TravelStream™ news feed for member garybarnes on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/garybarnes en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:14:09 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1221195900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1221195900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1221195900/tpod.html Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:14:09 -0400 Rice, temples and karaoke: a tale of woe from Sri Lanka to wherever

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Manado, Sulawesi, Indonesia

I'm still hoping to get the opportunity to do some serious catching up in writing for the english readers of my blog (although I'm sure that the Dutch one, shouldn't be too much of an issue, if you just persist). But what with Ronella arriving tomorrow for another gruelling 3 weeks of travelling through unwired Flores and Komodo, I do doubt whether I'll get the chance.

However, a slight case of deja vu hit me yesterday during the morning ablutions, when suddenly my cottage on the beach (yep, I'll upload the piccies sometime) on Pulau Bunaken started shaking. Just like in May in China, just a case of another earthquake hitting, fairly minor here, but probably somewhat heavier elsewhere in Indonesia.

So, just letting you all know again that I'm okay.

Have a beer on that.

Cheers!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1220612280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1220612280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1220612280/tpod.html Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:07:25 -0400 Rice, temples and karaoke: a tale of woe from Sri Lanka to wherever

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Jakarta, Java, Indonesia

to be added soon, honest...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1218019860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1218019860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1218019860/tpod.html Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:53:04 -0400 Rice, temples and karaoke: a tale of woe from Sri Lanka to wherever

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Tanah rata, Malaysia

will add some English rap sometime, maybe at the beach where we're heading next, but for now, just some piccies to upload
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1217177820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1217177820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1217177820/tpod.html Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:59:18 -0400 Rice, temples and karaoke: a tale of woe from Sri Lanka to wherever

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Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

One of the amusing aspects of this trip is that you come across the odd country, which you hadn't originally intended to visit, and in some cases didn't even know exactly where they were! Well, one of these is Brunei, a tiny sultanate on the northern coast of Borneo island (sharing the island with Indonesia and Malaysia). So, if you've got some time, and some space in your passport for the obligatory additional stamps, then hop on to the plane (or boat) to Brunei.

My first, and probably last flight (although I rush to add that that has nothing to do with the quality of the airline, but just with the limited number of routes they fly) with Royal Brunei Airlines starts with a short prayer, "to bless this aircraft". Hmm. I hope this is an everyday occurrence and not just because this plane has been showing some problems recently. At least it's not "we commence this flight with a prayer in the hope that the left engine won't fall off this time". All around us, hands go up, eyes close, and a muslim prayer is said. Next surprise is that the aircraft procedures are done solely by male stewards (even though there is a stewardess aboard). This could be coincidence, but we've speculated on the possibility that it could be deemed too erotic for the muslim mind, should a stewardess show how to blow up the safety vest. Then again, possibly not.

Anyway, Brunei, what is there to say? Well first things first, it's a sultanate and the current sultan, number 59 in an uninterrupted string of sultans dating back to the 14th century, with the illustrious name Sultan, Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan Haji
Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah Ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar
'Ali Saifuddien Sa'adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of
Negara Brunei Darussalam, has just turned 62. It's difficult to avoid the matter due to huge number of placards scattered throughout the city with the guy's photograph on them, sponsored by various companies to congratulate the guy. The modest capital seems to be one huge display of photographs of the sultan surrounding the humongously large, but very beautiful (especially if it's nice weather, and the scaffolding around the dome is finally removed) Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque. The Brunei economy is almost solely based on the oil & gas industry, which should be good now, but estimates on the sustainability of the country's oill reserves run from 2015 to 2030. I'd be getting slightly nervous with my economy based on one single asset with a life expectancy of less than 10 years.

Now it would be easy to just rabbit on all the touristy facts about Brunei, but I'd far rather give you the juice about a number of other factlets about Brunei. What about the sultan's brother, Prince Jefri, who, in an ill-advised move, was appointed finance minister, and went on to spend, spend, spend. Not only above board extravagances of more than a billion dollars on a hotel, but also on personal possessions like cars, private jets and gold plaited toilet brushes (last bit of gossip provided by Lonely Planet). In the end, the ultiimate poor little rich boy had to be cut off form his spending country's money, but after he went to live in London, a court case was initiated to pursue the guy for spending an estimated 16 billion dollars worth of country funds on 'unknown goals'. The case has since then been dropped.

