So as it turns out I’ve completely forgotten about the final entry for the 2019 trip, maybe subconsciously because it hurts too much to think about how things were in the before times and the completely life upheaval of the last few years, it really does feel like a lifetime ago.  On the plus side its hard to not look back at the photos with fondness in my heart so here’s a big photo dump of one the best things you can do in Tokyo… wandering! 😀

Fast forward to the present, prices for flights have had some good buys, the hoops you have to jump through for travel have become alot less and in a wonderful stroke of luck, things actually went my way and aligned for a quick getaway a few months ago…. more on that soon!(…ish? lol)

——–
Kichijoji / Nakano

Akihabara / Shibuya / Harajuku



(click for big)

(click for big)

Ahh 2019 BC, the before times, Before Covid. If we knew that year was going to be the last time we could travel overseas for a few years we probably would’ve made it more of a special occasion, but as things would have it, we were lucky to even get away for the short time we did, but I think you’ll agree 5 days in Japan is better than no days!

With time against us, we chose to minimise lengthy travel and kept activities mostly to central Tokyo, setting up camp at the APA Hotel in Akiba. The short walk to the Akiba station took us past curry and ramen restaurants, a bakery and 2 conveniences stores. Couldn’t have asked for more ….except maybe for better weather!

As this was a quick visit with several rehashed stops from previous trips, the dialog in these blog entries will also be brief but there will still be plenty of piccies!

Travel tip: as always, look at the multi-day pass for JR rail options to save money on transport

Asakusa
Not sure how we’ve missed it in our previous trips, especially when we were at the Tokyo Skytree just across the river on the one prior, but apparently Asakusa is quite the tourist spot and its not hard to see why. It has the perfect tourist blend of site seeing starting with the 1000+yo Kaminari gate at the entrance to the Sensoji temple and other shrines, and souvenir shopping with Nakamise street, an outdoor market style set up of small shops and eateries leading to the temple. There is also a closed in mall on your way to Nakamise in the same vein as many others where its just one long mall with high glass ceilings. The stores here are less touristy and cover the usual, electronics, clothing and health varieties, there are also several restaurants.

Travel tip: check the events calendars, especially around spring, for food, music, traditional and shrine festivals

Asakusa is also home to Sanrio Gift Gate for more kawaii Hello Kitty and friends merch than you can wave two peace signs at. The store is only a couple minutes’ walk from Asakusa station and sells Asakusa specific items and other exclusives not found at other Sanrio stores.

Travel tip: allergy sufferers beware! There’s A LOT of incense and ceremonial burning at the shrines

—-

Odaiba
No Tokyo stop is complete without the obligatory visit to Odaiba, be it for the shopping, the mega ferris wheel, games arenas and now, Teamlabs Borderless (more on that later). Depending on the time of year there’s usually some sort of installation or lighting display along the walk paths and green spaces around the major hubs. Aqua City hides the illusive Statue of Liberty replica (and an official GShock store 😉 ). Diver city and Venus Fort/palette town are also worthy stops for shopping and games, Venus fort especially if you have a hankerin for outlet discounts. The huge Toyota city building is always interesting with its future tech, concept displays and race memorabilia.

Travel tip: If you arrive via Aomi station, exit towards the water to take in the sea breeze and ocean view off the palette town pier.

Travel tip: Regular JR passes or other discount passes aren’t valid on the Yurikamome line. The JR Tokyo Wide pass will at least get on to the island with the Rinkai line stopping at Tokyo Teleport station. If you plan on seeing more of Odaiba, there is an unlimited day pass option, purchasable at any stop on Odaiba.

As night falls, the full size Gundam comes alive with half hourly light, sound and (partial) movement shows. If, like us, your last trip was before 2017, you may notice he’s looking a bit different, that’s because it’s a WHOLE NEW ROBOT! Its now a RX-0 Gundam Unicorn which replaces the old RX-78-2 who has found a new home at Yokohoma and gotten a pretty huge upgrade(!). The new guy still lights up and transforms his head during the shows and is still one of the coolest landmarks in Tokyo.

—-

Teamlab Borderless
This exhibition initially started out as a short run event but it proved so popular that its still going many years later and rightly so. Put simply, its digital art projected on to installations but with such a vast lay out, evolving imagery and no maps it quickly becomes very immersive. The pics only tell part of the story as its hard to depict scale or capture the ebb and flow of each of the MANY rooms. Stand outs would definitely be the floating lanterns and the waterfall.

The exhibit boasts a rotation of displays not just over each moment but also over different days and seasons.

Travel tip: Budget at least a few hours, some exhibits like the floating lanterns require lining up and have a time limit so you might need a couple tries to get that perfect photo.

Travel tip: hours are slightly less than other museums (around 11-5pm) and tickets are not available for purchase at the venue, they need to be purchased via the website.

Photo tip: a lot of the rooms are quite large and some are maze like, between other visitors and restrictive installations, shooting space can be quite limited so an ultra wide angle lens is a wise choice. Being one big light show, its pitch black darkness in most rooms and some of the images move fast enough to trip up a slow shutter compensation so be prepared to push the ISO. Of course a tripod would be ideal but they are prohibited, if you have been out and about with one, you will be asked to store it in one of the paid lockers along with all medium to large size bags.

