It really came down hard, it was only snowing for a few hours but we got about 5-10 cm or so. Plus it was still there the next morning when we went to the market!
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| Snowy Beijing |
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Snow in Beijing
Here's a quick update, it snowed here on Saturday night. We were out having drinks and I had a snowball fight with people on the way back :)
It really came down hard, it was only snowing for a few hours but we got about 5-10 cm or so. Plus it was still there the next morning when we went to the market!
It really came down hard, it was only snowing for a few hours but we got about 5-10 cm or so. Plus it was still there the next morning when we went to the market!
Thailand getaway
We had decided that since we couldn't make it to India, we were at least going to go somewhere warm to break up the last of the winter.
Since our friend Malin has been working in Khao Lak in Thailand for the last few years, we thought we'd go for a diving holiday, catch up with Malin and get some warm weather all at the same time. Oh if only it were that easy!
It turns out the cheapest and shortest trip from Beijing to Phuket was three (3!) legs. First from Beijing to Guangzhou, then Guangzhou to Bangkok, then Bangkok to Phuket. Once our plane to Bangkok was late, it basically screwed us up completely. We rushed through immigration and customs, got our bag and found that the flight was closed. Crap. They also couldn't guarantee us a seat on the next flight, so we had to wait around for a few hours. Next, I didn't get a specific address for our hotel. Malin had organised it for us, along with a cab from the airport. I cancelled the cab but that was it.
After the end of check in, they said we could get on the plane (which was nice) and said we needed to hurry (which was not). We made the plane and we were off. Arriving in Phuket was OK until our bag didn't arrive. We only had one between us and it's pretty obvious (bright green). After touring the airport with the baggage lady, we got to the form filling out stage. Uh oh. She said she'd try to get it to us before we left. We said we were leaving to go out on a boat the following day (a Monday) and weren't coming back until Friday. She said she would try.
Next we went out to find a taxi. No one seemed to know where we were going. I said I'm not leaving with anyone unless they know where we're going so naturally they lied and said they did. We then went to their office where they spent about 45 minutes finding our where we were going (it was about 1:30am by now). Jane ended up calling Malin who called the place, got the number and our room sorted.
We finally convinced the guy to drive us to Khao Lak and then he just started aimlessly driving around while Jane tried to get him to call the hotel owner. Finally she had to get his phone, dial in the number and hand him the phone. 5 minutes after that, we arrived at our hotel! We had the room number, there was a key in the door, and it was 3am so we went to sleep.
We got up early the next day to try to sort out what had happened to our luggage, find the dive shop etc. Malin came to get us for breakfast and it turns out the airline had called her to let her know that our luggage was on its way to the dive shop (those being the contact details we had supplied). So we had a relaxing breakfast, checked out and went down to the dive shop. There was our luggage, safe and sound!!
I paid for our trip and noticed that the numbers didn't add up. The guy had just added them up on a piece of paper (that was sitting next to a calculator and behind a computer) and come up with about 25,000 baht over, then punched that into the machine and duly charged me. I brought this to his attention and he laughed and said these things happen. No they don't. Except when stupid people do them. He took about half an hour to fix his mistake (he spent the rest of the time we saw him whining about how he had to work so hard) so we got our gear sorted. I can say that aside from the guy serving us, everyone else who worked for the dive shop was really fantastic. He was definitely an anomaly!
Finally we were almost ready to go. We packed the stuff we didn't need in a bag, dropped it in the lockup and went outside to wait for the bus. After some bus complexity, we all made it on the bus then to the harbour (we saw elephants on the way!!). The boat was nice, decent size and fairly well laid out. Our cabin was compact but comfortable enough. We got the brief then Malin rushed us up the front to the best spot for watching the launch (complete with firecrackers), exiting the heads, and then the sun go down.
Basically we ended up doing 14 dives in the Similan Islands, Koh Bon and Richelieu Rock. We got in a few visits to different islands, some swimming and climbing. We saw manta rays, octopus, squid, scorpion fish, barracuda, everything you could want from a diving holiday. I don't have any underwater photos because my underwater housing is in Sydney but here are the photos:
Since our friend Malin has been working in Khao Lak in Thailand for the last few years, we thought we'd go for a diving holiday, catch up with Malin and get some warm weather all at the same time. Oh if only it were that easy!
