TravelStream™ news feed for member joseph_hillier on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/joseph_hillier en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:55:31 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1207536240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1207536240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1207536240/tpod.html Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:55:31 -0400 It's a Hard Life - An 8 month exile to Europe, Africa, Asia and Beyond, or at least San Francisco

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Shanghai, China

Well other than being what I just said - i.e. HUGE - Shanghai was also a an incredibly diverse city - so many neighbourhoods, lots of different green space areas, TONS of people (not as many expats as I thought I'd see), great shopping, food - the whole thing was just incredible!  While it doesn't really compete for other cities I've seen in terms of beauty, there's just so much to DO here, that I think I will most definitely be making a return visit!We arrived a bit later in the morning on our train (one more to go!) and did an orientation around the area of our hotel, which was super close to the Bund - the riverside walkway of Shanghai that gives you great views of the Pudong area, where all the new sky scrapers and towers are built/being build (SOOO many cranes - probably one of the most common features of Chinese cities!).  We also wandered down Nanjing street, which turns into a pedestrian shopping area.  Once we'd gotten our bearings, we took the train to the Maglev station.  The Maglev is a Magnetic Levitation train that links Shanghai city to Pudong Airport.  It's the fastest train in the world, reaching a speed of 431 km/h - we didn't realize how fast this actually was until we rode the thing!  It started out calmly enough, and even at about 250 or 300 km/h it didn't seem so bad.  But once we crested about 380 km/h, the cars and countryside below and beside us became almost a blur and then when the other train travelling in the reverse direction passed us - the feeling was crazy!  Of course, you only remain at the top speed for about a minute, as the train then needs to slow down again in time to stop at its destination - the whole trip of 35 km or so took less than 7 minutes!  A great deal of the rest of the time was spent wandering the city.  We went to the Shanghai Museum - free entrance meant an hour-long wait in line!  But the exhibits were pretty impressive and some of the porcelain displays were gorgeous!  We wandered down the whole Bund and went into the Yuanyuan Gardens and Bazaar area - basically a huge tourist trap but with a lot of neat buildings and PLENTY of interesting odours (we ended up calling one square 'Wet Dog Urine Square' because of the mixture of smells it seemed to be emanating - YUM!  We also rode the metro system a few times - the roughest contact sport I've ever been in!  People here are RUTHLESS when it comes to getting on trains (or getting in line, or crossing the street for that matter), but with elbows up and our slogan of 'no mercy!', we were able to make our way through the crowds no problem!Our last night we saw the Shanghai acrobats on stage - most of the acts were pretty good (although calling girls on rollers skates the "aerial ballet dancers" was a bit of a stretch) and the finale was 5 motorcyclists riding around a spherical cage, which was pretty impressive.  We checked out the local bar scene too, but because the weekend was mostly a holiday (spirit sweeping weekend or something) combined with a sunday evening meant pretty quite on that front (Viv, we gotta come back and go out here!).  Finally, our last day we checked out some local markets and the French Concession - WHEW!  We did so much!  Like Xi'an, there's PLENTY of touristy things to do here and I look forward to coming back and just relaxing and enjoying the city!  And there's only one more stop left on this tour - thank god, because I cry every time I look at my bank statement!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1207362420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1207362420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1207362420/tpod.html Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:40:04 -0400 It's a Hard Life - An 8 month exile to Europe, Africa, Asia and Beyond, or at least San Francisco