We’ve seen our fair share of zoos around the world, but with the kidlets in tow this time, we opted for something a little different in the way of Willowbank Wildlife reserve.

Its broken up into 3 sections:
Zoo/exotic – animals from other countries, mostly smaller creatures. You wont find big game, elephants or tigers but you will see tortoises, lemurs and capuchins.

NZ natives – mostly popular birdlife, including the destroyer of windscreen wipers and way too friendly Kakas (yes, they will have no problem landing on you to get a closer look at jewellery or food!) and if you’re lucky you might catch a glimpse of the very illusive kiwis

Farmyard – this was definitely a highlight for the little ones with a hands on free-feeding (feed for sale at the entrance). Alpacas, donkeys, kune kune pigs, rabbits, ducks and peacocks are all very friendly and tame.

The layout of the reserve for the most part has a very natural feel which adds to the ambience of roaming with the animals.

Travel tip: budget about 3hrs depending on your kids attention spans and your walking pace


New Brighton Beach

The beach is probably a less than ideal travel stop to make in winter (that ocean “breeze” is quite unforgiving!) but at only 15min from the CBD it was worth it for the impressive jetty alone. The beach also sits near a group of shops and eateries so if the weather suits, it would be worthy of an afternoon outing for a swim or picnic.

That brings us to the end of our truncated NZ trip, we weren’t planning a follow up visit any time soon, however with the current pandemic and potential travel bubbles/restrictions, the north island could be on the itinerary, but before that, in 2019 we did a quick dash over to our second home, yep, you guess it, Japan! Stay tuned for those highlights!

untitled-3

A few things usually dictate when and where we travel – time of year, events and price of flights. Cheap flights pretty much always take a precedent but we prefer travelling in between seasons to avoid crowds and public/school holidays where possible. This time however was pretty much the opposite of that. We were locked into a small window due to work commitments so basically it was the Easter weekend or nothing till the end of the year and who wants to wait THAT long amiright?? With only 5 days at our disposal we had to keep it reasonably accessible with minimal expenditure. We’ve heard rave reviews from our landscape photographer buddies championed by Mel Sinclair who mentioned (and was smart enough to go the following week!) that around this time of year the Fagas trees start changing colour (they even have a festival dedicated to it) so we thought, why the heck not.

Well the first problem was going when we had to not when we wanted to so we were actually about a week early for the colour changing, no problem, just need to look for places in cold areas where winter is coming early. Second problem, travelling during a batch of public holidays, surely not everything will be closed right? Sadly we were wrong on both accounts, throw in constant wet weather ranging from heavy drizzle to outright monsoonal downpours and a feeble rental car with no will to live and that was just the beginning of our Tasmanian adventure! It was trying to say the least but we’ll try to keep the whinging to a minimum and stick to the facts 😉

The biggest Keyzer Soze moment of making people believe the devil didn’t exist was arriving at the airport to clear skies. The drive out to Eaglehawk Neck was reasonably uneventful, apart from a bit of afternoon/pre long weekend traffic it took a bit over 2 hours from the airport including the low speed limits, endless road works and unpaved roads with trucks and 4wds gunning it with no consideration of on coming traffic.

We chose the Best Western Lufra Apartments because they are pretty much directly above the tessellated pavements. The hotel was a little dated but that sort of thing never really bothers us, we go on holidays to do things other than look at the wallpaper! Meals were a little higher priced but when it’s the only option in the surrounding area the choice is pretty easy if you don’t want to go hungry. The staff however were friendly and helpful.

untitled-5

The next morning we got up for sunrise, a little icy but nothing too unmanageable. The sunrise itself was rather uneventful – enough for a couple nice photos at the tessellated pavement, nature working its magic on carving out a rather intricate grid in the rock, but it did hold high hopes of a beautiful day of sightseeing. Back to the hotel the dining room’s expansive windows displayed a spectacular view and the buffet brekky with most of the basics covered wasn’t too bad either. Being a long weekend we were expecting a bigger crowd but it was rather tame, probably was a different story for the proceeding days though.

untitled-8 untitled-9 untitled-11

untitled-12 untitled-13 untitled-14

Conveniently, the Pirate’s Bay area is also very close where you can take in the blowhole, Tasman Arch, Fossil rock look out and Devil’s Kitchen all with in the space of an hour or so if you stick to the main lookouts and 86 the scenic walks. The weathering and layering of the rock formations at the Tasman Arch was tragically poetic to see nature creating and at the same time destroying history of the landmark. Like most natural landmarks there is no open and close times so getting an early start, beating the crowds and getting these sites out of the way is definitely the way to go to maximise your day.

untitled-29
untitled-17 untitled-26 untitled-30

Travel tip: about 2km from Eaglehawk Neck on the way to the blowhole there is a small town nicknamed “Doo Town”, which lovingly coming about because… well they added “Doo” to everything. Its pretty much a “blink and you’ll miss it” blimp on the map but cute and quaint enough to stop for a quick selfie while trying not to snicker at “doo doo” jokes.