It turns out the cheapest and shortest trip from Beijing to Phuket was three (3!) legs. First from Beijing to Guangzhou, then Guangzhou to Bangkok, then Bangkok to Phuket. Once our plane to Bangkok was late, it basically screwed us up completely. We rushed through immigration and customs, got our bag and found that the flight was closed. Crap. They also couldn't guarantee us a seat on the next flight, so we had to wait around for a few hours. Next, I didn't get a specific address for our hotel. Malin had organised it for us, along with a cab from the airport. I cancelled the cab but that was it.
After the end of check in, they said we could get on the plane (which was nice) and said we needed to hurry (which was not). We made the plane and we were off. Arriving in Phuket was OK until our bag didn't arrive. We only had one between us and it's pretty obvious (bright green). After touring the airport with the baggage lady, we got to the form filling out stage. Uh oh. She said she'd try to get it to us before we left. We said we were leaving to go out on a boat the following day (a Monday) and weren't coming back until Friday. She said she would try.
Next we went out to find a taxi. No one seemed to know where we were going. I said I'm not leaving with anyone unless they know where we're going so naturally they lied and said they did. We then went to their office where they spent about 45 minutes finding our where we were going (it was about 1:30am by now). Jane ended up calling Malin who called the place, got the number and our room sorted.
We finally convinced the guy to drive us to Khao Lak and then he just started aimlessly driving around while Jane tried to get him to call the hotel owner. Finally she had to get his phone, dial in the number and hand him the phone. 5 minutes after that, we arrived at our hotel! We had the room number, there was a key in the door, and it was 3am so we went to sleep.
We got up early the next day to try to sort out what had happened to our luggage, find the dive shop etc. Malin came to get us for breakfast and it turns out the airline had called her to let her know that our luggage was on its way to the dive shop (those being the contact details we had supplied). So we had a relaxing breakfast, checked out and went down to the dive shop. There was our luggage, safe and sound!!
I paid for our trip and noticed that the numbers didn't add up. The guy had just added them up on a piece of paper (that was sitting next to a calculator and behind a computer) and come up with about 25,000 baht over, then punched that into the machine and duly charged me. I brought this to his attention and he laughed and said these things happen. No they don't. Except when stupid people do them. He took about half an hour to fix his mistake (he spent the rest of the time we saw him whining about how he had to work so hard) so we got our gear sorted. I can say that aside from the guy serving us, everyone else who worked for the dive shop was really fantastic. He was definitely an anomaly!
Finally we were almost ready to go. We packed the stuff we didn't need in a bag, dropped it in the lockup and went outside to wait for the bus. After some bus complexity, we all made it on the bus then to the harbour (we saw elephants on the way!!). The boat was nice, decent size and fairly well laid out. Our cabin was compact but comfortable enough. We got the brief then Malin rushed us up the front to the best spot for watching the launch (complete with firecrackers), exiting the heads, and then the sun go down.
Basically we ended up doing 14 dives in the Similan Islands, Koh Bon and Richelieu Rock. We got in a few visits to different islands, some swimming and climbing. We saw manta rays, octopus, squid, scorpion fish, barracuda, everything you could want from a diving holiday. I don't have any underwater photos because my underwater housing is in Sydney but here are the photos:
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| Thailand 2012 |
Monday, March 19, 2012
Abandoned Amusement Park
The following day from the Ice Festival, we went to an abandoned, half-built amusement park called "China's Wonderland". Apparently it was partly built in the 90s but never finished for some reason.
We got on another bus, but this one was not an express and was much slower than the last one. The country-side around this part of Beijing is quite hilly and steep, and there's clearly been farming for a very long time. Lots of terracing and alterations, old looking buildings and part of the Great Wall as a backdrop, it was a fun trip.
We got out of the bus, walked a bit and next to a petrol station was this place. From the front it looks pretty finished, there are buildings on either side, a car park, bridge across the highway. But once you get closer you realise that's about all that's complete. All the other buildings are half-constructed frames or less in some cases. At the back of the site was a partly constructed Disneyland castle thing. The whole place was really eery.
We just wandered in past some people standing there (who it turns out are security guards and supposed to keep people out) and just had a look around. The place isn't big and we weren't allowed to (or physically couldn't in some cases) go into the buildings and I was scolded by a man wearing camoflage for climbing up a staircase.
