Hey hey,

last day in Beijing and maybe China so as expected busy day. Went to see a Kung Fu show with Colim and some Scottish girls we met in the hostel. Wierd being around Scots again but pleasant. Don;t have to repeat myself as much as normal!! Colim headed off this morning and i went to see Mao's Mausilium which was kinda good but creepy. The body looks a bit wierd and I would not be suprised if there had been a little Madam Tuesods going on at some point!!

About to spend 12 hours on a bus then 12 hours at the border then 14 hours on a train so that should be good fun. Still no clue how I am going to get to HK but i'm sure it will all work it's way out. The bible (Lonley Planet) mentions that you can do a tank driving tour so might look into that and fancy maybe buying one of the mongo bows that they beat the Chinesem with. Depends on cost and size and bag is not ridiculously full. Think there will be some things on the slow boat back from ozz. kite is going to be the first to get it followed by the sleeping bag!

Abyway i'm ranting a bit now and really don't have time. So i will bid you all adeiu and will post when i mnanaged to finally get the Land of the Mongoloiods ;)))

C

Hey U'all,

Had a good night with Colim last night watching dvd's then heading out to var street for some crazy drinking action with some of the folk from the hostel!

Just went to a kick ass kung- fu show tinight.Better than the acrobatics (but not by much).

Anyway off to Mongolia tomorrow so may be off the radar for a day or two.

Laters,

C

Acrobats were awesome. Pretty quiet theatre but the show kicked ass. The girls managed to miss it as they were messing about in the spa for ages and then couldn;t find the place as they had all left their maps at home. Must have been the shock of having to navigate for themselves as Mike and I have been doing most of that.

Still no clue what i'm going to do for the next few weeks as the Shoalin thing might not happen due to tight travel connections and the other option is trekking in Inner Mongolia but might take too long. If do go to Inner Mongolia then mioght try to make own way up to the border as there is prob no point in trapsing all the way back to Beijing just to head back again. But we will have to wait and see...looking forward to getting a good nights sleep tonight though as I haven't has a lie in since I got here.

Hope all is well back in the real world.

C

Sometimes I hate this fecking country, just spent best part of 5 hours trapsing from PSB office to hotsel, back to psb office to embassy all to get a visa that is going to take too long anyway. Total waste of an afternoon when we had all planning to head to the spa again for some more pampering and relaxation!! Well at least everyone else is having a shit day as Mike and Grace's Malyasia booking has fallen through and Darina and Neve can't go to Bali now as it's meant to muchos dangerous and every forign office in the civilised world is warning to avoid!

Well hoepfully tonight should be better. Going to see the arcrobatics as they are meant to be wicked and then maybe a couple of drinks. Tomorrow most of the Irish head off but Colim and I are planning to head West to check out the Sholin temple and monastry. Should be cool and u can have a couple of hours of lessons with the dudes themselves :))

Anyway off to find the rest and have a beer to calm me down!

laters,

C

ha ha ha I LOVE China,

I mamaged to get 2 pairs of good fake Oakleys for 8 squid, 1 with 5 sets of changable lenses! We have been hammering the Silk Street shopping centre and the stall girls really don't know what hit them. Bunch of tight ass Scottish and Irish haggeling to the death :)) We pooled our resources and manadeg to buy 209 dvd's for 7 RMB (China money) each, thats about 55p each. Colim is going to being mine back to Irelend for me and save me posting from Oz. Bought all 20 of the Bond films and a WWII box set that a certain father might be interested in. Be interesting to see if he pickes up on hios birthday present. Will know if he is reading the Blog or not ;-)

Spent the rest of the afternoon in this awesome spa with Mike. Bit wierd as it's a segregated sex spa and u walk about in the Buff. At least P-man would be in his element! Walked in and ushered through to the changing area wjere they quickly locked our clothes away. The usual collection of pools, hot tubs and sauna's. Strange experience to be sitting in a rose petal covered hot tub with my mate. Agreed it was best to take a side each! Then the pool guys dry you, even your feet and dress u in paper undercrackers and shorrs and T-Shirts. Went upstairs for all u can eat buffet and a few beers then adjourned to the movie room for a few hours of HBO! Not a bad way to spend a Mon afternoon!

