Will post pictures and more details when we're back in Paris on Thursday.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Loire Valley
Not enough time for a real post but we are in the Loire Valley for a few days looking at chateaux (castles).
Will post pictures and more details when we're back in Paris on Thursday.
Will post pictures and more details when we're back in Paris on Thursday.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Spending time in Paris
I've spent the last couple of days mostly with may family doing various things in preparation for Christmas. I really love France (and Paris in particular) but there are definitely some things that I like that aren't done the same way either in Australia or China. One is the politeness. Every shop you go into people say "Bonjour monsieur" and they always sound so cheery. Then when you leave it's "Merci monsieur, au revoir, bon journee". I like it, it's great!
The other thing is shopping for food. It really could be a full time job here. You stop at the baker, the butcher, the patissier, the fruit market, the fromagerie (cheese shop), the wine shop and sometimes the supermarket as well. This afternoon my sister and I spent about 3 hours out and only managed to get enough food for the day! We did find these fantastic meringues though.
We'd been looking for a Christmas tree for a few days that was big enough. Most people in Paris have quite small apartments and so quite small trees. The embassy has very big apartments though, so we needed an appropriately sized tree and there weren't very many around. My sister and my mother came home yesterday though with the instructions "put your shoes on, we've bought a tree and you need to carry it". So I head out with my sister to find the man with the tree. It's about 25 minutes walk or so. We get there and the tree is about 2.5m tall with a huge half log on the bottom to keep it stable. I could barely lift it! I managed to get it on my shoulder and carry it about 150m before we gave up and my sister left to get my brother in law. I got a lot of very strange looks along with a few "quelle grand sapin" form people. She finally came back and here's the tree on the streets of Paris.
The shop we bought it from is just out of sight in the background! My dad rocked up and we carried it back to the apartment where we had the unveiling ceremony, National Lampoon's Christmas style
Lucky the apartment is so damn big! So tonight it'll be decorating the tree which should be nice with the family all here (except Jane, hurry up and get here :).
I was out on the Champs-Elysees the other day (as one does!) and ordered a capuccino (because Australia is the only place that understands flat whites) and here's what I got
Yes that is whipped cream on the top. Definitely the weirdest capuccino I've ever had in my life! I was very confused when she gave it to me but she acted like it was the most normal thing in the world. Maybe she's never seen a capuccino before? Well she still hasn't!
Weekend tomorrow so the big shops will all be totally packed so I might do some local shopping here then head to the department stores (Le Printemps and Galeries LaFayette) early next week for some more in depth shopping :)
The other thing is shopping for food. It really could be a full time job here. You stop at the baker, the butcher, the patissier, the fruit market, the fromagerie (cheese shop), the wine shop and sometimes the supermarket as well. This afternoon my sister and I spent about 3 hours out and only managed to get enough food for the day! We did find these fantastic meringues though.
I was out on the Champs-Elysees the other day (as one does!) and ordered a capuccino (because Australia is the only place that understands flat whites) and here's what I got
Weekend tomorrow so the big shops will all be totally packed so I might do some local shopping here then head to the department stores (Le Printemps and Galeries LaFayette) early next week for some more in depth shopping :)
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
First day in Paris
So I managed to make it to my sister's house without too many issues. I also managed to stay awake until 10:30pm (5:30am Beijing time) which was nice. I then woke up at 8am Beijing time (1am) and a few more times, and finally gave up sleeping about 6:30am. Not too bad an effort. The view from the balcony is straight out at the Eiffel Tower, it's pretty special.
After a slow start with getting Lily ready to go (babies take lots of time), my sister, my mum and I went to Boulevard Haussman to the big department stores, Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. It was nice to get out in Paris again, the clothes, decorations and stuff are great here. I think I will spend a bit of money on clothes and shoes :) Lily was fine, not crying or anything. One problem with little kids is that the metro is really not designed for them. There are very few lifts and the turnstiles won't fit a pram or normal stroller through them and they're built really high to stop people jumping them. They have gates but there's almost never anyone there to open them. So Lily went in the baby carrier but it's not clear how long she'll fit in there, she's getting bigger pretty quickly.
