Selm woz ere

Went Heli-sledging last week, its like heli-boarding but one trip up in the chopper and and then as many runs up hanging off the side of a skido as your arms can take. It's really rather fun! check out the bowl which was ours all day and, I couldn't manage to take many photos before as there where fresh tracks to be made but all the lines are ours. We bulid a couple of kickers to play one and had a blast. Its the same cost a s three runs in a chopper and we got about 25 or more so well worth the cost if you like powder and who doesn't. Got some pics on facebook too 

I'm well behind on typing up my notes on our China trip, but I'm here in NZ ripping up the slopes on my days off so been a bit lazy getting to the internet cafe. It's strange not having access all day at my dest and the the evenings at home. Past the evening putting photos on my Facebook page and a few movies here so there is now a few visuals to add to what I've already written up. Enough waffle it's dinner time...

Day 11 19.05.07

The excursion to the panda breeding centre was a little rushed by our guide but he knew what he was doing as we got there early enough to see the feeding. Which was very funny. The pandas roll around and lazily munch on their bamboo. We also saw young ones which jump around over each other even more and the little red pandas which aren’t technically pandas at all. We headed back for a great brunch in the hostel, I had American breakfast, a fry up of sorts with harsh browns, Deb Swiss, muesli and fruit and French for Wil which was French toast. Not the most traditional of national dishes but the food was good and what we anted so they can call it what they like. For the rest of the day we chilled in the courtyard being put off by the heat to go and explore the city in the afternoon. We got chatting to a couple of guys wandering around looking for tourists to speak English with. The first an English teacher from the local college and then a air traffic control student. This got slightly laboured at points with the language barrier on but they where very friendly and it was interesting chatting. Then we met a cool guy called Jonny who was a photographer. The conversation flowed much better as his English was very good and we could all talk about photography. Debby advised him where to start when looking to sell his pictures and we discussed the difficulty of his plans to save up and do his MA in the states. He was also very helpful as he took us to a local film developers and explained to the counter staff I wanted CDs only and no prints, something I don’t think we would have got across with out his translation. I enthusiastically checked out a few of his prints he collected and went our separate ways. It was still quite early but we went back to claim a spot in the street for the dinner we wanted the night before. We had chicken hearts, beef and chili vegetables which was lovely, especially the hearts which I was slightly unsure about when we ordered. There was a couple of spare chairs on our table which were filled with a German consulate worker and her Chinese friend. We had an interesting chat and they helped us get the bill when ours was confused with the other table of Westerners, apparently we all look the same. I still think they made a mistake as the total was 42 yuan and the six beers we got through should have cost 30… we didn’t complain.

Day 10 18.05.07

I woke felling much better and we made our way from the station to Dragon Town Hostel. It has character but had no gas for hot showers and even in the heat cold showers were not fun, burrrrr. After showers and settling in quickly we go for a stroll around Peoples Park. The park greats us nosily; various groups of OAPs dancing and singing karaoke to blaring stereos competing with next set along. Past this first square things go back to normal for a public park, it was a little surreal passing through that blast of noise coming from pensioners. The bonsai garden is cool some very old and interesting trees there and frenzied gold fish being fed in the pond was a sight. In the evening we go to see Chinese opera, it’s more like a variety show. It was fun to see the ‘changing faces’ where silk masks are changed in the blink of an eye, comedy, puppets, a performance on an old traditional string instrument, feet gymnastics and my favorite, the hand shadows. As we arrived back to the hostel the street outside is filled with tables of diners eating from charcoal grills dotted around. It smells amazing but we couldn’t find a spot so had to settle with pizza in the hostel the first ‘western’ meal of the trip.

Day 9 17.05.07

I had a little lye in as I was still sick. I dragged my self out with Deb and Wil as I didn’t want to stay in on my own. The goose pagoda and gardens are picturesque but I was constantly looking forward to the next chance to rest as it was another hot day and although not sick anymore, I felt weak all over. We found a patch of grass, which is  harder than in Europe as there is not many lawns and most that are there have keep off signs, and I had a great dose until the others got restless. I eventually got to fully relax on the sleeper train to Chengdu. I slept from 5:30pm to 7am.

