Day 130 - up up and away

I watched some more wonderful news pleasantries as I packed my bags. Checked out and left my stuff at reception. I met Peter in Starbucks half and hour later and we decided to have breakfast in the good old reliable Macky Ds. Delicious :) We spent the next couple of hours in Starbucks online. We found Aidan had left a message on Facebook and himself and Eoghan had arrived in Hong Kong. We kept missing each other online. I went off in search of them in the two Irish bars and Chungking Mansion. No luck. Back online half an hour later we found Aidan online again. He told us Eoghan was just after checking into the room I had had the previous night. I went off and met the very sweaty and smelly Eoghan. Told him where we were and left him to it. An hour later the four of us were all together in Starbucks sharing all our stories and adventures. We headed off a couple of hours later to the night market I had found the evening before. We picked up a collection of t-shirts and shorts. Haggling of course for the best price. Afterwards I brought the boys to Ireland's Potato for some of their delicious chips. With time running short we jumped into a cab and got dropped at Chungking. With some of the usual procrastination myself and Eoghan hugged the boys and ran pumping sweat to the metro.

Three trains and 40 mins later we walked through the entrance of the airport. Of course we were the last people to check-in. As they went through the process a problem arose. Eoghan's Visa had not being issued. Australian Visa can be applied for, by Europeans, online and normally take less than a day to be processed. I had got mine for free and in less than 6 hours on the Australian government site. Eoghan had used a different service that charged €30 and had taken a day. The lady could not find any listing for his name. We checked his email on my Asus and found his application had gone through with an incorrect spelling. The nice lady assured us it would be okay and they would make an application online there and then. Next thing we bumped into an Irish guy called Graham that we had met in the hostel in Beijing. He was on his way home after a year of travelling. We headed outside for a smoke while we waited for the Visa Application to go through.

The visa was granted by the time we walked back into the airport. We said our goodbyes to Graham and thanked the helpful airport staff and started our jog to our gate. It all went very smoothly going through all the baggage checks and before we new it we were boarding a nice big 737. We had separate seating and I was placed in the centre aisle with a nice elderly lady on one side and two middle aged ladies on the other. A brochure style flight itinerary was handed out. It gave two meals options and showed when complimentary food and drinks were available throughout the flight. Shortly after we sat down the giant bird took off oh so gently. With little effort this massive vehicle containing over 500 people was up up and away. The flight was very pleasant. The food was exceptional. The entertainment screen had numerous movies, a wide selection of games, radio channels and even an Australian news channel available. I was delighted with the entertainment options and got straight into watching the new Indiana Jones movie. It was actually okay after hearing such bad remarks about it. My beef dinner was served and some lovely white wine. I devoured it all and was still hungry. I asked for a second serving and got the fish dish next. I feel off to sleep an hour or two later.

Day 126 - another small Chinese town called Chengdu

Awoke to find my room mate walking around. He signalled to me, time for food. I showered and when I came out he signalled we needed to go because of our flight. I looked out the window and no buses were outside. I gave him the thumbs up. It's all good. He looked out and seemed to relax. We grabbed our bags, checked to see if left anything and headed down for breakfast. A buffet of Chinese food was available. Nothing particularly grabbed my fancy for 7am in the morning. I choose to take some plain noodles and two boiled eggs. A warm glass of orange. Their appeared to be some sort of soup or drink that you could have in a bowl. I could see people around the breakfast room drinking straight from the bowl. It didn't look like coffee. Thankfully I had my jar of Nescafe and there was warm milk available. I sat down at the table my room mate was at. There was a collection of business people around the table. I was the only westerner in the room. It appeared that the flight was frequented mainly be business people as I looked around the room. As i sat eating my small breakfast the people at the table chatted and joked amongst themselves. At one stage there was some conversation about who I was and my room mate was telling them about sharing a room with me. They thought this was hilarious and a conversation ensued.

The bus collected us just after nine. After making our way through morning traffic we arrived in the airport within in less than an hour. Again we had to queue and do security check. The airport was bustling with people from all the cancelled flights and all the days flights together. I headed to the same cafe and sat in expectation of a long wait. We finally boarded the plane at 12.30. We then sat on board for over an hour while we got clearance for take-off. As I looked out the window a row of planes queued nose to tail waiting for take-off. Shortly later we joined the queue. The plan took off with the usual wonderful roar and thrust that excites me. I've always found this part of a flight to be the one point were any form of fear disappears the most. As soon as the plane began to level off the food cart was out serving a morning snack of noodles, bread, yogurt and tea or coffee. Its amazing how for only a one hour flight they can include a snack also. The pilot brought the plane down for a smooth landing at 1.45pm. Chengdu airport is another super modern Chinese airport. Baggage collection was pretty much immediate and once again my rucksack was one of the first out. I figured out that this must be due to its irregular shape. Suitcases being square shaped are packed together. Backpackers get the sweet deal.

