Tag Archives: Photo

Hong Kong

Hong Kong Summary

We are already at the airport again after 5 nights in Hong Kong. We have to admit that the city, with it’s relatively big size and heat somehow hit us hard.

The first day we wanted to go to the Victoria peak. We took one of those beautiful little trams to the peak station, but unfortunately the weather was so bad (rain and misty on the peak) that we skipped that plan and instead took the famous star ferry to Kowloon.

There we continued toward the ladies market and were caught by a real bad rain, so again we skipped that and went back to the hotel. So much for the first day.

The second day was spend in the beautiful Hong Kong Park, Botanical Gardens (watching the monkeys) and was ended with tour through the mid level escalators. This showed us Soho, the bar district which was looking very nice but not really an option with Charlotte šŸ˜‰ So we headed back and had a good diner with local take away snacks. We found out that Charlotte really likes the local sushi and the 7-eleven sandwitches.

The third day was a big day, we got up on time and went for Disneyland Hong Kong, time to meet our childhood heroes (and for Charlotte her still are heroes). We had a great day there, although it was burning hot and we were totally exhausted afterwards, but not until after we shopped for some souvenirs. We missed the night parade, but saw the big afternoon parade and it was just perfect. Also the shows in the park gave quite something.

The last day in Hong Kong was spend in the morning in the pool as well with packing a big package for sending home, so we could unload some of the thick cloths and gathered souvenirs from our backpacks. In the late afternoon, after again a pool session in the hotel, we went to the Temple market and had diner there in a local food stall. On our return we took the star ferry one last time and had some great views on the Hong Kong Island skyline. A perfect end of our stay.

So now we are at the airport waiting for our flight to Kuala Lumpur, where we will also stay 5 nights until on the 6th we finally end our China&Big City tour after 8 weeks and spend the last 6 weeks on beaches šŸ˜‰ (Yeah, and partial under water for Martijn of course).

 

Guilin

Day 38 – Li River Cruise

Today we went in search for the 20 Rmb Note. If you look closely at the note you’ll see that there is the background of some karst hills with a cormorant fischerĀ in the front. This is taken not far from XingPing on the Li river and as we’re taking a boat across this river, exactly the touristy spot for us to find šŸ˜‰

1532619-The-scene-on-the-back-of-the-20-Yuan-note-0

We’re picked up early in the morning by a bus and again a strict Chinese tour guide (“Are we clear!”). After about one hour driver we arrive at the pier and are dumped on the boat. Here it was clear that there are a lot of boats going down the river.

The trip was really nice, the scenery is absolutely stunning and you get a very relaxed view on the whole from the boat. The service and food was, as anticipated, on the level of a Chinese tour, but we could live with that. For Charlotte the whole trip was a bit too long but she soon was drawing and happy with her quiet moment. One thing mention worth that occurred was that we got in a little argument with our Sgt. tour guide, as she did not want to give Charlotte a plate for the lunch, because kids under 1.20m don’t pay and thus do not get a plate. She could eat from our plate. Clear moment of do not touch our kid, she soon realized that this was not something we’re willing to even discuss and let it be šŸ˜‰

After we arrived in Yangshuo we squeezed ourselves and our back packs through hordes of Chinese tourist and sales people and quickly took a taxi to the Giggling Tree. There it was time to relax, jump in the pool (Yes Ronald, they have a nice pool now) and enjoy a “Patatje Oorlog” in China.

 

Guilin, Uncategorized

Day 36/37 – Guilin

Just a quick photo overview of our two days in Guilin, where we had both very warm and moist weather as well a pouring rain (our first in China so far, so we cannot complain).

Now we’re off to Yangshuo!

Kunming

Day 34 – Visiting the YuanTong Temple in Kunming

Again a visit to a local temple, this time the Yuan Tong Temple in Kunming. This is one of the most important Buddhist temples in China, with a history going back over 1200 years. Finding it was easy with the map provided by our guesthouse Lost Garden and we walked there in about 15 minutes. The entrance is squeezed in between the normal shops and buildings, but somehow temples always show itself by the big group of people begging, selling stuff or just hanging around in front of the entrance.

The grounds were beautiful, we walked around a bit and suddenly we saw a lot of people walking around with bowls of food. After a bit asking we identified the kitchen and there they were giving veggie food for 7 rmb a bowl, as Charlotte was hungry we decided to try it.

And we got the last bowl, the veggie was all out so it was basically some rice with potatoes and curd, but that was exactly the right thing for our daughter and thus we had a improvised lunch with some old Chinese ladies, who shared table and some pickles with us. Very nice experience.

After lunch we just wandered around the compound, enjoying the many beautiful photo spots (Martijn), the quietness (Manu) and the option to play horseland on the stair (Charlotte).