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Xi'an, China

After yet ANOTHER night train ride (only two more to go!) we got into Xi'an bright and early and did a quick walk around this 'mid-sized city' of like 6.5 million people.  I was actually impressed with how beautiful the city is - minus the bit of a smoggish haze that seemed to predominate, although we did luck out with random splashes of sunlight.  During our brief stay of about 3 days we managed to see soooo much of the city - the Muslim quarter and its Great Mosque (the largest in China, serving the city's 60,000 muslims), the Bell and Drum towers (right in the city centre and spitting distance from our hotel), the impressive museum and Big Goose Pagoda - the birthplace of Chinese Buddhism.The highlight, of course, was the excursion to the site of the Terracotta Warriors, guarding the Qin Emperor's mausoleum (he was the first emperor to unite China and pretty much spent ALL of the country's resources and used 700,000 to build this terracotta army to represent the forces protecting Xi'An - too bad they couldn't protect his dynasty from the peasant uprisings which followed!).  The site was divided into three buildings, with the first and largest housing most of the warriors that are commonly seen in photos and documentaries.  It was incredible to see SOOO many lined up, and each one having a different face!  The Emperor had assigned each family in the city to make a certain number of them, and each one wanted to be unique and interesting, thus thousands were created with no two alike!  We spent several hours there just walking around the airplane hangar-like buildings that housed these incredible monuments - about 2200 years old!Otherwise I enjoyed Xi'An a great deal more than I expected to.  A number of people said it was worth it solely for seeing the warriors, but the city has a lot to offer and is very pedestrian friendly.  I even went cycling again! (I hear the gasps of disbelief, but I assure you, it's true!) - we spent about 2 hours riding along the city walls, which gave a great look of the city (they are about 12.5 km all around).  The food was also really good - a common theme in CHina.  ALthough we did have the misfortune of going to a resto which we THOUGHT was one recommended by our guide, but it turned out not to be and were treated to an oily broth filled with mostly chicken bones and some very tought meat, served with raw potatoes and cabbage (we figured we had to cook them in the broth, but weren't sure) - ahhh the joy of travelling!  We're heading off to SHanghai next and I'm very excited to finally see this city!  And I can't believe it's less than a week before I leave China and head back to North America (I'm VERY excited about fresh fruit/veggies and sunlight, probably what I've missed most while in China!).  So two more stops to go!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1205310600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1205310600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1205310600/tpod.html Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:25:08 -0400 It's a Hard Life - An 8 month exile to Europe, Africa, Asia and Beyond, or at least San Francisco

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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

My stay in Malaysia, however brief, was a much needed opportunity to take some time all to myself and get some much much much needed spa treatements (this travelling is BRUTAL on your feet!  And did I mention it's been well over 2 months since I've gotten my nails done? Shan the last time was with you in Washington!  To THINK I've gone this long!).  Anyway, as you may guess, I spent the entire day at a really nice spa in the city for what would have probably cost triple or quadruple back home.  It was so nice just to lie there and not have to worry about going anywhere.  You know, that's probably the best part of travelling by yourself - if you want to sit around and do absolutely nothing for a day, you totally can!  I almost have to remind myself that I AM on vacation, and that relaxaing and not doing a bunch of sightseeing isn't such a bad thing!  I DID manage to go through the city's Chinatown - had a GREAT dinnner there!  Super cheap too!  Went up the KL Tower (their version of the CN), saw the Twin Towers (didn't go up them - couldn't get my ass out of bed early enough) and wandered around the Golden Triangle Area - I was in a hostel right in the downtown area.  Although as I discovered on my first night, the hostel was RIGHT on top of a night club - the BLASTED music till 3 in the morning most nights, although on Tuesday they let up at around 1:30, and it wasn't even THAT nice of a place!  Surely there couldn't have been that many people there!  Had a great meal at a Malay restaurant on my last night - the food was really good.  Not a terribly exciting entry I realize, as my stay there was ever so brief - more of a stopover actually.  I wish I'd either planned to stay longer in Malaysia or saved the trip for later I think, so I could have given a real go of it.  But it was good nonetheless!  Off to Bangkok!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1207037040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1207037040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1207037040/tpod.html Thu, 03 Apr 2008 04:17:29 -0400 It's a Hard Life - An 8 month exile to Europe, Africa, Asia and Beyond, or at least San Francisco

