meanderstravels

Day in Brisbane. Took the train using a Go Card, (Australian oyster card). Walked through the CBD to the river. Over the river the South Bank. Arts and Culture abound on the south bank. We walked along by ‘the beach’, enjoying the sun, and outdoor living feel of the city. We lunched in a seafood restaurant with Alan Davis (of QI fame) on the next table. Took the city catamaran down the Brisbane River to Brett’s Wharf and back, taking in the city. Home with the rush hour.

The beach Brisbane

CBD from the catamaran

Family day out to the Glasshouse mountains, misty day, so views were spoiled. We picniced in the company of several brush turkeys and wearing extra layers of clothing to keep warm, so much for subtropical Queensland!! After lunch we walked in a rain forest, saw wallabies and pulled a leach off Madison’s leg!! The trees were enormous, stranglers, tulip trees etc. Coffee at Poets corner and afternoon tea at Mathews finished the day.

Rain forest fungi

A day at the Shaw home having a lunchtime BBQ with all of Irene’s relies. All but one of the family ( Irene’s nephew Andrew lives in Melbourne) arrived for a super lunch well prepared on the BBQ by Dennis, Irene’s Brother in Law.

Chef, nice hat!

The Family

Me and Er, Dennis and Emma( Irene’s niece) walked into Sandgate and met Anne for a coffee. They did some shopping, we bought some wine, they drove home and we walked back.
Nice to have a few lazy days after hectic China and also to catch up on blog that I am sure everyone is missing. Watched United just beat Everton.

Feeding the ducks and turtles

First real day in Oz. Anne and Dennis gave us a trip around their local area and town of Sandgate. They are about a fifteen minute walk to the sea and in an area north of Brisbane. After lunch back at the house Me and Er set out for a walk to the sea to stretch the legs and get a feel for where we are.

The Promenade at Sandgate

Sandgate Centre

A very typical Queensland house. All wood construction with timber cladding and a tin corrugated roof.

Arrived Sydney 20 minutes early and transferred to another terminal for our domestic flight to Brisbane. Bizarre bus trip around the inner airport on the runway aprons past hangars with jumbo jets being worked on etc. All very strange but were assured that this is normal. Not very secure I wouldn’t think and pretty awful for an International Airport.
Had a couple of hours wait for our one and a hour flight to Brisbane and we eventually arrive on time at 13.30 local time which is only two hours ahead of China time. No real jet lag but about 15 hours since we left Shanghai.
Anne, Dennis and Emma met us at the airport and after huggies and kisses and a a trip to the loo we were off to their home.
Weather a little cloudy but about 25 deg’s.

Starbucks again this morning to collect mail and update.
Walked to the Yuyuan gardens and along the way stumbled across a huge material shop and on further inspection realised it is one of those stores that make you suits and jackets etc in double speed time. Measure today and pick up in a couple of days.
Passed by even more “specialist shops” on our walk. Crazy place !!

The local scooter repair shop

Old Shanghai Teahouse area

More food stalls in Old Shanghai district

After our walkies around old Shanghai we went back to our hotel to pick up Bags and
head off to the airport for our 7.45 pm flight to Sydney
We were advised by friend Martin to take the high speed “Meglev”train to the airport we we duly did. Good advice as this train is something special. It reaches a top speed of 431km/hr and takes just 7 minutes to complete the 30 km journey.

The Meglev arriving

A bit rocky but you can just make out the max speed.
Not a ride to be missed.

