We made it.....

Just arrived in Pingyao after out mammoth 12 hour train ride from Beijing. Ordinarily i like train rides but we couldn't get sleeper tickets so we had to go with the 'hard seat' option. We got to the train station with about 10 mins to spare and ran to our platform. Once we boarded the train we had a better idea of what we were in for. There were people everywhere - on seats, in the isles, on the floor ie you don't need a ticket to get a ride on this carriage of the train. we got a few weird looks from the locals, most of whom were hauling large bags of rice back to their village. After a few hours of playing cards we thougth it might be time to catch some sleep. IMPOSSIBLE!!! The cigerette smoking got more frequent and the men more roady after a few more beers. At 2 am in the morning, in my chinglish, expressed my anger to the roudy men and asked them to shut up. I think everyone else on the train was thinking it but to afraid to say anything. Well this man didn't like my request and hurled abuse at me for about and hour to come. So after that i was afraid to go to sleep in fear he might steal my bag. We are here now and have checked into our cool hostel. Trent likes it very much as the 3 bed room is a room with one big bed for 3 people. I'de better keep my eye on him and Lana.

Beijing was great. Very smoggy. The Pearly markets were not that big but the next day we went to the silk markets which were heaps better and we came out with shirts, jeans, shoes, jumpers and handbags. The local men absolutely love me and Lana, we get stares from every direction when we hit the streets. We expected the weather to be cold but it was quite the oppostie. Warm, sunny days so the shorts and singles were out again.

So for those who don't know i had a terrible night about 1 week ago. Vomitting, diarohhea and no sleep at all. All the pressure in my head from vommitting caused me to blow a blood vessel in my eye. . . So that explains the photo of the weird red eye.

We have definately decided to give Tibet a miss as it is too hard to get any information out of anyone. No one really knows what is going on. Instead we have to cop up a large amount of money for a flight from China to Nepal. Doh.

Cheers

Gis.