Beijing - Pedestrians Paradise

Arriving in China in the evening after 30+ hours of travelling, the the next day was mainly a write off spent exploring the surrounding area of the hotel and not much else. There is a lot to see in Beijing and we started off with Tiananmen Square. It is the largest public square in the world sometimes accommodating 1 million people. It looks it too, in fact it looks somewhat too big. Amusingly there is a large police presence there. I say amusing because they use alternative means of getting around such a large area. One such means is by Segway another is golf cart. See, amusing. There are airport type security checks everywhere in Beijing with x-ray scanners and guards checking bags. Occasionally we even saw random bag checks in the street, a reminder that this is still a communist country. Tiananmen Square is also a reminder of the communist government with large monuments that look like they are made of giant concrete lego blocks. Bigger is clearly better in the communist world.
Right next to Tiananmen Square (and Im sure this is no accident) is the Forbidden City, the home of the Chinese Emperors for hundreds of years until Mao's takeover. There is a huge picture of Mr Mao at the front of the Forbidden City, no doubt to symbolise that he is now in charge, replacing the emperor. The Forbidden City is both simply and complicatedly designed. It is simple in that most of the buildings look the same and the whole complex flows from one building to the next. All building have their entrances down the central axis of the complex. This is the simple part. The complicated part comes from the symbolic nature of almost everything in the buildings. Nothing has been put there by accident, and they are facing certain ways by design. Personally I think the emperors court had too much time on their hands to come up with so many rules for things, a sort of ancient Seinfeld. Its well worth the visit to see the seat of power of such a long lasting civilisation and there is a lot of walking to do. If you have ever seen the movie "The Last Emperor" it looks pretty much exactly the same, which must have something to do with the fact that they filmed it here. Surrounding the city is a large moat which was still partly frozen even though it was mid March. Winter must be really cold here.
There are a few things to note about Beijing, things which represent China itself and its rampant progress. It is still a developing country and they drive like it too. The traffic is horrendous and there is a lot of it. There doesnt seem to be any rules and I dont think many people have been driving that long. Traffic lights are just a guide, a guide that is ignored as much as it isnt. If there was a class system on the road the pedestrians would be homeless peasants. Cars will run a red light and drive straight through a stream of pedestrians who are crossing on the green man and it is up to the pedestrians to either stop, get out of the way or just get run over. There is a scene in "A Tale of Two Cities" where a peasant is run over by a French aristocrat and his father receives a coin and a rebuke for slowing the aristocrat down. Im sure this is the first book/movie that was made available in China and this is the height of fashionable behaviour.

China - banned

We arrived in China after a few delayed flights, but we got here. This is a short entry just to say that in China a lot of web sights are banned, including the blog site. So there will be a more detailed entry on China soon. Watch this space.

Canada - winter wonderland

One of the cool things about Canada at this time of year is the snow. Snow is such a novelty that going out and playing in it is still fun and I dont think it will ever not be fun. There is something about he way snow makes the land look, and feel. To watch it fall and cover the landscape in a blanket, an it really does look like a blanket, its almost magical. A few years ago, I was living in England with some Canadians, Andrew and Angie. The last time we were in Canada we went to their wedding and since then they have added plus one to their family. They live about 3 hours drive from Toronto near a major Canadian air force base. Apart from that there is some wonderful scenery in the area. Unfortunately it was quite expensive to get there by train, for a return trip it cost the same as it would one way from Toronto to New York. It was a pleasant train journey though, arriving at around 8pm with a light snow falling. We spent the weekend with them and it was great to catch up with good friends. We went for a drive through the surrounding counryside, and it was nothing short of spectacular. One highlight was walking out on a lake that was frozen. It is an uneasy feeling walking on water, only one guy should be able to do it. It was fun though and a unique experience, well unique for us anyway. On the frozen lake there were a number of small wooden huts, used for ice fishing. I wanted to walk out to them but they were a fair way out on the lake, and apparently they guard their solitude jealously. One thing is for sure, I do like the winter here, snow shovelling and all.

