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Welcome to the adventures of Fiona, Robin, Oliver & Jemima and the places we go, both on holidays and day to day……
I have a secret desire to be India Hicks, or at least have her house, whilst ticking off the ever growing travel bucket list! Read more Greater Bendigo City, Australia
  • TravelerChina
    Day 25

    Hong Kong markets, markets & more market

    July 16, 2017 in Hong Kong ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    With the rain, heat and humidity, apparently this time of year is not the best time to visit. Its close enough to the factories of southern China that when the wind blows from the north, you won’t see a blue sky for days, which was the case for 4 out of 5 days we were there. We caught the high speed train to Shenzhen, where we crossed the border to Hong Kong.

    Public transport is really easy to navigate and really affordable. We had absolutely no trouble figuring out the maps and working out how to get around and found it only cost a few dollars (AUS) to get around. No trip to Hong Kong is complete without a trip on the Star Ferry – Jump aboard the Star Ferry from Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui. It’s super cheap and a convienient fast way to cross the Harbour, plus you get to see Hong Kong from the water! We did this quite a few times, as it was quick and easy from our shoebox hotel. I confess, it was also probably due to the fact that there was one of the best coffee stalls on the island there as well!

    Food here is ridiculously priced – our first nights Mexican meal came to a grand total of $200 AUD, for burritos! This would be more like $60 at home.

    Mong Kok – Hong Kong is a very modern city but it has its older areas that are definitely worth a visit. Mong Kok is an area of old and new, an area plastered with neon signs, just like the Hong Kong you see in 80’s movies.

    Ladies Market is one of the most well-known markets in Hong Kong, with over 100 stalls. They sell knock-off handbags, sunglasses, clothes and plenty of stuff you didn’t know you needed. Be sure to bargain hard. Some people say it’s not all it’s hyped up to be, I have to agree. It is possibly one of the worst market we have been to in Asia, and definitely not the market I remember. Best advice is to go in with very low expectations.

    Temple Street Markets is a better option, but still not a patch on other markets in SE Asia. It runs from 2pm to midnight and you can buy everything from gifts, clothes, art, handbags and luggage – we were hard pressed to find anything worthwhile though, particularly after areas of Northern China.    Read more

  • TravelerChina
    Day 23

    Grounded in Guilin

    July 14, 2017 in China ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Guilin’s centre is filled with leafy boulevards and reminded me somewhat of Shanghai’s French Concession area, however that’s where the comparison ends. The multitude of karst hills that rise throughout Guilin city centre is unique, creating a stunning setting. A string of lakes wraps around the city. The four lakes were originally built as a defensive moat, but today form a green band, enclosing the pedestrian malls and streets of the city centre.

    We decided to tour this area by boat to really get the feel of the city, mainly because it is frustrating that China charges for every minor attraction going, so we thought we’d cover them all via the water instead. Unfortunately the boat guides only speak Chinese, but we got the gist. Robin had a couple sitting beside him who spoke limited English, but helpfully yelled (literally) the name of things out as we passed them. Shanhu Lake, has a pair of pagodas side by side, called the Sun and Moon Pagodas – best viewed at night when they glow gold and silver. We were staying quite close to town, so we were able to view the lights of the city karsts and buildings, looking quite magical.

    At the point where the Li and Pearl Blossom rivers merge an arch of rock forms a shape a little like the trunk of a drinking elephant. Close one eye and squint, there you go! This is the famous Elephant trunk hill, the symbol of Guilin.

    This was the city of memorable food moments. From the lady taxi driver who got us terribly lost but kept us completely amused the whole time, having a full blown conversation with me – her in Chinese, me in English and improvised signing, read eye rolling… She laughed away as if I had told her the funniest of jokes, as we tried to find the many restaurants that we were told were must visits but didn’t actually exist! Luckily taxis are super cheap, as we traversed the same suburb for 40 minutes!

    This was where we had a fantastic spánish tapas, enjoyed an amazing meal of roast goose and beer fish, both traditional local delicacies. Xiao-er (goose) is a must try as the meat is incredibly tender and delicious. Where better to try this than one of the most revered restaurants in Guilin – Chun Ji Roast Goose. We experienced Stuffed Li River Snails and classic rice noodles, which of course tasted wonderful, sitting on a small plastic stool in the middle of Snack Street, people watching on a balmy 28° evening.

    We also hit an all time low visiting Starbucks on our last afternoon desperate for something that was at least called coffee, even if it didn’t taste remotely like it. Despite trying some great dishes, I remained ever vigilant here, particularly once I found out that large bamboo rats were considered a delicacy!

    We chanced upon an underground market called ‘little Hong Kong’ where they sell clothing and other stuff, like gadgets, hardware and a whole lot of very cheaply made junk. Not that interesting from my point of view, but kept the kids entertained for an hour or so.