I'm thinking about a few different options for stuff to do over the next week or so before Jane gets here. My parents are talking about going to Amsterdam which might be nice. I haven't been there before and it would be a fairly quick trip on the train. If anyone has any other suggestions for me, let me know!
After a slow start with getting Lily ready to go (babies take lots of time), my sister, my mum and I went to Boulevard Haussman to the big department stores, Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. It was nice to get out in Paris again, the clothes, decorations and stuff are great here. I think I will spend a bit of money on clothes and shoes :) Lily was fine, not crying or anything. One problem with little kids is that the metro is really not designed for them. There are very few lifts and the turnstiles won't fit a pram or normal stroller through them and they're built really high to stop people jumping them. They have gates but there's almost never anyone there to open them. So Lily went in the baby carrier but it's not clear how long she'll fit in there, she's getting bigger pretty quickly.
I'm thinking about a few different options for stuff to do over the next week or so before Jane gets here. My parents are talking about going to Amsterdam which might be nice. I haven't been there before and it would be a fairly quick trip on the train. If anyone has any other suggestions for me, let me know!
Traveling to Paris
It's funny cause all the other international flights I've taken have been with non-Chinese airlines. I can now testify that it makes a REALLY BIG difference. Normally I would plug in my headphones, queue up a bunch of crappy (or ideally not crappy) movies and watch them until I fall asleep for a few minutes. My flight from Beijing to Paris (it was non stop which is ok) was on a littlish sort of plane with no entertainment (aside from the old-style overhead monitors that you can't see). I had a suspicion this would be the case so I brought my laptop etc along. But what happens is that the (mostly) Chinese fliers all stand in the aisles yelling at each other, or they all watch movies on their iPads with the sound up or they all play games (also with the sound up). It's pretty annoying! So the one flight I want to sleep through is also during the day so I really should stay awake. GRRRR!
An interesting thing happened very early in the flight though. If you've been following my blog (and if not WHY NOT?)(also I understand :) you would already know that yesterday Jane and I and her friend from work Jie Xia (Jessie) went skiing at a place just outside Beijing. It was roughly an hour out of town. Well about 5 minutes after we take off, what do we fly over but the ski place. It was easily recognised by the fact that it's all man-made snow in the middle of a brown string of hills. Sort of sticks out a little! And if you've been reading even further back (and you should have been) then you would clearly remember my camping trip on the Great Wall. If not, please take this opportunity to remind yourself. Right, well I flew over the same spot. It looks pretty much the same from up here too. ABout 10 minutes after that though, everything went white and snow covered and it's been that way for the last 5 hours or so. Mongolia and southern (and probably even more so northern) Russia are seriously empty and desolate. There is nothing here but hills, snow and (very few) trees. No roads, railways and certainly no towns. Jessie was saying that last year they went horse riding in Inner Mongolia last year and that maybe we should do it again. It would be interesting but do you think they'll let me swap the horse for a trail bike? I really don't like horses.
I finally watched the first episode of Game of Thrones. I've read the (existing) books a few times but for some reason never quite got around to watching the show. I guess I've slightly avoided them because 1) I know the story isn't finished and 2) the author is producing one book every 5 or so years, one just came out and he seems pretty fed up with the whole thing really. Still, I enjoyed the show, I think I will definitely try to watch the rest of the episodes. Would have been nice if they'd called it "A Song of Ice and Fire" cause Game of Thrones was just the first book. At least I have an advantage of knowing who the many, many, many characters are :)
I should probably also have brought more than a single episode for my 11 hour flight! I also should really invest in more games on my mac than ones I can't run without running the battery down like Oblivion/Minecraft/Terraria and less battery intensive but also less interesting games that I'm not very good at like chess/mahjong. I won 3 chess games in a row against the computer which is a record for me because I don't think I've ever actually won a game before :) At least I how the pieces work.
So I'm kind of running down my battery and hoping that some award- and cash-winning novel idea will come to me (and that I could write it). Nothing so far though.