16.05.07 Day 8

The Terricotta Army was not like I expected, I thought it would be more impressive. Maybe as we had already seen so many amazing sights over the week. The soliders are mostly broken when excivated and the famous pictures are piced back together. I expected a high level of preservation, more like acient tombs in Egypt. It was well worth visiting though and we boosted our appriciation when we remided ourselves the sight is two thousand years old and the weapons recovered are still sharp. It doesn't take a full day to wander around the three large halls covering the excavations and the small museum so we headed back to the air con of our Xian hotel and enjoyed a couple of cold beers. We tried another tradition dish for dinner. A small dense loaf is served to break up into small pieces and then added to a soup. The tearing is surprisingly hard going, our fingers where stiff as we sprinkled the bread in the soup. The food was very nice but the restaurant was a bit of a tourist trap as it's recommended in the guide book but as we wanted to try this dish we needed to know where to go. On the way back we found a cosy outside bar just off the street screened off from the road. A bit of a rubbish end to the night as puked on the stairs right in front of the night staff who man a desk on each floor. I was very embarrassed as we where drunk and I wasn't sure at the time if it was down to drinking too much. I didn't feel that drunk and the following troubled night confirmed the poisoning diagnose. I was very pleased we had en suit as water would not stay down and my days consumption further down the process was making an alternative violent exit. Sorry. I also feel very sorry for the poor girl who had to clear up the stairs.

Interrupting the China catch up I'll waffle on about what I've been up to recently. Still kicking around Queenstown at the mo and working washing and ferrying hire cars around. I can't board as much but we need to pay the rent and it does increase the motivation to get up the hill on any day off. There's not much snow left anyway, quite icy after the dumps a couple of weeks ago now. We had a few great days in the powder even if the visibility was not too good. Last week I went up to Snow Park NZ with a few guys I met through someone at work. Much fun to be had if you like jumping and sliding down rails. I did get a nice new big bruise for 2008 inventing the 'knee slide' catching an edge just before a nice chunky rail right in front of the lift queue, very cool moves. I decided there is enough gory bruise pics on here so didn't get the camera out. As my knee is still a bit puffy we went for a walk up the hill that over looks Queenstown, it was a nice walk hour or so through a pine forest from our suburb Sunshine bay. We got to the top and admired the views and pie and wedges for lunch and then had a few goes on the luge ride great fun. Tony our house mate won 2-1-1 to me and Wil decided on the last run, Debby let us win.

15.05.07 Day 7

Up and off to Xian again cramming on the train. We won few friends bumping and squashing our large packs onto the luggage racks. Though once settled this was a fun journey, the six hours flew by. Mainly thanks due to my several losses to Wil at Scrabble and a marathon Yatzee session from which Debby emerged champion. Our fellow passengers watched with interest over our shoulders and across the isle as we played the dice game and I wondered if they where commenting on our tactics or where figuring out the rules.

