There was the question today: so, all together, did you like your trip? because reading on your blog one can get the impression, that you were angry the most time.

Well, yes I liked it. most time. But, always when I was having a good time (usually in the middle of the mountains/nowhere) I didn't have Internet to tell you about that. Always when I felt uncomfortable, there was Internet and I could write immedialtely.

So maybe the impression offered by my entries are a little bit missleading.

of course, the trip would have been better, if my bicycle would work, or if I didn't have a bike at all, because like this I would not have to manage so many things.

BUT: I ENJOYED MY HOLIDAYS, NO DOUBT.

Good night!
Angi

Hi there!

Today I went to the two markets ... yes, you already know about my faible for markets, isn't it?
The first was disppointing, because not a market, but a shop, acutally. The second one was a market, but still very touristic. I walked there by foot, so it took about 1,5 hours to get there...
I bargained with the seller, and so I got my "stempel" for 30 yuan instead of 80 yuan. Even if she didn't want to, but thats a long story.

Next stop: artisticquater 798. once more it took long time to get there, but it was worth going there. I really like that place - Artistic, modern, young... maybe all the things Beijing want to be, without reaching that for 100 %.

In the evening I met once more the men from the 'restaurant' yesterday - we had an appointment at 7.00 pm. The food yesterday was better, but nevertheless it was goooood! mmmmhhh! I'm going to miss the chinese kitchen and people, even if I don't gonna miss the chinese burocracy...

Now I'm prepairing my bike for the flight back home... I hope tomorrow they won't close the road in front of the hotel like they did today... nobody knows..

good night and good bye,
thanks for following my blog! :)
More stories, pictures etc will follow, but this was the this years holiday!
See you soon, looking forward to you!
Angi

Hi there,

today I was at the forbidden city ... finally. I got up early, because I wanted to be right at opening hour (8.00) at the entrance for not having too many tourists around. I bought bread already yesterday, had still some jam, so I wanted to have breakfast there. worked perfect! I even found a place with nearly no tourists, as they all followed stupid the mainroute from south to north without moving one step to the side yards.

I always told myself: I'm gonna be disappointed of the forbidden city, because I already saw so many temples, and some of them I nearly had for me alone. And, surprisingly, I WAS disappointed, even on my few expectations... :( There was absolutely nothing, nothing, nothing that was special or very different compared with other places.

The Beihaipark (everybody told me that this is a sooooo beautiful place) disappointed me as well. OK. That's the news for today.

Some more news: the airline is gonna take my bike back home ... but it is going to be quite expensive... :| and I broke the display of my camera. The small one.

Tomorrow I'm going to explore the two markets (maybe disappointing as well) and the 798-thing, an ex-manufactury-builiding - as I love them, I HAVE to go there, even if it is quite far away. Nowadays you can find art galleries and - I'm looking forward to this - a fotographic gallery. yesss...

Everybody tells me, he LOVES that city, it has charme, it has spirit, it is beautiful. I don't like it. there is absolutley nothing SPECIAL in this city. it's just common, it is beeing destroyed for to be rebuilt in a touristic way. it IS green, there are lots of parks... yes, but...

hmmm, Manuel, if you read this, you have to explain me once more why you love this city so much... well, I have not been to BedBar now ;) and I'm afraid, I'm not going there. It is not much fun to go to a bar alone.

Now they are prepairing a big Party, on Tian'anmenSquare they build a stage, I guess tomorrow there is a celebration. As China "was built" (sorry, the correct verb is not on my mind) in 1949 ... well, anything more to say?

See you then tomorrow, for the last "on-tour"-Entry for this trip.
Have a nice day!

Angi

... I didn't eat the scorpions... Because they were stuck on a stick when they were alive ... and I hate harming animals just for tourist attraction ... nonono, not gonna support this. And they sold sea-horses as well....

finally I can make a Hakerl to the last point of the four todo's in china: i walked the great wall! loved this. We (2 french girls and me) had every kind of weather: sun, rain, thunderstorm, fog, mist, ... great for many different pictures.

So, enough for today. Tired
(always short, because Internet is expensive at hostel, but free for 5 mins). See you then tomorrow.

Drueckt mir die Daumen, dass mit meinem Radl alles klappt - ich fuercht mich vor der Heimreise - schon jetzt.
bis bald, Angi

Today I have a quiz for you.

Today is Wednesday, 7th of July.

The one who finds out what it means (the WHOLE meaning, not only the half...) gets a Busserl aufs Bauchal ...

btw: the lady from the hostel just started to play Donauwalzer ... Who wants to waltz with me right now into the new year? :)
btw2: got my bike back, and have no Idea how to bring it to the airport, and if the airplane takes it back home ... I'm so happy when I'm back in Austria.

time to finish these holidays: my sd-cards are full, both my cameras don't work properly anymore, finally my feet hurt, and I really have enough of those 3something degrees.

