Jakey Jake

Monday 24th May
Today we were in for a big day, the Great Wall, The Ming Tombs and The summer Palace. First stop the great wall. Its vastly impressive as you see this wall snaking along the spine of a mountain range, making twists and turns and ascents and descents that make you wonder just how physically fit the warriors who patrolled the walls would have had to have been. We finally arrived at the really touristy part of the wall that you are allowed to walk along (there are a few places but we didnt have the option) anyway of course there were a million hagglers, there were also a lot of bears in an enclosure that the RSPCA wouldve closed down yesterday. Poor things. There was also a toboggan ride down from the top of the wall and a cable car for those unable to walk it. The going was tough in certain bits, you cannot possibly imagine what it wouldve been like to build this 5000km wall, at parts it would be over 15m high and generally around 4m wide, with turrets every couple of hundred meters or so. It ranks up there as 3rd to Taj Mahal and the Angkor temples. definately a must see. The ming tombs were hohum, really nothing much there to see at all….. but the summer palace well, that was another story, that was very nice indeed. We only had about 30 minutes to explore as we had run out of time, shouldve skipped the Ming Tombs. Still i managed to hot foot it around to most of the interesting sites, except i missed the giat marble boat that sits on the lake where the emperor/sses used to eat and pretend they were sailing. Tongiht we were having a big one, as our group actually consisted of two groups, and the other groupd were finishing up today. We headed out to a nice restraunt for some peking duck, and we had an awards ceremony. I received the price for the person who stresses out our tour guide the most, and also the award for not listening. Yes yes i hear you say. But i already know what they are talking about cause ive already read about it, and at the end of the day you often need an interpreter for the interpreter, takes a lot of energy to struggle to understand someone, and its much easier to read yourself. anyway winners of awards recieved a shot of snake wine…. BLEHHHHHHH. makes you want to barf. i also managed to polish off a bottle of wine… so i was a tad bit under the influence. We were kicked out from there at 11… apparently all the staff had gone home. So we all trundled down to the local karaoke bar. We took the place over, and i somehow got it into my head that i could sing (although every now and again i would hear myself screaming down the mic and hearing just how bad i sounded through the speakers, but by this time i didnt really care, the booze had managed to make me think i was ‘the king’. countless beers later we were all kicked out, we said our goodbyes and went home to do a lot of hangover curing.