Category Archives: Travel

Day 5 we were off again, this time to Xi’an to see the Terracotta Army. We got to catch the magnet train to the airport.

431km/hr! Pretty impressive huh? The way it cornered was impressive, banking up like you would on a velodrome.

We had some trouble at the airport as Christina was somehow not in the system to catch the plane, but it was all sorted out and on landing we were greeted by Sharon (we proceeded to call her “Shazza” for the rest of the trip) who ushered us straight to dinner which was a dumpling feast with 18 different dumplings on offer!

Packed bus.

Power plant right in the middle of the city…

The view from our hotel. Note the city wall which went on as far as you could see (which wasn’t very far as the city was so polluted!).

Pemium Condom and Nail-Chippers!

Day 6 we got up early to avoid the heat and checked out a part of the city wall. Pretty impressive stuff.

I had a stomach bug at this point so I wasn’t feeling great but seeing this painting made me feel a little better.

This particular shop had a massive load of paintings done by local farmers. Christina and I picked up this beauty and we’re looking forward to getting it frames ASAP.

We then visited a bit of a tourist trap where they were making reproductions of the Terracotta Warriors. Here’s the kiln (ie: hole in the wall) that they were using.

Jess, ever so cool.

Some warriors in the making.

They had heaps of warriors for sale, in all different sizes. I liked these small ones the best so we bought a few for family and for the house too.

Perhaps the best meal of the trip. A very local style lunch.

Museum.

Restored chariot (one of 2).

Finally we got to see the real thing (I think the tour did it the wrong way around). On walking in to the hanger I was gobsmacked.

Later that night we were treated to a lame dinner which set the tone for a pretty lame show (ie: tourist trap).

Day 7 we saw visited this pagoda.

Unfortunately we were forced to visit this Jade Factory which had a massive showroom, definitely low and it wasn’t at all listed on the itinerary. Sneaky bastards!

The heat was super hard to deal with (still) and my stomach gave in so I missed a few bits of the tour today. I rested up and the next day we flew to Hong Kong.

I miss the old Hong Kong airport which forced the planes to fly super close to the city buildings. We still got a great view of the city from above though.

I spotted so many amazingly hot JDM cars on the way into the city. The cars are modified harder and better every time I visit. This time around there were a LOT of hot VIP styled cars and lots of huge people movers too (Toyota Alphards were popular). Here’s an M3 with Advan rims on it.

Lock Road!

We stayed at the Marco Polo on the schmick side of Hong Kong (I’ve never stayed on that side before and have always stayed at Causeway Bay). The elevator literally opened up into the shopping arcade. Insane stuff! Coming from a very conservative China, Hong Kong was like a smack in the face. Money, sex and advertising. So many huge billboards with lingerie advertisements, porn at news stands… certainly a juxtaposition from the days before in China.

One night we had dinner at a Japanese restaurant which let you choose your own hot sake cup (very nice idea).

It had a pretty amazing view of Hong Kong’s mega city too.

Mr Lock was after a new camera and it was between this Lumix or the similar Olympus, both new compact DSLR style cameras. We tested both and found the Lumix lens amazing (we took it off and had it on the olympus and it made the olympus amazing) so he bought one, in white and I bought one too, in black! They chucked in a free tripod, extra battery, 8gb card, carry pouch, carry bag, screen protector and even a stylish Adidas David Beckham hat (?!).

On the 3rd night we were dragged along to Mr Lock’s Uni re-union party. I was freaking out about it initially but by the end of it I was tanked up on wine, great Italian food (who would have thought?!) and great conversations with a few English speaking guests.

VW display at Ocean Terminal was a hit with the locals.

We spent the rest of the days eating and shopping (as you do in HK). Suga went nuts, 8 pairs of shoes I think… maybe even 9. I feel sorry for Mr Lock who really wanted all of us to have the best time but it was a testing trip as so many little things just went wrong not to mention the intense weather which was so against us.

On Day 4 it rained hard.

The streets flooded up pretty badly.

The local firemen laid out hoses all over the town in an attempt to pump the flooding water out.

We visited Qingpu District, an old town which reminded me of Venice.

Still smiling despite the tortuous weather (that’s my girl!).

We passed a lot of funky looking food in the tight streets and when it came to lunch time I was a little worried.

Pork and rice which was pretty nice (the fish they served was pretty fishy though).

This lady came along to sing (for change). As soon as she had finished a guy with a Chinese violin came from nowhere and was also performing for change (the restaurant owner kicked him out though before he got to finish).

No it’s not food. On the side of the river there were ladies selling all sorts of animals caught from the river. The idea is that you buy them and set them free for good luck.

Patches at one of the many little shops.

Girl holding her shoes. My fave shot so far (wish I was using my new camera instead of the pocket camera though!).

We then headed over to an interesting art district which was full of photography studios, specialty stores and tourists. I saw this in a window, it looks a lot like the work of ilovedust (in fact it’s almost a direct rip-off of this piece).

We then headed over to the communication tower, but like the expo there was an hour wait to get to the top. None of us were willing to wait so we just took photos from outside.

Tall buildings. The tallest one is the one in the distance with a square cut out of it at the top (they call it the bottle opener). Our guide was telling us that it was designed by the Japanese and originally was meant to have a circle cut out of it at the top but the Chinese thought the circle resembled the Japanese flag too much so they replaced it with a square instead.

Later that night we headed over to a fancy area of Shanghai for dinner at T8 which was a modern Australian restaurant headed up by an Australian Chef.

The decor was amazing so we were pretty excited about what was to come.

