China - the end

Okay, it's been a while now, and I still haven't posted China summary. It's always like that: after coming back home I never feel like writing anything, nor I have the time.

There are two major interest points worth writing about.

First, the Yagnzi river cruise. We got there from Yunnan through Leshan, home of the worlds biggest Buddha statue (around 70 meters). It took us three days to pass the Three Gorges by a ferry. The cruise itself was just a part of the deal as along the way there were many smaller side-trips, temples, historical sites and so on (most with overblown prices). It ended at the Three Gorges Dam - a huge wall of concrete designed to satisfy China's needs for electricity.

The second was Beijing - and its surroundings. The huge Tiananmen square, the Forbidden City and - of course - the Great Wall. We actually slept in one of the guard towers on the Wall. Imagine waking up, looking around and seeing just what the Chinese watching out for Mongolian army were seeing for hundreds of years. One more thing from Beijing: the city is a bit more expensive than what we were used to so far, so during our search for a place to sleep I came across one of these places to remember really long. All the hostels were either full or expensive, but I noticed a Chinese guy dressed in uniform (but with no shoes), sleeping on a chair on the edge of a street. "He must be a receptionist" - I thought, and I wasn't mistaken. After getting woke up he led me to a huge room, with around 40 beds or so, dimly lit with a red light and a scene with a huge golden heart on the curtains in front. To my surprise the whole group said they have no objections to sleeping there. It turned out to be just a "body renewal" facility. Figures.

The way back was - of course - a bit sad, but we were also happy to come back home at last. The plane from Shanghai was leaving early in the morning, so we spend the night before that on the airport. The huge waiting hall was almost completely empty, and I could hear the whisper of a around 60-year-old hard-drinking, heavy-smoking Irishman from 200 meters. It resembled the one of a rusty old chainsaw. Its owner was trying to pick up a 20-year-old South Korean girl - and he was doing quite well.

On the Moscow airport we met some Poles. There was one with a Ballentines celebrating his return home. He told us: "China's OK, but Cambodia, Vietnam - now, that's wild Asia for you". "Don't worry, we'll check them out" - I responded.