Another day trip we made & were really looking forward to was to the Shaolin Monks (at Shaolin obviously) but to be honest the trip was a bit of a waste of time. We only got to see them perform for about 30 mins & it was a bit naff & didn't really shows off their skills.

Off to see the Shaolin Monks. Yeeeeehaaah!

There were however loads of great street food stalls in Louyang - China is pretty much all about the food! Dan's fave were nan bread-style snacks stuffed with pork & Spring onion & smothered in chilli of course……they were almost my fave too before I discovered they had meat in them. I thought they were a bit too tasty ;-)

written by  mich_and_dan_moors on July 7, 2011 from Luoyang, China
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
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Suzhou is not on the same Grand scale of Beijing or Shanghai, granted, but is it very vast & there are lots of beautiful places to visit - the Tiger Hill Gardens were absolutely gorgeous and we lazed away a few hours here just taking in the views. There's also a canal that runs just outside the Gardens across some of Suzhou city and this was probably the highlight of our trip here…….the stilt houses that sit beside the canal look just charming & it all feels a bit romantic. We loved it!

In the evening we went to a lovely tree-lined street that had some amazing boutique shops ( I am on a budget & I did NOT purchase unfortunately!), a few bars , some yummy street food stalls, and also the evening Theatre. We watched 7 'performances' that included traditional chinese musicians & mini plays set within a Traditional Chinese home. We felt very cultural (get us!) but also it made us really appreciate the traditional art form of China- it was so interesting & so completely different to what we expected to see. It was fab.

written by  mich_and_dan_moors on July 5, 2011 from Suzhou, China
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We'd arranged the next day to meet up with our friend from Stoke, Sue, who'd been working in Shanghai for a while so she gave us a tour of the best places in the city........which was basically 'City Shop' - a supermarket that sold western food and sold freshly made butties & baguettes (yum! just what we were craving!), the indoor market that sold lots of fake goods such as cheap make -up & handbags, and the best bars to go to. What else did we need to know?!

We had a pretty crazy night, too much G&T but we did get a feel for the city & Sue gave us a great insight into all of the tourist spots we needed to see so the next day (albeit with a wee hangover) we set about seeing the sights - the beautiful Yuyuan Gardens, the Jing'an Temple......which has been completely moved brick by brick to Shanghai city centre & looks very strange set against the skyscrapers & high-end fashion shops, and we also splurged out and had a few cocktails on the 85th floor of the Grand Hyatt. Well it would have been rude not to!!!

Yuyuan Garden

Peoples Square

A chinese delicacy we did NOT try

Jing'an Temple

The 85th floor City view. Stunning!

So we finally arrived in Beijing, and I think only then did it dawn on us just how massive a country China is! I know that sounds ridiculous but it's true & there was so much for us to see & do.

We settled in a bit too easy to be honest, as we soon met up with Jonathan & Renea (friends we'd met at EBC) and went out on the p**s! But after the initial partying we got down to some serious sight-seeing.

We did all of the usual - first Tiananmen Square which was sooooooo big! Maybe thats a too obvious statement to make but it' really is.......the Forbidden City, the Olympic Village, and of course not forgetting the Great Wall which was truly amazing. It's incredible to see it spread for Miles before your eyes. Another great place we visited was Art District 768. We spent hours here looking at some incredible modern art which made a great escape from the traditional touristy places.

overlooking the Forbidden City

The Olympic Village

Art District 768

But of all of the places, landmarks & temples we visited our most favourite was the Summer Palace - which as it sounds was where the royal family spent their Summer holidays. It took us almost 4 hours to get around. We just wandered & gazed & lost ourselves for a few hours which was just lovely.

At the Summer Palace

written by  mich_and_dan_moors on June 19, 2011 from Beijing, China
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
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Pokhara was beautiful. So quiet compared to Kathmandu and it was very green & lush. But what neither of us were expecting was the trek to be so tough. The first day wasn't too bad but on day 2 we walked up 30,000 steps!!! And they were not just steep, I'm really not exaggerating when I say they were practical vertical.

This practically wore me out, both physically & mentally....and to say I was in a bit of a mood was an understatement. So much to the extent that Danny & I had a 'heated debate' about going down an alternative/easier route & I'd just about had enough ;-)
However we kept on going and on Day 4 we got up at 6am to climb up to Poon Hill. It was an incredible view and from here we see the full Annapurna range of mountains.

