First stop, TaiPei: Summer 2017

It has been so long since I was last able to upload anything that I am having trouble remembering in which order to write these posts. In an attempt to speed up the upload process, I am just writing whichever I fancy next and will work it out later (I hope). So here it goes, TAIWAN!

Taiwan had never been particularly high on my 'to go to' list, that is until Dan moved there and told me a little about the Island. In my current job, I get the two big holidays a year, one for Spring Festival and the other in the summer.

Notice this is the cooled down dough time temperature

Summer rolled around and I booked a flight. My first stop was TaiPei.
Within a few minutes of being in the airport, I knew I was in for a good trip. Unlimited free Wi-Fi everywhere, buses that actually went to useful places and pleasant happy looking people working in the airport.

I had booked into a dorm room somewhere near the train station which turned out to be a very useful area to be. Accommodation is a little more expensive in TAiWan (roughly 100y a night) and being completely unsure how much I was going to end up spending, I took it easy on the budget. The hostel was fine, busy but clean and well designed for travelers.

My initial problem was the heat and humidity attack. Kunming in the summer is pleasant, TaiPei was a bit of a shock to the system. Luckily everywhere has air con so I was able to get a break from it.

As the capital city, there is a good mix of museums, 'attractions', culture and markets. The one thing that TaiWan does better than anywhere else I have ever been is night markets. It didn't matter where you were or what you were doing, you are  never far from a market street. That being said, the markets are all food, endless food, nothing but food.

When I arrived I had only allowed two days in TaiPei but a longer stop on the way back, I wandered about and did what I could but I didn't bother rushing.

The beginning of my trip was put aside to catch up with Dan. We decided to meet in HuaLian, which is a small coastal city just south of TaiPei. So close in fact that I heard of people who would live in one and work in the other.

The direct train to HuaLian was sold out but I was pointed to a run down desk which sold combination tickets. I found out later that it is actually faster and cheaper than the direct train. It involves the bus to a mid point and then transfer to a smaller train to HuaLian. In total 2 hours and about a fiver. Perfect!

LuFeng Jurassic Park. Adventures with Dinosaurs

Halfway between Kuning and Dali exists one of the more random and unexpected attractions: Lufeng Dinosaur Valley. 

Jacki, Dan and I decided to make the trip and investigate somewhere that sparked our curiosity.

The night before, the three of us split up and went to different hot spots of Kunming nightlife and agreed to meet the following morning at the train station. In a moment of pure genius, I lied and told the other two a different time for the train, making it a half hour earlier than in reality. A move that proved fantastic, as Jacki would have missed the train. Dan, on the other hand, did miss the train, and after many, many failed attempts to contact him, we went and got on our train. 

A 45-minute train to the small town of Lufeng, and then we had to go find the bus station. A tiny place with 2 foreigners trying to get to a dinosaur park caused confusion, but we were well looked after. One woman even made sure to tell the next woman on shift, "the foreigners are going to see dinosaurs," and pointed to us. 

We were put on a small bus and drove another 40 minutes before being dropped off on the side of a highway near the park entrance. To say it was well hidden would be a serious understatement. We walked along a dirt track with about 200 goats in the general direction before eventually finding giant gates mimicking the Jurassic Park gates from the film. 

The park itself is long and thin, following a central lake slightly uphill to the main buildings. The weather was perfect for our day trip, and we were lucky enough to be one of the very few people in the park, so we had the run of the place. 

All along the lake are giant dinosaurs in various poses, with which we had a lot of fun taking pictures. 

At the top of the hill are two buildings housing the collections, one of which is a museum complete with informational videos that looked like they could have been left over from the 80s.

The second was the main attraction, a huge hangar with rows and rows of complete dinosaur skeletons. At the time, Lufeng Dinosaurs Valley holds the most complete dinosaur skeletons on the planet. 

Standing at the top of the stairs overlooking a mass of dinosaurs of all sizes was really quite impressive and just so unexpected for some random little place in the middle of nowhere. 

After leaving the building, we ran across the gift shop, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Jacki and I both teach kids, so we stocked up on our plastic toys and made our way back towards the lake, stopping for the occasional photo op and a quick meal before heading back to Kunming in time for last orders. 

chop sabers

 Pictures from a very fun birthday. 

Chiang Mai Christmas 2015 (moved from old blog)

Chiang Mai: A very Jedi Christmas. 

With four whole days off for Christmas I decided it was time to go somewhere. Jacki jumped on board and we brainstormed places to go. Our clear winner was Chiang Mai in Thailand! We found cheap flights and booked them. We flew Christmas Eve, a whole hour and a half later we landed into the amazing warmth of Thailand.

Jacki found us an amazing hostel/guest house called the Green Tulip. It's run by a woman called Stella who was described to us as "militantly hospitable" and "aggressively pleasant." Within about 2 minutes of us having arrived at the hostel we had been sat down, had our bags taken off us and had a beer put in front of us. Its an amazing hostel and Stella really is the most helpful person about.


xmas dinner

David and Lora had been in Chiang Mai for a few days before so they had already sussed out a decent drinking place. It turned out to be a handy place and became a starting point for every outing after that. Christmas eve was just dinner with a few drinks and a walk down a nearby bar street. 

Christmas day was pretty much panned; we met with David and Lora, exchanged gifts and went to find a cinema to watch the new Star Wars movie, after which we went to an English style pub for a full three course Christmas dinner complete with crackers, turkey and silly hats. Dinner was a traditional English affair, we started with prawns, followed with turkey and vegetables and finished off with Christmas pudding. Luckily several people didn't like their pudding so Jacki and I had several! It was a perfect meal except that Xmas dinner with Mai Tai's in thirty degree heat is a little weird but still enjoyable! 