For the first time ever walking out into the arrivals hall a guy was standing holding my name. He shook my hand and we walked through the slick airport to the taxi stand. He rang someone on his mobile and asked me to wait five minutes. A girl pulled up in a smart looking alpha romeo. She walked around, said hello and opened my door. I jumped in and we drove off. They chatted amongst themselves as we raced along the motorway into the city. He dropped her off at one of the exits of the motorway. We arrived at Sim Cozys and he showed to reception and left. After checking in and dropping my bags to my room I went to the cafe, ordered some food and went online. Another very smart and cool Chinese hostel. Designed with multiple levels, the common area/restaurant had both indoor and outdoor areas. Before my food arrived I went down to the travel desk and booked the famous Panda Sanctuary tour for the next morning.

When I got back, Peter appeared on Gtalk, asking how I was. They had just arrived and just booked into a hotel in Dalian, north of Beijing. They seemed in good form and everything was going well. Peter asked had I chatted to Aidan yet. I was like, “No”. Didn't think much of it until half an hour later. There in my Inbox was an email from Aidan – Please Don't Hate Me. I was thinking, what could this be about. As I scanned the mail, I learnt that, Aidan in rebooking his flight had somehow rebooked mine. Actually, let be more clear. Quantas, had presumed that both flights were to be rebooked. Aidan had received confirmation of his new flight dates and saw that my flights had being changed also. I was now booked to leave China on the 25th to Perth and from Perth to Cairns on the 12th of December. I got angry straight away. Not taking the time to fully read the mail I was back on to Peter on Gtalk typing profanities. Peter, being the very cool diplomat, that he naturally is, was doing his best to calm me down. Explaining to me that Aidan had spent hours trying to sort it out. In my mood I wasn't listening to any of it. All i knew was that now i was to arrive into Cairns a week after Joao and I wasn't chuffed. After calming down a bit I went back and read the email to find out that he had got me back onto another flight to leave the same day from Hong Kong, stop over for a few hours in Singapore and then onto Perth. I suppose that was okay. Still there wasn't any clarification on the Perth to Cairns flight. I was more surprised and annoyed he hadn't contacted me on the mobile. I think also the constant giving up and starting of smoking wasn't helping the anxiety. This being one of the times I wasn't smoking. Jojo did his best to calm me down and recommended, i perhaps go out for a drink and a smoke to calm down. I needed to relax. I took his advice and decided to head out to the bar area. It was Halloween night and I was in the mood for some music and people. After having a few beers in the hostel and chatting to some backpackers I jumped in a taxi and headed out.

The bar/nightclub was filled with a mixture of Chinese and Westerners. The majority were dressed up in some form of a Halloween costume. I was kind of sad the gang hadn't all being together for this night. We had discussed all of us going out, although it wasn't meant to be. I danced away on the side of the dance floor, drinking JDs and coke. Nearing the end of the night, a couple of people made an effort to chat to me. One guy in particular had near perfect English and we chatted and shared about our different culture for over an hour. I headed home just after four feeling fairly inebriated. Knowing I was up in less than 3 hours to go on the panda tour I took a large bottle of water to bed.

Day 125 - Xian at factor X

A fairly good nights sleep, all and all. Went to freshen up only to find a queue of people doing the same. We pulled into Xian just after seven. Walking out of the station, I see my name printed on a piece of paper and being held in the air. A pleasant young rather roundish guy smiles and greets me. He is waiting for two others off the same train. I help him by holding one of the sheets. I notice some whities walking towards us and as they get closer, I recognise one of them. Racing through the memory of faces I try to make the association. Can you imagine how bizarre to see it from his point of view. Some guy he's met in China two weeks ago, holding his name on a sheet of paper, as he walks out of a random train station. He smiled and we shook hands. Still no recollection. He informed me it was Nanjing. The other guy with him I had met also. I was also introduced to a new travelling partner of theirs from the Ukraine, called Alexandria. Our guide asked us to follow him. Bit surprised when he walked us to a local bus instead of a minibus. Nevertheless, he did pay the fares. Xian seemed to be another super city. I caught up on the guys adventures in the 20 minutes it took us to get to the Bell Tower youth hostel. It was raining and pretty miserable as we got off the bus. My decision on staying the one day seemed to be a wise one so far. When guys heard the tour was 280rmb they decided they'd organise it themselves. Due to my time restraints I didn't have that luxury. After grabbing a bacon butty and Skyping Jojo I made my way with my guide to a nearby hotel. He informed me that due to it costing so much they'd include lunch as part of the package. I was introduced to my guide, who I paid the 260 to. He chatted to me for a bit and then I was brought to a minibus that had pulled up outside. Suddenly my guide was gone and another new guide was introduced to me. I jumped in and said hello to all the whiteys on board.

