Xi'an Swallows Time

Journey update: .. Datong > Hohhot > Huitengxile > Hohhot > Taiyuan > Zhengzhou > Xi'an >

So we are in Xi'an. Large, open city with plenty of pollution and people not interested in tourists (to the point of being rude!)
We have been here 2 weeks! Why!!!!
Well first we mainly needed rest, which we've now had an abundance of, and secondly we've been waiting for train tickets. Train tickets are truly hard to come by (demand from an overpopulated country with an infrastructure unable to cope with the numbers) and harder to actually buy!

We first go to the train station and wait at the 5 day advance ticket booth (the longest you can book in advance) to ask for tickets to Zhengye (to begin the Silk Road) and are told all sold out for the next 5 days! Shit! So we leave and decide to come back the next day at opening, 7:00am, to get in first. My birthday pooed on that idea as I wasn't going to get up at 6:00am. The following day, 29th August, we tried again. All sold out for the next 5 days! So we are armed with plan 'B'. From Xi'an to Lanzhou (The Most Polluted City In The World) where we can then buy a bus ticket to Zengye overnight. What a palaver!

The damn station that ruins everything


We saw the Terracotta Warriors. Not the most stunning of things, the pictures and blurb I've seen about this before I arrived raised my expectations very high! Still I was impressed by the shear size and detail that's gone into the project. 700,000 forced laborers were sacrificed to construct his tomb which was begun as soon as he ascended the throne. All workers and childless concubines were interred with him to safeguard its secrets.

How did they make these cool things?

It was by constructing each of the hollow statues upon solid legs that the Ancient Chinese craftsmen solved the perplexing problem of how to make a statue free-standing. Hollow heads, arms and legs, made of coiled earth, were joined together with strips of clay and set upon the solid legs. After this rough model was assembled, a fine clay slip was added, and details such as eyes, mouth, nose and details of dress were carved into the clay while it was still pliable. Additional pieces such as ears, beard and armour were modeled separately and attached, after which the whole figure was fired at a high temperature.

The warriors in formation


The 26th was my wonderful girlfriend's birthday. She is now 26 years old and doesn't look a day older. We spent her birthday lounging and buying her gifts.....

My bird



Our YH has a fantastic view. (If Frenchy is reading this: Fantastic View!)
We get to stay in the expensive rooms for cheaper because they touted us from the train station. We've spent a disproportionate amount of time sitting there reading and talking. One night some of us blokes got drinking and after the hostel bar was closed we decided, rather loudly, to go clubbing. It was a lot of fun, but disturbing to see some of the others turn into horrendously arrogant foreigners in the street. I was the only one who could speak Chinese so the group were forever saying "Martin, go talk!" Well I bargained for stuff and ask about for a cool nightclub where we could rock our bodies.

Anyway we got to a club, the 1+1, and waited outside while we drained our bottles of beer. On waiting a couple of Chinese 'whoopsies' came out and started chatting us up! One of the Dutch didn't take too kindly to this and kept saying in a drunken slur "You like the woomen". Then they caught sight of two in our group, Dutch man and Russian man, both over six feet with long blonde hair, well he was bored with us and skipped off excited as a could be!
We spent the night dancing badly to Chinese club music and avoiding the odd weirdo that stood motionless in front of us staring.
Great night, but not good after morning feeling.



The Bell Tower. View from the YH


On my birthday, bloody 27 already, we decided to leave the YH and cycle around the city wall. A beautiful ride, better on a bicycle as it is a 3 hour walk of similar looking things, with great views from above.

The city wall. (With thanks from stevecadman's Flickr account)



Now the exciting news! We have been sent a little birthday gift from home we have decided to spend one night of luxury in a five star hotel.

Thanks Mum, Dad, Val and Jerry.

We are very excited and can't wait for the night, the 1st of September. We walked past the Hyatt Regency Xian Hotel recently and couldn't resist a look. Well we were totally under the spell, feeling rather inadequate too, but persevered for a reservation. It will be over 16 times the price our average night costs! Plus we get breakfast and cocktails with snacks in the evening. We're going to find the pool and all the other free services and indulge. After the Hyatt fun we are leaving Xi'an at 10:30pm on the train. We're actually embarrassed to ask where to catch the bus to go to the train station!