untitled-16

With the weather still clear and our sense of adventure high we headed further south to Port Arthur to take in the convict town and its historic buildings…

untitled-21

Tasmania 2014 part #1 – Arrival, Eaglehawk Neck
Tasmania 2014 part #2 – Port Arthur and Salamanca markets
Tasmania 2014 part #3 – Hobart to Queenstown to Cradle Mountain and Liffey Falls

Shopping in Beijing… where to start? No, seriously, where do you start?? There are scores of huge multi-level shopping centres which pretty much fall into two categories, high end dedicated brand name stores and haggle city, home of knock offs, repetition and de ja vue. Having shopped till we almost dropped (well at least to the point where we were shipping box loads of stuff home from San Fran and London), our enthusiasm to battle the crowds was waning but we still managed a few stops and a couple last minute items to toy with out luggage limit.

Wang Fu Jing Da Jie

Downtown

A good place to start is downtown Beijing (Dongcheng), an open air, sealed off road style shopping/business center on Wang Fu Jing Da Jie (crossroad : Jinyu Hutong). Nearest metro is Dengshikou, under 1km away or a similar distance from the Forbidden City (depending on which exit you take). Hesitant or cultural shocked shoppers will find this a nice way to ease into it, nothing like the Golden Arches or the Colonel to set your mind at ease no matter where you are in the world 😉 The northern end houses a fair selection of branded watch stores included Omega, Tagheuer , Rolex, our G Shock friends and plenty of glasses/optometrist stores. Nike Beijing is also there, mostly along the athletic side of things with only the latest stock so you wont find any rare releases or streetwear related items but there is a Nike iD upstairs. The store sits in a multi level mall with a run of the usual random clothing and electronics stores, there are however some notable boutique stores sporting some designer Kidrobot, anime, kawaii style gear, like Devil Nut, unfortunately they had the prices to match. There’s also a smallish Adidas store, good for a couple regional tees.

Nike Beijing

Nike iD

Devil Nut

On the southern end of Wang Fu Jing you’ll find another shopping mall – Haoyou World and a bunch of eating places, most notably the famous Wang Fu Jing snack street, great for a plethora of variety but you will have to haggle for your dinner if you want it at a reasonable price or you could take the easy route and go with Yoshinoya.

There are also a small scattering of boutique street wear stores in the surrounding blocks like this Eternal store stocking Nike SB and other skate related brands and products but as with many of these shops, they come and go so be sure to do your research before hand and potentially save yourself a hike.

Eternal

…where you can buy members of the Wu-Tang clan…

Hongqiao Market (Pearl Market)

If you’re out visiting the Temple of Heaven then this “market” is only a couple hundred meters north of the East Gate exit (just up from Tiantandongmen metro stop). The Pearl Market used to be THE place for knock off goods but after getting hammered by the license holders and having building management crack down… its still pretty much the place for knock off goods!

Even though the name suggests its only pearls and jewellery, these are mostly secluded to the top 2 floors, but a bargain (on the real deal) can still be had if you know what you’re looking at/for.

The lower three floors are made up of side by side market stall set up. Most with glass display counters so its more like a department store than a flea market.

Level 1 – Mostly electronics – cameras, mp3 players, storage media, watches, audio/visual. Beats Audio headphones for $40AU? No thanks, even with the pleas from the sales person as “real deal, good buy”. While there were quite a few stores selling DSLR equipment I was still skeptical to the quality as there was just no way of telling if they were warranty repairs or QC failed grade. There were also some silk items and underwear stores mixed randomly between the other stores.

Level 2 – Clothing, shoes, handbags, travel goods – this is where things get tough. Once upon a time I think alot of broke kids much like myself would’ve just been happy to have the brand logo, if it had the same cut/style/distinct features that was a bonus, but I guess as you get older (and have more disposable income) you get choosier and you also buy products for their technology/features/build quality. So the dilemma quickly becomes apparent, that North Face jacket says it has Goretex, looks and feels like it, even has the tags but do I really want to find out in the middle of a downpour far from cover that it isnt waterproof? The sneakers however were a lot easier thanks to my trained eye and a bit of common sense. Jordan 1’s in unreleased colourways or limited edition from 5 years prior just sitting on a shelf at a market? You’re definitely right to be skeptical. Where things get difficult is with current run of the mill models. Being in the country that makes the genuine article means there are plenty of variants, which can even be authentic stock that followed a factory worker home or the more common “fell off the back of the truck” items. Where the seams start to come apart (pun!) are those that have the same equipment but cut corners with materials and quality control. So keep your wits about you, if its too good to be true then it usually is.

Level 3 – Traditional Chinese art, ornaments, vases etc. – Worthy stop for some souvenirs, just remember two things – 1. take note of the materials used in the items, remember AU customs isn’t going to look too kindly on that living bonsai pondscape complete with exotic goldfish (and if you do find something you think will be passable eg. Wooden vase, save yourself embarrassment and a possible fine, declare it) and 2. haggle haggle haggle.

