Travel Entry!

Travel entry

Hello friends, family, and any other people who may have decided to be jealous of my travels. I’ve been traveling since Dec 30.  I’ve had so much fun and I realized I haven’t done an entry for the whole time so I’ll do my best to describe what I’ve been up to. Sorry for the long one and all the details but I figure you can easily skim!

Yufie had to make it to the top to find her father

For new years I went Qingdao with some friends. No one did an official countdown but we managed to do our own anyway and had a good time.  I stayed in Qingdao a few days after the others had left then I flew to Shanghai.  In Shanghai I met a lot of foreigners and we had some fun going out at night.  I did not like the people in the city.  It seemed that they only ever spoke to you if they wanted something from you.  In Dongying people often say hello just to be friendly and people will even give you food or tea just cause you walked past.  Shanghai it felt like they were constantly trying to rip me off and a number of times we had to fight with restaurants whose bill did not add up or had extra stuff on. So overall Shanghai had great foreigners and annoying locals.

One of the days in Shanghai I went with a friend to a nearby city called Suzhou.  It’s described as the Venice of the East as it has a lot of canals everywhere.  I really liked the atmosphere of the city.  There were things going on but it didn’t feel rushed like some cities.

After Shanghai I flew to Beijing.  This was go to be a problem as my flight was supposed to be quite early in the morning and the transit did not start running early enough.  Also, I wanted to go out the night before so that morning was going to be rough.  However I had an awesome blessing the day before I was supposed to go: I got a call saying my flight had been cancelled so I had to choose a new one.  They suggested one ½ hr later but I asked them for one in the afternoon which made the night before a whole lot more fun.

I had emailed my hostel in Beijing to say I would arrive late but they never received this email so when I got there later that day they had given my bed away.  Fortunately they had a sister hostel which still had a bed free and they even drove me over so it wasn’t too bad.  I was there for 2 nights before switching back to the other hostel and going to the airport to meet Nathan who had flown in from Toronto.

I had a friend in Beijing that I had met on a long train ride back in August.  She invited me to her church on Sunday so I went.  It was cool to see as this one was a sanctioned one and quite large.  I was at the English service and they had a full band and a service much like we'd see at home.

The next day Nathan was due to arrive so I met him at the airport.

 

The anti gravity forces of the Wall were amazing

We had some fun in Beijing.  The most fun was going to the great wall.  We met a great group of people on that trip.  We took a lot of fun pictures and climbed tonnes of stairs.  I never thought about how many stairs there are on the wall but it goes through mountains so I guess it makes sense.

Later we met up with the same group from the Wall and went to a KTV karaoke bar.  Apart from one guy in the group who decided that he needed to belt out every song it was a lot of fun.  The KTVs are places where you get your own private room for your group and can choose what songs you want to sing.

After Beijing we flew to Harbin which is way in the North of China. It was cold, really cold.  That being said, when we arrived at our hostel the guy warned us that our room might be a little warm since there were no windows.  We got to the room and it was over 30C with no way to cool it down.  We immediately switched to a room with windows.  Still, it was a bit warm in the room so putting on the required 2 pairs of pants and 3 sweaters always seemed like excess until we actually got outside.

In Beijing I had acquired a really nasty cold with a lot of coughing and nose blowing.  When we flew to Harbin my ears really hurt as we were landing and I was unable to equalize since my sinuses were blocked.  As a result it felt like I was wearing earplugs.  I could tell the pressure in my ears was wrong and I could also hardly hear.  This problem persisted for another 3 weeks or so.  When we’d fly and be at altitude it was fine but when we started to come down it would come back.  Only when my cold finally left was I able to blow air into my ears.  By now it’s almost entirely fixed although something is still a little funky with my ears I feel.

These shiny orb things were especially cool

We had 2 full days in Harbin.  On the first day we wandered around a bit then headed to the ice festival for which the city is famous for.  It was cool to see during the day but the coolest was at night when all the ice buildings and sculptures were lit up.  There were also luge runs, a zip line and bumper skidoos.  At the bumper skidoo place people didn’t really seem to be hitting each other in the other groups but when Nathan and I start ramming everything they seemed to catch on and had a lot of fun.  It was so cold out that both Nathan and my camera batteries said they were empty however neither of us charged them and they lasted another 4 days in warmer weather.

The second day we went to a Siberian tiger reserve.  There were SO many tigers and they were huge.  The highlight may have been when we were going from one section to another (we were on a bus) and one tiger wandered through the open gate behind the bus.  The bus turned around and charged at the tiger honking its horn.  The tiger went back through and the gate shut.  So if you were curious: yes, buses can be used to herd tigers.

After being to cold we flew to Guangzhou. We had originally planned to be there for 7 nights in order to be there for Chinese New Year however after talking to many people we realized that their new year is a lot like our Christmas.  Everyone is very busy but there is nothing interesting to do if you’re not with family and many things are closed.  As a result of this info we only stayed 2 nights.  The weather was a great 20C and you could buy Mandarin Orange bushes.  It was a really great city in that regard.

This was the point in the trip that we had planned to.  After this we weren’t really sure where we’d go.  We were learning toward Vietnam but were warned that new year is just as bad there with prices going through the roof so we did some research and discovered an island in Malaysia called Langkawi.  We were able to fly there through Kuala Lumpur for not too much money.

Finally somewhere hot!

