We have just left Hangzhou after spending just under a week there, As I said in the previous post  I just love the place and would definitely like to go back at some point. For those of you who are interested we’re in Xiamen now for a few days before going to Hong Kong, but first here are a few things we noticed  in Hangzhou and a bit of what we got up to!

The West Lake, Hangzhou

and in the evening.....

It’s pretty obvious that Hangzhou caters for the rich, one of the first things we noticed about the main road on our bus route whilst trying to find our hostel was the amount of expensive car dealerships and it seemed justified as there were a lot of nice cars parked up all over the city.

posh dealerships

Opposite the car dealerships, just in case you have any money left.

very very very posh shops!

Hangzhou is very much a tourist city for the Chinese, especially at the weekends there are floods of them everywhere being led on guided tours and in these damn buggies that try to run you over as you walk around the lake. If your ever in Hangzhou don’t get to excited if you hear what sounds like an ice cream van – it’s one of these things.

One heading over the hill!!!

Me and Kirsty also got to enjoy celebrity status in Hangzhou, some of the tourists are not quite as used to seeing Westerners than in Beijing, for the older generation this means simply stopping and watching our every move but for the younger and more daring tourists it was a photo opportunity. There where many times when we turned to see our picture being taken and many others where we were asked ‘photo?’ we naturally assumed they wanted us to take one of all of them but no, we were the centerpiece, photos with mums, dads, children the lot. You can’t say no to that, we just regret not getting one of each taken on our camera.

this was a group who were set a challenge to get as many people in a photo as possible - we were their first choice!

One of the most popular things to do in Hangzhou is take a trip to one of the islands in the centre of the lake the problem with this is – it’s one of the most popular things to do in Hangzhou. Such a small island has never been so crowded, a few more tourists boats and the island would be overflowing with people falling into the water, not so much fun. We much preferred just walking round the edge of the lake at our own pace taking in the views.

After the disappointment of our first boat trip - we took our own and floated around by ourselves

Another great sight in Hangzhou was seeing hundreds of people coming together to exercise and have fun, along one of the pedestrianised roads there was easily over a hundred people dancing together, every single one knew the steps and had a huge smile on there face. It’s something we’re not to use to seeing at home but it should be, strangers just having fun together, no-ones embarrassed or taking the piss, just enjoying themselves.

Illegal rave scene - Hangzhou

Hangzhou is now the current holder of the ‘Best street food award’ absolutely delicious. It was some sort of meat cooked with spring onions and lots of chilli powder and some lettuce put into a kind of bread

Even better than the night markets we found in Beijing

But it is also the holder of the worst idea for an ice lolly ever – PEAS! (actually had texture and everything!) We did spot them in Beijing, but always had a choice of others. We convinced ourselves even though it looked like peas on the packet – no one could possibly want a pea ice lolly…. obviously there is a demand!

Kirsty hates normal peas - but this took it to a new level!

I love this place and China so far for that matter.

Hangzhou! -

In July my parents took me to London for a long weekend to celebrate my birthday and graduation.  We had been a few times before but London is such a big place that we still had lots of things we wanted to go and see. The main places on my list were the imperial war museum, the cabinet war rooms, the natural history museum and the London museum. All were really interesting and you can read a bit more about my adventures here

London is a very very very big place, but each day we seemed to end up in Covent Garden for one reason or another. I’m not complaining about this Covent Garden is a pretty cool place, it was a fruit and veg market since the 16^th century and the building which you can see today was built in the 18^th century as a more permanent structure.  But it is now home to a range of boutique shops, cafes and restaurants and is surrounded by more shops and a few markets.  Away from the square you can find yet more shops and just about any restaurant that takes your fancy. It’s safe to say that I loved it there and would recommend it to anyone.

The interior of Covent Garden © Copyright Bill Henderson

Just off one of the streets it has the world largest travel bookstore, called Stanfords – heaven! It just about stoked every book you could ever need if you wanted to go and explore the world.  It also had a whole street dedicated to outdoor shops this is a brilliant thing about London it seemed that each genre tended to stick by each other making shopping and comparing really simple.

The food was amazing too. On the first night we ended up in a burger place called Byron Hamburgers, which quite possibly sold the tastiest burger I have ever had. It’s cooked from freshly ground mince and still pink in the middle.  The second night we went to Fire and Stone which sold pizzas, but not just any pizzas these had very different toppings on. They were grouped from different continents, and named after a specific city. I had half a Texas and half a Canberra. Canberra had chicken, cheese, mushrooms and roast potatoes on. I was a little unsure how roasties would taste on a pizza…. but tried it all the same. It was amazing! And was quite possibly the best pizza I had ever had! (Best pizza and best burger! I was doing well!).

