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Yangshuo..

7/5/2015

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Its National Day in China, a celebration of the founding of the peoples republic. I how ever, had no Idea of this the night before when I booked an over priced hostel and boarded an over night bus.
Yangshuo is probably one of the more touristy destinations in China but this weekend it was ridiculous, a lot of shall we say bonding (heavy elbow pushing) went down this weekend but it was definitely worth it! 


We arrived about 5pm, went to check in, the lady of reception said they didn't think we would show up, I was pretty confused by this, it was basically a shitty excuse to over booking which resulted in us sleeping across the road in the older part of the hostel but not even in a room, no, on filthy arm chairs in the public hallway, I thought the only way to survive that night was to get so drunk I passed out.
So thats exactly what I did, there were tons of bars to choose from, we opted to stay away from the loud booming pole dancing bars that seemed to dominate the main strip and found a side bar, dimly lit but full of punters. After bonding with a group of middle aged Chinese men our shot game was strong, the last round they wanted to try something English.....GIN! before the shots arrived though the guys left and we were stuck with 7 shots of Gin to pay for, we sent them back but the bar man wasn't too happy about that, it ended in us standing in the street at 5am with a group of scary guys holding glass bottles above us, we all talked it out and then swiftly removed ourselves and stumbled into bed (armchairs)

Blurry eyed the next morning, we got up to explore, we rented bikes and headed to the river. The incredibly stunning scenery is unlike anything I have seen, monstrous green camel humps protruding up from the earth as far as the eye can see, golden fields and rich crops spread over the land. It was a beautiful warm day, fluffy clouds and a cool breeze, everyone wanted a bamboo boat ride down the river.


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On the way back from our bike ride we decided to take on the masses and stroll up the main shopping strip. I actually really enjoyed this, lots of little novelty toy shops and vibrant cafes, street performers and ice cream vendors, it was a full street of smiles and entertainment.
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We finally moved into a dorm, I was super excited about a fully horizontal night of sleep this night! 
We headed up the roof top bar for some beers. Beers turned into buckets, buckets turned in snake infused whisky, and that turned into snake blood shots, a few hours passed and we ended up winning the beer pong championships (much to the disagreement of the American team who took it way too seriously) I still have the tee-shirt to prove it! Success!!  

So as a summery, Yangshuo has everything you're looking for in a good weekend away, plenty of shops, bars, restaurants and wild nights of beer pong....but not much culture.
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 My Shanghai...

23/4/2015

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When I thought about arriving in Shanghai Images of tea houses, serene bamboo walks and historical architecture sprang to mind, I expected to experience 'real' China here, a taste of old cultural habits....boy was I wrong! 
Shanghai is the largest Chinese City by population boasting an impressive 24 million!! I only actually spent 3 days here but it was less Chinese than your bog standard China Town (for me anyway)

Its was a very modern city, I have never seen so many huge department stores and Haagen Dazs shops (not sure what the ice-cream obsession was?) From forever 21 to Prada there was retail heaven for everyone. 
Crossing the streets in these built up shopping areas was pretty overwhelming, it reminded me of a game we would play at school called bulldog, which consisted of two teams standing opposite each other with linked arms basically running full speed at one another trying to break the chain. They even have people employed to hold back the pedestrians after the green man has gone because people refuse to stop walking, even blindly into the path of cars.


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Crossing the street Shanghai.
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Busy hopping Street, Shanghai Centre

In fact I found Shanghai very beautiful, walking in the warm breeze along the famous bund, by day a stretch of impressive silver wall street type office sky scrapers reflecting of the calm water, by night a futuristic skyline full of dazzling lights. 
One of my best times was sitting on the river at night in a roof top bar sipping over-priced jazzed up melon cocktails watching the lights of the bund twinkle whilst listening to some truly horrific Karaoke rendition of Celine Dion! I know...best nights ever! 


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The Bund, by night

I decided to test out some Shanghai night life action, I was looking for something a bit different, I love electro and Drum'n'Bass so wanted to find somewhere I could dance and discover some Chinese talent. This is where I found Shelter, a nightclub housed in an actual World War 2-era bomb shelter, the interior is entirely carved out of stone. I felt like I was walking into a movie set! I highly recommend everybody going to this place, if you're looking for a subterranean circus experience, this is it! 