The full trek was amazing. It was totally different to EBC, and in many ways it was a lot tougher. We're not sure if we'd done this before Everest that we'd even have attempted to do EBC.
But we didn't. And we did. And it was incredible!

At the Top!! Poon Hill

A stroll around the lake. Beautiful

Just one of the sights we saw in Pokhara!

After a full week of totally relaxing & doing nothing more that eating & taking in the sights of Pokhara we returned to Kathmandu & met up with Bijay & Prem - the guys from Oasis Trekking, who by now we'd become really good freinds with. So much in fact that they kindly offered to cook dinner for us at their home.
Their family are beautiful & it was such a lovely night and one which we'll never forget.

Danny & the boys! (Bijay, left - Prem, right)

Me & the girls!

The Oasis Trekking family!

The yummy home made food

written by  mich_and_dan_moors on June 2, 2011 from Pokhara, Nepal
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
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We stayed at the 'Hotel Nepalaya'....and what a novelty it was for us. We had carpet in the rooms plus a Bath!!! Get us!! Seriously, this was real Comfort for us after our India experiences. Also it was soooooo cool temperature wise in Kathmadu- only about 25 degrees which was heaven.

The main reason for our trip to Nepal & Kathmandu was to do Everest Base Camp. We'd already been in touch with a guy called Bijay from Oasis Trekking, so once we'd booked the trek we spent the next few days getting ourselved organised - making sure we'd got all the right gear, sleeping bags, hats & gloves etc plus we did a bit of sight seeing around the town.
Kathmandu is a really great place, a complete refreshing change compared to India, and it had a really nice 'feel' to it, and you'll soon find out that everybody visting has either returned from a trek or is about to do one. Us included!

Day 1- Our guide Kamal picked us up at our hotel at 4am ready for the flight to Lucklar which is where the trek began........and by the way Luckla aiport is one of the most dangerous airports ever! And when the plane truned up we know why! It was the smallest plane we'd ever been on seating just 16 people & we within an arms distance away from the pilot. Thankfully we made it it one piece (the flight wasn't too bad actually!) and the scenerey was immediately stunning. Just breathtaking.
We did just a lttle easy walk on day 1, about 3 hours and then rested our heads for the evening.

Our luxury plane. Or something like that?!

Day 2/3- So our real first day of trekking began on day 2, and to be honest it wasn't too bad. It wasn't easy, but I think at this point we were both still a bit 'drunk' on the scenery and the whole experience of making our way to Everest Base Camp (or EBC as eveybody calls it!).

Now, day 3? That was a whole different ball game.........it was truly horrible!! For me anyway, I found it really difficult as we walked about 6 hours that day & 3 hours of it was uphill, & I mean up very, very, steep hills. When we finally made it to Namche oh was I glad to rest there. I was knackered!!

The view of Namche......after we'd had our 'rest day' walk :-)

Day 4- this was our 'rest' day. But to be honest I don't call climbing 300 meteres uphill for about 2 hours a rest!!But it did the trick, we were now aclimatised to the height & neither of us were showing signs of any altitude sickness. So the next day instead of resting again we made our way up.

Day 5 - onward to Tengboche, which all considering was quite a nice walk! Here was a very ancient monastery, so after lunch we were able to have a look around & see the monks during one of their prayer sessions. In the morning we were awoken by a helicopter landing outside our room.....we heard that another group had decided to fly back down, we're not sure why but we were both thankful that we didn't need a chopper. Not just yet anyway ;-)

Day 6 - we were climbing to Lobuche today & it was now getting colder, and higher (obviously!). The weather hadn't been too great for the past few days, it was very hazy so we were a bit worried about what it was going to be like when we did finally get to EBC but we tried not to worry too much & being so close to our goal was keeping us both motivated.
We'd always start our walks early morning, about 7am and after a few hours we'd stop for a cup of tea & snickers to keep us going, so by about 1pm we'd arrived. The Tea House where we were staying was pretty horrible, but to be fair it was the first not very nice place that we'd encountered. It was just soooooo cold, and the food wasn't brill, and we weren't really looking forward to sleeping here at all. But we were knackered, so we did sleep alright. After we'd stopped shivering at least!!

