The Olympics, boiled dog's penis, bicycles and sore bellies!

I'm tap tapping this well after the events below described, perched in an internet cafe overlooking Nanjing St in Shanghai. I'll endeavor to summarise the last couple of weeks as best I can therefore, so seatbelts fastened.



Having boarded the once weekly train # 4 to Beijing from Ulan Bator, we settled into our journey with a few well deserved beverages in the restaurant car. I must mention that those to date had been basic enough, with grumpy staff and less than happy food (although I can say it did in cases have its own personality). This however was a sweaty, lengthy cabin decorated with oranate woodwork, and less than ornate (yet thoroughly efficient!) waiting staff. It soon became apparent that these helpful bringers of refreshments were more interested in refreshing themselves from any vodka purchased than in policing their own dwindling supply of liquor. Thus presented with an opportunity to get inebriated in style and comfort on the cheap we railed against our more astute instincts and promptly got pissed.



The wildlife in the carriage was quite the variety. A group of Danish students (looking ever so civilised and self satisfied with themselves at their lucky emergence into this world as citizens of a state that pays for their education into their late twenties) were ignored in favour of a large and sweating Mongolian gentleman. He introduced himself to us about nine or ten times such was his delight with the almost free booze. His ecstacy increased each time we cut him off before he began his repetitive speal and told him that yes indeed we we aware of his name, his educational history and his imminant plans. Soothsayers.



So having informed us of his intention to go to Beijing to 'buy property' for the umpteenth time, the altitude got the better of him and the unfortunate fellow collapsed in a sweaty 22 stone heap, crashing his head against the side of the table and causing (only momentary mind) consternation. Sam arrived again and began to get himslef embroiled in a drink off with two Polish fella's who were swilling bottles of vodka like it was mothers milk. All this was enfolding as we whizzed through the Gobi, the open windows throwing in occasional clouds of dust and adding to the bacchanallian and glorious chaos of it all.



The madness was cut short with news that we had reached the Chinese border. No toilets, no water and no leaving the train for 5 hours sort of killed the buzz, and having gasped my way to the new restaurant car to get water, I fell into an uncomfortable and delirious sleep.



We arrived into the main train station in Beijing quite early. During the morning we had been chatting to an English lady who was on her way to see her daughter and nephew row for GB and Ireland respectively , and were beginning to get really excited about the games. The first thing that struck me about the city was the visibility, which was shocking. It became apparent over the next few days that seeing blue sky was a rarity. Also the humidity was pretty unbearable, and an air conditioned taxi to our hostel was most welcomed.



We stayed at the Red Lantern Hostel for ten days. Its a cozy little place, with an internal courtyard replete with fish ponds and hanging lanterns. We took in Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, a couple of city parks - called Beihai and Jingshan (which were incredible), and the Temple of Heaven. We had met two really sound Canadians (Joel and Justin) on the train to UB and had arranged to meet in the city, which we did over a dinner of Peking duck in Wangfujing. We ventured only as far as duck hearts that night, and spent the next week politely declining the various culinary delights on offer at other gastronomic establishments - dog meat, Russian dog penis, chicken feet, fried seahorse, cockroaches, live scorpions, deep fried silkworm larva etc. In fact check out this link for a description and review one of the more interesting restaurants in the city - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/article3552377.ece

I got a dose of Beijing Belly (hitting at least 5 out of the perfect ten for those of you in the know) for the few days around the opening ceremony and spent a lot of time (much to the amusement of my travelling companions of course) dashing fretfully from one poxy public toilet to the other throughout our daily wanderings. Any temptation to sample the funkier varieties of street food were thus quashed on my part by a fear of another sudden bout of intestinal explosion. Oh dear God.

We also found our way out to the Great Wall, a part of it called Mutianyu. Having found out this particular day no buses were runnning there we had yet another interesting experience with a taxi driver getting lost. He got us there eventually and we took the cable car up to the wall. It was spectacular. We walked for as far as we could in one direction over countless hills, and in and out of guard towers positioned along the wall. For miles all around we could see the wall running along the surface of the surrounding mountains - absolutely amazing. Our minds boggled as to how the workers built this wall on such mountainous terrain. It's main purpose was to act as a protective wall for the city, however it failed in that respect. Chengghis Khan managed to bribe his way across the wall and conquer all!

A more entertaining aspect to our time there was the walk down to our taxi. This involved passing the many stands of Chinese souvenirs, and the sellers shouting persistently at any Westerners seeming to take an interest. We haggled our way down picking up a few bits and pieces as we went. Dave was haggling them up from the requested price causing great confusion, much to our and their amusement!

The buzz in the city was fantastic for the ceremony on the 8th. We found ourselves in the Heineken Dutch House (which had been masterfully acquired by a host of Dutch corporate sponsors from the Chinese and held in the Agricultural Exhibition Centre) for the majority of the evening. This place had been suggested to us by a wonderfully enthusiastic and mildly eccentric Nederlander named Anders who we had met in Tianjen the previous night at the football preliminaries.

I should mention this of course - we got the high speed train there from Beijing (220km per hour - unbelievable) and watched the US beat Japan 1-0 and the Dutch draw nil all with Nigeria. The beer was cheap at 50 cents a can and it was 90 degrees with 70% humidity. Many cans were consumed. Also there was never a queue at the bar - the Chinese were fighting amongst themselves for Coke, Sprite and hot-dogs while the few straggling Westerners crawled incredulously into the air-conditioned bars in the stadium. If Carlsburg did football matches...

We had a bit of a disaster and missed the last train though (which departed BEFORE the final whistle - terrible organisation) and had to get a taxi back to Beijing.

Anyway, after the Dutch House extravaganza (which was becoming less exciting by the minute) we headed to Sanlitun, which is a long bar street near the Workers Stadium, and saw the ceremony out. Myself and Dave got interviewed for a local network. I did my best Brian Dobson impression and managed to stutter out a few nonsensical soundbites about the ceremony.

Myself and Sarah arose relatively early the next day and rented bikes. No way was I leaving the city without getting involved - there are cycle lanes everywhere. So with Katie Melua ringing in my ears all day we pottered about ending up with a late night ride past Tiananmen Sq and home. Fantastic.


Beach Volleyball - ladies - cheerleaders. Say no more. Excellent haha! Great little venue though ahem , yes yes. It wasn't all ladies however, and the more exciting games got under way when the men stepped out (Not sexist by the way - Sarah agrees with me!). We were there to witness the mighty Latvians beat those minnow Americans in arguably one of the greatest moments in Latvian Beach Volleyball history haha! (The US went on to win the gold of course). I got on TV loads aswell - we had courside seats, so I was happy as a pig in you know what.


Of all our events (we took in rowing aswell out in Shunyi), I think the boxing was most satisfying. We were there at the Workers Stadium to witness John Jo Nevin triumph over an Algerian, and saw Kenny Egan beat a Turk a few days later. For the latter event we purchased last minute tickets in Paddy O'Shea's, from Mick, over cups of tea and toasted sandwiches. Dave took particular delight in this series of events - 'ahh the Irish network ye know!'. The place is a great pub in fairness - apart from the fact that my first few minutes in there were spent watching Cork beat Kildare in the All Ireland quarter final.

So our time in Beijijng ended. I must mention we had a few great nights out there too (Sarah managed a few press ups on a dance floor at one stage!). The next step in the adventure was to hop on a flight to Xi'an and begin our whirlwind tour of ten major cities in the country.

J