Fire and Stone Pizza with roast potatoes on

Not only is there a wide variety of food and shops in Covent Garden but the atmosphere is great too. Most of the time when you walked into the main square there was some type of street theatre. On our second visit we stopped and watched a really funny show with a guy in pink pants riding a unicycle and juggling knives, he then topped this off my juggling a chainsaw on a massive podium! I’m not sure I am doing him justice but it was pretty spectacular and very very funny! His facebook page is: Covent garden chainsaw juggler with great ass if you want to check him out. There’s also a few YouTube videos of him in action.

Covent garden chainsaw juggler with great ass doing his thing!

Of all the places in London that I have visited Covent Garden does seem to hold a special place in my heart and would recommend anyone who is heading to London to spend an afternoon there and hopefully you will catch the Covent garden chainsaw juggler with great ass act like I did!

Title picture by n_willsey

Covent Garden -

Poi and I randomly decided to head to Derby last weekend. Why derby? Simply because it was slap bang in the middle of Telford and Lincoln. It was not a scheduled lets see each other weekend, but a complete impulse. Hopefully something we will be doing an awful lot more in two months time.

This stuff will be the death of Poi..

So how did it come about? Well Saturday morning we were still our respective towns (me in Telford and Poi in Lincoln) Poi was nursing a very sore head after a dismal performance from England’s football players. Complaining that we both had nothing to do for the weekend we started joking about meeting somewhere for the day. Before I knew it I was looking up cheap hotels in derby, train tickets and how quickly we could both get there! Brilliant, within two hours of our phone call we had met in Derby. But what the hell does Derby have to offer???

I still don’t really know! It has a lovely shopping centre which is like a maze, and a nice catherdral quarter. Unfortunately it seems that most of the shops in the town have shut up and moved to the new shopping centre which does make the actual centre look a little bare. However,  the little exploring we did do made it look like a quite nice place to visit.

Heritage Hotel - Derby

I wish I could say the same about the hotel I had booked early that morning! I definitely learnt a lesson, go and see the place you are planning to stay before you book or hand over any cash. This is more difficult in the UK where most places charge a top rate for people who turn up on the day, and so if you are looking for a bargain it is better to book online before hand.

The “hotel” we ended up staying looked more like an office block from the outside…. a very old office block. Very different to what they described on the net, so much so I really thought it was the wrong place. Once we entered, the reception looked OK, but the minute we got to our room it felt like we had been transported back to the 1970’s. So dodgy you couldn’t even drink the tap water.

and across the street.......

What made it even worse was that our window over looked a nice looking B&B! Why couldn’t we have ended up there? After getting over the shock of our room and the crackling TV – how on earth was I going to be able to watch Doctor Who on that? We headed out for the day. We ended up spending probably a bit more money than we should have but we haven’t been away anywhere in a while. We’ve been saving so much for our trip it was nice to actually do something for once. We just have to make sure when we arrive in Beijing we don’t do the same and blow all our money straight away.

I think the main lesson from the weekend, apart from we love the spontainty of deciding to go somewhere on whim is defiately check out accomadation before we ever pay any money. Obviously this won’t always be possible but at least it’s a story to tell.

To Derby Anyone? -

We have roped another one of our friends into writing about some of the cities they love. Rachel is a fellow Aston student who has travelled to many different places. So watch this space for a few more of her favourite places.

Rachel

Rachel descibes herself as a wannabe traveller who manages to visit a couple of interesting places a year but would love to travel more. Sadly, funds say otherwise. She’s passionate about exploring Europe, but would also like to see Japan and Tokyo. She prefers to document the trips in writing since she’s notoriously bad with cameras.

Think Amsterdam, think the hedonism capital of Europe. But there’s more to ‘Dam than ‘herbal remedies’ and the red light district. Amsterdam is a city rich in culture and history, with a unique blend of contemporary and 17^th century architecture that gives the city its vibrant yet essentially Dutch feel. Boasting over 1000km of canal, a boat trip is the ideal way to take in the city’s daytime delights, whilst the nightlife speaks for itself.

We took our trip with outgoing.co.uk, who specialise in trips for groups and universities. They offer a packed long-weekend including transport, accommodation and a bar crawl, for the reasonable price of £90. Starting your trip with an all-night coach party and arriving in Amsterdam at around 11am may sound like a great idea, but you might want to consider pausing to sleep at some point during the 12 hour journey, otherwise you may never fully recover…

Where we stayed

The Hans Brinker

If you need a cheap hotel in Amsterdam you can try Easytobook.com. They have a large selection of good Amsterdam hotel deals for any budget. The Hans Brinker calls itself a ‘budget hotel’…it is, in fact, one of Amsterdam’s most legendary hostels, located neatly in the city centre. If, like me, the word ‘hostel’ fills your mind with disturbing images straight out of a Tarantino film, don’t be put off. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to find the place friendly, if basic, and with a 6 bed en-suite dorm costing around only £23 a night including breakfast, you can’t go wrong. Sadly, I can’t tell you what the breakfast is like, since we never made it up in time, but what I can say is that the restaurant in the ‘chill out’ area serves delicious food that will clear up the hangover you’ve gained from drinking at the hostel bar the night before (at reasonable prices that you may not experience in some of ‘Dam’s classier bars and clubs). The rooms are basic (think military edition bunks and lockers) but clean and secure.