And what about another tastly little titbit? In 1997, a former Miss USA filed a lawsuit against the ruling family of Brunei for $90 million, alleging that she and 6 other young women (including a miss UK) were paid $127,200 each for a modeling job in Brunei. The Miss stated that she and the women were held as 'sex slaves' and were 'intimidated and coerced into performing physically and morally repulsive acts of prostitution. In the end, the case was thrown out due to the immunity of the ruling family as heads of state.

Of course, if the above is true, this is obviously morally repulsive (obviously), but I can't help a slight paraphrasing of Mel Brooks' statement from "The history of the world: part 1" running through my head: "It's good to be sultan..."

Cheers!

P.S. Oh yeah, just realised that I've missed one of the titles out. I got Strikje to do a karaoke session with me in Brunei! I bet there's not a lot of people who can say they've karaoked in Brunei (or Bhutan for that matter), but we belted out a darn good Sinatra (as far as we could tell anyway).
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1216741980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1216741980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1216741980/tpod.html Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:09:04 -0400 Rice, temples and karaoke: a tale of woe from Sri Lanka to wherever

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Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

to be added later
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1216357500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1216357500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1216357500/tpod.html Sun, 20 Jul 2008 01:06:03 -0400 Rice, temples and karaoke: a tale of woe from Sri Lanka to wherever

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Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Back in Asia again! In the capital of Malaysia, where I haven't been since the stopover on the way back from Vietnam back in .. oh I can't remember that far back. What I remember from then? Well I think I had about 4 hours to see a bit of Kuala Lumpur (KL) before my flight left for Amsterdam, so I just saw a Buddhist temple, a Hindu temple and of course the KL Tower and the
Petronas Twin Towers. So now I get to see a bit more of Malaysia.

At this point, it is also opportune to introduce "Strikje" [pronounced: strick-yuh]. Obviously this isn't her real name, and her real name is a lot more pronounceable than the last lady I introduced to my family in England (but who will forever be affectionately known as Cchhhhhh). But let's just stick to
Strikje, who you will be seeing quite a lot of in the coming entries. During this trip, Strikje will actually be asked whether she is in anyway Japanese because of her snap-happy nature with the camera. If
you ever thought I was bad, you should check out her piccies. I've just spent some time uploading 200+ pictures over the whole 4-week Malaysia trip, compared to 1000 pictures in total for the previous 11 months. They are brilliant though. Anyway, the benefit of this is that you will actually be seeing some pictures of me appearing on the blog (some would argue that this is actually not a benefit).

And as I suffered the effects of jet-lag a good deal more than Strikje, I lazed in the room, whilst
Strikje went hunting for ultimate pictures. First impression thoughof KL, is that there's a lot of couples around, with the female in burqa or niqab. Very intriguing if you can only see the lady's eyes,
especially the bespectacled version which somehow remind me of the little hooded characters in the first episode of Star Wars (that's part IV now).

KL is home to the Petronas Twin Towers, which were immortalised as the scene for the film Entrapment with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones. Fun film, but if we're handing out scores for films with any of my previous destinations as a backdrop, I'll go for Tomb Raider anytime (very cultural film starring Angelina Jolie filmed in Siem Reap in Cambodia (and they're still selling Angeline Jolie cocktails there!)).

Anyway, will keep it brief, as I'm trying to reduce the backlog of entries which I've built up in the
past four weeks. Can't go rabbiting on for 4 paragraphs on every entry. At this rate, I'll have just covered Malaysia by the time I return to Europe.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1211866620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1211866620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1211866620/tpod.html Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:03:14 -0400 Rice, temples and karaoke: a tale of woe from Sri Lanka to wherever

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Shanghai, China

Where to begin when characterising Shanghai? This is a city. And when I say city, I don't mean just a conglomeration of dilapidated concrete buildings half caving in but being kept up solely to house millions and millions of Chinese (like Datong), but a real real true City (capital C that is). Green parks, skyscrapers, two airports (not just the obligatory one, but Two), cinemas, department stores. Even a Shanghai Hooters (went in for research purposes). And of course, millions and millions of Chinese (15 million to be exact).

