Trip to the West

This is the end, my friend....

From here on, the Trip to the East has come to an end and I'll next be heading West from Beijing to the UK by (a decidely unadventurous) airplane this coming Wednesday. I feel it's a cop out to fly back, but my stamina for enjoying overland travel after seven months on the road is not sufficient to sustain the six-day non-stop train ride to Moscow and then dealing with another alien culture, language, system etc So, the trans-Siberian Express will have to wait for another time

Anyway, to recap on the movements of the last week or so:-

There were lots of pandas (both giant and the small red version) to video at the reserve at Chengdu. Then it was the train up to Xian, the ancient capital of dynastic China. This was the final destination of Marco Polo, I've been following his footsteps for large parts of my route, and it is also the classic endpoint of the Silk Route. The famous terracotta army is nearby to Xian, so we joined with the hordes to take that in. Definitely a must-see.

Then from Xian we took a very plush deluxe sleeper train to Beijing - the only tickets left. It was expensive , but having in our berth just the two beds, an armchair, individual bed TVs, private bathroom, thermostat control and, most importantly, a bonzai fern over the sink made it all worthwhile.

So, in Beijing we've been doing the tourist things - Forbidden City etc. Yesterday we took the bus 1 hour away up to the Great Wall - yes, it really is as amazing as I had anticipated. It's huge and goes winding off into the far distance along the top of the mountain ridges. I walked up and down it (Peter taking it easy) far enough away to where the crowds thinned out.

China has been a fascinating experience and I've very glad to have seen this economic giant in its emergent stages. There is a phenomenal amount of construction and change going on all over the place - further galvanised by the prospect of the 2008 Olympics, which is trumpeted everywhere you look.

The people here in China have generally been very friendly and helpful - you even forgive them all the spitting and gobbing on restaurant floors that goes on.

So, this is probably the last post I'll make whilst abroad. The Trip to the East has been a fantastic experience. There have been downs as well as ups, but in general it's been a real sense of feeling alive. Even when some of the events along the road have been unwelcome (as they often are), there is no 'off' button on a remote control and you just have to deal with them.

Over and out (for now),

Gareth