We began our tour by driving around Xian. I got to see and hear about the wall which surrounded the city. Our first stop was a museum built over an archaeological suite of a prehistoric site. Like a hole in the ground. It was this vast warehouse style building with the dusty and unrecognisable remains of an old village. Coming from Ireland it didn't seem that big deal when every second field has some historic remains. I quickly befriended the English couple who found the museum as hilarious as me. We made our comments fairly clear as we laughed at seeing a glass case were they had cut out a section of earth that contained an old fire pit. Other humorous sights were holes that they excavated to tell us this used to be a hole for a stick. We were beginning to realise this tour was a lot of padding. After being given 10 minutes to do our own thing we were off to see a factory to see where they made replicas of the Terracotta Warriors. As expected it was 3 minutes of a chat to say how the pottery had being made and then a tour through a very large shop. I joked with Tom and Sarah that this might the opportune moment to get some pics beside some life like warriors. Handy if you want to pretend to friends that you had being given a special tour. We proceeded to have fun laughing and trying to escape from the warehouse as quickly as possible. When I walked out I was informed by my guide that he was changing me into a different tour bus to ensure I got back in time for my bus to the airport at 5. I was sad to say goodbye to the possie I had being touring although I think a relief to our tour guide 'Andy' who I think had become a bit annoyed with us not taking it seriously. So I waved Tom and Sarah and the rest of the bus goodbye. Jumped in to my new bus.

By the time we arrived at our next location I was getting to know the new group. Two Candian girls were very chatty. We were brought into a reconstruction of the Qing Emperors Tomb. It was a bit of a joke. Tacky looking place with loads of colourful lights. I met Tom and Sarah again and they were laughing at the state of the place. We were shipped in an out in less than 8 mins. Next we were brought to a restaurant for lunch. People that hadn't got lunch thrown in had to pay 40rmb for a shared lunch. Delighted I munched and drank my free worth. Finally we arrived on the outskirts of the Terracota Army. They parked over 1t mintues of a walk away. We learnt along the way that the original owner of the land, a farmer, had to give over the land to the government. Large concrete grey buildings housed the museums. We were brought into a 360 degree theatre to watch the storey of the find and some history of the warriors and the emperor. We got to see the last five minutes. Herded along by our guide, a sweet little Chinese girl, who looked particularly cold and bored through the whole thing. At long last we arrived into the main Pit, Pit 1. It is quite a sight when you walk in to this vast aircarft hanger style building. You stand at an elevated position overlooking the sunken earth. Below large pits containing rows and rows of terracota soldiers stand in military formation waiting some great feat. Its quite a sight. Some of the pits hold the broken remains piled on top of each other. You are able to walk around the outside of the enormous archaeological dig site. Sadly you are just that bit too far way. For 400rmb you can get a little closer if you want a photo taken. A lot of the site is still in place and has not being excavated due to fear of destroying the paint on the warriors. They are waiting for further technology to exist before taking this venture forward.

There are two further dig sites held in separate buildings. One of these contains an interesting collection of generals displayed in hallways with a large ramp leading into the room. Its quite a thing to realise the ego of this emperor and his need to recreate a life size army to protect him and to continue to show his strength after his death. We spent the next hour walking around taking the usual obligatory photos like the good tourist you are. The other big dig site was pretty much in its original state, with only a very small amount of it excavated. I was glad to have had the experience of the terracotta army although it did blow me away as much as I thought it would. The group gathered outside in the drizzling rain and made their way back to our minibus. We were pretty much soaked to the skin by the time we got there. The journey back into Xian was uneventful.