On arrival at the airport, I thought I'd do something novel for a change and instread of taking a (cheap) taxi to reach my hotel, I stepped into the local bus into town. After arriving at Renmin Park (People's Park), as it started drizzling a bit, something happened which hasn't happened to me in months: I got lost! Somehow I must have walked straight past the street I was supposed to be heading to and after 20 minutes of determined strolling, across a bridge, broad outline of the city's map engraved in my brain, I finally decided I was heading in the wrong direction (using the location of the sun to guess what is east and what is west, doesn't work in China, as you can never see the sun anyhow, and by this time is was also 8 o'clock in the evening). Finally retrieving the Lonely Planet from my backpack, and asking an on-duty policeman to pinpoint my location on it, I realised that the guy was either completely drunk, or standards for policemen are eased somewhat in China, in order to include slurring, handwaving clowns. Very helpful.

The East Nanjing Road (ENR), the golden mile of the city, is where I tend to achieve horizontality (i.e. sleep) every evening. Being the busiest street in the whole of Shanghai, the street is host to a multitude of street merchants attempting to sell fake watches, fake handbags, fake dvd's (but just for the record, there is an authentic Rolex store there as well). The first day I was shocked by the sheer number of them, the amount of times I was accosted by guys and gals whispering "Sir, wanna buy Rolex, bags, dvd's?". I'm talking one every five seconds here. Hardly had I finished my "No, thank you" or I had to reiterate it to another guy. The second day, I watched and observed. A skill honed in Bangkok, spotting the potential sales boys, their quasi-nonchalant change of course to bump into you, the hand going into the back pocket, to reach for a booklet showing the range of products (in Bangkok it was a price list to view all kinds of exotic bodily achievements). So on the third days I started a new game which I've called "Into the fray!" (I exclaim this gleefully every time I venture out into the street from my hotel). Goal of the game is to reach the end of the street without hearing the words "Friend, Rolex, bags, dvd's?". I think the street merchants like the game as well. When I see I've been spotted, their glance goes down, and they quasi-nonchalantly head on a collision course. That is, if their initial interpolation of my trajectory was correct. But as soon as they cast their eyes down, I take a 90 degree turn, so when they look up to see where you are, they're very puzzled to see that their target has escaped. It's real fun but gets increasingly difficult when you are being tracked by two guys at the same time. Your best bet then is to make a 180 degree turn and use other foreigners as "bait".

Highlights in Shanghai for me were the Bund, almost half a mile worth of flood barrier hugging the Huangpu River with views of the highrise of modern-day Shanghai on the east, and early 20th century-style architecture built on the west. Shanghai Museum, located in Renmin Park is without a doubt the most interesting, thoughtfully set out, and beautiful museum I have ever set foot in. There's enough here to keep you (well, me) engrossed for well over a day, and it gave me a nice opportunity to try out the low-level-light capabilities of my D300 camera (pictures below mostly shot at ISO 3200, WB at 4000K and -1.0 stop exposure for those interested). I was also lucky enough to be present at the Jade Buddha Temple to see some kind of ceremony take place, which involved about 100 buddhist monks walking around the temple, singing, chanting, and burning effigies of a frightful looking dark haired bloke (Hu Wintao?).

One last train journey to go now before heading back to Europe (for a month and a half). I must say that I'm looking forward to having a short break from being the bohemian all the time. It's going to take some getting used to not be accosted by young females offering their services for a massage all the time. Maybe.

Right, time for a beer, Tsingtao it is!

