Mt.Fuji

So, it's probably time to tell you about our last couple of days in Japan. After Kyoto we set off for Hakone, a nice little town in a hilly area, where we were to stay in an Onsen, a traditional Japanese spa. Before we got to test the spa we set off to find some lunch and then to see if we could catch a glimpse of Mt.Fuji. Our guide wasn't so sure we'd be able to see it because of the weather.

So after lunch and some souvernir-shopping we took a train up the mountainside, it was quite steep and my ears kept popping. Then a funicular railway and at last a gondola. The gondola went quietly up the hillside, and then suddenly we reached the hilltop and everyone gasped as we went over and suddenly we were hanging 130 meters or so over a valley with smoke coming up from the ground and yellow patches of earth and a perfect view of Mt.Fuji in the distance! Seiko even said it was the best view she'd had of the mountain!

So we got off and took pictures and admired the view of the volcano with snow on top before we got on the gondola and ended up by a lake which we took a pirate-ship (!) across, and then a bus back to Hakone. It was dark by the time we came back and we were quite tired, but we didn't have much time before dinner. And dinner was quite and experience! We got a whole mackerell (or how you spell it), sashimi style, so the sides were cut off into little pieces but the rest of the fish was lying there looking at you. It tasted excellent though, with a touch of lemon! We also got miso soup with eel, hotpot with tiny mushrooms and sardineballs, tofupudding, pickled veggies, some small appetizers, fried fish, a very strange sticky rice thing in a cold jellylike soup, and for dessert almondpudding. It was a big meal... And they just kept things coming! We almost rolled out afterwards, and figured it was time for a bath in the spa.

In Japanese onsens you have to be naked when you're in the pool, but (luckily?) they have separate pools for women and men. It was really nice to lie there and let my body be soaked up in the water full of natural minerals. We decided to sit in the outside pool, so all the girl had a nice talk while relaxing under the stars.

The next day we set of for Kawaguchico, a town much closer to Mt.Fuji. After 6 different trains we finally arrived. We checked in and decided to go for a walk, so we headed towards the lake, as there was supposed to be great views from the other side of it. And there were! We took loads of pictures, some with our Kilroy t-shirts, and then we looked at a markedplace while waiting for sunset. It was worth the wait, because it was really beautiful! So after more pictures and more posing we went back to town to get some dinner.

After dinner we went looking for a place to have a drink but the town seemed rather deserted so we bought a couple of beers and went back to the hotel. I don't know if you know but Japan has very fancy toilets! I mean the actual toilet, not the room. All of them have buttons to wash your bottom and some of them even have buttons to make noises like a waterfall so other people can't listen in on your business... Malin and I decided it was time to try the washing-part, so three-two-one and we hit the button! We screamed and started laughing as the waterspray hit with quite some force right in the private part. It was really funny and tears were running down my face from all the laughing. And it never stopped! At last I hit the stop-button, and I thought it was going to dry me off aswell but it didn't. So what's the point of washing your bottom when you have to use paper to dry off anyway?

Kyoto

Kyoto was a lovely city, I really enjoyed it! We arrived in the early afternoon after travelling from Koya-san back to Osaka and then by the Shinkansen bullettrain from Osaka. The trainride took only 12 minutes, and we travelled almost 50 km! First stop was the Fushimi Inari shrine, which was a big area with different shrines spread out and sort of tunnels running inbetween them in the forest. The tunnels were made of wooden pillars painted a bright orange with inscriptions on one side.

After wandering around here for a while we took the train and underground to our hostel near Gion and the city centre. We checked in and freshened up a bit before going out for a walk to Gion, the geisha-area in Kyoto. There were lots of nice old houses and quiet streets, and it wasn't hard to imagine how it was in the old times, as this is the setting from the book Memoirs of a Geisha. We were lucky to see a couple of geishas aswell!

In the evening we went out for dinner at a very small local restaurant where I shared some traditional barbeque food with the Finnish guys. After dinner it was time for a little surprise, we were to learn how to perform a traditional tea ceremony! We were seated around a big table with our own teapot, cup, teapowder, wisk and napkin. After the Japanese woman and man at the end had demonstrated we had a go. It was very difficult, as there were so many rules about holding the cup, what hand you had to use, where to put the wisk after it was used in a very specific way etc. But it was fun! The green tea didn't taste too good though...

The next day was our big sightseeing-day. We started off with Nijo castle, home of the Tokugawa Shoguns. It had very nice traditional sliding doors, but the floor was really cold! The gardens were beautiful and we had a lovely walk through them. Then we carried on to the Kinkakuji shrine, a huge shrine set by a little lake and it was layered with gold all over. And I mean all over! Quite impressive. And quite an impressive amount of tourists there aswell. Last but not least of our attractions of the day was the Imperial Palace. We were very lucky to be able to se it, as it's only open to the public 10 days a year. We weren't able to go inside any parts of it, but the style of the buildings allowed for viewing inside through big open doors.