We didn't have a booking for a place to stay so for once one of the hawkers was useful and we found a basic hotel which was a nice step up from hostel living for a couple of nights. After chilling out for a bit we headed out for a stroll around the town, the old city walls, bell and drum towner. The modern city is juxtaposed with the acient, as we walked form the open city square the Muslium quarter hemmed us into the bustling market and restaurant filled lanes. Dried fruit was first on offer, colourfull and fragrant. Hot steam and spicey aromas took over quickly as we walked past a restaurant, and the next side street was filled with sourvineer and brick-a-brack stalls. We ate after a short wander in a Morrican restaurant. The food is serverd traditionally, broth boiling on a gas ring on the table. Our pot was split in two, one filled a faily simply with herbs and seasioning the other with a chillie concoction, I'm sure these vary and the locals have thier favorite soups. But these are not the dinner, this is where the food chosen is cooked like in the oil with fondu. The squewers of thinly sliced meat, seafood and chunks of vegetalbes take a few seconds to cook and come servered with a satay and chillie sauce for dipping. MMMM this is good grub but I was sweating, almost as much as in a steam room. It was not only a hot evening in the high twenties but the fan to keep us cool was working well for Wil and Deb oposite me but was having an adverse affect on me as the steam from the pot was wafted in my face. Wil found this very amusing, especially after I tried one of the chilles from the broth which only added fuel to my burning face. I nearly didn't have enough cash on me for the bill as it worked out very expensive at 165 Yuan for the three of us. However, we did have a lession on how things worked from the materdee; where when how to choose ones squewers, how long to cook the meat or vegtables, how to mix the satay chillie sauce which was servered as seperate intreadients. This attention and guidance even with limited English I think is what we paid for and how we justified it to ourselves. We took a motor tricycle back to the hotel which was a hairy and again expensive experiance. For the 30 it cast we could have got a taxi twice as far and these things should be cheaper but Debby needed to "go" and I had been looking forward to the chance of riding so when we agreed to the price (which was still only 2 pounds) haggling wasn't on our minds. We survived the insane Chinease traffic and again went to bed with over full bellies.

14.05.07 Day 6

We wake late, only a half hour before we have to leave for the Shaolin temple. Wil and I went for the bus ticket struggling slightly as the teller speaks little English. Debby did superbly by getting the train tickets to Xian using the phrase book and inspired miming. The sweaty one and a half hour bus journey is well worth it, we walked down the track and started to notice small class size groups fo boys in track suits. A little further on flanking the path thousands of boys train; flipping, kicking, punching, stabbing slashing and clubbing. Some spar perfecting moves and a few times I see little kids look like they really hurt them selves, landing badly or a toe comming off worse from kicking a punch bag. They quickly carried on after a quick rub or stretch and from the lack of sympathy from the teachers it looks like they are expected to. As we get to the old temples we read most are rebulit to original planns or reports. We wandered around taking in the sights of the varios buildings and sat down to what for me was the hilight of the day, the kungfu demo. It's the usual stuff, breaking wooden and metal sticks with various parts of the body, swords, sticks, axes and numbchucks. But to see it a few meters away was great, it's so much more impressive than on TV. My personal favorite was poping a baloon by throwing a pin at it, not that impressive until I mention there was a sheet of glass in the way. Yes, pins can be thrown through sheets of glass, a leg can fold behind ones head while retaining a deadly looking fighting stance and a hand stand can be done useing two fingers.

One guy who was touting to guide us for the day did actually make up for anouying us by suggesting we take the cable car up the mountain to escape the heat and crowds for the hottest and busiest part of the day. He was right, it was getting hot and busy. I was hugly satified with myslef for getting the ice lolly seller down a third on his asking price on the hot walk to the base station. Once at the top it was nicely cool and was stet off on a walk involving a lot of steps and steep narrow paths hugging the countors winding up not to far below the peaks. We didn't make it to the end of the path as we ran out of time but we got to a scary suspended bridge and a group of men playing cards who where not up for haggling on the drinks on sale from under their tarp. We headed back down and saw the monks processing to a temple where they chanted in one of several daily prayer services. The religion comes first, kungfu was evolved from a need for defence from raiding war lords.

That evening Debby had another trumph in spotting a great little place for dinner from the bus on the way back into town, and it was only around the corner from our hostle. The staff spoke no English and there was no English menu, we ordered pointing at the phrase book and all the waiting staff and one chef gathered around our table. I liked this better than the other more approachable looking venues with English menues. The food was lovely, the fried aubergiune was the best we had on the trip and the bill was only 52 yuan including 5 beers about half of what we where used to spending. This seemed to confirm my suspicision that the English language menus had inflated prices. They also seemed to lack full choice as sometimes we looked around at waht was comming out and could not find it on the menu. Anyway this meal was not at all like that and so was a much more rewarding experiance.