TheLaw's blog: "Travel"

13th Jun 2006 1:44 AM Hey guys, just to let everyone know what i have been upto on last few days abroad. headed down to kuala lumpur after we finally said goodbye to koh samui, had a in the arse getting to malaysia though, literally was about 5 minibuses over 15 hours grrrr. then as i go to get the currency i had set asisde for malaysia i find that about 300 pounds worth of cash in various currencies has been stolen!! grrrrr bad is locked all the time and so it can only have been taken by hotle cleaning staff in thailand. not amused! and at the travel agent in surat thani a crazy old thai coupoe came in and started shouting at everyone, then when some tried to take them away everyone starts waving knives about! a bit nervous when your trying to look invisble stanging next to all this and hoping that neither of the knife wielding nutters has any grudges against farang. but once we got into malaysia took a nice vip bus down to kuala lumpur, although the driver had set the air con to "cryostatus" and us in our beach gear were freezing to death! managed to lose the details of the hostel i had booked so had to find other accomaation at 5 in the morining, but a tout spotted us with big bags and headed our way so was alright. Kuala lumpur is an interesting city, no problem with english, nce and relaxed and a few things to keep yourself entertained.what struck us immediately was how small the place was. is about the size of southampton??? so having the petronas towers there was a little odd and they looked out of place. hotel was next to a huge 10 floor mall which put west quay to shame and it even had an indoor theme park! was a good place to blow the odd hour if bored. also nearby to us was a another mall that just seemed to cater to all things geek, hundreds of tech shops software, games, components, toys, memerobelia. picked up a PSP version 1.5 for easy pirating arrrggghhh! cool place its nie to find anime shops where you can find entire series of cool anime for about 5 quid, in the most high class mall in town. The china town area has some good place to get some fake shopping done, slightly better quality fake wathces han china so picked up a couple. but other than the shopping and walking around not too much to do there, was a large queue to get up the petronas towers, so didnt bother and had been up enough high things in other cities. then it was time to head to singapore, manage to get a train ticket for a sleeper whcih was nice as have had good exeriance with the sleepers in china, no so much luck here though. 10 times more bumpy and loud. ah sinagpore, slightly odd place, evceryhting seems fairly sedated, we are based in a nice hostel next to china town, although as china towns go this one has no resemblance to china. looks more like bournemouth! and no grat interest there. the rest of singapore seems to be a huge network of malls lais out aas such that you can walk acrross the entire city without ever seeing the sun. but that requires spending proper money which i was willing to do. went down to the zoo as its supposed ot be one of the best in the world, definately didnt disapoint. very cool with loads of exhibits where the animals arent fenced in and can come up and say hello. then went on the night safari where they show a bunch of nocturnal animals ona little tram ride, was cool but a little dark (i realize the irony). errr nightlife also a little sedated, not much going on. although last night we did end up at the infamous "four floors of whores" just a big building which is a bunch of bars all packed to the brim with prostitutes, was entertaining for a while but just begins to irritate after a while, and drink is expensive! yeah, we have dumped our stuff and will head over to the island just off the coast, where you can do various crazy stuff. inlcuding see pink dolphins (somehting that cute cant possibly exsist!), then its off to the airport for our 3am flights home. ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Law

4th Jun 2006 1:44 AM What up dawgs? been up to a suprising amount of stuff sitting on this little island. a suprising amount to do, so thought i would leave a little taster of what i have been upto as im sure you are all dying to know. As you can see from new profile pic, did indeed go scuba diving, whihc was amazing. saw a completely new world, had geat visibilty, loads of fish and just such crazy stuff i had no idea even exsisted. slighty soured by the fact i had some trouble equaliing pressure in right ear so couldnt go down that deep, was still great though. loads of bumming around on the beach, some snorkling and loads of readng, glad i picked up a fat 1000 page book while in bangkok. Another day went down to the shooting range on the island, let of a few rounds form a .45 and then an AK which was alot of fun, but very expensive, paul got hit in the face with ejected casing which was funny, and even went bowling and saw Xmen 3 (nice to indulge in some normal activitesd once in a while) thoughroughly enjpyed Xmen 3 so its all good. Went on a little safari accross the island, saw a crocodile show where a nuts thai guy decided to try to piss off as many crocs as possiple, including stkcing his arm down one big mothers throat to deposit a bank note, then doing it again to get it back. onl reason he still has limbs is the surface the crocs where on didnt afford them much grip. was also a monkley