Canada - Sports

Candians like sports and they actually acknowledge that there are more than 9 sports in the world too. There is a very small window where there is no basketball, ice hockey, gridiron, baseball, tennis, golf, soccer or NASCAR on, so you would think you ight get to see some sport from around the world. Wrong, women's college softball is what you get, followed by live 10 pin bowling on a specialy created lane on the beach. But not in Canada, they like most sports going around and are happy to talk/participate in them. Our first sporting experience here was a hockey game. Not NHL though, since tickets are above $200 and are impossible to get. So we went to the junior team in Toronto, the Marlies. It was really exciting and I think if I were here full time I would rather watch a Marlies game than a Maple Leafs game. They seem to care more about it and it was more intimate with a smaller crowd. Once in the arena, you could move seats if you wanted, as long as you dont take someone elses. Common sense, I like it. Moving around the stadium it gives you a different view of the game and how fast it is. At ice level you see how hard they hit and how fsat they skate, at a higher level you can appreciate the tactics that are similar to indoor soccer. A good game to watch and of course Toronto lost. Our second sporting event was a full NBA basketball game. Toronto vs Boston. Jade was so excited to share the same air as Shaq and although it was good to see someone of his caliber play before he retires, I think his air is over rated. It was another good game and although we were waaaaaaaay up the back (the wall of the stadium was behind us) you could still see all the court, if not the screen with the replays. The half time entertainment was really, well entertaining. They had the two opposing mascots 'battle' it out on the court with hilarious results. The Toronto mascot would pull other stunts too like rubbing the bald head of a security guard and driving around the court ina small clown-like car, very amusing. Considering we were in the last row, you would think that we wouldnt have to move much to let people through, but apparently its a rule that to get to any row you have to go through the last one. Still, another enjoyable evening. I will say that they need to speed the games up a little, the hockey too. The basketball game is 48 minutes long but with all the breaks it took 4 hours. The hockey is a 60 minute game that took 4 hours too. Enough "official timeouts" (read T.V ad break timeout) and get on with the game. The last sporting event was one that we actually participated in. Curling, its not something that is readily available in Australia so I jumped at the chance to give it a try. It is similar to lawn bowls, although obviously on ice. Throwing lumps of granite down an ice rink to aim at a big bulls eye doesnt sound too exiting but I have to say it was a lot of fun. In lawn bowls there is a weighted side to the bowl which makes it curve. With curling, when you release the rock you give it a little twist left or right which makes it 'curl'. I wanted to get down low to the ice and throw the rock down, but you need special slidee shoes for that, mine had too much grip, so I used a special pole. I was invited tere by my Father in Law who has been doing it for quite some time. He failed to mention the the sweeping you have to do is actually not easy. First you are walking on ice, which is slippery. Then you have to sweep hard when he says to while walking down the ice following the rock. When you sweep in front of the rock it makes it go further and in more of a straight line without curling. But the next day I was feeling sore in muscles that I didnt know were there. Its not often you sweep the hallway with such vigour and it can get quite physical (no curling injury jokes please). I would definitely try it again and really enjoyed having some competetive sport again, something that I have missed while travelling.

Canada - Niagara Falls

Winter has definitely arrived. Canada is the coldest place we have been to so far, an by all reports it will get colder. That's not to say its always cold here. Being here in summer a few years ago, it was quite warm and humid. Candians who live in the Niagara area tell stories of Americans who drive across the border, less than 100km, in summer, with skis on the roof of their car and look genuinely bewildered, asking "where's the snow?". Having said that, at this time of year there is plenty of snow, even in Niagara. There are two parst to the falls, one on the Canadian side and one on the American side. The Candadian ones are better. Fact. They are called the horseshoe falls and are the ones you see in pictures. The American ones are ok, and the good thing about them is you can walk right up to them, and you can see the whole thing from the Canadian side. The horseshoe falls you can walk behind and through specially dugout holes you can see the water falling. We visited the falls in the evening as night was coming and this gives you a different niew of them. At night they are illuminated with coloured lights, changing every 30 seconds or so. This does look quite good but taking a picture of them is dificult because they are moving. By this time, Jade had managed to get out of the U.K and had joined us in Canada, her first time here. Niagara is not only about the falls, its a continuous carnival too. There are houses of horror, wax museums, casinos and other assorted gimmicky places to relieve you of your money. Its well worth the visit and we enjoyed it.

2010 - The Year of the Scaffolding

More scaffolding pictures from around the world. Interstingly, I was recently watching a home improvement show and they used scaffolding to change a lightbulb. Scaffolding. Its the new black.


Budapest


Madrid


Skopje, Macedonia

Whale oil beef hooked

Aye to be sure, to be sure. Our arrival in Dublin was a breath of fresh air. The first thing we did was approach the information desk and ask how to get into town, and the guy actually told us how to get into town. This has not been our experience for a while. We get a lot of "there's nothing I can do" or "my hands are tied" when we come up agaisnt problems. But this guy was actually helpful AND nice. He directed us to the bus stops at the front of the airport where the bus driver gave us all the help we needed, without being even being asked. When the ticket machine gave us the wrong ticket, he got off the bus and told us the we can use that ticket to get back to the airport and showed us the right ones to use. Very nice people here. The bus driver then got out of his seat to tell us that we needed to get off at this stop and pointed us to the connecting stop. I could get used to this.
The main thing I noticed about Dublin, and Irish people are not going to like this, was how much like England it was. This was my first impression anyway. It has the same shops, the same type of streets, the same cars and similar weather, but the people are so friendly and willing to have a laugh. On our firs night we had dinner in an Irish pub. Now, normally I would avoid Irish pubs like the plague when travelling, but since this was actually in Ireland I thought I would make an exception. I guess you would just call it a pub, and it was just like a pub. The Irish pubs that are common around the world are a little over the top I think, with shamrocks everywhere and Whiskey in the Jar being played every second song. The people in the pub were friendly and the food was pretty good too. The only down side was the price. Ireland is quite expensive, another similiarity to England.
The next day we did all the touristy type things, O'Connell St, O'Connell St Bridge, Temple Bar, Trinity College, the Parliament buildings. If you watch the Movie Michael Collins you will see all the things I'm talking about. There are a few statues around the centre of town too, some are cool, some are just there. The only tourist thing we didnt do was go to the Guiness factory (I'm more of a fan of Murphy's anyway). The last day we were there it started to snow, which I thought was very cool, until I remembered all the trouble England had with airports closing. Sure enough, when we checked out the weather forecast, it was for more snow and the airport was closed. Fortunately for us it only closed for 3 hours and it opened again that night. Our flight was early the next morning and the weather bureau said it would be touch and go. After getting up seriously early to get to the airport, in very light snow, we got on our plane without any problems. There were two flights headed to New York at the same time, ours was first. When we arrived in New York we found out that our flight was the last to leave Dublin before they closed the airport again and the other flight to New York didnt make it. After a lengthy connection we finally arrived in Canada eh to stay with Tanya's family, eh. Oh, Canada.