Then we had some free time which was spent shopping and curling up under our duvet with a movie and a bottle of wine (at least for Astrid and me), before heading out for dinner. And what a dinner! We went to an awesome sushi-restaurant which had the sushi coming past on an assembly line! Then you just pick the plates you want as they go past. You could also order pieces from a screen by the table, and then they arrived on a miniature Shinkansen-train which stopped right in front of your table. Very fun! Our table ate the most, with 34 plates. We were four people on our table and the plates had 2 pieces of sushi each, some of them 4, so that would be an average of about 20 pieces each. No need to say we were stuffed afterwards!
Then a couple of drinks and off to bed. A very nice end to a very nice stay in Kyoto.

Osaka and the mountains

We made it to Japan! But it was only just, because there was so much fog at the airport in Trondheim that the plane we were taking tried to land three times before it finally managed. So we were almost two hours late, and the flight to Amsterdam was supposed to take 2,5 hours and the onwards flight to Osaka was leaving at 17.25, so we were a bit stressed when we finally took off at ten to three. Luckily the winds were in our favour so the flight was only 1 hour and 50 minutes, but we still had to run like hell as we landed on the furthest runway and it took 10-15 minutes before we we out of the plane. Amsterdam is quite a big airport, and we landed at one end and were leaving from the other, so we were all nice and sweaty by the time we met the others.

So, landed in Osaka, and Astrid and I obviously looked very suspicious because we were taken in for an inspection in another room where they went through all our luggage. So once again, we held up the group. Fun! We finally made it to Osaka city where we checked in at a really nice hotel. Went out exploring the city after a nice shower, and had some sushi before we hit a bar for a drink.

The next day was our secret day, and we were surprised when we heard we were going up in the mountains and living in a monastery! We took a train up to the mountains, the scenery was really nice, lush and green. The last bit we took a cablecar straight up the mountainside, then a bus to our monastery. We stayed in nice rooms with tatami-mats that we slept on. It was really cold up in the mountains so we were glad we brought some warm clothes! We went for a walk in a cemetery which was really nice, and looked at a couple of temples. In the evening we had a traditional meal served by the monks, all vegetarian, with deep fried vegetables, tofu, pickled something, and of course rice. I slept quite well, even though the bed was a bit hard, as it was basically a thin mat on the floor.

Then off to Kyoto! More about that later.

Japan

Tomorrow I'm off to Japan on my studytrip! It's going to be so good to get away from the cold weather here, it's currently 22 degrees in Osaka :) And I'm looking forward to eating proper sushi! Yummy!

So the itinerary is as follows:

Oct 31st: Fly Trondheim - Amsterdam - Osaka

Nov 1st: Osaka

Nov 2nd: Secret day

Nov 3rd-4th: Train to Kyoto

Nov 5th: Bus to Hakone

Nov 6th: Train to Kawaguchiko

Nov 7th: Tokyo

Nov 8th: Tokyo and home

We're visiting hot onsens (a kind of local spa), Mt. Fuji (not actually climbing it though), temples, travelling by bullet-trains and hopefully spot some Geishas, eat some good sushi and do some shopping! 

Finally

Almost 6 years after it was bought, it's up on the wall! I love it.

Rain rain rain...

Is it never going to stop? I must admit I am getting a bit tired of it... 

Looking forward to warmer weather in Sydney in January! Just hope there won't be any more sandstorms.

What a great week!!!

Guess what? I'm going to Sydney!!! :D :D :D Wohooooo!!! I was so dissapointed that I didn't get the job the last round that I haven't dared to think about it this time.  And then today I recieved the news that I got it! Wow. I'm still shaking. So from the end of January untill the end of April if you want to see me you'll have to come Down Under!

Oh, and I'm off to Japan the first week in November on a studytrip! Landing in Osaka, then on to Kyoto, Mt.Fuji and a couple of other places before we fly home from Tokyo. Really looking forward to that aswell!

Aaahhhhh, life is good!

Swineflu?

I'm ill. It's boring. I've been lying on the sofa since Tuesday afternoon and still no progress. It started off with a sore throat, fever and aching joints, and it has evolved into not so much fever, itchy throat, coughing and aching body. I suspect the swineflu, but my doctor doesn't want me to come into her office so I guess I'll never know.

Luckily I've earlier borrowed all the seasons of Gilmore Girls from a friend, and I've made good progress. Am now in the middle of season 6, so only one to go. I hope I'm well again by the time I finish season 7!

Sydney, birthday and festival

So, long time since I've updated anything here! Sorry about that. Not that anything much has happend anyway. Something exciting might happen though: I've applied for a job in Sydney! It's only for three months, so don't worry, I won't be gone long. Kilroy (the travelagent I work for now) has an "office" at a hostel there where a staffmember from Kilroy works on a three-month basis. I originally applied for the period from late October till late January, but I didn't get it. They are however deciding the next round, late January till late April, pretty soon, so my application still stands. *Fingers crossed*

I went over to England this weekend to attend my Grandpas 80th birthday. Very nice to see the family again, but unfortunately my Grandpa had been ill all week so he missed the lunch. I think that's the first birthday-celebration I've been to where the guest of honour actually wasn't present. Luckily everyone came back to the house afterwards so we continued the party there. Lots of good cake ;)

This weekend my friend Solveig is coming to visit wich will be nice, I haven't seen her for quite a while. And there's a festival, Pstereo, going on Friday and Saturday which we are going to. We went to Hove together, another festival, just over a year ago and had a blast, so hopefully this one will be a success aswell! The weatherforcast isn't too good though, so think I have to dig out my poncho.