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Sadly whist outside I met a group of somewhat dodgy guys trying to sell me drugs, nothing unusual about that outside any club anywhere in the world, but 2 minutes later they took off...and with my Iphone, yes pick pocketed, not a great way to end my night, as travellers may be aware, I didn't just lose a phone, I lost my pictures, my music, my messages and all forms of contact with home, bastards! 
On a positive side I was in China! Apple products are half the price so the next morning I went to apple and got a brand new iPod touch for the cool price of $250, all smiles again! 
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China...Beijing

2/4/2015

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I only had 2 weeks here in China which is by far not enough time to get around to everything, such a vast country and extremely long travel times so plan ahead for this one! I only managed Beijing, Shanghai and Yangshuo.

I got the train from Hong Kong to Beijing, it took 24 hours but it was lovely! We had our own compartment, it was like a little hotel room, and there was a restaurant on board as well as a bar, I also think its a great way to get a feel for the landscape and take everything in. 
After the initial language struggle we made it to our hostel and headed straight to the bar for some large ice cold bottles of Tsingtao (Chinas famous and delicious beer) 

I couldn't wait to head to the night markets and test out some of the weird and wonderful foods associated with Chinese delicacy, and it did not disappoint! I had my pick from sizzling large intestines, blended dog meat, 'secret' sausages, starfish on a stick and an array of deep fried creepy crawly's. I have come to the conclusion that scorpions were a cross between popcorn and pork crackling.

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Appetising right!? I wonder what animal those intestines came from?!



Something that obviously can't be missed is The Great Wall of China, one of the wonders of the world, full of history and mystery...ohhhh ahhhh 
The Great Wall of China was build to protect the Chinese states and empires against the raids and invasions of the various nomadic groups. Several walls were being build as early as the 7th Century. Its a colossal 13,170.69 Miles (21,196.18km) long! Unfortunately it was a very cloudy day so it looks very gloomy and foggy in the pictures.
What I found most intriguing was the toboggan, yes that is correct, you can toboggan down the great wall of china, in fact they grease up your toboggan with cooking oil if you wish to get some speed, which of course I did,  flew down that thing at 40mph and I highly recommend this! 


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The toboggan slide


Right in the centre of Beijing is the Forbidden City. It served as the home of emperors and their households as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government for almost 500 years, making it off limits, which is where the forbidden part comes from. 
The complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 180 acres...so wear comfortable shoes! 
Its pretty spectacular, the intricacy of the stone work and beautiful bright coloured ceilings. 
We walked around the surrounding parks and came across a lot of action, singing, dancing, painting, ancient water symbol writing and lots of very cute babies (which I couldn't resist getting pictures of!)


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A lovely little boy decked out for a visit to the Forbidden City
If you don't have much time in Beijing then these are all a must do whist visiting! And don't forget to try those secret sausages!.....YUM 
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Hong Kong

23/3/2015

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I arrived in Hong Kong with some fresh excitement for Asia, I had never been to east Asia and had all these ideas of Ninjas, weird and wonderful foods and a mass sea of bodies to swim through. It delivered more than I could have hoped for. 
I was staying in Mongkok which is on the western part of Kowloon peninsular, it has been described as the busiest district in the WORLD by the Guinness world records! 
So heres a list of my few favourite things...




Big Buddha 
The first day we went to go and check out Tian Tan Buddha, also know as the big buddha. We got the cable car ride over the city with incredible views and just as we peaked the top the big buddha reared its head! WOW!! The buddha is 112 feet tall and sitting on top of hill, you have to climb 268 steps to reach it, this also give you some pretty breath taking panoramic views of Hong Kong. 

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Goldfish Market
Next on my must do list is the gold fish market also know as pet street. Bag after bag of vibrant colourful fish hung from the walls, terrapins wiggled around in empty ice cream tubs and cute scrunched faced kitties held out their paws for you (this was probably to be rescued as it didn't look like the most humane ways to be keeping cats and dogs, which made me a little sad) but I highly recommend heading down to see all these beautiful fish tanks at night time.
 
