Wulong, Adventures with dinosaur transformers PT1 December 2019

This trip has been on my China Bucket List for a very long time. I figured if I didn't go soon it wasn't going to happen at all. I booked a few days off work and set about trying to figure out how to get to this place in the middle of nowhere. 

As it turned out, it was all very smooth and civilised which went again almost all of my experiences traveling domestically in China. Convinced there was another shoe to drop, I was overly careful and prepared for anything. My flight in the evening arrived on time, taxi found the hotel no problem, picked up train tickets and left on time. Got to WuLong and jumped on the only bus around, found myself at the ticket building so I walked up the hill to my hotel in the hope of checking in early. This is where the plan went slightly squiggly. I found the hotel and a note stuck to the door "Claire, call this number" so I did. Turns out I was the only person staying in a  huge 5 floor hotel. The guy turned up, lets me into my room and then says he'll give me a lift back down the hill. Somewhere in the less than 5 minute drive, it was decided that I would be their guest at their families kill pig dinner in the mountains. An hour later we arrive at a farm house somewhere miles away from where we started. 
Everyone was a little confused about where the random foreigner had come from but they were nice enough and fed me. The hotel guy and his sister were very nice and patient with my Chinese and often translated from the various local languages for me. I was "force fed" cups of homemade honey flavored rice wine which was absolutely lovely. 

I was treated as a guest of honour and everyone was very worried about me being cold. I was expecting to be hiking so I was in shorts and boots. A little chilly but definitely not in need of the fire they insisted I sat next to. 

After the meal, I was dropped off at the first of the scenic areas The Three Natural Bridges. 


This place has been used for domestic films for years but only recently for anything not Chinese made. Transformers (I don't know which one) was filmed here and now there are statues and pictures of various robots just everywhere. Its fun turning a corner and being face with a dinosaur, or having  Optimus Prime point to the bus but I felt it gave the park a bit of a theme park like atmosphere. Only in places though so its fairly well contained. 

I was here at the beginning of December so very much off season. They park was very quiet and the shuttle buses almost deserted.

First you have to follow a path to a giant glass elevator and go down into the bottom of the gorge, then you keep going down millions of steps through the first of the three bridges to the temple. It is very impressive and very difficult to make sense of the scale of the place. It actually has two arches with a height of 84-123 meters (275-403 feet) and a span of 20-75 meters (66-246 feet), (I goggle that)

It is just massive! Annoyingly I was attacked by every Chinese woman wanting a photo with the foreigner, I was polite for the first dozen then started getting annoyed. The last few pictures are of my looking very pissed off, I don't think 20 minutes would be an exaggeration for this one just delightful group of grannies. Didn't stop again. 

Anyway, the path winds along the bottom of the gorge and through the bridges/arches along side a river. It was very quiet and empty for the most part so I didn't really feel the need to rush. I was in the bottom of the gorge for about 2 hours before I hiked out the far end and got back on the bus to the ticket building. 

I got back to the hotel and found out that the owner guy doesn't actually live that close by. He asked if he could just lock me in and go home. I was given the keys to the hotel, shown the kitchen for if I got hungry and taught how to use the TV. 

It felt like a scene from the Shining but at least it was quiet I suppose. 

Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur: National Day 2019

I have heard both rave and damning reviews for KL so I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself in for. All I knew, big city with lots going on which is generally my sort of place, so I cautiously booked 3 days to give the city a chance. 

As soon as I arrived, I realized I had underestimated the scale of the city. There are 3 possible airport, I was at the smallest, furthest away domestic airport. A full hours drive to the hostel. 

I took a recommendation for an area to stay which turned out to be a very good idea. I was about a 45 minute walk through the Indian district and a very confusing shopping center to the Petronus towers. I love curries, so I loved the food options and sampled many of the local eateries. 

KL is just exploding with shopping centers, some are so huge that they have joined onto others that were separate. I got lost every single time in the massive v shaped Central shopping center, which annoyingly only connected to other buildings or sides of the road, on certain floors. Many hours were passed truly frustrated staring at google maps. Until I found the bar of course then I at least had beer whilst I was lost. 

