Homer visits Shanghai

As some of you may or may not know, homer has been travelling with us everywhere weve been =) he's been in some wierd & wonderful situations so far, but here is the latest one from Shanghai ! =)

So far he's met a dutch scotsman, several chinese people, Got lost then found in a hedge near the dam construction & generally been gettting up to no good ;)

Our Saviour, Our Friend - Its Nicole our leader =)

At the Dam Construction

Onboard ship surrounded by the 2nd gorge

Giant Panda reserve

Hong Kong Night Sky

Love United Hate Glazer Hits China for Breakfast

Yangshou mountains

Yangshou

Yangshou

China - Shanghi

We are now in Shanghai, Which is a great place, Neon city! Very Very westernised. Still as crazy as ever, yet great fun.

We even had lynsey trying local cuisines from street corner markets, something i thought i would never see =)) Proud of you babe.

We went on a bullet train this morning which was cccrazy. It travells at 431 km/ph and goes onto a slant when going round corners. Very strange experience. It took no time at all to travel out of the center.

Were off back into town now, so ill post some more pics later....

China - Yangzi River

We next travelled to a Cruise ship called the Victoria 7, on the Yangzi River. Pleasently surprised when we arrived, it was quite a plush ship. They showed us to our small cabins, which were nice with two single beds, & a private walk in shower & western toilet (which made lynsey happy). Most of the toilets we'd encountered were simply holes in the ground, typical of what glastonbury has to offer. The strangest thing weve had to overcome in china, is your not allowed to put toilet paper down the loo's. The drains cant cope with it apparently. But when in rome, you must adopt this method i suppose or face the consiquences....

They guy who showed us the cabins mentioned there was an appotunity to upgrade, which lynsey immediately jumped at (matt wasnt too hard to persuade cause it had a bath so it wasnt just for me - lynz)! So we had a look around, just to be nosey i was assured. Within 10 minutes we left the small cabins behind & moved to our new deluxe cabins. It was bigger that the average hotel rooms! with a private bathroom complete with bath! The living area had a sofa & a swival chair, table & even our very own plant =) The room came with airconditioning for the living area & the bedroom bit, a double bed (At last!) and a fridge - Cold chocolate at last! Along the side was two huge windows which made viewing the scenary great =) We had three nights on this ship so the upgrade was worth the extra.

The ship stopped at a few locations long the Yangzi river, the first being a ghost city - Fengdu (although we didnt see any ghosts). We chose to climb 500+ steps to get to the temple as the cable car looked somewhat shadey! Another crazy budda laddled temple with nice views. Everywhere had people attempting to sell us goods, Lady Lady come look at my memory cards - amusing, they also sold beer in the temple shop @ the top.

The Food aboad the ship was excellent, lynsey was able to eat properly again, now we had left most of the very spicey food behind =) On one of the evenings lynsey decided to get involved with the on board entertainment, a game of musical chairs with four other contestants, promptly winning it hands down (well no one was getting up and i am always game for a laugh - Lynz) The other contestants were chinese & simply couldnt cope with the sheer speed of lynseys dancing around, very amusing and 1-0 to england!

We next visited the Three Gorges in turn, which were very impressive! Whilst out on deck the temperature still wasnt very cold, but with the wind factor we had to wear jumpers, a welcomed change. We have taken alot, i mean alot of photo's so i might just start posting a few in a bit.

currently posting this on our tour leaders MacBook, so its taking a bit of getting used to, quite a bit different to PC's! All is forgiven mr gates ;)

China - Chengdu

We arrived in Chengdu just after lunch, the temperature was much lower than we had encountered so far. To be honest it was very welcomed. It was still warm enough for T-shirts but nowhere near as humid as Guilin. The main difference here is its slightly more westernised, so people arent staring at you as much as before.

Our first trip out was to Remin Park, which was a huuuuuge place surrounded by gardens. So big we got lost and couldnt find the exit when we wanted to leave. Obviously asking people around us where the exit was, was greeted with blank looks. Nonetheless the gardens were really nice, nutty statues, budda's, pruned bonzi tree's etc... We finally got out of there about 7pm, now night time in the tibet area, which we were warned about. Found the hotel easy enough after the carnage which is crossing the streets. China has absolutely no rules on the roads whatsoever. This place would suit mark bridgemans driving style, maybe this is where he learnt to drive =) Green on the crossing means nothing, to cars or to bikes, im not even sure why they have crossings, as its safer to just pick your way through the swerving traffic.

We went out that night to some seriously spicey resturant, which i loved but proved tricky eating for lynsey, Rice Rice Rice again. Found an internet cafe round the corner from our hotel, but due to China's "Portal restrictions" we could access our blog but it wouldnt let me make a post.