and elephant show. was most thrown by the noises the crocs and elephants made when pissed off, some real gutterreal hisses and roars. Then took a tour throgh the jungle on elephant back, its a bloody bumpy ride on the little seat (would have hated to be hannibal) but the guy leading the thing on its neck jumped off hal;f way and told m to sit there, which i did, so i now have and elephat between my legs and it was quite a cool journey from there (the innuendo writes itself so dont bother). Then took a little walk up the mountain in centre of ilsand to this huge waterfall which was very pretty, and even took a swim undernearth it, tried for stand under it for some zen enlgihtenment, but rocks were slippery...honest. errr not much more to tell really, having some rather cool custom suits made for us, got one jacket that makes me look like an edwardian coachman, but in a cool way. and even some bling trousers to go with my bling jacket. hope all the weather is cool where you guys are, OW i just electrecuted myself on my mp3 player charging!!! bollocks!!! im okay..... right off to malaysia on tuesday and then its anotehr 8 days till im home! seee you all damn soon! Law

26th May 2006 1:43 AM Hello guys, been to a few places since last update so a fair amount to tell. Leaving tokyo was a bit of a pain, filght was at 10 and had to do various stuff like checkout, get cash and get to airport. so got up early but immediately our p,ans are foiled by the fact that we have to wait till 7 to get cash due to stupid japenese ATMs, mad dashing and much stress later we get to airport about 9:20, only to find our flight to Hong Kong has been delayed by 11 hours due to bad weather (later found out it was a typhoon over southern china) this would mena missing our connecting flight. but thankfully the air nippon guys got us on a direct flight to Bangkok which left at 11 that morining, so result there. Only spent one evening in Bangkok as we were getting pretty beech hungry and headed for Pattaya, cause we had heard so much about the place. now then...pattaya, they have a saying they are found of and have it on Tshirts and things "good guys go to heaven, bad guys go to pattaya" however this isnt strictly true. i will tell you who goes to pattaya, very sad and old unattractive men who long ago gave up on the chance any form of female company they didnt have to pay for. There are alot of attractive females in pattaya, a whole world of eye candy. but every girl has her price, now you think im over reacting. no no its true every single girl in the ton can be bought, and that really starts todampen your spirits after a while. whenever you walk past a bar about there is a deafening chorus form about 10 hostesses shouting in a horribly thrill high pitched voice "HEEELLLLOOOO WEEEELLLLCCCCOOOMMMEEE!!! SEXY MEN!!!!!!" and then run out into the street to grab you, was starting to resort to a few kung fu blocks in order to avoid them after a while. and they are everywhere. now some of you might be thnking it sounds great, but not really my bag. ngiht life consists of going to a bar and either chatting to random drunk guys or prostitutes. very first night, went to a strange white fairly upmarket club and there was a random transvestite show with an enourmously fat man stripping (a horror to end all horros, i have photos). and of ladyboys they are out in there droves in pattaya. in fact when we were there it was the venue for the miss world competition (for transvestites). did see some very funny sites, as all the afore mentioned large old unnactractive men lose all inhibitons and leap around like lunnatics, i spent half my tme on nights out laughing in peoples faces. the main beech in pattaya is fairly unpleasent due to all the boats that hang in the bay, but a bit further south is anothrt beech which is alot nicer and had a couple of good afternoons there. deckchairs and people always coming round offering various services (clean services mind you) I went jet skiing while paul had a pedicure. But we fled pattaya after fto not too long andf returned to Bangkok, atually tried to see a few sights this time, but getting to the west where all the temples and Wat's are is a nightmare, the metro isnt allowed there cause its holy and the traffice is abbysmal. saw one decent Wat with the largest recling buddha or something, was deffiantely a big buddha. and few other things. Everywher eyou go people are trying to catch you out, "the temple is closed, come to my tuk tuk, we take you to different temple" etc. basic rule is, nevre get in a tuk tuk with anyone who tlaks to you on the street, hailing one down is fine. Visited some cool markets and picked up some random stuff quite cheap, well some stuff is cheap thailand is an odd place. some things are very cheap while others are ridiculusly expensive, yet there is no pattern to the expensive and cheap things, accomadation = cheap, deoderant = expensive. i dont know.... even went to small arms market where untold amoutn of pistols riffles and things have shos, and little street vendors sell sights and holsters. went to find a metal club i had heard about, and managed to find it. but it was closed on a tusday and only open fri and sat (which is rubbish in a cpaital city) so maybe next time (great decor on the front of it though, very D&D). then we took the boat south to Surat Thani, which is the ferry point to get to Ko Samui. ahhh Ko