I was lucky as the weather was a bit cloudy so it wasn't too hot as I was wandering all over the city. 

At the bottom of the Petronas towers is a massive shopping center. In which I found a breathtaking bookshop. I love bookshop! They're just not the same in China, of course i can't read most of the books but the feel is just off. I can't explain it, there's just something missing. Anyway, this one has a large coffee shop complete with sofas and the best selection I've seen outside of England! 

Add to that, the import supermarket in the basement and I was in heaven. I actually stopped in my tracks because of a cheese counter. Much to the amusement of people around me. So I stocked up on my marmite and books fill and moved on. 

Most of my time in KL I was just wandering about, occasionally stopping for something to eat or a breath of fresh air-con. I have no idea what people were complaining about. Yes, it's a big city so it's full of people and cars. Traffic is a nightmare and the buses are an absolute mystery but I loved it!  think my three days could easily have become many more and I would have still had things to find and see. 

Sadly national day is only a 7 day break so I had to head back home to keep teaching the kids.

 

Malaysia: Penang. National Day 2019

This trip was a bit of a lucky break in that I still had some discount codes for previously cancelled flights that were about to expire, and a new direct flight to Penang from Kunming was still in its early days and so cheap. Combine the two and a very reasonable National Day Trip materialised.

Mam and Dad have spent years talking about Penang. Then some friends of mine went and just loved it too. Jealousy being a big problem of mine, I shuffled it to the top of my travel list and am very glad that I did.

I spent 3 days in Penang before going to Kuala Lumpur for the reminder of the week. So a fast introduction to the country but a very good first impression.

I stayed in Georgetown in a very nice little guesthouse with a very efficient landlady. She basically wrote daily itineraries for me to follow ensuring I got as much in as possible. I did maybe half of what she recommended but loved it.

Penang has a reputation for being a food lovers paradise so my first task was to find the food! I lost count of the number of prawns (which are my favourite) I managed to fit into my three days but it was well into double figures.

I felt most of the charm of Penang could be found when just walking about in the old town and getting lost. Luckily its not too big so you either hit water or a main road and can reorientate pretty easily.

As I always do, the first day is just wandering about and getting the lay of the land. Second day is when I actually go in search of something. This was my Penang Hill day with ultimate goal to get to the beach on the other side of the island. I managed the first only but for very good reasons.

Penang Hill is pretty much as it says on the tin; a hill that overlooks Penang. To get to the top is a 20 minute rollercoaster ride on the worlds steepest funicular railway, (I googled: Length: 907 meters (2,976 ft) Height: 319 meters (1,047 ft) Maximum Steepness: 50.5%), which on the way up was impressive, on the way down however was terrifying. 

At the top, as well as some stunning views, is a small collection of wacky museums designed purely to occupy a bit more time, some restaurants and a path to a new "wilderness walk". intrigued, I followed the signs and got to a ticket office, paid and walked out onto one of the few canopy treetop walkways in Asia. 

I suspect, as you had to pay extra, most people didn't bother because I nearly had the whole walkway to myself. Its a newly completed wildlife awareness and conservation charity run "habitat" that really is quite stunning. There are currently 5 pathways (I think) that all connect in a bit of a spiderweb design. Every now and again, there are swings or bridges with a huge structure at the top. I loved it! 
This was the reason I didn't make it to the beach, as I got completely sidetracked and spend over 2

hours in the quiet and chilled out treetops. 

My final evening in Penang, i spent wandering about looking for the famous street art. 

All in all, I was very taken with the small part (Georgetown) that I saw and have made it a permanent feature on the "to go bad to" list. 

Penang to KL is a very short and very cheap flight, or a 5 hour bus. I chose the flight! 

Taiwan Take 2: Summer 2019

The end of my summer brought around another trip to Taiwan. AS I have been before, knew I liked it so I was pretty damn excited.

I met Dan in Taipei which, after the chaos of Indonesian Ferries and Singapore Subways, just felt so well organised. We arrived when we were supposed to and nothing was delayed or held up.

