Sydney, Australia 27 November - 1 December 2008

We arrived in Sydney after a flight that was too short to be an overnight flight but too long to be a short hop so we felt the effects for a few days. We were lucky enough to have rented an apartment off family friends in a nice area of Sydney and, for the first time in seven months, we had our own kitchen and lounge. It was absolutely fantastic and we ate our first proper home cooked meal since we left the UK. (I haven't included a map as Sydney is pretty easy to find...)

We were only in Sydney for four days but managed to get a bit of a feel for what the city was like and we were joined by Euan's brother Rob, who flew down from Brisbane to stay with us for a few days. It was great to see him for the first time in nearly a year!

Some Sydney suburb names reflected the UK and Paddington was one, with quaint tree-lined streets full of pretty wooden houses with wrought iron balconies.





Sydney even has a Hyde Park.



I was surprised by the Sydney Harbour and the bridge and (I hope I don’t offend anyone from Sydney by saying this!) I was rather under-whelmed. There is absolutely no doubting that the Sydney Opera house is a great piece of architecture and the setting spectacular.



We toured the Opera House and learnt that they’re planning an AU$400 million refurbishment, something we thought was quite ambitious given the financial state of things! The chap who designed the Opera House was Danish and had left Australia before it was completed. A real shame as, for a building designed in the 1960’s it was a real inspiration and way ahead of its time. As it turned out, he died the day after we visited so never got to see the structure he designed.

The Harbour Bridge was a lot smaller than I expected and was also a lot more boxy.



but I’m comparing it to the Auckland Harbour bridge that is a lot longer and doesn’t have the huge concrete stands at either end that seems to give it a boxy look. I’ll take a photo of the Auckland bridge and compare when we’re up there in January.



What did surprise me though was the amount of real estate actually on the Sydney Harbour, more than I’ve seen on any harbour elsewhere in my travels and I’m guessing that is all part of the appeal of living there.

We opted out of the AU$200+ Harbour Bridge climb but it was funny to see people heading up there, all kitted out like they were climbing some large mountain. It looked like they’d given them survival packs or parachutes judging by the bulky backpacks they had! If you look really closely at the second photo down you’ll see ant-like sticks walking on the top of the bridge.









I’ll be completely honest and let on that if it hadn’t have been for Rob, we wouldn’t have gone to a matinee performance of the ballet, Manon, at the Sydney Opera House which was actually really, really good! I really enjoyed it but wasn’t in floods of tears at the end like the English lady next to me. I was chatting to her and she’d moved from England to Manly and went to all the ballets at the Opera House. I think she knew her stuff so could tell me how this performance compared to others she’d seen.

We saw a slightly different performance shortly after we left the Opera House…. This lady was English and did quite a good performance that ended in her squeezing herself into this silly-sized box. She had some good banter but some of the jokes had people around us squirming – one very non-pc joke about Heather Mills didn’t go down too well with the crowd… there was a lot of squirming people around us mumbling disapproval.



Sydney has some interesting buildings



Darling Harbour is a great place to chill out on a nice day and while we were too late to visit the Navel Museum, there was a submarine and a few other boats moored up.



There was a sign and information on a lifeboat and I turned to Euan and “am I being stupid or is there meant to be a life boat moored here?” and wondered why he creased up with laughter. It was hanging above my head, as life boats do (not!).



It was difficult for me (with NZ being the next stop) to stay focused on what Sydney has to offer – I just wanted to get home! Next time, it I reckon it might be worth stopping off there on a trip heading north rather than south!

Macau 24-25 November 2008

I’ve never been to Las Vegas but I imagine that Macao is similar but on a much smaller scale. Having said that, the gaming tables in Macao are so lucrative that they take in 10 times as much as those in Las Vegas and, judging from the number of new casinos going up, people are still cashing in.

Six of us (Dad, Grace, Euan, To, his wife Chun Hing and I) went to Macao for the night



and Euan and I were treated to a night in a very very nice hotel, far nicer than any others we’d been in on our travels!



We spent a while fooling round on the couches and this must have been about the sixth photo we’d taken (Euan was a bit over it I think).