An interesting thing happened very early in the flight though. If you've been following my blog (and if not WHY NOT?)(also I understand :) you would already know that yesterday Jane and I and her friend from work Jie Xia (Jessie) went skiing at a place just outside Beijing. It was roughly an hour out of town. Well about 5 minutes after we take off, what do we fly over but the ski place. It was easily recognised by the fact that it's all man-made snow in the middle of a brown string of hills. Sort of sticks out a little! And if you've been reading even further back (and you should have been) then you would clearly remember my camping trip on the Great Wall. If not, please take this opportunity to remind yourself. Right, well I flew over the same spot. It looks pretty much the same from up here too. ABout 10 minutes after that though, everything went white and snow covered and it's been that way for the last 5 hours or so. Mongolia and southern (and probably even more so northern) Russia are seriously empty and desolate. There is nothing here but hills, snow and (very few) trees. No roads, railways and certainly no towns. Jessie was saying that last year they went horse riding in Inner Mongolia last year and that maybe we should do it again. It would be interesting but do you think they'll let me swap the horse for a trail bike? I really don't like horses.
I finally watched the first episode of Game of Thrones. I've read the (existing) books a few times but for some reason never quite got around to watching the show. I guess I've slightly avoided them because 1) I know the story isn't finished and 2) the author is producing one book every 5 or so years, one just came out and he seems pretty fed up with the whole thing really. Still, I enjoyed the show, I think I will definitely try to watch the rest of the episodes. Would have been nice if they'd called it "A Song of Ice and Fire" cause Game of Thrones was just the first book. At least I have an advantage of knowing who the many, many, many characters are :)
I should probably also have brought more than a single episode for my 11 hour flight! I also should really invest in more games on my mac than ones I can't run without running the battery down like Oblivion/Minecraft/Terraria and less battery intensive but also less interesting games that I'm not very good at like chess/mahjong. I won 3 chess games in a row against the computer which is a record for me because I don't think I've ever actually won a game before :) At least I how the pieces work.
So I'm kind of running down my battery and hoping that some award- and cash-winning novel idea will come to me (and that I could write it). Nothing so far though.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Traveling once again and skiing!
I'm in the airport again, yay!!
This time at least I'm going on holidays (although my life is sort of a holiday at the moment) which is fantastic. It also means I know how to get around the airport, where stuff is (like free internet) all of which is handy but doesn't totally make up for the fact that I'm in the airport again!
Yesterday we went skiing. The place was about an hour from Beijing, along the same highway as the one we used for our Great Wall trip. When I'd gone on that trip I saw a temple thing on top of a hill in the distance and wondered what it was. Well after some driving, a few wrong turns and some side road trips through tiny villages with a little snow around, it turns out it's actually the top of a chairlift!!
The snow at the place was entirely man made, but it was pretty good snow for all that. Usually in Australia the man-made snow gets really icy cause it gets hot during the day but it wasn't too bad.
Jane and I weren't allowed to go together because they separate the beginner skiers and snowboarders (a good thing as I was to find out later). I'm a reasonable skier though (for an Australian :) so I had a few goes on the beginner slope, a few on the intermediate then went to the top of the mountain for a bit of speed. It had been about 7 years since I went last but I was surprised to find I was actually pretty good which is nice. The only time I fell over was when I was standing in line at the chairlift (the lines got worse and worse through the day, glad we went early) when an errant snowboarder lost control coming down a slope and slammed into the line. I was the third person in and I was still knocked over! The guy he hit was seriously pissed as well, the snowboarder got up then this guy knocked him down again, I thought they were going to have a punch up but it calmed down eventually. I saw him later falling off the pommel, then again at the top falling off the chairlift. Some people just aren't meant to ski!
My only complaint about the day were the queues. By about 1:30, it was 2 minutes down the mountain, 15 minutes in the queue, 5 minutes on the chair then 2 minutes down again.
Because we used this card system, we didn't know how much it was going to cost us all up so we were pretty staggered at the end of the day to find it cost us just over $40 each for lift passes, skis (or board), jacket, pants and gloves. That was for half a day, it went up to $50 for a whole day. Not a bad way to spend a sunday really!
This time at least I'm going on holidays (although my life is sort of a holiday at the moment) which is fantastic. It also means I know how to get around the airport, where stuff is (like free internet) all of which is handy but doesn't totally make up for the fact that I'm in the airport again!