Bits and pieces

So, not much interesting happening at the moment! I'm all alone at work untill Wednesday because people are away on holiday, and there aren't a lot of my friends left in the city in the summer either. I had quite a productive day yesterday though, first at work, then going to the hairdressers and then cleaning my whole apartment afterwards! (Not that cleaning takes that long, but still...) It was nice getting a haircut cause I haven't had one since last August! So now I look like this: The weather hasn't been too good lately so that kinda sucks. But I've borrowed all the seasons of Gilmore Girls from a friend of mine, so I'm not bored! :)

It's three weeks since I came home, and I'm amazed how fast time flies! And thinking about it, it's three years since I went off to live in New Zealand! Still miss you guys and hope to see you in the not too far future.

And last but not least: I want to go off travelling again...

Quarterlifecrisis?

I reached the milestone of being halfway to 50 yesterday! Doesn't really feel any different than two days ago I must say. But according to my lifeplan of 5 years ago I was to have a stable relationship and kids when I was 25! And well, I'm as single and childless as one can be.

So new plan is: No plan!

It was a nice day though, I made the most amazing trufflecake, it was divine... With raspberries dipped in melted chocolate on top. Mmmmm! My Mum, stepdad, Grandparents, cousin and uncle came over and helped me eat it. And I managed to convince my brother to get on a plane and come up aswell!

As for everyone else, don't worry, I'll make a new cake for the official party which I'll throw a bit later when more people are back from their holidays.

Home sweet home?

Well, I've been home for a week now, and I'll tell you one thing: it's not as fun as travelling!! I arrived back in Trondheim late last Friday after about an 18 hour journey. Didn't sleep much on the flights despite having stayed up singing karaoke untill 4 in the morning, so I was quite tired when I got home.

At least the weather was good the first days after I got home, so on Saturday I bought strawberries and shrimps and went up to my Grandma and sat on the veranda basking in the sun. I had to show her my tattoo, and luckily she didn't freak out as bad as I thought she would. She actually admitted it was pretty even though she really really doesn't like tattoos! When I told my mum on the other hand she screamed... And said "and you did this even though you knew I'd react like this!!" "Yup..." I sent her a picture on the phone and she texted me back saying "uuuæææææ" and then about ten crying smilyfaces, hehe.

Going back to work on Monday was quite a shocker to the system! I had "only" 220 e-mails to deal with so that took most of the first day, but after that it's been a bit quiet. I guess people are on holiday... It was nice meeting my colleagues again though.

I have aquired a bit of an eating problem by being in a country with so much good food for the last 7 weeks... My body is now used to eating a LOT of food, and preferably warm lunches and meat twice a day. So now that I'm back on my "normal" diet, I'm constantly hungry and craving snax... Not good! I have to start running again soon to get back into shape...

It's been raining for the last couple of days, which means I have to wear shoes instead of flip-flops. I MISS TRAVELLING!!!

Beijing

The last three days I spent in Beijing, and I was actually quite positively surprised by the city! My mum had warned me that it was very polluted and dirty, but it actually wasn't at all! I think they've cleaned it up quite a bit in relations with the Olympics, because it wasn't hazy at all, blue skies all along and you could actually se stars at night!

The first day we went to the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City. I liked the Summer Palace a lot, so many beautiful buildings set in lush forest and with a huge lake as part of it. Wondered around for a few hours before we headed to the Forbidden City. It was getting quite warm by that point and there were so many tourists there! So I got a bit cranky in the end (sorry Rachel and Mike...). But it was nice, it's quite amazing how it's built, with walls inside walls inside walls and lots of little courtyards and temples, and some huge courtyards with huge temples. We'd had enough by 4.30, so took a taxi back to the hotel where I had a liedown and a nice long shower which washed away all my crankyness.

In the evening we went to see acrobats, and man, the Beijing acrobats are amazing! It was a show that lasted about 1,5 hour, and we saw people bending their bodies in nonhuman ways, balancing umbrellas and spinning plates, jumping between poles, balancing on chairs, juggling, playing with the diabolo. And guess how many girls you can get on one bike? About 15. All in all, an amazing show. After we went for a Korean barbeque, which of course was great. Then we went out for drinks as it was the last official day of the trip.