The next day we visited a Giant Panda reserve where they breed these nutty animals.

We then visited the Wenshu Monestery which has a vegitarian restaurant where the monks prepare the food, because monks cant eat meat all the dishes were tofu! Wait for it though all the dishes taste and look like of various meats, but no one knows how they do it.

China - Guilin

Setting off from Hong kong we had a little issue, we got our itinery wrong. We thought we were coming back to hong kong for a night after this mass trek up to Beijing. So we arranged with our hotel to leave a backpack to ease what we had to carry. Half way to the train station lynsey checked some paper work & realised we were actually not coming back & it was Beijing where we were stopping next. Q mad taxi dash back to the hotel to grab our other rucksack, but we still caught the train, just! Our only issue so far.

We Arrived in China - Guilin with relative ease, although the Customs / immigration bit was slightly strange & slow from Hong Kong.

Its very hot & humid, way more than hong Kong was. For the canadians & australians among us its probably not too bad, sweat city for us from the uk tho! Especially carrying backpacks.

This place is amazing! once you get over the initial culture shock! The hills & mountains even put yorkshire to shame ;) Weve been wandering around most days & nights taking in the atmosphere & sheer carnage that develops before you. Obviously everything is soooo cheap, not netto cheap, moreso, I'd go as far as saying its middlesbrough cheap ;)

Picked up a 2GB Mini SD card for my camera for less than 30 quid, as the guy said its 30 pound (when converted) but i can also give you discount, Jesus! Back home cheap new ones off ebay cost 35 quid & thats for a 1GB card. Cracking shopping!

We went down one of the rivers yesturday on a boat, which gave great views all around us, then ended up in some small town with a huge chinese meal for about 4 quid, for 12 dishes not bad =)

Me n lynsey spent the morning learning Ti-Chi (dave pls correct me im sure ive spelt it wrong) from a local expert. Lynsey proclaims we are taking this up when we get back(we have even enquired to how much it is to come back for 1-3 months to learn from the master =) ). Wonder how long it takes to learn how to produce fireballs ;) Sound affects not allowed, but im sure i can develop my own.

Lynseys loving the place now, after the initial shock. Main difference between here & hong kong is everyone seems to stare at you a lot, like theyve never seen westerners before. Im sure its just my good looks tho ;) Whilst out walking last night lynsey & natasha were asked to take a photo by some chinese or koreans, they thought yeah we'll take a photo for you. They actually meant they wanted a photo with them, lol. Trophy photos to take back home, strange yet amusing watching them move away quickly, after the realisation kicked in. These guys then proceded to follow us, run around in front & take photo's anyway. Normal around here we are told.

Right, were off to repack now, ready for an outing this afternoon to some type of show. Not sure exactly what this show is but its directed by the guy that did Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, so it could be cool =)

Just noticed this internet cafe has ET, so i might have a quick blast, as the midday temp is hot hot hot.

Sorry to hear about Terry jones - get well soon (one of the monty python guys)

Havent seen any football since leaving hong kong which is killing me! Just about to check saturdays scores, fingers crossed... Love United Hate Glazer is now present throughout Amstedam, Italy, some station is france & the drifters cafe in China - Guilin, where they were happy for me to put it up. My first legal sticker ;)

Greetings & Salutations from Hong Kong...

We’ve Got Hong Kong Fuey on the wing... ahem..

Ok, So we have been a bit lax with the posting so far. Not all our fault, as we'll describe in a mo..

Amsterdam
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So Amsterdam, the city that has something for everyone.

On arrival at Amsterdam we had a stroke of luck, in a way... Waiting for our baggage we were greeted with an announcement asking for Mr & Mrs Ramsden to proceed to the baggage claim office. Nice worrying start. On presenting ourselves to this office, we were informed our baggage had not caught the same flight we had. We were then informed it would be on the next flight & be promptly delivered to our hotel. Result! We could head into town on the train, with no need to lug our rucksacks with us. Worked out quite nicely really =)

So we set off into town to tour around.

We later registered at our hotel & went for a meal. Whilst trying to have a quite meal on our first night, we were collared by a mad Dutch women & an Italian guy who worked for a Small Telephony company, who funnily enough worked on similar software / hardware to the job I’d just left. They proceeded to hand out business cards, with a view of us contacting them on our return - Crazy! Our Rucksacks finally arrived just before midnight.

The hotel was nice, one of the many 4* or above hotels lynsey had decided on!

