Yes, I'm by myself ......

........ and no, I don't mind being alone. I love travelling by myself to different places. It doesn't bother me wandering around by myself, going out for dinner by myself or staying at a hostel by myself. But, a lot of people seem to think it should bother me. Most trips I have been on alone, I always get looks of pity or comments. Sure, it's fun to hang out with others from time to timel but on the whole, travel alone has a lot going for it. You can see and do exactly what you want, when you want. You meet a lot more people when you're on your own and have interesting conversations that you probably wouldn't have if you were part of a group. And, you get valuable thinking time to yourself. I actually happen to enjoy spending time with myself, maybe a lot of people don't enjoy their own company?!

Beijing Duck for one.

So, around Beijing I travelled alone! The best day was on the Great Wall - a long walk in the sunshine, with several hours of not talking to many people at all. I feel like I have returned to Wuxi (with sunny skies!) feeling a lot more refreshed and invigorated than I normally would after a weekend. The quietness really struck me too, I was able to have several really good night sleeps because it was just so quiet and still in the hutongs. I only realised that last night as I went to bed here in Wuxi where there are constant sounds of traffic and construction going on pretty much 24 hours a day.

'Real' massage centre - a two hour massage that had me in lots of pain!

I also had fun meeting and hanging out with some new people in Beijing. I met several guys (why are there never any single girls out there to meet and hang out with?!) at Ben's hostel, who joined us when we ventured out for the very touristy Kung Fu show on Monday night. One of them is going to come and visit in Wuxi or Shanghai and the other is off to Mongolia, so will email me with his thoughts and advice on that trip. I probably wouldn't have met these people if I'd been part of a big group.

Kung Fu show.

Another aside from the 'travelling alone' theme, I had a funny experience on Sunday night after my lovely day of walking. I decided to go for a massage, one hour foot and one hour body. The centre was a local Chinese medicine facility, so no fancy things like having a beer or watching a DVD. Just hard massage. I like a hard massage, but this was excruciatingly painful and I spent much of the massage gritting my teeth with tears in my eyes whilst saying 'Tong! Tong!' ('Hurt! Hurt!'). But I knew it was good for me, so I persisted. However, the funny part came at the end when the guy sat me up and proceeded to point to different parts of my body (neck, shoulder, lower back, butt, wrist) and say 'Bu hao' in a very stern voice. 'Bu hao' is not something you want to hear after a massage - 'Not good'. Will definitely need to get these bits checked out back in Australia in a few months. But that's not it. He then pointed to my stomach and after much sign language and phrase book referral, I worked out that he was telling me I was too fat. This is not what I wanted to hear considering my training and the fact that I need to wear a bikini in 2 weeks. Despite protesting that I'd just eaten a big meal of Beijing Duck (for one!), he insisted that I was too fat. Lucky that I've been craving a decent run for the last few days!