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After one month travelling through China, Hong Kong and Japan on plane, train, cable car, trishaw and whatever else you can imagine we have finally made it home again. It is always nice to return to your own home, a place where everything is familiar.

Almost everything is familiar. Where once there was lawn now there was a jungle and the green waste bin wasn't large enough to hold all the clippings when I returned it to its former state.

Our final day in Tokyo started with me running around to find the Kinko's in West Shinjuku to print out our Cathay Pacific online check-in documents. We then checked out of the hotel and caught the subway to the Tsukiji fish markets to find more dried seafood.

I guess that the markets are closed on Sundays because there was only one dried seafood stall. The rest of the open shops were sushi restaurants for the tourists.

As usual we were running late and overloaded for the Narita Express. My backpack frame had broken, so I was forced to drag my 25 kilogram back along the ground. Judging by the black dust on bottom of the bag I was doing a service for Shinjuku in cleaning up the floor.

The flights back to Sydney were pretty fun, with only a few rough periods. The food was delicious and I had not seen the Little Britain Abroad episode on the IFE. The Cathay crew were very helpful, the air fresh enough for me. If only we had those lie flat first class bed maybe I could have had a good sleep on the plane.

Instead I saw the stars for the first time in a month, watched a meteor burn up in the atmosphere. Below the bright lamps of the shrimp and squid fleets were brighter than any stellar reflections. I knew when we were passing Taipei because the cloud cover below suddenly took on a glowing red tinge, like a hidden hell. Lightning flashed in the clouds over Indonesia, natures fireworks.

As we crossed into Australia I watched the sunrise beneath the clouds, turning the cloudscape into a desert scene. Then I felt the plane shake as we passed into the clouds themselves.

Unfortunately, my big bag did not appear on the luggage belt at Sydney Airport. I hope it has not disappeared into the hand of thieves because some of the contents are difficult to obtain in Australia. Plus my dirty laundry could be considered a weapon of mass destruction... oh, now it makes sense. I'll keep my eye out for people in sunglasses following me.

The holiday is over and it is back to work tomorrow. Now for sleep!

Konnichi wa Nihon!

We said goodbye to Hong Kong today and hello to Tokyo today. The Airport Express to Hong Kong airport was fast and comfortable. Though it was nice to get some cash back we were a bit sorry to return the Octopus cards. These stored value cards were not only used as tickets on the MTR and trams, but also for purchases in bakeries, supermarkets and other shops. So nice not to fumble for change. Sydney is long overdue for this technology.

Both of our Cathay Pacfic flights have been superb, with the exception of the food. The entertainment system wasn't working properly on this flight and was rebooted a number of times. This seems to be a common problems across airlines.

Our flight path took us near a number of storm clouds and things got bumpy as we skimmed along the high altitude cloud tops. Seems to be a common problem for flying north across the Pacific.

Caught the Narita Express to Shinjuku for the seventh time, it is all very familiar to us now. That's the nice thing about staying here in Shinjuku. There's a lot to see (and many places to shop), but we know our way around and we can relax now. Upon entering the hotel room we had a pleasant surprise. What was once a slightly run down beige and white room with a great view is now a hip looking space complete with a widescreen LCD TV and, still with a fantastic view. Cool!

We saw many cherry blossoms on our ride into Tokyo, so hopefully we'll get a chance to walk amongst them during our stay here.

In the presence of a giant

As I write this a tradesman is in our bathroom attempting to get a decent water flow in the shower. I was expecting this in China, but the Minshan Hotel is rated four stars according to CITS. I'm not really complaining, for we have had a fantastic day, up there with our walk along the Great Wall.

We (okay, I) woke before 5am in order to get ready for our trip to the airport. Both of us felt nervous as our taxi drove us along darkened back roads on the industrial outskirts of Xian. We could have been dumped there and nobody would see it happen.

But we survived unscathed and reached Xian's domestic terminal unscathed. The airport is quite functional, if unexciting. The toilets, however, stunk of excrement and urine, despite appearing clean. I think that they were of the type where toilet paper is placed in a bin adjacent to the toilet rather than down the drain.

I can't recommend the hot chocolate at the Denise cafe either, but what can you expect?

This time we were flying a China Eastern Airlines Airbus A320. The plane could do with a good wash, but what can you expect from flying above the land of the long grey smog cloud? As we ascended above the cloud layer snow capped mountains poked their summits into the heavens.

It was another rough flight. I wish I was like B and could sleep through the bumpiness. Little LCD screens popped down above the seats to show some promotional piece, sometimes in colour, but mostly in black and white, about Xian, though we were flying in the opposite direction. The hot Chinese meat bun was much appreciated though.

Chengdu airport looks very impressive, their speed at getting the baggage on the belt even more so. We were met by our driver for the day, a much quieter man than Mr Zhou. As we drove out directly towards Leshan, 150 kilometres away from Chengdu, B and I both fell asleep, tired from the early departure and from the late nights and too early mornings before it.