samui, gorgeous place, we are at Lamui beech, about a K long and absolutely everything you expect froem a tropical island, gorgeous sand and water. our room is right on the beech and there are great restaurants right down the road. so far pretty perfect.i have no idea how we can stay where we are and in this enviroment for about 7 pounds a night. its ridiculous. Caught a night of Muay Thai our first night here, whch wansnt bad, 7 fights of varying violence and even a couple of Ong Bak moments (for those who havent seen Ong Bak, you suck, go and watch it). Weather is bit variable as we are heading into the rainy season, (should be july but it seems to want to get an early start). but got a fair amount of time here and nice to wake up whenever and not rush out to do the next thing on the agenda. doing absolutely nothing for once is pretty damn nice, i replenshed my readng material so we are allll teh good, hope i can get back into the doing nothing attitude after 7 weeks of mad dahsing, dont think there should be a problem though And tomorrow might go scuba diving, neevr doen it before but screw this "in a pool" crap, going straight out to the furthest islands and jumping right in (excuse the pun). And why is it everyone decides to ahve their bitrthdays while im away??? i leave you with HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHA Law

15th May 2006 1:43 AM Been a while in Tokyo, time to do a sober update. Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo. The place is both amazingly cool and exciting and mind nummingly drab and boring at the same time. Hadnt quite sorted out accomadation when i arrived at the airport (they had SF2 on the plane!!) about 10 pm so called one the places i had mapped out and knew how to get there. turned out it was closed for rennovation, so a quick look throuhg my guide foubd another place, a little old Japanese guest house called Ryoken, beds on floor, sliding doors, no shoes etc. oh and my mobile stopped working which i was mnost annoyed about. place was nice and comfy enough, but had a 1 am curfew which wouldnt do at all. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Tokyo/mini-tokyo1117.jpg spent next day looking for a new place, and generally checking out city. found a nice hotel and was sorted for rest of stay. A contrasting city by all accounts, theres nothing and loads to do. started making our way round the dozens of interesting districts. which is basically what i have been doing since i have been here, walking around, looking around. most fo the city looks incredibly dull, hoards of about 40 year old grey and brown buildings. due to most of original city being burnt down by americans. still a few old gems left. coolest night out spot is Shinjuku, hundreds of people head here everynight, hwver my first few nights out were foiled by the fact that apparently 90%f the poplation is in bed with cocoa by 10:30. so all the places i had marked to try out were either dead or gigs were long over. although did find a shop (mostly cause it had an alien in the 3rd floor window) whihc sold loads and loads of metal and other shit dvd videos of bands, nearly everybiody i could thnk of were there. and loads of photos of the bands which had visited, kinda cool. went round the fancy places of Ginza and Omote Sendo but left fairly quick as was mostly horribly expensive and crowded, not too much too see either )well a few cool places in the alleyways around omote sendo). Tokyo is a place you can spend a fortune doing and acheiving nothing, and spend nothing and do loads. have managed to blow a whole world of cash out here, which is bad, and the places you can take card are immensely finiky. Tokyo is cool because here a geek can truly feel at home, there are whole districts dedicated to various geek shit like Akahabar (electric town), hoards of figures from trains to anime to guns. I swear if the Yen ever collapsed the guys could use Gundam minatures as new currency and wouldnt lose a step. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Tokyo/mini-tokyo1118.jpg http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Tokyo/mini-tokyo1119.jpg A quite disturbing amount of hentai (cartoon porn for those less debauched) very much on display, with some very disturbing stuff, loads of gay hentai too. went into a big manga store called mandrake and at least 40% of the shop was dedicated to gay hentai, with just loads of young girls looking thourgh it. Food here has been tricky, most of it is either likely to kill you or looks like it just washed up on a beach. had a tradional dish earlier, looked like a nice brooth with vegetables, like fondue. but then a raw egg is put in front of you and this is what you dip the food in, so everything tastes of sugar and raw egg...... had a few good nights out, nice live house called anti-knock had good Hardcore shows on saturday and sunday, saw about 8 bands there saturday was quite, but sunday was absolutely packed and the bands were insane. a pit comprising of japenses people is an interesting one indeed, also i couldnt crowd surf as no one was able to lift me up.....damn those small guys. apprently one of the bands "Gauze" was the biggest hardcore band in japan. some crazy guys there, hunbg out with one of the random bassists for a bit, not much english spoken in general except he knew how to say "my cock is long, lets go to the bathroom" in perfect english. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Tokyo/mini-tokyo1121.jpg found a nice enough club called club wire on firday nbut was pretty desserted. tried to go in on staurday after gig but was "lesbian night" according to the bouncer. so not allowed and on sunday they closed at 11...grrrr. found anice little bar instead call Godz, had a top floor of dungeon feel to it, wihtout poool table, met some col guys there (group of metal karoke fans). they had loads and loads of metal CDs, you just requested stuff and if they had it on DVD they put the video on. its great sight watching salary men take there ties off and start air guitaring at 3 in the morining, had to stay here till about 5 due to last train back being at 12:45, also had loads of band signatures that had visited. lead a bunch of locals in a chorus of BYOB and even got round of applause. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Tokyo/mini-tokyo1125.jpg http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Tokyo/mini-tokyo1123.jpg http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Tokyo/mini-tokyo1124.jpg You do a few touts in popular night areas, nigerian guys target westerners to get them to come to sex bars, althought i did learn that the proper brothels are Gaijin (foreigner) free and pay the touts to send the westerners somewhere else. Paul went dwon to Roppongi, the Tokyo ex-pat area, place i wnted to avoid. was informed it was terribel, loads of touts and fat scots being annoying. Was a ver long weekend, slept most of monday. then DISATSTER found out my camera lens was damaged in the gig, all photos are now well out of focus!!! ARRRGHHHHHH!!!! may need to buy a new camera. that thing has survived loads of pits, guess it just had enough. Went down to Harajuku and checked out the Coz-players, load of girls dressed in all manner of get up posing for photos and generally hanging out, got a pic with the most gothic looking. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Tokyo/mini-tokyo1131.jpg http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Tokyo/mini-tokyo1129.jpg Tongiht tried out Kareoke (you haev too in Japan), found a cool metal karaoke bar. had few (well i say few) drinks and headed in, was only one of those individual booths so just me and paul signing to random stuff for an hour. was quite a laugh, will have to see if i can do it with more people (i recommend "Aces High" for a track to sign). A few more places to visit, picked up some nice evangelion junk, might see what else i can find in electric town, maybe even get some Engrish t-shirts. Wednesday its off to Bangkok and Pattaya. Gimnme some love peeps! Law and also done a big photo update!

7th May 2006 1:42 AM as i write this i have just finished seeing my 4 gig in a row and have now seen 9 differennt bands since i have been here and through a strange series of coicidences half of them have already bought me drinks and im on first name terms with them. Last days in yangshou were interesting, went rock climbing however im sure the weather is plotting to kill me, everytime i do anything dangerous it decides to go all troical stormy on my ass. did alright but had one nasty fall where my spine was hrridly introduced to the rcks on the ground (im fine though guys, i feel your concern) had a terribly stressful last evening, we were getting the ngiht bus to HK and were told when we booked it to wait in a hottwl lobby at set time. we got there early and waited...and waited...and waited........nothing happens, we had already checked out and due to the May holidays for the chinese rooms where very scarce, had to peg it to the trael office at 10 at night and hope we could get on another bus. lcukily we could although had to shed out more cash for tickets. worst nghts sleep ever for various reasons though. grrrrrrrr. first night in HK there was a tropical storm so got soaked in Tshirt and shorts, air con isnt good for drying off either. so hit Hong Kong, staying in a tiny place on the 8th floor of a random building but close to everything thats iumportant. HOng Kong is easily the most comprehendve city i have ever been too, you can doo EVERYTHING here. except maybe go skiing......and the only things you see on the roads are taxis, buses, trams and mercedese. everyone drives expensive cars that cant be more than 2 years old. firt..st day we scoped out area and went for a pint in alocal irish pub, pickerd up the free events paper and found 3 cool sounding gigs. m,arked where they were on my map and my nights were sorted. werid how things are layed out, there are hundreds of things from doctors to massage parlours to wath repairs to dnace classes to arcades all satshed away on various floors of buildings, with just a small pavement side sign to notify you of their existance. the arcades are cool, been a while since i was game and my geek nature was fighting its was to the surface so blew a load of dollars pissing around and loosing lots. err wat else have I done, went up victoria peak, saw it was a lovely clear day so thought we would take th tram upo to the peak to see view. as soon as we got there the fog had decended and visiablilty was reduiced about 20 meters, saw the light show, went on the star ferry whioch was cool. went to a few random markets but mostly just pottered around random areas. so many things just jog random memories, would love to track down the places i used to live but we just dont have the