The Hyatt Regency Xian from outside


Click here for the website:
Hyatt Regency Xian Hotel Website

Now we are going to save some money making ham sandwiches and drinking a bag of yoghurt!

MC

Happy Birthday

This is a little HAPPY BIRTHDAY Blog for you Katie!!



I remember because it's the same date as mine and Kate reminds me!

MC

Zhengzhou Chinese Family and Shaolin KungFu

Journey update: .. Datong > Hohhot > Huitengxile > Hohhot > Taiyuan >
Zhengzhou > Xi'an

It was a long train ride from Hohhot to
Zhengzhou. No direct train, so
we went via Taiyuan and there bought another ticket.
We left Hohhot on the overnight train, arrived at Taiyuan early in the morning, bought another sleeper ticket for Zhengzhou. On the train we went a cute and
curious 9 year old girl. She spoke great English and we chatted, long
story short, she invited us to stay with the family in Zhengzhou!
Amazing luck and what a wonderful chance to experience first-hand
Chinese life. We accepted gratefully not sure how to proceed.

The family's apartment was on the 7th floor, with no elevator, we hiked
up the stairs in the stinking heat, sweating and giving off a pungent
stale smell (with 24 hours on a train behind us with nothing more than
teeth brushing!). I for one was ready for bed and hearing they had
aircon was feeding my enthusiasm. However the flat was humid, warm and
the little fan went on. Luckily I'm a man (I've had this thought
countless times in my life!) and I removed my shirt. Kate however had
to suck it up!

Quickly enough we left for a meal. It was a big and delicious fare, too
much for everyone to eat and I was pressured into drinking too much
liquor which was 45%. I struggled, with a stretched belly with all the
food, drinking too much of this foul liquor and being massively tired
and runny-nosed. Of course we didn't pay, but went through the motions
of wanting to do so. We always debated when to offer and when to just
say thanks, a social minefield! Anyway, great food over we settled for
the night in the coldest room in town, if it's suitable to even moan, it
was freezing. The family switched on the aircon but left the remote
hidden! But their hospitality was amazing and I was refusing to get
uptight.

Early start and breakfast made for us, fried eggs, flat bread and sweet
lentil soup.
We walked around town together, Apple (the 9 year old kid) and her
father (No English name). We went to the Renmin Park. Amazing little
park, like the city, clean, open and friendly. Only good things to say
about the park and the city as a whole.

Zhengzhou City


Great place to bring up a family and the transport hub of China. In
fact the train station is bigger than any other, even Beijing.

The park had a London Eye equivalent, great views. I refrained from any
fast moving rides, after the night before I was in no mood for stomach
churning loops. Then we entered the ice festival, in the middle of
summer. Considering we were sweating just walking around and felt tired
in the heat we were excited by the prospect of getting a little cooler.
Great idea. I'm bloody English, the cold is a way of life. Let me in.
So we pay and enter, the little Chinese man hands me a coat. I shrug,
thinking "no need mate". He opens the freezer door and shit I nearly
cough in surprise at the cold. It's a giant freezer warehouse, full of
ice sculptures and I'm in a thin shirt and shorts. Damn, I'm going to
get a cold in here! The cold, dry air blast around me. I struggle to
get the coat over my bag. Kate helps before my fingers and lips turn
purple. We go on an ice slide and look at the Russian, Japanese and
Chinese inspired carvings. Castles, whales and other cool things. We
eventually leave and as we get outside I start to warm-up again.

We were also invited to the grandparents for duck and vegetables. A
wonderful meal. More beer of course! Our adopted father loves the
stuff! In the evening we chatted and looked at photo albums. We ate a
meal in the house again, another chicken delight with various things
including bitter cucumbers that tasted like coffee.

Up early in the morning, our hosts insisted. A sadistic down-side to
our great family! Shit I was getting tired again! We left for the
Shaolin Monestary bus, the main reason for coming. The Shaolin monks
are famous for their pottery and basket weaving.... hehe... their
martial arts and its the birthplace of KungFu.

Long story short, we got on a long tour. We left at 9:30am and arrived
home at 8:00pm. We say loads of groovy China history stuff, including:

• A Temple


• Confucious Academy


• A Confucious quote:
  

  "When you see a good man, try to emulate his example, and
  when you see a
  bad man, search yourself for his faults."