B declared that she no longer liked China due to the amount of spitting. The Chinese don't just let their phlegm drip to the ground. Neither is it a quick hrckt pfft. For them, it is a process of bringing up and flinging out every last drop of mucus inside their bodies, at least for a minute of so. A hhhrrrrrrrrcccccckkkkk, pppppfffffffffttttttt from deep inside their chests. The government is supposed to be cracking down upon it, but spitting seems, by the enthusiasm with which they do it, to be a source of great pleasure for many Chinese.

As we approached Leshan two previously unseen sights emerged: our first Chinese rain and motorcyclists wearing helmets.

But forget rain, spitting, pollution and anything disgusting or bad about China. A walk around the Big Buddha at Leshan was absolutely beautiful. After we stepped past the gate and started up the trail past the Buddhist grottoes, the dragon and the tiger statues, up into rainforest, bamboo and palm, we were in another world, a magical place.

The Liguyan Buddhist temple was guarded by colourful bodhisavattas, more like Hindu gods or demons. Then we were in a serene environment of monks, candles and incense, soothing music in the background.

Dafo, the big Buddha statue is 71 metres high, carved out of the red sandstone face of Liguyan Hill to provide protection for travellers along the Min River. The statue of the monk Haitong, the driving force behind Dafo's construction, sits nearby. The story goes he gouged his own eyes out to demonstrate his devotion to the project after a corrupt official threatened to blind him if he didn't get a cut of the funds.

Standing besides Dafo you feel like you are in the presence of a giant. He is a truly incredible creation. We climbed down the steep steps besides the statue, taking in every facet. The more you stare, the more alive he becomes, as if he is about to stand up and walk.

We took the walk around and through the cliffs, taking in the views of the Min River and the valley and stopping off at the pagoda lookouts. We saw the narrow fishing boats and fishermen encampments near the river bank. At the recreated fishermen's village we were accosted by old ladies trying to show us menus. We kept walking.

The old style, partly covered Haoshang Bridge provided a great view of the fisherfolk amongst the yellow rapeseed flowers. We crossed, then returned to the Mahao Cave Tombs, hollowed out rectangular caves into which families were buried upon their deaths, with various pottery items enclosed with them, not entirely unlike the Banpo neolithic peoples.

We walked back up to the fishing village, and finally agreed to eat a fish from the buckets. The old lady demonstrated that the prices were by weight, not fixed, took a fish and slammed it into the ground, before taking it inside to prepare it.

We ate an incredibly delicious meal of sichuan fish, fish head soup and rice, sipping hot tea. It was the best meal so far in China and good value at RMB50 for two. Only the bones were left once we were finished.

Trying to backtrack to the Linguyan Temple, we didn't realise that the tickets work in one direction only. But the ticket ladies were kind enough to issue us with new tickets for no charge. We took a different route back, up past the waterfall and wall of calligraphy, a beautiful, peaceful place.

It was time to return to the car, despite the many other sights left unseen. Again we slept for much of the drive back, arriving at the Minshan Hotel in Chengdu. It is a decent hotel, though we have now been shifted to a new room where the shower works. Free internet access too.

We were naughty tonight. After walking into the centre of Chengdu and trying delicious spiced skewered beef we ate dinner at Pizza Hut. Neither of us regretted having a change of diet, with salads and smoothies. Tomorrow, is pandas and proper sichuan food again!

Sacrifices and cadavers

I feel like we had a little bit of a China Day today. We made it to Xi'an, but this hote, the Xi'an is not, as Ms Joe described it, at a great location. It's outside the walls and away from the bright lights and I've only had pot noodles and junk food for dinner...

This morning we checked out of our hotel in Beijing and caught a taxi to the Temple of Heaven. The temple is actually a complex of buildings located within a park. It was here that the Emporer and his retinue sacrificed animals to the gods in order to ensure a good harvest.

I wanted to sacrifice some of the singers making awful noise in the park, like shrieking birds. Chinese song cannot be defined as music. Or maybe it's just the effects of karaoke, the single worst invention in the history of mankind.

We were walking the wrong way through the complex, from north to south. So we hit the highlight first, the Hall for Prayer for Good Harvests. The empty space around this octagonal/circular building highlights its impressive architecture. It's colours are rich reds, blues, greens and gold and it sits on three levels of white marble.

The marble carvings come in three types - the dragon, the phoenix and clouds. I especially like the dragons poking horizontally outwards from the walls. One type in particular looks fat and silly rather than fearsome. He even has flat teeth.

From the park we walked around to the nearby Museum of Natural History. The animated dinosaurs and various animal skeletons are particularly interesting. Other exhibits would be more so if their English captions were better. The aquarium section smelled like a fish shop.