time.seen loads of familiar stuff here. place is really easy to do, english is fine to use and some great innovations here, like a subway pass you can use to buy lunch with (genius idea). quite expensicve if your not careful but a really cool city with loads of character. right now for the evenings, thanks to 4 more nights, now on another TV show, 2 flyers and 3 webzines. not bad for a few days partying. First night was the Underground HK event, 0saw a chinese punk band who were interesting a random hard rock band called hotcakes on 55th and a random electro japense band called sexy hammer. As per usual i was the only one rocking out with all i had, then a radnom girl joined me in the moshing (everyone thought we were together), the band thanked me for getting into it and the lead guitarist (a big fat guy) leaped off the stage to join me as i air guitared. nice venue, some lovely ladies and met a bunch of student mettalrs who had paid for an open bar and so smuggled me drinks all evening. was a blast. next night was at the edge club, couple of bands including the academy (hard rockers, wesatern but form HK) and a japaense metal band called electric eel shock http://www.electriceelshock.com/. by chance started alking to the academy bassist at the bar (who looks exactly like scoot by the way) and then this guy form japan who gave me some good tips, and some scandenavian and chinese girls. Bands were cool and it was really busy, everyone really got into electric eel shock and managed to get into the first pit could get too in weeks, which was great. Byt the end of the evening (dont ask me how) i eneded up int he VIP room with the bands and random birds drinking their drinks and hanign out, so a pretty cool evenign there. next inght was HK live with some random bands inlcuding a chinese brit pop wannabe and the academy again, this time headlinging, the guys form E.E.S were aslo there, another good show and hung out with the bands cause i had already spoken to the previous guys, one of the guysfriomn the academy informed me of another gig on sunday, so i priomised i would be there. went down the beach today to try and sort myslef out after 3 nights of heavy rocking out. lovely day but tempreture on the bech was about 40 was absolutely metling :S was feeling pretty dead but went to gig again. as another show with E.E.S asnd another Jap band, was cool but the audeciance consisted pretty much of all the bands in the area and their friends. got some random contacts, some good photos and a good time was had by all. Tuesday we head fo Tokyo, decided to cut outy Seoul and Taipei due to finacial and time restraints. oh and my credit card company are being retarded, so have very little cash reserves and this is anoying me greatly..........grrrrr again. Its late I am tired, when there random event websites udate their photos i will giv eyou thew links just to prove im telling the truth (as you guys wouldnt belive me) next update prob from japan, so see you later guys. Law

Guilin and yanshou 30th Apr 2006 1:42 AM Hey guys, been a while since i last had a chance to update, and as its a rainy sunday afternoon i thought i would sort it out. We arrived a few days ago in Guilin, easy flight and the view of the hundreds of paddy fields and mountains at sundown was amazing. Guilin was an alright town, quite rural but also touristy at the same time. but very explotative of tourists. pauls bank had decided to not let him have more cash due to the fact they are muppets (got it sorted now) so i had to foot the bill for everything which has been a big drain. Some good scenery in Guilin but as soon as we arrived the humidity hit us like wall of something unpleasent and sticky, hostel room was very damp so more annoynace but some interesting poeple were around. not much to do there so only stayed a couple of evenings before takling the boat down to yangshuo. The boat trip down the famous river Li was something i had been looking forward too for ages, supposed to be amazing scenery. and weather i was hoping for was either sunny or very foggy for atmosphere. would have dull just being overcast. before the boat we visited crown cave, the biggest cave in china. this place was mad, loads of coloured lights on the weird rock formations, an underground boat tour and even a train inside the cave! but as we left o go on the boat the weather turned EVIL!!! massive tropical thunderstorm, [pouring rain loads of fog and crazy stuff.......so onto the tiny chinese fishing boat. cant see much inside so i decided to go sit out on "deck" under a plastic bag. got uterly soaked but the karst mountains and waterfalls in the rain looked amazing. so that was very cool. then got too yangshou. very odd place, very rural out in the country only a couple of main roads and surrounded by mountains and next to the Li river. one of the main roads is called "west street" and this is appropiate in every sence of the word, place is crammed with tourists, western bars and hotels, even a KFC has turned up. so a good place for an english breakfast (they still havent got the hang of a cup of english tea though). day after we arrived decided to rent bikes and go for a ride through ther country, pauls bike was a bit rubbish so he heaed back earyl. but got cycle through some really rural towns and a beside few rivers. was raining slightly which was really nice. Absolutely gorgeous scenery, nice enough cycling, no