Couple of hours hanging about at the airport before we boarded our Qantas flight for a 10 hour hop to Sydney.
Bye bye China. We loved it

Today is our only full day in Shanghai, so we have our work cut out to see all we wanted to see.
We set off before breakfast to the ‘Cool Docks’ an area of old dock buildings that have been turned into trendy bar and restaurant areas. Yes, pretty cool! Breakfast in the hotel before we are off on a cruise with the locals on The Huangpu River, here they call it a ferry!!! 40p each way, we know how to live! It took us up the river towards the buildings of the financial district. After looking at our great view from our room, we were surprised how the sky line changed as we went up the river. More buildings came into view and they changed shape as we went. We walked up the Bund to the Golden Gate, had our photos taken with young people who come up to us giggling and ask if they can have they’re photos taken with us…. Foreign freaks I think! Then under the river on ‘the Shanghai rip off’ and under river trip in a French ski gondola for 2 mins, costing £6, yes, Paul was caught out!,

Part of the Cool Docks

The blue thing is a Shanghai Expo Mascot

Two of the tallest buildings. Guess which one in known as the Bottle Opener.
Right next to this one they are building an even taller one.

The buildings of the Financial District.

A very swish shopping mall with beautiful finishings

Arrived on time in Shanghai and immediately came to the conclusion that this city is a lot more “sane” than both Beijing and Xi’an. Sign posts outside the railway station with directions to the taxi ranks which is just not the case in the other two cities where there is an absolute scrum to get a taxi which you have to hail on the side of the road. Most were occupied but if they stopped and you showed them where you want to go ( has to be written in Chinese or they have not got a clue which is fair enough) and it is not that far they waved their hands and drove off. Not enough dosh . Taxi prices in Shanghai are two and a half times that of Beijing and Xi’an but still very cheap and well worth it to get to your hotel.
Great hotel here in Shanghai (called the Riverview) and I can see why because we have the most stunning view of the “Bund”
It has been peeing down with rain since we arrived ( by far the worst day so far but it is warm) so have not gone far. Seems easy to get around with good subway system as was Beijing. Although another huge city it does not appear to be be as crowded and manic as previous cities.
Ate in hotel for a change as we could not face going out again in the rain. Very good authentic Chinese. We think hotel is Chinese owned. Their is a list in the room of costs that will be charged if any damage is done to beds , tables, chairs, carpets etc. there is also a charge for all consumables even the bathroom toiletries. Bizarre . Having said that the hotel is off first class quality so no complaints.
One problem is that although the hotel has internet it has to be hard wired because there is no wifi. Jolly old iPad has to be fired up with wifi only. Apple get you act into gear. Perhaps I should say , Paul, get yourself a MacBook ! Next trip!!
Found a Starbucks this afternoon to collect mail but that was a bit of a bind, it would not let me send normal mail, did manage through Yahoo web mail, but didn’t bother to fully update blog. It would not let me search via Google either!
Me and Er might not be updating for a few days. May be able to manage text but not photos.
Don’t worry you lot we will be back to bore the pants off you with more info.
Please excuse if we go on a bit but the whole point of this blog apart from letting you all know what we are doing, it is also a daily diary for us. It is easy to forget.

Underground shopping (no shops?) parking, transport hub etc. with absolutely nobody there. Again built for the future

Stunning views from our hotel bedroom windows looking down the “Bund”

What a nighttime view

It has been a really misty murky and drizzly day today so we decided to have a lie in and not to go anywhere special. We had planned to walk the outer walls of the city but it would have been horrid.
Checked out but stored our bags at about 12 midday and walked around a couple of very plush shopping centres . All designer labels plus Chinese look alike’s in western script. Prices much the same as Europe but some of the designer labels a little more. Needless to say there are not a lot of people buying. In about half a mile stretch there were about three large very modern malls with very few people in them. The most popular places are the fast food outlets. I suppose they were built looking to the future!
Went into a modern supermarket with all array of foodstuff , some obviously recognisable but a lot not. We did buy some loose green tea which is actually very expensive but everyone drinks it including us. It’s very nice.
Now a confession, I have not had a glass of wine since we have been here but do confess to a few local beers which appears to be quite weak.

Just run the gauntlet getting to the train station and onto our overnight sleeper bound for Shanghai. This time we are in a four bunked and shared sleeper compartment. I think we have two ladies with us .
Left dead on time at 17.12 and we arrive in Shanghai at 07.00 in the morning.