We hadn't really been able to get reliable or consistent information on how much time is needed for each place so we decided to play by ear and plan as we went around. Our ultimate goal was Sun Moon Lake in the middle of the Island which, according to Dan, is where the Taiwanese tourists like to holiday.

We spent a few days in Taipei taking in the tourist things, my favourite of which was the cable car up MaoKong Hill/Mountain. The trip itself was a little unremarkable but the view from the little bar around from the arrival station more than made up for it. We spent so long there that it got to the point we could stay there for sunset with not much waiting. So we did and it was definitely a good idea.

From Taipei we went north to JuiFen which is a small ancient town which claims to be in inspiration for the Studio Ghibli "Spirited Away."Now I have never seen the film and neither had Dan so we didn't really know what to expect. What we found was the best hostel I have ever stayed in, and an alright town. The place was rammed with tour groups just before sunset and in the early morning, but other than that, we were pretty lucky and had the place to nearly ourselves. Max and Osmond sent us off on the local train for the day where we stopped at a cat village, which was Dan's choice, and a waterfall which was mine. The village was a weird jumble of streets which were nearly all coffee shops. We wandered about a bit and had a coffee before getting on the train to the next place.
The waterfall as it turned out was manmade but still quite nice. It was a short walk through the train street and down a very uneventful road to get to the entrance of the park. Once inside it was a bit nicer walking along the river and over some very unsafe feeling bridges to the falls. Small but still pretty.

By this point we were hot and hungry and so battled our way back to the train.


From JiuFen, we had to head back to Taipei before getting a train to TaiChung on the west side of the island.

All we knew was that we needed to get a bus from there to get to the lake. Our trip was pretty much all made up as we went along. The city itself was nothing special and we left the following morning on the bus.

3 hours later were at the lake. Luckily for us, the weather has taken turn for the more miserable so we hunkered down in a bar and ignored the rain.

The lake itself was busy and full of boats or cruises. There is a small ferry that bounces between three different points on the lake; the side we were staying on, a weird temple place and a second small town on the opposite side with a cable car up the hill. Cable cars are always fun, so that's where we went.

This was a definite case of the journey being more impressive than the destination as it dropped us off at the entrance to a theme/water park. ten minutes later, we were back on the cable car heading back to the ferry port.

As trips go, this was another very speedy blast about the island but I still love the place. My trip was cut short but another typhoon, so I left a few days early back to Kunming and the start of the new year.

Singapore: Summer 2019

Capsule Hostel

My Indonesian adventure was a breakneck run around only a fraction of the country. All told 17 days including the few in Bali. A combination of VISA mixups and a promised trip to visit someone stopped me spending the full 6 weeks of my holiday in this paradise.

Inside of Capsule

I had originally been planning to stop in Hong Kong but with what's going on there, travel to and from to China is tricky and not advised. I was contacted by the agency I booked my flights through who offered me three or four other cities to fly though instead of trying my luck in HK. Singapore was one of them and as they were waiving all fees, I jumped at it.

I was in Singapore last time when I was ten so my memories of the city are a little fuzzy to say the least.

After a few weeks in a very cheap country, Singapore felt very expensive. I kept forgetting and stopping for beers that were easily ten times the price of this I was buying only a few days before. I booked into a capsule hostel (basically a plastic coffin with a TV) near the Indian district. As it happened, I really lucked out here! The hostel was cheap and in a fantastic location. There was an Indian food festival in town for the exact dates I was there so I ate at the indica market for almost every meal. It was a food court style place and had a great atmosphere. I had a blast and some fantastic food! Chinese food is great but they really can't do a decent Indian curry and that is what I now crave above everything else.

My four days in Singapore we a fairly leisurely unplanned mess of shopping lists and curries. The shopping in Singapore is second to none, if you can't find it here, it doesn't exist. I had a wonderful time just wandering about aimlessly.