Macao has some huge casinos for a small place and there were so many under construction, despite the gaming floors being pretty quiet from what we sore. This casino went up last year



and was most impressive at night





On the outskirts of the city were some of the more historical aspects of Macao, such as the A Ma temple that is said to have been already there when the Portuguese arrived in 1557



The housing was an eclectic mix with some European influence and these guard dogs really ruled the roost and stalked on the fence rather than inside it! I did feel safe on the ground talking to them, fairly sure that they wouldn’t make the leap down.



The Macao Tower is remarkably similar to the Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand but it’s hardly surprising given that they were both designed by the same architect.



This is St Dominics, a 17th century baroque church



and this is the remains of St Pauls cathedral, built in 1602 (it was designed by an Italian Jesuit and build by Japanese refugees!). As you can see, only the façade and stairway are left but the site is pretty impressive nonetheless.



Then you have the casinos…. this is one of Macao's many casinos



that, when lit up at night, looked quite cool and we designed our own light show walking tour that took in a (rather cool) huge musical fountain, complete with mechanical flame throwers, an array of lights, swaying jets that rotated to the music… yes, it sounds a bit corny but it really was quite mesmerising!



To visits Macao a fair bit and knew exactly which casinos to take us to but we think we toured nearly all of them, each getting grander than the other.



The Venetian was like nothing I’ve ever been before, kitsch beyond belief with its fake sky ceilings and you couldn’t help but walk around wondering what on earth is going on in this world. Apparently it’s a direct replica of its counterpart in Vegas. The food hall is surreal (and quite expensive)



but the Grand Canal, complete with singing gondolas is just ridiculous. It’s difficult to believe that we were on the second floor of a multi-story building and is a far far cry from Lao or even parts of China.



This is the outside of the Venetian





All the casinos were quiet, perhaps a sign of the times? This is the hallway leading to the main casino floor in the Venetian



There are a few islands off Macao and they’re connected to the peninsula by long snaking bridges that look quite cool



We were really only in Macau for 24 hours but it is the sort of place that you can actually see quite a lot in 24 hours – if you have stuff all sleep! Everyone was shattered on the return ferry trip home and even To (who has more energy than most) was asleep. He denied it once we’d disembarked but I definitely saw him asleep with his cell phone held to his ear, obviously half way into making a call.

Kūnmíng, China 9 & 14 October, 2008

We spent a total of two nights and one full day in Kūnmíng and I'm sorry to say that was enough for us. I know I may run the risk of offending someone but, in our view, Kūnmíng is one of the most soulless cities we’d visited in China and it was a good decision to spend as little time there as possible (apologies to anyone from Kūnming reading this!).

It did have some pluses though. This was the cheapest room that we had found in China and, at £6/night, was excellent value (spot the TV and even a phone!! Very exciting!).



The hostel was, however, very difficult to find - the taxi driver didn't speak/read English and didn't know where it was so dropped us at a big hotel somewhere in the vicinity. I spent a good half hour with the really helpful staff trying to explain where we wanted to go and ask how we'd get there. They even let me use the phone to call the hostel but the folk on the other end didn't speak English either. It was getting very late (well after 11pm) and Euan was outside with the bags playing tug-of-war with the hotel porter, trying to explain that we weren't staying there so he didn't need to take our bags! We were all struggling to make sense of what each other was saying but got there in the end. All good fun and a good test of patience on both sides!

Our day in Kūnmíng was unfruitful and we even resorted to wandering into supermarkets (where we saw a live fish objecting to being weighed by flipping out of scales and onto the floor - it had already been banged on the floor twice by the lady behind the counter!)



investigating the wonderful array of dried petals, flowers, buds, stems, leaves, fruit (you name it!) that was on display



complete with a wee glass of what it would look like made up as tea.



Euan had what could possibly be the cheapest haircut ever (£1) and reluctantly agreed to a photo - those of you who know Euan will know its a lot shorter than normal!



Kūnmíng was our last stop in China and we were off to Laos on the 15th. Our Chinese visas were nearly up and having experienced Chinese bureaucracy, we daren't risk overstaying!

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Lìjiāng, China 11-13 October 2008

We were in Kūnmíng for a night before getting on a bus bound for Lìjiāng, some 500 plus kms northwards towards the Tibetan border.

We thought Lìjiāng was lovely but think that our taking this view was helped by the fact that we caught it at a quieter time of year as we reckon it could be less than pleasant if there were loads of people crowding the streets. Its almost like the little Venice of China with little bricked lanes, loads of waterways and bridges all through the old town and it was all kind of miniature and easily lost in crowds. Interestingly though, the people of Lìjiāng didn’t spit and this made a very pleasant change from the other places we’d visited.