The second day I did something completly different, (my dear parents and grandparents, please sit down if you're not already) I got a tattoo! It's the Tibetan eyes on my lower back, and it looks amazing! The Tibetan eyes are the eyes you find on stupas around Nepal and Tibet, they're basically eyes with eyebrows, a bindi and a kinda whirly thing for a nose. I fell in love with them the first time I saw them. I have been concidering getting a tattoo for quite a while, and suddenly it just dawned on me that this was the one! The tattoo-artist was really great, he uploaded my photo of the eyes on his computer and drew freehand right onto my back. When he first started it didn't really hurt, and I was like "jeez, what's all the fuss about" but then he started filling it in and then I almost fainted, haha. It took about 1,5 hours, and I survived just about... Four of the other guys got tattoos aswell, so I basically spent the day in the tattoo-studio. In the evening we went out for drinks with Leon and Nat from the last group who happend to be in Beijing. Great seeing them again!

The last day I went shopping at the Silk Market, which is a huge shoppingcentre with stalls that have everything! All fake of course, and you have to bargain like hell. I came home with a few tops, a dress, shoes, a handbag, a jumper and lots of pearls and jewelery. And nice feet after getting a footmassage and a pedicure. Went out for drinks and a last dinner with Rachel, Mike, Leon, Nat, Olivia, John, Ray and Liz. Very nice, but sad aswell. Was planning on going off to bed after, but then I found Ant, Adam, Stormy and our chinese guide and they were going to sing karaoke, so I joined them and it turned into a late night.

Slightly hungover and very tired on my way home, and after 18 hours travellingtime I'm now back in Trondheim. It's a bit sad being home, it's gone so quickly but yet again I've experienced so much! It's been a fantastic trip, and I miss all of my travelsmates already! Hope to see you again someday!

Chengde and The Great Wall

We had three days in Chengde, with no planned itinerary which was quite good as it gave us plenty of time to relax and just do our own thing. The first day I slept in and then went off to The Summer Palace, which was where the emperorfamily used to reside during summer. It was nice, old buildings with pinetrees in the courtyards, and a huge park around it. All the interesting rooms were locked up though, so you could only peer in through the windows, and the rooms which were open mainly had exhibitions of vases and paintings. Spent a couple of hours wandering around the park which was really nice, it had a big lake in the middle and lots of tame deers! It was a bit hot though, getting well into the 30ies by now.

In the evening we all went out for a hotpot, which was of course great (as all the food is), had beef and prawns and sausage and a really good peanutsauce to go with it. And they served silkworms as snax!! Of course I had to try! They were not very tasty, just crunchy and not very pleasant... Went to a KTV-place after, which is karaoke for those of you who haven't been to China, but it wasn't very good as there were very few English songs.

The next day I went off to a temple with Mike, Rachel and John, which was nice (although getting slightly templed-out by now...). But the special thing about this one was that it had the biggest Buddha in the world of its kind. It was 22 meters high, made of 5 different kinds of wood and stood inside a temple. It was massive!!! And it had 40 arms, each holding an item like a flower or prayerbeeds etc. I managed to loose the others and I thought they had gone out so I went out but they weren't there so I just waited for them and it turned out they had gone behind the temple and discovered an area with loads of padlocks all over the place. Quite bummed I missed that.

After Chengde it was time for some excercise! Which was good, as I've eaten far too much on this trip... So we went to hike the Great Wall. We started off in Jingchanglian (or something like that...) and hiked 10 kilometers to Simtai. It was a great walk, although quite tireing as it was well over 30 degrees and lots of steep steps both up and down. Seemed a bit meaningless that once we had climbed all the steps up to a tower we had to go all the way back down!! Made it to the other end in about 4 hours, so it wasn't too bad. Did another part of it the next day which was a bit more touristy and a bit more tireing actually, because it had soooo many steps going up to the actual wall! We walked about an hour, did my "Kilroy was here"-photos as I remembered to wear my t-shirt, and a few with Ant wearing his Dragoman t-shirt aswell, and then tobogganed down (typ aking i bane) which was quite fun.

Arrived in Beijing today, and tomorrow we're off to the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City. It's much less polluted than I thought it would be! Can't believe I'm going home on Friday though. Don't want to leave!!!

New start

Leaving Xian was a tearful event, as it meant splitting up with the original group. We're only 6 from the original group now; me, Mike, Rachel, John, Ray and Liz. I really miss the others!!! We've got a new truck, Gertie, and a new guide, Ant, and a new driver, Adam. There are also 4 new people, so 10 altogether, which is an okay number.

Anyways, left Xian and headed for Mt. Kongtong which is the most sacred mountain in Taoism. There are lots of small temples on the top of lots of steep steps which were quite exhausting to climb up. Luckily I got some rest on the way as I had to pose for pictures with a few chinese people... The top provided some great views over green hills and vast countryside. Had a bushcamp at the lake at the bottom of the mountain where our new crew demonstrated their great cookingskills.

Can't really remember the right order of everything we've done in between then and now, but one day we went to a chinese disneyland kinda thingy where I went camelriding and took a zipline across a river which was great fun. We've also camped in traditional yerts (not quite sure about the spelling, you know the big round tents from Mongolia), in Inner Mongolia which was fun. We hired some horses and went for a ride which was nice, only the horses weren't exactly racehorses and our guide didn't seem like he was keen on going any faster than walkingpace. Anyways, it was nice to get out into the countryside. My bum was sore for a couple of days though as the saddles here are a tad harder than the ones I'm used to...