On return we even did some exercise – Charlotte always asking “Daddy, am I a sporty girl” :o)

 

Chengdu, Emei Shan, Sabbatical

Day 20 – Emei Shan

AfterĀ a good night sleep in a room full of teddy bears (Remember the name of the Hotel) we had our breakfast and went to the bus station to get to the holy mountain Emei Shan. Based on the weather, afternoon would get a bit rainy, and the fact that we did not want to do a 2 hour drive through the mountains twice with Charlotte to get up and down we decided to do only the lower part of the mountain.

After about 30 minutes of bus ride we arrived at the Wannian Cable station and wanted to buy the ticket… and that was a shock. We had to pay 185 RMB entry fee as well ass 65 RMB for the cable car, altogether 630 RMB. A very big bite in our budget, but then again, when you’re at a holy mountain and made the trip you do not say no. Only thing we were thinking when seeing the hordes of Chinese tourist later on was that is must be even more expensive for them.

After a short cable car ride we arrived at the Wannian monastery and had our first experience with the, sometimes very aggressive, monkeys who live on the mountain. They jump on tourist who have water bottles outside or open backpacks and steal what they can get. But we were warned and got sticks for walking and for ‘hitting the monkey’ as our guesthouse owner said. Only problem was that Charlotte was now very keen on hitting a monkey, not the best education šŸ˜‰

to be continued…..

Chengdu, Leshan, Uncategorized

Day 19 – Visiting the Giant Buddha of Le Shan

Today we checked out in time and went to the Chengdu East Railway station to get the bullet train to Leshan. As we will return to Chengdu we decided to split up our stuff and leave one backpack at the railway station with the left luggage, also a primer for us to try this out. So after handing over the backpack and ensuring multiple times to the lady that we would be in time to get it back (she closes at 9pm) we got on the train and went to Leshan.

Arriving after a mere hour ride we were already there. Time again for some logistics, as we wanted to take the bus in the evening to EmeiShan we took at taxi to the XiaoGao bus station and dropped the second big backpack off there with the left luggage. Then it was on to the big Buddha park, and we were amazed. Everybody is always talking about the Buddha, but there is much more to see. There is also a big Oriental Buddhist Park which contains thousands of Buddha statues, unfortunately we did not have enough time to see those. So if you go to Leshan, you can easily spend two days there, and enjoy the bit less crowded parts of the area.

For the Buddha we just let the pictures below speak for itself, after leaving the park we walked through a small fisher village where we had a well earned drink (there are a lot of stair to be done here) and Charlotte had noodles again to show off her chop stick capabilities. And of course the mandatory Lao Wai pictures..

Then we took the busĀ back to the main bus station to get a long distance bus to Emei Shan, as our hotel there should be right next to it. Well, that went a bit wrong, as we’re standing at the ticket desk and want to buy the tickets we got the typical Chinese “Meo”, as in we do not have tickets anymore. Shit!

Now what, ok, good to have 3g onĀ  the mobile phone in China, a quick check showed that there were still train tickets available. It was 17:14 and the next train left at 17:48. Get a taxi!

Somehow the taxi driver understood we were in a hurry because we were going at much too high speed through the city, only slowing down when there was a speed trap. At 17:28 we arrived at the train station, thanked the driver and went to get tickets. Again shit, a long queue in front of us. This was already where we decided to take one train later and then everything was relaxed again. We go out tickets, waited about an hour for the train and arrived after 15minutes of bullet train and 5 minutes of taxi ride safely at the Teddy Bear Hotel.

 

Pingyao, Sabbatical

Day 11 – Bike tour around Pingyao

Today we want to do some active time – soĀ last night we asked Lilly to arrange us some bikes and she would get us, if possible, also a child bike for 10 RMB each. So in the morning after breakfast, which was again very good with the fresh dumplings, some guy showed up with two of the oldest bikes we saw in a long time as well as a foldbike for Charlotte. The foldbike was ofcourse much to high so we had to switch to a child seat for the bike of Martijn.

In a typical Chinese way this took a bit back and forth, in the end we had an Ok seat which was modified so that our daughter would fit…. so on the road we went.

Well, that was definitely not the typical tourist scenery road we picked. We wanted to go to the XXX monastery about 7km outside of old town Pingyao and the road there took us through some dirty factory outskirts of town. It was definitely interesting, this was the real China that you normally only see from a train window šŸ™‚

On time we had to carry the bikes across a road work site, but all in all it was nice to be on our own. And we had the opportunity, as we passed the high speed railway station, to get our next train tickets that we ordered for the night train from Kunming to Guilin. After some doubt regarding the local airline the decision was made to have another ride in a night train, something that we all like.

At the temple we were amazed by both the amount of and the situation in which the many Buddha statues were. But hey, lets put some incense on for them, Charlotte also really likes those sticks. So we bought them with the guy who introduced himself as “bike-watcher” and charged us 4Rmb for parking our bikes. One thing we did forget though, a lighter to get that incense burning… so anyone nearby, there are quite some sticks in the temple waiting to be “enlightened”. Further on in the temple we discovered that art students were making copies of the statues, some of them really impressive.