The only thing that actually planned, was meeting up with an old student of mine from my Shane days. He's in his last year of university now but it still felt strange when he ordered a beer in the restaurant. We decided to venture over to Sentosa Pleasure Island and check out the Aquarium. I love aquariums so this plan suited me fine. Looking back at pictures of Sentosa when we were there as kids, the place has changed so much. It's a giant collection of theme parks, hotels, water parks and activity beaches. I still liked it but was a little overwhelmed by just how big and busy the island was. The aquarium was amazing though!

There is one massive tank towards the one of the aquarium that is just mesmerising. There were sharks, rays and so many different species of fish that we lost count. We bought some snacks and sat down just staring for about an hour at a literal wall of water. It was so immense that my camera couldn't take a picture of the whole thing in one picture. I tried though.

Sentosa was a busy and crowded day but it's always nice catching up with old students and seeing where they end up.

I spent my last afternoon walking to and in singapores famous "gardens in the bay" which although criticised for being a tourist stunt, really was beautiful. Its basically a giant botanical garden next to the harbour. Personally I loved it and thought it was beautiful.

For me, the highlight was the record breaking indoor waterfall and tree top canopy walk. It got busy but it never felt claustrophobic and crowded and I never had to queue for anything.

Singapore turned out to be a fantastic end to a wonderful few weeks as it was so completely different from Indonesia.

Indonesia: Senggigi and the Gili Islands: Summer 2019

After the week I had just had, I wasn't sure if the rest of the country would live up to my now raised expectations. I really shouldn't have worried, it really did!

I flew to Lombok and got picked up from the airport for the hour long drive to Senggigi. I feel better knowing that it is not only drivers in China that scare me. Turns out my hour drive should have been closer to an hour and a half.

I had splurged here and booked a very nice and slightly more expensive hotel. Figured a bit of pampering would be nice after the Island. As the island had been slightly rougher than expected, this really was a great idea. I had two days booked into one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in, which was unfortunately in one of the least interesting towns. These things happen, but i had a pool and my own bar so it was all

OK. The staff were lovely and were very confused by me. Every time I left my room, I go that with dozens of questions about solo traveling and living in China as a woman. It was only then that I noticed almost everyone working in the hotels were male. This was a family run place so the rules could be bent slightly.

I listened to some travel advice that failed me a bit, which is bound to happen every now and again. Especially given how much I travel on peoples advice. Never mind, it happens!

Sengiggi has a bit of  a backpack drinkers transport convenient stopover feel to it, but as I was there in the off season, it just felt sad and empty.

Gili Trawangan (small island about a half hour drive and 20 minute ferry away) really did not. I loved it!

Traveling alone, i really appreciate the type of places where I can have a chat with someone and join in with a few other people. This was especially needed after my days in almost isolation in Senggigi and on the dive camp.

Gili Trawangan (or Gili T) is a fantastic mix of exciting and busy within reach of quiet and sedate. The ferry port is roughly the middle of the "exciting" area which stretches a few hundred meters in either direction. Once you walk past that, there is very little happening. the odd restaurant or beach bar/hotel but that's about it. I walked around the whole island in about an hour and a half. Its completely pedestrianised, however in place of cars, there are demon horse and carts that barrel through the small alleyways ringing a little bell. I saw a couple of people get plowed into by horses running at the speed go light. It didn't take long for the reaction of diving for cover at the sound of a bell to become engrained.

Gili T is a main stop on the backpacker trail so it is full of cheap and cheerful restaurants and bars. Pretty much everywhere had their own bar crawl. I joined one that was vernturing to the other side of the island. It was very easy to follow. When you saw a photo op swing you had to down your drink and move onto the next bar.

It seemed like a  little to me but quickly became obvious where this rule can from. Every tree had a swing, every beach bar had something just out in the surf as well as flower arches or photo frames to pose behind. It really is the instagram motherland. In the places defense, It is stunning! My two days did not seem long enough and I regretted having to leave so soon but I added it to my "to go back to" list.