Cheers!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1211791020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1211791020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1211791020/tpod.html Thu, 29 May 2008 09:12:56 -0400 Rice, temples and karaoke: a tale of woe from Sri Lanka to wherever

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Pingyao, Shanxi, China

This is the story on how I became the best guesser of names in the world. Back in Datong, I bumped into an English bloke, called Evan, who'd spent more than long enough in Datong to decide that two days was probably the maximum amount of time you should spend in the place (that is, unless you really want to solve the mystery of why it allegedly won a Chinese Tourism Award in 2005). When I told him I'd taken part in the Great Wall of China Marathon, he recalled a guy he'd bumped into earlier in the week called Joe. Now I'd met a Joe (actually two), when I was in Beijing, but my Joe was American, short, dark-haired and in his late 30's. Even's Joe was young, tall, blonde and British.

Forward-wind to Ping-Yao, walking into the Yamen Youth Hostel, and I recognised a girl I'd seen at the marathon. When I asked her, if she'd participated, a young, tall, blonde, British bloke turned around from his computer and said "What? You both took part as well?". I said 'Yes, and I bet your name is Joe."

I could make the story even more amusing, by saying that when later walking through Pingyao, I bumped into a Dutch bloke called Wim, who I'd seen earlier in Datong. When I told him the above story, he said "And guess what? Evan's staying at my hotel!".

Pingyao is an anomaly in what I've gotten used to in China. First, it's a town, not a city. The population is measured in thousands, not in millions. It's quiet. Maybe not in the weekends when crowds of Chinese tourists parade through the streets in droves of twenty, thirty people in matching waistcoats or caps, but on Monday I even encountered... dramatic silence... empty streets (and I have photos to prove it).

The whole place exudes an atmosphere of not having changed for the past fifty years and shied away from the industrial advances made in the rest of the country. That's the main charm of the place. There's an abundance of narrow streets, solely trafficked by electrical golfcarts and bicycles. There's more temples, houses, courtyards and mini-museums than you can shake your hat at. I have to admit though, that the comfort of the youth hostel I stayed in, and the fact that this trip is drawing to a close, has introduced an element of lethargy, so I didn't get up to much.

I seem to be jojo-ing between youth hostels in one spot to four and five star hotels in the other. Slightly confusing. The latter is good for achieving some degree of normality before heading back to Europe, while the former is very good for exchanging experiences with other people on the road, gaining great new ideas for future trips (don't tell my mum this), and as a general source of information (how do I get from A to B the cheapest?). And as a source of cheap beer. Speaking of which, time for a Snow.

Cheers!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1211432940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1211432940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1211432940/tpod.html Sun, 25 May 2008 01:35:11 -0400 Rice, temples and karaoke: a tale of woe from Sri Lanka to wherever

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Datong, Shanxi, China

I was going to start by saying that Datong will never win any prizes for being a pretty city, but then again, during the tour to the world-famous Hanging Monastery and Yungang Caves in the outskirts of Datong, I'm sure I heard our guide mumble something about Datong winning the Chinese Tourism Award in 2005. Being the skeptic I am, I decided to authenticate this little factlet on the old internet, but either uncle Hu Jintao has been very succesful in censoring this sniplet of info or it's just patently untrue. Having said that, the city centre (was going to write town centre, but with a population of more than 3 million, I'm afraid the term "town" just doesn't do Datong any justice) is quite nice (again "quiet" doesn't quite catch it, maybe "quietish") with a lovely Buddhist temple (Huayan Upper Temple), one of the quietest sights I've been to in China (only 20 other Chinese tourists!), and the biggest Nine Dragon Screen in the whole of China (8 m high, 45 m long, 2 m thick).