• Mini Shaolin monastery


• The Shaolin monastery



Built in 495, the Shaolin monastery was originally designed
to house Batuo,
a celebrated Indian monk, who, after many years of spreading Buddhism,
was later known as Fo Tuo, or Grand Monk. In 537, another famous Indian
monk, Boddhidharma, settled in the monastery, and as legend has it,
created
a sort of primitive bare-hand combat routine called “xingyi boxing”
after he had sat meditating in a cave for nine years.

The Confucious academy was great too, but really just looked like many
other temples.

The thinking man himself, Confucious


We saw these dudes jumping about doing manly things. One guy
threw a nail through a plain of glass!

Shaolin Monks


The next day we were hoping for a lay-in, not to be... as usual our
adopted father woke us up crazily early and we ate breakfast and did our
regular question asking with big smiles saying how great everything was.
We even had a small debate over Taiwan and China..... oh no! Well I
said I'd travelled Taiwan for two years and plan a year in China. Well
that was it.... NO! You are travelling China for three years.... I just
smiled and said nothing. No reason to work him up, and not his fault
the media had brain-washed him with the same answer we hear from every
Chinese person. Only those who've left the country, maybe to study,
consider the idea of independence! Well this is small progress, but not
at this house on this issue. No worry.

So we left that day around 9:30am ready for our 11:30 departure. We
said goodbye, tired from the constant rushing around and straining to
make conversation but pleased and humbled to have been let into their
lives for a brief moment.

So here I am in Xi'an, ready to update the other bits
we've done.
A list for those on the edge of their seats:

1. Terracotta warriors


2. Hot Spring


3. Student business boys


4. Kate's Birthday (guess how old!)

MC

Inner Mongolia Huitengxile Grassland

Journey update: .. Datong > Hohot > Huitengxile > Hohot > Taiyuan > Zhengzhou > Xi'an

So we are now in a smoke filled Internet cafe in Hohhot, by 6:00pm we we'll be on a night train heading for Taiyuan. We don't plan to stay in Taiyuan, just a jumping board to our planned destination, Xi'an.

We've just spent two days and one night in Huitengxile, reputedly the most beautiful grassland foreigners can visit. It was amazing, especially as we've been travelling in the east and north-east of China which has been predominantly dirty, over-populated cities. Yuk!

We left our hotel at about 9am in a little minibus filled with the two of us, 2 Japanese guys and a South Korean guy. (We later met up with another minibus with 2 Dutch girls, a Korean/American guy and an older Korean lady) Our guide spoke wonderful English so that was a huge bonus! However he was rather obsessed with getting us to sing songs in the car on the way there... he kept saying "Japan sing song now", then "Ok now you Korea!". It was very funny, the entire 2-day trip he referred to people by their nationality... screaming "Oi Holland, come here!" or whatever. This country-name-calling didn't extend to Kate and I however, for some strange reason he'd decided that we were a lovely couple and needed special treatment - he referred to us as "happy family". So he'd say "OK, happy family I meet you in 10 minutes, OK?".

After a 2-hour ride through some gorgeous lands (mountains, green hills, rivers etc) we finally arrived at the gatepost to the grasslands. It was so beautiful, just miles upon miles of grassy plains in all directions, sheep and horses dotted all over and nothing else to be seen. Well except the environmentally friendly wind turbines! As we drove further in we started to see small groupings of yurts here and there. Some were rather touristy, more like round concrete houses than anything else but, luckily for us, we stayed in slightly more authentic ones. They still had concrete floors but with material sides and roof with beautiful designs.

A yurt


The "happy family" were given a yurt all to ourselves... continuing the special treatment (I'm not complaining!), which was nice because we could then make a nice big bed in the middle so we could sleep away from the sides (where all the nasty man eating bugs live!).
After we'd all settled in, we were given lunch in a big communal yurt in the centre of our little 'village'... I went in rather sceptical as I'd heard from the American's we met in Datong that Mongolian food consisted purely of mutton, with salty milk tea on the side! True enough, there was the mutton, all on the bone ready to be gnawed. But luckily enough, there were enough tasty side dishes to fill all of us - lots of veggies and other Chinese delights. I must say though, that I really enjoyed the mutton, I was filling up after almost 3 years of no lamb!! (But no bloody mint sauce!)