Yesterday we went skiing. The place was about an hour from Beijing, along the same highway as the one we used for our Great Wall trip. When I'd gone on that trip I saw a temple thing on top of a hill in the distance and wondered what it was. Well after some driving, a few wrong turns and some side road trips through tiny villages with a little snow around, it turns out it's actually the top of a chairlift!!
The snow at the place was entirely man made, but it was pretty good snow for all that. Usually in Australia the man-made snow gets really icy cause it gets hot during the day but it wasn't too bad.
Jane and I weren't allowed to go together because they separate the beginner skiers and snowboarders (a good thing as I was to find out later). I'm a reasonable skier though (for an Australian :) so I had a few goes on the beginner slope, a few on the intermediate then went to the top of the mountain for a bit of speed. It had been about 7 years since I went last but I was surprised to find I was actually pretty good which is nice. The only time I fell over was when I was standing in line at the chairlift (the lines got worse and worse through the day, glad we went early) when an errant snowboarder lost control coming down a slope and slammed into the line. I was the third person in and I was still knocked over! The guy he hit was seriously pissed as well, the snowboarder got up then this guy knocked him down again, I thought they were going to have a punch up but it calmed down eventually. I saw him later falling off the pommel, then again at the top falling off the chairlift. Some people just aren't meant to ski!
My only complaint about the day were the queues. By about 1:30, it was 2 minutes down the mountain, 15 minutes in the queue, 5 minutes on the chair then 2 minutes down again.
Because we used this card system, we didn't know how much it was going to cost us all up so we were pretty staggered at the end of the day to find it cost us just over $40 each for lift passes, skis (or board), jacket, pants and gloves. That was for half a day, it went up to $50 for a whole day. Not a bad way to spend a sunday really!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Buying presents
We spent the afternoon out and about today buying presents! It was a little chilly (about -2 when we left) but not too bad.
When we were in Wangfujing St, we saw a huge crowd of westerners dressed as Santas wandering through the pedestrian mall. It wasn't totally clear what they were doing though
They sort of wandered up the street (followed by a police car and vaguely annoying traffic when they crossed the road) and stopped in the park.
We headed around to a few places for presents, reasonably successfully which is nice, then headed back home once it started getting properly cold. I mentioned the other day that children were walking across the pond, but there were about 5 on there when we were coming back. It's weird, but I'm going to walk across before then end of winter :)
When we were in Wangfujing St, we saw a huge crowd of westerners dressed as Santas wandering through the pedestrian mall. It wasn't totally clear what they were doing though
We headed around to a few places for presents, reasonably successfully which is nice, then headed back home once it started getting properly cold. I mentioned the other day that children were walking across the pond, but there were about 5 on there when we were coming back. It's weird, but I'm going to walk across before then end of winter :)
Friday, December 9, 2011
Missing home
It's funny, we've been here for almost 5 months I think but it wasn't until I went back to Australia for a few days that I realised I'd been missing home.
It's coming into summer, people are having Christmas parties, BBQs, evenings out but I'm not getting any of that here. It's not just the weather, which is cold but sort of bearable, it's just not being able to see people when I want to.
Beijing also has a decided lack of (to me anyway) Christmas feeling. There are decorations in a few places (shopping malls, our apartment complex has some lights on trees) but for some reason it just doesn't feel the same to me. At least I know that Paris (where I am going on Monday) will have an excess of Christmas trees, lights, songs, banners, tinsel and all the other things that make it feel like Christmas.
At least I have the benefit of being able to see my parents and my sister (and James and Lily!) for Christmas. It's a shame that Jane won't be able to see her family as well, but I can't imagine what a nightmare organising THAT trip would be. Hopefully we'll see them in the new year.
So, in conclusion (Jane and I have been providing useful feedback on her co-workers' English and they've been writing essays) I've been missing my friends, family, the weather and the sorts of things that summer lets people do (like diving). Still it's not all bad, I'm going skiing on the weekend :)
Not sure if I'll have any internet when we get to Paris so if I don't, Merry Christmas everyone!!
Also check out this fine Tim Minchin Christmas song on the youtubes (grandparents with slow internet and low tolerance for swearing should probably not click on this link!!). Makes me sad being away from Australia but it is a great song.