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Yichang, China

Our next stop brought us to Yichang - where we would pick up our boat for the Yangzi (I've also seen it spelled Yangtze, but anyways) River cruise and the spot from where we would go check out the Three Gorges Damn (what I understand to currently be the largest engineering project on Earth).  We dumped our bags at a hotel and had a great lunch - they gave us our private dining room!  Apparently they were trying to show off because they don't get a lot of tourists!  Sadly, we weren't staying at that hotel, but the food was nevertheless quite tasty!We caught our boat that night - I was quite pleasantly surprised with the cabin I got - very cozy!  That night we went up to the bar and drank a bit and played cards - although the VERY loud and active karaoke going on made it rather difficult (our guide did a few good numbers though!  I was WAY too sober to participate!).  The next morning Ana and I went with our guide on an excursion from the boat and were treated with some of the most amazing vistas I've seen so far on this trip.  The scenery of the Yangzi (3rd longest river in the world next to the Nile and Amazon I was told) and the Three Gorges area was so impressive, it's impossible to capture it words.  What was even more amazing was how high and tall the looming cliff faces were, and yet the water had already risen a great deal because of the dam's near completion - how high it must have all been about 20 years ago!!  It was also pointed out the numerous new towns and cities that had risen up as people were relocated to make way for the dam and the rising waters.  Hundreds of thousands of people had moved to higher ground, and even more had moved into the larger cities a little further away.  The dimensions of this project were incredible!  We were also treated to a ride in one of the local boats that involved a lot of yelling and spitting, but was fun nonetheless!We stopped that night in Fengjie, and ancient town and one in which we had the most amazing views of the 3rd Gorge, the Qutang Gorge (actually I think it's the 1st, but because of the direction we were going, it was the 3rd for us) - it's actually the site that makes it on the 10 Yuan note of Chinese currency (the pictures, when I put them up, will show all of this I hope!).  The next day we caught a hydrofoil back to Yichang and hopped right on the bus to the Three Gorges Dam!I must say, it actually wasn't as big as I expected it to look.  Mind you, it was obviously quite massive and the Ship Locks area was impressive (apparently the largest in the world!) but the design was rather plain - I expected some huge, sweeping, curved dam, but it was rather utilitarian in appearance.  The immensity of the project still impresses me, and while I'm not sure the ecological and social consequences can be justified, one cannot help but be awed by the scope of the work itself!The rest of our time in Yichang was pretty chill - for a minor city of like 4 million people, there was precious little to do!  On to Xi'An!
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Fengjie, China

Goin through the 3 Gorges
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Yichang, China

Getting the Boat!
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Wuhan, China

Bus To Yichang!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1206690180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1206690180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1206690180/tpod.html Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:55:54 -0400 It's a Hard Life - An 8 month exile to Europe, Africa, Asia and Beyond, or at least San Francisco