Nice job but at least they have one

Xi’an station chaos inside as we are about to leave on sleeper to Shanghai

Took a bus from the main railway station to the site of the Terracotta Army. At last public transport without having to stand. Seating only in this bus. The site is about 40 k out of the city and a massive 70 pence each one way. It took about an hour travelling through the suburbs of Xi’an. Massive constructions of new blocks of flats being built to house the many. Not a pretty site. Looked up populations of various cities and there are 9 million in Xi’an. About the same number of bicycles in Beijing !!

Pit 1 is the biggest of all.

This is the most amazing place I think We have ever been too. You see it in photo’s etc. but to actually see it all in place is incredible. It was only found in 1974 when a local farmer was sinking a well and found some artefacts and all this was discovered. They still have loads to excavate.

These deep pits have all been excavated from ground level with painstaking precision. Metal spears and arrows have all been found totally intact and still sharp. And to think that all this lot were constructed between 222 and 206 BC.

Half size bronze chariots.

Ate in great Cantonese restaurant tonight. Will download picies for Slim and Fred later in the Gallery section. Nighty night . 10.30 pm here. When do clocks go back ?

Arrived in Xi’an a little late at about 10 am. We did get some sleep.
Irene got off the train about a minute before me and when I got off I couldn’t see her so I thought she had walked on along the platform in front of me. Er didn’t see me either so stayed put. It is hard to explain the huge numbers of people everywhere especially railway stations. Needless to say there was no hope of finding one another so had to resort to the mobile . Er was in and me was out but we found each other eventually.
Checked in to our very nice hotel and had a snack then went in search of the Muslim quarter which was great. Loads of people cooking in the streets. Hustle and bustle and noise everywhere. Fantastic

Well last day in Beijing before we set off by overnight sleeper at 8 pm heading for Xi’an. Spent the day at The Lama Temple, largest Buddhist Temple in Beijing. After that a trip to The Birds Nest and Cube of Olympic fame.

At the hotel we asked them to book us a taxi for the Station, no such luck, but they would help us with our luggage to the main road, hail a taxi and tell him where to take us. If you don’t speak Chinese you can’t say where you want to go, so they often write it for you and then you give it to the driver. They have done this for us for when we arrive at Xi’an in the morning. Our taxi trip was eventful, we siddled up to a bus, which took the wing mirror!! The taxi ride was about £3.80 for 45mins, pretty good. At Beijing West, we ran the gauntlet of ‘helpers’, climbed a flight of stairs with cases and met the rest of Beijing that we hadn’t met on the previous two days. Yes, the Chinese use trains!! We are now en route to Xi’an with a bijoux en suite room for two, just tasted CR (chinese rail)’s attempt at catering, you know, British Rail are quite good! Hopefully we’ll sleep our way through Xiang Province with the help of a couple of very large beers.

!

Caught the subway to Tiananmen Square with 5 million other Chinese only to find another 5 million had got there before us. Not only that about 2 million wanted to use the public loo plus us two. Irene did and has now had another experience of a lifetime.
The square is the biggest I have ever seen and the busiest but quite wonderful.
Need to say now that Beijing and China to date has been incredible and not as we expected. Fantastic to be here. Chinese outnumber Westerners by about a million to one.

Tiananmen Square in front of the Mao Memorial Building

There were huge queues of people filing past Mao, who is still lying in state! South of the square are two gates of old Beijing, we visited the main gate. After that it was The Forbidden City. Amazing, huge, colourful and very tiring. 8000 rooms, a km x 750 m, and more Chinese!

Gate of the Forbidden City

Palace of Supreme Harmony

Next port of call was Wangfujing Street. Trendy, expensive shops for the local trade. Interesting, showing us yet another side of China. Found back street market too. Back to hotel with sore feet!

Market street off Wangfujing Street