Driving through the outskirts of Datong to the sights further afield is a dreary experience indeed. Broken down cars, which would have been written off decades ago are being "fixed" outside makeshift garages. The Dutch Health & Safety would have nightmares for weeks seeing what goes on here. Datong is China's biggest provider of coals (I think about 40% of the country's coal comes from here). Trains with carriages filled to the brim with coal, pass like slow-moving mile long black snakes against a backdrop of dozens of coal-fired chimneys belching grey smoke into the atmosphere. In fact, when reading other bloggers stories on the place (something I tend to do, in order to gauge if it's worth a visit), I've been incredibly lucky to have seen blue skies in Datong. Even the Lonely Planet is less than enthousiastic about the side-effects of the ubiquitous use of sulphurous coal in the area and the effects on the atmosphere here. But anyway, dreary very dreary. Think Zoetermeer meets Harbour Area of Rotterdam. Highly depressing stuff, I think you'll agree.

Datong's outskirts has two main sights to offer though. One is the overly touristy Hanging Hanging Monastery, a wooden buddhist affair perched 50 metres above the ground, seemingly supported by long stilts, but in actual fact resting on beams extending into the cliff face. It's a beautiful sights, a masterpiece of ingenuity, especially considering that the construction was built 11 centuries ago (?). But even on weekdays, the place is crawling with both foreign and Chinese (especially the latter) tourists, so you frogmarch your way through the whole monastery trying not to get into everybody's line of fire, when they're taking the obligatory "Dad making V-sign" or "Mum-not-smiling" photograph.

Alternatively, the Yungang Caves are amazing. a collection of grottoes containing a multitude of Buddhas, boddhisatvas, apsaras, from minutely small to an impressive 14 m high affair in Cave 20. By the way, dud you know that Buddha is depicted in 4 postures, sitting, reclining, standing and walking (never jogging!). Only in the Yungang Caves did they find The Surfing Buddha! (No just kidding). "Haven't you seen enough Buddhist statues, temples, pagodas, monastaries et al in the past ten months?", I hear you ask. Well, despite China not being a buddhist country per se, this is probably my last opportunity to get some last shots of the geezer, as the next country on the list is Malaysia (well strictly speaking it's Germany but, hey, same difference!), and I don't think Buddhism got much further down into southeathern asia than Thailand. Better get more up to speed with my Islam knowledge before I arrive in Kuala Lumpur in July.

Meanwhile, I'm getting more and more brave on the food front. I've said it before, and I'll keep on repeating it for those who are irregular readers of this blog, but the Chinese will eat anything that has 4 legs, except the table (and even that remains somewhat in doubt). As long as I have a picture, and a (broken) english explanation of what I'll be eating, I don't shy away from much these days. The four-star hotel that Pei-Ying managed to arrange for me in downtown Datong (Hao Hai!) has a formidable restaurant and an even more formidable menu, so it's a pity I'll only have the opportunity of eating here three nights.

I'll just list a few of the imaginative menu items to choose from:

peasant family salt eight precious ingredients
day government sacrificial intestines
chrysanthenum pig ear
five spices rabbit face
bittern money stomach
clamps the fragrants-flowered garlic eggplant
ten thousand old green beans
bittern bump on the head
sauce fragrant donkey platoon
sharp pepper meat garrulous senate
the wild pepper explodes the stomach piece
flavour unwearied effort however beefsteak
explodes the shell to be fresh
crosses the stone walkway bullheart
peru system fire bureau snow fish

and finally everybody's favourite:

bamboo tube bull's penis chicken kidney

I won't say which ones I tried, but I will mention that they all tasted wonderful! And if you wash it all down with a Tsingtao beer, and you're sorted!

Cheers!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1211346240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1211346240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/garybarnes/asia-2007/1211346240/tpod.html Sun, 25 May 2008 00:58:14 -0400 Rice, temples and karaoke: a tale of woe from Sri Lanka to wherever

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Beijing, China

Spent the past five days within the confines of a "five-star" hotel (that's five stars Chinese style, so don't get your hopes up too high), with now and again a venture to the Chinese Wall as a sweaty, but rather enjoyable diversion. Now, with the Great Wall of China well and truly behind us, I no longer need to save my legs and there's also no need to be installed in such luxury digs, so I've relocated to the youth hostel just down the road. Somewhat of a drop in availlable amenities, but also a tremendous drop in outgoings (and the Beijing Inernational remains within walking distance for my weekly dose of "The Economist").