It's coming into summer, people are having Christmas parties, BBQs, evenings out but I'm not getting any of that here. It's not just the weather, which is cold but sort of bearable, it's just not being able to see people when I want to.
Beijing also has a decided lack of (to me anyway) Christmas feeling. There are decorations in a few places (shopping malls, our apartment complex has some lights on trees) but for some reason it just doesn't feel the same to me. At least I know that Paris (where I am going on Monday) will have an excess of Christmas trees, lights, songs, banners, tinsel and all the other things that make it feel like Christmas.
At least I have the benefit of being able to see my parents and my sister (and James and Lily!) for Christmas. It's a shame that Jane won't be able to see her family as well, but I can't imagine what a nightmare organising THAT trip would be. Hopefully we'll see them in the new year.
So, in conclusion (Jane and I have been providing useful feedback on her co-workers' English and they've been writing essays) I've been missing my friends, family, the weather and the sorts of things that summer lets people do (like diving). Still it's not all bad, I'm going skiing on the weekend :)
Not sure if I'll have any internet when we get to Paris so if I don't, Merry Christmas everyone!!
Also check out this fine Tim Minchin Christmas song on the youtubes (grandparents with slow internet and low tolerance for swearing should probably not click on this link!!). Makes me sad being away from Australia but it is a great song.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Shaolin Monk Show!
On Tuesday last week we went with Jane's friend and colleague Pam to a (and I quote) "Shaolin Kung Fu Monk sort of show". I arrived to pick them up from the office with the words "it's just near the Lama temple" so I thought easy, that's only 20 minutes walk away. It was actually near the Temple of Heaven which is a lot further away. Freezing night (well below 0) and no cabs to be found, we jumped on the train. We had to meet this guy who had our tickets at 7:15 and when 7:25 came around and we were still on the train, things were clearly going wrong. After finding our way from the station to the theatre (in the dark with a very poor map) we got there about 7:45 to find the guy still standing there but very annoyed. He had returned our tickets cause he thought we weren't coming and the show had started at 7:30! We went in anyway, we had great seats, about 3 rows from the front and we hadn't missed much at all. I really enjoyed the show, the acting was terrible and they kept on trying to squeeze in those Shaolin stunts where they break blocks over their heads, but it was still fun. The best part was where the devil's door (or whatever it's called) in the stage opened and the main character and some smoke came out. I presume the smoke is normally a bit less think because it enveloped us, all the rows in front and about 3 rows behind us in a thick dry ice fog. We all we could see were the heads of the people in the front row popping up above the smoke as they stood up to see, it was hilarious!
The show ended as these shows always do ("Yes young one, this was MY story, now you must make your own") and then they made us leave. It was seriously cold outside, the wind had picked up and we then had to walk back to the station to take the train back. I'm not sure that the others had fun, but I enjoyed it. It was exactly like a bad 70s kung fu movie except performed in front of us! Fantastic.
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| From Random China Photos |
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| From Random China Photos |
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Back in China
I'm back in Beijing now after 4 days away in Perth. I'd never been to Perth before, strangely enough it reminds me a lot of Canberra (although the Perth people may not appreciate the comparison!). It's got that same small town feel to it, lots of wide open spaces with no people in them. It was also very nice, if a little dull I guess.
One thing I had clearly been missing without really realising it was blue sky. We hadn't had a clear day in Beijing for a week or so, and even then they're just not the same. When I arrived in Perth I got there at 8am but couldn't check in to my hotel until 2pm so I had some time to kill. I just wandered around for a while and was really struck by the size of the sky and how much I had missed that feeling of space that you can get in Australia.
I had a great time in Perth, I was there for a bunch of workshops with our new client. Happily they went very well, we had a very successful time there and I also had a full day free on Thursday before my plane left at midnight. I elected (having been given some useful advice) to head out to Rottnest Island for the day. It was a really nice place!
The ferry left from Perth at 8:45 in the morning and didn't arrive back until 5:45pm so I was a bit worried about getting a bit bored my myself so I booked a boat tour around the island, lunch at the hotel and a push bike to go for a bit of a ride. When I turned up, the girl at the counter seemed a bit surprised at the number of things I was going to do. I found out why pretty soon, the ferry didn't arrive until 10:45, my tour left at 11 and got back at 1, my lunch started at 1 and went until about 2ish and we had to be back at the ferry about 3:30!
