The Shanghai (Mars) skyline at night

The Shanghai skyline at night
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

Not much to do in Shanghai except look at the tall buildings and shop. Make no mistake though, the Chinese are coming... (or is that the Martians?)

Noodle art

Noodle art
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

Todays lunch.

Don't criticise the government or else

Don't criticise the government or else
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

You're relaxing quietly in the street and then you remember you're in a police state...

Sickening.

Today's most interesting English spelling error

Today's most interesting English spelling error
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

Julia and I got the overnight train down here to Shanghai this morning and spent the afternoon wandering around having a look. Lots of tall skyscrapers and lots of money. And some curious signs.

Paul seeks to converse with local

Paul seeks to converse with local
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

Paul and I had had enough of tourist sites yesterday so we just sat ourselves down on the corner of the street nr Tianamen Square and waited for something interesting to happen. This was the first lady to stop. We sat there for about 3 hours, phrasebook in hand, observing and being observed. They also sold very nice lemon beer.

Having conquered the wall

Having conquered the wall
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

For whoever said I was looking well in my photos...

Not the real Terracotta Warriors

Not the real Terracotta Warriors
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

Please pay special attention to the fact that the butterfly hat is the sign of the general...

The Truck Gang

The Truck Gang
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

We finally managed to get a group photo (this was our last morning).

Debating monks in Lhasa

Debating monks in Lhasa
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

Lots more photos uploaded. Click on the picture and have a rummage.

Off to Beijing now...byeee.

Camping at 4800m

CIMG1132
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

View early the morning, having just got, when we were camping at 4800m.

Didn't want to get out of my sleeping bag, I can assure you.

Lots of soldiers

Soldiers
Originally uploaded by Joy..

Hot hot hot. Xi'An is 37 degrees today I think, and its been a hot day to visit the Terracotta Warriots. Impressive, but a little static. Been standing around for a couple of thousand years and they don't have much to say for themselves.

Highlight was me and a few friends dressing up as warriors (think inflatable sumo wrestlers) and having our photo taken in a studio full of warriors. Photo to follow...

Truck tour has finished today, and we should (we hope) be getting our visas today. After all the messing around with getting confirmation of departure arrangements, the trip leaders have gone and lost the copy of my ticket which I spent such a time trying to get faxed through from Beijing. We shall see if this has any impact.

Tomorrow is overnight train to Beijing, on a really nice train apparently.

Xian itself is one of the major tourist cities in China, and looks like it could be Tokyo. Huge department stores and huge amounts of money on display. Staying in swanky Bell Tower hotel which fortunately has serious aircon.

Oh yes, spotted a club advertising "Friend Exchange" last night, for those of you tired with your mates....

And they sell Absolute Vanilia here for 8 quid a bottle. Result!

Hugs all

P

Where I sit to write this stuff.

Originally uploaded by h.neumeyer.

Cant upload any photos in this place, so this is another stock one stolen from Flickr.

Back in Lanzhau, visa issues allegedly all resolved, but am personally still feeling effects of some Yellow River shellfish with chilli sauce we have the other night (or it may be the 20p beers). Will be hitting Beijing in a few days, and have now decided that I have time to head down to Shanghai for a few days before heading back to Beijing and on to Mongolia on 4th July. Oh yes, have also bought a 15 quid "genuine" Northface jacket that I didn't really need. Spend to save!

Hugs.

P

Got a ticket to Mongolia...

Another ticket
Originally uploaded by nemissa.

This is not a picture of my ticket (my ticket was faxed through to me on 5 pages...) but I now have a ticket to Ulan Bator. This isn't until 4 July though, and I get to Beijing on the 21st of June, so I may even head down to Shanghai (overnight train) for a few days.

Our visa difficulties will apparently go away if we all have confirmed tickets out of the country. I am sorted, but there are still a couple of people who are trying to sort things.

Hugs

P

The Small Issue of Visas

When coming in from Nepal into Tibet, you need to travel on a group visa. That is it to say, you don't have an individual visa in your passport, all there is is that the group leader has a permit with your (and everyone else's) name on it. The problem with this is that you have to enter and leave the country as a group. The country, in this case, is of course Tibet/China (the same thing if you hadn't realised...) This means everyone on this trip has to leave China at the same time, if we are using the group visa. This trip ends in Xi'AN in the middle of China, which means that people are definitely not leaving China at the same time. One person is flying out to Vancouver the day the trip ends, some people are dossing around China for ages. Me, I was intending to stay in Beijing for a while and then take the train to Mongolia (although my appetite for Yaks has been thoroughly sated at this time).

This means they have to convert the group permit to individual visas to enable us to leave separately. The second half of this trip has been overtaken by visits to one permit office in one city after another to find an office whicih will allow us to do this. So far repeatedly no joy. No no no. The rival tour company seems to be able to do this, but we've not. We even have an agent with a father high up in the military currently trying to pull his weight to allow us to change our visas.

So this leaves us in this position.

1. We don't change the visas, possibily have 2000USD fine and detention on trying to leave China without visa.
2. All have to fly to Hong Kong/Mongolia or something together and then come back in again.

I am currently having lots of enquiries about suing the tour company for lost flights etc....

Chuckle chuckle chuckle. All good fun. I've got no onward travel booked yet, so no real problems for me, but the whole trip is getting a bit stressed.

Oh yes, and I spent the afternoon drinking beer at the banks of the Yellow river in Lanzhou (big city, don't know where). So things arent all bad!!!

Hugs

P

In front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet

In front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

We've been in Lhasa now for a couple of days, and this is the highlight. It's an incredible palace which is the official residence of the Dalai Lama (clearly not around at the moment...)

Lhasa is a relief from all the high altitude travelling we've been doing, since its at about 3500 metres. This means we're back on the beers(drinking at high altitude sends you spinning), although sightseeing with a hangover is also fun.

As I write this, we're leaving Lhasa at 7.30 in the morning, off for 2 days big driving to Golmud, whereever that may be. Sad goodbyes being said as I write to hot water and bathtubs...

Click on any of the photos to see a bunch of other ones I uploaded onto my photo hosting site.

P

Yak!

Yak!
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

Found some at last, but you can't get too close as they're "very unpredictable creatures".

In Tibet, they're a very important part of life, as Yak Butter is used as candle wax in monasteries, so they all smell of Yak. Photo later.

This Yak was up at Everest Base Camp.

At 5380 metres above sea level

At 5380 metres above sea level
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

Lots to catch up on then.

First thing, I can't actually read this diary online. It seems the Chinese government has deemed me (or perchance someone else using the same service) undesirable, so the page is blocked. But I can still post. But if it looks wierd, its because I can't check it.

Since leaving Kathmandu, we've had the truck impounded at the Nepal/Tibet border for no apparent reason (they gave it back), gone up the best part of 2000 metres in one day (resulting in Acute Mountain Sickness), and basically driven around the mountains in Tibet. We've been camping at about 4500 metres mostly, but have been up at above 5000 metres a few times, most notably for our visit to Everest Base Camp, and a couple of days ago when we had to go over a pass although down below it was nice and sunny, up at that height it was covered in snow. Cue snowball fight.

Being up that high is strange, because of the incredible lack of moisture (snow notwithstanding). You have to keep drinking litres and litres of water. A plane is usually pressurised at about 3000m, and you know how you get dehydrated on a plane.

Everest Base Camp

Everest Base Camp
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

More to follow.

Everest Base Camp

Everest Base Camp
Originally uploaded by Pete The Swede.

More to follow.