One of the locals at Lobuche

Day 7 - Today was EBC day! So were were up early, at about 6am - & what a view we had! It was just gorgeous, the sun was shining (Hooray!!!) and it was breathtaking. We could actually see Everest & teh whole mountain range in full view so we were really looking forward to walking to Gorakshep.

Our beautiful morning view

We had about a 4 hour walk so as soon as we did arrive we had food........egg & chips! It was great!! They were the best chips we'd tasted so they really set us for the day. After a few hours rest we kept our eyes on the weather because it started to look a little hazy again. Today we had a choice of either walking to EBC or up to Kalapathar which was 5545m and THE mountain where we'd get the best views. So we opted for EBC as the weather really wasn't on our side.

We could see EBC in our views, it actually looked quite close. And that was the first of many challenges we faced that day! The trek was tough. It was up constantly up/down, up/down, over rough terrain, plus it started to snow a little & I think also because we could see it so clearly the deception that it was actually miles away was just too cruel!!
Both Danny & I found it tough, but after about 3 hours............WE MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!
To this day I can't believe we have actually done it. But we have! And it felt great!!!

Everest Base Camp.....we made it!!!!

To say we were knackered when we got back to our Tea House was an understatement. But the buzz, speaking to others who had either just completed it too, or were on their way, was great. We couldn't celebrate too much though as we had to get up at 4am the next day!!!

Day 8 - up & up & up & up we walked!!! And it was soooooooo steep. And sooooooo early!!
The only way I could keep myself motivated was to keep on walking & not stop. I kept on marching so hard that I actually left Danny trailing behind me a little. And I reached the top first!!! Not that it was a competition ;-) It was 1 1/2 hours of pure hard slog, but to say the views were worth it is an understatement. I think this is my most favourite sunrise I've ever experienced!!!

So to quote a song 'What goes up, must come down'. And we did.
It wasn't so easy, especially after only about 3 hours starting our decent I fell over & sprained my ankle. To say I slowly hobbled for the next 5 days down was an understatement.
To say that we were supposed to be on our way don there were actually quite a lot of annoying ups ......we went a slightly different route down going to Pheriche instead of Lobuche (which was far nicer) and we also did a little detour to Khumjung to visit the Sir Edmund Hilary School which was great to see.

The Sir Hilary Edmund School

Another bonus was we were now able to have a few tipples of whisky to celebrate- seeing as though we'd practically done the hard bit. I think we deserved it!!!!

written by  mich_and_dan_moors on May 12, 2011 from Kathmandu, Nepal
from the travel blog: mich_and_dan_moors's Travel Blog
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We did get to see the incredible sights though - the River Ganges is considered as the holiest place for families to cremate their loved ones so it was a bit surreal to actually see this happening. And it's common for everyone, strangers & tourists alike just to stand by and watch this happening which in itself very strange.
It's almost more strange to see local people freely swimming & bathing in the River not caring that the water is full of human remains, as well as goodness knows what else. Holy or not, we did not partake!

The city was just heaving & bustling with people. Apparently over 40 million visit in May as its festival time so we hit it at the busiest time ever. So to us it felt as far away from 'Holy' as you could get!

The cramped train to Varanassi

Bathing with the cows in the River Ganges. Very holy....not!

a local off-licence we found!

Fancy a tipple?!

The Taj was very impressive, it felt a very magical place & definitely lived up to the hype.There was no way we were coming to India without visiting and even though it was only a brief visit for us we loved it............despite the tiny gripe of having to pay 750 rupees entry fee as 'foreigners' but Indians are only charged 20 rupees?!!
It was still amazing though :-)

outside Agra Fort

A rickshaw driver taking a nap on the roadside....what a uncomfortable position?!

We stayed with an absolutely amazing family who were so helpful & gave us so many top tips for getting around the city, so we managed to see all of the major sights including the city Fort & Palaces, the Observatory as well as a few snake charmers on the way! We also went to the infamous 'Rajmandir' cinema theatre, which is very Grand beautiful building and watched a very silly Bollywood film. It was fab!!

Could this guy load ony more on his bike?!

The lovely family we stayed with, cooking us dinner. Yum!

It's a really small, quiet little place with a lot of temples all scattered around the Ghats but to be honest we only visited a few.
We did manage to walk up to one of the main temples on the hill which had fantastic views. The pics should hopefully give you an idea.........

City views