Time to stretch those legs, and how better to do that than a stroll to Tiananmen Square and through the Forbidden City. For the first, I was lucky that I'd chosen a day on which the perennial white layer of smog hanging over the city (yes, still!) had been blown away, revealing the first blue sky I'd seen in Beijing in a week. If the Beijing authorities are leaving it to the last weeks before the Olympics to clear the skies (I don't remember exactly how Athens did it), then it's going to be quite a close call and I'm sure they're will be more marathon runners who will cancel for the event like Haile Gebrselassie. After a week in Beijing, I've started to feel the ill effects on my system already. Pretty soon I'll be doing the Chinese thing of hacking, coughing and spitting up "lung butter", as one of the other travelpod bloggers quite poignantly calls it.

But anyway, Tiananmen Square. What can I say what thousands before me haven't said already. It's big, pretty huge in fact, meaning that on normal days you can't see the other side (although yet again, in Beijing that's no tremendous feat). I was warned before about the "art students" patrolling the square in search of foreigners to parade to their "art exhibitions", and then to cajole them into buying a mediocre copy of some Chinese masterpiece. But I hadn't realised that there would be so many! It's as if the art students (and when do these girls actually study if there always on the street?) are the only English speakers in the entire city. Starting off with the introductory phrases of "How long have you been in Beijing?", "Welcome to Beijing?" and "Where you from?", the conversation usually degrades quickly into the old "I'm an artist, and you're lucky, because today it is free (wow!) to visit our exhibition"-rubbish. My sharply honed eye for the boom-boom-guys of Bangkok, now comes in quite handy to avoid the "casually" strolling art-students on a collision-course with you, and my old favourite homeland of the Ukraine is making another comeback.

I'm trying to be a good tourist, and do some reading up on the history of China. All very impressive and all, considering how far ahead of the Europeans the Chinese were, inventing paper, the crossbow and many other things literally hundreds of years before they were first introduced into Europe, but I've "caught" a new variant of "old-stone-syndrome", which I will call "dynasty-somno..": i.e. falling asleep as soon as the word "dynasty" crops up in a sentence. And what with the Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Wei (zzz...), Shu, Wu, Jin, Song, Qi, Liang (zzzzz...), Chen, Sui, Tang, Liao, Song, Jin, Yuan (zzzzzzzzzz...), Ming and Qing dynasties (snore!), that's a bit of a hindrance.

The Forbidden City, home to the emperors of the final two dynasties (zzz...), is similarly huge. To paraphrase Mel Brooks in "The History of the World Part 1", it must have been good to be the emperor (especially with the concubines and all). After 4 hours of drifting past the different elaborate halls and gates, with equally elaborate names, ensconced ? within the Forbidden Walls, "old-stone-fatigue" finally set in, and for fun I actively set out in search of the Starbucks which the Lonely Planet mentions has wormed its way into the grounds. But it is no more, replaced by an obscure Chinese coffee shop.

Just time to continue with my list of TPR's (The Photography Rules):

4. After having invested in a DSLR (digital single lens reflex), one shall invest at least one hour in reading the manual. If your camera is still in 'M' or automatic mode after six months, it may be legally taken off you.

5. Taking several pictures and checking them all on your LCD screen, while the rest of the world patiently waits for you to move out of their "line of fire", is a punishable offence.

Also finally managed to hook up with China girl, Pei-Ying, who I'd met in Myanmar and works for the Beijing office of DSM. We went out for a meal together on "Ghost Street", and I decided to be somewhat brave again (well, I'm brave when I can see from the pictures in the menu approximately what I'd be eating). So one sea cucumber (seen plenty of these under water, but never one on my plate before) made its way into my stomach. For those interested: it tastes of nothing (no, not even chicken). She also very kindly offered to pull some strings for me, so that I could return to my life of luxury by staying at a 4-star hotel in Datong for a doddle. Welcome back to the good life.

Right, all this typing has worked me up quite a thirst. Needs to be quenched with a Beijing Beer, I suppose.

Cheers!
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