Maybe the most open kitchen I’ve seen. You could literally watch your meal being prepared.

One of their signature dishes was “popcorn pigeon” and when it came out with pieces of popcorn adorning the plate we all had to laugh. Literal much? The pigeon was overcooked and the reduction tasted like nothing. The popcorn itself was packet popcorn. Ridiculous(ly funny!).

So the EXPO the day before was so full on that we thought we’d avoid it altogether on day 3. Mr and Mrs Lock saw a Chinese bridge on an episode of MegaStructures on the National Geographic Channel and thought it would be a good idea to go and check it out (?!).

We hopped in the hired mini bus (which had no seat belts) and hit the highway for 2 hours to get there.

Turns out the Sutong Bridge was pretty damn long. Amazing? Not really but hey it was either an air conditioned bus for 2 hours or 3 hour queues at the EXPO.

We dropped into these lovely gardens (unfortunately I didn’t catch the name, will do so ASAP).

The Locks.

After the gardens we checked out a restaurant which had it’s entire menu on display.

They had a whole lot of strange live seafood to choose from.

WTF that?

Live octopus.

Saddened me to see these gorgeous live muddy mud skippers.

Giant electric bikes being used for KFC deliveries.

The drive home was long and tiring. We didn’t do much but damn we were tired (I put it down to the heat which was scorching hot and humid to boot). We settled for a simple local dinner (kinda like a make your own noodle soup fast food joint). We had a little walk down the city’s main shopping strip where I spotted this piece of fantastic Engrish.

Day 2 we hit the World EXPO. The heat was nuts and there were so many people everywhere. I’d heard that the queues to get into the pavilions were going to be long (2hrs) but on this day they were more like 3hrs+ and in this kind of heat waiting was going to be impossible.

We made a B-Line to the only pavilion we could get into without joining the queue. The Australia Pavilion. Our passports entitled us to the VIP treatment. Despite being a little negative and indecisive about how the experience was going to be I have to admit it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be.

There was initially a few static displays which were pretty boring (one image wall featuring photos of famous Australians was particularly lame) but the massive crowd were ushered into a standing theatre to watch a film (pictured above). 3 rising and rotating screens featured a film enticing the Chinese to move to Australia (where you can have a lifestyle which balances work and family time). Super cheesy but the crowd loved it.

On exit they had a couple of performing ‘divers’ in a Barrier Reef styled setting.

This pic reminds me of crowd surfing.

We ended up getting into a few pavilions which had short queues. Indonesia was one of them, it was a shocker of a pavilion. The only emotional reaction I got from it was seeing a stand full of Mi Goreng at the shop on the way out (hilarious!).

Japan’s Pavilion. I really really wanted to get in there, so much so that on day 3 we returned to queue up but 15 minutes into the wait we gave up. Just too hot, too many people. We tried to convince a security guard to let us in (being international visitors and all) but he said the 3hr wait was a good day and on some days the wait has been up to 6hrs!

We couldn’t get into any of the star pavilions so the best I could do was rattle off a few pictures (sad huh). This is Korea’s Pavilion.

The UK Pavilion reminded me of a sea urchin.

Germany (really wanted to get in here too).

Switzerland Pavilion.

Tony pulling a face.

It was so hot that even the beer being served was warm.

Heaps of these electric bikes all over China.

Mr Lock sweating it out.

Lots of old VW Santana’s (made specifically for China perhaps?) and Jetta’s as Taxis.

Heaps of these new VW Touran EXPO taxi’s too.

Later that night we went for a walk down to the water.

Beautiful European style buildings on The Bund that once housed numerous banks and trading houses from all over Europe.

We dined at Tan Wai Lou which is apparently regarded as Shanghai’s best restaurant (hype much?!).

I could see what they were trying to do. Elevating Chinese food beyond yum cha into fine dining is a smart move but it was pretty hit and miss.

After dinner we went for a walk. There were so many people down by the water I thought there must have been something happening down there, by the time we got there we realised that there was nothing happening at all! It seems like it’s just always this busy in China!

Like my last visit to China, traffic on the roads was impressive but it’s even crazier on the streets in Shanghai. It’s a big city but no-one obeys the traffic lights. Scooter riders do whatever they like and crossing the road is a gamble, one that I kinda got into to be honest (great fun!).

Kirkey drag seat spotted at the airport on the way to Shanghai! It got a lot of looks from people who were confused as to what it was.

The long flight to Shanghai (10hrs?) was the worst flight I’ve ever been on to date. This baby was crying, no… SCREAMING it’s lungs off for the entire flight. I assume the guy in the pink shirt is her daddy and mummy was not on the flight. Some women in desperation tried to help the guy out throughout the flight but she just kept on wailing (so hard that she was choking every 10 minutes). I felt most sorry for the people in the business class cabin directly in front as they paid big bucks for comfort (but got none of it!). We also had a family with 2 kids sitting in the row behind us and the little runt behind me was kicking the back of my seat throughout the flight. Awesome times.

At the airport earlier I was approached by Australian champion Sam Betten who’s on Triathlon Australia’s annual Young Guns Tour (they were going to compete in Beijing). He recognised me from my blog (Hey Sam!) which took me by surprise. It looks like he killed it too, you can check out the race results here.

Christina and Jess. We got in late and had dinner across the road from our hotel (lovely restaurant too, think Asian Moulin Rouge). The humidity was high (reminded me of Singapore) and we were super tired (I was still very mentally disturbed by the crying baby). That night I had a deeper sleep than I’ve had in ages. Day 2 coming up soon!