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Sophie JonesSophie Jones
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traveled in 23 countries Read more
  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    Day 350

    Hong Kong part 2

    November 27, 2023 in Hong Kong ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    My time in Hong Kong continued with more of the same, just wandering the streets seeing what wonders can be discovered down random alleys. Every street in Hong Kong is interesting in some way and I don't think I'd have felt satisfied until I had walked down every one.
    One day I headed to the cultural sites of northern Kowloon such as the Buddhist Chi Lin Nunnery which was set in a peaceful garden with a large pond containing the biggest and most beautiful carp that I had seen. Then I headed to the Taoist Wong Tai Sin Temple which was full of people performing rituals to tell their fortunes, and surrounded with fortune tellers. The incense and the chanting was all very atmospheric, but I didn't opt for any fortune telling myself, I'd rather not know! Finally I headed for a walk through Kowloon Walled City Park, which is built on the site of Kowloon Walled City. Kowloon Walled City was a Chinese enclave within British Hong Kong that was essentially an ungoverned high rise slum with 35,000 people living in 6.4 acres of land (about the size of two rugby pitches). It was run by Chinese triads (organised crime syndicates), and illegal activity and squalor were rife leading the Hong Kong government to announce its demolition in 1987. After a lengthy eviction and relocation process it was finally demolished in 1995, with the park being built in its place. The park today is a pleasant and serene place for a walk, with parts of the foundations of the city still visible in some places although you'd never guess at the urban chaos that was there in the past.
    Back on Hong Kong Island I visited more temples, each of them unique and filled with incense. I visited the Blue House, a well preserved example of the tong lau tenament buildings common in parts of Asia in the first half of the 20th century. And of course I mostly got around on the famous trams, otherwise known as ding dings! Trams have been in use in Hong Kong since 1904 and are a great way to get around, I always chose to take a tram over the metro for the views while riding them, even if the journey took longer. They were also just a good way to spend time going around and seeing as much as possible from the top deck!    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    1
    Day 343

    Hong Kong part 1

    November 20, 2023 in Hong Kong ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    I fell in love with Hong Kong almost immediately. I had a hostel high up on the 14th floor of a dodgy building in Kowloon, the mainland part of Hong Kong. It's a fascinating place where I could happily spend hours just wandering around the streets, taking in the culture and architecture. Everywhere in Kowloon looks a little bit decrepit, there's something interesting to see everywhere you look and every now and then you'll come across a little Buddhist temple hidden away.

    A little more upmarket is Victoria Harbour, lined with fancy department stores and world class museums. This is a great spot to get a coffee and people watch for a couple of hours, see how many dogs in prams that you can spot. It is also the best place to watch the Victoria Harbour Light show, a slightly cheesy show where lasers flash around the sky off the top of the skyscrapers to music for 10 minutes.

    Kowloon is great for cheap food. Hong Kong was the start of an obsession with milk tea while I was in Asia. It's basically very strong tea boiled in milk and traditionally strained through a stocking, and drank either hot or iced. There were also great dumplings, dim sum, soups, noodles, and weirdly "pineapple bun" with spam, another hangover from British rule. I ordered this by accident, thinking I was ordering a pineapple bun and tomato which was on the menu, but they brought me the spam, it wasn't actually too bad! But I preferred the pineapple bun with condensed milk.

    While I spent a lot of time in Kowloon my first week there, I did manage to make it over to Hong Kong Island a few times via the Star Ferry, which had been in operation since 1898 with a fleet almost as old. The central part of Hong Kong Island is quite modern and westernised, but it is still interesting to walk around if you can manage the steep hills, and there's excellent food here from all over the world. Hong Kong Park is a tranquil space to explore the aviary and the terrapin filled lake, with the famous skyscrapers looming over you. The harbour front on that side of the harbour was another great spot to walk along and people watch, I quite enjoyed eves dropping on the British expats and watching the Chinese Hong Kongers fishing.    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    2
    Day 337

    Dubai

    November 14, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    A two hour bus ride up the coast and I arrived in Dubai, where I was very happy to be meeting up with mum for a few days! The weather was much better than when I was last here so it was pleasant enough to spend some time wandering in the old souks and along the creek. This part of old Dubai is nice for seeing some of the culture, get some souvenirs and eat some good, cheap food.