    Luckily for us the water in the city receded over the first couple of days, so despite regular showers, we could at least get around town and traverse the city area by river. Unfortunately the flooding further downstream was bad enough that no tourist attractions reopened, which did leave us with 48hrs extra in Guilin, than we were hoping. Guilin doesn’t lend itself to 4 days of sightseeing, as it’s primarily a stop off town for attractions further afield.    Read more

  • TravelerChina
    Day 21

    Hiking the Dragon’s Backbone from Guilin

    July 12, 2017 in China

    Guilin 桂林 is home to China’s most archetypal scenery, so much so, you feel like you have stepped into a Chinese landscape painting. We planned our visit here around two different places: Longsheng and Yangshuo. We had managed to side step the heavy rains slamming Southern China, flooding rivers and towns, to date, but with Gullin registering over 407 mm (16 inches), and the largest three-hour rainfall of 203 mm, just before we arrived, our plans for Yangshuo needed a rethink as most of our planned activities had been cancelled.

    Our trip to the Longji Rice Terraces 龙脊梯田 was an early start. The city scene quickly changed to a karst landscape, as we headed 100km North of Guilin City. After witnessing the striking imagery of the rice terraces in Northern Vietnam, and Iffuago in the Philippines we were hoping these would prove to be as spectacular. The roads if nothing else were proving to be a similar experience. Slow going and windy with quite a few near miss situations as we headed around the narrow bends with shoulders giving way, due to the recent heavy rains.

    We stopped halfway up at PingAn Village for lunch. This was combined with a visit to the long haired women. These women only cut their long black hair three times in their lives. They bundle their own cut hair within a turban style updo and carry it with them.

    With a name meaning “Dragon’s Backbone,” the layered rice paddies are said to resemble a dragon’s scales when they are full of water. Construction of these magnificent terraces began way back in the Yuan Dynasty – 12th century, by the ethnic Zhuang people who inhabit the region.

    On our return, a landslide had caused a large part of the road to be closed off. Everyone I’m anything bigger than a minibus had to get off and take a hike to where where another bus was waiting downhill. Thank goodness we were in a small van that managed to scrape past! I hate to think how long we would have been stranded if we had departed later, as I’m pretty sure that road was going to slide away completely.    Read more

  • TravelerChina
    Day 19

    Basking in Beihai

    July 10, 2017 in China

    Beihai 北海, is located at the southern end of Guangxi. It officially became an international tourist spot in 1982 i.e. the Chinese opened it up to foreign tourists, although you wouldn’t know it! Researching this place to decide where to stay was hard to say the least, it just isn’t visited very much by westerners. I knew we were taking the less common route, but didn’t realise quite how off the tourist path we were, until it became blatantly obvious that we were the only westerners in town.

    The shop signs here are all bilingual, in Chinese and Vietnamese, which makes sense as we are only 150km from the border, and judging by the scenery and vegetation, it definitely feels like we are getting closer to Vietnam. Beihai City has a population of approximately 1.69 million people, so it feels like a seaside village. The property craze started here in the 90s, however the property bubble burst after government intervened by imposing restrictions. Now there is a landscape of abandoned buildings and it is quite apocalyptic in some parts of town.

    Arriving early evening on our first night meant finding somewhere to eat first and foremost. Locals enjoy staying up late here and one of the best things to do in Beihai is just to wander around streets with food and market stalls. Anyone I asked about food was insistent we head to the new shopping centre – Wanda Plaza, in town. Normally we would avoid this at all costs, however we hadn’t seen anything promising on our way in and it was late… Amazingly there was a huge amount of choice, and all local restaurants, not a chain in sight. Robin was desperate for a steak, as every meal so far had been very pork based. There is cheap seafood everywhere here, at about half the price of Shanghai. I had also been told when ordering anything with meat in a restaurant, there is a chance of getting rat meat although you ordered beef, so I went for fish!

    Silver Beach 银滩 was our first stop the next morning. It is a long beach of 24 km with soft white sand and gentle surf. The Chinese call it ‘No.1 Beach under Heaven’. I’m not sure it’s quite of that status but still it’s a nice place to spend a day. The water was beautifully warm but very few people were swimming apart from us, however we’re used to getting stared at in China now….

    Old Street, or Zuhai Pedestrian Street 珠海路步行 was where we headed for our second evening in town. The street is famous for its old colonial buildings, which are unfortunately rotting away as renovation efforts have centered around the ground floor businesses. Traffic is restricted to scooters and e-bikes, which quite frankly are a pain in the neck with so many people walking around.

    This street and the surrounding area are the original sites of the first Western trade centres in Beihai. The street is filled with locals and visitors from late afternoon until midnight. We had an amazing seafood meal here for $30 AUD, which involved lots of charades and pointing to order!