I was shown to the airport express bus by our tour guide after we got back into the city. For 45rmb you get brought out to the Xianyang airport, over 1 hour and 50kms away. We pulled up to Terminal 1, just before six o'clock. I checked in and went straight through to gates. I found a cafe that had an internet connection and logged on. As I was sitting there, a lady from airport security, came over and said something in broken English. She took hold of my bag and started waking away with it. I grabbed it off her and pulled it back. She was desperately trying to explain something to me. I asked her to wait while i grabbed my laptop, before she just walked away with the bag. She looked embarrassed as we walked back to the security check-in that I had already being through. She tried to explain again and this time I understood. A lighter, was in the bag. She checked through the bag and indeed she produced a lighter. I never understand what danger a lighter is on board a plane. Can you hijack a plane with one? So, all the excitement over I headed to my gate to board. Two staff members were standing handing out, dinners in a box. I was informed the plane was to be delayed for 3 hours. I gratefully took my free dinner and sat in a diner next to my gate. Loaded up some Heroes and watched the first 7 episodes of the 3^rd series. Throughout the time passengers were conversing with airport staff. All airport announcements in Chinese and English although the airport staff were only calling out in Chinese what was going. As the crowd seemed to get more and more anxious, i knew something was up. I asked the guy who had being taking to everyone. He told me the plane was delayed again. Next thing I started hearing was planes were being canceled. One after another. Our flight was still listed as delayed. The same airport employee returned to announce something to the crowd. He spoke for around 5 minutes in Chinese. People seemed pissed off and started calling out questions to him. I had no idea what was going on. As he walked away, everyone started to stand up and follow. I caught him and asked him what was going on. All planes had being canceled due to the fog/smog. We were to be driven back in to Xian and put up in a hotel for the night.

Everyone was loaded into awaiting coaches and we were off back in to the city. Quite ironical that my reason for flying was to save time and now at this rate I would get there sooner if I had taken the 16 hour train journey. One hour later we pulled up outside a business hotel in the centre of Xian. The crowd raced off the bus to get to the reception desk. People were pushing to get there IDs into the staff to book in. When I handed my passport in, I was told I'd have to pay 80rmb if I was in a room by myself. I refused and next thing he called out something to the rest of the crowd and he gave me the room key card.

Not knowing what happened i stood there wondering if I was sharing with someone. I waited, although no one approached. As I went up to the room a Chinese man was standing outside my hotel room door. I asked him was he sharing and he didn't speak a word of English. I opened the door and he looked at me quizically. I went in and he stood at the door looking in. After a few minutes he walked in and rang reception. Obviously this was to be my room mate for the night. He spoke to me in Chinese and I spoke to him in English. This went on for a while. We both laughed. I plugged in the laptop to see if there was an internet connection. No luck. I turned on the TV and gave the remote to my new room mate. He headed off and freshened up before he went to bed. It was kind of strange. Me sitting up on my bed and him on his. Neither of us had ever met each other and could not communicate one word. He stayed watching TV the whole time I was on the computer. After a while I turned off the light and we both went to sleep.

The Jouney Begins - Day 0

Hello all. Currently typing this while sitting on my bed in the rather lovely air-con room of the Sea Palace in Coloba, Mumbai, India. I've just woken after 5 hours sleep and decided no time like the present to get blogging.

We began our journey, well I began my travelling a bit ahead of the lads. I left Villa Bochella, Ponte a Moriano, in Italy at 8am Sunday morning. I then got a lift to Lucca train station. A two hour journey to Florence. Then a train to Rome. A metro to Angina. A bus to Ciampino, Rome airport. A flight to Dublin. I was met by my beautiful boyfriend João and by one of my travelling buddies, Eoghan, at 7.30pm. Eoghan dropped us back to my house in Kimmage. (first trip 2,422 km) I spent some final quality hours in Dublin. I was about to leave my amazing partner for the next 6 months, so I was really valuing every moment of the time. Something we appreciate more, when time is short.

Myself and João headed to the airport in a taxi at 2am. I remember as we were driving through the city taking it all in, as this was going to be the last time, for over 365 days, I'd see the streets of Dublin. A rather beautiful city, when you look up at the variety of buildings and diverse architectural styles. When we got to the airport we had our final dinner together for some time. Everywhere we looked, the airport was filled with unconscious bodies. Lying on any square inch of soft furnishing that could be found. We resided to the floor of the rather alien-esk interior of the Aer Lingus check-in lounge.