hills (except very sudden vertical ones) and had my MP3 player going away as well (although i did think it a tad ironic cycling through rural china singing along to the team america theme song "AMERICA!! FUCK YEAH". got some cool bars here, although geenraslly there is only one busy one at a time which is where all thewesterners who live here end up and so keep running till about 5. met some really nice guys (and girls) dirnking lots of the local beer, Met up with girl i messged on myspace who goes out with one of the rockclimbing store owners and she helped us out alot with ideas, suggested another cave which has a natural mud bath, sounded like fun so headed there for a day. Was kinda cool, much less gaudy then the last cave, needed torches and helmets and things, was interresting except tiring for the tall, whcih was me in our group. Mud bath was very odd, got absolutely covered in the stuff which was the consistency of very thick chocolate (got some great photos i will have to show you when i get the chance). was saterday night by this point and was one of th bars 1 year birthday so there was a free barbeque and 2 for 1 drinks. so spent most of evening there, which was a very fun evening. one point i got bored of my shirt (i dunno) so spent a pound on a new one next door trowing old one away,cause you can in china. (though i later ruined it by ripping it open during the "nay we are but men....ROCK" part of tribute.). ended up going down the night markets at 5 in the moring and having chilli noodles (not recommended due to bowel destruction) we moved hotels cause our hostel was booked so we are now staying in "Fawlty towers" cause we had too with that name. whcih is very nice, best beds we have had in a long time annd a bath! althought its chinese sized so can barely fit in it. Just been taking it easy today, walking by the river and walking up some mountains. tomorrow moring got an early start as we are going rock climbing, raining at the moment though so hope it picks up. in fact its been overcast as long as we have been here, only seen the sun one afternoon. but its still beutiful.and finally need to worry aout mozzies after ebing in big cities so long. tomorrow evening we take the overnight bus to Hong Kong, will be back to childhood home for the first time in 13 years. should be good. Right thats all for now guys, wish me luck on the rock face tomorrow. Law

23rd Apr 2006 1:41 AM Shanghai is now my bitch! Well last day in Nanjing was kinda cool, went out to the area where all the old shit was laying around (in one nicely travesable park, werent those old chinese guys helpful) some really cool sceneray and parks and old tombs and mansoleums and random stuff. felt abit like the new forest as it was right next to one of the worlds most polluted cities but felt miles form anywhere. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Nanjing/mini-2903129255020.jpg climbed up the purple mounain (well climbed down) but it was a pussy compaired to Tai-Shan. and visites the tomb of the first Qing Emperor, whihc was a nice place but it was also the site of the Tomb of Sun Quan (son of the great Sun Jiang The Tiger of Jiang Dong!) the empereor built his tomb around it due to sun quan being a hero and all. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Nanjing/mini-2903129255025.jpg also checked out the confusicous temple in the area, was ambysmal. loads of rubbihs neon funfair displays. a few statued and some recreated stuff a bit of disciple backgrounds, nothing actually about Confuscism (a shame as the guy had some good ideas) http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Nanjing/mini-2903129255033.jpg Took a short train to shanghai.. SHANGHAI!! have arrived at last, place with so much and yet so little history at the same time, culturally there fuck all to see or do with all historical sites being built around 10 years ago. first day we checked out the old International playboy are known as the bund where all the old interantional companies set up shop and is home to the famous view across the rivew to the new business area. not bad. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Shanghai/mini-2903129255038.jpg had an amazinlg good meal ata small back street restaurant that was really pleasent, so that gave us a good start. had a good lead on a couple of bars, so worked out stuff on my new tourist map (navigating in Nanjing was a bitch due to lack of a good map) and hit (well leaned on at least) the town. went a place called Harleys bar midle of nowhere, nice place quite small and was filled with westerners which was odd. next went to a live area called shuffle bar, got there late about 12 and the show had ended so everyone was heading out. not a great evenign but at least we found places. next day decided to go the Shanghai history Msuseam (supposed to be the best one inChina) and was actaully pretty cool. very modern and nicely done unlike some of the other chinese museams. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Shanghai/mini-2903129255043.jpg hit some of the old markets for some serious random shit buying and to get a feel of the city, didnt go too badly and now a couple of rolexes up than i was before (so i have a fake mens and female bling rolex up for grabs peeps). http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Shanghai/mini-2903129255044.jpg in the evening went to another place (paul stayed in) i had marked out called live bar, got there late again due to it being way way out of town and no where anything and in a closed down street. but the band was still on. venue was litlerally a tiny concrete garage with a fridge and a stage, about 15 people there (mostly westerners) jumping along to a Metal bad from Munich who were pretty cool. everyone got into it and after the show the lead signer (who was very cute) came and said hi cuase she saw me come in and watch for a bit before really getting into it (she was very friendly) got a singed band card but lost it also met some random englihg guy who had been in shagnhai for 8 years, he was amazed i found the place on my second night in town and bought me a drink gave me some useful tips about the place as well and japan; eveing died about 12. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Shanghai/mini-2903129255046.jpg next day we headed to the french concesion and another fake market, more random junk appearing. And as it was saturday night i thought i would head for the shuffle bar as it was the biggest and most local rock bar and i had read about a band that were going to be there called slit in a magazine so must be alright i thought, paul satyed at hostel again. i'll arrive on time this time i thouhgt, so got there about 9:30, i hear a band playing so go in....place deserted......only me the band and the bar staff and DJ.......band stilll playing though. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Shanghai/mini-2903129255049.jpg few more peopl;e turned up later (only 11 total but what the hell) then Slit came on and sound testes..d for 50 mins beofre going off again, i ask the U.S DJ what was up and he says the main bands bassist hasn't turned up... odd me thinks, so the orginal guys go on again and make a decent show of it, kinda nu-metalish, they did their best. but i was already very drunk and no one was dancing or even standing up so i head right infront of the stage and go for full dragonforce moshing. The band loved this and encouraged everyone else shouting "come on! like this man!" which was cool.some other guys stood up at least. was prob the best saturday night i have had in china though so way to go random chinese band i cant pronounce the name of! heres me and the band http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/Shanghai/mini-2903129255051.jpg had a word with the DJ about why there wasnt a Nexuseque place in the major cities, he said that it woulndnt work, 26 million people live in Shnaghai and 500 like rock, but usually a turn up of about 200 for well known bands.plus some random chinese guys wanted to talk loads at me a nd gave me there business cards, they clearly thought i was cool Sunday decided to mail home some of the random crap had bought and the guy i met on friday said China was very cheap for Acoustic Guitars, so went out with his help and found a gorgeuos one (hav eno idea how good it is) with nice hard case for 60 pounds. sent that home as well, hope it survives journey. Now i just need to learn how to play.... no where to go out tonight, so i am writing this huge update, and i have also done a photo update http://www.photobucket.com/albums/d187/NinjaLaw/Travel/ soon i head for Guilin and a more picturesque and tranquil lifestyle, Shanghai you have been fun, but you have also been schooled! I rule all!! Law

18th Apr 2006 1:41 AM Hey guys, tis midnight of our first night here in Nanjing, odd place. kinda reminds me of old school Hong Kong about 1980's. flight was relatively harmless other than the fact they decided to hide our luggage somehwere completely random, damn their eyes! hostel is a lot less aminable than xi'an, not many other travellers about (well english speaking ones anyway) and generally seems much less helpful. on last night in xian had a massage from the bloke who does them at the hostel, amazing guy called hans who trained in massgae for about 5 years and knows loads of different types, had a chinese gua sha one which brings all the toxins to the skin where they turn it all red and lumpy (got soime weird pics) then he recommened glass suction therapy (which he did for free) where glass tubes are put on your back and a vacuum sucks all the blood and skin into it (got some more good pics of that, and a video!!) but basically from the look of my back now it looks like i have had very rough and violent sex with a giant octopus.....it was a massage honest..i have video proof! he did some calligraphy for me and paul as well which was kind of cool with our names and dates of when we stayed. after several bad nights trying to find a cool place to go in xian we return to the hostel and i hear metalica coming form the bar downstairs, turns out the hodtle bar is run by a couple of chinese metalers (one looks like herman li, and another looks like a chinese adrian edminson.) they even started to play theor band they had doing random chinese rock songs. there were only 2 people there but it was cool none the less (got a short video of them) they even let me sing the vocals to sweet child of mine (no video of that unfortunately, but thats for the best) went round the local nearby scenic spots and some touristy places today, some of the random neon bits are sooooo tacky, but there are loads of little gardens and things that really take you away form the city. very tired now but manged to pick up a few more little bits and pieces for people