Finally outside there’s good ol’ reliable Yoshinoya and to the right and behind is the Hong Qiao toy market, which I only found out about recently, how I missed this in my research I have no idea! Can someone go check it out or those that have been, tell me its crap so I don’t feel so bad? 😉

Photo tip – like alot of places that sell “unofficial” (re: fake) goods, the shop owners can be rather “private” (re: paranoid that you’re collecting evidence). I managed to get a short video (on a point n shoot) walking down one of the aisles before I was repeatedly beaten… with a rolled up brouchure. Admittedly moo-ing like a cow then asking about “copy watch” didn’t help my case so it’s best to keep photos to a minimum or feel the same wrath.

Hutongs

One of the other bonuses of staying at the Courtyard 7 was being pretty much in the middle of a lane of boutique stores and restaurants on S Luogu Alley, which you could easily liken to places like Bulimba or West End in Brisbane. Many stores stocked a random assortment of quality knick knacks, unusual souvenirs and designer kitch, a far cry from the generic over rehashing of comparative market stalls.

S Luogu Alley

Plastered 8

Vintage wind up toys

Places like Plastered 8 stocked designer tee’s, most with an Asian theme while “Vintage wind up toys” was exactly that, old metal wind up toys. Most were replicas but there were also some older antique items amongst general toys and oddball items. Hipsters will go nuts with Lomo camera gear offerings and of course you can’t leave China without some kind of panda paraphernalia.

Love Cupcakes

Tea houses, small bars and even gourmet cupcake stores follow the lane up to Gulou E St which becomes Jiaodaokou E St. (a major arterial road which leads to the nearest metro stop, Beixinqiao). Along here you’ll find the regular western fast food places with a few clothing and toy boutique stores, many with no names like this toy store, which was packed to the ceiling with figures and model kits while another sold giant plush poos. Good luck or not one managed to follow us home 😉 and with that, comes the conclusion of our 2011 round the world stint. A little slow in the recap but we got there in the end!

Coming soon, we’ll be reliving this year’s getaway from the land of Jurassic Park, 50 First Dates, pineapples, coconuts and shave ice (no “d” 😉 )… HAWAII!

Beijing 2011 part #1 – Arrival + Temple of Heaven, Forbidden City
Beijing 2011 part #2 – The Great Wall – Mutianyu
Beijing 2011 part #3 – Beijing Zoo

Beijing photo gallery here
Beijing Zoo photo gallery here

Getting There
The closest train station was over a kilometre away but we decided to walk from our hotel to take in some of the residential sites as well as making a short detour pass the Drum Tower, however after that there wasn’t much to see. Catching the train was a breeze – get on at Gulou Dajie, change at Xizhimen and get off at Beijing Zoo. A taxi would have been more convenient but judging from some of the traffic we saw along the way, I dare say the train would be quicker (depending on where you’re coming from of course).

Drum Tower

Once there you’ll have to purchase your tickets, don’t go into the courtyard and expect to get tickets at the gate, look for a line of ticket windows with a mass of people looking like a cross between the stock market and the lines at a music festival. This isn’t London, no
one knows what queuing is, throw in wandering tour groups and masses of school excursioning kids and you’ll understand why I recommend
pre-purchasing your tickets if you can. Like most major attractions there’s rarely a quiet time but a week day visit may see a few less locals.

When inside there’s three areas roughly divided into amphibians, reptiles and birds; big animals and aquarium; and lions, tigers and bears (oh my!). Of course the star attractions are the pandas and the area, especially at the start of the day, was packed so we decided to head away from the crowds.

Things kicked off with the reptile enclosures but the first flag appeared when we saw a group of locals coaxing otters by feeding
them sausages and other snacks while staff stood by unconcerned. I don’t know about you but I have no idea what otters eat let alone what could potentially kill them! I for one definitely wouldn’t want no otter homicide on my hands.

Normally we love zoos especially the big ones where the animals have plenty of space to roam but as we continued it became more and more obvious and rather disheartening to see a lot of the enclosures in varying states of disrepair not helped by the original poor attempts at “authenticity” re: jungle mural painted brick wall.

Sporting a similar poorly simulated scenery was the penguin enclosure, which like several displays wasn’t included in the ticket price. A separate ticket had to be purchased for this enclosure and quite frankly it wasn’t worth it, even with our overwhelming love for the little tuxedo wearers.

Like the penguins, it was an extra fee to get up close to the giraffes but this time you could actually feed them by hand (leaves and other greenery, not the stuff from your bag).

The hippo, rhino, elephants, lions and tigers were all either off in the distance or not visible at all so it was a quick breeze through those sections. Back to the pandas, the crowd had waned a little but it was still at least 3-4 people deep in parts and quite a battle to get close to the viewing glass to snap a photo, but well worth it when you do.

Photo tip: battling the crowd is the easy part, getting your camera close enough to no get any reflection from the glass or 10 camera phones in your shot while dodging some parent holding their terrified scream protesting kid in between the rail and the glass is the real challenge. Just like waiting at a bar to be next in line for drinks you need to choose your moment and make a quick move to any opening spots. Keeping an eye on the movement of other background animals could help you lock in a good shot as well. Wide to mid range zoom with macro ability will be the best lens choice for the whole day, I found a long telephotos lens wasn’t necessary.