After taking a small nap in João's lap, Eoghan and Aidan, my second travelling buddy arrived at 4am. Both of the boys looked as shattered as I felt. Eoghan brought along a miniature guitar. That's going to be fun. We did our last hugs and kisses goodbye. Its a really strange feeling leaving someone you love for something like 6 months. Even though you know your going to see them again, its quite a shock to the system. Obviously much harder for the person that is not heading off. As you are going to be distracted every moment by new experiences. I'll miss my sweet heart insurmountably. XXX

We took our first flight, Aer Lingus LR125 to Heathrow, UK at 6.40am. On time. Rather comfortable as they gave us three seats each. Emergeny rows at that. I fell asleep before take off and woke 30mins later flying over the UK. We landed, rather roughly, on time in Heathrow. (279 miles) We then took a 1 hour journey, of walking, bus, multiple security check throughs, to Terminal 4. For anyone that goes through Heathrow, buy what you need in Dublin duty free. Its at least 30% more expensive in LHR. Thats across the board. We boarded our flight BA139 to Mumbai, India at 11.05am. A Boeing 747-400. I chanced my arm at the BA desk for an upgrade although to no avail unfortunately. We were herded into the back of the plane. 10 seats across. We were placed in a rather Ryanair styled seating arrangement together. This was quite amusing as the three of us are all rather broad and tall. With Aidan bashing our TV controls with his elbows, sandwiched in between me and Eoghan. We asked the stewardess if there was any chance of an upgrade. God loves a trier :) The plane filled quickly and took off on-time. The nice stewardess offered us a free row and Aidan, moved giving us that much needed extra bit of room for our elbows and shoulders. The flight was going to be 9 hours so I planned a mixture of sleeping, eating and some movies. This was actually very pleasant. I took some photos as we flew over North Africa. The food was top grade. The TV screen in the seat infront of me was a nice distraction.

We landed in Mumbai, India, 20 mins late, not bad for a 3,400 mile journey. The heat really hits you when you get off the plane. Thankfully the week in Italy had helped a little, I think. We passed through immigration without any delay and collected our bags as quickly as you would in Dublin. We had gotten advice and orderd a pre-paid taxi in the airport. As you leave the airport you are greeted by a sea of indian faces, waving name signs. The air is thick and moist. There is a barrage of taxis parked higgly-de-piggdly all over the place. There's a constant sound of beeping horns. People approach you to offer their taxis. Aidan lead the charge and found a porter that lead us to a small blue car, where he awoke two men sleeping inside. Bags were packed in the boot and we piled in. The man barely awake, began to drive off without his headlights turned on. I mentioned this to him three or four times, before he worked out what was going on. The journey began with a similar feeling to a bumper ride in a fair ground. Thankfully not too many bumps, although he was going around 15 miles per hour and swerving all over the place. Cars were beeping him from the left and right and pushing him all around the place. We kept mentioning our destination, as he spoke about us being his God send and something about his memory. His English was not the best although pretty good for someone that had only gone to class for 3 months. We seemed to be driving for quit sometime and I started wondering did this guy know where he was off to. He just didn't come across very confident.

Its a real eye opener as you travel through Mumbai for the first time. Supposedly, India most westernised city. Many of the street are lined with people sleeping in them. Black and yellow taxis are everywhere, with their drivers asleep in the back, with the doors open. A lot of the buildings are run-down and shack-like. Bizarrily, amongst this you keep seeing shop shutters with the Vodafone logo printed on them in large. The streets are in a dire state, with numerous craters in the middle. Piles of bricks lie all over the place, on the side of the road. Traffic lights are only for decoration. And here we are with this lovely indian man, can't remeber his name, pottering along with us all crammed in his tiny car. We realised quickly, he had no idea where he was going. We stopped around 20 times to ask directions to Colloba. He kept getting directions and driving off in another direction. Driving the wrong way down one way streets, with cars racing at him beeping their horns. We were wondering whether we ever going to get there or perhaps get mugged before we even got to our hotel. After around an hour and a half the poor man finally found the hotel. The Gods had sent us a good one because he genuinely was a lovely man that just didn't know where he was. It can happen to the best of us. We got into our hotel. Paid our 7295 rps for one night, €100 approx for the 3 of us, in one of the better hotels a few minutes from the Gate of India along the sea front. We found two of our Irish buddies, Ian and Peter had booked in a couple hours before us. After unpacking in our air-con room we met the others and ordered some food at 5am in the morning.

So, if you got this far well done. This will prob be the longest post, on our journey, so my apologies for the length. Some will be very short and there may be a week without any. Make sure to leave us your suggestions of what to see and do. Keep safe. Sam signing off. Sleepy hello from Aidan awaking beside me now and zzzzzz from Eoghan.