Kate had been craving steamed buns before we arrived and there were even some of them on the table for her!! Lovely lunch. I also enjoyed the milk tea... lovely black tea with milk, all hot and ready to be drunk, with salt instead of sugar. Strange, but you get used to it. Kate was less impressed, fussy eater that one! It's a traditional Mongolian drink which is served throughout the day and with every meal... but poor old Kate just couldn't stomach it. Even when the wind picked up and it was really cold outside she couldn't bring herself to drink it, I drank it and stayed relatively warm. Yum!!

After lunch we were given free time until the evening, and after chatting with all our new tour buddies, we all decided that this was a perfect time to go horse riding.
I was excited, but nervous as I'd never had lessons nor even ridden a horse. Kate was better off as she'd learned to ride until her horse died and stopped riding.

Neither of us needed to have worried however... the Mongolian horses were really small and we weren't even allowed to ride freely... we were all led by the horses owner! A little disappointing but nothing compared to what happened to Kate and I next...
We all set off in a big group, all of us planning on a one-hour ride (too expensive for any longer!). Martin and I soon noticed that we were lagging behind the others though, and wondered why?? Kate's horse, poor thing, kept stopping and trying to turn around as her foal had not followed us so she was worried. We knew our guide had spoken to the two people leading our horses and told them to keep the "happy family" together, but this was still no reason to seperate us from the rest of the group (also only riding for 1 hour). After a while we were turned around and headed off back to the yurts, strange considering we'd only been riding for about 20 minutes. After taking us back past the yurts, collecting the foal on the way, Kate made a comment (Her Chinese is excellent now, thanks Solly!) about the time and they agreed to continue walking us a little further.

This entire time the woman leading Kate's horse bugged her by banging her leg and asking for money. We thought that they were trying to say that after the ride, we should give them the money directly instead of giving it to the offical guy back at camp. I had no problem with that, thinking that unless we did that they wouldn't see half the money we paid, but Kate was still really irritated by the constant leg-banging!
As we walked across the silly little bit of grass behind our yurts, us thoroughly annoyed that we hadn't stuck with our friends, my horse suddenly fell over!! Kate'd noticed it's leg was a little strange but hadn't realised it was that serious. The whole horse collapsed under me, all four legs crumpled. I got such a shock, but luckily didn't get hurt, luckily I jumped off as the horse hit the ground. We were now pissed off. I wasn't getting on the horse, I told the horse-man to shut up, angry at him for allowing the horse to be so sick and we walked back. I felt terrible for the horse and fuming at the situation. Of course they wanted all the money, we refused and tried to pay just over half the cost. My horse was broken! Anyway after some discussions we paid a little under the original price, from 100 Yuan to 80 Yuan for 1 hour each. And our friendly guide promised to give us another free ride in the morning. Not with the crappy people we had before!

Mongolian man and his horses


We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with our new friends inside a yurt and waiting for supper. At 6pm we were driven to a place to watch horse racing and wrestling... but that didn't happen either! The rain had made the ground really wet and slippery so it was too dangerous. Never mind... back to the yurts for dinner and some Mongolian music/alcohol/dancing.

The dinner was nice, pretty much the same as lunch (and more yummy milk tea!), but it was unfortunately accompanied by the strongest, most foul liquor I've ever had to drink. Nobody could bow out of drinking it as it is considered a Mongolian custom, and is presented to you by brightly dressed 'Mongols' with sashes... but Kate did at least manage to swop some of hers with her new Korean friend and fill her glass with water (sneaky!!). The custom dates back to the days of old Ghengis Khan, when he apparently out-drank an opponent and thereby won a battle before it had even began.

Later that evening Kate and I enjoyed some star-gazing (in the cities you just don't see them!) and then played cards with our two new Dutch friends.

The next morning we woke up at 4:30am (as instructed by our guide) and went out to watch the sunrise. It was freezing!! I couldn't believe how cold it was... and the annoying thing was that the sun didn't bloody-well rise till almost 6am!! But by that time we were already back in bed... we'd given up after about 30 minutes. It was lovely and quiet out there, but sitting in a duvet watching the sky not change from bluey-orange to redy-orange wasn't that fun.

To his word the tour man paid for 1 hour each for Kate and I. We had such a great time, the horses were fit, strong and the girls guidig us were lovely. So we felt appeased and high-spirited in the sun and beautiful blue skies.
Kate and I went for a gorgeous walk out into the grasslands... we met a lovely shepard there and just enjoyed the sunshine. It was so lovely that we almost got left behind - we had to practically run back to meet the car at 11:30!