With that bit of disappointment done and the rest of the Beijing sights seen, there was only one thing left to do… SHOP!

More Beijing Zoo photos here.

Beijing 2011 part #1 – Arrival + Temple of Heaven, Forbidden City
Beijing 2011 part #2 – The Great Wall – Mutianyu
Beijing 2011 part #4 – Shopping

Beijing photo gallery here
Beijing Zoo photo gallery here

We’re not talking about the el cheapo 4WD and utes but the real mccoy, the one you can see from space! Its as vast as there are sections of it to see and options on how to get there.

Getting There
The first and quite common option is to arrange a tour. Like any tour, it’s a matter of fronting up the cash then waiting for your transport and instructions, easy enough. However the problem with this is a lot of the tour companies/bus operators/tour guides are in cahoots with local factories/markets so they make a few stops along the way so you spend money there as well. This might sound like a good idea but pick the wrong one and you’ll spend hours at a stop with nothing to do but get hassled by hawkers. Also not very good if you have a schedule to keep. There are of course legit operators and “private” guides that will take you directly to the wall, so do your research first!

Second option is to charter a taxi for the day, ie. You pay them to drive you there, wait and then drive you home. This option, while a bit expensive, would work well for a direct and quicker (no stops) travel but can be cheaper if you have a few people together to split the fare, the trade off however is trying to get a guarantee that the driver will hang around and wait for you and not run off as soon as some one else waves cash at them. On the plus side, there are plenty of drivers at the wall willing to take you back to the city so you wont be stranded.

Third, if you like living on the edge, is to hire a car. Cost is similar to most countries of $50-100AU a day for an “economy” size from a reputable dealer, however, assuming you have been in town for more than a minute and have witnessed the chaotic homicidal (or should that be suicidal??) drivers, this would be a last resort for most.

The final option and by far the cheapest, is to take public transport. I’m not sure about other sections of the wall but Mutianyu had only 2 bus services, slow and not as slow. Both will get you there eventually but one will make a lot more stops and a slight detour. The bus you’re after is the 936. To find this bus station, head east along the main road from Dongzhimen station for a few hundred meters. You’ll see the buildings die off, construction sites appear and it looks like you’ve gone too far (though, in the time since we travelled here its best to assume that there’s a new shopping mall/skyscraper there!), you’ll come across an open air bus terminal (see image). There’s a small ticket office (re: demountable building) but tickets are purchased on the actual bus. The journey is over 2 hours and there is a strong chance you may not get a seat and will have to sit on the floor. Also note, some seats have a different coloured headrest, after a lot of dirty looks and what we originally thought were comments about foreigners from elderly people we worked out that the seats were reserved for them. Strange since they were in the middle of the bus and not at the front, didn’t help that these weren’t signed/labelled!

Remember these are the options I looked at for the Mutianyu site, other sections like the popular and closer Badaling section will vary.

Bus stop

UPDATE: It seems they may have ditched the “express” 936 service and replaced it with the 867, however the stop seems to be the same. There is also mention of a 916, see Lonely Planet for more details.

Up the wall
Once at the wall, there are a bunch of different options to choose from depending on your available time, patience and stamina. The bus stop (cabs and carparks) are at the bottom of the mountain away from the wall. The ticket office and entry in itself is a bit of a steep walk to get to, made no easier with having to run the gauntlet of hecklers selling just about anything with the obligatory Wall reference.

Travel tip: Remember to bargain hard and never feel like you’re low balling them. Supply always far outweighs the demand.

From the entrance you have a choice of a hike up the mountain to the wall or a cable car. We figured since we were already going to be doing a bunch of walking we’d choose the relaxing trip on the cable car. If you are trekking to the untouched re: “wild” sections of this wall section then this is the way to go, it drops you at tower 14 and with 34 towers for this section itll save you some energy as well! We chose to head in the other direction back to tower 5.

Cable cars

The wall was constructed purely as a strategic military point of defence and offence (remnants of cannons still remain) and it becomes very clear once you’re on it how difficult it would be for any invading army to even begin to think of how to get across the mountains and foothills let alone the wall as well. So with that in mind, there’s no “easy parts”, its constantly up and down with uneven paving and stairs. This is where good quality hiking shoes are a must. Thongs (flip flops), sandals, “girlie” shoes or cheap/poor support/cushioning sneakers will leave you with more than just blisters or a rolled ankle before you pass your first tower. Water is a must as well but there are vendors along the way selling drinks, ice creams and even beer, just remember to use the bins provided or take your rubbish with you even if it is overly tempting to follow suit with the locals and hoik it over the wall.

The wall quite literally goes on forever, its hard to fathom the sheer man power and materials required to be such an epic structure which you feel with every step. Step long enough and you’ll make it to tower 6 and salvation! Well maybe not but its your ticket out of there, not just in style but with speed (for the most part anyway) as this is the top of the toboggan ride!