We spent nearly a week, chilling out in Amsterdam, which was great after the carnage week we had before we left. Barneys Full English breakfasts ruled every lunch time, once we had arisen.
Amsterdam is a strange & wonderful place, where you can enjoy from the most sedate quiet vacation to a bizarre nutty experience. I prefer the latter. =)

We left Amsterdam on a train to Rome via Paris. We spent about 2 hours in Paris, enough for me as ive been before, but ive promised lynsey ill take her to Paris again to see it properly.

The overnight sleeper train from Paris, Bercy to Rome was actually surprisingly nice. The private cabin we had was great, comprising of two bunk beds, seating area & a concealed sink.
There was a restaurant carriage, which we decided to eat in that night, but where else could we go! A better choice would have been a dodgy burger van outside old Trafford; It was seriously pants & all for 26 Euros each!!! Although the bottles of wine eased our pain.

Rome
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We arrived in Rome at 9am, greeted with blue skies & 27 degrees. Excellent!
We managed to fit in a few traditional meals, Pizza & Spaghetti that was really nice eating out in the open as it was really warm all day.

We Visited the Vatican during the day which was absolutely huge! 64 Years ago this year my grandad met my uncle harry on the steps to the Vatican by chance, whilst waiting to be posted else where during the war, Quite an emotional moment.

The transport around Rome was a little confusing at first, do as the locals I was always told, so we did. No one seemed to pay for traveling around, so we simply got on & got off when desired. Only later, we discovered you had to buy tickets at bars or shops as you could not pay on the busses. Ahwell the Yorkshire blood in me saved some money ;)

We decided not to use public transport in the morning to get to the airport, instead we got a taxi. Based on the traffic and carnage we encountered it seemed the right decision!

Hong Kong
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We flew to Hong Kong on Cathy Pacific airways, which I have to say, were as good as, if not better than flying on Virgin. A Pleasant surprise. Meals were ok, & lynsey was happy with the freebies we got. I took solitude in the flight entertainment & games. Ten and a half hours is a long long flight, too long for me, but lynsey seemed to cope alright. Keeping herself occupied watching three and a half movies along the way.

We arrived into Hong Kong this morning at 6am. Couldn’t sleep on the plane so we were up for 24hrs, which was a little jading. However, on arrival you could not help but wake up.
Everything is sooooo big, to say everyone is soooooo small.
We arrived to 27 degree's & 80% humidity, all at 6am!!!

Transfer to the hotel was pre-arranged in a nice air-conditioned car, with a manutd supporting driver, who promptly gave me the run down of last nights game =) 3 wins in a row in Europe =)

Again, we landed on our feet, another cracking hotel. Nicely placed with 24hr internet access, ala this post ;)

We went straight for breakfast again, and then had a wander around. Quite a culture shock.

We have a free leisure day tmw, so were going shopping & up to Victoria peak, which overlooks the entire city. Then on Friday, we start our 21-day tour up to Beijing. Were both looking forward to this, lynsey still has reservations about the food though. Rice, Rice, and Rice I say...

M n L

She'll be touring the world sooon enuf, Wish we could take you with us Soph..

Some of the family we missed out on the main photo, should of been more organised!

Dad, leslie & nan

David, Zoe, Ella, Jake, Tilly & Jimmy

Thx to Mike for the electrical advice & Helen for assisting lynsey in trying to reduce the weight of her rucksack on saturday night.

But to make up for it, here's our very own Sophie along with Snuffy.

Farewells to the Family...

As you'd expect the last week has been utter carnage. What with booking the "mother of all trips", Moving house, Having meals with My mam & friends in yorkshire, My dad, leslie & nan - Hi nan =) and then over in stalybridge for our last ^UK supper. The Picy is from the Stalybridge brigade =) and not forgetting Triff n Alan last night, quick plug - Checkout MotorStorm! The future of gaming is coming soon to a lounge near you...

We'll miss you all !

So, where are we actually going.... ?

Monday Morning 7am we will leave Stalybridge for the airport (for the first Monday morning in years, I’m going to be out of bed before 7.30am!) =)

Obviously this is based on lynsey finishing a repack that is currently still ongoing, im staying out of the way as im done, Smugmode..