After viewing the temple we tried out the local restaurant and had also the here famous Pingyao beef dish, which is basically cold beef sliced with some herbs, nice enough, but nothing to have twice šŸ™‚

On the way back we usedĀ more of the main street and arrived safely at the hostel, proud on our 16km biking tour in the traffic of Pingyao, China. In the evening we used the bikes again to have another diner at the food market and slept like babies afterward.

 

Pingyao, Sabbatical

Day 9 – Trainride to Pingyao

As somehow our back packs were getting bigger and heavier (or at least it felt that way) we took a taxi to the train station and that was a good idea. During a nice ride we could enjoy the Tianamen Square and the entrance to the forbidden city one last time and were amazingly fast at the train station, of course way to early.

After going through security check (they’re here everywhere) we found our waiting room and theĀ  whole high speed train thing in China is really more like checking for a flight that the train rides we know.

Packed like mules we enjoyed some of the interesting things in the train station:

Packed for the trip

Interesting fruit to buy

Now this is interesting

The train ride went very well and we found out that we definitely need to take some food, as Charlotte kept asking about the (very expensive) food there was in the train šŸ™‚

Arrived in Pingyao we were picked up by the hostel and were amazed by the beautiful place we landed in. The host Lilly was very attentive and we quickly felt at home in here hostel, where weĀ  then had a nice diner and after that a little tour of the streets before we laid down in old Pingyao for the first night.

 

Beijing, Sabbatical

Day 8 – Relax and packing

Today we decided that we did not want to do anything and instead use the day to get a new dictionary for Manu, as we somehow must have lost her original one (15+ years old, lots of history) during one of those crowded subway rides.

So after breakfast, for which Martijn got some good baozi, we went to the foreign book store on the Wanfujing, the big shopping street. It was really amazing what they had for books, mainly English but also quite some dictionaries for German, French, Spanish etc. For a mere 36 Yuan we found a good dictionary that was even a bit more up-to-date than the old one (like, the word internet could be found). Martijn even found a book for learning Chinese – although Manu was skeptical that he would really use it. After that we left and went to the other side of the street to look for some food in the food courts..

We ended up doingĀ a (for here) expensive running sushi as this immediately got the interest of Charlotte – she really got into Sushi since about one month before our trip.

During our sushi festival Manu hat a better look as the book and found out that one important part was missing, the German-Chinese did not have the pingyin which is used to know how to pronounce it. So basically worthless. That meant back to the shop to get another one, and she was able to pay 1yuan more and has now got the follow up book of her old one.

And Martijn, ok, he also had a better look and though about the learning Chinese book…. and was now able to agree with Manu that it was probably a wast of money and backpack weight. So he tried to get a refund for the book, something that is not really done here. Some arguing later he got his money šŸ™‚ And he did not even speak Chinese.. muahahaha

After we got back in the hotel Manu and Charlotte went for a nail workout in the local nail boutique and as shown below it was a whole girly thing. Martijn used the time to bring back the (still quite full) subway cards and also had a treatment, although a Chinese foot massage is not really a gentle thing.

At night we had a final diner in the restaurant Charlotte identified the first night in Beijing – what better way to end our stay here – and we packed all our stuff for the train ride the next day…..

Beijing, Sabbatical

Day 7 – Summer Palace

Today we do our last big tourist trip in Beijing, we go to the Summer Palace. Now easily reachable by subway line 4 we arrive there and take the 15min walk from the subway station to the entrance. In order to start the day out right we decide to rent a electrical boat and enjoy some silence on the lake. That was really a great idea and we really enjoyed a bit of silence on the lake. Charlotte showed that she has definitely Dutch blood and took command, immediately saying we should visit Aunt Ineke soon and take Marietje ā€“ the boat ā€“ out for a tour when weā€™re back in Europe :o)

After the boat trip we walked a bit through the palace area and there were two artist performing Water Calligraphy. As soon as Manu talked to one of them she was invited to also write something, quite an experience and a lot of Chinese stopped to watch this strange foreign lady to an old Chinese art.

Afterwards we found a quiet spot for ā€œLunchā€ with apple and cookies, but when we watched the masses of people in the famous long ally we decided to leave the palace and head back to the city. As our little girl already lost the bag we bought here on the silk market and did not like any of the ones we saw in normal shops we headed back there and wanted to buy the same one again (Totorro)ā€¦ of course exactly that one was sold out, so then we had to switch to a new happy comic animal for Charlotte and resulted with Stich, some kind of Disney monster we did not know but Charlotte somehow did and liked. Ok, that was settled.

As it was already late and we really had enough of crowded subways we had diner in the Silk Street food court and then headed back to the Hotel. And then we were lucky, there was a big group of ladies dancing at the square near the subway exit of our hotel, and even some Chinese children with which Charlotte could play a bit. Now that was a good ending of this day.