Indonesia: Bali and Labuan Bajo: Summer 2019

From my hostel in Labuan Bajo

Back in the summer I decided to take on Indonesia in all it's island hopping glory. I only had a little over three weeks after taking out some VISA complications and my Taiwan obligations so I had to prioritize. I ended up with a pretty decent introduction to the country with a much longer list of places that I want to go to than I had before.

As almost all flights from Kunming went through Bali after a stop somewhere else (in my case Bangkok and KL on the way back)

Very old dragon. 

I decided to turn a stop over into a few days. I had low expectations for Bali so I hadn't really heard much in the way of good things said about the place. I was expecting an Australian Malaga and I got an Australian Malaga. One the bright side the food was excellent, lots of BBQ steak and sausages everywhere. After several months of not having eaten anything but Kunming's selection, the break was fantastic.

Pirate Dive Camp Jeti

My hotel was described as beach front which when I asked where the beach was, they took me out onto the road and pointed at a tiny slither of blue about 400 meters away. The guy looked very happy and said "see, the sea, all good."

In all fairness, it was quite a nice bech but nothing like the postcard island paradises I was expecting. Kuta city is amazing for meat, seafood and shopping and not much else. My three or four days were plenty.


From Bali it was off to the main event, the whole reason for my trip. Komodo and the hunt for dragons! Seeing these huge beasts has been bucket list item for me for a very long time and I had heard rumors that the government were going to close the island so I jumped on what could be my last chance. (Update: Indonesian government now charging $1000 for a year long membership to the park instead of a single person/ entry ticket of $35) Very glad I did as there is no way I would pay $1000 to go once.)

My "house" on the beach

Komodo itself is actually a small group of Islands off the coast of Labuan Bajo so I stopped there for a night before my splurge stop. I booked a few nights on a "pirate dive camp" which was pretty much what it sounds like. It's a small privately owned island about half way between the mainland and Komodo Park which was both a good thing and a bad thing. We were first to arrive on the island, we weren't woken up by the sunrise calls to prayer and we weren't overrun with people however, we were however stuck with the truly terrible food and bathrooms that were so "rustic" bears would have gone somewhere else.

I was staying in a small "pirate hut" right on the beach so I could lay in bed and hear the waves. I was bliss!

Pinkish if you squint beach

I decided (or rather had no choice but to) go with the camp for the dragon tour. It quickly turned into one of the best days in recent memory. We got to Komodo and met our guide, walked for a few hours looking for dragons without mcc luck. As we were heading back to the boat feeling a little disheartened we turned a corner but the restaurant and ran into three massive males and a baby. They were hiding from us in the open. They even looked smug about it!
A few thousand photos were taken before we went back to the boat and off to Pink Beach and some snorkeling.

Dive camp from the water

I figured as I am a pretty good swimmer and have been diving before, that snorkeling would be easy. I was very wrong. It is a for of very slow drownig that takes a fair amount of time to get used to. For me, it was about the time for my guide to disappear. Pink beach is not actually very pink, a better name would be "Slightly pinkish if you squint beach". Regardless, it was stunning, we nearly had the place to ourselves over a very busy and active coral reef. I gave up trying to snorkel and just sort of floated over the fish. Truly incredible.

There be dragons!

From pink beach, we thought we were heading back to the island but our captain surprised us with a stop at Manta Point. The weather was a bit blowy here so my newfound snorkeling skills were really not up to scratch. A guy was stood on top of our boat then when he shouted and pointed we jumped and searched for an illusive ray. I jumped in with another and we were searching below us, which was actually dauntingly deep, only to glance over and see two huge rays floating about 10 meters away from us just under the surface.

Before we got back in the boat and went back to the island we had seen three and a half dragons, millions of fish and 7 manta rays. A very good day for the bucket list!

My last night on the island and Indonesia really put on a show. The whole trip was filled with stunning sunsets but never had one been over the sea with a volcano rumbling away in the background.
From the island I went back to the mainland for the best pizza of my life!

As if to show off, My last night. A volcanic eruption over the sea at sunset. 