or if i think they look cool, phear my leet haggling skillZ!! the place is a nightmare to navigate, sense of dierection left me completely and all the maps i have are beyond rubbish. went to a random (apparently) famous restaurant but they had no english menu but the local thing here is they give a whole range of crazy little dishes about 3 at a time and theres a massive variation in tastes and sensations (most were kinda alright,. couple where very bad) had to instruct paul on how to eat shrimp. was certainly an experiance, but think wee will eat sopmewhere a little more predictable next time (cant wait for some decent seafood now we are on the yangtze). dont think there is any nightlife to speak of here (well apart form chinese karoke) and i am lacking a guide round this time so things are much more "errrr letsd try this and hope it woks" not amazing net here, so might not be able to upload anything new, will see how it goes. Ahhhh already been two weeks in China, just over two weeks left :S see all you guys later!!! missing you all! Law

16th Apr 2006 1:41 AM Alright guys, been a while in xi'an now. Nice city, alot less busy than Beijing and much easier to get around. also a lot smaller which means walking around is easy enough. some alright people in the hostel here, most are either old boring or old and boring. or abunch of crazy mexicans who seem to like starting fights in nightclubs. after a disappointing night out at a bar (people seemed to be doing shots of hot water!! steady on), i was wondereing around by mysellf trying to fnd something to do. passed a few punks and asked if there was anything to do and thye said no, but would call me next time a good show was on (abit useless as i leave on tuesday). and ended up in the hostel bar drinking with some other british guys form london and a french and finnish blokes. talking shit and arguuing with a mental dribiling very racist guy form tazmania. about 50 whoi had a 20 year old chinese girlfriend. (cant remember too much form the evening but got a note made in notebook that mouse ear + penis = v.good according to the oz.) We walked along the city walls the next day (very imrpessive, they are as wide as the southampton ones are high) and go round entire innner city, going back at night time to check out the neon lit pagodas and laterns. and generally wondered around the town (had people ask to take photos with the strange foreigners a few times whihc is a little disconcerting) had a lot of help from a great girl called huu that i got in contact with on myspace who helped us out the next day, took us too some good places to eat and help us haggle with the natives (picked up a bling orerintal jacket i love ) so thanks alot huu eve though you ended up going the wrong way most fo the time =) was quite funny she said the shop keepers were asking why she was helping the foreigers drive the price down from the chinese shop owner. she took us to a few cool places with her cousin who tagged along which was nice tried the local Xi'an dlecatacy whihc was bread chunks in a meat soup wiht these kind of jelly clear noodles (but was very nice). might pick up some random nick knacks for people tomorrow so and requests for bracelets or necklaces or random chozz then send me a message and i will see what i can do. Flying to Nanjing on tuesdayso will prob do another update then. have a good one peeps and happy easter Law xx

14th Apr 2006 1:40 AM HEY GANG! LOADS TO TELL! ahhhh where to start! well on last night of beijing we went to the night markets, i was content to eat a small inoffensive scorpian...nooo i had try one of the giant black bastards...the one that speaks to the primal instincts screaming THIS IS BAD! oooooh it took about 30 seconds to bite ttough the shell!!!! good photos though overnight trian to Taishan was alright, only 4 people in a little cubicle saw was quite nice. got to Tai and ealy and left stuff in the locker. was cold so took out some extra layers, mountain lay ahead of us. THE STEPS! OWWW THE MANY MANY THOUSANDS OF STEPS!!!! more steps than i have ever seen ever.. was a tough climb, went through the cloud level and on the other side the tempreture had dropped anout 30 degrees!!!! the whole area was white with frost and looked amazing (annoyingly my camera battery had just baout died so was limited in the pics i took) pretty much straight to bed as the bed was warm (we had about 7 layers on, gloves a scarf and giant rented coats and it was stil cold!) woke up at 5 to watch the surise from the top of the mountain, sunrise was okay but view was amazing. some interestiong scenes though, its a holy mountain with many temples, and we saw a fight break out in one at the bottom with a big queue (something ironic about a fight in a queue for a buddist temple. and people sayng prayers, burnign offereings then spitting on the floor.... took another overnight train to Xa'an (hard sleeper so nt much rest) and headed straight for the terracota army, was very cool but soo much left uncovered. going to go make some dumplings and have a shower and maybe hit the local nightlife later. bah soo much stuff! and prob forgot loads. oh yeah and me and paul were filmed for TV and a DVD (of what im not sure) as we reached the peak as there was a complete lack of weterners around so we are a little famous in china now ahhhh thta was alot of crap and i have probably forgotten loads. post again soon. BYEEEE xx