Daytime Delights.

Boat ride
When we first arrived in Amsterdam, the first thing we did was take a canal boat trip around the city’s waterways. This was mainly because we were exhausted and were willing to pay for any attraction which involved sitting down, but it’s also a great way to orientate yourself with the city and take in some of its culture and history. All the tours offered will be in English and Dutch, so just sit back, listen, and take in the city from water-level.

The Sex Museum
If you’re expecting the erotic experience of a lifetime, don’t bother with the Amsterdam Sex Museum. The best you can expect is to leave feeling vaguely aroused but mainly just confused and disturbed. The giant penises are just one of the unexplained wonders of the museum, along with a bizarre photo gallery and several outdated mechanical waxwork displays. That said, if you don’t take it too seriously the whole thing is quite a laugh, and when you’re only paying a couple of Euros for entry it seems the museum doesn’t take itself too seriously either.

The Sex museum

Anne Frank House
The Anne Frank House is a must-visit attraction. If you’ve ever studied Anne’s story or read her diary, you’ll have attempted to imagine the cramped conditions that her family and the rest of the inhabitants existed in, just metres above leafy Prinsengracht street. The experience is both fascinating and moving, and as you enter the tiny hidden annex where eight people lived for over two years, it’s haunting to consider the events and history that was written between those walls. Definitely worth taking time out of your fun-filled weekend for a solemn pause to appreciate this unique experience.

The museum has been constructed in a modern and engaging style, with videos and sound bites throughout (naturally in English) which tell both the story of the Franks and the wider plight of the Jewish people under Nazism. Expect to queue a little when you’ve finally tracked down Prinsengracht from the city centre, and to pay €8,50 for entry.

Getting Around
Stumbling around Amsterdam in our bemused and slightly intoxicated state, we quickly became wary of the perils of the streets. The city is famous for its abundance of bicycles, and their riders have little time for of the rules of the road or pedestrians. Trams, too, criss-cross the streets, sneaking up on unsuspecting wanderers. At first glance the map of the tram system may seem very confusing, but it’s actually easily navigable and a great way to get around. We hopped on and repeated the name of the street we were going to several times and were rewarded with tickets. Later, we also discovered that if you’re planning several journeys by tram its cheaper to buy a strip card that charges by zone, which can be bought in shops showing the GVB logo.

Spreekt u Engels?
Without wanting to sound like a true Brit, there really is no need to know any Dutch when visiting Amsterdam. The Dutch are well-known for their impeccable English, and being a global tourist destination, locals seem only to be puzzled by any attempts at using the native language.

Around 8 cars fall into the canals in Amsterdam weekly...

Nightlife

Dansen Bij Jansen
Recommended to us as student bar close to the Hans Brinker. From the street this place looks unassuming, with only a small doorway in an alley, and this theme continues inside. Narrow but long, on three floors with treacherous stairs, Dansen Bij Jansen doesn’t even hint at glamour, but goes head-on at a dirty indie bar feel, with similarly appropriate music. It’s not even that cheap, but as we quickly discovered, none of the bars in Amsterdam are cheap. Generally a good place to neck some house wine at the beginning of the night before moving swiftly on.

Escape
Amsterdam’s largest club is Escape, which we visited on ‘Chemistry’ Saturday night. The layout inside is exciting, with several different areas and a main room attempting a pyramid feel. From the dance floor, the room slopes up with stairs and larger steps intended for sitting on, to the bar. The music was good, if not entirely memorable; Chemistry night supposedly attracts big European DJs. Expect very expensive drinks, and when you do break the seal, remember that in venues like this you’ll even be charged for the toilets. Escape was the main night of our trip and is definitely a big night out. Queuing is standard and entry is around € 15 depending on the night.

The Red Light District
Only at nighttime can you take in the full effect of the neon-wonder that is the red light district. Think rows of brightly light shop-fronts with plate glass windows of gyrating women (and others), with the odd peep-show thrown in. Amsterdam’s red light district has the exciting, theatrical feel of a circus rather than the apologetic, seedy environment you might anticipate. It celebrates the fact that it’s an attraction in itself; in fact, when lost and looking for the district in question at 12am, we approached some police officers who cheerfully pointed us in the right direction.

For this reason alone (let alone any other motives you might have) the red light district is worth a night time visit. Winding through the side streets you’ll find shop-front fast food vendors selling pizza etc, ideal if you’ve been for a few drinks beforehand. Naturally, be cautious, but generally expect the same friendly atmosphere that Amsterdam is known and loved for.

Guest Post: Weekend break in Amsterdam -