Still, I had a blast, it was a lot like a tropical island, fantastically blue and clear water with clean beaches. Not too many people, really the only unpleasant thing was the flies, there were heaps of them. Apart from that it was great. I even saw some qokkas which surprised me cause I thought they would be less... obvious I guess. I also saw seals on the trip around the island. I have dived with them before but never got so close in a boat before. They looked so relaxed!
I would definitely like to come back and go diving.
I did my very best to not get sunburned and I did pretty well in the end. Most of the people on the ferry back were very burned! It was about 32 or 33 with just a bit of a breeze. Once I got back to Perth, I walked back to the hotel, collected my luggage and headed to the airport.
The flight back to Hong Kong was much less pleasant than the flight there. The plane, food etc were all really nice but the guy sitting next to me was a tool. If you're going to sit in the aisle seat, you will have to get up sometimes. I wanted to get up once (on a 7 hour flight) and this guy didn't want to make room. Oh well. The flight from Hong Kong was good though, no one next to me so I could stretch out a little more.
When I arrived back in Beijing, it was snowing! It was about -2, quite a difference from my 32 degrees the day before. I think I said before, the train to and from the airport is great, except this time is meant I had to walk back to the house in the snow! It wasn't really that bad, I just think I need to get some boots for the snow.
(yes that's snow on the window)
Now I have a week here, then next Monday I'm off to Paris for Christmas! It's a hard life :)
The rest of my photos are here. Sorry they're not that great, I only had my iphone with me.
https://picasaweb.google.com/david.mutton/Perth?authuser=0&feat=directlink
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| From Perth |
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| From Perth |
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| From Perth |
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| From Perth |
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| From Perth |
I did my very best to not get sunburned and I did pretty well in the end. Most of the people on the ferry back were very burned! It was about 32 or 33 with just a bit of a breeze. Once I got back to Perth, I walked back to the hotel, collected my luggage and headed to the airport.
The flight back to Hong Kong was much less pleasant than the flight there. The plane, food etc were all really nice but the guy sitting next to me was a tool. If you're going to sit in the aisle seat, you will have to get up sometimes. I wanted to get up once (on a 7 hour flight) and this guy didn't want to make room. Oh well. The flight from Hong Kong was good though, no one next to me so I could stretch out a little more.
When I arrived back in Beijing, it was snowing! It was about -2, quite a difference from my 32 degrees the day before. I think I said before, the train to and from the airport is great, except this time is meant I had to walk back to the house in the snow! It wasn't really that bad, I just think I need to get some boots for the snow.
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| From Perth |
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| From Perth |
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| From Perth |
The rest of my photos are here. Sorry they're not that great, I only had my iphone with me.
https://picasaweb.google.com/david.mutton/Perth?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Back to Aus
I'm on my way back to Australia for the week, work is flying me back. Unfortunately, they're flying me to Perth so I won't actually be able to catch up with many people (other than friends from work who are also coming over). I caught the train to the airport for the first time and I can highly recommend it. It costs 25 yuan (a bit less than $5) as compared with 60 yuan for a cab and it was about 30 minutes from buying my ticket to standing in line to check in, really good and efficient. Unfortunately it on;y runs until about 10pm but if the option is there then definitely take it!
So hanging around the airport is a bit weird, I've got some presents for the colleagues which will I expect have a mixed reception. So I'm just sitting here writing blog entries and listening to the guys on the electric golf carts drive around like nutters, beeping their horns at all the people walking who have the temerity to even slightly get in their way. I've also noticed that unlike normal airports where they drive you around when you're late, here you just give them 10 yuan and they drive you wherever. I'm tempted to pay the 10 yuan and just drive around for a while!
!
While I am a big fan of traveling in general, I'm not a huge fan of traveling on planes. I just don't enjoy the process of being locked in the tube with a bunch of people for 14 hours, I'm not sure that anyone does really. I'm also not a huge fan of traveling for work, but I guess I'm lucky in that someone else is paying for the ticket and all I have to do is make the journey. At least this also gives me another chance to stock up on things from Aus. So I'll be in Perth for about 4 days, then back to Beijing for 10 days, then off to Paris.