One night we went out for a hot-pot, which is a big pot cut in half where one half has a very hot soup in it and the other a mild soup and you have a heater in the middle of the table and heat up the soup and then you order different things which you cook yourself. We had meatballs, beef, bamboo and two types of mushroom and it was delicious! I must say, the food here in China is AMAZING!!! I'm stuffing myself at every meal and I would become seriously fat if I was to live here! They seem to have so many great sauces and marinades it makes everything taste delicious. I'm going to miss it when I get home!!

Right now we're in a city called Datong, which they seem to be rebuilding, all at once. Because of this there's a powecut across half the city which resulted in us staying in a hotel last night with no power and no water. And of course our room was on the 6th floor with no elevator. I'm glad we're not at altitude any more. And that we decided to change hotels tonight. Today we went to some caves which were really old with Buddhafigures carved out inside. Some were quite impressive! There was also a huge Buddha, about 20 meters tall which was impressive. Afterwards we went to a hanging monastery, which is a monastery which is built on a cliffwall in about 490 a.d. It has been rebuilt later though because it was destroyed at one point, but it was still very old and pretty. And a bit scary as it seemed to hang in thin air.

Driving further tomorrow towards Chengde, and then next Monday we'll be in Beijing!! Hope you're all having a great midsummernight. Hugs from China!

Lhasa to Xian

We left Lhasa early in the morning and drove to Namtso Lake, which is the highest saltlake in the world. It was amazing! Huge lake with snowcapped mountains surrounding it. We bushcamped not far from it, and woke up early next morning to a beautiful sunrise. Didn't get going quite as early as we'd hoped because we had a flat tire... After that was fixed we set off. We were supposed to drive all the way to Golmud, 1000 km, in just two days. You might think that it doesn't sound all that much, but in a truck that only does 60 km/h at the most and with bumpy roads and loads of roadworks and delays it took a loooong time.

The first night we ended up driving all night because we got held up by roadblocks for a few hours and when it was bedtime we were at the top of a mountainpass with snow all around us and it was freezing cold, so we decided to just keep going. Went for a walk up a hill at one of the roadblocks and the view was fantastic! Huge flat plains surrounded by beautiful green hills. The next day we got held up by roadworks again for about 7 hours, and after that there were loads of diversions and bumpy roads so we almost had an all-nighter again. There had been a flood on one of the diversions aswell so we had to zigzag our way through the water and hope we didn't get bogged like about 20 other trucks had been. We finally arrived in Golmud at about 5 in the morning and went straight to bed.

Only had a few hours in Goldmud before we drove off to the next campsite which was only a couple of hours drive. It was a great spot, on a flat desert. Got bogged on the way so all the guys got out and pushed, I wish I hadn't left my camera on the truck! Got to the camp pretty early so we all had a beer while the cookgroup started preparing dinner. Had a great night around the bonfire, grilling marshmellows and telling stories.

The next day we drove to another saltlake where we set up camp. Another great spot with good stories around the fire. I was in the cookgroup and we managed to find stuffed meatballs so we cooked them in a mushroom sauce with veggies and nudles. mmmm...

The next day it was time to drive to Quinghai Lake which is Chinas biggest lake. On the way there we stopped in a village which was really special, all the people were wearing beautiful dresses and costumes and the womens hair was plaited in tiny braids and fixed at the bottom to a kind of belt with lots of decorations.

At the lake there was a birdsanctuary we visited. There were loads of geese at one point which we watched throug windows in a sort of house. At another spot there were loads of big black birds (can't remember their name...) on a rock in the water. The lake was amazing, it is so big! It looked like the ocean, I couldn't get my head around that it was actually a lake. And the surrounding hills reminded me so much of the English countryside, it was really strange.

The day after we drove on towards Tongrin. Stopped for lunch in a restaurant where noone spoke English and they didn't have an English menu so we just pointed at a couple of bowls with food at the neighbouring tables which looked good. It turned out that one of them was a mutton-soup (we were very unsure of what kind of meat it was at first...) and the other was bits of fish and liver in a spicy sauce.

In Tongrin we visited a temple, or rather lots of small temples spread out over a big area. I got a bit lost and ended up being invited to drink tea and eat breadsticks with a couple of monks. They were very nice, but they didn't understand a word of English, so we ended up looking at my pictures and drinking buttertea.

Next stop was Liujiaxia. I thought it was going to be a small town but when we got there it was huge with really tacky neonlights everywhere!! Got there late at night and found a great nightmarket with loads of nice food before we went to bed. The next day we went on a boatcruise on the Gyantse River the whole day. It was very nice, we drove out to the Bingling Si grottoes where there are really old Buddhafigures cut out directly in the stone wall, and a huge Buddha aswell. It was about 30 meters high or something, quite impressive!