I really enjoyed Langkawi.  We stayed for 5 days.  The weather was hot, the beaches were incredibly warm, and the scenery was gorgeous.  We enjoyed some time just sitting on the beach but also had a lot of fun renting motorbikes.  A lot of places required a copy of our passports as well as our drivers license.  Nathan had his but I never got mine replaced when I lost it right before coming to Asia.  We were thinking he might have to rent bikes from 2 different places when one place the guy just asked if we knew how to ride then asked what kind of bikes we had at home.  That was good enough for him.  He said if the police catch us that we have to pay the fine and that’s our problem.  So we were able to rent the bikes for about $10 for 24 hours and explore the island.  A taxi to the good area from our hotel was $8 each way so getting bikes really was a great deal.  $1.25 also filled the tank. During that time we went to the cable car which took us way up high to a skybridge.  The views were breathtaking. Pictures just don’t do it justice.  We also took the bikes up a long, winding mountain road.  Along the way we had to dodge monkeys and cows.  I stopped to take a picture and take a piss and a cow hopped the barrier and came over to investigate.  Quite interesting trying to pee with a cow standing less than 1M away staring at you.

In Langkawi we also did an island hopping tour which took us out in a boat and showed us around.  He also through pieces of chicken in the water and dozens of eagles swooped down and grabbed them.  Very cool.

From there we took a ferry to Satun, Thailand then a bus through to Ao Nang beach in Krabi.  Since we entered by land we only got 15 days on our visa which is about 2 less than I wanted.  If you enter by air you get 30 days.  Why the difference? As best I can tell it’s just to annoy us.

Nathan's Asian twin in the 5 star room

We had decided to book a 4 star hotel in Krabi rather than stay at a hostel since it would only cost $40/night each and it sounded fun.  When we arrived they said they were full and had no record of our reservation.  I showed them the confirmation and they said they’d look into it.  So after over an hour of waiting around and going for dinner they told us that they had found our reservation but there was nothing available except for a 5 star resort so they’d put us up there.  The place was amazing and so  hugely unnecessary.  We loved it.  Our balcony opened up right onto the pool so we made sure we swam every night regardless.  I even jumped in when I got back at 4am one night.

Krabi was full almost entirely of Swedes, those that weren’t Swedish were still Scandinavian.  The beaches were gorgeous and once again the water was incredibly warm.  We had some good beach days just reading and enjoying the sun.  We also went snorkelling with a group one day.  They didn’t supply fins so we rented some separately and it was a great idea to do so.  I really enjoy snorkelling and you can go so much faster and deeper with a lot less energy when wearing fins.  We saw some cool fish and very freaky looking sea urchins.   When it was dark and we were still on the boat we were told there would be luminescent plankton if we went in.  They were right.  It was highly cool.  If you moved around in the water it would light up around you.

We then took a bus to Patang beach in Phuket.  Here we again had some good beach days.  I also had a lot of fun with the nightlife.  Nathan would stay back at the room and I headed out to the crowded streets of the night.  I met 2 guys who were Iraqi but living and raised in Sweden and we met up each night.  It was a lot of fun exploring around a city that didn’t seem to sleep until after 4am.

After Phuket we flew to Bangkok rather than take the 14 hour bus ride.  At the airport there were 4 counters open to check in passengers for our flight.  2 had huge lines and the other 2 just had long lines so we got in the slightly shorter line.  Closer to the front we noticed these 2 lines were for business class.  Clearly most people in the business line were actually economy but with only 2 other counters they just ignored it.  The girl working the counter would strongly reprimand every person who came up that was economy but would eventually put them through.  The lineup seemed to catch on and decided that one business line was enough and would usher actual business class people to one gate while keeping the other gate for ourselves.  It worked well but the attendant was not amused.

The plane to Bangkok, a flight that takes 1 hour and leaves almost every hour, was at least as big as the one I took from Vancouver to Hong Kong.  It was insane.

We spent a day in Bangkok wandering around and taking Tuk Tuks which are basically motorcycles with a cart attached for passengers to sit in. 

The next morning Nathan had to get to the airport early in order to fly back to Beijing and then (the next day) back to Toronto.  After saying our goodbyes at 5am I promptly fell back asleep.

I had quite a few days to kill before my visa was up and didn’t really see a need to be in Bangkok for all of it.  I did some research and decided to go to one of 2 places.  A city overrun with monkeys called Lop Buri or a city with beaches and tourist stuff called Pattaya.  In the end the beaches won out.  I’d like to get to the other city sometime but I think it’d be more fun to go there with a friend.

Aliens could land in Phuket and no one would notice

The bus ride to Pattaya was maddening.  We’d drive for 5 mins then stop for 10.  It took over 4 hours to get there when the return ride was less than 2.  I had not booked anything so when the bus driver said to get off I wasn’t really sure where to go.  I just started walking assuming I’d find a tourist place somewhere but I obviously chose the wrong way and just found nothing.  Eventually a motorcycle taxi stopped.  This really was just a motorcycle taxi so I hopped on the back and he took me to the tourist area.  I wandered into a hotel and booked a room.

After a few days on the beach and some nights listening to live music I headed back to Bangkok.  I’m here for another day then I have to go back to China.  I had to decide between going through Shanghai or Guangzhou.  I’ve been to both cities on my trip but the warmer weather in Guangzhou won out.  I want to avoid the cold of Dongying as long as possible.

It’s been an awesome trip.  Getting to do this every year plus having 2 months in the Summer is a major draw of China.  Gotta saw that this was a whole lot better than tax season!  It was great having Nathan to travel with and it was great being able to have days on the beach.

Some pictures from the trip are already online.  I will try and get the rest up by the end of the week.  As always if you have questions or comments leave them below or send me an email!

Wiseguy1