Now all I have to do is wait for the crazy stampede that will begin just before they call the flight!
So hanging around the airport is a bit weird, I've got some presents for the colleagues which will I expect have a mixed reception. So I'm just sitting here writing blog entries and listening to the guys on the electric golf carts drive around like nutters, beeping their horns at all the people walking who have the temerity to even slightly get in their way. I've also noticed that unlike normal airports where they drive you around when you're late, here you just give them 10 yuan and they drive you wherever. I'm tempted to pay the 10 yuan and just drive around for a while!
!
While I am a big fan of traveling in general, I'm not a huge fan of traveling on planes. I just don't enjoy the process of being locked in the tube with a bunch of people for 14 hours, I'm not sure that anyone does really. I'm also not a huge fan of traveling for work, but I guess I'm lucky in that someone else is paying for the ticket and all I have to do is make the journey. At least this also gives me another chance to stock up on things from Aus. So I'll be in Perth for about 4 days, then back to Beijing for 10 days, then off to Paris.
Now all I have to do is wait for the crazy stampede that will begin just before they call the flight!
Yonghegong Lama Temple
(I wrote this post just before I was told "you have to go to Perth for a week and work" so me not being too busy is no longer entirely accurate!)
Sorry, I've been really slack in my posting lately! I haven't even been all that busy, just not doing very interesting things!
Last weekend we went to the Yonghegong Lama Temple, which in itself is pretty slack cause it's a really nice place that's about 30 minutes walk (or one train stop) from the house. I have to say, along with the wall, this has been my favourite place to go in China so far. The temple itself is pretty similar to all the other touristy type places we've been (summer palace, forbidden city etc) but I guess the difference for me is that this is still a practicing temple with worshippers, monks, incense and all that stuff. The other places just didn't seem alive to me, it everything was there for the tourists who (like me to an extent I guess) didn't really appreciate it. However, as I said, I really enjoyed the Lama temple, it had a great feeling and people were there for the purpose of either worshipping or just quietly looking.
Please note in the background of the photo above, the monk on the mobile phone :)
It probably also helped that it wasn't too cold that day, the sun was out, no pollution just a gentle breeze.
We were just sort of wandering through the temple and happened to be in the main temple building when all the monks filed in and started (what I assume to be) their daily service. The place was pretty full of people and they just filed in and started chanting, it was really nice. We weren't allowed to take photos in there and normally I don't. But I could resist so I tried to do it without disturbing anyone.
After leaving the temple, we went around the corner to our (so far) favourite normal hot pot place called Little Sheep. We then proceeded to eat for about 90 minutes solid, beef and mushrooms and veges (but mostly been and mushrooms of varying types). So good!
More photos at https://picasaweb.google.com/david.mutton/YonghegongLamaTemple?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Sorry, I've been really slack in my posting lately! I haven't even been all that busy, just not doing very interesting things!
Last weekend we went to the Yonghegong Lama Temple, which in itself is pretty slack cause it's a really nice place that's about 30 minutes walk (or one train stop) from the house. I have to say, along with the wall, this has been my favourite place to go in China so far. The temple itself is pretty similar to all the other touristy type places we've been (summer palace, forbidden city etc) but I guess the difference for me is that this is still a practicing temple with worshippers, monks, incense and all that stuff. The other places just didn't seem alive to me, it everything was there for the tourists who (like me to an extent I guess) didn't really appreciate it. However, as I said, I really enjoyed the Lama temple, it had a great feeling and people were there for the purpose of either worshipping or just quietly looking.
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| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
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| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
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| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
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| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
It probably also helped that it wasn't too cold that day, the sun was out, no pollution just a gentle breeze.
We were just sort of wandering through the temple and happened to be in the main temple building when all the monks filed in and started (what I assume to be) their daily service. The place was pretty full of people and they just filed in and started chanting, it was really nice. We weren't allowed to take photos in there and normally I don't. But I could resist so I tried to do it without disturbing anyone.
 |
| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
 |
| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
 |
| From Yonghegong Lama Temple |
More photos at https://picasaweb.google.com/david.mutton/YonghegongLamaTemple?authuser=0&feat=directlink
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