Langzou was our next stop, got there quite late aswell, and found a nightmarket again. Renate decided to be a bit experimental so she bought chickens feet, pigs toungue and pigs ears. I had to try when the opportunity was there! The feet were just really spicy, the toungue was alright, a bit more meaty at least, and the ears were just really chewy and not all that good. Went out for a few beers and ended up in a caraoke-bar all by ourselves. It was quite fun, and the most hardcore didn't get to bed untill 8 in the morning!

Had a couple of nice bushcamps, one on the top of a hill with great views of the terraced hills and one overlooking a reservoir where we enjoyed our last bushcamp before Xian. Here we've seen the terracotta warriors which were impressive.

Xian is the final city for this leg of the trip, and is where the group splits up. I go on to Beijing with 7 people from the original group and the rest go on to Hong Kong or go off on their own. I'm a bit sad that we're all splitting up cause it's been a great group and we've had such a good time. So tomorrow I set off with a new guide, new driver and new truck towards Beijing!

City Life

After being in the countryside for quite some time it was time to explore the citys. The first stop was Shigatse where we stayed for 2 nights. We got there in the late afternoon, so we didn't do all that much. Had dinner at a nice restaurant where I tasted Renates yaksteak! It was really good!

The next day we went to see the Tashlumpo-monastery, which is the biggest one in Tibet. I hadn't really given any thought to where we were going, so I'd put on a pair of trousers which reached to just over my knees... And of course that wasn't allowed so I had to borrow this really lovely bright orange sarong to put over.
The monastery was really nice, lots of different rooms with Buddha figures and gold. We also walked through a big room full of chanting monks which was quite special. Afterwards we walked around the whole monastery, which took about an hour. It was worth it though, cause we had some great views of the city.

After lunch a couple of us headed off to the local market. It wasn't that exciting, but we did see a scorpion!!! It was about 5 cm, just crawling around on the ground. I almost stepped on it, and the locals laughed when I jumped as I saw it.

The next day we drove to Gyantse, which was once an important city for trading. We started off at the monastery which was nice, the monks were making there really gorgeous mandalas out of coloured sand. Basically they are round figures made on the floor, about 2 meters in diameter and really really detailed.
Next to the monastery was a stupa which was 7 floors tall and with 77 rooms, and we climbed all the way to the top. Looked in some of the rooms, but they all contained buddhafigures in some way or another so we got bored after the first ten...
Had a great lunch with caramelized apples for desert, mmmm. After that we climbed to the top of the fort which used to protect the town in the old days. It was quite hard, as we were still at a high altitude. At the top they had a sort of museum, but it was just lots of large mannequin-dolls who looked really scary and with no explanation what they were doing. Went down a different way and ended up in the old part of town, where it seemed everybody owned a cow which they just tied up outside their door. So the whole street was full of cows!

The day after we set off to Lhasa, which is the biggest city in Tibet, and where the Dalai Lama used to live. The drive was about 240 km, and on the way we drove over some high passes, saw a glacier and had lunch by a beautiful lake. It's one of the most scenic drives we've had until now.

The second day in Lhasa we went to the Potala palace which is the palace buildt for the Dalai Lamas. We were only allowed to stay for an hour, so unfortunately we only got to see 20-something of the 1000 rooms. It was very nice, but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside. After lunch we went to see another monastery in town. Getting a bit tired of monasterys I must say...

In the evening it was party-time! Our tourleader Tamara and our driver Ian had been given a huge suite, so we all went there. Some of they guys had bought lots of beer, and some horrible Chinese white wine which was about 50% alcohol, so it turned out to be a good night!

Had yakburger for breakfast the next day before we went to see the last monastery for a while. It wasn't all that different, but they demonstrated how they printed their prayerbooks and we got to see a lot of monks debating in a big courtyard. They sat in groups, and one of them stood in the middle asking questions and clapping. Pretty special!

Today Maeve and I have just wandered around looking at shops and souvernires. Tomorrow we're heading north towards Golmud, back to camplife!

Mt. Everest

After a night at Old Tingri it was time to set off to Mt. Everest! For my part, this was one of the highlights of the journey. At least it was supposed to be.

We set off early in the morning, well prepared for the 160 km up to Base Camp. The road was steep and windy as we had to drive over another high-pass which was about 5200 meters above sealevel. Of course we broke down a couple of times on the way. We had lunch in a local village along the way, and at about 4 pm we reached the Rongbuk Monastery, which is the highest one in the world, located just 8 km from Base Camp. By that time it had started snowing, so I almost felt at home! We took a tour around the monastery before we set off to the final destination, the foot of Mount Everest.

There are two basecamps, one at 5200 meters and one at 5300. The one at 5300 is the one the climbers use, while the one at 5200 is the one the tourists use. It was so cloudy we couldn't even see Everest... And as it turned out, it didn't clear, so we never actually got to see it. Bummer! I'm really sad about that. And when there was a chance we could se it in the distance when we were driving somewhere it was always covered in clouds.