Tired now though as had to get up at 9 after getting to bed at 2:30 to drop my Mongolin visa off. Should get it tomorrow and fingers crossed be off to the Land of the Blue Sky by Fri!! Had to buy lonley planet Mongolia and cost me 16 squid but after China u learn that there things are worth their weight in gold.

Right off to get leathered now.

Later folks,

C

Just back from day out at the Great Wall and all i can sau is that it certainly lives up to it's name. Awe insipring place and defo one of the wonders of the world and we only trekked along 10Km of it. Day was perfect for trekking but unfortunatly not the best for pics :( Rain stayed off though and it wasn't too hot. The section was quite quiet as it's only really the hardcore youngsters that go as it's quite tough!!

Will try and get the pics on line asap.

Right off for some scran and then a shower as we are a smelly, smelly bunch!!

C

Was meant to do the Great Wll today but the taxi guy was trying to bump us so we told him to stick it and did other things. Off to do the 10km hike bit tomorrow which should be wicked. Just hope the weather is good for it as it has been pretty hazy last couple of days.

Did the forbidden city this morning and the summer palace in the afternoon. FC was ok but most was covered with scaffolding as they are basically rebuilding the whole of berijing before Olympics in '08. Summer Palace was a bit boring, very muggy and about a million asian tourists bumping into u!

Going to get a really early one tonight as only got to bed at 1:30 last night and was up about 6ish as we were meant to be getting picked up then.

Hope the weather gets a bit better in the wiege.

C

Arrived safe abd sound in Beijing after a 10 hour bus journey. Nicest bus so far. Toilet, air con and didgy chinese jackie chan movies. But had to spend the night in the underground hostel. 4 floors below the ground...very weird. Visions of bomb shelters and monster movies. Blast doors at the end of each corridor to keep the fire or water in or out!!

But now in a top hostel and about the head out and check out Tianammin Square and some other bits and bobs!!

More later,

C

Arrived in pingyuo late last night after a wierd sleeper bus that had beds all the way down in! The bus then proceeded to try and drop us off at the toll gate outside town so 5 mins of arguing later and we got dumped at the 5* hotel. Suprisingly enugh we were not in the mood to pay 20 squid a room so managed to get a room in the old city for 3 pounds :)) The cuty itself is awesome. Totally like u would imagine a city to be like 500 years ago. its like being in a timewarp...

They wanted 120 RMB (china money) to climb the city walls but we mananaged to find a girl who charged us 25 each to climb her ladder. So much more satusfying than paying full whack!! 6 km round the walls was good but need a brewski now!
heaing over to Bejing tomrrow by bus again and then have a week of sightseeing and grear walling, oh and maybve some boozing as well!

C

Checked out the terracotta warriors yesterday and was pretty impressed. The detail on all the faces is different and the sheer scale of the army is amazing. But only takes about 2 hours to get round and we passed on all the other tourist stuff as it was expensive and looked shit!

Spent a couple of hours doing some more work on my streamload site. Should be up to date with all the pics tagged in a week or so :)) Oh and got my bebo sitye sorted as well as this is a great site to laev messages and share pics. All the irish are on it and it sould be really useful. Kind of like a European version of my space.

Had a really good night last night out in some nightclub, loads of boozing and dancing :))

Oh and probably the most random thing that has happened so far is that i met a fellow weigey yesterday. Turned out that he was 4 years below me at school and he has pulled my sister caroline! Caz guy called Colin in Archoas :))

Off to get first sleeper bus in China to Pingou this evening.

More later

ps - it's pissing with rain over here and 60% humidity - thought that might cheer u all up!

Arrived safe and sound in X'ian, home of the world famous Terracotta Warriors. Overnight train took 17 hours and was not too arduous. Had to share a cabin with a Chinese family but no worse than sharing with 4 soldiers! Less farting and snoring!

Got a wicked hostel and heading to see the TC this morning. Probably stay here a night or two then head to Pingyau and then onto Bejing!

Ritht off for a SSS (Shower S**t and Shave).