    Dubai is pretty sprawling so to take it in we did a bus tour, saw some of the crazy architecture including the Dubai Frame, the Burj Khalifa, and man made The Palm. Of course we had to see some of the famous malls, which have every brand that you can possibly imagine. We went up the Burj Khalifa, hoping to see the sunset but it was a pretty hazy day. It was still impressive to be in the world's highest building at 828 meters. The observation deck is on the 124th floor at 452 meters high. The view was pretty good at night when all of the lights in the city turn on and many of the skyscrapers are lit up. From the bottom of the Burj we watched the famous water fountain display and had a delicious middle eastern dinner.

    On our final night we headed into the desert to watch the sunset. It was all very Disneyland but it was still nice to get out of the city. You really get the perspective of how tall the Burj Khalifa is from a greater distance, it is twice the height of all of the other buildings around it. Unfortunately the next morning I had to say goodbye to mum again, but I loved our meet up and can't wait for the next one. Thanks for coming xx 😘    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    Day 331

    Abu Dhabi

    November 8, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    For the 2nd time on this trip I landed in the United Arab Emirates in the middle of the night; but unlike the first time when I landed in Dubai at 4am to 37°C heat, this time when I landed in Abu Dhabi the temperature was in the more respectable early 20s and with a lower humidity. But it still reached the 30s in the day so a lot of my time was spent avoiding the sun! Everybody else seems to have the same idea, the streets come alive around dusk.

    Abu Dhabi has a bit more cultural than neighbouring Dubai, with good museums and impressive Mosques and palaces. I visited the Louvre Abu Dhabi which was probably the best art museum that I've been to (although I haven't been to the Louvre in Paris so I'm not exactly one to talk about art museums!) I also visited the very impressive Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, which isn't that old having opened in 2007, but is indeed very grand.

    One of the nicest parts of Abu Dhabi is the The Corniche, an 8km long promenade that runs along the harbour. It's deserted by day, but as soon as the temperature starts dropping in the late afternoon it's buzzing with life as people stroll and cycle the paths, and socialise in the cafes and on the beach. UAE is probably the most diverse country that I've ever been to so the people watching here can be really interesting. On my last night as I was chilling in a cafe on the manmade beach I was surprised by a huge fireworks display over the harbour, which I later found out was for Diwali!    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    11
    Day 329

    Lakes, canyons, and Astana

    November 6, 2023 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☀️ 6 °C

    Kazakhstan is a vast country with very little public transport so the easiest way to see some of the natural highlights is to join a tour. There isn't much tourism infrastructure outside of the cities in Kazakhstan so a coach load of people are split into groups and stay in someone's house for a couple of nights, being collected every morning for the sightseeing. On the first day of the trip we hiked to visit a few lakes. Kaindy Lake was formed by a landslide during an earthquake in 1911 blocking the flow of glacial water and resulting in a sunken forest. Kolsai lake is a large lake that you can take boat trips on, so me and a few other tourists that I had made friends with went out on a pedalo.
    Back in the house that I was assigned to with some other Kazakh tourists, we had a good home cooked meal of dumplings and lots of tea. Then all of the people on the trip were meeting back up for a bonfire and dancing. The other tourists I was staying in the house with couldn't speak any English, but they were nice people and we tried to chat. They told me that we were supposed to prepare a dance routine for that night's bonfire, which is something I had somehow missed in the earlier briefing! Each house group had been sent a video by the tour leaders and had to come up with a dance for it. I had no idea what was happening but I just followed my housemates lead to learn a thankfully very simple dance routine. At one point they even had me dressed in a traditional Kazakh outfit, but luckily they took pity on me and told me that I didn't have to wear it! Which I was also grateful for as it was freezing outside! We all headed over to the bonfire which warmed us up a bit, listened to some music, and then everyone did their dance routine. It wasn't as embarrassing when you see everyone else in the same boat as you! This carried on into the evening with more games and dances, again I didn't really know what was going on but it was very funny. The next day we were off to see some canyons. The largest and most spectacular was Charyn Canyon.
    After my trip into the Kazakh countryside I flew to Astana, the capital. Until 1997 Almaty was the capital of Kazakhstan, what is now Astana was a small town that the previous president Nur Sultan came from. It was even named after him at one point. As a result the majority of Astana is very new and there isn't much interesting about it. There are some flashy monuments including Baiterek, the monument of the transfer of the capital from Almaty to Astana. It is supposed to symbolise the egg of a rare bird in a tree, and has an observation deck in the globe. Astana was my last stop in Kazakhstan and after a day there, which was more than enough, I flew out of Central Asia for the next part of my adventure!    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    Day 315