    Tomorrow we are off bright and early to Guilin via the fast train!    Read more

  • TravelerChina
    Day 17

    Shanghai Disneyland – fun with crowds

    July 8, 2017 in China ⋅ 35 °C

    Today we visited Disney’s biggest international park. The reason I decided to go to this one and not wait till Hong Kong is because they have many more rides than Hong Kong Disneyland, especially for older kids. I had found out that the park’s capacity is 40,000 people a day, who will all compete for space and rides in the 3.9 square kilometre resort. So with elbows at the ready, we were setting expectations high and desperately hoping to maybe get on two rides! The ticket for the day cost 499RMB or $100 AUD and I had purchased it online over a month beforehand, knowing that it would be Chinese summer school holidays and that they frequently sell out ahead of time. Despite the most ridiculous queues, we were inside the park just before 9:00am which was the official opening time, but obviously it’s a loose time as the park was packed already!

    We hot tailed it to Tomorrowland to get our first fast pass. These are like Willy Wonka’s golden tickets, as they supposedly let you cut the line. Effectively what it does is put you in the shorter queue! There was lots of relentless pushing with people, at times, being quite rude and aggressive, but we were quite familiar with this now, and had developed tactics. Although at times you just had to take a deep breath and in the words of Elsa “Let it go”. Finally with fast passes for 12pm, we went to discover Star Wars and Buzz light year.

    Star Wars is apparently not as popular in China as it is elsewhere, as this was the only part of the park that was completely void of queues!

    It was time for the Tron Lightcycle Power Run vehicle -it’s very weird to be on a roller coaster whilst sitting on a “bike” and leaning forward but we loved it, it was definitely a highlight of the day! Top tip is ask for the front row – you won’t regret it, particularly at take off!

    One ride that’s particularly amazing is the new Pirates of the Caribbean. The technology that’s employed there is phenomenal. We were lucky to experience this ride, after an hour and a half wait in stifling heat underground, as it broke down later in the day, and queues of people were turned away. I think I would have actually cried! Just knowing the ordeal of waiting …… with queues being so extremely long in such hot humid weather. We took the advice of others before us and managed to grab seats at the front of the boat in order be fully immersed in the land of Jack Sparrow.

    On a side note, we have never seen so many matching outfits as we saw on our day out at Shanghai Disneyland, so much so that I have been threatening that we might do the same! From mother daughter outfits to whole matching families, including grandma. We also enjoyed spending time in queues reading people’s tshirts, with many translation fails giving us some laughs.

    The kids next required stop was Camp Discovery. This is Disney’s first foray into an obstacle course complete with a swing bridge over a waterfall and great views of the park. We took a moment to rest and left the kids to tackle this one alone.

    Finally, we queued for over an hour for one of the original classic Disney theme park attractions, Peter Pan’s Flight. The indoor ride allows you to fly around above the city of London viewing the escapades of Peter Pan, Wendy and Michael, however it was a bit tame following the other adrenaline fuelled rides.

    We managed a whole lot more rides than expected on our day out at Disneyland, but even the cheerfully enthusiastic Disney employees couldn’t reduce the pain of the crowds and queues we experienced.    Read more

  • TravelerChina
    Day 15

    Scaling Shanghai

    July 6, 2017 in China ⋅ 28 °C

    Everyone who comes to Shanghai’s Pudong area goes up a tall building of sorts to look down on this massive city – hopefully on a relatively smog less day. We decided to go one better and hang off the side of a building 340m above ground. Basically we enjoy dangling off a terrifyingly high ledge with nothing but a safety rope to stop us from plunging to our deaths! We were strapped into harnesses and given a basic safety check i.e. tug on your straps, it is China after all! We were then led out onto a glass ledge less than a metre wide to circumvent the highest fenceless, transparent walkway outside a high-rise building in the world.

    The first 60 seconds the view could quite frankly go to buggery! It was enough to look where your feet were going, preferably not too close to the edge! With heart rates settling, our guide thought it would be a great idea to step off the building or even sit on the edge. The skywalk offers amazing views of Shanghai’s economic hub and beyond, even on a smoggy day.

    Having survived our experience, it was back underground for the Shanghai A.P. Xinyang Fashion & Gifts Market – Pudong’s biggest “fake market”. The kids were in seventh heaven spotting all their must haves, and Robin was scuttling for cover, afraid I was going to be pummelled, as I started bargaining at 10% of the original asking price.

    There are many places to go shopping in Shanghai, mostly in shopping malls. Leaving Robin resting, I took the kids shopping to all the shops they rarely visit. Imagine 5 floors of Forever 21 and a building filled with sporting brands – you get the idea!

    Don’t believe the hype about Visa and MasterCard now being widely accepted, cash is still very much the currency of choice. Even places who advertise that they accept them only do so on the days they feel like it. We have luckily found that the Bank of China and China Construction Bank readily take cards using Cirrus or Maestro, most others don’t. Shanghai is a little easier in this respect than other places in China.    Read more

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