Brett’s Travelblog of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and The USA

1/11/05….

Cathy left today flying back to LA, not envious of her 16 hour flight although with the time differance she actually arrives in LA (time and date) before she leaves Beijing!!!

At this point I would like to Thank Paloma for putting us up in her hotel room and being a very good hostess. As she was getting behind with her work though and I needed to be based more central in Beijing I left her apartment and headed to a nice hotel called the Sports Inn Hotel based inside the Workers Sports Stadium in the Chaoyang district.

Within 1 hour at the hotel Ive managed to sort a trip out to the Great Wall for Wed 2/11/05 and my flight back to Bangkok for thur 4/11/05 which is direct and cost 2446 RMB or 163 Pounds UK. Typical I find a street near by at night with 29 bars on it but decide not to have a drink because a, first night on my own for ages and didnt feel like drinking by myself ann b, I have to be up at 7am so I think an early night is a good idea.

2/11/05….

Caught the bus this morning from outside the hotel at 8am cost 90 RMB and travelled to Jinshanling area of the Great Wall. I opted for a treking trip as this would give me more to do and see. The trek was aprx 10 Km’s and should take 4.5 hours walking the wall to Simatai. There were 17 uphill/mountain treks to the half way point. You could see for miles, it was truely amazing. As I walked listening to my Mp3 player I heard part of a song that I had never heard before and was so relevant. At the highest most point of the trek I was listening to U2 singing Beautiful Day and a verse in the middle of the song went something like ” See the world in green and blue, see China right in front of you” I could not have been any higher or been able to see any more of China in one view if I had tried. I will also mention at this point that there were very few tourists around and it was great because I have seen photo’s of the wall swarming with people and this was completely the opposite.

The entry fee for Jinshanling was 30 RMB and at the half way point entering into the Samatai area it was another 30 RMB, 5RMB to cross the suspension bridge and 35 RMB for the zip line and boat ( read below )

From the half way point I decided to take a run and did about 3km up Along the Great Wall which was the greatest run I have ever done, I have so many amazing Photo’s and videos from the wall and will update this page tonight as I get into Bangkok around 1am and will head to a 24 hour internet cafe I know and sort my pics out, should save the cost of a hotel for the night too.

The run was a good idea until the end when I reached a suspension bridge, on the other side was around 150 steep steps up and my legs were gone, I made it though. From the top of the wall at this point you could walk 1.35KM down to the car park at Simatai or jump off the wall hundreds of feet above a river/gorge and zip line down with a harnis attached around your waste and zip to ground level covering 1km in a 45 seconds. Many people walked past and didnt try it but I thought what the hell ( and I was tired ) I jumped off and it was fab, managaed to hold onto my camera too so have it all on video!!!!!! Then took a small boat ride back to the car park.

The only anoyance was that for the first or two of the trek I head a Mongolian Woman tagging along the trek with me, I tried to loose her because I know what was coming but she kept catching up. I asked her on 5 occasions why she was walking with me pointing things out and every time she pretended she didnt understand the question, then there were her stories how she does this walk 3 times aday again I asked why with no answer. Then that she was an out of work Mongolian farmer with a 12 year old child. At this point I mentioned that Im not suprised she was out of farm work if she walks along the wall all day!!! she didnt get it… Eventually it happened and she said she needed to head back just before the Simatai entry point and tried to sell me a T shirt, A book, postcards. As I gave her plenty of chances to tell me what she wanted from me during her time walking with me and she didnt, I didnt feel guilty when I reffused to buy anything, she then just begged for money and I put my mp3 player on and walked of.

I got back to the hotel by 7.30pm and was starving so ate in the hotels sports bar and went to bed at 9.30pm. All the trouble of moving to were all the bars are and didnt manage to go… Never mind it wont kill me and Im sure I will make up for it in Bangkok.

Not sure what to do in Thailand though…… Do I go north again for a while then south taking in Full Moon Party ( which is a must ) and other islands that I havent seen yet or vice versa, islands-party-north. Will see what happens when I hit Bangkok, cant plan much.. I didnt expect to see as much of Cambodia as I did, never expected to travel through out Vietnam and totally never expected to be sitting here on th 3/11/05 in Beijing!!!!

Next stop Bangkok ( only the fourth time in 2 months!!! )………

Tags: Jinshanling, Simatai, Travel

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