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Shopping!!
Every shopping need is catered for, from luxury Malls for the super rich, gadget bazars, street markets and hole in the wall boutiques it would be hard to not find something to please your inner shopaholic.
I spent a good 4 hours winding up and down the lengthy escalators at the Langham Place mall. It had an impressive 8 floors, each one with a different theme and bosting an array of splendid trinkets, gadgets, clothing and novelty gift shops. 
Next it was onto Ladies market to haggle for a bargain, from socks to electronics it didn't disappoint, and I loved that fact that every tender was female (hence ladies market) I found a pair of black leather zip up sandals that I just HAD to have, the price was too high though so I moped away, 2 mins later she came running after me shouting "I do you good deal!" and the shoes were mine :)
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Busy Shopping district Mongkok



Eating
Honk Kong has the best cuisine selection in Asia, whatever your dining desires, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Vietnamese, Japanese or European you will struggle to not be pleased.
This is where I discovered my love for Ramen and dumplings, and huge dislike for stinky tofu (if you can get past the smell and actually put this in your mouth I bow down to you)
Also you cannot miss out on desserts, elaborate, intricate, colourful and divine. Cakes, macaroons, Japanese mochi and self serve frozen yoghurt shops. Just the display cabinets are out of this world!
Hong Kong is open to eating 24 hours a day and most of the sky bars offer free snacks with your cocktails...any excuse!


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My new fave dish, Pork ramen


The Light Show
A Symphony of lights is the daily light and sound show and is the worlds largest. Apart from the huge waste of electricity this is simply stunning to watch! We got a boat over from the other side of the Island and took our places. I stood there in awe of all the rainbows lights and twinkles covering the normally grey and boring sky scrapers, this is something you cannot miss! 

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Transport
The Honk Kong MTR is probably the cleanest (check out the fines below for eating) and most efficient underground train service I have ever used! Every 3 minutes a train will come, and to the second, never early, never late. During rush hour they have men standing over the door ways with stop signs as for some reason people like to be squeezed in like tinned sardines, this I couldn't understand as the trains arrived every few minutes. On top of this you get free wifi, which every single person takes advantage of, not one person was talking or looking around, just glued to the their screens, its quite fascinating to watch.  
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I absolutely fell in love with Hong Kong, the busy streets, lights, tastes, culture and giggly girls chucking peace signs for their 100th selfie of the day. Its top of my "return to" list.
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That time a monkey slapped me...

12/3/2015

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Kathmandu was a whole new world compared to the calm serenity of Pokhara. It was a sensory overload with all the sights, sounds and smells. 
I was in the backpacking district Thamel, it was unlike any city I have ever been before, electric street art, tiny back alleys overflowing with golden flowers, drying chillies pilled high, teeny tiny workshops and table after table of buddha trinkets, samurai swords and jewellery. 
Every corner we turned another trekking tout or stall salesman shouted after us, kids high on glue ran riot in-between the traffic jammed rickshaws and shisha smoke wafted thick through the air. 

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After an exciting day and night in the bustling centre shopping and gorging on momos we took a bus down to the Boudhanath Stupa. 
What a spectacular sight, the stupa's massive mandala makes it one of the largest spherical stupas in the world, its almost as if you can feel those gigantic eyes watching you as you move around it. Rainbow flags fly from every corner, monks slowly walk around it clockwise and every side of the courtyard is filled with little shops. We found a great roof top cafe to cool off in the breeze and have a fresh lime sodas whilst watching the commotion below. 
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Now what I was most looking forward to...Monkey Temple. And it didn't disappoint! After a fairly small climb up the steps to the temple I couldn't believe just how many monkeys! some just chilled out on the pagodas picking through each others fur and taking regular dips in the pools, whilst other dashed around trying to grab cameras and food. 
It was a fascinating experience just watching them up that close. 
After a few hours my confidence grew and I decided to approach a mother and baby monkey and share my peanut cookies with them, all was well and I was giggling like a school girl, at this point I decided to get my camera out and get a close up picture with them eating my cookies, next thing I know mother monkey swipes for me and gets a good clean slap across my left cheek, leaving a tiny dirty monkey handprint on my face. Of course everyone finds this hilarious and mother monkey just stares me in eyes with a 'I told you so' look on her face. Believe it or not that wasn't the first time a monkey slapped me and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last! 

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moments before the slapping incident munching on my cookie
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    About Me:

    I'm a girl in my 20's travelling the globe and sharing the wild side of living...Meow!
    I have an unhealthy obsession with blankets, I always have my toenails painted (even in the jungle), spiced golden rum and amaretto sours are what really gets me going and I love cats, especially homeless ones. xoxo

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