See you soon.

aufgrund vermehrter Nachfrage>

31. August, 7:20 Ankunft in Wien.
bin in Beijung, es ist halb 1o und ich geh schlafen... gute Nacht

Now I'm sitting at Xining in the WangBa (Net-bar), listening to fm4 liveradio ... the biggest joy of the internet: MUSIC!!! Not that thing that Chinese people claim to be music... *sigh*

After a stopover at Xining, I left to lake Qinghai - the largest saltwater lake in China. I had there the most peaceful days of my whole journey. initially I wanted to go to Heimahe, to rent a bike, and cycel along the lake, that is also very famous for its bike-race every year in July. I got to Heimahe, but that little village is so small, and so remoted, that noone has a bicycle: for reaching the POI in the village there is no need for one; for going to the next Village it would take too much time... so everyone has or a motorcycle or a car... or a horse, obviously, as this place is sourrounded by nomads.

So after my arrival, I went to the lake, to a tibetian prayer place, sat down, and was drawing and dreaming the whole afternoon. I also tried to catch some geese - in a picture, of course - as the lake is very famous for its variety of birds.
I met Stephanie again, a woman I met at Songpan. I went to Heimahe for to be REALLY on my own, without any tourists (as the place wasn't in LonleyPlanet: Great Chance!), and now I meet Stephanie - Individualist as I am... :)
We were chatting the whole evening, I was doing some handicrafts as well, until late night.

Next day I wanted to get up early, as I chose the place because I could go to the westend of the lake, so that I could maybe catch the sunrise... unfortunately there were clouds... back into bed again, I stood up at 7 instead of 5... Finishing my drawings, I got to the lake only at 11 (the way - this time I wanted to go to a different place - was very long... longer than expected, but no problem.) there was no place to sit-down, because of the swampy area over there. So I got back in the middle of the grasslands, lay down in the high grass, and enjoyed the silence, the loneliness, the nature... mmmmh!
Time was passing, I went back to the binguan (you can't call it hotel - there wasn't even running water), and then to the restaurant. I met James, a Tibetian guy studying Tibetian and English. We were a little bit talking, and he would invite me to go to the grassland to his home (he is still living with his family in a nomad tent - he showed me pictures). Unfortunately I had to leave that day, because my train to Beijing is leaving the next day. What a pity, I really would have enjoyed that experience ... maybe next year, he told me... :)

So, back to Xining, a little bit of sightseeing (well, a little bit of sightseeing is more than sufficient for the few sights in this city...), I found out what happens to all the fruit the faithful offer to Buddha: The workmen at the monasteries give it as a gift to the very nice tourists ;) Thank you! But the market here ... WOW!!! I could pass hours just walking around and looking at the strange, colorful, intresting, various things that are offered here... how many types of mushrooms you can find in austrian markets? maybe 5? here exist shops only for mushrooms!!! WOW...

I checked where to find food supplies for tomorrow, and now I am here. Tomorrow I will take my train to Beijing - last stop of the journey.

I'm courious about the train trip: nearly 24 hours continuous journey - on a seat... I didn't get a ticket for a bed... maybe I can pay an upgrade tomorrow at the train, maybe I don't want it after I saw my travelmates ... who knows... however, in more than 36 hours I'm back to internet, because I need to check some things.
I never did a traintrip like this... when we travelled to spain, we needed 24 hours as well - but I don't remember how many times we had to change... here it is 2100km without changing train... well, even without changing seat... I hope my neighbours are nice.

So, waiting for your stories! :) As I can see you all are using your free Sunday afternoon for something more comfortable than sitting in front of the computer - none of you online on skype.... :) good girls and guys!

Enough for today, too smoky in here...
See you soon! :))))
Angi

Hey there,

since I left Chengdu, I was in the middle of the nature - yeah, finally :)

After a horrible bus trip (instead of 8h 14h - due to earthquake (once more) and landslide right that day) I arrived at Songpan. The next day I started a three-day-horse-trip to the IceMountain together with a dutch and a norwegian couple. Nice! The couples and the riding and the natue. For the first time contact with tibetian culture: the first chorten, stupas, monks.

After that I decided to go to Langmusi, and Yuval and Zack decided to go with me. So our very international Trio went on together. The tibetian monastery over there was really amazing! The next day we hiked into the gorge, put up Zacks tent and went to explore the peak of one of the surrouding mountains. Beautiful! The night in the 2person-tent was much warmer than expected, as I sent home my sleeping bag 5 days ago... *sigh* whatever I do, I do it wrong. The stars were amazing as we were in a valley where there was absolutley no light. Next day hike out, our ways separeted: I went on to Xiahe, to visit the most important tibetian Monastery outside of Lhasa, they continued to in research of less touristic places.