Once back in Hohhot, we spent time just wandering around the city, buying food in the supermarket ready for the train journey, and doing nothing much else!!!

All in all a mixed experience, but we were throughly glad to have had the chance to see Inner Monogila.

Inner Mongolia with roaming sheep



MC

The Journey so far and the tentative Plan

After some requests I thought I'd add a little blog that shows every place we've stayed in and our tentative plan for the coming months.

The Journey:

Taiwan > Hong Kong > Beijing > Harbin > Yanji > Songjianghe >Changbai Mountain > Dandong > Dalian > Dandong > Chengde > Beijing > Datong > Hohhot > Taiyuan

The Tenatative Plan:

Taiyuan > ZhengZhou > Xi'an > ..... Now it gets vague!..... Follow "The Silk Road" > Urumqi > Kashgar > Pakistan (via The Khyber Pass) > Tibet > Nepal > India > Burma > Thailand > Cambodia > Laos > Vietnam > Malaysia/Indonesia (?) > Southern China > Shanghai > Japan (?) > Trans Siberian Train to Moscow > Eastern Europe > England

This is our plan to date, however things change quickly and we certainly won't do everything in this order or go to everyplace. The plan has changed a number of times but we hope to get most of it in!

Any comments or suggetions are welcome. Add a comment or email.

MC

Datong behind us, Hohhot on the horizon

Since the last blog, we spent 5 nights in Beijing, going there for rest and recuperation and
certainly none of that sightseeing jazz, as we'd already done this the
first time. We needed to get our Hepatitis A + B jabs, which was hassle
free, but left us fatigued and I had to carry Kate in my arms as she
swooned (hahaha).

We left Beijing on the night train at 23:30, a clean and beautiful train
compared to ALL the others. The sleeper dorms had aircon and smelt
fresh (a smell I've recently forgotten, considering the toilets,
pollution and smoking). The journey was smooth and temperate, once I
fell asleep I was woken again just before we arrived in Datong. A mere
6 and a half hour journey, I could've done it for a longer time.

First impressions of Datong are good, cheap accomodation being the most
important thing so far. Our room mates went to the grottoes today and
absolutely loved it. The grottoes are huge underground caves with cave
carrvings, paintings and a giant Buddha statue. We can't wait for tomorrow when
it's our turn!

Kate is feeling a little sick, but it's not serious and the extra sleep
here is all she needs, a fragile woman I can take care of!

Just ate the best "cut noodles". The chef slices a long piece of dough
with a grater and flecks of noodle arc into the boiling water. I stared
for a while wondering how he was doing it!

--------
UPDATE - Saturday 12th
--------
Thursday the 10th we went to the Buddhist grottoes just outside Datong, we saw the amazing cave carvings and paintings which are over 1,500 years old. They were commissioned by the Chinese because of the persecution against the Buddhist religion for years. The lime caves are easy to carve, making for intricate designs, but difficult to paint over. What to do? Well the answer is stick lots of wooden pegs in the carving, cover it in mud and paint over the mud. Solution!

The centre piece is the 17 metre Buddha carved out of the cave wall. It is so beautiful, the colours around the face are still really clear and shiny. The rest is less well preserved, but what can one expect after 1,500 years with no maid to dust.

The Grottoe caves spread along the edge of the mountain


The smaller Buddha carving, the cave walls around it have since fallen apart


Some of the hut things built into the mountian



We also passed an interesting site on the way back on the bus, the Datong Coal Mining Exhibition. I was half tempted to get off and have a look, but decided I needed to rest having spent all day on my feet looking at the grottoes. The surrounding area is filled with smog and factory after factory. In fact we were told that Datong boasts the third most polluted city in the world! Our clothes are changing from bright white to sludge grey. Time to move on, my lungs need a rest!

Yesterday we spent the day wondering around town, lovely little side roads and temples everywhere. We met a sweet 20 year old student keen to speak to foreigners. We thought it would be fun and she took us around. She took us through the appraised version of Datong's historical monuments, including the Nine Dragon Wall, Drum Tower and a couple of Buddhist temples. Amazing day. She even walked around with us in the supermarket, it felt like she was mothering us, but we didn't want to hurt her feelings.