Anyways, the camp was nice, we stayed in "hotels" which were big canvas-tents with an oven in the middle and 5 beds around the side of the room. They functioned as sofas aswell, so when we arrived we were sat down and given tea. I shared a tent with Renate, the other Norwegian, Maeve, Matt and Jack. We just sat around and played cards until it was bedtime. The lady running the hotel was very nice, although she hardly spoke any English, and she even tucked us in when we were all snuggled up!

I didn't sleep very well, the altitude really kicks in when you're so high up, so it felt like I slept for an hour and was awake for an hour and I woke up in the morning with a massive headache. It got better after some food and water though. We had a tiny hope that the weather had cleared but it had snowed about 5 cm during the night and it was still snowing. So we gave up hope of seeing Everest, and we didn't even get to go to the other basecamp, because of the weather. There was a chance that we had to stay longer if it didn't stop snowing, but luckily a jeep managed to get over the high-pass, so we set off at about 1 pm. We broke down about 3 times along the way, but made it at last. One time it looked really bad, and we were afraid we might have to camp on the cold mountainside. But once over the high-pass it cleared up and we made it to Baipa where we spent the night, and next day we drove to Shigatze where we are at the moment.

Dragomans motto is "Not your everyday journey" and I can certainly say I agree so far! I'm really sad that we didn't get to see Everest, but I guess that's one of the things you can't do anything about. Better luck next time!!

By the way, I can't access the blog here in China so I'm updating it via my e-mail. Sorry to say I can't post any photos untill I get home, or read any comments, but don't let that stop you!

Happy camper!

After leaving Zhangmu we headed for more remote parts of China. We left in the evening because as I described in the last entry (I think), they do roadworks during the day and only open the roads at night. We spent a night in a simple and cold hotel in the middle of nowhere. I was sharing a room with Maeve, and just as we had snuggled up in bed our tourleader Tamara came and knocked on the door telling us we had to move because the hotel was fully booked. So there was nothing else to do than to get some clothes on, pack all our stuff and move up to Matt, Jack and Johns room. Didn't sleep all that well, as I was woken up in the middle of the night by someone throwing up outside our room, and later early in the morning by Indians singing...

After that we drove to a small village where we were to camp for a couple of nights. It was in the middle of a valley, and the wind was constantly blowing. Time to unpack thermals and down-jackets! We felt the altitude quite well, I was alright, but a couple of the others had massive headaches. We also felt it when we were doing stuff, just putting up the tent left me completly out of breath! We went for a walk through the village, and got to visit a local family to see how they lived. Very basic housing, but one room was turned into a combined bedroom/shrine, and the kitchen had a TV! We were also supposed to go see some caves and a monastery but they were both closed.

To get us acclimatized we had to go up to the highest altitude we were going to and then come back down, so at about 10.30 pm we set off to the first high-pass. It was about 2,5 hours drive, so we didn't se much when we got there. It was strange being at 5050 meters! The body doesn't really know what you're up to. I felt quite light-headed and one of the others actually threw up a couple of times. We stayed there for an hour before we turned back. The next day we had a long sleep-in and just sat around in the truck playing cards. Our truck is called Daphne, and she has a bad habit of breaking down quite often! Our driver, Ian, and Tamara did some work on her during the day and we took her for a test-drive afterwards, and of course she broke down. It turned out that the whole gearbox needed replacement, so Ian took her off to the nearest town in hope of finding a mechanic at 7.30 pm on a Saturday night... So, new plan! The other truck (there are two groups of us driving paralell for a few weeks) drove off to the next place after dinner, and was going to try to make it back before 6 am so we could make the roadwork-block which shut at 7. If not, we were going to get some local transport. So we all went to bed with our alarms set at 04.45 so we had time to pack up the tents and stuff. Just as we had gotten dressed and packed up our sleepingbag Tamara came along and said Daphne was almost fixed, but wouldn't make it in time for 7 am, and the other truck didn't stand a chance to come back in time, so we were to leave that night instead. Right. Pee-stop and stargazing before we unpacked our sleepingbag and got our pyjamas back on. Just as we were about to snuggle up Tamara came back and said Daphne was fixed and on the way! So quickly quickly, packed up and had dry cornflakes for breakfast before we finally set off.

It was a long day of driving! But the views were so amazing! We went back over the 5050 meter pass, the Lablungla. The nearby mountains were brown, and the Himalayas were streched out in the background with snowy caps. At the very top of the pass there were loads of prayer-flags, and the sky was so blue it looked unreal.

After a couple of break-downs and a nice lunch-stop we finally reached the town of Old Tingri at about 8 pm. The hotel was the nicest one we'd had so far, they even had sit-down toilets and hot showers! A nice change from not having looked in a mirror or had a wash for the last few days.

The Last Resort

So, after a couple of days in Kathmandu we set off to The Last Resort, which is a resort in the border-region towards China. It was so nice! Huge tents with beds and hot showers and a lovely garden where we relaxed. The first night we just chilled out and ate nice food and played Trivial Pursuit.