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Yangshuo, China

Yes, I know it's crazy, but I got onto a bicycle and went touring around Yangshuo!  But I'm getting ahead of myself!We took the night train from Shenzhen, which is on the China side just across from Hong Kong, to Yangshuo, a town (well 'town' of like 400,000 people) that lies along the Li River and has some of the most impressive cliffs I've ever seen!  The jagged teeth of limestone rise up all over the place, and gives the entire town this awesome, pre-historic feel to it.  The town centre is quite small, with a few main streets and is very heavily geared to tourists.  So there was lots of english, lots of western food (although I stuck fairly well to local dishes) and lots and lots of tourists.  But we had a really cute guesthouse and were quite comfortable.On our first day there (still a little groggy from the overnight train ride - which was actually pretty comfortable for a "hard sleeper" - 6 beds in one cabin-like area with no door), Liz, Scott and I signed up for the cooking course at one of the local restaurants and made Gung Pao Chicken (sp?), Sweet and Sour Pork, and a local dish that involved stuffing green peppers with pork and veggies - ALL of them were fantastic and definitely easy to reproduce, so I will try and show off my new culinary skills (Thai and Chinese) to those who will risk it!  We spent the rest of that night chilling with a few beers and enjoying the relaxed atmosphere.And yes, I did not lie, *I* cycled! The next day, we did this day long bike trek in the areas surrounding the town and got to see even more amazing sites than I thought we'd get to see in China!  It was just incredible how green it all was, and how peaceful!  We biked for about 3.5-4 hours until we got to a place called the "Moon Gate", which was a naturally formed rock with a big hole in the middle.  It was a rather lengthy climb all the way to the top, but the views were just incredible, even with a little fog rolling in below.  We were accompanied the WHOLE way by these REALLY old ladies who kept trying to sell us water and other drinks.  Finally caving, more because I felt bad that they came ALL this way (although this must keep them in pretty good shape, or kill them rather quickly if they fall, win-win one supposes), so I bought a drink off of one of them.  After many pictures, we headed back down and made our way to a local resto for lunch - our Guide once again proving invaluable in helping us select some AMAZING dishes, most local.We biked back to Yanghsuo and cleaned ourselves up and wandered around the local markets.  We settled on a place for a light dinner and then headed to a rooftop bar recommended by Liz and Scott's previous tour guide from another trip.  The next day though, Liz ended up getting REALLY sick!  I felt so bad for her - it was very similar to what I dealt with in Africa.  So we didn't do much that day except explore a bit more, I picked up some books and then we were off to our next destination: a town called Yichang along the Yangtze River.
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Shenzhen, China

Border Crossing and Train!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1206348540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1206348540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/joseph_hillier/global_trot/1206348540/tpod.html Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:40:33 -0400 It's a Hard Life - An 8 month exile to Europe, Africa, Asia and Beyond, or at least San Francisco

