• Songshan Cat
  • Songshan Cat

China Thailand

Una aventura de 31 días de Songshan Leer más
  • Inicio del viaje
    15 de septiembre de 2019

    CT

    20 de septiembre de 2019, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Boarding a China Eastern flight from Paris to Shanghai. There were security agents in the jetway checking travel documents. When they saw I didn't have a visa for China they checked my onward connection. It worked out fine. You could stay in Shanghai plus the neighboring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu without a visa for just shy of seven days at a stretch without a visa, provided you had an onward ticket to a third country, in my case Thailand on the way out, and back to Schengen (Europe) coming back in.Leer más

  • CT

    21 de septiembre de 2019, China ⋅ 20 °C

    Hostel in Shanhghai, private room shared bath, about 20 euro per night, very clean and comfortable, large kitchen facilities available, plus the room came with a private balcony. This hostel was located in a quiet residential district in western Shanghai. It helped having the Chinese A Map app installed beforehand and verifying the exact location with the owner. Although this was perhaps the nicest hostel/guesthouse I've ever stayed at, there was a slight hurdle. In China you might get conflicting information about registering your stay at the local police bureau. The owner said it wasn't necessary to do this, however many foreigners who have been to China will tell you otherwise, that you could in fact get into trouble or have to pay a fine if you don't register. At larger hotels like the nearby Hotel Mercure this isn't a problem, the check in staff will register you, but it can be a problem at some smaller hostels. Apparently Shanghai initiated an online registration portal shortly after I visited, which would make things much easier. This time I ended up trying to register myself, but I accidentally went to the wrong registration office. They then called up the owner of my hostel, it was a bit embarrasing for everyone, likely nothing would have happened if I hadn't registered, but I did get a paper certificate proving my registration and on departing and later flying back to China all was well.Leer más

  • CT

    24 de septiembre de 2019, Tailandia ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    My hotel in Nonthaburi was near Yaek Thiwanon, MRT Purple Line. I right away felt welcomed in the neighborhood by the friendly people here.

  • CT

    24 de septiembre de 2019, Tailandia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    The good old days pre-covid. 9 euro per night exceptionally clean and quiet room in Nonthaburi (northern suburbs of Bangkok). At this time a Mainland Chinese visa cost around 150 euro, but a roundtrip flight between Shanghai and Bangkok only cost 90 euro. So making a visa run to Thailand was cheap, fun, and easy. My first time in Thailand. I saw a few bars, temples, massage parlors, but nowhere close to what I was expecting. Also drunk, sunburnt Europeans, Americans etc., absolutely none in my neighborhood in Nonthaburi (except me of course). Mostly locals watching kickboxing on an old TV, great little cafes to grab a bite to eat, and chickens, cats, and a rooster walking around on the street.Leer más

  • CT

    30 de septiembre de 2019, Tailandia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    While it felt like my chances of running into other tourists from my home country were fairly high in Bangkok, the city is so huge and there are so many markets that cater to people who live there, a lot of the time to me it felt like I was the only tourist within sight.

    Out of my recent travels I'd say Jakarta, Indonesia felt like the least touristy spot. I think Bali, and some other areas in Indonesia were tourist hotspots before covid, but not so much Jakarta. Taiwan and Mainland China also mostly didn't feel very touristy, KL and Singapore sort of did.

    Anyway, at this point (August 9th, 2021), probably almost 2 years since the first cases started cropping up, I wouldn't mind visiting the tackiest touristy crappy hell hole tourist trap in the world, wherever that is, just to be traveling again.

    Thailand really did an amazing job at keeping this virus under control, up until about two months ago. But I guess there was only so much they could do, so long they could hold out, after most countries in the Americas and Europe have done such a poor job at handling this.
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