Sri Lanka: Sigiriya, the crown jewel! Spring Festival 2019

Crowds as I was leaving

I went from Ella to Kandy only to be very disappointed with Sri Lanka's second largest city. It's a huge transport hub roughly parallel with Colombo but a few hours inland. Every train, bus, tour group and flight makes a stop in Kandy. Its an exciting place but at such a cost. I was very glad to only be spending two days in this mini metropolis.

From Kandy I had a hefty 3 hour drive to Sigiriya which is an area of religious and historical significance. It's an incredible strange place in that it is completely flat except for a huge boulder on the top of which is a temple.

Its a site of pilgrimage for many people and from what I can tell, can get very busy. I was lucky in that it wasn't too bad when I was there, especially as I got to the entrance of the rock park for opening time. A lovely 7 am!

I was staying in a small house only a ten minute walk from the park so the horrible hours weren't too taxing on me, especially as I had roughly kept to China time. It meant that I was naturally waking up early and could go places before it got too hot and too busy. It did mean that by 9 o'clock I was making plans for my bed but you can't have everything.

From the entrance of the park you walk towards the base of this weird rock and the scale of it becomes quite intimidating. (Also the though that I am about to climb this thing, what the hell am I thinking.)

It's just a lot of stairs, A LOT of stairs. Again, I don't remember how many but I felt it the next day. The stairs themselves are rickety, rusted and it looks like blue tacked onto the side of a rock. I climbed very quickly just to minimise my time on them. Others were not so lucky, I encountered 3 people having meltdowns at different points of the climb.

As I am just one of the luckiest people on the planet, the second I get to the top of the exposed flat view point, it starts to rain. It didn't come too much but it was enough to make things slippery and damp. Regardless, it was stunning.

The way down was terrifying but smooth, I was very thankful I had arrived early.

Sri Lanka: Ella Spring Festival 2019

Next on the agenda was one of the most highly recommended places in the whole country. Ella. Famed for it stunning mountainous landscape and tea plantation gardens. Everyone makes it a stop on their travel plans.


I only had two days to make the most of it so as soon as I arrived I set out to take in the sights. My hostel was advertised as having "good views" which I would say was an understatement. My room was a little tucked away from the main town/road but is was worth it.

 As it turns out, Ella is a small town created with the tourists in mind. According to other people I was talking to, it didn't even exist ten years ago. There is one short stretch of road, about 200 meters worth that is all cafes, bars, restaurants and souvenir shops. It was OK for two days but the characterless atmosphere must felt out of place in the middle of such incredible scenery. I did however managed to get a beer, which was an unforeseen issue of traveling a very religious country.

On my first morning, I got up to 'hike up' Little Adams peak. It wasn't so much a hike as a staircase up the side of a mountain. I doubt it would have been possible otherwise. I don't recall the exact number of steps but I can tell you my legs felt every single one the next morning. Getting to the top wasn't tricky, although the heat was making it a very sweaty experience, and once at the top the breeze cooled things down considerably.

The view from the top very incredible! sadly it was a little hazy so my pictures don't really give an idea of just how green it was.

The top got quite busy with people wanting to pose in interesting and instagram friendly ways. Lots of mountain top yoga going on, which was hilarious to watch. I hung around long enough to cool down and really soak in the green before beginning the descent. Going down was much slower as it was getting busy now (midmorning) and the track was too narrow for people to cross safely. About 45mins up and well over an hour down.

As I was walking back to the hostel I noticed a sign for a shortcut to the  9 arches bridge. This was a lie, but a nice walk through some pretty thick jungle nonetheless.

The bridge itself was crawling with people as apparently I had just missed the train. Its one of those weird places where it seems to get very busy on the bridge, yet the most impressive view was from much further away. I stood and watched for a while as people tried not to get into each others pictures before walking back into town along the train tracks. A very long walk back into town!

By this point it was about 3pm and I was fit to drop. As if someone upstairs was watching out for me, the afternoon was completely obliterated but a very impressive thunderstorm. I had no choice but to relax on my balcony for a few hours. You can't really tell, but the difference in the pictures hold give an indication of how heavy the rain was.