This is similar to a lot of toboggan rides around the world, small single person sled with a manual stop/go lever down a metal chute. This was great fun but would have been even better if we could get more than a couple corners at a quicker pace. Sadly like a lot of these rides, there’s the token “Henny Penny” that will scream and clutch at the ground with their fingernails if they could, even if they’re travelling at a snails pace. The signs warning NOT to brake as it will cause accidents were useless and at least half the ride was more like returning traffic on the last day of a long weekend. For those thinking that you could some how get hurt if you go down at full speed, there are signs telling you when to brake and judging from the way the track is laid out, you would be hard pressed to hurt yourself, even if you were being stupid. Either way it made the return journey quick and reasonably effortless.

Toboggan ride

By now you’ve probably worked up an appetite and if you’ve timed it right, you’ll have just enough time to grab a bite before the return bus arrives. Food choice is limited to a small selected on local cuisine or Subway. Like a lot of western fast food places, Subway staff spoke a little English but mainly in the form of menu items, any deviation from this required the usual gesturing and improv’ charades.

The line for the bus grows quickly so its best to line up as soon as you can to get a seat, if not you will have to stand or sit on the floor, which is rather uncomfortable for the quite lengthy ride.

Next up we continue the China must see’s and track ourselves down some Pandas!

Beijing 2011 part #1 – Arrival + Temple of Heaven, Forbidden City
Beijing 2011 part #3 – Beijing Zoo
Beijing 2011 part #4 – Shopping

Beijing photo gallery here
Beijing Zoo photo gallery here

Temple of Heaven

What goes up, must come down, literally and figuratively. By now, we’d lost count of the number of flights we had caught and that first day in LA seemed like a lifetime ago. The concept of time and day had disappeared and jetlag had consumed us. I felt more like I should’ve be starting a Fightclub than hitting another country but sure enough we awoke after a restless flight in Beijing and zombied our way to the Airport express train.

Once you adjusted to the extra 10C degrees and double the humidity of Paris, the transfer is pretty straight forward to Dongzhimen station in downtown Beijing, Dong Cheng. I couldn’t believe our luck when we stumbled out of the station right into a waiting cab. But it wasn’t until we were at our hotel (after an unnecessarily long walk) that I had blindly handed over approx. $20-25AU to the cabbie instead of what should have been $5-10AU!

Travel tip: always be on your guard and suspect anyone and everyone are out to rip you off. Ok, its not that bad but keep your wits about you. (Honest) cabs are dirt cheap with a flagfall of only a few bucks for the first couple K’s then less than $1AU per km after that. All legit cabs have official markings and a sticker on the rear side window stating prices. If they try to pull a swift one on you just point to the sticker or ask for a receipt, if they try to haggle or give you excuses, just wave them off and move on. If they continue to hassle you, feel free to call them a “Zei” = thief and keep walking, they’ll get the point. This goes likewise for just about any store or market where haggling is used, if you don’t, you will be hit with the naïve tourist tax.

Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven is more than just the temple (Hall of Prayer), its nearly 3 square km’s of parkland and a good 15min walk from the street, even longer if you’re caught out after dark as there are very few lights and the spaghetti of paths are poorly lit. The plus side to visiting at dusk is seeing a number of kite flyers along the Imperial Walkway. Kites are lit with flashing lights and as more slack on the string is given, the operator adds flashing lights along the string. Definitely quite the spectacle with the typically older male “pilots” loving all the attention from on lookers.

Temple of Heaven grounds at night

Kite pilot

Sword training

There are also scores of classes at work for exercise, martial arts, tai chi, religious and even swing and latin dancing, all very interesting to watch.

For general viewing however as mentioned its very dimly lit for the most part and the temple area closes around 5pm, once night falls there’s very little to see so its best to go during the day.

Travel tip: check opening times as they vary through out the year. A fee is payable on entry to the park, you can also buy tickets to the temple and other buildings or buy them at the entrance to the respective areas.

Temple of Heaven

Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square

Travel tip: If you’re coming from the Temple of Heaven on metro line 5, you can either take the interchange at Chongwenmen to the southern end of Tiananmen Square or if you’ve seen a square before and want to avoid the every present protestors, change at Dongdan and get off at either Tiananmen East or West stops which drop you between the Square and the southern entrance to the Forbidden City.

Tiananmen Square

Forbidden City - Tiananmen Square entrance

Forbidden City - Tiananmen Square entrance

Walking up to street level you begin to get a feel of just how colossal everything is. Looking back towards the Square and up at (what you may think is) the gates and battlements of the Forbidden city, people are dwarfed to the size of ants with the sheer numbers of visitors compounding the effect. Even the stairs up to the streets look like they were taken from your city’s favourite sporting venue.

Thanks to the ever present “threat” from protestors there is a strong military and police presence which can be a little intimidating to say the least. Walking through the gates leads to a huge courtyard area full of hawkers, beggars, people trying to sell you tours and souvenirs and general shifty types. If your water rations are running low you will be able to top up here but just be prepare to haggle for that too.

