Day 25 - Beijing

16.08.09

Living it up like Chinese royalty in the Summer Palace is on the agenda today. I'm following Xiao's instructions and on the number 10 bus, which is a double decked air conditioned affair. Waking up at the crack of dawn I make it to the Palace at about 8.45 and considering the doors open at 8.30, it should be quite quiet. However this is not the case and over the next two hours it goes from being quite busy to absolutely rammed.
It's an amazing place to walk around and the grounds are ridiculously big, the Emperors and Empresses really did live it up back in the day. The only downside is that like most of Beijing there seems to be a low level mist/fog that has engulfed everything and puts visibility down to around 150-200m, after that you can't see a thing. I'm not sure if it is weather based or a by product of the endless building work, cars, factories and general pollution. For the sake of my lungs, I'm hoping it's just the weather.

Xiao and Yu leave today to go back to Shanhaiguan, so I meet up with them to see them off and yet again I'm in amazement at people's generosity and kind hearted spirit. Learning from my mistakes, I book into a hostel in both Xi'an and and Pingyao, so I definitely have places to stay when I arrive. I'm also amazed to find out that online you can get some ridiculous deals and I
basically pay about £1.80 for two nights in a hostel in Pingyao and £15 for five nights in Xi'an, wonderfully cheap. I've come to the conclusion, that if you don't visit the expensive tourist sites, then you can easily live for around £10-12 a day, including money to travel between the cities every couple of days.

Day 18 - Vladivostok

9.08.09

My journey into China is on the cards today. I get in at about 8am to the train station in Vladivostok and decide to try and walk it to the Bus station as it's not that far, after about 10mins I realise I don't have an accurate enough map and I can't read Russian, so jump on a bus.

After asking the driver whether he goes to the bus station I sit down and wait to see this big bustling bus station. An hour later and the bus pulls into a depot, I ask the driver if this is the bus station and he looks at me as if I'm an idiot. Luckily he puts me on another bus and tells the driver to tell me when we get to the station and doesn't charge me a fare. When we get to the station it's hidden behind a market and I would never have spotted it if I wasn't told.

I fail to notice, but it's a Sunday and so the bus service is limited so I have to buy a ticket that leaves at 8.10 tomorrow morning.

After checking into a hotel for the evening I grab some food from the super market and for the first time on the trip feel very very very lonely. I'm on the same longitudinal line as central Australia and it's the furthest I've ever been from home and I am totally alone. I think a combination between lack of sleep and the day not going as planned is making me quite down, but after a nap I feel a lot better and then hit the sack to wake up for my early bus tomorrow.