Some of the houses had suffered earthquake damage but were being rebuilt from with bricks made from mud and mixed with what looked like rice straw

The lanes were just so pretty



and while the usual tat was for sale, carving wood seemed to be one of the main skills here and some of the work was very impressive. This particular chap was on the outskirts of the old town and was just as skilled with a paintbrush as he was with a chisel. We ended up buying this carving once we saw it finished.



The carvers were interesting to watch, were really skilled





and the end results were stunning and incredibly detailed



Lìjiāng is the base of the 286,00 strong Naxi people, descendants of one of the Tibetan tribes

but I'm more comfortable taking photos of animals and my eye is automatically drawn to any animal, including the 1000s of bright orange fish that swam the waterways and seemed to congregate around bridges



and we had to have a few photos of dogs in here! Dogs elsewhere we’d been in China had been strays but the dogs here seemed to be treated somewhat differently



We came across this guy who was very excitable and when I went in to talk to him, his owner handed me the lead. When I handed it back, he handed me back the lead, plus his mobile phone and two 100 yuan notes! The dog was like a huge muppet, all shaggy, floppy and very ditzy



The owner was quite a funny chap too but the dog had a lot character and was (as are most Afghans) very elegant but barely stayed still long enough to take his photo!



We didn’t count the bridges but they were around every corner and if you didn’t get lost in this place you were doing something wrong



All canals seemed to lead to one of the old streets surrounding the market square



and this is the main street in the old town



It was this scene that made me think of the Cotswolds in England.



We really enjoyed looking round the old town but did get out on the bikes one day we were there and road to the tiny village Báishā that sits at the foot of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. I was enjoying being pushed and it meant I could snap away!



While we were a bit under whelmed by Báishā itself, it was interesting to look around and see how the rural folk in these parts live. Much of labour in the fields was manual from what we could see and the houses were all within a walled compound with big double doors. Many of the doors were open and looked onto pretty courtyards surrounded by the house, barns and other buildings. The animals lived in there with their owners and all the preparation of food for storing was clearly done in there as well judging from the piles of corn husks lying round and the corn that was either stacked or hung to dry







This is the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain which is only a few kms from Báishā. Lìjiāng was 2,340m high and the mountain is around 5000m high. We’d definitely noticed a drop in the temperature coming from Kūnmíng to Lìjiāng.




Báishā is probably now most famous for a physician called Dr Ho who we’d never heard of but we now know is now featured in every travel guide and is the subject of many documentaries, including Michael Palins Himalaya series. We wandered into his ‘surgery’ to say hi. This is his office – it is a complete mess of papers, business cards, articles and letters from patients all over the world



Dr Ho has apparently cured patients from leukaemia and other various serious illnesses. He has letters and medical testimonials to prove it and yes, we read all that were given to us by his very proud son (who is also a doctor).



An Israeli couple were also visiting, getting treatment and when they had finished and left, Dr Ho asked what was wrong with us. We told him absolutely nothing was wrong and that we had just come to say hi! He almost seemed bemused by this but we chatted for a while and then he gave us some ‘healthy tea’ anyway. All his medicines are made from local herbs and plants that he and his family collects, dries, then ginds by hand to make up various potions and teas for his patients



He was quite a daggy looking man but deadly serious and there was clear evidence that people travel from all over the world to see him for treatment



Euan was a bit sceptical (I could tell) but I’m with Dr Ho on this one. He had some great letters from patients and various medical documents from the Mayo Clinic in the US that treats cancer patients.

On the way back we went past Black Dragon pool on the outskirts of town and, as it was a clear day, there was a great view of the mountain



We opted for the nightbus back to Kūnmíng, our first trip on a Chinese sleeper bus. We’d done the sleeper trains but not the bus. The beds were like hospital beds but built for very tiny narrow people about 5’5” long so it was a cramped sleep but the tiny mattresses were the softest we’d slept on since we have been in China. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that the Chinese seem to prefer beds like boards (and I’m not exaggerating or joking). The bus beds were tiny but our preference is now sleeper train, then bus then day bus or day train. With the distances that need to be travelled in China and the high likelihood of any scenery being distorted by haze or pollution, our preference is definitely to sleep during as much travel as possible!


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