And here I am now. this was only the very, very short version, I will extend the story afterwards, but I still want some things to do apart internet. just to let you know, I'm fine.

Some pictures will follow.

Tomorrow going to Xining, buying trainticket (drueckt mir die Daumen), continuing to lake qinghaihu.

See you soon (return is on 31st, august). Looking forward, still...

Angi

Want my Ibex back. Now. *grml*

as I had bad news two days ago like: sorry, the train is fully booked within the next ten days!(well, this is the 'translated' version: originally the woman threw only a "no!" in my face) I was trapped in Chengdu once more and decided to be a little more careful. (Well. Plan B works as far as I know: My Bus departs tomorrow 6.30 in the morning to songpan.)

At the same time I am a l-i-t-t-l-e afraid that the trains to Beijing could be as busy as the ones to Xining, that I wanted to take. So I went right today to the office for booking train tickets. but all I received was once more a "No!" with chinese comments. I asked another woman, standing close to the nearby park entrance, if she could help me, and she explained why "No!": it was because - and now listen - it is NOT possible to get a train ticket at Chengdu with departure NOT at Chengdu. So it is NOT possible for me to buy a train ticket going from Lanzhou to Beijing. And it's NOT possible to buy a trainticket departing from Chengdu and then just to get on the train some stops later. Welcome to China.

The girl from the youth hostel was nice to me, and invented a solution: make a reservation at a hotel at Lanzhou, give them a deposit and ask them to buy the trainticket for me. Not possible, because all Hotels in Lanzhou mentioned in LP (have to check internet now)
- have wrong telefone number
- accept reservations only ONE day before
- are toooooo expensive (4*)

and now? don't ask me. I'll manage this. somehow. *sigh*
maybe booking a flight from lanzhou to Beijing, even if I, somehow, was looking forward to the 19h-journey by train.
Maybe go to Beijing right the next possibility, and passing my time over there.

My mood was so good today, managed to do so many things, including fetching my passport at the Embassy (got my visa!) and now once more all turned round. gonna go to haeagen dazs now.

Next year I'm gonna pass my holidays in Austria. as I'm gonna pass the "year" not there, maybe a good choice:
less pollution, more friends, more english-speaking persons (even if not necessary).

btw: thank you for your calls the last days, Martin, Dagmar, David, Mama, Papa and Andy, I really enjoyed my "holiday break", even if I got to bed only at 4 am. sorry for not having answered all messages in a proper way, but phoning and chatting at the same time is not a thing I appreciate. So Sorry Christoph, Mathieu, Stephan and Denis for not chatting much with you.
Kathi, thanks for thinking of me, things like that better to talk about when I'm back, as it's not possible to lend me your books earlier ;)
Gerd, if you read this, please let me now, where and how you are, I'm missing the answer to my textmessage.
Susi, are you ok as well? missing your comment like: "and what about Tibet?!? :(" however, have a good time in Italy! Goditi il sole italiano - e non solo ;) e non dimenticare le stelle cadenti in questi giorni!

Don't know, when I have Internet for the next time, this time at the youth hostel, but beginning with tomorrow I will stay at smaller places, and I don't know how the hotels are equipped.

Angi

Maybe some of you are interested - yes, and somehow I enjoy talking with my friends at home after this long period - tomorrow (monday) evening (for me... -6 hours for you) I will be online at skype for a long time (with headset, and camera this time), as I want to fix my blog and write some more stories. (maybe I will be online also on tuesday. depends on the bus going to songpan)

Bad news today: the train in the region I wanted to go, is fully booked for the next 10 days... miss my bike.
Plan B is made: going there by bus, step by step. not from a to b, but from a to d, to f, to s, to x and then to b. should work, with inbetween a horse-trecking tour, a stop at a salt lake, in the middle of the mountains. maybe this time mountains... :)

Those Chinese trains and my spontaneous way of travelling (where to go tomorrow? let's think about that later ... cheers!) don't fit. however, tomorrow I'm going to the mt. qingcheng shan, for not staying at chengdu all the time. I had too much tourists once more ... who is crazy enough to visit one of the most important buddhistic monasteries of China right on the birthday of buddha? right, thats me... ignorance or stupidness? (Unwissenheit oder Dummheit) I don't know which is worse.... however, for me it was ignorance.

sorry for those scattered thoughts tonight. once more late. nevertheless, some more scattered thoughts will be added at miscellaneous.