Forbidden City southern entrance

After close to half an hour of walking you will get to the actual gates to the Forbidden City and when they called it a city they’re not kidding! 999 buildings await you inside, so a fair portion of your day will be taken up exploring it. If that’s not your thing or you want to escape the barrage of people, exit out of the courtyard area either west or east and follow the moat around the surrounding wall either north or south to one of the corner towers for a great photo opportunity.

Photo tip: in the afternoon, photograph from the western side so they sun lights the wall and tower. On the off chance the smog isn’t so bad and there is some colouring in the sky, you may be lucky enough to get some colouring in the sky and get a nice silhouette shot from the eastern side.

With a little time to spare (and after having already walked to the northern gate) we decided to continue walking the back streets to our hotel. If you really want to get an idea of the city, this is the best way to see it. Basically Beijing is growing so fast that the new buildings and construction are popping up all around the once slum-ish areas without enough time for the original inhabitants to leave so you will notice after 3-4 blocks from common business/shopping/tourist areas the quality of buildings and living conditions dramatically decreases to the point of families bathing in the streets and selling fresh produce from the ground you’re walking on. Definitely a real eye opener.

After a couple miss turns and dead ends we were back to the familiar Hutongs around Luogu Alley and grateful for the bed we had to sleep on.

Next up, we take on the Great Wall!

Forbidden City - outer wall (click for big)

Beijing 2011 part #2 – The Great Wall – Mutianyu
Beijing 2011 part #3 – Beijing Zoo
Beijing 2011 part #4 – Shopping

Beijing photo gallery here
Beijing Zoo photo gallery here

03.05.2012

Nike - Paris

Ah Paris, one of the well known fashion and shopping capitals of the world… if you’re the type to frequent Rodeo Drive and the like, otherwise you have to venture further out to find outlet malls like La Vallée Village.

We only had one day of shopping so we decided to keep it central and stick to the “must-see’s” which meant we gave the hoity-toity malls a miss and looked for boutique sneaker and toy stores instead 😉

Les Halles metro station was the closest stop to most of these shops and conveniently part of the Forum des Halles shopping center which has a sunken open air section and the rest completely underground. Stores vary from high end brands to small boutiques. The few selling sneakers were more along the dressier side of things, coupled with the ever wallet punishing Euro, they were even less appealing. There’s a McDonald’s which is always a welcome sign… for free WiFi 😀

Entering the mall was fine via the metro station but exiting? Well that wasn’t quite so easy. It wasn’t till we were outside that we realised the whole thing was underground and from what we could see there was only one set of escalators out (that’s if we weren’t having another travel brain fart, which was highly likely with fatigue and jetlag clawing at our heels).

Fountain monument... thing

Up on the surface, there’s a small nature area with a fountain structure, no doubt with some historical significance like many random relics around the city… oh look Footlocker! It definitely doesn’t have the same presence here as it does in London but this store was quite large with a dedicated boutique styled store attached, specialising in basketball related apparel and sneakers – which wouldn’t look out of place in LA or NYC. The punishing Euro once again left us breezing passed a lot of items but coming across some unique pieces like a Yankees bomber jacket in hot pink with multiple team patches or a Yankees New Era cap in an illusive army green and orange colourway were too hard to resist 😉

Couple doors down there’s Skechers and Dr. Martins, if you didn’t get enough of them in London.

Unknown sneaker store

Opium

A short walk down some narrow cobbled Carnaby styled streets sees a handful of small sportswear and street wear styled shops, many sport Diesel logos on the front, whether or not they’re all authentic is another thing. A few notable spots, Zoom flight sports – mostly lower end sports based model sneakers coupled with Diesel products and a signless sneaker store next door to Joe Allens which had an ok selection of Nikes and Vans. However THE store most heads will be here for is Opium, a store almost solely dedicated to the Jordan brand. There are a few “dressier” Nikes but predominantly Jordans, a couple region exclusive colourways like these J1’s in Torquoise and many were no longer in production so it was a fine opportunity to see some classic history in the flesh. There were also a bunch of boxes stacked to the ceiling in the back corner, possibly new stock, possibly deadstock but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to even ask ):

Shinzo

SBPro

Espace Kiliwatch

Heading north west along Rue Etienne Marcel will lead you to Shinzo, SBPro and Espace Kiliwatch. Shinzo is probably the pick of the bunch for the slightly limited releases but take notice if there is any “cleaning” going on. Turns out if there is, you’ll be told they’re “closed for cleaning” and ushered out even if you had already been browsing for a good couple minutes. I however have a sneaking suspicion that it was just more French hospitality since we didn’t look like we were going to buy anything since their prices are hardly favorable. SBPro tries terribly to latch on to Nike’s SB skateboarding range, even to the extent of incorporating a Tick like symbol in their logo, they do however have a decent selection of skate related brands and products. Espace Kiliwatch is more like City Beach or Universal with a broader selection of casual brands and styles.

artoyz

Last stop in this area was Artoyz, the Giant Robot of Paris. As much as we love Kidrobot, it was refreshing to see fewer pieces from them. Instead there is a nice selection of toys and apparel from local (city and regional) artists and what can only be described as a Posca marker vending machine! Definitely has to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately prices again were bordering on cringe worthy.