Flying ~ Manchester to London Gatwick
Flying ~ London Gatwick to Amsterdam
Train ~ Amsterdam to Paris
Train ~ Overnight Sleeper train Paris to Rome
Flight ~ Rome to Hong Kong – Nutty Trek for 21 days up to Beijing
Beijing to Hong Kong
Hong Kong to Tokyo – Sumo wresting time
Tokyo to Hong Kong
Hong Kong to Bangkok
Bangkok to Phucket – Kids be careful how you say this one ;)
Phucket to Singapore
Singapore to Perth – Greetings Preemesh
Perth to Alice Springs – A Big Red Rock, Camping time…
Alice Springs to Cairns
Cairns to Adelaide
Adelaide to Melbourne
Melbourne to Sydney - Its Christmaaaaaaaaaaaaaas & no snow :(
Sydney to Auckland – Another nutty trek across the entire country
Christchurch to Auckland
Auckland to Los Angeles
Los Angeles to Vegas Baby! – Raise, Raise, Raise…
Vegas Baby to San Francisco
San Francisco to Dallas – Is Jr really dead…
God knows why we are here to New Orleans
New Orleans to New York
New York to Washington DC
Washy DC to Miami
Miami to Orlando
Theme park city to London Gatwick
London Gatwick to the mother of all parties in Amsterdam

The Mother of all Bookings....

We setoff to Trailfinders shortly after leaving Chepstow, via the bank. This was an important stop off, as we were able to acquire one of the few bank statements ive actually enjoyed looking at, Sweet. With an abundance of excitement, passion & at times bewilderment, we arrived at Trailfinders in Piccadilly London at around 2pm. A Trailfinders representative, Robin, greeted us - little did he know what was about to ensue.

We laid out what we wanted to do, discussed the places we wanted to visit, and then started on the mother of all bookings. We had a well laid out plan, we started to execute it.

Over the next two days we would spend nearly 10 hours in our new home, Trailfinders, Piccadilly. We arrived in daylight, went home in the dark. Drank a stupid amount of coffee & kept robin from leaving on time over & over again. To be fair he was very good about the whole process, although he did have to take a couple of days off once we’d finished!

We must thank Robin for sorting it all out – Top man.

We tried to stick to our plan, 3* all the way around. We Failed! Bigstyle!, i would suggest lynsey more than me, but i must admit i was easily swayed at times.

The first real stumbling block was the Chinese Visa’s. We obviously picked the couple of days when the Chinese embassy shuts down, due to Chinese national holidays. Not really our problem, but none the less an issue, as this was Wednesday and we are due to fly out Monday morning! We were assured something will be sorted to get our passports & visa’s sorted on time & back to us.

In the end our saviour was Ted! =) Thanks fella! much appreciated.

Ted was enlisted with the task of Queuing up at the embassy (at god knows what time) to collect our passports & visa’s, and then bring them up, on the train to Manchester Piccadilly. Ive never met someone so happy, after a packed 3 hr train journey.

Obviously we were well happy, the expedition was back on track....

Laterz Chepstow...

With 10 minutes till kick out time on our last morning at chepstow close, we got a phone call from the solicitors - "The money has hit your account Mr. ramsden, I will now instruct the agency to release the keys". A new experience emerges from the dark side… after weeks of annoying solicitor & agency phone calls; they finally delivered the news we’ve been waiting for. Happiness at last! We actually completed early!!!

With that statement, we were now in somebody else’s house.

A Strange, yet rich type of feeling =)

My bank manager will be happy, at last.

We then took one more picture for nostalgia & setoff to London, Blissfully unaware of the marathon booking procedure ahead.

The TestPack...Part a

Well at this specific moment it’s technically Lynseys test pack, cause I aint got around to sorting it all out yet :)

With a happy intent Lynsey laid out piles of "necessary clothes" for 6 months traveling a while ago. To be fair these piles have reduced over the last few days, but they needed to.

So earlier on tonight Lynsey disappeared for a while, then reappeared fully packed, carrying her rucksack towards the room. I say reappeared, more of a slow walk with a right hand side veer at times. :) Im guessing it had something to do with a rucksack that weighs a tonne. The picture may deceive its well heavy.

Re-assessment & serious cuts will have to be made again, for both of us. I’m now worried about mine, I don’t want to carry Glastonbury style weight around (what lynsey is currently on id say) but we’ll see what happens with mine tmw morning...

Penultimate day at Chepstow Close, Emptying the house…

Well it’s done, we now have our very own empty house, well for less than 1 day anyway.

We had a couple of great guys from Bladespeed come along for the ride, who made getting the house packed up & moved out onto the 7.5 tonnes lorry a surprisingly easy no stress exercise :)

Within a few hours everything was packed up, bar our rucksacks, clothes & a really bad reception 2.5” Tv (to watch match of the day on). Cough, back to the top of the league.

Cheers to the dingle dolphin himself, Dave “I can carry ridiculously large removal boxes with 1 arm, down the stairs” just cause he can, for helping out all day.

In less than 24hrs we have to leave our house, strange yet fun...