The Nine Dragon Wall, used to screen temples from the ugly peasants outside!


Today we leave for Hohhot, which is in Inner Mongolia, where we hope to catch a glimpse of the grasslands.

MC (Hope the pictures work!)

Goodbye Dandong, Hello Chengde and Beijing

Time for an update!

Our last day in Dandong, before leaving for Chengde, included a trip to find the "Museum to Commemorate Aiding Korea Against US Agression". This is a story all of its own... a story of pain, suffering, and hunger - on our part!!! We were supposed to take a bus (directed by some dude on the internet) out of Dandong and get off at the sports stadium. Simple.

However, we ended up on a 2 hour bus journey so far out of Dandong that we started driving through potholes and flooded roads in rural China. No sports stadium in sight. I even forced us to get off at one stage (it was POURING with rain! serious thunderstorm) to investigate a building that looked like the one he'd seen on the internet... unfortunately it was only a school, surrounded by a moat of fast flowing flood water (which we crossed... Kate in trainers!). I felt bad! But now I'm over it.

What to do? After securing the help of the bus driver, the bus ticket lady and many locals from the streets, we decided to take the same bus back into Dandong and try again. We'd tried all our Chinese, even drawn a little picture of a fighter jet, and American, Korean and Chinese flag - all to no avail. No one had any clue of where we were trying to go.
At last, when almost back at the bus station where we'd started our journey, a guy pointed out the elusive sports stadium! Success!! We jumped off the bus feeling elated and ready to see the museum.
But Murphy was out to get us again!

After another hour walk around following all the instructions from the internet and even searching up random streets we were still no closer to finding the damn museum. The only thing we could see was a huge memorial column on a hill. It couldn't be that we thought.
But in the end... it bloody was. After snacking on a few sandwiches we'd made earlier, we climbed up the hill and discovered to our frustration that the museum was there all the time!! By now it was 4:30pm and it shut at 5pm so we were reluctant to spend a lot of money on the entrance fee to get in. I did manage a good wander around and an oggle at all the manly machines outside though :)

Chengde:

So we took an overnight train to Chengde, a great idea because it saves money for a hotel and we wake up in the new town early in the morning ready for the day! This was the plan, however, we made the critical mistake of picking the cheap upper bunks. They were stinking hot and mosquitoes ate us while we stewed in our own sweat (like when you wake up from smelling your own odour, sweating in a sticky tent). The fans turned off at 10pm and all the Chinese people wanted the windows closed... why? We're not so sure. So we sneakily tried to open the windows after everyone had gone to sleep, but the old man underneath us decided to close them again! Fool.

In Chengde we had a massive slice of sightseeing pie, but at a cost. Oh the pain of handing over all our hard earned cash to get a glipse of a temple and some mountains! We went to the "Temple of Universal Peace", which is one of the twelve temples built on the outskirts of Chengde during the Qing dynasty. Inside we were treated to the TALLEST, oh yes, TALLEST wooden Buddha in the WORLD. ("The Goddess of Mercy" rising to a staggering 22.3 metres, with 42 arms and weighing 110 tons, even if this was mostly dust!)

After this we headed for the Imperial Summer Villa, a vast area of land that is walled in and was home and office to many emperors, including my favourite Kangxie (spelling?). He was the emperor during China's imperial boom period.

While wandering the acres of beautiful pagoda-dotted land in the Villa, we ate gross stawberry jam-filled rolls that we'd bought thinking they were normal plain ones in the shop! We went for a paddle in a paddle boat around the lake, saw some wild reindeer with massive antlers and generally had a relaxing day. We went for a walk into the outer regions, not bothering to take the internal bus (too expensive) and headed up the hills. What luck... we trekked for some time and then came upon a beautiful pagoda where we watched the sunset behind the mountains. Quite stunning! Perfect end to a perfect day.

We left the next day and now find ourselves super relaxed in a cheap Beijing hostel. Tomorrow we're going to get our jabs (last ones) and then it's Datong. I will read up on it tomorrow, but I think there is cheap accomodation and temples, bits of the Great Wall and other stuff worth investigating. Cool. Inner Mongolia here we come. The West of China is our next conquest. The north east has been fun but time for more beauty and cheapness!! (I hope)

Bye for now.

MC