I'm not sure that the photos do the place justice, it was really weird to be in this field, amongst these buildings with nothing really around. For a while after we arrived there was a woman on a loudspeaker yelling something from the village nearby, and we could just hear it when the wind blew our direction. It was very strange.
Here's my gallery from the place:
Once we got back we had to pack because we were leaving really early the next morning for Thailand! Getting back was pretty easy, we just walked back to the bus stop and got on the next bus to Beijing. Then we caught the train back with no problems.
We got on another bus, but this one was not an express and was much slower than the last one. The country-side around this part of Beijing is quite hilly and steep, and there's clearly been farming for a very long time. Lots of terracing and alterations, old looking buildings and part of the Great Wall as a backdrop, it was a fun trip.
We got out of the bus, walked a bit and next to a petrol station was this place. From the front it looks pretty finished, there are buildings on either side, a car park, bridge across the highway. But once you get closer you realise that's about all that's complete. All the other buildings are half-constructed frames or less in some cases. At the back of the site was a partly constructed Disneyland castle thing. The whole place was really eery.
We just wandered in past some people standing there (who it turns out are security guards and supposed to keep people out) and just had a look around. The place isn't big and we weren't allowed to (or physically couldn't in some cases) go into the buildings and I was scolded by a man wearing camoflage for climbing up a staircase.
I'm not sure that the photos do the place justice, it was really weird to be in this field, amongst these buildings with nothing really around. For a while after we arrived there was a woman on a loudspeaker yelling something from the village nearby, and we could just hear it when the wind blew our direction. It was very strange.
Here's my gallery from the place:
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| Abandoned Amusement Park |
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Long Qing Ice Festival
A few weeks ago (just before Thailand), Jane and I went with some people to a place called Yan Qing to go to an ice festival and also to take photos at an old, half-built amusement park.
It would prove to be an odd trip.
First thing was to get to the station to meet the person organising the trip. Easy enough, it was only a few stops away. The only problem, we had never met her before. Still that part was fine. Then with everyone in tow (turned out there were 8 of us), we made our way against the pedestrian traffic during rush hour, to the bus station. Fortunately Nic (the organising person) speaks great Mandarin and could sort out which bus to catch. Then we sit on the bus, which is fine cause I was expecting to have to stand, for about 70 minutes until we arrive at this town. It seems completely normal so far but the weirdness factor grows by how weird everyone else thinks we are. Apparently white people (much less groups of white people) don't come here much and when they do, they don't come on the bus. And they don't stay in the hotels because only one hotel was allowed to have us stay. It was nice enough, so we dropped our stuff and having organised some completely illegal cabs, we were on our way to the festival.
We arrived and it was starting to get cold. We asked the cab guys to wait (each time in this story when I say we'd done something that involved a Chinese person, please note that Nic did it and I did not participate in the exchange) so as soon as we arrived they left.
We started walking up and found a huge number of lanterns with no people. In fact there weren't really any people anywhere. Which is also weird.
We started walking up the road, past all the lanterns (see the photos at the end for more details!) and finally ended up at the ticket office. Tickets were 100 yuan which is quite a lot (for comparison, the pension is about 300 yuan a month) and sort of explained why there was no one around.
Still we went in and it was all light, lanterns, sculptures etc, but no ice (other than the frozen lake). Eventually we found some of what used to be ice sculptures but were clearly in the process of melting. Uh oh, have we made a huge mistake?
It turns out we had not made a huge mistake because inside this tent thing were the real ice sculptures. There were dragons and buddhas and temples and deer and all sorts of things. They freeze the ice around these lights so that when they build the stuff it can be lit up. It looks amazing but oh so cold. Having looked around for a while, we made our way out again, Nic called the "taxi" drivers who said "sorry but it's too late and we don't want to come out now." Hmm. Fortunately there was a guy with a van there who would take us all for less than the cost of the two cars, and he would wait while we finished taking photos of the lanterns.
At this point a few people (Jane included) were completely frozen and just got in the van. I wandered down with everyone else and we got to see a few lanterns before the security guard started turning them off. When asked why he was turning them off an hour before closing, he replied "there's no one here." Not sure what we were then.
After a completely insane trip back into town (the back seat of the van wasn't attached, we had 3 people sitting in the boot and the driver insisted on spitting out the window every 500m) we got to the hotel, dumped our camera gear and started looking for food. We couldn't find anywhere! We walked for a while but it was so cold we headed back to the KFC we passed, but then I remembered having seen a bunch of people eating in this basement place. Turns out it was the local noodle shop. My food was quite nice, there was soooo much of it and Jane's and mine together cost 14 yuan, which is just over $2. Score!