More later,

C

This is one busy city, Shanghai! Arrived by really nice train into the most modern station I have ever seen. Thing looked like a bloody airport. No litter, lots of marble and glass! Then had to spend 3 hours lugging our bags round to try and get onwards sleeper tickets to X'ian as the train is 24 hours!! No luck on that front and not much on the accomondation front where we wanted to stay. So ended up in a hostel on the other side of town but really nice place with free internet and we are all sharing one big room :)) Bit like being back with the weekend warriors!

Boy in the hostel is going to try and get us some tickets and we are off for some sight seeing. The buildings in this city put Hong Kong to shame! One looks like a spaceship.

Anyway more later and will try and upload some more photos of the tiger temple and China.

C

Hey All,

Had a properly crazy night in Bangkok. Met some Welsh folk and went to club/ping pong show with them as most things were closed as it was the Queens birthday. Went back to Ko San and started drinking buckets on side or road, the welsh guy was smoking some spliffs with some Americans when the police showed up and started searching everyone. His girlfriend had hidden the spliff under the mat we were sitting on and the police found it and arrested her. Had to go to the police station and try and bribe her out. But the police wanted 20000 batt which is about 300 squid! Had to call UK Consulate and get them involved and then did some very impressive lawyer acting in the police station. The bf would not help as they could drug test him and he was in a bit of a state. Finally managed to get her out of 5000 batt after about an hour of negotaition. They wanted more and I pointed out that they only had circumstantial evidence and she was willing to have a blood test! Not the ending I wanted but glad to have been able to help!

Now in China and this place is one hard country to travel round. Everything takes time as almost nmo one speaks any english and u are reduced to acting everything out - sharades style. Spent 15 min this morning trying to act out the fact that i needed another towel for our room!

But glad that i'm with the rish at the moment as it's far easier if your in a group and wopuld be very lonley on your own! In a place called Hangzhou at the moment and heading to Shanghai tomorrow. Would have liked to see Yangshou but did not have time as visa took ages. Had a bit of randomn night in a club last night as some crazy Chinese guy called "Tiger" befriended us and we played dice with him and drank free beer. Beer was only 2% and mildly hammered after about 20!

Hope all is well back in the really real world,

Chris

Yaaayyyhhhhh,

My china visa finally arrived :)) Its the Queen's birthday over here today and pretty mental. Going to be a candlelight procession happening in about 5 mins.

Had a wicked day today. Was getting pretty down being all on my lonesome in Kho San so booked a trip to river Kwai and the tiger temple. Shit luck meant that there was one wierd Ozzy and the rest of the bus were fecking Korians. Was resigning myself tpo a dull day of me and ipod but got lumped into a 2nd bus after some waterfall and spent the tiger temple with some cool Dutch and Welsh folk.

The tiger temple was AWESOME have about a zillion pics of the big cats. Got to touch and stoke them :)) Very cool. Will upload the pics maybe tomrrow if I have time if not then in China.

Hope u all have had a chance to check out the pics on my streamload site. Have almost managed to label and categorise them. I know there are loads but have not had time to really edit them and don't have much in the way of tools here to do it properly anyway (photoshop, etc).

Right off to meet the folk from eariler and have my last night in Bangpot-Bangkok :))

Later people,

Chris the Scott :)

Bored, Bored, Bored of Bangkok. Board of getting harrassed everytime I leave the hotel for tuk tuks or suits or lifts to ping pong shows!! Heading up to the river Kwai and the tiger temple tomorrow at bastard o'clock tomorrow and FINALLY got my visa for China. Flying up to meet the Irish on Sunday :))

Been boozing with some Dutch, Yanks and Israil's and didn;t get to bed till 5(ish) this morning. Off to bed now for some well deserved rest and looking forward to something different than Kho San!

Hope no one has been involved with the Heathrow nonsense and looking forward to hearing from you all.

Love and Hugs ;-)

C

well everyone it's finally ready and u can check out almost all of my pics at:

www.streamload.com/lyleston

Just uploading the last 300 or so and should have them loaded and labeled in next few days!

Still stuck in Bangkok but going to do a day trip to check out the bridge over the river kwai and some tigers :))

Laters,

C

Morning all.