    Almaty

    October 23, 2023 in Kazakhstan ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    After leaving Dushanbe I headed back to Uzbekistan for a few days so that I could get a night train from Tashkent to Almaty in Kazakhstan. The train was pretty comfortable and I met a couple of other solo female travellers that were fun to hang out with while in Almaty. Almaty is yet another soviet city, probably my favourite so far. There were loads of tree lined avenues that were nice to walk around, and there are lots of interesting things to see including museums, opera houses, parks, cathedrals, bazaars, mosques, cool architecture and monuments. After spending quite a bit of time in the mountains I loved being back in a cosmopolitan city, so I spent most of the time wandering the streets and parks, visiting the cool buildings and monuments, drinking the fruit teas and eating the good noodle soups! I also made the most of the russian connection and had some good Russian food. Apples originally came from Kazakhstan and they are very proud of it, you see monuments to apples all over the city. Almaty even means "full of apples", so there are lots of good food and drink containing apples that we also tried as much of as possible!

    One must do thing in Almaty is to visit the Arasan spa, a huge complex built in 1982. The spa has many types of saunas including a Moroccan hammam, a Finnish sauna, a Turkish steam bath, and a russian banya, where you're supposed to wack yourself with birch leaves and then douse yourself in freezing water from a bucket. I only did that the once! There is also a nice pool and lots of areas to relax, plus an area for treatments. I had a back massage as I'd cricked it and I was in agony the whole time and couldn't wait for it to finish! It did fix my neck though. Everything is gender separated and you have to be nude while using the facilities, with just a towel for sitting on.

    While I was trying to endure the sauna one local lady called Aliya started chatting to me and asked if I'd like to go to hers for dinner one evening as she'd like to continue to practice her English, which I did. I was interested to go inside one of the Soviet blocks where she lived. The building stairwell was original but the inside of the apartment was very modern. She lived alone as her husband had died of COVID, and her children all lived abroad. She very kindly made me mushroom pancakes with salad, and she bought me some Kazakh chocolate, which was great! She then showed me around the local area a bit which was nice of her.

    Just 20 minutes outside of Almaty is the ski resort Shymbulak and the highest Ice skating rink in the world. Even if like me you're not a skiing fan, you can still get the cable car to the top to see the views. Unfortunately the ice rink hadn't opened for the winter yet, which is probably for the best considering my coordination!    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    Day 302

    Pamir Highway part 5 & Dushanbe

    October 10, 2023 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C

    The last couple of days of the Pamir Highway road trip spent driving along dusty mountain roads through deep dramatic valleys. These roads seem to be constantly in a state of construction so we had to stop many times while the road was blocked for construction workers, sometimes for hours at a time. In these deep valleys there is no way around, so people would just park their cars up and wait in the shade of the vehicles until the road opened to let people pass.