The most gruesome exhibits were not, as the Lonely Planet says, on the top floor, but in a separate white building near the exit gate. Here were human cadavers and organs, cut away to demonstrate different parts of the body. There was a tank containing just the male sexual and liquid waste disposal system, baby and children's faces half cut away to show the brain and teeth. I guess some would find this disgusting, but for me it was a fascinating anatomy lesson. Chinese parents seemed to have no problem with it either, as they showed their young kids around.

We walked back to our hotel, past recently demolished hutongs. Vendors were hawking hairdressing wares outside one, including bunches of human hair. We passed some local shops and bought some sweets, or so they claimed to be for we both found them awful.

After purchasing some souveniers of the Beijing 2008 Olympics from the shop beside Tiananmen Square and some more footslogging we finally reached the hotel. Our legs had given up.

Both of us slept a short while on the taxi ride to the airport, though I did catch a glimpse of the ancient observatory and crumbling remains of the city wall. I wonder if the driver pushed a button to speed up the meter, because the fare cost us more than RMB100 and seemed to tick over quickly near the end.

Beijing's airport is quite nice. There are actually decent food places after security, prior to security your best bet seems to be in the basement where a number of food vendors reside, including KFC. The pre-pay system dissuaded us from eating there, despite our hunger. Anyway, we were running out of time.

Our Hainan airlines flight morphed into a Chang'an Airlines Airbus 319, but I don't pretend to understand Chinese airline ownership. Clean aircraft, fairly comfortable and the announcements were in Chinese and sometimes unintelligible English. We even got a box of noodles or rice, a bun and pickles on the plane, though I found my inedible. I couldn't believe they continued to serve during turbulence, although considering the whole flight was rough I guess they had no choice. I couldn't wait to land.

At Xian we ignored the taxi touts and hoped on a minibus. The "conductor" did her best to explain in English that our stop was a distance away from our hotel. We passed motorways and parts of the city wall lit up like some futuristic world. Xian seems to be an interesting place and I am now regretting our short stay.

Once off the bus we made our first big taxi mistake, with a tout grabbing our bags and hustling on board, then refusing to use the meter. At the hotel RMB13 turned into RMB30 and he took our RMB20 note and drove off. Bastard, but our fault.

The hotel seems designed to absorb our money, though at least the internet access is free (I hope). The bellboy who brought our luggage (he wouldn't let us take it up ourselves) redeemed himself by being very friendly and helpful, assisting us in changing rooms when we were given a twin instead of a double (we did ask Ms Joe for doubles!).

It was late, we were away from any shops and only the western restaurant was open and changing high prices. We were "forced" to purchase pot noodles from the hotel shop. The hotel has no message to say that we are booked on tomorrow's tour of the terracotta warriors, despite us having paid for it. Finally, I can't find my ATM card - must have misplaced it.

I hope things are back to smooth tomorrow. I'm tired (too much late night blogging) and a little disappointed with the results of letting someone else book. I don't like this hotel's location and I don't like the one in Shanghai either. For both places I had better options I found myself. Already I'm wondering if we are pushing things too quickly now.

Time to relax for tomorrow's early start.

Flight to Hong Kong

Friday was a panicked blur as I attempted to fit in last minute tasks before our departure overseas. In the morning we said goodbye to our 7 month old puppy, leaving him with the in-laws and their two cavalier king charles. B returned home, but I had a day at work, though I arrived late. The farewell lunch for my move to Maquarie University and Darren's to a new job was a pleasant chance to meet with my friends for the last time in a month. If not for that I would probably have been too immersed in work to talk.

The afternoon included a last minute dash to Epping to pick up a replacement ATM card that had arrived just in time for the trip. Then I packed away the last of my papers and said goodbye. As I walked down the path to Epping station for my train ride to the airport I felt like my journey had begun.

I have always felt that evenings are the best time to begin a journey. The day is over and the mystery of the night about to begin. I was glad to be leaving Sydney that night, the sticky, humid air my least favoured of climatic conditions.

Eventually B turned up, her brother driving her to the airport after a day off work. We had alredy checked in over the internet and just had to pickup our boarding passes and drop off our bags, two packpacks.

I had never flown Cathay Pacific and overall I was impressed. Unfortunately I was only able to obtain window seats near the rear of the plane, so we felt every little bump. Worse was the knowledge that the movement is always bigger at the rear and the fear of that unexpected air pocket that would drop us metres in seconds. It never came, but it was a moderately rough flight with the seat belt sign turned on a couple of times mid-flight.

At least the air was fresh the entire flight and the flight attendents very helpful. Neither of us ate the late supper. B slept, as usual, but I had at most half an hour. Instead I watched the seat-back entertainment, often unclear due to the excessive recline of the passenger in front of me. I saw South Park (lets go ninjas!), Little Britain, Office Space and Night at the Museum. The humour certainly helped to pass the time, I hope my laughter didn't disturb anyone.