Well thats Ruth left to wing her way back to sunny Glasvegas. Saw her off this morning at bastard o'clock. Now need to find somewhere else to stay as this place is pretty expensive and the beds are a bit dodge. Have scounted around and found a nice place but the room is teeny tiny. Still has ac and a tv and is only 300bt which is about 4 squid. Could maybe get a room where I am for 550bt. But this place does have a kick ass pool on the roof for a spot of sunbathing and meeting folk...decisions, decisions!!

Currently cooling my heels here till Fri when I get my China visa and can fly up to Bejing. Managed to get hold of a photocopy of the lonely planet china for 10 bucks in Cambodia but the thing ways a fecking ton. Only planning to be up there for about 10 days as need to get through HK to Singapore to meet up with Tracy and Kaitlyn who are coming accross for a couple of weeks. Will be really wierd going from backpacker to parent for a fortnight but nice at the same time :)

Hopefully meeting with Mike and the Irish girls tonight and maybe getting some ping pong action going as I didn't think Ruth would like to spend her last night with me watching that kind of sh1t! Also managed to get 24 season 5 on dvd :)) But have sent it hoimew with Ruth as her and Andy are pretty addicted. Have managed to surriptisously rip the last 11 episodes onto some innocent Thai guys pc and am going to spend the day putting it onto the psp!! Also relly need to head to Panty Plaza and try and get a new lans for my slr as the decent one started acting up and is now on route to weige. Raging as it packed up just before Angkor watt and not really a good idea to source that kind of stuff in Nam or Cambodia!

Right this post is turning into an essay so i'll sign off there.

Watch this space.

C

Back in PP after some more fun and games with SE Asia bus journeys (bus had to be jump started in reverse everytime we stopped!) Got a nice-ish hotel and just been to the Torture Museum as a precuser to the Killing Fields. Not the nicest experience that i've ever had but informative. Pretty sick the things that people can do to each other but the museum paints a pretty good picture of the horror of it all!

Meeting up with the Irish crew for a sesh tonight and feeling better so might manage a few more beerio's tonight :)

Right off for a wander and a test beer to check the tum tum out :)

C

All I can say is that Angkor Wat is awesome!! Spent the last 2 day getting tuk-tuked round all the best temples. Angkot Watt wins just from the sheer scale of it but managed to see the jungle temple from tomb raider and loads of other cool temples way out in the jungle. Unfortunatly the weather at the moment is not really conducive for stunning sunrises or sunsets :( and today it lashed with rain towards the end but at the end of the day still amazing site to see!! Getting a bit commercial now though. One of the larger resorts has even bought a hot air balloon that u can float around the site on!! Oh and there are about 8 million litle children trying to flog u flutes, braclets, postcards so it's a constant battle to say no to the cute tykes!! Really impressed as most of them can speak english fluently by the age of 10 and can count to 10 in about 9 languages!!

Just met up with Gareth, Kenny B's brother in law so going out on the lash with them tonight then down to Phnom Phen at bastard o'clock tomorrow. Stay there for a few nights and get thge killing fields and shooting range in :)) More AK47's and heavy calibre machine guns. Ruth is even looking forward to it!! The fly up to Bangkok or a night then off to China!

Still sick as a dog but managed to find a chemist that spoke english and got lots if drugs so should be back to fightiness soon!

Later folks,

C

That seems to be the problem with comments fixed an everyone should be able to leave comments without having to first register :)

Hey,

Well after almost 2 months in Asia i've finally gotten properly ill. Not bed ridden (which is just as well cause of 6 hour bus jóurney's) but i'm not a well boy at the moment. Hope it clears up tomorrow as i'm up in Seat Reap and we are off to Angkopr Watt tomorrow :)) Cambodia is a pleasant change to the agressiveness and general bad temper that a lot of the Vientanmise seemed to have. Way more developed than Nam. ATM's that dispense $, supermarkets, chemists that do loo at u like you are depraved when u ask for jonnies!! Anyway only had one night in Phen Phem but seemed like a nice place. Going to get the Killing Fields and the rest of the attractions in when we get back, as Ruth is running a little short of time.

Have decided to forgo the craziness of the Full Moon party in lieu of heading up to China. 10 days doing the great wall, forbidden city and some other stuff that i really need to check in LP!!

Anyway getting bitten alive by mossies and have not had much sleep due to various ailments so i'll leave it there.

A Bientot,

C