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Bangkok, Thailand

As you will recall, I hung out with my friend Ewa in Singapore quite a bit while I was there - and I got to do it again when she and Kristina met up with me in Phuket province (in a beautiful beach area called Kata) after I flew in from Chiang Mai.  We had a great cliff-hugging little bungalow that had a view of the water and we were super close to the beach, so we spent that first night catching up and relaxing and of course having some great food and a few beers!  From there we also arranged a Thai cooking class in our next stop and our hotel too!The next day we grabbed a really beautiful ferry ride to Ko Lanta, one of Thailand's most beautiful beach areas (so says Lonely Planet anyway, and we definitely agreed that it was gorgeous!).  We got a tuk-tuk ride - piling the three of us into one with our luggage was most interesting (if I haven't explained already, tuk-tuks are like little motorcycles carryin a little kind of carriage for passengers).  We arrived at the pretty laid back spot called Time For Lime - the name of the cooking school and hotel.  We settled our stuff into our bungalows and grabbed a quick bite before starting our course.The course was SO much fun! We learned how to make really good fishcakes, Tom Kam soup (coconut soup with chicken) and this great glazed barracuda dish as well as a neat appetizer.  Never mind that we also had a view of the beach and the water the whole time!  The instructor, a Norwegian-American who also owned the hotel, was excellent and even suggested brands of sauces and ingredients we could find at home!A quick note about the population of Thailand's beach areas - I think like 80% are swedish or from some other scandanavian country!  I had no idea it was such a popular destination, but many of the hotels had swedish advertisements and most offered swedish dishes!We had managed to organize some snorkelling for the next day (the full moon meant the currents were really strong for all the diving trips, so Ewa and I abstained and we all agreed on some good snorkelling instead).  We had a great day out on the water, had a fabulous lunch, and snorkelled plenty as well as relaxed on the beach (we went to an island called Ko Rok, ALSO very beautiful!).  We spent the rest of the day wandering up and down and the street and playing German Bridge (a great card game Ewa taught me - Mel, very similar to Wizard!).  The last day of our beaches experience Kristina and I did an elephant trekking trip (Ewa lounged on the beach).  Kristina and I had a most interesting experience - we were on the elephants for about 20 minutes and then prepared for what the brochure had described as a 10-minute walk to the waterfalls (there were two errors in this statement).  The guide explained that it would, in fact, be 30 minutes each way to the waterfall.  Then when we finally GOT there, the guide explaind (just BEFORE the 'falls') that there wasn't as much water this time of season.  Well low and behold, there was almost NO water!  It was more a trickle than any kind of waterfall!  Kristina and I laughed about, and the guide tried to tell us some stuff, but I told him I couldn't hear him for the roar of the water in the background (good grief!).  Never mind the fact that the whole morning took about 3.5 hours rather than the scheduled 2!  Finally we made it back to the hotel to meet up with Ewa, who must have wondered what befell us!  Then we were set to head to Bangkok...or so we thought.One of the Thais working at the hotel had told us she could arrange for a ferry to Krabi, from where we could catch the overnight VIP bus to Bangkok (VIP meaning the seats recline to beds).  The day of our departure, however, when we asked about the ferry, she said "OH, I thought Ko Phi Phi" (an island not far from from where we were, but certainly not Krabi and NOT the mainland), although we must have told her at least 3 times!  Anyway, still all smiles, she suggested that we could get a minibus that would take us on a different ferry all the way to Krabi.  Sucked in by her infectious enthusiasm, we agreed.  The bus was due to pick us up at 1...we waited...waited...it was 1:30 and I went to ask, so she called them...we waited...waited...at 2 she told us that the minibus wouldn't work because of traffic, so instead (again, all of this said with big smiles, laughter and gushes of enthusiasm) we could ride a tuk tuk to one ferry, walk across on another, and catch a city bus to Krabi from that dock - all of it should take less than 2 hours, giving us PLENTY of time to get to our bus!  At this point we had little choice but to agree.  All seemed to be going well (although it took about 30 minutes longer to get to the city bus) and then the city bus ended up being about double the expected price and took twice as long - we arrived about 10 minutes before our bus left!!  But we made it!  This also demonstrates a little quirk about the Thais (at least those we dealt with - generalize?  ME?) is that they hate to lose face, so they often respond to situations in which they were wrong either with smiles and enthusiastic alternatives (which may or may not exist) or little white lies to move things along!  ANyway, suffice to say we got on the bus!  (A similar experience also happened when we went to book the train - which as we know, ended up being the bus following a smiliar flow of events!).Made it to Bangkok early that morning, checked in and had a wee nap, and then headed out an explored a fair bit - I hadn't seen overly much so it was great to walk around with the girls.  We even checked out the red light district, which we thought was pretty tame, although we didn't linger likely into the more "shadier" hours of the night.  We saw the temples, the royal palace, had a great massage - a fabulous weekend.  Of course our last night there (we had to be up at around 4:30 for the airport the next day) Ewa wakes up and, somehow knowing I too was awake (we always seemed to wake up at the same things), she asked "Joe, why is the power off?" - not even questioning how she knew I was awake, I told her I didn't know and went down to the front desk.  Greeting me was a grinning hotel employee telling me all was okay and to wait 5 minutes.  I went back up and waited for 20, but still no power, so I went back down to ask (our room was heating up rather quickly).  Same guy, same story, which I told him I didn't buy.  The manager was there and I asked him what was up, and he said the power was out, to which I agreed.  Then I asked him WHY the power was out, and he started laughing and between chuckles said "Boom".  BOOM?  I asked him what he meant by 'boom'.  And then he pointed to a transformer on the street - "A transformer blew up?"  - Yes he said, still chuckling, VERY big explosion.  I was not entirely impressed, and asked rather pointedly when the power would be back on - he said probably 30 minutes.  At this point, just shaking my head and too tired to banter further, I litterally threw my hands in the air and went back to bed - luckily the power did come back on and we made our flights no worries!Whew - good times means long entries!!  And now I had to say goodbye to Ewa and Kristina - FABULOUS travel companions - gonna miss you girls!  The only downside is that my cell phone went missing!  HMPH!  Off to Hong Kong and my China tour (and now an excuse to go shopping for a new cell phone!)!
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