Nanjing

Side street in Nanjing
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We got off the sleeper train in the middle of the night, everyone was tired and generally pissed off after a rough night at the village and a long train journey with a lot of snoring. Also, the first round of illness had kicked in for some of the people on the trip (notes have been compared and tales told but I ahve got away with it and actaully feel better than I have for ages which is odd(touch wood))so there were several green looking very quiet pissed off people as well as the usual so and so's i-pod was really loud, so and so trod on my leg getting into their bunk etc moaning.

Arriving in Nanjing
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We arrived at the hotel in Nanjing which was the nicest so far and best of all I have my own room because my room mate is sick and Id shared with the tour guide the night before who was also sick (all night long) so i wasnt getting any sleep because they were up and down so they quarantined themselves together which meant i could have a 2 hour bath without anyone moaning.

The first morning I spent doing nothing. I put my laundry in, had my 2 hour bath, ate lunch, read a bit, watched some TV and generally had a thoroughly plesant time doing bugger all for the first time since the tour began. In the afternoon we went to a Chinese tea garden which was beautiful and very chilled out. We watched traditional Chinese acrobats and Chinese musicians and drank jasmine tea and wandered around in the sunshine. It was a far cry from the village and definitely my preference. Im glad I went to the village but it really was hell on earth for me! This bit is more like a holiday. Candace the Canadian drill sargeant tour leader is very nice but the go! go! go! thing really wears you out after a week and Nanjing is a real break from the norm.

They stare at me so I thought id get my own back...
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I cracked and went to McDonalds but oreded the only repulsive Chinese thing on the menu by accident so that wasnt a huge success, and we wandered around by the river which is stunning and crammed with posh clothes shops, shoe shops and Chinese versions of Claires Accessories.

Nanjing is a very trendy, wealthy, clean city with a fantastic market. We visited the old market yesterday afternoon and I got a nail file, some nail polish and a lip balm for about 20p so I could do my toes at last! I havent worn makeup and I havent had a spot since the day I arrived and my hair looks a million times better without being straightened but my toenails need nail varnish because feet are disgusting and should be disguised at all times.

The tea garden
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The one part of the market that I disliked were the pet stands where each tiny baby rabbit was in a cage so small it couldnt turn round and chipmunks and gerbils and that sort of thing were squashed in so tightly some of them had died and were left in the cages. There were puppies, kittens and all that sort of thing as well as lizards, frogs, snakes, turtles of varying sizes and more or less any animal you could want but the whole set up was very cruel and made me pretty sad and I was glad to leave.

The tea garden
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I spent the evening doing not a lot with my tour mates having a drink and a chat and taking it easy. We've all become good friends and everyone gets on really well and keeps each other company, plus an invite to Florida on my way home and one to meet Harold Bishop in Melbourne becuse one of the lads lives in the same street as him (im got over excited about this. Everyone wants to meet Harold right?!) I sent a few emails and filled in my journal and had an early(ish!) night.

Today we met at 8.30am and took a cab to hire bikes to ride to Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum and the lakes. As mentioned several times Chinese people in cars, on bikes, driving rickshaws, scooters, whatever are DANGEROUS and you are risking your life cycling with these maniacs however nobody fell off or got squashed and there were only minimal amounts of bike lane rage. There was as always a lot of staring because now not only were we 'weird white foreign devils' were we 'stupid looking weird white foreign devils on bicycles', The men here are worse in terms of perving than British builders and some beeped their horns and pulled over on the highway just to shout stuff in Mandarin at me which I thought was kind of excessive.

Matt looking like an idiot in traditional clothes (and a bonnet)
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The bike ride was great anyhow but the Mausoleum was an anti climax unless youre a Chinese person. The Chinese worship certain people with a revery worse than some people had towards Princess Diana, but unless you feel like that its tough to see the big deal in a coffin at the top of the hill apart from the fact that the tomb is beautifully decorated and the view is fantastic. From an aesthetic point of view China is stunning but Ive yet to get a grip of the Chairman Mao fever apart from to haggle a Chairman Mao shaking his arm wristwatch down to a quid to send home for its comedy value. (Joe and Pete: im getting you Mao alarm clocks in Shanghai, dont say Im not a good sister!)

Still looking like an idiot but i think he realised once he saw the first photo
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The weather was the hottest yet and Im a bit sunburnt from lying by the lakes for an hour or so this afternoon. We rode for a couple of hours then dropped the bikes off and headed to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial which was very gory and very sad but very much geared at the Chinese being hard done by by the Japanese (which is true although the strories differ somewhat) and helping us win the war which was amusing. Nanjing is a walled city and where the walls were meant to keep people out, when the Japenese invaded in the 1930's it became a prison where 300,000 Chinese were murdered. Its a fascinating story but probably best not to go into details because its along the lines of the holocaust and very brutal and not what you want to hear i wouldn't imagine.

The tea garden
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We ended up in a vegeatrian restaurant and had a great meal for about a pound and now im backj in the horrible internet cafe filling this in before we move on tomorrow morning.

Hope everyones good and keep emailing! xxx