    The mountains gradually gave way to hills and gentle valleys as we got closer to Dushanbe, the capital. Dushanbe is another ex-soviet city, but a lot of its charm had been diminished as the Tajik government removed much of the old architecture and tree lined alleys. There were still some interesting monuments, including a flashy monument to Ismail Somoni, the ruler of the 10th century Samanid dynasty, whose mausoleum I had visited a few weeks earlier in Bukhara. Somoni is also the name of the currency in Tajikistan so they obviously really like this guy!    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    Day 300

    Pamir Highway part 4

    October 8, 2023 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☀️ -2 °C

    We continued on through the stunning scenery, stopping to see some crystal clear lakes and a rather unimpressive, but still quite pretty geyser. We passed through Kargush pass at 4244m, and there was an option to hike to a view point at 4800m but considering that my head feels like it's about to implode at any height above 4000m I decided to give that a miss!

    Later in the day we had to get our permits out for inspection as we reached the Afghanistan border in the Wakhan valley, along which we were going to be driving for the next few days. Just before nightfall we saw an Afghan caravan of horses and donkeys, and had a nice view of the Hindu Kush mountains on the other side of the border.

    We stayed overnight in Langar village in another homestay with great, warming food, before continuing along the Pamir River that makes up the border. Life is pretty traditional in this part of Tajikistan, with the people being traditionally dressed and mostly relying on herding and some agriculture. Things looked pretty similar on the other side of the border, with just the clothing being slightly different. Both sides of the border seemed pretty well patrolled, we passed countless groups of soldiers that all looked very young. Most of them were 18 year olds on national service. On the other side of the border we saw the occasional taliban patrol vehicle too.

    The area is also historically well fortified as we visited the 12th century Yamchun Fortress perched on a high rock, and the 4th century Khaaka Fortress. Then to get some R&R we managed to squeeze in two hot springs! One was built into a rock, with water coming directly from the rocks, and the other was so rich in minerals that there were piles of precipitated minerals in the bath and around the water pipes. At least this time both were at a temperature that was bearable to stay inside for more than a few minutes!    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    Day 299

    Pamir Highway part 3

    October 7, 2023 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C

    Day 3 of the Pamir Highway trip was mostly more of driving through some of the most beautiful scenery that I've seen. We stopped by a large "crater", an old soviet observatory, and some petroglyphs, which were all very cool but we're mostly just things to aim for as we headed through the mountains. My highlight was the huge herd of yaks!

    We ended up at a very remote hot spring guest house. Being so high up it was absolutely freezing so getting to the toasty guest house that was heated almost too much by the hot spring water was a luxury. The actual hot springs were less of a luxury as they were so hot it was almost unbearable to be in them! It was more an exercise of endurance than of relaxation, but I managed it for a while at least. And the stars were incredible in such a remote location!    Read more

  • TravelerSophie's Trip
    Day 298

    Murgab - Pamir highway part 2

    October 6, 2023 in Tajikistan ⋅ ☁️ 2 °C

    Conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan resulted in the border closing in 2021, only opening for foreign tourists again in July 2023. The border is still closed for locals which meant that we had to change vehicles and drivers in the miles of mountainous no man's land. We had to say goodbye to our nice Kyrgyz driver (who's name I can't remember) and meet up with our Tajik guide Kanybek and driver Abu. We needed special permits to enter this part of the country due to the proximity to China and Afghanistan, so after a thorough checking of our paperwork by the supposedly notoriously corrupt border guards, we were allowed through without issue. It took longer for us to exit Kyrgyzstan than it did for us to enter Tajikistan.
    The Kyrgyz/Tajik border is already pretty high, with the first snow I'd really seen close up on this trip. Shortly after the crossing we passed through Akbaital pass, at 4655 meters (>15,000 ft) it's the highest pass that we'd be driving through on the highway. My head was already pounding from the altitude!
    We drove to the beautiful Karakul Lake before heading to Murgab village, where we stayed the night in a home stay run by Kanybek's family. Nearby the village there's a Snow Leopard sanctuary where we got to see a Snow Leopard that had been rescued as a cub. The poor thing looked pretty disgruntled to be there, but all 3 leopards at the centre were being rehabilited for release. Snow leopards are incredibly rare and elusive so to see one up close was awe inspiring and something I never thought I'd see.    Read more

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