-14th century here, how impressive is that? Also, another grim fact, is that at some stages during the Ming and Qing Dynastys the emperor would have over 20,000 concubines. Something to do with the Emperor being the extreme of Yan, and therefore needing large Yin to ensure a balance. Yeah right. Plus if a concubine was naughty she didn't just get sacked, she got thrown down a well to drown. Nice.
I wondered to the Night Market and felt very sad when I saw things seahorse kebab for sale and lots of tourists thinking it was cool to buy them. FYI it's not cool. It's sad. Enough of that but they also sold bbqed cat, dog, scorpion (alive), cockroach, crickets, tarantulas, snake..... and so it goes on. I had a freshly made spring roll and then ventured on to a restaurant where I just made an absolute cock up. It seems that my idea of what one person can eat is not that same for a Chinese person. As you know having been ill, my stomach was pretty much the size of a pea, so all I wanted was a small bowl of rice, some spinach and a bit of meat. Somehow I ordered a banquet (total cost £4) and had to leave in embarrassment after feeling full after two mouthfuls. I felt so guilty it was horrible.
Next day I followed in Richard Nixon's footsteps and headed to the Temple of Heaven (they display photos of world leaders at the temple, he is one of them). A very beautiful place used by the emperors to worship and make sacrifices to Heaven in return for a good harvest. Sacrifices include skinning a calf alive and then burning it. Sweet. Afterwards I headed over the Summer Palace to get some fresh air, although I wouldn't call it fresh....... The Summer Palace was used by the emperors in summer to escape the heat of the Forbidden City. The lake and hill the palace stands on were all dug and created by men, it's a bit crazy when you think about it. So I walked around the lake, bought some souvenirs and realised it was my last day until I come back in October. I think my illness tarnished my view of China and so I'm hoping when I do come back I'll see things differently.
So back to London to organise a wedding. On the flight home I met a young Chinese guy planning to study English in Germany (not sure that makes sense). It was his first ever flight (yes I swapped seats with him so he could see out of the window) and I wondered how he would fit in in Germany (like I hadn't fitted in in China). Well he buttered his bread with a fork and put pepper in his coffee, so I wished him lots of luck.
So the trip is on hold for the time being but I'll be back soon for some more fun and frolics....
Next day I made a washy plan, and set off to Melaka 2 hours south of KL. Turned out to be quite a good idea, as it was an interesting, and colourful place with an extensive history. Look it up. My day did involve a very uneventful river trip however, although I did see some monitor lizards sitting in the trees. Then today I set off to Mersing a port town on the East of the peninsula with the idea of going straight to Tioman Island for some diving. Turns out I am stuck here for the night as the tides are screwed up, and no ferries are running. So hopefully heading off tomorrow to get some diving in before the Monsoon. You can feel it coming you know, there is something in the air! Wish me luck anyway that the diving is good, and the sun comes out!