Its looks very silly when not behind the camera.

 Next to the pub is a huge night market in which we bought loads of presents for people back in Kunming and still managed to treat ourselves. Lora is a bit of a ruthless machine when it comes to bargaining, so we got some really good deals. We finished up in a bar overlooking the market, had a few drinks and then went back to the hostel. 
Boxing day; David and Lora had a flight that afternoon so we decided to just meet at the 3D museum. It is full of 3D paintings with spaces for people to pose in bizarre and ridiculous scenes. Its is selfie heaven! We spent hours here and took hundreds of pictures between us, it is by far the most fun I have had in a museum. We all just giggled for the whole time we were there. 

David and Lora left us at the museum to go to the airport so Jacki and I went to Tesco. We could have been in a Tesco in England, we picked up loads of things that are so simple but that we just cant get in China. Getting things like moisturiser or deodorant is normally difficult in China so we stocked up and bought loads. 

All that was left of our trip was some last minute shopping for friends and to try and cram all of our stuff into various bags. We had both planned on shopping so our bags were pleanty big enough. We will be back! 

Hong Kong: Summer 2015 (moved from old blog)

 Hong Kong and a new VISA

Less than a week after getting back from YaDing, I jumped on a plane back to Hong Kong to get a new VISA before starting my new job. 

Hong Kong was HOT! After the freezing cold of YaDing and the comfort of Kunming, Hong Kong was uncomfortable and humid. My trick was to walk about until I was too hot, find a McDonalds and sit with a drink in the aircon until I had cooled off. 

The VISA process was time consuming but easy. The forms themselves took about an hour to fill in and then I had to sit with the attendant for another 40 minutes while she checked the form. She stamped it with the APPROVED stamp and sent me on my way. I could have kissed her! 
After the VISA office I went and found a ferry so that 

I could float about the harbour for a few hours. I miss the sea so my compulsory trip to HK was fantastic! I took the starlight ferry about 4 times then wandered about Kowloon and The Avenue Of Stars. The Avenue is a 500 meter stretch of harbour wall with Stars on the floor and statues to pose with. The Avenue ends near the Science and Technology Museum so I dropped in and discovered that it is free on Wednesdays. I only spent a few hours there as I think every kid in HK was there that day. Fun but Chaos! 

The next day I found a bus that was heading in the direction of a beach on the other side of the Island, jumped on it and spent hours on a beach or swimming in the stupidly warm clear water of Deep Water Bay and Repulse Bay. Like I say, I really miss the sea so I was perfectly happy. The rest of my week in HK was spent shopping in the crazy markets, sitting on a beach, reading my book in Victoria Park and watching the Symphony of lights which, according to the Guinness book of records people, is the longest running daily light show in the world. 
A nice 5 day trip to the beach over, back to Kunming and back to work! 

DaoCheng and YaDing: Summer 2015 (moved from old blog)

 YaDing National Park 

our hotel

The entrance to YaDing National Park is about a 2 hour drive from DaoCheng. The park has a main entrance where you buy tickets. From the other side of the ticket office there are no cars allowed, everything is run by shuttle buses which bounce between the scenic trail, YaDing town (about 6 hotels and a restaurant) and the main entrance. Karen had booked us a room in one of the hotels in the town so we checked in first and then went to start of the scenic trail. Our hotel was a traditionally built Tibetan style house, all big rooms, no windows and high ceilings. We had a private room but most people were in the main room in tents full of pillows and electric blankets. The people in the hotel were really friendly and kept feeding me homemade alcohol and yac meat stew or porridge. 

(some googled background information) The Yading National Reserve at the south edge of Daocheng County has been considered as the most sacred place in western Sichuan Province by Tibetan pilgrims. Mountains and lakes in the reserve are believed holy. The three sacred mountains Jambeyang (or Yangmaiyong in Mandarin, 5958 meters high), Chanadorje (Xiaruoduoji, 5958 meters high), Shenrezig (Xiannairi 6032 meters high) has saw stream of pious Tibetan pilgrims circling them, in the hope of a better and happier life. It is said that those three mountains were blessed in the 8th century, when Buddha Padmasambhava shed his divine light on the range, and named the three elevations after three bodhisattvas.

From the town to the beginning of the scenic trail was about 20 minutes in a bus, there were thousands of buses flying past so we had no problem getting about the park. the park has 2 main routes, a longer one and a shorter one. On the first day we climbed the stairs on the shorter route to a lake. 

near the top

Sadly the weather was cloudy but we had amazing views, my camera tried but the poor thing just couldn't cope. Just believe me when I say it is something else. 

Bottom of the trail

The second day we tackled the longer tougher route. It was a muddy, slippery trail that at times was little more than trying not to fall over into the smelly mud. We climbed to the top past glaciers and rivers at which point I nearly passed out. It would seem I not only enjoy getting car sick and sea sick, but I can now add altitude sickness to that list. We had made friends with some guys from Beijing and had climbed up with them. One of them wanted to head back to the trail so I went with him, feeling better almost as soon as we got to the bottom. Weird and unpleasant feeling over! 
The hotel from DaoCheng came and picked us up from the entrance to the park. Not at all keen to relive the bus I booked a 50 minute flight back to Kunming. It was the best 300元 I have ever spent, saved me 28 hours on a bus and nearly 2 days!