Then it was back to the hotel for a good nights sleep. We didn't get one though as our window faced the roundabout where everyone was beeping all night, along with the town clock that not only bonged the appropriate number of bongs each hour but then told you the time and date in Mandarin.
Anyway, here are the photos I took, I will get onto the tale of the abandoned amusement park. . .
It would prove to be an odd trip.
First thing was to get to the station to meet the person organising the trip. Easy enough, it was only a few stops away. The only problem, we had never met her before. Still that part was fine. Then with everyone in tow (turned out there were 8 of us), we made our way against the pedestrian traffic during rush hour, to the bus station. Fortunately Nic (the organising person) speaks great Mandarin and could sort out which bus to catch. Then we sit on the bus, which is fine cause I was expecting to have to stand, for about 70 minutes until we arrive at this town. It seems completely normal so far but the weirdness factor grows by how weird everyone else thinks we are. Apparently white people (much less groups of white people) don't come here much and when they do, they don't come on the bus. And they don't stay in the hotels because only one hotel was allowed to have us stay. It was nice enough, so we dropped our stuff and having organised some completely illegal cabs, we were on our way to the festival.
We arrived and it was starting to get cold. We asked the cab guys to wait (each time in this story when I say we'd done something that involved a Chinese person, please note that Nic did it and I did not participate in the exchange) so as soon as we arrived they left.
We started walking up and found a huge number of lanterns with no people. In fact there weren't really any people anywhere. Which is also weird.
We started walking up the road, past all the lanterns (see the photos at the end for more details!) and finally ended up at the ticket office. Tickets were 100 yuan which is quite a lot (for comparison, the pension is about 300 yuan a month) and sort of explained why there was no one around.
Still we went in and it was all light, lanterns, sculptures etc, but no ice (other than the frozen lake). Eventually we found some of what used to be ice sculptures but were clearly in the process of melting. Uh oh, have we made a huge mistake?
It turns out we had not made a huge mistake because inside this tent thing were the real ice sculptures. There were dragons and buddhas and temples and deer and all sorts of things. They freeze the ice around these lights so that when they build the stuff it can be lit up. It looks amazing but oh so cold. Having looked around for a while, we made our way out again, Nic called the "taxi" drivers who said "sorry but it's too late and we don't want to come out now." Hmm. Fortunately there was a guy with a van there who would take us all for less than the cost of the two cars, and he would wait while we finished taking photos of the lanterns.
At this point a few people (Jane included) were completely frozen and just got in the van. I wandered down with everyone else and we got to see a few lanterns before the security guard started turning them off. When asked why he was turning them off an hour before closing, he replied "there's no one here." Not sure what we were then.
After a completely insane trip back into town (the back seat of the van wasn't attached, we had 3 people sitting in the boot and the driver insisted on spitting out the window every 500m) we got to the hotel, dumped our camera gear and started looking for food. We couldn't find anywhere! We walked for a while but it was so cold we headed back to the KFC we passed, but then I remembered having seen a bunch of people eating in this basement place. Turns out it was the local noodle shop. My food was quite nice, there was soooo much of it and Jane's and mine together cost 14 yuan, which is just over $2. Score!
Then it was back to the hotel for a good nights sleep. We didn't get one though as our window faced the roundabout where everyone was beeping all night, along with the town clock that not only bonged the appropriate number of bongs each hour but then told you the time and date in Mandarin.
Anyway, here are the photos I took, I will get onto the tale of the abandoned amusement park. . .
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| Long Qing Ice Festival |
Friday, March 2, 2012
Back from dive trip in Thailand
We're back from our trip out on the boat in Thailand. More to come later but here's the map of where we are:
View Larger Map
We started in Khao Lak (where all the pins are), headed east to the lower set of islands (the Similans) then up to Koh Bon, then Koh Tachai then almost to the top set where Richelieu rock is, then back down to Koh Bon, then in towards Khao Lak stopping at a wreck on the way.
View Larger Map
We started in Khao Lak (where all the pins are), headed east to the lower set of islands (the Similans) then up to Koh Bon, then Koh Tachai then almost to the top set where Richelieu rock is, then back down to Koh Bon, then in towards Khao Lak stopping at a wreck on the way.
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