The next day however was a bit more exciting! We started off after breakfast, John and David from my group and a guy from the other group and me. We were going canyoning! The Last Resort was set in the mountainside, about 160 meters from the bottom of a beautiful gorge, with steep mountains on either side. We walked along untill we got to a waterfall where our first rapelling was. We started out with an easy one of 8 meters, and worked our way down the mountainside, absailing and sliding. The last waterfall was 45 meters! It was great fun. Walking back up the steep hillside wasn't that fun...

But then it was time for the highlight of the day, BUNGY!!! I wasn't going to do it when I first heard we had the option, because I thought it would probably be shorter than the one I did in New Zealand, but then we got there and it turned out to be 160 meters! So I just had to do it. It was great fun, I wasn't nervous untill I actually stepped out onto the platform, and then I thought "Heeelp, what the ***** am I doing???" But I didn't really have any choice, so the guy said "Ready? Three two one, bungy!" and I let myself fall... You know the rest! Adrenaline flows like mad and it's such a good feeling :)

So after walking back up from the bottom a second time I was nackered, and spent the rest of the day lying around reading my book and having a dip in the plunge pool.

The next morning we set off to cross the border into China. That was basically just a whole day of waiting... We waited for about 3 hours before we had a health-check, and then another hour before our bags were sprayed and then we went through customs and then a few more hours wait for the truck to pass. And we used about 40 minutes to get through and the truck used 2 minutes, so can't really say we were extremly happy about it all. But we got through and are currently in a town called Zhangmu. Last night we had cake because it was Jacks birthday. Today we're just hanging around. We were supposed to leave early but they are doing roadworks on the road we're going on, so they close the road during the day and it's open during the night... So hopefully at 9 pm we'll be off to the mountains... What a country!

Kathmandu

So, I made it to Kathmandu! The flight(s) went well, and it didn't take as long as I feared, even with the 6 hour stopover in Dehli. On the flight from Frankfurt I got the whole seatrow to myself, so that was great, I even got some decent sleep. In Dehli I met a couple of nice girls who were on the same flight as me to Kathmandu, so we hung out together while waiting.

Kathmandu is a bustling city, lots of people and lots of noise. It's got its beauty though, yesterday I was just walking around exploring by myself and thought "hmm, should I go any further down this street?" and then decided to go to the next junction before turning around. So I started walking and glanced down a sidestreet and there was this beautiful stupa (temple-thingy)! It was gorgeous, with lots and lots of prayerflags hanging off it. I found another one today, on top of a hill (sooo many steps going up!! But totally worth it.) and that to had loads of prayerflags all over the place. I love them, they are so pretty.

This morning I met the rest of the group, and they seem nice. We're 17 people plus a couple of crew. One other Norwegian girl, Irish, Americans, English and a girl from South Africa. I haven't gotten to talk to all of them yet, but we're going out for dinner tonight so hopefully we'll all get to know each other a little better then.

It's strange being here today as it's the 17th of May which is Norways national day, so Gratulerer med dagen all of you! :)

Leaving Kathmandu tomorrow and heading north. Don't quite know when I'll be able to update next or upload photos but we'll see. Bye for now!

Departure!

So, it's the evening before I'm off. Finally! I've been waiting for this for seven months! I can't believe how fast the last weeks have passed. 

My backpack is all stuffed with everything from a down-jacket and wooly underwear to flip-flops and sunglasses. I think I've remembered all the vital stuff anyways! 

The whole trip almost went down the drain, because the Indian embassy used such a long time to make my transit-visa, and Dragoman who I'm travelling with needed a copy of my passport to make the Chinese visa, and of course I didn't get my passport back until the very last day it was possible to fix the Chinese visa. But luckily it arrived and I e-mailed it off 30 mins before it was too late! I was quite stressed out so to say. So now I hope all my bad luck has been used up for the rest of the trip! 

Well, time for bed. I have to get up at 5.15 tomorrow... Good night!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!!

I've decided to write it in English, because all the Norwegians I know speak English but none of my foreign friends speak Norwegian...

This blog will probably be filled with bits and pieces about everything and anything, but in the next couple of months it will be a travelblog. Simply because next Friday, May 15th, I'm setting off on a 7 weeks adventure! It's a grouptrip organised by a company called Dragoman called The Pilgrims Trail. Basically it starts in Kathmandu, Nepal, and ends up in Beijing, China. In the mean time we're heading to Mt. Everest base camp, Tibet, Golmud, Xi'an, Mt. Kongtong, Yinchuan and Chengde. Amongst others. 

I'm quite excited about Mt. Everst base camp, it's at 5150 meters so I hope I'll be okey with the altitude. 5 years ago when my best friend Nora and I went backpacking we climbed Mt. Kinabalu which was 4100 meters and I was fine then so I hope I will be now aswell. I've got a sleepingbag that you can use in temperatures down to -30*C so at least I won't be cold!

I haven't started packing yet, but I've written a list! I've probably forgotten a lot, so let me know if you think there's something obvious I need to bring!

Well, that's all for now. I can't promise I'll be very good at keeping the blog updated given the nature of my trip, but I'll try my best! :)