Nike - Paris

Nike - Paris

Adidas - Paris

With a couple hours to spare we decided to make a pass on Paris’ Rodeo Drive, Av. Des Champs Elysees. If you’re like us and can’t fathom how someone could charge, let alone spend $100 on a ratty thin t-shirt then the only points of interest will be the Adidas and Nike flagship stores. Both encompass more than ample real estate for their location and both come complete with eye catching quirks, Adidas with its Trefoil live photo wall (your photo is taken webcam style and then displayed along with other customers from the day) and Nike with a Bill Bowerman (original co-founder) collage of button pins featuring Nike and sub brand logos to form a mural. In true French fashion, the Adidas store also has a separate section for its “designer” range which wouldn’t look out of place in Jay Kay‘s waredrobe 😉 Other than those few points, most of the range and styles are almost identical to those found in London.

Toyota

Toyota

While you’re here, check out the Toyota showroom, most notably for its open wheeled F1 style concept car and wall mounted Yaris. Across the road is the Louis Vuitton store, perfect op to add some photographic proof to that knock off bag purchase :p

Louis Vuitton

And we’re done! As they say, a quick game is a good game and we were out of there! Next and final stop, Beijing!

Travel tip: To get to Paris’ airport – Charles de Gaulle aka CDG, find a RER station and purchase a ticket from one of the machines.

Paris 2011 part #1 – Arrival
Paris 2011 part #2 – Sight Seeing

Paris photo gallery

The Louvre - click for big

Carousel du Lourve

Most notable for its big glass pyramids and feature spot in The Davinci Code movie, it also plays host to a bunch of historic pieces like the Mona Lisa but personally the pyramids were the highlight for me, looking almost alien against the late setting sun. It also seemed like my work is never done being roped into doing group shot photos for a class of excursioning school students!

Arc de Triomphe

Arc de Triomphe

All roads may lead to Rome but in Paris it seems like they all lead to the Arc’. With 12 roads firing towards one helluva roundabout it makes the Normanby 5 ways look like a Macca’s drive-thru. Of course there’s also all the chaos and flinching that would come with no lane markings and European drivers.

Photo tip: For best photos and viewing of the Arc’ (and the crazy traffic), its better to get off a stop before Charles de Gaulle-Etoile eg. George V – especially late in the afternoon to get a nice glow on it from the sunset.

Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower

Even with the hours in the day dwindling, the good thing about those long upper Northern hemisphere days is everything stays open late, especially round tourist spots. Daylight till long after 10pm also gives you a little sense of security and a little more confidence when wandering to and from metro stops but do still keep your wits about you, places like the Eiffel Tower are notorious for thieves and scammers.

Travel tip: As always, keep all belongings on you or in your hands at all times. If you have to put something down like a handbag or backpack, stand one foot in the straps or stand on it if it’s a shopping bag or put it between your legs, this includes when you’re sitting down. At the very least this will slow them down if they try to swipe it. Thankfully it hasn’t happen to us but better to be safe than sorry right?

To top it off, this of course is Paris’ biggest and most famous landmark, it is a very bright candle for the tourist moths so there wont really be a time when the place is empty (even early in the morning) for you to have some picnic blanket time with your “main squeeze”. Different times of the day you may get less hawkers but in general be prepared to be bothered by at least 10 times in an hour by people trying to sell you stuff like cheap/rebottled warm champagne, wilted roses or take you on a “tour”. Another problem is the line to go up the tower… well the line for the tickets THEN the line for the tower. “9-11” style security exists here as well so be prepared for at least an hour of standing around. Even late at night the line was still snaking its way around the base of the tower. The couple food stores also had quite long lines. Prices are inflated with the usual tourist tax and you get your choice of baguette or… baguette. Ingredients were however fresh and it made for easy eating on the grass areas. If these few factors haven’t deterred you too much then its certainly worth it come 10pm when the tower lights up like a Christmas tree and “twinkles” against the sunset.

Photo tip: Check local guides for sunrise/sunset times as you will find sunset is around 10-10.30pm in May.

Sainte Chapelle

Sainte Chapelle church

Don’t know much about churches but love the architecture and massive stained glass windows then this is the place for you. Sainte Chapelle has the largest collection of 13th century stained glass anywhere in the world. Even with the on going restorations, 95% of the place is accessible and viewable. Getting in early is again the key as the lines form quickly as you compete with other tourists and school excursions. The downstairs section and entrance may seem a little lack lustre till you climb the narrow spiral staircase to enter the upper chapel…. And whoa, you can almost hear the angels singing. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. Being essentially “just” a room, a budget of an hour or 2 will be more than enough time here.

Travel tip: The #4 Metro line will get you to the Cite’ stop with no problems, then its just a short walk. Entry fee is E7.50 Euros. Check the website for opening times as these vary through out the year.

Sainte Chapelle - downstairs

Sainte Chapelle

Sainte Chapelle - stain glass windows

Sainte Chapelle

Next up we pretend we have a platinum card, impractical taste in clothes and head to the shops!

Paris 2011 part #1 – Arrival
Paris 2011 part #3 – Shopping

Paris photo gallery

Next Page »